Communion

The car had that kind of silence you can only hear in the night time corridor of a rundown prison. Billie sat there on the drivers side, behind the wheel of his environmentally friendly Toyota Camry, with a grin on his face.

As Rose sat on the passenger's side of the vehicle, she couldn't help but notice the look on his face and pondered why it discomforted her so much. "What's with the face?" she asked suddenly as she placed her hand gently down on her armrest and dug her nails into its leather upholstery.

"What? The face? What face?" Billie Joe asked her, as he squinted his eyes softly in a winced expression. He went back to grinning; his look matching the feelings he'd always get before performing to a large crowd of people.

Rose sighed and positioned her elbow on the armrest and brought her chin down upon her hand. "How come they invited you to a protest thingy?" she asked as she looked out across the busy Northern Californian highway.

"Meh, just 'cause I'm a local face," Billie shrugged. "That's about it."

"Ah, yeah. A local celebrity..." Rose laughed.

"Shut up..." Billie Joe said, sounding seriously cranky over her statement.

"You're too fun. And I can't believe I'm laughing right now. I must be hysterical or something," she admitted as she began cracking her knuckles in the most disconcerting manner.

"You should really try and chill out, you know that? Seriously, you're way too overexcited right this moment. I can tell. I'm just trying to keep my cool at this moment. 'Cause you know...it's been a long time for me too," Billie Joe said as he gazed in his rearview mirror while switching lanes.

"Wha'? What do you mean it's been a long time? I thought you said there'd only be fifty people there?" Rose beemed, as she stared at her cousin like he was a lieing prick.

"Okay, they're expecting at least five thousand with a pinch of media attention. That's not so bad is it?" Billie Joe said as he gazed towards his door, driving basically out the side of his eye and avoiding all eye contact with Rose.

"What did you say..." Rose gasped. "Five thousand? Billie..." She began to tremble in her seat as she placed her hand up over her face.

"What? Are you crying?" Billie asked as he finally looked at Rose, now feeling apologetic for lieing to her.

"Shut up...I'm not crying," Rose said with a scowl as she fought back tears that were riding the rim under her eyes. "I don't cry..."

"Oh, I forgot..." Billie grinned again. "Don't be pissed off at me Rose. You'll be cool once we get there, just chill out."

"Hmm..."

* * *

Twenty silent minutes later, Billie pulled his car into the entrance to Redwood National Park. Rose was displeased to see numerous cars lining the road into the park already; her heart began to race a marathon. "Where is everyone?" she piped up again.

"The camping area I think. We're all going to walk to the entrance from there and stop cars and get them to sign a petition. Because Governator you know who wrote a bill removing funding from the park in his last term. Which in turn could lead to it becoming uncared for and start big developers moving in on the land like no tomorrow," Billie Joe explained.

"Oh my God. He took the funding from the park? I guess I don't watch enough TV..." Rose said as she became emmersed and more interested in this discussion. "This state's gone to shit."

"Not watching TV is a good thing. And this state's always been shit," Billie Joe remarked as he slowly crawled the pavement, looking for a free spot to park his Camry. "Look Rose, I'm going to level with you...I'm pretty fucking nervous about this thing right now too..."

"Y-you are? Rose breathed with a tremored voice.

"Yeah. I mean what has it been for me...like eight years? That's a long long time to lose your experience and know how. Don't you see that?" Billie asked as he finally seeked out and spotted a free space on the side of the road.

Rose stared at her cousin in disbelief. Her jaw was half dropped to the floor of the car. "Ah...you're not serious?"

"Definitely."

"You're nervous right now?" Rose said as she scratched her head.

"Yes..."

"Whoa, umm...how?" she laughed before biting her lip. "Umm...how did you get over it when you were younger?"

Billie Joe parked the car, turned the ignition off and turned to Rose. "Rose...I never got over it. It's one of those things you just can't get over, you know? So, I did other things: drink, write music and made myself a date with my Prozac bottle," he exclaimed as he turned back towards facing the dashboard.

"Huh? Prozac? When were you on Prozac?" Rose asked as she lowered her eyebrows and tightened the muscles in her forehead.

"Hmm...I guess from li-like '94 to '99. And then I went off it for a few years, and really started taking it again towards the end of 2004. Yeah..." Billie Joe replied as he fidgeted his hand through his hair.

"Whoa, I didn't know that. I guess if it helps, I was on prescription drugs once too. I don't know if you knew that...but it was like when I was a young teen, you know? I guess that would have been about '99 too," she gasped. "So you were on that when we first met?"

"Well...ahh...yeah. Addicted is the word. 'Cause, the Idiot Tour was like the biggest thing to happen to me in a few years, you know? And it was just all these things happening at once. Like WAM! I was just quite overwhelmed with it all, to be honest with you. So in turn, I kind of needed something to chill me out. Which by the way, I wish I had right now..." Billie Joe explained as he laughed nervously and bit his lip.

"We're not so different, you and I Billie. We're not so different at all..." Rose commented as she swallowed back a lump in her throat.

"Of course not..." Billie Joe grinned. "So what do you say, come do this thing with me? It would make me feel a lot better if you did..."

"I thought I was a baby, look at you right now," Rose laughed.

"You really need to learn how to shut the fuck up, you know that?" Billie Joe glared at her; at the same time having the biggest smile on his face. "Just remember...remember, I have more to be nervous about than you do. I'm the person they're all going to notice. I'm the person that's going to want to shrink down to the size of a tincy wincy squishible bug. So don't worry, we'll protect each other."

"Billie, why are you doing this?" Rose asked as her voice turned to a tone of pleading.

"This? Well, for two reasons. One is I care about you and hate to see you always fucking shutting yourself away. I hate to see you just be the woman in the shadows. And two, I'm going on fucking tour next year! I got to build up my immunity. I won't be able to just jump up on stage like that, you know?" Billie said as he gasped and held his throat at the thought of touring again.

"Billie, you look like you're panicking..." Rose mentioned as she placed her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "Do you just want to go get this thing over with? I'm sure you will probably be fine once we get there..."

"Yeah, let's go," Billie replied as he gasped again and grabbed his keys. He hopped out of the car quickly as Rose sauntered out at a slower pace. "It's a little ways down here." He pointed down the road.

"Yeah, I can hear them talking..." Rose said nervously as she came over and stood next to her cousin.

"Here..." Billie said as he offered her his arm, acting like a gentleman; very peculiar behavior for Billie Joe Armstrong.

Rose obliged and took her cousin's arm. A little taken aback by his surprising behavior; the two began their way down the road. "Billie, is it okay if I throw up?" Rose asked as she held her stomach with her opposite hand.

"What?"

"I need to hurl right now," Rose repeated, before yanking her arm away from her cousin quickly. She ran over to the side of the road, and leant her face in a wind swaying fern. "Uhh...fuck..."

"Whoa, ah...are you okay?" Billie gasped again, as he came over to her side and placed his hand comfortingly on her back. Rose stood upright and nodded her head as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Here...ah, I think I have some gum." Billie reached in his pocket and pulled out a pack of Midnight, Dentyne Ice. He poked his finger into the packet, dropping the square of mint in her hand, which she conveniently held out in front of her.

"Thank you...I think I must have just eaten something bad..." Rose said with a nervous smile as she popped the piece of gum in her mouth. "I'm sorry Billie. I just needed to do that..."

"That's fine. You don't need to explain anything. I've thrown up a great deal in my time, for more reasons than one..." Billie Joe laughed nervously as he hooked arms with his cousin again.

"What did you just say?" Rose gasped as thought she was misinterperating his coincidentle statement.

"Huh?"

"About...umm nevermind. Let's go..."

* * *

A ten minute walk down the road of this place that was once considered a sacred landmark to the country, and they were there. Standing in the midst of what definitely accumalated to five thousand people, or more.

To Rose's excitement, so far they had slipped into the crowd unnoticed. But she became nervous again, once Billie Joe began leading her towards where some woman was directing the crowd and screaming over political antics into a megaphone.

Few heads turned as Billie forced Rose and himself through the crowd and got up towards a picnic table the screaming woman was using as her stage. Billie grinned, the woman finally took notice of him. His grin quickly turned to a wince as Rose was crushing his arm with her own in an anxious haste.

"Hi!" Billie Joe shouted over the chattering crowd.

She smiled and went back to conclude her speech to the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen! My name is Mary MacPhee! I'd like to thank you all for coming out here today! I really hope you have paid attention to my words closely! Because it is all of you together that can and will make the difference! I personally invited here today, someone very special!" she screamed into her megaphone. "He's of the north! Not from Humboldt County, but from Oakland County! And I have invited him here today to help us all make a difference! He has worked closely before, with such organizations as: Green Peace, Live 8 and One-which is a campaign to fight and stop the spread of AIDS and poverty around the globe! Please welcome to the stage...or my picnic table rather..." she laughed. "From the multi-platinum selling, multi-Grammy winning band Green Day...Mr. Billie Joe Armstrong!"

Billie Joe's green eyes turned into large pools as he looked at Rose, whose heart was thumping to the point where she thought the adrenaline might make her pass out. The crowd turned thunderous with cheers which made Rose feel like slinking down and all of a sudden gave her an awful flashback to a horrible night in Germany.

Billie obliged slowly and nervously, yanking his arm from Rose's, he jumped up on the seat of the picnic table and gave a tiny wave to the crowd. The cheers were enormous as Billiie turned around. "Hi Billie, thanks for coming out," Mary whispered in his ear, as she shook the singer's hand.

"Thanks for having me," Billie sqeeked out nervously.

"Will you say something to the crowd?" Mary asked, as she offered Billie Joe the megaphone.

"Ah...sure," Billie Joe agreed as he slowly reached for the megaphone. He brought it up infront of his face as he turned around and made eye contact with Rose, who stood alone with a worried look upon her face.

Every few seconds she's gaze away from Billie and back at the crowd around her with paranoia. She waited in silence for her cousin to speak as the crowds were still loud and excited.

When the uproar finally died down to the only minimum it would ever reach, Billie Joe began to speak. "Uh...hi. Umm, thanks f-for having me. I'm Willie Joe Armstrong. Uhh...sorry, Billie Joe Armstrong," he laughed nervously into the megaphone. "Anyways...ah yeah, like Mary said, I've done quite a bit of charity work before. But I gotta admit, most of it has been for "Save the People". I've never d-done anything like this before, which in turn is "Save the Forest". I think it's great, and very non-selfish of everyone that showed up here today. Sometimes as human beings, we need to remember...need to remember that this planet isn't just here for us. It's also here for the animals and vegetation. The redwoods included. I'm not very good at inspirational speaking, so I-I'm just gonna make this brief. But this subject not only means a lot to me...it means a lot to someone else that's very close to me..." Billie Joe said with a faded tone as he glanced over at Rose.

Rose's emerald eyes became wide with fear. She shook her head at Billie, and mouthed, 'don't you fucking dare'.

Billie Joe grinned, and in his haste to take the attention off himself for one moment, he did dare. "She's my cousin...Rose. You probably haven't seen her all that much before; but she's a very lovely woman. She cares just as much about this cause as I do. So Rose...if I could get ya to, please come up here."

The crowd turned thunderous again and Rose's entire body tightened as her shoulders lifted to the sky with tension. She stared at Billie Joe with disbelief. She couldn't believe he was actually going to drag her into this and force the spotlight on her. When she stood her ground in fear, the cheers of everyone around her began to make her feel panicky. She had no intent of standing up and makng herself noticed to a crowd of five thousand or more.

Billie Joe began to tap his foot impatiently and nervously as he awaited his cousin to join him at his side. "Come on..." Billie Joe said as he gestured his head to Rose in his own direction.

Rose shook her head, turned beet red and could feel herself start to cry. She felt as though she couldn't escape any of it. As she turned around nervously, a flock of eery ravens flighted above the crowd in the sunlight, as she once again envisioned Germany. Rose closed her eyes; absorbing the energies of each person around her. The sound of the crowd swallowed her and she was alarmed when someone snatched her arm. "Rose?"

"NO!" she screamed with panic as she turned around, with closed eyes, and started hitting this mystery person as hard as she could. "Leave me alone! Leave me fucking alone!" She smashed and screamed until she realized she was hitting her famous vocalist cousin, Billie Joe Armstrong, square in the face, multiple times, in front of many people.

"Rose! Calm down!" Billie shrieked as he held his arms up infront of his face defensively. The whole crowd watched in disbelief as the famous 90's conquering Green Day frontman struggled to contain this woman they all knew little about.

"Rose stop!" Billie shouted, dismayed and shocked by her sudden outburst.

"Billie!" she cried in relief. After she had reopened her eyes to an eyelet, she became even more hysterical. "Billie no!" Rose bawled. The emotional strains placed on her shoulders were too much for her to withstand; the crowd got a little bit stirred as this spectacle was taking place.

Billie Joe grabbed Rose into an embrace. He could sense not only was she extremely scared right now, but horribly embarrassed. Rose discontinued hitting Billie Joe right away and was now crying on his shoulder. "Rose...it's okay. I'm sorry..." he whispered in her ear.

"Billie no...I can't...how could you?" Rose cried shamefully.

Billie turned back towards Mary Macphee; a strawberry blond, with dove white skin and commanding brown eyes. He apologized to her and explained he would have to leave. As he was doing so, Rose had already ran off through the crowd, crying and covering her face from ever being seen by the light of day.

Ever again...