Dark And Light

Hands Off

Maddy was on her way to meet Mike Dirnt when a text came through on Mia’s phone.

From Mia.

I’ve changed my mind. I’ve been looking Mike Dirnt up on the Internet and the guy is hot. Don’t go out with him. Text him back and tell him that I’m away for a few weeks and that I’ll meet up with him when I get back. Hands off, I want him.

Maddy deleted the text message and carried on with her journey.

**

The place was buzzing and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been in a place like this. Had I EVER been in a place like this? It was full of beautiful people. What the fuck am I doing here? I’m going to stand out like a sore thumb. Mind you, nobody seems to be taking that much of an interest in me, I thought to myself as I made my way to the bar, teetering slightly in the shoes that were beginning to hurt my feet already.

Managing to squeeze my way to the bar I ordered a Vodka and Coke, as it didn’t look as though they sold beer here. Then I saw him and my stomach felt like it had exploded into a zillion pieces.

Mike Dirnt was standing there, not that far away from me and he was taller than the rest of the people around him. His smile lit up the place.

Fuck, he was even more gorgeous in real life.

But what should I do now? Do I just go right on over and interrupt his conversation? He was with Billie and Tre, laughing and joking together.

Jesus Christ, I’d idolised these guys for years and now here they were standing just a short step away from me.

I took a sip of my drink and a little part of me felt like just sneaking off. What the hell was I doing here? I felt out of my depth. Yes I thought taking yet another sip of the Vodka, I’ll sneak away. There was a movie on TV that I could watch later…

But too late.

He had turned and was smiling at me. The smile that I adored had suddenly turned my legs to jelly.

How could I even have thought about walking out and leaving him here, this guy that I’d adored for years. The guy that I’d dreamt of, wrote about often in my diary, listened to his music over and over, paused the DVD player dozens of times just to gaze at him a little longer.

He was here, right in front of me.

Mike Dirnt.

But of course he thought I was Mia, not boring plain Maddy that spent her entire life in front of a computer. Mia who was sparkly and full of life, nothing like me.

“Hey,” he said still looking over and smiling.

Billie and Tre turned then and all three of them were looking at me. My face burnt and my palms were sweaty but I smiled anyway.

“Come over and join us, I’m so glad you could make it,” Mike said as I walked towards him. “Boy are you hard to get hold of, I’ve been calling you for days.” He said.

“Oh I’ve been away and I left my phone at home, kind of accidentally-on-purpose,” I said. What on earth was I saying; this was going to be hard.

“Let me introduce you to the guys,” Mike said. But I already know them. Well know of them.

“This is Billie, Billie this is Mia,” said Mike. No its not, its Maddy.

“Hi Mia, Mike’s right, he has been trying to get hold of you for days, its all he’s been going on about, the girl he met at the wine bar,” said Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day who was standing directly in front of me, about the same height as me and looking at me with those green eyes that were so green they didn’t seem real. He took my hand and shook it. His hands were softer than I ever imagined they would be.

“And this is Tre,” said Mike once again. “Tre Cool, our drummer.”

“Hi,” said Tre. His face was so familiar to me and his real life smile was much better than his media smile, his hand slightly rougher than I’d imagined, rougher may be from holding his drumsticks?

I knew all about these guys, every little smidgeon of information about them was rolling through my mind, I could probably even write a book about their lives.

I finally found my voice.

“Good to meet you all but I have a confession to make, I was a little worse for wear when we met the other night and can’t remember half of it.” I said. I didn’t remember any of it because I wasn’t even there.

“I guessed as much,” said Mike, “but you had your wits about you, you didn’t do anything wrong,” he said smiling down at me.

“No, I think Mike was kind of hoping that you’d to a striptease or something for him,” said Tre, cheekily.

“Tre.” Said Mike, scoldingly.

This was so hard. I wanted to turn to Billie Joe and ask how Adrienne and his boys were, to ask Tre about little Frankito and Ramona. To ask if he really WAS living with Claudia or was it just a rumour but I couldn’t, as I didn’t know them.

Well I DIDN’T know them, I just knew everything ABOUT them and I couldn’t let on.

Billie and Tre finished their drinks and decided that they would head back to their hotel, which was just around the corner while Mike asked me if I’d like another drink noticing that I’d finished it rather quickly. It was the quickest I’d ever drank a glass of alcohol other than beer.

My cheeks were still burning.

“Yes please, a Vodka and Coke would be great,” I said to him.

“Oh… not a diet Coke?” said Mike. “I was sure that was what you had the other evening. You said something about how high the sugar content was in ‘fat’ Coke,” he said then laughed.

Yeah, that would be Mia all right.

“No, I recently read an article about Diet Coke being full of all sorts of shit so now I’m drinking the full heavy duty stuff,” I said.

Damn, I was going to have to be careful here. I was dying to ask him about Estelle but of course I wasn’t even sure if he’d told ‘Mia’ about her. What had he said to Mia? I didn’t know, and never would.

“So. How’s the dancing going along?” said Mike. He was leaning on the bar and my eyes were drawn to his oh-so-familiar tattoos.

“Not too good, I’m thinking of giving it up.” Yeah this was definitely what Mia had told me but did she want everyone else to know?

“Oh I remember now, you said the other night that you were going to stick with the commercials for now.” He said remembering.

“Yeah, just the odd commercial here and there,” I replied. I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know what I should or shouldn’t be telling him.

“Hey, did you ever get to speak to your sister? I’ve forgotten her name. Mandy wasn’t it? He said, gazing at me.

“Maddy,” I replied. Me.

“Yes, that was it, Maddy. You mentioned that she was your twin and you didn’t get on, something about a falling out years ago and that you had nothing in common and that you…”

Hated me. Wait for it. She hated me and she’d probably told him.

…missed her.” Said Mike.

“Oh. Yeah. I did get to speak to her I went to visit her, that’s why you couldn’t get hold of me, we were together.”

“Did things go OK with you two?” He said taking a genuine interest.

“They went fine thanks, it seems we’re on speaking terms again,” I said taking a sip from the drink. I was drinking way to fast, my head felt light and my feet were throbbing and these fucking shoes were killing me. I couldn’t wait to get them off.

“Hey, how about we get the hell out of here and go for a walk,” said Mike Dirnt. “May be we could go back to my hotel for a nightcap.”

A nightcap at his hotel room? Did he expect something else too?

I was way out of my depth here. Is that what people did? Just meet up with someone and go back to their place and… is that what Mia does?

I’d never done this before, gone back to anyone’s room. Well I’d never done IT before. I’d never been with anyone.

I was a virgin, a boring little 21-year old who nobody had ever wanted before. I felt that everyone could tell. When I walked down the street anyone watching would probably think to themselves, ‘there she goes, the 21-year old virgin, can’t you just tell.”

I didn’t know what to do.

Things were going too fast.

**

Mia was intrigued.

Intrigued with this Mike Dirnt guy. How had she not realised the other night how gorgeous he was. She’d looked him up and got some information on him and his band, Green Day. He was so well known. How well known? Did Maddy know all about him?

Checking out Maddy’s CD collection she found them, every single one of their albums just sitting there in the CD rack. So… Maddy knew them.

Mia picked one out and played it.

She hated it immediately. It was too loud and she couldn’t understand what they were saying. She stopped playing it then went back to the CD rack to look for something more appropriate but there was nothing, nothing that she recognised at all.

Going back to the computer she found a picture of the band and her eyes were drawn once again to Mike.

Your music is shit but you, you’re gorgeous

She decided to text once again a message to Maddy.

Maddy, I hope you got my previous text. This Mike Dirnt guy, you knew him, he’s from that band you like, Green Day. Please don’t meet up with him, I think I could get to like him.

He wouldn’t suit you at all and this could be my chance.