Cheaters = Losers

Being in a car with Billie for near enough two hours was almost as bad as being on a plane with Billie for thirteen hours. Whilst the journey had been significantly shorter, I had the added distraction of driving, less helpful when I was desperately trying to focus on where I was going and remembering the route. At the same time Billie was having the time of his life. He was blasting music loudly, which is fine when you're not trying to remember if you turn off the M25 to the A221 or take the A217 and then take the A33 before tracking onto the B72. When on a plane, I also could devote my attention to Billie's affections. I learnt very quickly that when Billie wasn't driving, he was a very distracting passenger, taking particular joy in leaning over and kissing my cheek, nibbling my ear and running his hands up my legs.

By the time we had reached the halfway point of the journey my knuckles were white on the wheel, my jaw clenched, my gaze steely on the road and every fibre of my being was aching for Billie, screaming for me to pull over and let him have his way.
"Billie, stop it," I snapped, batting his hand away from my leg from the millionth time.
"But I'm bored," he whined, his lips all over my ears and neck.
"And I'm driving, there's plenty of time for that when we get there, Bill," he sighed, pulling away for a second, before I caught a devilish smirk in his eyes and he dove for me, catching my lips for a second. "Billie!" I shrieked. "You're going to cause an accident! I'll be arrested!" Billie was chuckling, but when he caught the look in my eyes he backed off.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," I smiled gently at him, patting his hand.
"It's okay. Just hold on till tonight, yeah?" I winked and the smirk crept back onto his face.

Once we arrived Billie checked in while I found a spot on the campsite. This place was my absolute favourite as a child, it was always the highlight of my summer holiday. The campsite was nestled in the middle of the New Forest, on a disused air field. After driving around the whole site I settled a small corner in the trees that was completely secluded, and quickly learnt that Billie was not at all helpful, having never been camping before. After he accidentally collapsed the tent twice and dropped the water container all over the floor I sent him to go and explore the woods whilst I set up.

By the time Billie returned, face flushed and grinning as he babbled on about some horses and a herd of deer that he had seen, all the trees he had climbed and the lyrics he had thought of, I had the little two man tent up, the airbed and sleeping bags laid out and the tiny barbecue and stove out beside it.
"Its small," Billie looked wearily at the tent.
"It's for two people, and we're not exactly huge. They'll be loads of room,"
Billie stared at me with an affronted look. His eyebrows furrowed together, he squared up his shoulders and placed his hands on his hips, green eyes glistening with trouble.
"Are you insulting my height?"
I folded my arms across my chest, suppressing a giggle.
"Maybe," I teased, making a point of looking him up and down, my eyes landing deliberately above his head, as if I was wishing for him to be a good few inches taller. Billie paced slowly up to me,
"Coming from you," he stood so he was able to look down on me. "Short stack," I gasped falsely,
"Oh no you didn't!" What could only be described as a cackle bubbled from Billie's lips, his head thrown back, eyes closed and his jet hair hanging shaggily. I hadn't noticed that Billie's hair was significantly longer than it was when I first met him.
"Oh yes I did," he sassed back at me, lunging at me. I darted away, Billie chasing after me and the both of us were laughing like a pair of teens.

I was surprisingly quicker than Billie, but apparently playing on tour gives you more stamina, so within minutes of my little sprint I was out of breath and a guffawing Billie caught up to me. He cannonballed into me at full speed, wrapping his arms around me. We staggered forward, Billie holding me tightly, his head on my shoulder. I could feel his chest heaving from panting and laughter, his hair was tickling the side of my face. I leaned back into his embrace happily, turning around.
"I love you," he stated bluntly. "Even though you're like two feet tall," I simply wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him, smiling into the soft embrace and warmth in my stomach.

We ate a quick barbecue with the food that mum had insisted on packing for us, before changing into our pyjamas and making the trip to the toilet block in the dark, which involved shushing a slightly giddy punk rocker every few seconds as we crept back through the undergrowth. I was carefully picking my pathway, even after missing out on the trip for two years I was still perfectly apt at treading softly in the woods and not disturbing anyone. My partner, however, was not playing the quiet game in the slightest. Billie was cartoonishly poor at being quiet, snapping numerous twigs, kicking rocks and tripping over his own feet.
"Oh my God!" I whisper yelled at him when I felt a cold hand grab my arm and almost pull me over.
"Sorry!" He hissed with a chuckle. Apparently, it's also hilarious to make animal noises, and whilst I was itching to get back to the tent, I was handling a five year old who was cackling to himself as he made owl hoots, whinnies, moos and even deer calls.

The idiot even managed to trip over the guidelines and the pair of us went crashing into the tent with an umph.
"Jesus Christ, Billie," I could just about see his eyes shining.
"Sorry," I could hear the guilty grin in his voice, "I've never done camping before," I couldn't help but smile to myself at how adorable he was being.
"Are you pissed?" Billie's voice was quieter than before, as if he was really nervous. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so annoying,"
"I'm not pissed," I said quietly, "And you're not annoying," I reassured him, reaching for some contact. I heard him sigh happily, finding my wandering hand and grasping it tightly.
"Good, because I don't wanna fuck anything up with you, y'know?" All I wanted to do was hold him as close as possible. Instead I shuffled into my sleeping bag, and helped Billie into his. I pressed a quick kiss to his lips, "You'll need to try a lot harder than that to fuck it up," I whispered before curling into myself for a good sleep.

Or at least that was the plan, again, Billie Joe had other ideas. I was woken up in the pitch black to a loud rustling, squinting I could just make out the figure beside me furiously shifting.
"Billie?" I whispered, in response I got a strangled, startled sound. "Billie are you okay?" I heard him swallow faintly before a familiar chattering set off.
"I'm fucking freezing," the only thought running through my head was aww.
"Hey, I'm not some charity case puppy," Billie said, apparently I had awwed out loud.
"Okay, get out of your sleeping bag," I instructed.
"What? Are you nuts? It's freezing! I'll die!" He hissed.
"Stop being so dramatic and get out,"
"Fuck you, I'm from Oakland. It's warm there," he whined while kicking off the restrictive material. Ignoring Billie's sulking, chattering teeth and shivering I worked quickly to also wriggle free and zip the two bags together. Billie was right, it was particularly cold and I could feel our breath making the cloudy puffs and my fingers were seizing up.
"Right, come here," I commanded and like a bullet out of a gun there was a very cold limpet attached to me. I pulled the makeshift quilt over the pair of us, and Billie shifted so that he was laid on his side, with his arms around me so that I was pulled into his body, my face pressed into the crook of his neck and our limbs intertwining.

"I may not be a survival expert," Billie began, to which I gave a short, dry laugh, "But I do know that sharing body heat is the way to go,"
With a smile I tilted my head upwards and caught his lips, just as I was about to pull away, Billie ducked his head down to keep it a little longer. When he did pull away from me, he kept his head very close to mine, so our cold noses kept brushing.
"You taste like toothpaste," I smiled softly.
"With toothpaste kisses and lines," Billie sang sweetly, humming a part of the song.
"I'll be yours and you'll be," I finished.
"Mine," he murmured, pressing his nose against mine in one last kiss, before we really snuggled down to sleep.

---------

The next morning I woke up in the exact same position, Billie clinging onto me like a baby monkey. My eyes drifted up to Billie's face, ghosting over his features. The way his shaggy hair flopped onto the pillow, pieces sticking to his face, the way his eyes were softly closed, the skin smooth and relaxed as he was freed from all worries of the world, the way his nose would occasionally twitch or scrunch up, the way his perfect pink bow lips were slightly pursed. Without warning he stiffened and one dopey green eye focused on me.
"Good morning sleepyhead," I murmured, pushing the strands of black hair out of his eyes. Billie's lips curved up into a gentle smile, and his grasp tightened for a second, until I flinched.
"What? Are you okay?"
"Huh? Yeah I just need to pee," I mumbled into his chest, blushing slightly. I could feel the laughter vibrating through Billie's ribcage. Clad in flip flops and armed with toiletries Billie and I trudged back across the now wet fields in pyjamas to the block.

I hadn't been in there long enough to clean my teeth when a stunned looking teenager stumbled in. She looked like a younger version of Chris with crazy curly hair and bright, wide eyes. Her mouth was slightly open and her body stiff.
"Hey, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost," the kid stared at me and blinked twice.
"I swear to God I just saw Billie Joe Armstrong walking across the campsite," I smiled at the sink, but the girl didn't give me chance to talk. "Please tell me you know who he is? Billie Joe? Of Green Day?"
"Yeah I know who they are. Best band ever," the kid grinned at me. "You're probably not wrong either. Billie is here," the poor girl's eyes widened even more as she gasped at me.
"Ohmygod! I think I'm having a heart attack!" She shrieked, before calming and glaring at me.
"How do you know anyway? Who are you?" I stuck my hand out with a half smile.
"Uh a friend of his, we're here together," the teen was clenching on my hand in seconds.
"OMG! Are you the mystery girl he's talked about in interviews!?" I chuckled slightly, running my hand nervously through my hair. This was the first time a fan had approached me about Billie.
"Uh, yeah, I guess,"
"Holy shit I think I'm gonna faint,"

Once I had managed to escape the girl, which only happened once I'd introduced her to Billie and she'd hugged him for a whole minute and taken a thousand photos much to our amusement, Billie and I were changed and on the bus, headed into Bournemouth for the Air Festival. He got recognised a little bit, but not as much as I was expecting, and we had a great day blending into the crowds and enjoying the flying.

During the highest point of the afternoon, when it was unseasonably warm and clear for English weather, Billie and I were sat eating ice cream with our jeans rolled up and toes buried in the sand.
"You're lucky, I've sat on the cliffs in pouring rain before," I said, idly licking my ice cream.
"Good, I hate the rain," Billie pulled a face, causing me to lean into his side softly.
"How can you hate it?"
"How can you love it? It's cold and wet." We were silenced for a second as a very fast and very loud Typhoon came thundering past. The plane sent a rush of adrenaline through me, it had always been a favourite of mine, the noise and the speed reminded me of the freedom I craved, and my Dad. The air shows were always our thing, we just tended to drag mum and Chris along as well.

"Talk to me, Lily," Billie said as we were wandering down the boardwalk hand in hand.
"Huh? I talk to you all the time,"
"Tell me about you. Your childhood. Who were you before America?"
"Woah, asking the deep questions there," I joked, but Billie didn't seem to get it, instead he stared at me blankly.
"Okay, uh, I grew up in an insufferably posh house, with insufferably posh parents, where I went to the same insufferably posh school from the age of two till eighteen, where I transitioned to an insufferably posh university where I studied a very "useless" degree in English literature for creative writing. Then I met Josh, who was not insufferably posh and controlling and I fell in love with him and followed him to America. Where I lived in an insufferably manly bachelor pad and then I caught him cheating on me and went to a concert,"
"And then you met me?"
"And then I met you. An insufferably perfect specimen and also my teenage crush," I said, looking anywhere but at him as I spoke the last few words. Billie looked mildly shocked and mildly entertained by my little rant.
"Is that it?"
"In a nutshell," I replied.
"You had a teenage crush on me?" He poked gently, a small smile on his face.
"Kinda more like I was hopelessly in love with you," I laughed embarrassedly "You were so different to everything I knew growing up, you had this amazing band, and the best music ever and you guys were all over the media. And you were hot as fuck and so naturally I was so impressed by this rebellious little punk band that I adored you." Billie puffed his cheeks out as he exhaled a very soft "Wow,"
"If we're being completely honest, said crush never went away," his eyes lit up and a huge smile split across his face.
"I love you so much," he grinned, pulling me swiftly into his arms and effectively kissing the embarrassment away. When we separated he wrapped an arm around my waist as we continued to walk.
"You're so adorable oh my God," he was still beaming about my little confession, I looked at the floor with a smile and half-shrugged.

We spent the rest of the day up on the cliffs, sat on a picnic blanket with another blanket draped over our shoulders as we watched the night flying. Billie kept an arm around me the whole time, keeping me snuggled into his side at all times.
"Okay everyone, this is the last flight of tonight," the commentator announced over the loud system as a small plane did a fairly quiet display, all while shooting out white gold fireworks. The firework displays were always beautiful, but with the clear night sky giving a perfect velvety backdrop, the constant presence of Billie and the bright contrast of the fireworks, everything was so much more spectacular.
"The pilot says he dedicates this last move to everyone who helped organise the air festival this year and to all the couples out there," at those words Billie pulled me even closer, so my head was fully dropped onto his shoulder as the plane made one last manoeuvre, carving a sparkling trail in the shape of a heart before leaving. Billie turned to me and pulled me into a strong kiss, filling me with warmth. When he pulled away I felt like there had been a firework display in my system. I smiled dazedly at him, as he chuckled at my reaction.

We packed down and joined the half hour queue for the bus back to the car park. The last thing I remember was sitting by Billie on the hot bus, drifting in and out of consciousness with Billie supporting my limp body.