Whatshername, chapter 1
I slowly ate my cereal. I was nervous. I had just moved to America, and was going to Pinhole Valley Highschool. I had on normal jeans and a Ramones band shirt. I left my hair down and went outside. It was warm, and I saw some kids walking to school.
"Whooooooooooooooo first day of the year," a guy yelled behind me.
"Oh yah man!" another guy said coming out of the door the started walking together.
"Hey you girlie, you like the Ramones?" The first guy asked me. I nodded.
"Us too," the second guy said, "I'm Billie Joe," he said.
"And me...iIm Tre f---cking Cool" he made a face and I smiled.
"Mellissa" I said.
Soon another guy called Mike was walking with us. They told me about their band, Sweet Children. We got to school and they went behind a building and motioned for me to follow. Billie Joe pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered them around. 'Oh my God' I was thinking to myself, I'd never smoked before, but I didn't want to look like an idiot so I took one. The tar tasted disgusting, but I pretended I was used to it. I think by the fact I was wearing a Ramones shirt they assumed I was 'punk'. I was a smart person, I didn't swear, I didn't smoke, I didn't wag. I liked all kinds of music and the Ramones were simply the shirt I chose to wear that day. Probably not the best decision ever, but it did change my life forever.
The bell went and I pulled out the schedule I'd received in the mail.
"Uh...English room 3." I said outloud, but to myself. I looked up at the three guys I was smoking with. Tre, sort of funny looking, blue eyes, way too confident and psycho. Mike, skinny, pretty smart, muscly arms for someone so slim. And then Billie Joe, blonde hair, not skinny, not fat, tight jeans, big green eyes.
"I got English with ya" Mike said. We walked into the class and we got handed text books.
"You've never smoked before," Mike said to me as he wrote his name on the front.
"How did you know?" I asked.
"I dunno...I could tell...They couldn't, don't worry" I laughed weakly and we started working on Macbeth.
In homegroup, I had Billie Joe, Tre and Mike which was good. They didn't actually talk to anyone else...I guess it was there own little group, and I was new to it.
"We have a new student! Mellissa Jane!" the teacher said. The class made some grunts in aknowledgement but that's it. When the bell rang, Mr. Hinton called me to his desk.
"Look you're new here, so I'm gonna help you. Those boys are bad news. You would be wise, if you want to be succesfull in life, to stay away from them." I frowned at him and walked out. They were waiting for me "Why does he hate you guys?" I asked.
"Oh I dunno....Something about us filling his car with fireworks," Billie Joe said smiling lopsidedly.
The next two periods were P.E and the boys said they were wagging. I knew I shouldn't so I went to class alone. After 10 minutes I asked to go to the bathroom and I found them behind the wall they were smoking at that morning. Peer pressure. Pff. We went to a burger shop and the woman working gave us a dirty look. Tre kept making suggestive glances between Billie Joe and I. We got back before lunch started, they had to set up for a performance at lunchtime. They gave me a video recorder to make a movie of them for 'When they're famous'. I filmed their performance. After lunch I had science and home economics, and then we all walked home together. We had a few puffs on the way. When I went inside my mother said,
"Mellissa! You smell like smoke!".
"Oh..uh...in science we did bunsen burner stuff!" I said.
I quickly went into my room and started with some home work. Then I heard rocks on my window. I opened it and looked down. The three guys were standing down stairs motioning for me to come down. I didn't want to go, I had lots of homework, but I was in no position to pass up friends.
"Uh mum? I'm going to bed, today wiped me out!"
"OK hunny," she said. I climbed down the lattace outside my window. We wandered around and went to a tatoo parlour. They started talking to the guy who worked there, they must know him from somewhere. Al Sobrante was his name. Mike came over and told me that he used to drum for their band, but left to go to university.
"OK OK! One piercing each!" Al said.
Billie Joe smiled "Thank you! Nose please." Al Sobrante got the stuff ready and put a piercing in Billie Joe's nose
"Oh fuck that hurts!" Billie Joe said getting up.
"Just my ear" Mike said.
"None!" Tre said.
"Tre's chicken!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Billie Joe said fake punching Tre in the shoulder. Tre pretended to start crying,
"Dude it ain't my style."
"What about you?" Billie Joe asked looking at me.
I didn't want to look like a chicken, so I said eyebrow. It was weird. Yesterday I was a good girl who never smoked, wagged or got piercings other than in my ears. Then today, I smoked twice, wagged, and now I was getting my eyebrow pierced. The reason I said eyebrow, was cause I could flick my hair over and my parents wouldn't see it. I closed my eyes waiting for the pain to come. I screamed. It didn't really hurt, and it looked really awesome. We got back into Mike's car and drove back home. I climbed back up the lattace, and into my room. My eyebrow was throbbing, but I forced myself to go to bed. Sometime later I heard mum come in and check on me, and then everyone else went to bed.
As I lay in bed, I thought about how stupid I was. I got piercings, I smoked, I WAGGED just to fit in with the outsiders of the school. But still...I felt like I fit with them even if I wasn't as naughty as them. And I liked Billie Joe. Maybe not as a boyfriend, but he was interested me. Watching him perform, I knew it was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. In the morning, my eyebrow had swelled up a bit, so I put my hair on a side part, so it came over my face.
"By hunny!" dad said as I walked out the door.
"Cya," I said as I met up with Billie Joe, Mike and Tre.
"Who are these cool cats?" Dad asked. Oh god I though to myself.
"DAD! Please, you have work!" I said.
"Sorryyyyyy, cya boys," he turned around and got into his car.
"Oh my effing god he's so embarrassing!" I said as we walked along.
"We forgive you....Oh plastic bag!!!" Tre said running after a plastic bag then crashing into a bush. We laughed and helped him up but he dragged us into it as well.
"Oi! You kids get out of my yard!!!!!!!!" A man yelled coming out of his house. We laughed and quickly ran away. When we got to school we were breathless, but laughing.
"Ya know...I'm thinking about dropping out...I wag everything and I could focus more on the band," Billie Joe said as him and I walked to home ec.
"Your not wagging this!" I said.
"It's cause I'm with you," he said shyly looking down. I smiled.
Once in class, we got a bay by the window, and people were reluctant to go in our bay, and since it was a small class, we ended up getting our own. A bit into the lesson, when the teacher was writing something on the board, Billie Joe opened the window. Some kids looked up and he glared at them so they quickly turned away. He climbed out the window and whispered,
"Come on Mel! Lets get some cash!" I turned around and didn't know what to do. If I stayed the teacher would notice he was missing, so I had no choice. I climbed out and closed the window behind me. The teacher turned around, but didn't notice us missing. We went behind a wall, and some people came up to us.
Billie Joe handed him cigarettes with marijuana in them. My eyes opened wide. Drugs?? The guys handed Billie Joe some money and then left.
"Drugs! Billie, they're illegal!" I said.
"And wagging isn't?" he replied. We sat down on the ground and I was frowning. It was one thing to wag, but another to sell drugs. Billie Joe lit up one of the joints and gave it a puff, and offered it to me.
"No Billie...it's too much" I said looking down.
"Come on Mel, it's just drugs...No one will ever know and it'll make you feel better," he said. I reluctantly took the joint and gave it a puff. And another. I guess it did make me feel better. More people came and got some joints.
"Who's she?" one guy asked.
"She's Mel," Billie Joe said.
"Hey," I said casually.
"You got a boyfriend?" he asked me.
"Yeah I do actually," I said, and I held Billie Joe's hand.
The guy glared at him and walked away. We looked at each other and nervously stopped holding hands. We sat back down and just talked for a while. Afterschool I went to Billie Joe's house for a Sweet Children practice.
"Saturday's gonna be Greeeen Dayyyyyy whooooooooooooooooooo" Tre yelled coming into the room.
"What's Green Day?" I asked.
"A day lazing around smoking pot...We have it once a month. Care to join?" Mike asked plugging his base into the amp. The drugs I had that day did make me feel good even though I knew it was wrong. So I said "OK." That saturday I went to my parents and said,
"There's a girl there, Tianna, she's heaps nice, and she wants me to come over for a sleepover tonight....I might as well go now I guess...If that's alright?"
''Heaps nice'? What happened to your grammar? Oh well I suppose you can. Do you have stuff?" Dad asked.
"Sorry...and yeah she's got stuff I can borrow, bye!! See you tomorrow I guess," and I left.
I went across the road and down to houses to Billie Joe's house. His mum and dad were out of town so it was the perfect place. There was Tre, Mike, Billie, Al Sobrante, and some of the people we sold joints to. One of them, called, Allyssa dropped some cocain on the table and my eyes widened. Everyone else put it in a line, so I did as well, then with some cut up straws they snorted it. I did as well, coughed a little, but then I felt really happy, as if I was bouncing off the walls. We all started laughing and dancing around. We smoked, snorted and injected ourselves for the whole day. It was so addictive.
"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" I yelled. And everyone else did with me. We were laughing.
"Haha hit me! I can't feel anything!!" I said to Billie Joe. He did and I hit him back. We laughed so hard. At about 2 in the morning I started throwing up. I was coming back down, and sometime later I passed out. I woke up at about lunchtime the next day, with a huge head ache.
"Oh God!" I said to Mike as I saw him waking up next to me.
"Yeah...The first time sucks" he said.
I was on a couch, Mike was on the ground, and others were littered across the room, and someone was in the bathroom. I looked at the time, swore, and quickly got up. My head throbbed and I felt dizzy.
"Whoa, are you ok?" a voice said. He put his hand on my back and slowly I sat down. Billie Joe's face appeared in front of mine. I lent on him for a while, but finally I felt well enough to go home. When I went through the door no one was home, so I went up to my room and went to sleep. When I woke up it was 4 p.m. I went downstairs and mum and dad were sitting at the table looking at me.
"Late night?" they asked me.
"Yeah, we watched lots of movies!" I said sitting down.
"Oh..OK. Your teachers called, you've been missing out on some classes, and hanging out with the wrong crowd. Definitely not Tianna." I felt nervous.
"I'm sorry, but the people I hang out with, they're really nice...And I don't know why they think I've been missing classes....Maybe I didn't hear my name on roll call." I replied weakly.
My parents nodded. We had dinner then at about 10 I went up to bed and fell asleep. The next few weeks they had band practice, I wagged some more, smoked some more, and did a bit more drugs. I'll never forget the day Billie Joe asked me out. He'd already dropped out, even though it was just a few months before the year ended. This is what he said,
"When I was 10...my dad died."
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked him.
"Because...I don't know...but I like you...maybe love you...and I trust you......"
"I like you too," and that's how we started going out.
My marks had been going down, and when the end of grade 12 rolled around I was getting D's in everything. At graduation, my parents were ashamed at my report card. Tre, as school captain, was valedictorian, and made a speech. I had to pull my hair back, and my parents saw my eyebrow piercing.
"What happened to you?" mum asked as she drove me to get my prom dress.
"I don't know." I replied blankly looking out the window. I snuck out every night to smoke, and I wore more make-up, and I never spoke to my parents like I used to. I arrived at the formal, wearing a plain black dress, and my hair curled. I actually looked pretty. Billie Joe met me, and we went in together. That night made me think about what happened that year.
-I wagged
-I smoked
-I did drugs
-I got my first boyfriend
-I drank ALOT
-I snuck out
-I lied to my family every day
-I went from straight A's to straight D's
-I got my eyebrow pierced
I sighed to myself. I was a bad person. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and I ran outside and sobbed.
"What's wrong?" Billie joe asked.
"Im a horrible person! To myself, to my family, to my teachers!" I said through my tears.
"Look at me," he said, he smiled his cute lopsided grin. "You're not bad. You wagged, so what? It was to keep you from disrupting the class! You did drugs, it made you feel better. I'm stopping drugs anyway....I'm with you on that one," I hugged him and said "I love you."
"I love you too."
I got home and went straight to bed, and when I woke up at around 11 the next day mum and dad came into my room.
"We're moving," dad said.
"This town...It hasn't been good for you, so we're moving to Berkeley...you're going to repeat year 12...it's important." Mum added.
"NO!" I yelled, "I'M HAPPY HERE!"
"Next month," dad said and he left. I climbed out my window, in my pajamas and ran next door to Tre's house. I banged on his window and he let me in. I started crying almost immediately. I felt like the biggest idiot but I couldn't help it.
"Geez, Mel what's wrong?" Tre asked putting his arm on my back.
"I'm moving!" I sobbed.
"I'll call Billie Joe." A couple minutes later Billie Joe and Mike burst in.
We had a big four person hug and I told them I was leaving.
"You can't!" Mike said.
"Why?" Billie Joe asked.
"Shit," Tre said.
"B-because my grades suck....Because I've been wagging...I don't wanna go," I said. I was crying like a little kid. Billie Joe came and hugged me and I lent on him. I stayed at Tre's house for hours, mum and dad must have known I wasn't home but I guess they assumed I needed some time with my friends. We took heaps of pictures, and then caught a bus to the mall to get them developed. We sat in the food court looking at the pictures, Billie Joe gave me one of the pictures of him kissing my cheek. We wandered into the cinemas, and snuck into a movie and sat at the front and just talked.
"One month to have the best effing time ever!" Tre yelled.
"Shut up!!" People in the cinemas yelled. We giggled and walked out. We went out onto the roof carpark, and found a way onto the actual roof, which we sat on for a few hours. At about 5 p.m I went home. My parents ordered pizza, they were trying to get me to forgive them. I sat in silence.
"You know. I could move out, I'm almost 18 now!" I said angrily.
"No you're not! You have nowhere to go! You're going to follow your education!" dad said.
"Billie Joe's house! Mike's house! Tre's house!" I said.
"Oh PULEASE! You never used to be friends with boys! And who has a name of 'Tre Cool''' Dad replied. I sat in silence.
That night I snuck out and went and slept at Billie Joe's house. The next day we went for a road trip to the beach. The day after we snuck into movies. The day after we bummed around having a mini green day.
"I think we should rename Sweet Children to Green Day..." Mike said as we were breaking into a guitar store just to play the instruments. The next day we were stealing stuff, just to see if we could, and then Billie Joe knocked over a T.V in a T.V store and security dragged us into the office. He turned around to check the screens and we bolted out the door, laughing our heads off. We hid in our secret spots. Not really secret spots, but the places behind where people worked until security found us and then we just left.
The month went way too quickly and I didn't pack at all. Mum and dad did it all when I was out. But finally the dreaded day came. We packed all our stuff into the car, and into the removal trucks. I waited for ages for my friends to come and say goodbye, but mum and dad had to get there at a certain time so I reluctantly got into the car and my tears came. We started moving and then Billie Joe ran out of his house. He ran after us but mum and dad refused to stop. I turned around and looked at him through the back window. He lifted up his hand to say goodbye. And then he was gone.
I cried all the way there. Why had he come so late?
Billie Joe's P.O.V
I went into my room and slammed the door. Brad. Dickhead. He wouldn't let me go out to say goodbye. Soon after that I moved out. And we made it big...But I never saw Mel. I met someone else called Adrienne, and we got married and are happier then ever, and I'd never trade her in for any one. Yet I couldn't forget Mel...so I wrote Whatshername about her. Every time I sang it, it brought up the emotions I felt, but I had finally moved on.
Mel's P.O.V
One day I drove to the neighbourhood where we had lived and his house was a mess now, old and it hadn't been lived in for years. Pretty much all the houses on the street were like that. It made me cry and I sat in my car for hours just sobbing. And then I drove to my bad little apartment in Los Angeles, California.
As I got older I kept hearing more and more about this band Green Day. Everytime a song came on the radio that they sung I turned it off. I developed depression, and had it for years. And then I had the chance to go to a Green Day concert. I fought my way to the front of the mosh pit and looked up at Billie Joe. I never stopped loving and missing him...
Then he sang Whatshername. And I knew it was about me. I started crying and he reached into the crowd and touched peoples hands. He touched mine, and looked at me. He did a double take and his voice jerked. More tears came from my eyes because I knew he knew. That was in 2005. It had been 15 years since I last saw him. And I never saw him again.
Thought I ran into you down on the street,
Then it turned out to only be a dream,
I made a point to burn all of the photographs,
She went away and then I took a different path,
I remember the face,
But I can't recall the name,
Now I wonder how whatsername has been
Seems that she disappeared without a trace,
Did she every marry old what's his face,
I made a point to burn all of the photographs,
She went away and then I took a different path,
I remember the face,
But I can't recall the name,
Now I wonder how whatsername has been
Remember, whatever,
It seems like forever ago,
Remember, whatever,
It seems like forever ago,
The regrets are useless,
In my mind,
She's in my head,
I must confess,
The regrets are useless,
In my mind,
She's in my head,
From so long ago
And in the darkest night,
If my memory serves me right,
I'll never turn back time
Forgetting you, but not the time
"Whooooooooooooooo first day of the year," a guy yelled behind me.
"Oh yah man!" another guy said coming out of the door the started walking together.
"Hey you girlie, you like the Ramones?" The first guy asked me. I nodded.
"Us too," the second guy said, "I'm Billie Joe," he said.
"And me...iIm Tre f---cking Cool" he made a face and I smiled.
"Mellissa" I said.
Soon another guy called Mike was walking with us. They told me about their band, Sweet Children. We got to school and they went behind a building and motioned for me to follow. Billie Joe pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered them around. 'Oh my God' I was thinking to myself, I'd never smoked before, but I didn't want to look like an idiot so I took one. The tar tasted disgusting, but I pretended I was used to it. I think by the fact I was wearing a Ramones shirt they assumed I was 'punk'. I was a smart person, I didn't swear, I didn't smoke, I didn't wag. I liked all kinds of music and the Ramones were simply the shirt I chose to wear that day. Probably not the best decision ever, but it did change my life forever.
The bell went and I pulled out the schedule I'd received in the mail.
"Uh...English room 3." I said outloud, but to myself. I looked up at the three guys I was smoking with. Tre, sort of funny looking, blue eyes, way too confident and psycho. Mike, skinny, pretty smart, muscly arms for someone so slim. And then Billie Joe, blonde hair, not skinny, not fat, tight jeans, big green eyes.
"I got English with ya" Mike said. We walked into the class and we got handed text books.
"You've never smoked before," Mike said to me as he wrote his name on the front.
"How did you know?" I asked.
"I dunno...I could tell...They couldn't, don't worry" I laughed weakly and we started working on Macbeth.
In homegroup, I had Billie Joe, Tre and Mike which was good. They didn't actually talk to anyone else...I guess it was there own little group, and I was new to it.
"We have a new student! Mellissa Jane!" the teacher said. The class made some grunts in aknowledgement but that's it. When the bell rang, Mr. Hinton called me to his desk.
"Look you're new here, so I'm gonna help you. Those boys are bad news. You would be wise, if you want to be succesfull in life, to stay away from them." I frowned at him and walked out. They were waiting for me "Why does he hate you guys?" I asked.
"Oh I dunno....Something about us filling his car with fireworks," Billie Joe said smiling lopsidedly.
The next two periods were P.E and the boys said they were wagging. I knew I shouldn't so I went to class alone. After 10 minutes I asked to go to the bathroom and I found them behind the wall they were smoking at that morning. Peer pressure. Pff. We went to a burger shop and the woman working gave us a dirty look. Tre kept making suggestive glances between Billie Joe and I. We got back before lunch started, they had to set up for a performance at lunchtime. They gave me a video recorder to make a movie of them for 'When they're famous'. I filmed their performance. After lunch I had science and home economics, and then we all walked home together. We had a few puffs on the way. When I went inside my mother said,
"Mellissa! You smell like smoke!".
"Oh..uh...in science we did bunsen burner stuff!" I said.
I quickly went into my room and started with some home work. Then I heard rocks on my window. I opened it and looked down. The three guys were standing down stairs motioning for me to come down. I didn't want to go, I had lots of homework, but I was in no position to pass up friends.
"Uh mum? I'm going to bed, today wiped me out!"
"OK hunny," she said. I climbed down the lattace outside my window. We wandered around and went to a tatoo parlour. They started talking to the guy who worked there, they must know him from somewhere. Al Sobrante was his name. Mike came over and told me that he used to drum for their band, but left to go to university.
"OK OK! One piercing each!" Al said.
Billie Joe smiled "Thank you! Nose please." Al Sobrante got the stuff ready and put a piercing in Billie Joe's nose
"Oh fuck that hurts!" Billie Joe said getting up.
"Just my ear" Mike said.
"None!" Tre said.
"Tre's chicken!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Billie Joe said fake punching Tre in the shoulder. Tre pretended to start crying,
"Dude it ain't my style."
"What about you?" Billie Joe asked looking at me.
I didn't want to look like a chicken, so I said eyebrow. It was weird. Yesterday I was a good girl who never smoked, wagged or got piercings other than in my ears. Then today, I smoked twice, wagged, and now I was getting my eyebrow pierced. The reason I said eyebrow, was cause I could flick my hair over and my parents wouldn't see it. I closed my eyes waiting for the pain to come. I screamed. It didn't really hurt, and it looked really awesome. We got back into Mike's car and drove back home. I climbed back up the lattace, and into my room. My eyebrow was throbbing, but I forced myself to go to bed. Sometime later I heard mum come in and check on me, and then everyone else went to bed.
As I lay in bed, I thought about how stupid I was. I got piercings, I smoked, I WAGGED just to fit in with the outsiders of the school. But still...I felt like I fit with them even if I wasn't as naughty as them. And I liked Billie Joe. Maybe not as a boyfriend, but he was interested me. Watching him perform, I knew it was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. In the morning, my eyebrow had swelled up a bit, so I put my hair on a side part, so it came over my face.
"By hunny!" dad said as I walked out the door.
"Cya," I said as I met up with Billie Joe, Mike and Tre.
"Who are these cool cats?" Dad asked. Oh god I though to myself.
"DAD! Please, you have work!" I said.
"Sorryyyyyy, cya boys," he turned around and got into his car.
"Oh my effing god he's so embarrassing!" I said as we walked along.
"We forgive you....Oh plastic bag!!!" Tre said running after a plastic bag then crashing into a bush. We laughed and helped him up but he dragged us into it as well.
"Oi! You kids get out of my yard!!!!!!!!" A man yelled coming out of his house. We laughed and quickly ran away. When we got to school we were breathless, but laughing.
"Ya know...I'm thinking about dropping out...I wag everything and I could focus more on the band," Billie Joe said as him and I walked to home ec.
"Your not wagging this!" I said.
"It's cause I'm with you," he said shyly looking down. I smiled.
Once in class, we got a bay by the window, and people were reluctant to go in our bay, and since it was a small class, we ended up getting our own. A bit into the lesson, when the teacher was writing something on the board, Billie Joe opened the window. Some kids looked up and he glared at them so they quickly turned away. He climbed out the window and whispered,
"Come on Mel! Lets get some cash!" I turned around and didn't know what to do. If I stayed the teacher would notice he was missing, so I had no choice. I climbed out and closed the window behind me. The teacher turned around, but didn't notice us missing. We went behind a wall, and some people came up to us.
Billie Joe handed him cigarettes with marijuana in them. My eyes opened wide. Drugs?? The guys handed Billie Joe some money and then left.
"Drugs! Billie, they're illegal!" I said.
"And wagging isn't?" he replied. We sat down on the ground and I was frowning. It was one thing to wag, but another to sell drugs. Billie Joe lit up one of the joints and gave it a puff, and offered it to me.
"No Billie...it's too much" I said looking down.
"Come on Mel, it's just drugs...No one will ever know and it'll make you feel better," he said. I reluctantly took the joint and gave it a puff. And another. I guess it did make me feel better. More people came and got some joints.
"Who's she?" one guy asked.
"She's Mel," Billie Joe said.
"Hey," I said casually.
"You got a boyfriend?" he asked me.
"Yeah I do actually," I said, and I held Billie Joe's hand.
The guy glared at him and walked away. We looked at each other and nervously stopped holding hands. We sat back down and just talked for a while. Afterschool I went to Billie Joe's house for a Sweet Children practice.
"Saturday's gonna be Greeeen Dayyyyyy whooooooooooooooooooo" Tre yelled coming into the room.
"What's Green Day?" I asked.
"A day lazing around smoking pot...We have it once a month. Care to join?" Mike asked plugging his base into the amp. The drugs I had that day did make me feel good even though I knew it was wrong. So I said "OK." That saturday I went to my parents and said,
"There's a girl there, Tianna, she's heaps nice, and she wants me to come over for a sleepover tonight....I might as well go now I guess...If that's alright?"
''Heaps nice'? What happened to your grammar? Oh well I suppose you can. Do you have stuff?" Dad asked.
"Sorry...and yeah she's got stuff I can borrow, bye!! See you tomorrow I guess," and I left.
I went across the road and down to houses to Billie Joe's house. His mum and dad were out of town so it was the perfect place. There was Tre, Mike, Billie, Al Sobrante, and some of the people we sold joints to. One of them, called, Allyssa dropped some cocain on the table and my eyes widened. Everyone else put it in a line, so I did as well, then with some cut up straws they snorted it. I did as well, coughed a little, but then I felt really happy, as if I was bouncing off the walls. We all started laughing and dancing around. We smoked, snorted and injected ourselves for the whole day. It was so addictive.
"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" I yelled. And everyone else did with me. We were laughing.
"Haha hit me! I can't feel anything!!" I said to Billie Joe. He did and I hit him back. We laughed so hard. At about 2 in the morning I started throwing up. I was coming back down, and sometime later I passed out. I woke up at about lunchtime the next day, with a huge head ache.
"Oh God!" I said to Mike as I saw him waking up next to me.
"Yeah...The first time sucks" he said.
I was on a couch, Mike was on the ground, and others were littered across the room, and someone was in the bathroom. I looked at the time, swore, and quickly got up. My head throbbed and I felt dizzy.
"Whoa, are you ok?" a voice said. He put his hand on my back and slowly I sat down. Billie Joe's face appeared in front of mine. I lent on him for a while, but finally I felt well enough to go home. When I went through the door no one was home, so I went up to my room and went to sleep. When I woke up it was 4 p.m. I went downstairs and mum and dad were sitting at the table looking at me.
"Late night?" they asked me.
"Yeah, we watched lots of movies!" I said sitting down.
"Oh..OK. Your teachers called, you've been missing out on some classes, and hanging out with the wrong crowd. Definitely not Tianna." I felt nervous.
"I'm sorry, but the people I hang out with, they're really nice...And I don't know why they think I've been missing classes....Maybe I didn't hear my name on roll call." I replied weakly.
My parents nodded. We had dinner then at about 10 I went up to bed and fell asleep. The next few weeks they had band practice, I wagged some more, smoked some more, and did a bit more drugs. I'll never forget the day Billie Joe asked me out. He'd already dropped out, even though it was just a few months before the year ended. This is what he said,
"When I was 10...my dad died."
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked him.
"Because...I don't know...but I like you...maybe love you...and I trust you......"
"I like you too," and that's how we started going out.
My marks had been going down, and when the end of grade 12 rolled around I was getting D's in everything. At graduation, my parents were ashamed at my report card. Tre, as school captain, was valedictorian, and made a speech. I had to pull my hair back, and my parents saw my eyebrow piercing.
"What happened to you?" mum asked as she drove me to get my prom dress.
"I don't know." I replied blankly looking out the window. I snuck out every night to smoke, and I wore more make-up, and I never spoke to my parents like I used to. I arrived at the formal, wearing a plain black dress, and my hair curled. I actually looked pretty. Billie Joe met me, and we went in together. That night made me think about what happened that year.
-I wagged
-I smoked
-I did drugs
-I got my first boyfriend
-I drank ALOT
-I snuck out
-I lied to my family every day
-I went from straight A's to straight D's
-I got my eyebrow pierced
I sighed to myself. I was a bad person. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and I ran outside and sobbed.
"What's wrong?" Billie joe asked.
"Im a horrible person! To myself, to my family, to my teachers!" I said through my tears.
"Look at me," he said, he smiled his cute lopsided grin. "You're not bad. You wagged, so what? It was to keep you from disrupting the class! You did drugs, it made you feel better. I'm stopping drugs anyway....I'm with you on that one," I hugged him and said "I love you."
"I love you too."
I got home and went straight to bed, and when I woke up at around 11 the next day mum and dad came into my room.
"We're moving," dad said.
"This town...It hasn't been good for you, so we're moving to Berkeley...you're going to repeat year 12...it's important." Mum added.
"NO!" I yelled, "I'M HAPPY HERE!"
"Next month," dad said and he left. I climbed out my window, in my pajamas and ran next door to Tre's house. I banged on his window and he let me in. I started crying almost immediately. I felt like the biggest idiot but I couldn't help it.
"Geez, Mel what's wrong?" Tre asked putting his arm on my back.
"I'm moving!" I sobbed.
"I'll call Billie Joe." A couple minutes later Billie Joe and Mike burst in.
We had a big four person hug and I told them I was leaving.
"You can't!" Mike said.
"Why?" Billie Joe asked.
"Shit," Tre said.
"B-because my grades suck....Because I've been wagging...I don't wanna go," I said. I was crying like a little kid. Billie Joe came and hugged me and I lent on him. I stayed at Tre's house for hours, mum and dad must have known I wasn't home but I guess they assumed I needed some time with my friends. We took heaps of pictures, and then caught a bus to the mall to get them developed. We sat in the food court looking at the pictures, Billie Joe gave me one of the pictures of him kissing my cheek. We wandered into the cinemas, and snuck into a movie and sat at the front and just talked.
"One month to have the best effing time ever!" Tre yelled.
"Shut up!!" People in the cinemas yelled. We giggled and walked out. We went out onto the roof carpark, and found a way onto the actual roof, which we sat on for a few hours. At about 5 p.m I went home. My parents ordered pizza, they were trying to get me to forgive them. I sat in silence.
"You know. I could move out, I'm almost 18 now!" I said angrily.
"No you're not! You have nowhere to go! You're going to follow your education!" dad said.
"Billie Joe's house! Mike's house! Tre's house!" I said.
"Oh PULEASE! You never used to be friends with boys! And who has a name of 'Tre Cool''' Dad replied. I sat in silence.
That night I snuck out and went and slept at Billie Joe's house. The next day we went for a road trip to the beach. The day after we snuck into movies. The day after we bummed around having a mini green day.
"I think we should rename Sweet Children to Green Day..." Mike said as we were breaking into a guitar store just to play the instruments. The next day we were stealing stuff, just to see if we could, and then Billie Joe knocked over a T.V in a T.V store and security dragged us into the office. He turned around to check the screens and we bolted out the door, laughing our heads off. We hid in our secret spots. Not really secret spots, but the places behind where people worked until security found us and then we just left.
The month went way too quickly and I didn't pack at all. Mum and dad did it all when I was out. But finally the dreaded day came. We packed all our stuff into the car, and into the removal trucks. I waited for ages for my friends to come and say goodbye, but mum and dad had to get there at a certain time so I reluctantly got into the car and my tears came. We started moving and then Billie Joe ran out of his house. He ran after us but mum and dad refused to stop. I turned around and looked at him through the back window. He lifted up his hand to say goodbye. And then he was gone.
I cried all the way there. Why had he come so late?
Billie Joe's P.O.V
I went into my room and slammed the door. Brad. Dickhead. He wouldn't let me go out to say goodbye. Soon after that I moved out. And we made it big...But I never saw Mel. I met someone else called Adrienne, and we got married and are happier then ever, and I'd never trade her in for any one. Yet I couldn't forget Mel...so I wrote Whatshername about her. Every time I sang it, it brought up the emotions I felt, but I had finally moved on.
Mel's P.O.V
One day I drove to the neighbourhood where we had lived and his house was a mess now, old and it hadn't been lived in for years. Pretty much all the houses on the street were like that. It made me cry and I sat in my car for hours just sobbing. And then I drove to my bad little apartment in Los Angeles, California.
As I got older I kept hearing more and more about this band Green Day. Everytime a song came on the radio that they sung I turned it off. I developed depression, and had it for years. And then I had the chance to go to a Green Day concert. I fought my way to the front of the mosh pit and looked up at Billie Joe. I never stopped loving and missing him...
Then he sang Whatshername. And I knew it was about me. I started crying and he reached into the crowd and touched peoples hands. He touched mine, and looked at me. He did a double take and his voice jerked. More tears came from my eyes because I knew he knew. That was in 2005. It had been 15 years since I last saw him. And I never saw him again.
Thought I ran into you down on the street,
Then it turned out to only be a dream,
I made a point to burn all of the photographs,
She went away and then I took a different path,
I remember the face,
But I can't recall the name,
Now I wonder how whatsername has been
Seems that she disappeared without a trace,
Did she every marry old what's his face,
I made a point to burn all of the photographs,
She went away and then I took a different path,
I remember the face,
But I can't recall the name,
Now I wonder how whatsername has been
Remember, whatever,
It seems like forever ago,
Remember, whatever,
It seems like forever ago,
The regrets are useless,
In my mind,
She's in my head,
I must confess,
The regrets are useless,
In my mind,
She's in my head,
From so long ago
And in the darkest night,
If my memory serves me right,
I'll never turn back time
Forgetting you, but not the time
