Cherry Lips And Tattoos

The next day...

"Hi Charlie. How're you doing?" I ask speaking into the telephone to Charlie my life long friend who lived in England.

"I'm fine and you sound more American each time I hear you," he says

"Really? Everyone hear thinks I still sound English." I say to him.

"Well I suppose they would. How's your dad? He must be back now is he?"

"He's good and they said the tour was one of the best."

"Great. I saw him when he came to London, he got me and a couple of guys I know from college some backstage passes when they played Wembley. It was awesome and the guys couldn't believe that I knew Green Day so well."

"I'm glad you met up with him"

"Have you managed to get that date with James yet?" said Charlie

"No not yet. I'm not sure whether he likes me," I say.

"I'm sure he does. Ask your friend Hannah." Said Charlie.

"Yeah may be I will, she's due round shortly"

"I'm going to have to go soon Franky" said Charlie yawning. "Its nearly 11 at night here and I've got a photography exam tomorrow"

"Oh good luck with the exam Charlie. Sleep well. Love ya"

"Love ya too Franky"

"Bye!"

I put the phone down and look out of the window. I see Hannah coming round the corner and run down the stairs and just get to the door as she does.

"My god, you're keen," she says laughing at me.

Hannah is such a pretty girl but she always puts herself down saying that she's overweight. No way! I tell her. She hates her bust. She says it's bigger than the rest of her and she thinks that's all boys see when they look at her. 'So what' I say. At least you've got boobs and you know what - make the most of them. Use them to your advantage. I hardly had any.

She'd tied her hair back as it was a hot day. I loved what she'd done to her hair recently, it was dark brown and she'd had these red streaks put through it, it suited her so much. She didn't have any make up on but it didn't matter to her as she had such dark eyelashes it looked like she always wore mascara. She had these really striking icy blue eyes, the most mesmerizing eyes I'd seen on anybody, well almost anybody. A few years ago I met Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance and his eyes seemed really dark and mesmerizing. Dad still kept in contact with the guys from My Chem but I'd not seen them since mum's funeral.

"So where's your Dad?" she asks. "I hope I'm finally going to get to meet him," she says coming into the house.

"He's still in bed" I say. "He's a little bit jet lagged and all the guys came round for a 'back home' celebration last night," I laugh.

I was so glad that Hannah didn't seem star struck at all. It had caused so many problems with other people that wanted to be my friends that I just didn't trust anyone for ages so had no friends at all for a while.

I actually didn't tell Hannah about Dad being Tre Cool from Green Day for about three months. By this time we had got to know each other really well at our singing lessons. I remember the day she found out...

... We were sitting under a tree in the park together and kept throwing Milton, my dog's ball over to him when a voice said "Hi Franky"

"Oh Hi Joey. How are you?" I said. This was when I first noticed him blush.

"I'm good thanks. Just out for a walk. I wondered whether I'd see you over at the park with Milton" he said

"Let me introduce you to my friend Hannah" I said aware of Hannah checking out Joey. "Hannah this is Joey, he's er.. he's one of my dad's friends sons"

"Hi" they both said together.

"Dad called up this morning," said Joey looking back at me.

"Oh right" I said my stomach turning.

"He says their new song's got to number one in Australia," he said

"That's cool. I didn't doubt it. It's an awesome song" I reply.

"How are they?" I ask. Shit. Hannah must be wondering who the hell we're talking about.

"Good, but very tired. They're looking forward to coming home soon"

"I can't wait to see them" I say, "It's been a long tour this time"

"Yeah. Mum's really felt it this time" said Joey. "She's been hanging out with that Pam from the Health Club. God I can't stand her, she's so plastic," said Joey

"I know the one" I reply. "She thinks she's Pamela Anderson or something." We laugh.

"We should call her Plastic Pam" Joey says, "That name suits her. Anyways, I'd better be off" said Joey. "Nice meeting you Hannah" he says. "See you Franky" he looked over at me.

"Bye Joey"

Here it comes.

"You've got some explaining to do," said Hannah. "I recognised him straight off from press pictures. That was Joey Armstrong wasn't it? Billie Joe Armstrong's son. You kept that quiet. How come you know him?" she said.

"Well. It's my dad. He's.. he's Tre Cool" I said not looking at her.

"WHAT? Your Dad is Tre Cool and you didn't tell me," she said. "How the hell could you not tell me that?"

"It just never came up in conversation," I said

"You bet it never came up. You did it on purpose didn't you?" she said. "But I think I understand. Anyway, that Joey sure has the hots for you?" she said lifting her eyes.

"Oh shut up," I say throwing Milton's ball at her.

... and that was it really. The subject of Dad didn't really come up much after that. We just talked about him like any other dad that was away on business. Now today she would probably get to meet him...

We went downstairs to the basement which was done out as a games and music room. It was absolutely huge and had a pool table, jukebox, and sofas to sit on. There were two full drum kits, mine and dads, guitars and loads of discs on the walls. There was a little mini recording studio in the corner.

"Fucking hell" said Hannah who doesn't usually swear. I don't believe it. Why have you never showed me down here before?" she asked.

"Well we usually go to yours to practise singing and when you come over here we generally play music in my room." I said.

"This is awesome," said Hannah wandering around the room and looking at the discs on the walls. There were ones from Kerplunk right through to American Idiot and there was one whole wall of photos of the band, mainly publicity shots taken over the time they've been together, loads of different hair colours, odd shaped trousers and weird clothes.

The other wall had family photos on it.

"Whose this with your Dad?" said Hannah. "She's sooo beautiful." Then she looked over at me. "Its your mum isn't it? How gorgeous was SHE? You're quite like her you know, except for the eyes maybe," she said looking at me.

She carried on looking at the photographs. "Wicked!" she said. "Those are cool shots".

She was looking at four black and white pictures on the wall set in a square on canvas blocks. They were of the four booth photos that mum and dad had kept on them for years. I had them done for dad's birthday and he absolutely adored them. They were all of slightly different poses but they all showed a young happy couple having fun and obviously very much in love.

"How sweet" said Hannah. " I hope I look that happy with someone some day." she said. The mood was quiet.

"Right" I said breaking the silence. "There is something I want you to listen to. I've never done this before but I've sort of done a demo tape of a song I wrote ages ago. It's a little bit like a rock ballad but I think it would suit your voice better. Take a listen."

I put the tape in the machine and played the song. The song filled the room and Hannah sat silently listening.

"Fucking hell Franky" that was awesome. "Those lyrics - how did you come up with those?"

"They're just words I write. They come to me at a certain time and I write them down, mainly my feelings. My feelings on paper and I've put them into song"

"I'd love to sing your song," said Hannah.

She took the sheet of words from me and went and stood over by the microphone. I started off the tape but this time put a different tape in the machine, one without my voice on.

She started to sing and straight away I knew the song was meant for her to sing. She sung it so well I had this tingly feeling up my spine. She sung it how I wanted to sing it but I couldn't put the feeling into it like she could.

"That was awesome Hannah," I said standing up clapping. "What do you think? Shall we see if we can get it properly recorded?" I say excitedly.

"We'd better. That's an awesome song Franky. I really enjoyed singing it, what's it called?" she said

"Er.. dunno. It hasn't got a name. How about 'Stars and Tears?'" I said. It seems to go with the words OK"

"Good choice" said a voice from the doorway. It was Dad.

"Dad!" I say going over to hug him. He'd obviously just got up, his hair was all over the place and he had on an old t-shirt and long shorts.

"Come and meet Hannah," I say and I take him over to her.

"Hi Hannah" Dad says holding out his hand. "Good to meet you"

"Hi Mr Cool" says Hannah taking his hand to shake but Dad being Dad and cool and such a gentlemanly guy he takes her hand and kisses it. Hannah blushes bright red. Oh piss, she likes him.

"Hey, none of this Mr Cool stuff. Tre will do just fine. You know, you have some voice there kid," he says

"Thanks" says Hannah looking into dad's eyes.

"No. I mean it. I think you two have got something good here. Where did that song come from?" Dad said

"Franky wrote it," said Hannah. "She's written loads of songs" She seemed shocked that Dad didn't seem to know.

"Has she?" said Dad looking at me questioningly. "Franky. I didn't know you wrote stuff"

"Oh" I said brushing it aside "I've got some songs and stuff written, not much to mention really."

"Show me" says Dad suddenly.

"Dad I'm really not ready to show anyone. Some of its really old stuff from years back, they're a bit crappy"

"Well listening to that song tells me that they're not crappy. Honey I think you have a talent for this. Please show me"

"I don't really want to" why was I being stubborn.

"Fair enough" said dad sounding disappointed in me. "Do you want to be a rock star or not?" he said

"Not sure" I said, again stubbornly.

Dad sighed. "Oh Franky. That song is awesome. Don't ever be ashamed to show you stuff to people. If they love it they'll love it, if they don't, fuck em, who are they anyway? I'm not going to push you here babe but.. well.. think about it. Anyway girls, I'm going to fix some drinks, anyone want an orange juice?" he asks heading back off up the stairs.

"Yes please" we both say together.

We were both quiet for a few minutes.

"You really should show your Dad your stuff you know Franky, he knows what he is talking about" said Hannah.

"I know. But I'm not sure. What if he laughs? I wrote some ages ago when I was sad and lonely. Some of its depressing, hardly great song material."

"Some of the greatest songs are about sadness and loss. Look at 'Wake Me Up' that Billie Joe wrote" said Hannah.

"Yeah I suppose," I say shuffling over to the drums.

Hannah starts looking over at the photographs again.

Dad comes back with the drinks and then goes over to explain some of the pictures to Hannah while I tidy away the tapes and flick through my folder of songs. It was quite heavy, I didn't realise how much I'd written over the years.

I can hear Hannah giggling at Dad's stupid comments and he is pissing about and pulling faces and pointing at pictures when the phone rings.

"Hi Adi" I say when I hear her voice.

"Hi Franky. Are you and Tre still going to the Chopstick Bowl this evening?" She says

"Yeah we are. We're going about 7 O' clock, are you and Billie going to come? I hope you do."

"Yes I think we will. Hey I'll drive as I'm doing this detox thing at the moment so won't be drinking, pick you up at about quarter to seven" she says.

"That's fine," I say. "See you then, bye Adi" and she was gone.

"What the hell's all that?" said Dad looking at me carrying the huge folder.

"These are my songs" I say slightly embarrassed.

"You're kidding," he says. "There must be loads in there," he says

"Actually, its fifty three to be exact" I say and Hannah and he laugh. I laugh too.

Hannah decides to make an exit then.

"Look I'd better be going," said Hannah. "How about we get together tomorrow over at mine. James should be around too. We could play your song to him. He could even play guitar for us if we decide to take it further" says Hannah.

"Sounds good to me," I say going upstairs to see her out.

"Bye Tre" says Hannah calling over to Dad and looking at him with a twinkle in her eye. Please, this is my Dad here.

"Oh bye honey," said Dad, not really looking over but checking out the photographs. The ones with mum in. "See you again sometime".

Upstairs as I said goodbye, Hannah spoke.

"You're Dad's real cool" she says

"I know" I reply. "Cool by name, and cool by nature" then we laugh. "See you tomorrow" I shout out and then she was gone.

***

When Hannah got home she ran up to her room and got out her scrapbook. Her heart was beating fast and she was sweating. She couldn't believe that she had finally met Tre Cool at last. The scrapbook was covered in pictures of Tre, pictures that she'd had for years. She had a secret crush on Tre and had done for so long now since she first saw him on TV many years ago and was mesmerized by him but of course Franky knew none of this. Franky thought that Hannah hadn't known that Tre was her dad but she did know, she'd always known.

The book also showed some newspaper clippings of when Tre's wife Sammi had died. She felt guilty looking at them now, as she'd secretly been glad when his wife had died three years ago. They were a 'perfect couple' as everyone kept saying in the press but Hannah wanted to be his partner now. She wanted herself and Tre to be known as the 'perfect couple' too. This could become a real possibility thought Hannah.

***

While Adi was on the phone to Franky she could feel Billie Joe approaching her from behind. He started nuzzling into her mass of dark brown hair but she didn't respond. When the call had ended she turned to face her husband.

"Oh Billie" she said. "I've no time now, I have a class at the Health Club" and turned away from his gaze.

She hated looking at his face, as she knew she'd betrayed him, she could hardly look him in the eye. She knew that things would probably never be the same again...