16, chapter 12
Sun shone through the open curtains of my bedroom window, waking me up from one of the deepest sleeps I had had in a long time. I lifted my head off the pillow and felt it throb with one massive head ache. Well, that's pleasant. I groaned as I dragged my ass out of bed and stumbled down the hall to the bathroom where I pulled out the aspirin and took a couple of tablets. I washed my face with cool water and looked at my reflection. Don't I look gorgeous?
Once again feeling the urge to eat bacon and lots of fatty foods, I left the bathroom, flicking the light off as I went. I made my way down to the kitchen. As I passed Mike's study I heard voices coming from inside it. I ignored them, not wanting to think of anything else but making my head ache go away and eating food.
The sun shining through the open curtains of the kitchen window did nothing to help my headache as I held onto my forehead, fearing that my head would remove its self from my neck any second and fall to the floor. I quickly made myself a coffee and went to the fridge in search of bacon and eggs. Finding no bacon, I picked up my coffee cup and left the kitchen to find Mike, maybe he could drive me down to the shop quickly to get some, not feeling up to driving myself. Remembering the voices I had heard earlier I made my way to the study; the door stood ajar. I was about to knock and open the door completely when I heard my name from inside.
"Look." A voice that I didn't recognize said. "I'm worried that this whole thing with Danielle is going to affect record sales." He was speaking about the new greatest hits album that Green Day were set to release in the coming month.
"Affect sales in a good or bad way?" Mike's voice replied.
"Well it could be good; a lot of people love a scandal. But I'm guessing it's going to be bad."
There was a pause and I heard someone sit down on a squeaky chair. I could only assume that it was Mike and I could just imagine him sinking slowly into the chair at his desk, his head in his hands.
"Fuck." I barely heard him mutter the word he said it that quietly. "I wish I wasn't in this fucking situation. It's so fucking difficult."
I can not believe he just said that. He doesn't want me here. He doesn't want me in his life. He wants me to have never been born. Well maybe he should have thought about all this when he fucking knocked up my Mum and then ditched us. I felt the familiar hurt inside me when I thought of my mother. The one person that could make everything seem better was not here with me. I had zoned out for a minute or two and the next thing I heard was Mike saying.
"I know this whole Dani situation is bad but, there's nothing I can do about it now is there?"
I had heard enough, I didn't want to sit there and listen to them talk about me, knowing that Mike didn't care about me at all. I needed to do something. To stop myself from feeling like 1000 types of shit.
I ran up the stairs to my room, ignoring the searing pain in my brain, careful to make as much noise as possible, hoping to alert Mike to how pissed off I was at him. I quickly dressed into jeans and a t-shirt. I grabbed my canvas bag and shoved my phone, iPod, car keys and wallet into it. Tears were pouring down my face as I continued to think about what Mike had said. I was blowing it out of proportion and somewhere inside me I knew that but I still had a lot of pent up anger towards Mike for everything he hadn't done over the years.
When I stormed out of my room I bumped into Estelle, who looked as though she had just go out of bed, probably awoken by me slamming my door and the doors of my cupboards several times.
"What are you doing?" She asked me groggily, rubbing her eyes.
"I'm getting out of here." I said as I ran down the stairs.
"What?"
"I'm letting you and your Dad be happy."
"What are you talking about? He's your Dad too." I ignored her but walked straight to the room containing the pool table and bar. I walked around behind the bar and looked at the shelves where all the alcohol was kept. I considered my options before grabbing two bottles of Vodka from one of the top shelves. I put one in my bag and held onto the second.
"What are you doing?" Estelle yelled at me from the doorway of the room where she had stopped following me in shock of what I was doing.
"I told you I'm leaving. Now get the fuck out of my way."
I pushed past her and ran the rest of the way to the front door of the house and out into the street.
***
Alex's POV
Strong arms were wrapped around my midsection, holding me close up against a warm body.
A male's body.
Oh dear god. What happened? Where am I?
I quickly raised my head from the pillow to look around at my surroundings, wanting to know where on earth I was currently situated. I recognized the room at once as James' bedroom. But that would mean... Memories from the night before came flooding back to me and I realized that it was James' arms wrapped around me, making me feel so comfortable and warm. Despite the throbbing head ache I had, this was definitely a good way to wake up in the morning.
I smiled and put my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes. I was almost back to sleep when I felt James kiss me on the neck several times.
"Good Morning." He said against my skin.
"Hey." I said. "What time is it?"
"Around two."
I groaned, knowing that we should be getting up and ready to head back to Mike's house. "I don't want to go home."
"Then don't." He said simply. "I don't want you to go home either."
"But I really should get back to Dani; she still doesn't feel completely comfortable around her Dad."
"She'll be fine. She needs to learn to be around him. Besides, maybe I just won't drive you back. Then you'll have to stay here."
I giggled and rolled over to give him a quick kiss on the lips. "I'll just give her a quick ring to let her not that I'm staying here another night."
I climbed out of bed and began to search for my phone. Finding it on James' desk I quickly rang her cell phone only to reach her voice mail.
"Hey Dani." I said. "It's me. What are you doing that's more important than talking to me on the phone? Anyways, I'm gonna stay here another night okay? James doesn't feel like driving me back and I just feel like sleeping too. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." I closed the phone and chucked it back on the desk.
***
Dani's POV
I lay back on a bench in an empty park near Mike's house, looking up at the dull sky. The sun was slowly sinking, creating a pink-orange tinge to the normally blue panels above me. I sat up and reached for my bag, stumbling to get the second vodka bottle from it, knocking the now empty one to the concrete floor as I did so. It shattered and I leaned curiously over the edge of the bench to look at the broken glass spread out beneath me. I sat back up and unscrewed the lid on the full bottle of alcohol waiting to be drunk. I took a very large mouthful.
Suddenly, and for no apparent reason at all, I began to laugh. I wasn't laughing at anything that had happened, or the situation I was in, because there was absolutely nothing funny about that. I was laughing at myself, and the thoughts that were currently running through my mind.
I had realized that I had no one. No one at all. Mum was gone. Alex was with James. James was with Alex. Mike didn't want me. Estelle wasn't much of a sister considering the extremely rough start we had gotten off to and the pure jealousy that I felt every time I thought of her growing up with both of her parents and no worries in the world. I didn't really have any friends apart from James and Alex did I? Well I suppose I had Bob and Wensdai but they were off doing something together most likely. And even if I did want to go and see them, it's not like I know where they live or had ever been to either of their houses.
The only person I could think of going to see was Joey. I had been to his house a couple of times; Mike and Sam had taken me there for dinner with the Armstrong family.
I needed to see someone, so I got up from the bench and threw my bag over my shoulder. Holding the vodka in my hand I began to walk through the park and to the road, where I continued on my way to Joey's house.
The walk to the Armstrong residence was a slow one; my brain not exactly being friendly to me as I struggled to remember the exact way to go to get there. I saw in the distance the street that I was positive was theirs. I cheered and jumped up and down and then promptly fell over, not comprehending that jumping up and down after drinking a bottle and a half of vodka was not a good idea. Standing up I frowned as I heard the laughter of someone who I really was not in the mood to run into.
I turned around to confirm that Cassie from school and two of her crap bitch friends were standing a few yards away from me. This day was just getting better and better. They were all laughing and pointing at me until Cassie composed herself and took a few steps closer to me, clearly trying to be intimidating but not really managing it as I didn't find her frightening at all in my not exactly sober state.
"So you're not just a money and fame hungry whore but a drunk as well!" Cassie said in an amused voice. She was trying to make me cry again, I knew that, so I didn't say anything, but turned to continue walking to Joey's house. Her friends laughed loudly and I heard them follow me.
"Mike not giving you enough sex?" She asked loudly. I stopped walking and turned around to face her. "Is that why you're drinking? Or is it because of your Mum?"
The next thing I knew, I had flung my self at Cassie and had punched her square in the face. My bottle of vodka lay smashed and forgotten a few feet away. Her two slut friends were backing away, now apparently scared of me. Cassie wasn't though. After recovering from the initial shock of being hit in the face, she ran at me and began to fight back. Our scuffle didn't last for long and basically consisted of me receiving two blows to the face but inflicting a lot more pain on her.
"Leave me the fuck alone." I muttered before walking away from the three girls and continuing down the street.
When I eventually spotted the large house that Joey and his family lived in and stumbled up the path to the front door. I banged loudly on the door, hoping that it was Joey to answer the door and not Adie or Billie Joe, which would then result in them ringing my Dad or something stupid like that.
Sometime after I knocked, the door opened to reveal, to my relief, Joey.
"Holy shit!" He said when he saw me. "What the hell happened to you?" He pulled me inside and before I could answer said. "I'll get Mum."
"No!" I stopped him. "Don't tell your Mum, she'll call Mike."
His arm was around me and when I spoke I breathed on him.
"Fuck Dani, have you been drinking?" He asked me.
I giggled and nodded, before becoming completely serious again. "Please don't tell your parents I'm here. I had no where else to go."
He stood looking at me for a while before nodding grimly. "Alright, come on, I'll take you to my room so we can talk. I'll fix your lip up too."
He led me from the front hall thing, through the living room, up the stairs and into his bedroom, careful not to bump into Adie or Billie Joe. I sat down on his bed while he went to get something to clean up the cut on my lip.
He returned a minute later, closed the door to his room and put some music on so that no one would hear us talking and come to see who was in Joey's room. He began to wipe the blood off my face. "So what happened?"
It took me a while to tell him everything. I told him everything that Mike had said and I could tell that he thought I was overreacting but I didn't care. I told him about going to the park and drinking the vodka and realizing that I had no one. I began to cry, but the kind look on his face encouraged me to wipe the tears from my cheeks and continue on with the part of the story involving Cassie and her bitch-face friends.
"You kicked her ass?" He asked. He seemed to be torn between anger at what Cassie had said to me, and amusement at me winning our fight.
I nodded; a small smile on my face which soon faded as I remembered the real reason for coming to see Joey that day.
"Joey?" I said, looking up at his face. He was sitting next to me on his bed. "I have no one." I buried my face in his chest as I felt the tears coming. His arms wrapped around me and I continued to sob.
We sat like that for a while longer, I'm not sure how much longer, but by the time Joey removed his arms from around me and stood up, I had stopped crying.
"I better get you home." He said. "Mike will be wondering where you are."
I looked down at my hands. "I'm not going back there. They don't want me there."
"Yes they do Dan." He said, grabbing my hands and pulling me to my feet. I was surprised that he had called me Dan and not Dani. No one had ever done that, except Mum occasionally when I was younger. I was not normally a fan of the name Dan, but for some reason when Joey said it, it did nothing but comfort me.
"I'll walk you home. You don't even have to talk to any of them tonight; you need your sleep though."
We left his room and walked downstairs. Joey left me in the front hall to go and tell his Mum that he was going for a walk. He returned wearing a jacket as it was beginning to get chilly.
"Joey?" I said as we walked in the direction of Mike's house. "Why didn't you like me when I first met you? You didn't even know me and you were an absolute dick."
"I don't know." He said truthfully. "I guess a lot of people try to befriend our families because of who we are and I thought maybe you just wanted to meet Mike, my Dad and Uncle Tre and get some money out of it."
"But why the fuck would you think that? I just wanted to know my Dad."
"A lot of people have done it in the past. Not the same situation but similarly. My life has been really hectic; people want to know me because of who my father is. The media want to know me because of who my father is."
We were both quiet for a while and I began to think about what I was going to do when I saw Mike. Or Estelle. Had Estelle told Mike what happened when I left the house earlier? Did Mike care that I had gone?
My train of thought was interrupted by Joey's voice from he left of me, where he was walking beside me on the same foot path that I had fought with Cassie on. "He loves you a lot you know." He was speaking of Mike, trying to reassure me that Mike did care that I had run off.
"No he doesn't. I was a mistake, and now that Mum's gone, everything's screwed for him."
"Come on Dan, that's not true and you know it."
The use of the name Dan again stopped me from saying anything else against what he was trying to tell me and we walked in silence the rest of the way home. We only spoke again when Joey gave me his jacket because I was feeling cold.
The affects of the alcohol still slightly there, I stumbled a little on my way down the garden path to the front door of Mike's house. Joey quietly opened the door and we both snuck up the stairs, trying desperately not to make any noise that Mike, Sam or Estelle would hear. When we got to my room Joey stopped and pulled me into a hug.
"Get some sleep." He said into my ear. "Don't come to school tomorrow either, you need your rest."
"Thank you so much Joey." I said, pulling away from the hug and taking a step back and into my room.
"Anytime Dan." He waved goodnight and disappeared downstairs and out of sight.
I walked over to my bed and, not bothering to change into my pyjamas, crawled under the covers and fell asleep, trying desperately not to think of Mike or Mum or Joey.
Once again feeling the urge to eat bacon and lots of fatty foods, I left the bathroom, flicking the light off as I went. I made my way down to the kitchen. As I passed Mike's study I heard voices coming from inside it. I ignored them, not wanting to think of anything else but making my head ache go away and eating food.
The sun shining through the open curtains of the kitchen window did nothing to help my headache as I held onto my forehead, fearing that my head would remove its self from my neck any second and fall to the floor. I quickly made myself a coffee and went to the fridge in search of bacon and eggs. Finding no bacon, I picked up my coffee cup and left the kitchen to find Mike, maybe he could drive me down to the shop quickly to get some, not feeling up to driving myself. Remembering the voices I had heard earlier I made my way to the study; the door stood ajar. I was about to knock and open the door completely when I heard my name from inside.
"Look." A voice that I didn't recognize said. "I'm worried that this whole thing with Danielle is going to affect record sales." He was speaking about the new greatest hits album that Green Day were set to release in the coming month.
"Affect sales in a good or bad way?" Mike's voice replied.
"Well it could be good; a lot of people love a scandal. But I'm guessing it's going to be bad."
There was a pause and I heard someone sit down on a squeaky chair. I could only assume that it was Mike and I could just imagine him sinking slowly into the chair at his desk, his head in his hands.
"Fuck." I barely heard him mutter the word he said it that quietly. "I wish I wasn't in this fucking situation. It's so fucking difficult."
I can not believe he just said that. He doesn't want me here. He doesn't want me in his life. He wants me to have never been born. Well maybe he should have thought about all this when he fucking knocked up my Mum and then ditched us. I felt the familiar hurt inside me when I thought of my mother. The one person that could make everything seem better was not here with me. I had zoned out for a minute or two and the next thing I heard was Mike saying.
"I know this whole Dani situation is bad but, there's nothing I can do about it now is there?"
I had heard enough, I didn't want to sit there and listen to them talk about me, knowing that Mike didn't care about me at all. I needed to do something. To stop myself from feeling like 1000 types of shit.
I ran up the stairs to my room, ignoring the searing pain in my brain, careful to make as much noise as possible, hoping to alert Mike to how pissed off I was at him. I quickly dressed into jeans and a t-shirt. I grabbed my canvas bag and shoved my phone, iPod, car keys and wallet into it. Tears were pouring down my face as I continued to think about what Mike had said. I was blowing it out of proportion and somewhere inside me I knew that but I still had a lot of pent up anger towards Mike for everything he hadn't done over the years.
When I stormed out of my room I bumped into Estelle, who looked as though she had just go out of bed, probably awoken by me slamming my door and the doors of my cupboards several times.
"What are you doing?" She asked me groggily, rubbing her eyes.
"I'm getting out of here." I said as I ran down the stairs.
"What?"
"I'm letting you and your Dad be happy."
"What are you talking about? He's your Dad too." I ignored her but walked straight to the room containing the pool table and bar. I walked around behind the bar and looked at the shelves where all the alcohol was kept. I considered my options before grabbing two bottles of Vodka from one of the top shelves. I put one in my bag and held onto the second.
"What are you doing?" Estelle yelled at me from the doorway of the room where she had stopped following me in shock of what I was doing.
"I told you I'm leaving. Now get the fuck out of my way."
I pushed past her and ran the rest of the way to the front door of the house and out into the street.
***
Alex's POV
Strong arms were wrapped around my midsection, holding me close up against a warm body.
A male's body.
Oh dear god. What happened? Where am I?
I quickly raised my head from the pillow to look around at my surroundings, wanting to know where on earth I was currently situated. I recognized the room at once as James' bedroom. But that would mean... Memories from the night before came flooding back to me and I realized that it was James' arms wrapped around me, making me feel so comfortable and warm. Despite the throbbing head ache I had, this was definitely a good way to wake up in the morning.
I smiled and put my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes. I was almost back to sleep when I felt James kiss me on the neck several times.
"Good Morning." He said against my skin.
"Hey." I said. "What time is it?"
"Around two."
I groaned, knowing that we should be getting up and ready to head back to Mike's house. "I don't want to go home."
"Then don't." He said simply. "I don't want you to go home either."
"But I really should get back to Dani; she still doesn't feel completely comfortable around her Dad."
"She'll be fine. She needs to learn to be around him. Besides, maybe I just won't drive you back. Then you'll have to stay here."
I giggled and rolled over to give him a quick kiss on the lips. "I'll just give her a quick ring to let her not that I'm staying here another night."
I climbed out of bed and began to search for my phone. Finding it on James' desk I quickly rang her cell phone only to reach her voice mail.
"Hey Dani." I said. "It's me. What are you doing that's more important than talking to me on the phone? Anyways, I'm gonna stay here another night okay? James doesn't feel like driving me back and I just feel like sleeping too. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." I closed the phone and chucked it back on the desk.
***
Dani's POV
I lay back on a bench in an empty park near Mike's house, looking up at the dull sky. The sun was slowly sinking, creating a pink-orange tinge to the normally blue panels above me. I sat up and reached for my bag, stumbling to get the second vodka bottle from it, knocking the now empty one to the concrete floor as I did so. It shattered and I leaned curiously over the edge of the bench to look at the broken glass spread out beneath me. I sat back up and unscrewed the lid on the full bottle of alcohol waiting to be drunk. I took a very large mouthful.
Suddenly, and for no apparent reason at all, I began to laugh. I wasn't laughing at anything that had happened, or the situation I was in, because there was absolutely nothing funny about that. I was laughing at myself, and the thoughts that were currently running through my mind.
I had realized that I had no one. No one at all. Mum was gone. Alex was with James. James was with Alex. Mike didn't want me. Estelle wasn't much of a sister considering the extremely rough start we had gotten off to and the pure jealousy that I felt every time I thought of her growing up with both of her parents and no worries in the world. I didn't really have any friends apart from James and Alex did I? Well I suppose I had Bob and Wensdai but they were off doing something together most likely. And even if I did want to go and see them, it's not like I know where they live or had ever been to either of their houses.
The only person I could think of going to see was Joey. I had been to his house a couple of times; Mike and Sam had taken me there for dinner with the Armstrong family.
I needed to see someone, so I got up from the bench and threw my bag over my shoulder. Holding the vodka in my hand I began to walk through the park and to the road, where I continued on my way to Joey's house.
The walk to the Armstrong residence was a slow one; my brain not exactly being friendly to me as I struggled to remember the exact way to go to get there. I saw in the distance the street that I was positive was theirs. I cheered and jumped up and down and then promptly fell over, not comprehending that jumping up and down after drinking a bottle and a half of vodka was not a good idea. Standing up I frowned as I heard the laughter of someone who I really was not in the mood to run into.
I turned around to confirm that Cassie from school and two of her crap bitch friends were standing a few yards away from me. This day was just getting better and better. They were all laughing and pointing at me until Cassie composed herself and took a few steps closer to me, clearly trying to be intimidating but not really managing it as I didn't find her frightening at all in my not exactly sober state.
"So you're not just a money and fame hungry whore but a drunk as well!" Cassie said in an amused voice. She was trying to make me cry again, I knew that, so I didn't say anything, but turned to continue walking to Joey's house. Her friends laughed loudly and I heard them follow me.
"Mike not giving you enough sex?" She asked loudly. I stopped walking and turned around to face her. "Is that why you're drinking? Or is it because of your Mum?"
The next thing I knew, I had flung my self at Cassie and had punched her square in the face. My bottle of vodka lay smashed and forgotten a few feet away. Her two slut friends were backing away, now apparently scared of me. Cassie wasn't though. After recovering from the initial shock of being hit in the face, she ran at me and began to fight back. Our scuffle didn't last for long and basically consisted of me receiving two blows to the face but inflicting a lot more pain on her.
"Leave me the fuck alone." I muttered before walking away from the three girls and continuing down the street.
When I eventually spotted the large house that Joey and his family lived in and stumbled up the path to the front door. I banged loudly on the door, hoping that it was Joey to answer the door and not Adie or Billie Joe, which would then result in them ringing my Dad or something stupid like that.
Sometime after I knocked, the door opened to reveal, to my relief, Joey.
"Holy shit!" He said when he saw me. "What the hell happened to you?" He pulled me inside and before I could answer said. "I'll get Mum."
"No!" I stopped him. "Don't tell your Mum, she'll call Mike."
His arm was around me and when I spoke I breathed on him.
"Fuck Dani, have you been drinking?" He asked me.
I giggled and nodded, before becoming completely serious again. "Please don't tell your parents I'm here. I had no where else to go."
He stood looking at me for a while before nodding grimly. "Alright, come on, I'll take you to my room so we can talk. I'll fix your lip up too."
He led me from the front hall thing, through the living room, up the stairs and into his bedroom, careful not to bump into Adie or Billie Joe. I sat down on his bed while he went to get something to clean up the cut on my lip.
He returned a minute later, closed the door to his room and put some music on so that no one would hear us talking and come to see who was in Joey's room. He began to wipe the blood off my face. "So what happened?"
It took me a while to tell him everything. I told him everything that Mike had said and I could tell that he thought I was overreacting but I didn't care. I told him about going to the park and drinking the vodka and realizing that I had no one. I began to cry, but the kind look on his face encouraged me to wipe the tears from my cheeks and continue on with the part of the story involving Cassie and her bitch-face friends.
"You kicked her ass?" He asked. He seemed to be torn between anger at what Cassie had said to me, and amusement at me winning our fight.
I nodded; a small smile on my face which soon faded as I remembered the real reason for coming to see Joey that day.
"Joey?" I said, looking up at his face. He was sitting next to me on his bed. "I have no one." I buried my face in his chest as I felt the tears coming. His arms wrapped around me and I continued to sob.
We sat like that for a while longer, I'm not sure how much longer, but by the time Joey removed his arms from around me and stood up, I had stopped crying.
"I better get you home." He said. "Mike will be wondering where you are."
I looked down at my hands. "I'm not going back there. They don't want me there."
"Yes they do Dan." He said, grabbing my hands and pulling me to my feet. I was surprised that he had called me Dan and not Dani. No one had ever done that, except Mum occasionally when I was younger. I was not normally a fan of the name Dan, but for some reason when Joey said it, it did nothing but comfort me.
"I'll walk you home. You don't even have to talk to any of them tonight; you need your sleep though."
We left his room and walked downstairs. Joey left me in the front hall to go and tell his Mum that he was going for a walk. He returned wearing a jacket as it was beginning to get chilly.
"Joey?" I said as we walked in the direction of Mike's house. "Why didn't you like me when I first met you? You didn't even know me and you were an absolute dick."
"I don't know." He said truthfully. "I guess a lot of people try to befriend our families because of who we are and I thought maybe you just wanted to meet Mike, my Dad and Uncle Tre and get some money out of it."
"But why the fuck would you think that? I just wanted to know my Dad."
"A lot of people have done it in the past. Not the same situation but similarly. My life has been really hectic; people want to know me because of who my father is. The media want to know me because of who my father is."
We were both quiet for a while and I began to think about what I was going to do when I saw Mike. Or Estelle. Had Estelle told Mike what happened when I left the house earlier? Did Mike care that I had gone?
My train of thought was interrupted by Joey's voice from he left of me, where he was walking beside me on the same foot path that I had fought with Cassie on. "He loves you a lot you know." He was speaking of Mike, trying to reassure me that Mike did care that I had run off.
"No he doesn't. I was a mistake, and now that Mum's gone, everything's screwed for him."
"Come on Dan, that's not true and you know it."
The use of the name Dan again stopped me from saying anything else against what he was trying to tell me and we walked in silence the rest of the way home. We only spoke again when Joey gave me his jacket because I was feeling cold.
The affects of the alcohol still slightly there, I stumbled a little on my way down the garden path to the front door of Mike's house. Joey quietly opened the door and we both snuck up the stairs, trying desperately not to make any noise that Mike, Sam or Estelle would hear. When we got to my room Joey stopped and pulled me into a hug.
"Get some sleep." He said into my ear. "Don't come to school tomorrow either, you need your rest."
"Thank you so much Joey." I said, pulling away from the hug and taking a step back and into my room.
"Anytime Dan." He waved goodnight and disappeared downstairs and out of sight.
I walked over to my bed and, not bothering to change into my pyjamas, crawled under the covers and fell asleep, trying desperately not to think of Mike or Mum or Joey.
