Cherry Lips And Tattoos

Mike rolled over and looked at his beautiful wife Jen.

"What are you thinking baby? You look miles away," he said. "Thinking of Sammi?" he said stroking her arm.

"Actually no. I was thinking of Adi," said Jen.

"Really. What about Adi?" said Mike. Nuzzling into her hair.

"Do you not think she's behaving a bit odd lately?" Jen said turning to her handsome husband.

"In what way?" said Mike beginning to nibble on her ear.

"She's not her old self," said Jen.

"Well now you mention it. Yeah I suppose she's been a bit quiet lately. I've not had a chance to chat with her since we got back from the tour. You think everything is OK with her and Billie?" said Mike stopping the nibbling.

"Not sure" said Jen. "I feel a little awful. I've not spent much time with Adi really since Sammi died. She was so good to me afterwards but I didn't get to spend much time with her and well...I was with you so much on the tour" she said looking a little anxious.

"Hey," said Mike. "If there is anything wrong with Adi it's not your fault," said Mike.

"I know. May be I'll try and get together with her soon and have a chat," said Jen.

"Yeah. May be ask her around for a coffee," said Mike, "once upon a time she was always round here for coffee."

"Yeah I know. Actually she's always at the health club these days. Perhaps I'll renew my membership and go and see her there. Anyway, all the food and drink I ate on tour with you has gone to my hips. I could do with some exercise," said Jen laughing.

"No way" said Mike "You have lovely hips. Don't you go changing them now" he said.

"No I won't change too much, promise," said Jen "but I will try and get down to the health club to catch up with Adi" she said. "Now would you mind just carrying on nibbling away at my ear again...I liked that," she said

***

"Hi Ellie," said Franky when Ellie opened the door to her.

"Franky," said Ellie giving her a hug

"You look so much better than you did the other day, how are you feeling now? That was such a bad dose of flu that you had wasn't it?"

"It sure was and I hate to say it but I'm glad to be back to school," she laughed. " I hear that the band you're forming rocks," she said.

"Well I don't know about that but we're so excited about it. Come and listen to us play some day soon."

"I will," said Ellie.

"You look lovely," said a voice from behind. James.

"Thanks," I said. "You scrub up well yourself," I laugh at him.

He was so sweet and very good looking. I knew loads of girls that thought he was hot and still couldn't believe that I was going out on a date with him.

"I'll see you two lovebirds later," said Ellie grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah see you Ellie. Remember what I said about coming over to listen. Any time."

"Will do," said Ellie running upstairs.

***

When Ellie got to her bedroom she lay on her bed thinking about Joey. He was the one and only reason she was glad to be back at school. He sat near her in nearly every lesson. He was so handsome and kind but she knew she'd never stand a chance with him. He doesn't even know I exist thought Ellie. Why cant I be much taller, much more talkative and prettier. May be then he'd notice me...

***

Tre was on his way back from a photoshoot and he decided to pop into the golf club bar for a drink. He wanted to ask Bob for some advise on one of the clubs he had just bought. But Bob didn't seem to be in the bar. In fact there was hardly anyone in the bar apart from the lovely Susan.

"Hi" said Susan. "Would you like your usual beer?" she said.

"Yes please Susan," said Tre. "Bob not around?" he asked her.

"I've not seen Bob today," said Susan putting the beer in front of Tre. He took a sip from it.

"Oh my god," said Susan.

"What?" said Tre. "You OK?"

"Er Yeah." She was looking at his hands. "Its just that you have black nail varnish on," she said.

"Oh. That," said Tre. "Don't you like it?" he said.

"Sorry. It's just that you don't get many guys at the golf club wearing black nail varnish" she laughed. "I love it," she said intrigued as to why he would want to wear it. Was he some sort of rock star or something?

"I've just been on a photoshoot so had to put on the full regalia," said Tre. "You know what its like" he said.

Should I?, Thought Susan.

"Hey Bob says you have three kids," said Tre.

"Yeah, two girls and a boy, the boy is 20 and the girls are 17 and 15. All very hard work."

"I can imagine. I have three children myself," said Tre. "Like you. Two girls and a boy. My oldest girl is 17 and then I have a daughter of 14 and a boy of 8. I only have the oldest daughter living with me. The other two live with their mothers."

"Mothers?"

"Yeah. They all have different mothers," said Tre. "We're all friends, there is no bitterness at all."

"That's great that you all get on," said Susan.

"Hey do you play golf at all?" said Tre.

"Very little" said Susan. "That's one of the perks of working here. Free membership, but I hardly get to use it, well, what with working and the children. You must know what it's like" she said.

"Yes I do," said Tre. "Listen. How would you feel about playing a round of golf with me sometime?" said Tre. My god this was the first time he had actually asked a woman out since Sammi. He felt nervous for some reason.

"That would be great," said Susan. "When are you thinking about? I'm free most weekends," she said.

"How about Saturday afternoon then. I shall meet you here and I'll show what I can do." Said Tre.

"I'd love for you to show me what you can do," she laughed. "What time. I could get here for 1pm"

"1pm is fine with me," said Tre. "I shall be wearing a tie as usual," he said

"Oh. Only a tie?" said Susan.

"Of course" said Tre.

"I have to confess something," said Susan. "I didn't quite catch your name when Bob introduced us" she said.

"Its Tre" said Tre. May be she doesn't realise that I'm in a band.

"Unusual" said Susan.

"I'm an unusual person," said Tre.

"I gathered that," said Susan.

After he'd gone Susan wondered who this Tre guy was. She was sure he was familiar but she couldn't quite place him and the name, she was sure that she'd heard the name somewhere before.

***

On this way home in the car Tre thought about Susan. He couldn't wait until Saturday.

***

"Ready for that walk?" said James"

"Yeah I've got my comfy boots" on I said showing him.

We headed off down to the bay together. He was head and shoulders above me. Most people were and I had to look up to talk to him as we walked along.

"I always forget how short you are," said James. "I think I'll start calling you shorty from now on."

"Oh my God not another nickname. What with Billie Joe calling me Titch this is getting way out of hand." I said.

"Do you hate being short then?" he asked.

"I don't know any different, its everybody else that mentions it all the time" I said.

"You can certainly drum well for a shorty," he said.

"Oh piss off," I say playfully punching him on the arm.

We get down to the beach and decide to take off our shoes and socks.

"I love the feel of the sand between my toes" I say to him looking up and wiggling my toes in the sand. We sit down next to each other gazing out to the sea.

"Purple toes at that" he answers. "I've never seen your feet before. Cute. Do you always wear purple toenail varnish?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's my favourite colour." I say. "Anyway I hate feet, everyone's feet are gross."

"Hey I heard about your tattoo," said James lying back on the sand. "Could I take a look? I'm thinking about getting another one done at some point"

"Sure" I say and then stand up to start pulling down my jeans. My stomach has butterflies.

"I like that, that's good work" said James. He touches the tattoo and my skin tingled with excitement.

"Would you get another one done?" he says.

"Well actually I might when I'm a little older. I have this thing that when I meet the right person I shall get a Purple Heart tattoo on my wrist with the guy's name next to it". I say. Fuck it. He's gone quiet now. Why the hell had I said that, it was meant to be top secret. How embarrassing.

"Cool" he said. He stood up then as I pulled my jeans back up and we started paddling along the shoreline walking and talking about the band.

"I'm so excited about the band Franky are you?" he said looking very excited about it.

"Yes actually I am its been a dream of mine since, well as long as I can remember playing drums really." I replied.

"Is it true that you won a drumming competition and that's how you met your dad?" asked James.

"Yeah. Its bizarre isn't it. My dad turns out to be the hottest drummer ever. I loved Green Day before I even knew that he was my dad. Mum kept it from me for years."

"How awful" said James.

"It was but don't get me wrong I don't hate mum for it. She did her best." I said defending mum.

"How did they lose touch though?" said James.

"Well... they fell in love back in 1992 and spent two weeks together. She got pregnant with me. Once he'd gone she accidentally washed his details away in the washing machine. The airline lost all details of Mum so Dad couldn't get in touch with her either. Then I came along and Dad couldn't get any details out of schools that he thought mum worked in, Mum tried to contact record companies but they thought she was a stalker. Then I won this competition we met up again and that's it really." I said. I'd told this story to various people so many times over the years.

"Wow. That's an awesome story. Yeah its like a fairytale come true isn't it apart from it ended with your mum dying" he said. My eyes started filling up, it was all the sudden talk of mum.

"Hey" said James. " I'm sorry. Your mum was beautiful. Her photograph is everywhere in your house and I've seen her in newspaper articles. It must be have been awful losing her. Come here" and he pulled me close to him. This felt good and we stayed there hugging for ages.

"Are you hungry?" he suddenly said

"Starvin Marvin" I replied giggling

"Well let's go then and get some pizza." He said taking my hand and heading over to the pizza parlour.

"Hey I said. Do you think they do egg on toast in the pizza parlour?" I asked.

"What? You are joking right?" he said.

"Yeah I'm only kidding. Its just that egg on toast is my favourite food. Weird I know. But pizza's just as good" I said.

"I'm glad. I hate eggs," said James.

***

"Hello" said Hannah after picking up the phone.

"Hi Hannah, its Ed"

"Ed, Hi. I'm sorry but James isn't here at the moment. He's out on a date, with Franky" she said.

"Finally. Those two, its about time they got together don't you think?" said Ed. And I'd like to get together with you he thought.

"Yes. I agree. They'd make a lovely couple," said Hannah. I want to be part of a couple.

"Hey. What time is band practice tomorrow?" said Ed

"I'm not sure. I think they will probably discuss it tonight and then let us know" said Hannah.

"Ok. I'll wait for James to let me know," said Ed. "Wasn't the whole thing awesome" he said.

"Too right" said Hannah. "I'm so excited about this whole thing. I think we sounded so good when we played even though I do say so myself. So different, what about you?"

"I thought we rocked. We sounded like no other band I've heard"

"Is that a good thing?" said Hannah

"You bet," said Ed. "Anyway I'd best go now and get practising my bass," he said

"It doesn't sound as thought you need much practice to me," said Hannah.

Ed laughed.

"See you tomorrow Hannah" he said. I can't wait

"Yeah. Bye Ed" said Hannah. Sweet guy

**

In the Pizza Parlour...

We both ordered our food and sat discussing all the songs that we should practice. We talked about Hannah and her awesome voice and then this girl came over to the table.

"Oh hi Danni" said James as she approached our table. I could see him get uncomfortable but she looked friendly enough. I wondered who she was.

"Hi James" she said. "How are you? It's been a while," she said. She didn't even look at me.

"I'm fine thanks Danni," replied James.

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" she said indicating to me

"Oh this is Franky a close friend of mine". A close friend? I thought this was a date.

"Oh right" said Danni. "Have you heard from Lucy at all?"

"No. Should I have?" said James. His face changed.

"Well I hear she's back in Berkeley." I looked at James and his face had drained of colour.

"How is she?" he suddenly said.

What the fuck were they talking about and who was this Lucy.

"I've heard she's fine." Said Danni. May be we could all get together, like a welcome home party for Lucy" she said.

"Yeah may be" said James not looking at her.

"I'll let you know. I'll try and get in touch with her." Said Danni.

"Yeah fine, see you around".

Then she walked away and we started eating our pizzas but I didn't feel quite as hungry as I had earlier.

"Whose Lucy?" I asked. I had to know, this was bugging me.

James couldn't look at me.

"She's a girl I went out with a while ago." He said.

"Oh" I sort of thought she had to be something like that.

"She had to go away for a while with her family - her dad got a job in New York" James said.

"And now they are back" I said to him.

"Yeah the job was only for a couple of years"

"Were you quite close?" I asked.

"Yeah pretty much" said James who obviously didn't want to say anything more on the subject.

"Look sorry, you don't want to talk about it. What time do you want to do band practice tomorrow? I've got a few ideas for Stars and Tears I'd like to run by you" I said to him. I was sick of talking about this Lucy. This was meant to be a date with me and James. Suddenly there was a Lucy girl in here with us too.

"How about quite early in the morning?" said James.

"Sounds cool to me. About 10 am" I said. Suddenly we were talking quite formally like we weren't really out on a date at all.

"Will you let Ed and Hannah know then?" I said to him, not looking at him and taking another slice of pizza.

James was fairly quiet after that and I couldn't get the conversation going. I was sure it had something to do with this Lucy girl.

We paid the bill and started the long walk home but all we talked about was the band, it seemed we had nothing much else in common after all. There were things I obviously didn't know about James.

When we got to my front door he turned and thanked me for a lovely evening then he bent to kiss me. It was a fairly long lingering kiss but a little bit of me felt that it was a kiss that he felt he HAD to give me, not really a kiss that he WANTED to give me. Still, I quite enjoyed it and was glad that we had both eaten the garlic bread.

"I'll see you tomorrow then at around 10" I said. " Don't be late now." I laughed.

"I wont Franky," he said and I watched him walk off home. He didn't look back or wave or anything just walked with his head down and hands in his pockets.

In my room I got on the phone straightaway.

"Hannah"

"Hi Franky, you home already"

"Yes. Whose Lucy?"

"Lucy?"

"Yeah Lucy. She's got something to do with James. Some girl called Danni was at the pizza place and was asking if he'd seen her as she was back in Berkeley. His mood changed after that. Is there something I should know?" I said to her.

"Shit. So she's back," said Hannah.

"Who the fuck is she?" I said.

"She used to go out with James a couple of years ago. She left to go to New York with her family for her father's business. They said they would come back but.. that time has gone quick. It must have been two years. Yeah two years exactly"

"Did they split up because she had to go away?" I said

"Yeah but there's something else but don't tell James that I told you."

"Oh."

"They were quite heavily into each other even though we'd just moved to the area. James was 18 and so was she. She got pregnant after they'd been going out a couple of months"

"Oh my god" I said.

"Yeah. They both wanted to do the right thing and get married and have the baby but I think her father persuaded her otherwise. I don't think her parents were keen on James. He was too much into his music and not into his education. They thought he wasn't good enough for Lucy. She had an abortion and then shortly after they left for New York"

"Fuck!" I said.

"Yeah. James took it real bad. He wanted the baby and he wanted to settle down with Lucy." Said Hannah. "He had a hard time over her"

"Poor James." I said.

"Yeah. I thought he'd got over her though. He hasn't mentioned her at all for ages" she said. "Anyway I'm sorry Franky"

"What for?" I asked.

"Because he's bound to want to see her. They wrote for a while but she sort of didn't write back to him. I'm sure her father got involved there too. He was a bastard. I bet he didn't let her get any of James' letters"

"I don't know what to do Hannah," I said.

"What do you mean?" said Hannah.

"Well how can I compete with Lucy? She must be the love of his life."

"I wish she hadn't come back," said Hannah suddenly.

"Why?"

"Because I know what James is like. He'll be round there tomorrow. I hope she's changed and got someone else for all our sakes. I'm sorry I know how much you liked James"

"Yeah I do but we didn't really have that much to say to one another. It was all band talk to be quite honest." I said.

"Do you think you'd like to see him again?" she asked me.

"Yeah may be but I don't think James will be the love of my life" I laughed.

"I wonder who will be?" Said Hannah.

"Who knows? I don't get to meet anyone. Anyway band practice is fixed for 10am tomorrow. See you then Hannah. I'm tired. I need my beauty sleep"

"See you Franky"

And I replaced the receiver lay back on my bed with my mind swimming. I got up to the window and looked out into the night sky and the stars twinkling away.. Yeah Mum who would be the love of my life, do you know? I felt cold then and shivered so got back into bed picking up mum's journal.

January 1988

I am 16 tomorrow and I have never even kissed anyone. Who will be my first kisser? I think it's going to be John. I like John so much and we are going out tomorrow night. I really want to kiss John.

February 1988

I have now kissed John. There were no fireworks like I'd expected. He's nice though. Still keep having this weird dream about being famous with flash bulbs and photographers all around me. Can't work that one out. May be John will be famous and I'll be his wife. Don't think I'm going to marry Bono after all. I'm going to be a teacher I've decided. Will Bono come and find me here at one of the schools and take me away from everything? I doubt it

Oh Mum. I didn't know you liked Bono. Dad has even met him.

I put the journal down. I felt it was better to read little snippets at a time and try and get into the mood of what mum was feeling. I love your journal mum I thought to myself snuggling down into the bed and falling asleep

**

Diary Entry of Hannah...

Poor Franky. I think she really liked James. I hate it that Lucy is back she's going really mess up James' mind. I hope it doesn't affect the band. Its band practice tomorrow. I hope Tre will be there. I get so nervous around him though and have got to stop that. I have no experience with boys whatsoever, have never even kissed one. I'm so glad I've got it all out in the open with Franky. You never know I could be dating her father soon...

The next day...

HI CHARLIE. HAD THE DATE AND HE'S NOT THE ONE. HAD TO LET U KNOW. THINK WE WILL JUST STAY AS FRIENDS THO AS HE'S IN MY BAND XX

Charlie's reply came later on.

SO NO PURPLE HEART NEXT TO IT WITH THE NAME 'JAMES' THEN? C X

She replied

NO. NO PURPLE HEART TATTOO YET. BUT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE IT, I LET IT SLIP TO TWO OTHER PEOPLE. IT'S NOT MUCH OF A SECRET NOW. ANYWAYS, LUV YA XX

That evening...

The Chopstick bowl was packed as usual and Mr Lam showed them to their table.

Tre was wondering what the fuck he was doing in this situation out with Billie and Adrienne and Plastic Pam. Shit he must stop calling her that, she'd been fairly nice to him in the car, but it was obvious that Billie Joe was pissed off about something and Adrienne looked a little strained. Nothing else to do but have a good drink thought Tre and called Mr Lam over and ordered two bottles of red wine.

"Not for me thank you Tre" said Pam "as I'm driving."

"Me neither" said Adrienne.

"Looks like it's just me and you Billie boy then" said Tre. "A bottle each it seems"

"Sounds good to me," said Billie reaching out and pouring himself a glass.

"Can we order soon? I'm starving," said Billie. I just want to eat my meal and get the fuck out of here. What the hell were we doing with that plastic piece sitting across from me? She's fucking gross, what the hell is Adrienne doing making friends with someone like her. There's something about her I'm not sure about.

They ordered their food then Adrienne goes off to the ladies room. The conversation was a little difficult as Billie and Tre didn't know what to say to Pam. So Billie and Tre made the excuse to go to the men's room too. While they were gone Pam reached into her handbag and got out a little bag with some powder in it. She looked around to see that nobody was watching and then emptied the bag into Tre's wine glass then stuck her red nailed finger into the glass to mix it around. There, that should do it she thought.

They ate their food and talked about a mixture of things, the health club and the tour that they had just been on. Tre is talking loads more than usual thought Billie. Has he had too much wine? He can't have. No more than me. Perhaps he had a couple of drinks before he came out to give him the courage to spend the evening with plastic Pammy he thought. I wished I had done the same. He looked over at Adrienne who had hardly joined in the conversation the whole evening. What is wrong with you? He thought. I wish you'd tell me what I've done then I could put it right.

They paid their bill and all got into Pammy's pink convertible car.

"What a fucking gross car" whispered Billie to Tre as they got in the back.

"I hope nobody sees us they'll think we're Barbie and Kens out for the evening."

Tre was just laughing madly. What's wrong with him? thought Billie. His eyes are glazed. He's well tanked up.

Pam dropped Billie and Adrienne off first then drove on to Tres. Poor Tre thought Billie as he watched them drive off. Alone with Plastic Pam. Poor fucking guy.

At Tre's door Pam asked if she could use the bathroom.

"Of course, go right ahead," said Tre ever the nice guy. "Shall I make us a coffee?"

"Why not?" said Pam laughing to herself.