1988, chapter 23
The next morning Billie Joe woke up to find himself passed out just behind his bedroom door, the question of why he couldn't take a few more steps and sleep in his bed was beyond him right now. His head was throbbing and he had no memory of the night previous and only fragments of the day. He sat up and stumbled backwards into his door hitting it with a bang, waking him up more so. He rubbed his backside from which stung a little and climbed into his bed, kicking off his shoes this time and quickly fell asleep.
Maria woke up to the wafting smell of fresh pancakes sitting on her bedside table. She opened her eyes - they stung a little from the mascara that had bleed down her cheeks and stained her eyelids from last night. She heard her door open and turned to find Tre standing there not noticing she was awake with a orange juice in his hand that he was sipping and a box of tissues in the other. Still without noticing she was awake he sat the box of tissues next to the pancakes and jumped when Maria spoke
"Good morning Tre" she smiled
"Ah! Maria! Your awake!... I made you pancakes cause everyone else was gone so... Oh! And I gotcha orange juice and brought you tissues cause that make-upy stuff is all over your face... ", Maria looked down
"I really don't deserve a friend like you Tre, really I don't"
"What? That's not true babe... That's REALLY not true" and he sat down beside her, placing the tray with the now luke-warm pancakes down on her lap "Eat up, Maria-Haushinka... Eat up"
"Tre... Don't call me by my full name please... You know I hate it"
"But that makes it fun!" he chuckled "Eat up".
Tre slurped his orange juice while Maria nicely ate her cold pancakes remembering the fact that Tre never cooks so she better make the most of it. Afterwards Tre removed her tray and handed her the tissue box and a wet cloth, he moved the lock of her chocolate brown dyed hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear, she smiled and rubbed the mascara off her face. It was hard too but eventually after a bit of help from Tre they cleaned it all off her face. "So Maria... What happened last night for you to come barging into your own house and running and crying to your room and refusing me entry?"
"Uhh... I found Billie making out with some hooker called 'Becky'...."
"WHA?"
"Yeah... "
"Jesus fucking Christ Maria! What a fucking prick!"
"Hmm...." She looked up at him, he was in shock
"He's lucky to have just you to himself.... Jesus..... Want me to go talk to him?"
"No Tre, please don't - this is between me and Billie - not you, me and Billie"
"Oh okay.... Wanna rent some movies and stay in today then?"
"Sure... Sounds like a plan" she managed to smile.
"Awesome.... You wanna go pick them? Ill stay here and clean the dishes okay?"
"Oh okay.... No chick flicks right?"
"I don't care". Tre handed Maria his car keys and Maria went on her way to the nearest movie rental place. As soon as he saw his car drive off Tre threw the plates and glasses in the sink - just light enough so that the objects didn't break and snatched the phone off the receiver and speed dialed Mr. Billie Joe Armstrong.
Billie Joe slowly opened his eyes, he really felt like shit and someone was ringing some bell somewhere. He sat up his head was really throbbing and his leg was hurting a bit. He threw off the covers and went to find whoever had the courage to ring a god dam bell when he was nursing his hang-over. He found the house as it was mostly now - empty. He turned the corner and found the phone ringing not someone ringing a bell as he first thought. He stumbled over to it and slowly picked it up
"Hello?" he yawned, Jesus Christ his head was spinning
"Billie Joe?"
"Yes..... What the fuck is it?"
"YOU HAVE SOME FUCKING NERVE DOING THAT TO HER!" the rage in Tre was growing faster
"Huh? What the fuck?!?! Stop fucking yelling for fuck sake"
"YOU WASTED WHAT YOU HAD WITH HER FOR WHAT? SOME FUCKING STRIPPER?"
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT MAN?"
"You know EXACTLY Billie Joe, exactly what I'm talking about"
"What? I don't even know who this is"
"Tre"
"Tre? Oh.... The drummer dude"
"Yeah.... So WHY THE FUCK DID YA DO THAT?", the front door creaked open and Maria walked in with a plastic bag
"Tre? What are you doing?!?!"
"Maria is there? Let me talk to her Tre"
"Fuck it! I'm coming over there Armstrong"
"What?"
"What?" Maria's eyes grew wide "what the fuck Tre?!?! I told you this is NONE of your business! Its between ONLY me and Billie"
"Maria is there! Put me on now Tre"
"See ya soon BJ" snapped Tre as he hung the phone up as Maria dived on him trying to wrestle the phone out of his hands but it was no use, Tre had strong arms. He managed to pick the small girl off himself and get out of the house before she 'attacked' him again.
'what the fuck? ' thought Billie Joe to himself 'what had happened last night? ' he walked back to his room and noticed a blanket on the sofa and near the front door a pink scarf. 'who the hell does that belong to? '.... Then it clicked
"Oh shit" he mumbled to himself. The events of last night flooded back to him. Every event. The door made a loud band, Billie jumped
"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR ARMSTRONG!" came a angry male voice on the other side - "shit its Tre" Billie whispered.
Maria run back inside and picked up the phone, her hands shock 'what do I say? ' she placed the phone back down. And watched it for a few seconds... What WAS she going to say? 'oh hey Billie Joe, sorry you didn't get lucky last night and by the way Tre is really angry right now, but not nearly as angry as me and by the way when Tre gets angry he might punch the living shit out of ya so watch out'. Fuck it she thought and ran out of the house slamming the door closed behind her.
"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR AMSTRONG!" yelled Tre, Billie he'sitated, but decided to open it cause he was sure if anything happened he could take Tre easy, after all he was about a whole inch taller than this guy and he was still angry at this him for trying the moves on his now ex-girlfriend. Billie slowly opened the door and Tre dived on him
"What the fuck - ", Tre slammed Billie to the floor, pinned him down and got his fist ready to slam this smart-ass in the jaw, but Billie Joe had other plans and threw the drummer off himself and managed to stand up and kick him in the stomach - hey he had to defend himself somehow. Tre rolled over, jumped up and threw a punch straight into Billie's eye "FUCK", Billie stumbled back, and saw red - and not only from Tre's bullseye punch either. Billie slammed his callused fist into Tre's nose making it bleed
"FUCKING HELL", Tre hadn't expected Billie to be that strong. Both the punk rockers now had noticeable injuries but glared at each other and grabbed each others shirts throwing both their body weight onto each other and falling to the ground. With the array of flying punches and kicks they didn't even notice the girl in which their fight was about enter the Armstrong house, she stood their watching them. All her life Tre had always fought her battles for her and she knew she couldn't let that happen again
"TRE LET BILLIE GO!" she screamed, both boys looked up,
"MARIA?!?!" they shouted in unison
"Who else would it be?"
"I dunno" shrugged Billie
"Cops?" Tre nodded
"What? No Tre.... Let each other go then it'll be cops", Tre let go off Billie's shirt and stood up. The blood from his nose was running down his lip and chin, Billie also had some on his fist. Billie Joe stood up, his eye was now turning a mix of purple, blue and yellow.
"What the hell did you two do to each other?!?!... Oh gosh! Tre your bleeding!"
"Yeah...."
"Come with me and we'll go clean it up" and Maria led Tre outside and told him to go to her house and clean it up and see if it was broken or not while Maria had the 'chat' she was struggling to do.
"What? Your staying?" mumbled Billie as he went to the freezer to get some ice
"We have to talk Billie Joe"
"About what?", he was refusing to look her in the eyes
"You know perfectly well what"
"Hmmm...." He sighed and wrapped the ice in a plastic and brought it to his right eye, it was cold but he needed the swelling to go down. They both sat down at the kitchen table and faced each other, Billie was still refusing eye contact so he kept his head down.
"Why did you do that?"
"What?"
"We've gone threw this... "
"I was drunk okay and we'd just been in a fight"
"That's no excuse Billie", he looked up at her, her face looked pale and sad
"I'm sorry... "
"Its still no excuse"
"Well what the fuck do you want me to fucking say then?!" he stood up, still holding the ice pack to his eye
"Geez! I don't know!"
"I fucking said sorry!"
"You don't mean it" she hung her head down "not at all"
"Yes I fucking do!... And what about you? You let drummer boy sleep in you fucking room! You had no right to do that!"
"He's a fucking friend!"
"Well how do you know that Mecky wasn't a friend!?!"
"Mecky? I thought her name was Becky? Anyway regardless that part was obvious she wasn't a 'friend'"
"Maria..... We can work threw this"
"What? Your kidding right?" she huffed and stood up "bye Billie Joe.... Bye", the Californian sky let out its own cry with rain as Maria did "bye....." she walked threw the front door and was swallowed by the rain as she walked home.
Billie Joe stood still in shock, he didn't want her to go but now she was. He sat back down and heard the rain pound the roof, he closed his eyes - there was so many thoughts circulating threw his head right now: Maria is actually gone, I now have a black eye, its raining and I really don't deserve this double hang over. He got up and stumbled back to his room and lit a joint. He let the smoke stay a while in his lungs before ex-hailing. He toke a few more drags and laid down. He started to strum his acoustic to relieve some of this tension from himself and found himself playing a pretty good tune and he did what he does with every great tune - he started to think of words to go with it.
"I'll go for miles, till I find you"... "you say you wanna leave me, but you cant choose" "I go threw pain - everyday and night" "I feel my mind going insane, something I cant fight". Wow he thought to himself, even in his state he could still write a song. He found his dodgy notebook and wrote it down, he had to think of a chorus now "please come back!" no, that didn't suit "don't leave me" yeah, that sounded better. Hmmm what about the rest of the song? He remembered her face... What was it? Sad, tired... Blank? Yes, blank: "a blank expression, covering your face" "I'm looking for directions from out of this place" yeah, it was sounding pretty good "I start to wonder, if you'll come back", Billie laid back down on his bed, resting the guitar on his torso and toke another drag when a cloud of thunder shouted, he bolted back up " I feel the rain storming after thunder, I cant hold back", he laid back down and sighed, his eye ached and he felt tired still. Billie slowly feel back asleep.
Maria woke up to the wafting smell of fresh pancakes sitting on her bedside table. She opened her eyes - they stung a little from the mascara that had bleed down her cheeks and stained her eyelids from last night. She heard her door open and turned to find Tre standing there not noticing she was awake with a orange juice in his hand that he was sipping and a box of tissues in the other. Still without noticing she was awake he sat the box of tissues next to the pancakes and jumped when Maria spoke
"Good morning Tre" she smiled
"Ah! Maria! Your awake!... I made you pancakes cause everyone else was gone so... Oh! And I gotcha orange juice and brought you tissues cause that make-upy stuff is all over your face... ", Maria looked down
"I really don't deserve a friend like you Tre, really I don't"
"What? That's not true babe... That's REALLY not true" and he sat down beside her, placing the tray with the now luke-warm pancakes down on her lap "Eat up, Maria-Haushinka... Eat up"
"Tre... Don't call me by my full name please... You know I hate it"
"But that makes it fun!" he chuckled "Eat up".
Tre slurped his orange juice while Maria nicely ate her cold pancakes remembering the fact that Tre never cooks so she better make the most of it. Afterwards Tre removed her tray and handed her the tissue box and a wet cloth, he moved the lock of her chocolate brown dyed hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear, she smiled and rubbed the mascara off her face. It was hard too but eventually after a bit of help from Tre they cleaned it all off her face. "So Maria... What happened last night for you to come barging into your own house and running and crying to your room and refusing me entry?"
"Uhh... I found Billie making out with some hooker called 'Becky'...."
"WHA?"
"Yeah... "
"Jesus fucking Christ Maria! What a fucking prick!"
"Hmm...." She looked up at him, he was in shock
"He's lucky to have just you to himself.... Jesus..... Want me to go talk to him?"
"No Tre, please don't - this is between me and Billie - not you, me and Billie"
"Oh okay.... Wanna rent some movies and stay in today then?"
"Sure... Sounds like a plan" she managed to smile.
"Awesome.... You wanna go pick them? Ill stay here and clean the dishes okay?"
"Oh okay.... No chick flicks right?"
"I don't care". Tre handed Maria his car keys and Maria went on her way to the nearest movie rental place. As soon as he saw his car drive off Tre threw the plates and glasses in the sink - just light enough so that the objects didn't break and snatched the phone off the receiver and speed dialed Mr. Billie Joe Armstrong.
Billie Joe slowly opened his eyes, he really felt like shit and someone was ringing some bell somewhere. He sat up his head was really throbbing and his leg was hurting a bit. He threw off the covers and went to find whoever had the courage to ring a god dam bell when he was nursing his hang-over. He found the house as it was mostly now - empty. He turned the corner and found the phone ringing not someone ringing a bell as he first thought. He stumbled over to it and slowly picked it up
"Hello?" he yawned, Jesus Christ his head was spinning
"Billie Joe?"
"Yes..... What the fuck is it?"
"YOU HAVE SOME FUCKING NERVE DOING THAT TO HER!" the rage in Tre was growing faster
"Huh? What the fuck?!?! Stop fucking yelling for fuck sake"
"YOU WASTED WHAT YOU HAD WITH HER FOR WHAT? SOME FUCKING STRIPPER?"
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT MAN?"
"You know EXACTLY Billie Joe, exactly what I'm talking about"
"What? I don't even know who this is"
"Tre"
"Tre? Oh.... The drummer dude"
"Yeah.... So WHY THE FUCK DID YA DO THAT?", the front door creaked open and Maria walked in with a plastic bag
"Tre? What are you doing?!?!"
"Maria is there? Let me talk to her Tre"
"Fuck it! I'm coming over there Armstrong"
"What?"
"What?" Maria's eyes grew wide "what the fuck Tre?!?! I told you this is NONE of your business! Its between ONLY me and Billie"
"Maria is there! Put me on now Tre"
"See ya soon BJ" snapped Tre as he hung the phone up as Maria dived on him trying to wrestle the phone out of his hands but it was no use, Tre had strong arms. He managed to pick the small girl off himself and get out of the house before she 'attacked' him again.
'what the fuck? ' thought Billie Joe to himself 'what had happened last night? ' he walked back to his room and noticed a blanket on the sofa and near the front door a pink scarf. 'who the hell does that belong to? '.... Then it clicked
"Oh shit" he mumbled to himself. The events of last night flooded back to him. Every event. The door made a loud band, Billie jumped
"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR ARMSTRONG!" came a angry male voice on the other side - "shit its Tre" Billie whispered.
Maria run back inside and picked up the phone, her hands shock 'what do I say? ' she placed the phone back down. And watched it for a few seconds... What WAS she going to say? 'oh hey Billie Joe, sorry you didn't get lucky last night and by the way Tre is really angry right now, but not nearly as angry as me and by the way when Tre gets angry he might punch the living shit out of ya so watch out'. Fuck it she thought and ran out of the house slamming the door closed behind her.
"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR AMSTRONG!" yelled Tre, Billie he'sitated, but decided to open it cause he was sure if anything happened he could take Tre easy, after all he was about a whole inch taller than this guy and he was still angry at this him for trying the moves on his now ex-girlfriend. Billie slowly opened the door and Tre dived on him
"What the fuck - ", Tre slammed Billie to the floor, pinned him down and got his fist ready to slam this smart-ass in the jaw, but Billie Joe had other plans and threw the drummer off himself and managed to stand up and kick him in the stomach - hey he had to defend himself somehow. Tre rolled over, jumped up and threw a punch straight into Billie's eye "FUCK", Billie stumbled back, and saw red - and not only from Tre's bullseye punch either. Billie slammed his callused fist into Tre's nose making it bleed
"FUCKING HELL", Tre hadn't expected Billie to be that strong. Both the punk rockers now had noticeable injuries but glared at each other and grabbed each others shirts throwing both their body weight onto each other and falling to the ground. With the array of flying punches and kicks they didn't even notice the girl in which their fight was about enter the Armstrong house, she stood their watching them. All her life Tre had always fought her battles for her and she knew she couldn't let that happen again
"TRE LET BILLIE GO!" she screamed, both boys looked up,
"MARIA?!?!" they shouted in unison
"Who else would it be?"
"I dunno" shrugged Billie
"Cops?" Tre nodded
"What? No Tre.... Let each other go then it'll be cops", Tre let go off Billie's shirt and stood up. The blood from his nose was running down his lip and chin, Billie also had some on his fist. Billie Joe stood up, his eye was now turning a mix of purple, blue and yellow.
"What the hell did you two do to each other?!?!... Oh gosh! Tre your bleeding!"
"Yeah...."
"Come with me and we'll go clean it up" and Maria led Tre outside and told him to go to her house and clean it up and see if it was broken or not while Maria had the 'chat' she was struggling to do.
"What? Your staying?" mumbled Billie as he went to the freezer to get some ice
"We have to talk Billie Joe"
"About what?", he was refusing to look her in the eyes
"You know perfectly well what"
"Hmmm...." He sighed and wrapped the ice in a plastic and brought it to his right eye, it was cold but he needed the swelling to go down. They both sat down at the kitchen table and faced each other, Billie was still refusing eye contact so he kept his head down.
"Why did you do that?"
"What?"
"We've gone threw this... "
"I was drunk okay and we'd just been in a fight"
"That's no excuse Billie", he looked up at her, her face looked pale and sad
"I'm sorry... "
"Its still no excuse"
"Well what the fuck do you want me to fucking say then?!" he stood up, still holding the ice pack to his eye
"Geez! I don't know!"
"I fucking said sorry!"
"You don't mean it" she hung her head down "not at all"
"Yes I fucking do!... And what about you? You let drummer boy sleep in you fucking room! You had no right to do that!"
"He's a fucking friend!"
"Well how do you know that Mecky wasn't a friend!?!"
"Mecky? I thought her name was Becky? Anyway regardless that part was obvious she wasn't a 'friend'"
"Maria..... We can work threw this"
"What? Your kidding right?" she huffed and stood up "bye Billie Joe.... Bye", the Californian sky let out its own cry with rain as Maria did "bye....." she walked threw the front door and was swallowed by the rain as she walked home.
Billie Joe stood still in shock, he didn't want her to go but now she was. He sat back down and heard the rain pound the roof, he closed his eyes - there was so many thoughts circulating threw his head right now: Maria is actually gone, I now have a black eye, its raining and I really don't deserve this double hang over. He got up and stumbled back to his room and lit a joint. He let the smoke stay a while in his lungs before ex-hailing. He toke a few more drags and laid down. He started to strum his acoustic to relieve some of this tension from himself and found himself playing a pretty good tune and he did what he does with every great tune - he started to think of words to go with it.
"I'll go for miles, till I find you"... "you say you wanna leave me, but you cant choose" "I go threw pain - everyday and night" "I feel my mind going insane, something I cant fight". Wow he thought to himself, even in his state he could still write a song. He found his dodgy notebook and wrote it down, he had to think of a chorus now "please come back!" no, that didn't suit "don't leave me" yeah, that sounded better. Hmmm what about the rest of the song? He remembered her face... What was it? Sad, tired... Blank? Yes, blank: "a blank expression, covering your face" "I'm looking for directions from out of this place" yeah, it was sounding pretty good "I start to wonder, if you'll come back", Billie laid back down on his bed, resting the guitar on his torso and toke another drag when a cloud of thunder shouted, he bolted back up " I feel the rain storming after thunder, I cant hold back", he laid back down and sighed, his eye ached and he felt tired still. Billie slowly feel back asleep.
