Good Riddance

The day of my sixteenth birthday dawned bright and clear and cold. Really cold. It had been exactly two weeks since Billie Joe had asked me out and so far I had managed to keep it from my parents; the reason being is that they would never let me see someone like Billie. Ever. I summoned his face up before my eyes and I smiled softly as I remembered the fun we had had yesterday after dance practice when we had gone back to Mike’s, I seriously hadn’t known that Tre was capable of bending that far – I giggled softly at the memory.

So today it was the 23rd of November and the day of my sixteenth birthday. I didn’t feel particularly excited about it, I think I had gotten past the excitement of birthday’s by now, call me depressive but I just didn’t think they were that great anymore, so for a few more moments than I normally would I lay in bed looking up at the white ceiling of my bedroom.

Eventually I swung my legs slowly out of bed and hurried into a dressing gown and slippers waiting for me, even the carpeted floor was cold this morning. I made my way down the stairs and hesitated outside the kitchen door as I smelt waffles; my favourite.

I smiled and opened the door; I had gotten up earlier this morning just so mum could make me waffles, dad had already gone to work but he had given me my card and the birthday wishes last night. I sat down in my usual seat while my mum fussed over to me and wished me happy birthday, I smiled and thanked her, I wasn’t fully awake and she seemed to register this and merely placed my waffles in front of me and let me eat in peace for a while.

“Do you want your present now?” asked mum. I shrugged with a smile and she grinned as she did as well.

“It seems like those drive arounds up at the airfields with your dad have paid off...” said mum.

My eyes widened as I thought I took her meaning and she pushed a small package across the table towards me.

“Is this what I think it is?” I asked cautiously.

“Why don’t you open it and find out?” asked mum with a smile.

I tentatively reached for the package and opened it carefully before turning it upside down and emptying it onto the table. A set of keys fell out and my grin widened until I squealed and leapt up to hug my mum.

“Thank you so much mum!” I said.

“You’ve got your provisional now, you have to take a test in a few weeks but everything should be fine” said mum with an indulgent smile, “now get upstairs and get changed”

I hugged her once more and then hurried up the stairs to change. I threw on a pair of black skinnies that I had bought recently and a red singlet top with a black hoodie. I pulled on a coat and scarf as well, it was really cold out!

While I dressed I thought about what was going on at school at the moment, the first few weeks I hadn’t really noticed anything because I was too busy concentrating on finding my feet, as it happens I found them in the form of Billie, but now I was starting to notice who was in which clique and what each clique obeyed. In a school the size of the one I went too there was bound to be cliques and groups. I apparently was in with the rebel group even though I couldn’t really see it. There was another group like ours in the Senior year but apparently one of them had snogged Jess at a party or something so Tre hated them and it was all too complicated and boring for me to really be arsed to try and understand.

As for the other groups, we tended to ignore them. I didn’t particularly dislike anybody, except one person, and I got on with most people. People tended to avoid me however because news had got out that I was Billie Joe Armstrong’s girlfriend and apparently nobody wanted to mess with him. I had no idea why, he seemed like a teddy bear to me. I hadn’t yet been able to go out with Billie on a night to meet the rest of his friends around here because I had to keep up the pretence of being a good English school girl. My accent was fading now and I was acquiring a soft American lilt but I had a way to go before I progressed to “mom”, “sidewalk” and “pants” instead of trousers.

Then there was Marie. I didn’t really like to talk about her and for the most part we didn’t, although most of her year seemed to dislike me, that was a little scary having about seven hundred people give you evils throughout the day; I gathered that Marie was popular in her year.

I was running a bit late so I hurried down the stairs and out to the front of the house to view my new car for the first time. I gasped when I saw it, it was a mini convertible, not that I would be letting the hood down anytime soon in this weather. It was bright red, with tinted windows and underneath the windscreen wiper it had a note.

Happy Birthday Scarlett!
Love Mum and Dad
Xxxxxx
p.s sensor on front of car works gates

I looked at the front grill and saw that there was a tiny thing attached to it. I shrugged and got into the drivers seat. I had had many lessons with dad back in England and a few here but it was still odd knowing that I had nobody else in the car; nobody to bail me out if anything went wrong. I took a deep breath before I started the engine.

I felt the smooth acceleration and I was soon getting used to the car, I reached the gates quickly and they opened smoothly. Billie was stood on the pavement smoking a cigarette, he was looking toward my house because obviously he couldn’t see me through the tinted glass.

“Need a ride?” I asked as I opened the window, trying my best to look at nonchalant. Billie looked once at the car and away again and then did a double take.

“Scarlett?” he asked and then taking in the car, “Sweet ride!”

“It was a present, now put out the cig and get in” I said sweetly, Billie stamped out the cigarette and running around the side of the car threw himself into the back seat.

“The back?” I asked him quizzically.

“You’ll see when we get to school” he said with a grin, “Birthday spontaneous change of plan”

“okay?” I asked apprehensively, not sure whether I liked the sound of that or not. It took record time to get to school and I pulled up in a secluded parking spot, away from the other cars.

“Now what was it you wanted?” I asked him turning around and smiling at him, he beckoned to me so I moved over the handbrake and into the backseat with him.

“Happy Birthday” he murmured his cheek close to mine. I smiled and then he captured my lips with his. I melted into his kiss and he pushed my back onto the back seat which I willingly complied with and we made out on the back seat for a while; the proper way to christen a new car.

“So,” I asked after we had broken for breath, “Did you get me a present or not?”

“So demanding” he breathed, his lips almost brushing mine. His legs were either side of mine and I was half falling off the seat but he was holding onto me; there wasn’t much room in this car!

“But as it happens yes” he said, “How do you fancy going out on Saturday night?”

“This Saturday?” I asked softly.

“Yes” he said patiently.

“Okay,” I said after a moment’s thought about my parents, “Where?”

“Ah ah ah!” he said infuriatingly, “You’ll have to wait and see, Jess will come pick you up in her car and take you there”

“You won’t pick me up?” I asked pouting.

“I can’t” he said, “But I promise you it will be worth it”

“Alright” I said with a wide smile.

“Now what where we doing?” he asked, “Ah yes”

He kissed me deeply again and I could taste a faint hint of cigarettes, alcohol and something I couldn’t identify; possibly chocolate. We have rolled to the side so I was lying next to him and he was holding me close, his hand was on my thigh and moving inwards; not that it mattered because I had jeans on. I tangled my hands in his hair and when his tongue danced in my mouth, I moaned which made him smile.

The next thing I was aware of was somebody banging on the boot window. It was tinted so they couldn’t see in but it made me jump and after straightening my jumper I leapt out of the car to find Kiera doubled up laughing.

“Not funny!” I yelled at her.

“I wanted to stop the babies!” she said through her laughter, I poked her in the ribs.

“How did you know it was my car?” I asked.

“Um, Scar” said Billie using my new nickname he had given me, “The number plate kinda gives it away”

“Number Plate?” I turned around and looked down, I hadn’t registered the personalised number plate this morning but now I saw that it was. It read; SCAR1ETT.

“Well that’s original” I commented.

“Pricey” said Jess. I shrugged and Billie came and took my hand.

“Let’s go?” he asked.

I nodded reluctantly and we made our way towards school slowly.

***

Billie-Joe’s POV

I dropped Scarlett off at her first class and then turned to the others who were left. Kiera had gone off to physics class but the rest of us had a free.

“Where too?” I asked.

“Somewhere warm” said Jess immediately, “It’s too cold to be anywhere outside today”

“Snug” I said decisively. The others just shrugged and Tre nodded. The snug was a room in the performing arts block, it was part of one of the music rooms, it was supposed to be for mixing but there was also a sofa in there, so it was used for hanging out on a cold day.

There was a senior common room we could have gone to but it would be full of all the other people in our year, so I had no wish to go there.

“Get in” Jess nearly shouted at me as a dawdled outside the performing arts block wrapped up in my own thoughts. I looked down at her and laughed because she was shivering indignantly. I let her in and I walked in after her as she practically ran for the radiator in the snug when I unlocked the music room. I had a key to the room because I used to so often.

“Warmth!” said Jess as she clamboured onto the radiator.

“You’ll burn your ass like that” I said.

“So?” she asked, “Hot bum”

“Hot bum” Tre agreed. Jess merely giggled as her boyfriend looked her up and down.

“If you guys want to fuck can you please piss off?” asked Mike sitting down on the sofa, “I don’t want to have to sit here and look at your lovey dovey shit for ages”

“Lovey Dovey?” I laughed.

“Fuck off Billie” said Mike, “They know what I meant”

“Meh” said Tre with a shrug sitting down next to Mike. I walked over to one of the mixing tables and fiddled with a few of the dials, not that it did anything because there was nothing on the system.

“So you and Scarlett...” said Jess.

“Jess, if you want to gossip can’t you please go do it with Kiera?” I asked rolling my eyes.

“No” she said, “Are you guys serious?”

“Pretty serious” I think I said with a shrug.

“Fine, be that way” said Jess and then she shot off the radiator, “Ow!”

“Told you you’d burn your arse” I said laughing as she went to sit on Tre’s knee and he sighed happily as his legs instantly warmed up.

“Scarlett’s coming down to the show on Saturday, I’m gonna give her her birthday present there” I said.

“Which is?” Jess asked.

“My business” I said while sticking his tongue out at Jess, “I’m also having a party next week, Ollie’s out and Daniel is on a work trip, for once, so the place is mine, which is equals party!”

“Isn’t Holly back from college by then?” asked Mike.

“Nope, she comes back on the Monday” I said, “But I think she’s staying with Jordan for the majority of the break anyway”

“Oh” said Mike, “So you want a round up?”

“Yup” I said, “Everyone and everybody and tell em to bring a friend”

“’k” said Mike.

“I’m also gonna ask Bolt and James down” I said looking at Tre, I saw him grimace but he didn’t say anything. James was the guy who a couple of months ago had kissed Jess, without her consent and therefore Tre disliked him thoroughly.

“Everyone from down the bridge is bringing booze and people, Joey is getting the grass for us and the others can bring their own shit if they want it and Mickley is doing the music” I said. Joey was a friend of mine who knows a relatively cheap dealer and Mickley was a guy called Mike Leyton who was a great music mixer, who also happened to work down on Gilman Street, so we knew each other.

“Is Scarlett coming?” asked Jess still sat in Tre’s lap.

“Obviously” I said.

“Well she’s very innocent for all this stuff” she said.

“She can be like you” I said, “A contentious objector - sometimes”

“That’s not what I meant” said Jess, “Does she even know that you smoke pot and have you taken her to the bridge?”

“I’m not taking her down to the bridge yet!” I said.

“Exactly, you want to protect her, but you didn’t answer my first question” Jess said.

“No, she knows I smoke” I said, “But why should it be any different, she didn’t care that I was a man whore so I don’t see why this should be much different”

“It’s drugs Billie” said Jess, “And while I don’t give a shit what any of you take into your bodies, she might be a little shocked by it all; she did go to private school in England remember”

“The reason I haven’t taken her to the bridge” I said, “I’ll bring her in gently”

“Sure” said Jess looking thoroughly unconvinced.

“Look,” I said, “I care about Scar, I’m not going to let her get hurt”

“I’ll hold you to that” said Jess.

“Jess, have some faith in me!” I said. Jess smiled slowly and looked at me through her lashes.

“Once you prove to me you deserve it, talk to Scar” she said.

“Sheesh” I said, “I will”

“Is she dancing tonight?” asked Tre.

“Yeah why?” I asked.

“So you’ll be late to mine?” he asked.

“Yup,” I said, “Miss Hickett has gotten used to seeing me lingering in the corner”

Jess grinned, “Makes you sound like a pervy old man”

“Today that ceased to be true” said Tre.

“What?” I said half way through yawning, “I wasn’t before”

“Yeah but today it’s acknowledged legally” he said, “You can fuck her legally”

“We are not fucking!” I said, “I can’t even believe we having this conversation”

I shook my head and reached into my jacket pocket to get a cigarette and lighter. That was one thing we loved about the snug, there were no fire alarms. I heard the bell ring for second period.

“Is Scar coming here?” asked Mike.

“Yeah” I said, “She’s got double maths next we she hates”

“What are you supposed to have?” asked Jess.

“Double Music Tech” I said gesturing to the room around me, “Genius, I got it alone next period, maybe I can convince Scar to stay with me.”

“You’re going to work on the songs” said Mike.

“Yeah” I said, “Scar can give it a new ear”

“If you say so” said Mike with a shrug, “I better go get K from physics, she said she’d walk with me to town to get pizza”

“At ten in the morning?” Jess asked.

“I am feeling particularly fat today” said Mike getting up.

Jess mumbled something that sounded a lot like ‘look it too’ but Mike didn’t hear her as he left.

“Babe, are we going to English?” asked Tre to Jess.

“Yup” said Jess and they left too. I was left with the end of my cigarette waiting for Scar to appear.