I Can't Believe This

“So, you’re meeting the parentals huh? Good luck with that.” Tré said, smirking at Billie.

“Tré, shut the hell up. It’s not going to be that bad,” Billie said, as I walked into the room.

“What’s not going to be that bad?” I asked, sitting down.

“Meeting your parents.”

“Oh. Let me guess, Tré said something about it, hence the ‘shut the hell up’?

“Yep.”

“Tré, shut the hell up. My parents will love him.”

“Jeez, try to express your opinion and you get attacked. Well, I can see I’m not wanted here,” Tré said, walking towards the front door.

“Bye!” Billie called.

“Whatever.”

I laughed , turning towards Billie. “Really, it’s not going to suck. I promise.”

“You sure? Your dad didn’t sound too thrilled when I talked to him this morning.”

“That’s just him. But it’ll be fine. And if it’s not, I’ll make it up to you.”

“Really? And how are you going to do that?” Billie asked, getting that glint in his eye.

“I don’t know yet.” I shrugged, trying to hide my smile.

***

“Are we going to go in, or are we just going to stand here all day?”

“We’ll go in, in a minute.”

Billie and I were standing in front of my parents house, getting ready to knock on the door. But I was holding us back. Now that we were actually here, I wasn’t so sure. I fwelt nervous, and jumpy. I had the urge to just run back to our rental car and drive away as fast as it would let me. I slowly choked that feeling down, but not without effort. What if my parents did hate him? I mean it wouldn’t make a difference to how I felt and I wouldn’t break up with him just because my parents didn't like him. But, it would be nice if they liked him, gave us there blessing and all that other shit.

They’d called us a few days ago announcing that they were back and ready to meet Billie whenever we could come up. So we made plans to come up over the weekend and now here we are.

I knocked on the door, then stepped back and laced my arm through Billie’s, waiting. He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek just as the door opened. “Hey mom.”

“Lisa, and I take it this is Billie?” she asked, smiling.

So far so good.

“Yeah, it is.”

“Bill! They’re here!” she yelled behind her. “Come on in.”

“Thanks Mrs. Hulings.” Billie said.

“Call me Rhonda.”

“Ok, thanks, Rhonda.”

I laughed quietly, the stepped through the entryway, and walked into the living room. Billie and I sat down on the couch, waiting for my dad to appear.

“Your mom’s nice,” Billie whispered in my ear.

I nodded. “She’s always been the nicer of the two,” I joked.

Billie rolled his eyes, and shook his head. “That makes me feel better.”

“It should.” I turned my attention back to my mom, who was now sitting in a chair across from us. “So what’s up mom?”

“Not a lot. Same old, same old. Your dad will out in minute.”

I nodded, sinking into the comfortable silence that had filled the room, when my dad appeared. “Dad!” I jumped up and gave him a hug. Truth was, I’ve always gotten along better with my dad.

“Hi kiddo,” he said, settling in another chair. “So you must be Billie Joe?”

“Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you finally.” Billie stood and shook my dad’s hand, then sat down again.

“So gentlemanly of you,” I whispered, smirking.

“You look familiar. I think I’ve seen you somewhere before.” my dad said, studying Billie. “Wait a minute…” My dad got up and headed down the hallway toward my bedroom.

Well now Billie gets to see my room. And all of the Green Day posters I have. I shook my head, pulling myself up, along with Billie and walked to my room. When we got there my dad was just staring opened mouthed at my walls. Guess he figured out where he’d seen him before.

My dad turned as he heard us walk into the room. “You’re Billie Joe Armstrong? From Green Day?”

“That’s me.” Billie smiled at me, obviously wanting to say something about my room, but, mercifully, he didn’t.

“Wow.” He turned to me. “Lisa, you never told me that the Billie you were dating was in a band.”

“Just never came up, I guess.”

“Well, lets go sit down and talk,” my dad said, walking out of the room behind my mom, leaving just the two of us in there.

Billie leaned in smirking and kissed me quickly. “Nice room.” He laughed and left too.

Damn. I recognized the look in his eyes. He was going to tease me later. Oh well. I stared at my room a for a moment. Nothing had changed. There were still all eight Green Day posters, plus my Three Days Grace poster, My MCR posters, and a few others. All taped up to the walls that hadn’t been painted. Three of them were white, and one was white with black stripes. I sighed, then turned and left.

When I got to the living room my parents and Billie were talking and laughing. Good sign. Unless they were talking about me. Then, not so good. I sat down next to Billie again, taking his hand without thinking. He just smiled at me and continued talking to my dad.

***

“Alright, well, we should be going. We have a 7:30 flight,” I said, glancing at the clock. 6:00 p.m. Damn. Ok, so I was rushing the meet and greet. But I wanted to leave, I had a headache and just wanted to go home. Why the headache you ask? Well trust me, you would have one too if your parents had spent 3 hours talking to the man you loved about when you were younger. But they all seemed to be getting along, so I didn’t say anything about it. My parents were fine with us. Which had made me feel like the weight that was on my shoulders was gone. A weight I didn’t even know had been there until an hour ago.

“Ok. But you two should visit us again sometime.” My mom smiled at Billie Joe and leaned into whisper in my ear, “He’s cute.”

I laughed and nodded. “I know. He is isn‘t he?”

Billie looked up at us then, obviously figuring out that we were talking about him. “I’m what?”

My mom and I laughed, shaking our heads. “Nothing,” I said, then turned and gave my mom a hug. “Bye dad.” I walked over and gave him a hug too. “Thanks for being nice,” I whispered.

“You love him, and I can see that he loves you, of course, it’s pretty obvious. You two practically never stopped holding hands.”

“Yeah well.” I shrugged, then smiled at him. “We’ll visit again sometime. Promise.”

“Yeah, it was fun. Especially hearing about what Lisa was like as a kid and teenager.” Billie smiled at me his face full of amusement.

“Yeah, loads of fun,” I mumbled.

***

“So, that wasn’t so bad. You looked like you were having some fun,” I said, glancing at Billie.

“I did.” He stopped walking and pulled me into his chest. “Especially when I saw your room.”

“Shut up.”

“No, it’s cute. So exactly how long have you listened to our music?”

“Since Dookie.”

He nodded, then gave me a long and anything but chaste kiss. “Cool.”

We started walking again to nowhere in particular. Billie had said that he wanted to see the town I grew up in, so were currently outside my old high school. Truth is, we didn’t have a 7:30 flight. It was an 8:15 flight, but we had agreed to leave a little early so that I could show him around. “Well, this is it.” I gestured to the main building of Bend Senior High School.

“Home of the Lava Bears,” Billie read, looking at it.

“Yep.”

“Did you like high school?” Billie asked, randomly, still staring at the building.

I shrugged. “It was okay. Better than junior high, but not as fun as college. Why?”

“No reason. So where to next?”

“I don’t know, where do you want to go?”

“Is there somewhere to eat? I’m starving.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re always starving. But yes. It just so happens there’s a coffee shop a couple blocks from here.” We started walking again, the cold night air biting at us.

“Damn, it’s fucking freezing,” Billie said, pulling me closer. “How could you stand it when you lived here?”

“I couldn’t. That’s why I left as soon as possible.”

Billie laughed and opened the door to the coffee shop for me. We had just sat down when I caught a glimpse of short brown hair walk past me. The woman stopped a few feet from me, taking someone’s order. I recognized that woman! “Morgan Ashley Trewin! Get your ass over here!” I yelled.

Morgan turned her head, looking around for a second, until her eyes finally rested on me. “Lisa!?” she yelled. She started running towards me at the same time I started running to her. We grabbed each other in a hug and began jumping up and down. Immature, I know. But we hadn’t seen each other in over 4 years.

“When the hell did you get back in town?” she asked.

“Today. I was here to visit my parents. Which reminds me, Morgan, I’d like you to meet…”

She cut me off before I could finish. “Holy shit!”

“What?”

“It’s, Jesus Christ, it’s Billie Joe Armstrong.” She whispered the last part, not wanting him to hear.

I laughed at her as Billie walked over to us. Each step he took her eyes got wider and wider, her breathing faster. “Morgan, that’s what I was trying to tell you.”

Billie stopped in front of us, smirking. “I take it you two know each other?”

“Yep. Billie, this is Morgan. Morgan, this is Billie.”

Morgan tried to say something, but nothing came out. I laughed again. “That’s Morgan for hello.”

“You’re Billie Joe Armstrong,” she finally said.

“So I’m told.” The look on Billie’s face said that he was enjoying the hell out of this. “Nice to meet you Morgan.”

I shoved Morgan gently. “Breath, honey, breath.”

“Uh, sorry, just. We don’t get rockstars in here that often. Especially ones that know my friends.”

“Anyway, now that your done being shocked, that’s what I was trying to tell you. Billie Joe is my boyfriend.”

She just stared at me.

“Morgan?” I waved my hand in front of her face. “Earth to Morgan!” Nothing.

“Are you serious?!” she yelled, grabbing my arms.

I saw Billie flinch at her sudden out burst and started laughing again. “Yes, I’m serious.” I looked down at her hand on my arm. “And you can let go now.” I laughed again, walking back over to where Billie had backed up a little. “It’s okay. She just gets excited easily.”

“Uh, yeah. What she said.” Morgan blinked a few times and finally calmed down. “Sorry. Nice to meet you too.” She held out her hand.

“Likewise.” Billie shook her hand, smiling.

“We should sit,” I suggested.

“Good idea.”

We settled into a booth and ordered some dinner. Morgan still looked shocked, but she was getting better at hiding it. I guess she thought she would scare him off. I guess I don’t blame her though, she had a tendency to scare people off quite easily. “So what have you been up to?”

“Nothing much, just working here for awhile, trying to get some extra money.” She started smiling at me before she said, “So, you’ve been busy. How did you two meet anyway?”

“When I first got to California.”

“I gave her a ride to her apartment, then I saw her again at a local concert we played," Billie finished.

Our conversation went on like that for awhile. Morgan asking all the questions, Billie and I only asking a few. But that’s how its always been with Morgan. She’s a very charismatic person. Always happy. And one of the best friends anyone could ask for. I hadn’t realized how much I actually missed the people I left, until now. We left eventually, telling Morgan that we were flying back tonight. And she promised to come down and visit us, and Billie said she could stay with us, which earned another round of excitement from her. And I promised to come back again. We said our goodbyes again, then drove to the airport.

***

“That Morgan is something,” Billie said.

Our plane had just taken off and we were resting against each other. “I know. She’s always been like that. Ever since seventh grade.”

“She’s cool though.”

I nodded, getting lost in my memories. “Lisa? Hey.” I felt someone gently shake my shoulder. I looked up at Billie. “Sorry, I spaced out.”

“Oh. Well I said that we’ll have to come here again soon so I can meet some of your other friends.”

“That’d be great.” I nestled against Billie Joe, and closed my eyes. Billie had almost gotten me over my fear of flying, but not quite. Again, memories from high school swam in my mind. I hadn’t seen any of my close friends, except for Rhianna, in a long time. After high school we promised we’d keep in touch, but you know how that always goes. You say you will, and you do, for awhile. Then the calls and emails get fewer and farther between, until they stop. I needed to fix that. Thinking about how I hadn't talked to my friends in so long was making me depressed. And I’d start fixing that problem when we got back to California.