Time Spent, chapter 3
The last few weeks of school went flying by. Following graduation, we spent all our time at Brandon's or the studio working on the record. After a long and very slow start, it started to really flow out of us. We happened to be at Brandon's at the moment.
"Ok so what about this?" Pete asked, playing a few bars on his guitar.
"I like that!" Brandon admitted and imitated what Pete had played.
"So have you talked to McMillan lately?" I asked Brandon.
"Yeah, this morning. He thinks we have enough material for the moment and we should come in to start a few more recording of some of the new stuff next week," he replied.
"Next week? Why next week?" Travis joined in.
"Because he said so," Brandon shot back. "I dunno, I wasn't about to question him."
We laughed.
"Yeah I don't think that would be too smart," I said.
"Don't think, you might hurt yourself," Travis told me.
"You little... "
I jumped up and dove at him. Brandon and Pete were rolling on the floor in laughter while I chased Travis around the room, attempting to catch him but failing, and ended up face down on the floor from tripping over Pete.
We were all clutching our sides and on the floor when Brandon's cell phone rang. He got up and picked it up from the table it was laying on.
"Uh... I don't recognize this number. I wonder who it is... "
He flipped open the phone and answered it.
"Hello?"
Then his eyes got real big.
"Oh hey Billie Joe... "
With that we all jumped straight up. My heart skipped a beat and I couldn't help but blush slightly.
"Huh?!"
We went over closer to him.
"No way!!"
I looked at Pete and he looked at me and nodded his head towards Brandon with a confused expression.
"Yeah man! Shit yeah!"
I shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea what he was talking about, but it must be real good news.
"Alright, see ya 'round."
Brandon hung up the phone and sat on the nearest chair. His face was glowing and his eyes were still round and enormous.
"Brad?" Travis asked with a worried look on his face. "Brandon? Are you ok man?"
He looked up at Travis and smiled.
"Yeah man, never been better," he replied.
"So what did he want?!" Pete pressed him.
He smiled. "We are going on tour with Green Day when our album is finished!"
I hugged Pete and screamed in delight. Travis was whooping and running around the room while Brandon still sat there with an amused look on his face.
"So tell me exactly what he said!" I yelled excitedly.
"Well, he said he had heard some of the stuff we recorded a couple of weeks ago and that he thought it was really good. Oh and something about McMillan owing him a favor... " he explained. "... but none of that really matters; do you realize how good this is going to be for us?!"
He jumped up and went to the window.
"We are going to be in front of thousands of people on our FIRST TOUR. I mean, bands have to wait years before having such an honor!"
He sighed excitedly.
We all sat there in awed silence. I was deep in thought when I realized something. Billie Joe wouldn't have done all that simply because he thought we were pretty good. So what was his real motive? Or was I just over thinking all this...
***
I woke up in the morning to the harsh sound of my alarm clock.
"Where the fuck is the snooze button?!"
I ended up falling right off the bed and onto the floor. I scrambled for the lamp switch and clicked on the light. It was still dark outside and it made me feel depressed... until I remembered why I had to get up so early. We had a photo shoot for the album today.
I tiptoed down the hall to the bathroom and started the shower. I stood there in front of the mirror for a moment and looked at the person staring back at me.
God... soon millions of people would know who I was; my name, what I looked like, my favorite foods... everything. I hadn't really hit me before. I mean I knew that it was a possibility when we signed on with Reprise Records, but it never truly registered that I would be famous.
"Don't think about that... " I told myself out loud.
"You know, you shouldn't talk to yourself. People might think you were out of your mind."
I turned to see Amy, my little sister. She was 16 and had already had more boyfriends than I will ever have. I hated her sometimes, but we got along decently well most of the time.
"Shut up!" I told her rolling me eyes. "It's perfectly acceptable to talk to yourself as long as you don't talk back. What are you doing up so early anyways?"
"I am a morning person, remember? Besides, it's almost seven and mom told me that you guys had your photo shoot today," she said.
"Yeah and?" I asked casually.
"So I want to help." She answered.
"Help with what?" I looked at her and saw she was smiling.
"Um... I dunno. Did they tell you what to wear? I could help with that," she told me.
"I very much doubt that. First off, I don't wear pink everyday. Secondly, I'm not blonde." I shot at her grinning.
"Oh come on, I don't wear pink everyday... and I can't help I was born blonde." She informed me flipping her hair.
"Ok fine, you don't wear pink everyday, but you do wear both Hollister and American Eagle you filthy prep. Oh, and yes, you were born blonde, but it grew darker as you got older. You dye it that way now. So there," I retorted back at her, giggling now.
She gasped in pretend hurt.
"You dye your hair too you dirty punk!" she shrieked.
We both burst out laughing. It was our inside joke; we always made fun of each other about how we were so different in taste. She was a prep and I was a punk, and yet somehow we got along really well... despite the fact that I hated preps.
***
I got out of the shower and used a towel to wipe the condensation from the mirror. I brushed my teeth and went to go finish getting dressed.
I was debating what all to bring along with me when Amy knocked on the door.
"Hey," she greeted.
"Hey, which do you like better?" I asked as I held up two shirts.
"The left one," she answered as she walked over to the bed and sat down.
"Oh good that's what I thought too," I confirmed.
"I thought they provided that kind of stuff at photo shoots," she said.
"Well they have to approve everything, but it wouldn't really be us if they dressed us in all their stuff. They did tell us what kind of things to bring though, a couple casual outfits and a couple nicer ones. And no makeup," I told her.
She cringed at that.
"You mean you have to go outside... looking like that?" she whispered pretending to be horror struck.
I laughed. "Yeah but just think, makeup artists are gonna do it when I get there. That should be cool."
She was excited about that. She spent nearly ten minutes talking about the time her friend's, cousin's, step mom who was a makeup artist came down and gave them all makeovers. I finally stopped listening and got up to put International Superhits in the stereo. As "Maria" began playing, Amy glanced around the room. Her eyes stopped on the poster above the closet of Billie Joe.
"Is he nice?" she asked.
I followed her gaze to the poster and smiled.
"Yeah, he really is. All three of them are... well Tre is a little insane but he makes me laugh pretty hard," I confessed.
"And... " she paused and blushed. "Is he really that hot in person?"
I blushed too and got butterflies in my stomach. "Hotter."
"Wow," she sighed. Then she laughed, "And I don't even go for punks! So how many times have you talked to him now?"
"Um... 6 maybe? I run into him at the studios a lot and he usually stops to talk to me." I replied.
"Oooooh, keeping count are we? You have a crush on him don't you!" she teased.
I blushed. "No... "
Of course I didn't tell her I purposely found reasons to have to go near the particular studio they were recording in.
I caught her looking at me with a strange look on her face.
"Go away. I have to go soon and you're gonna make me late!" I shoved her out of the room while she laughed at me.
***
Pete and I pulled up to a large building in the city and I stumbled, somewhat ungracefully, out of his colossal black pickup. We walked into the building and spoke quickly to the lobbyist who pointed us in the right direction.
Brandon and Travis were waiting for us outside a set of double doors.
"Why are you just standing out in the hall?" Pete questioned them.
"We should go in together, don't you think?" Brandon replied.
"Good thinking," I agreed.
We took a deep breath and walked in together.
A lady holding a clipboard greeted us at the door and two men took our bags from us.
"Please follow me."
We followed her over to meet the photographer and a bunch of other people we were going to be working with for the next couple of hours. We were then sent over to wardrobe to get changed into whatever they wanted us to wear.
Our clothes had been taken out and hung up and two ladies were discussing them. They told me to come forward.
"Ladies first," one of them told me.
They put me up on a pedestal in front of some mirrors and held up a bunch of clothes trying to figure out what to dress me in. They finally decided on a shirt I had brought, a pair of pants they provided, a studded belt, a couple of different bracelets and the Vans I was wearing. It felt weird to let other people dress me.
I was sent to makeup as they brought Brandon to the stand. The lady there sat me down and looked at me in the mirror.
"First photo shoot right?" she asked me.
"Is it that obvious?" I asked her.
She smiled and began to hold up color swatches to my face.
"Let me guess, heavy black eyeliner around the eyes... hair down?"
"Yeah usually. But you're the professional so I'll trust you." I told her.
She laughed. "Why thank you. Most people tell me exactly what they want me to do. You're a nice break from the ordinary. Ok so here's what I want to do: black eyeliner, black eye shadow and mascara on the eyes. And since you have such gorgeous long hair I want to leave it down, parted to the side. And even though it's naturally straight, ill use a flat iron on it anyways. Ok with all that?"
"Uh yeah, sure," I responded.
She started getting to work and I began to think this would be an all day event... it was taking forever and there hadn't even been a picture taken yet.
***
The photo shoot was pretty successful I thought. They showed us the various poses on a computer after they were all taken so we could decide which ones we liked and would use for various things. McMillan thought it was better to have a lot of different ones for different occasions. We would need some for the album, publicity... even a fan site they were going to set up.
We walked out into the night air and I waved goodbye to Brandon and Travis as I climbed into Pete's truck.
***
A few days later I was sitting on the couch flipping through the channels. Nobody could do anything so I was bored. Amy was with yet another new boyfriend, Pete went with his dad somewhere, Brandon was hanging out with some girl he had asked out and Travis was grounded for climbing up on his roof one night. Don't ask.
Spike TV was playing some Star Trek re-run. Dull. Comedy Central had some comedian on that wasn't funny. Next. Fuse was playing bad rap music videos. Stupid.
I turned off the TV, put down the remote and closed my eyes. I hated it when I had nothing to do.
My cell phone started ringing, "Don't wanna be an American Idiot... "
I reached over to pick up my cell phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey it's Billie Joe. You doin anything?"
OH MY GOD! HOW DID HE GET THIS NUMBER?! OK CHILL. DON'T JUST SIT THERE, SAY SOMETHING!"
"Nah, everyone's busy."
"Yeah same here. You wanna go do something?"
My heart skipped a beat.
"Uh... just you and me?"
"Yeah... is that cool?"
"Totally."
"Cool, I'll come pick you up. Oh wait... where do you live?"
I told him the address and agreed to be ready in half an hour.
I hung up the phone and set it down on the table. Then I let out a shriek of delight. Billie Joe Armstrong had just asked me to go hang out with him.
Holy shit., was this a date?
"Ok so what about this?" Pete asked, playing a few bars on his guitar.
"I like that!" Brandon admitted and imitated what Pete had played.
"So have you talked to McMillan lately?" I asked Brandon.
"Yeah, this morning. He thinks we have enough material for the moment and we should come in to start a few more recording of some of the new stuff next week," he replied.
"Next week? Why next week?" Travis joined in.
"Because he said so," Brandon shot back. "I dunno, I wasn't about to question him."
We laughed.
"Yeah I don't think that would be too smart," I said.
"Don't think, you might hurt yourself," Travis told me.
"You little... "
I jumped up and dove at him. Brandon and Pete were rolling on the floor in laughter while I chased Travis around the room, attempting to catch him but failing, and ended up face down on the floor from tripping over Pete.
We were all clutching our sides and on the floor when Brandon's cell phone rang. He got up and picked it up from the table it was laying on.
"Uh... I don't recognize this number. I wonder who it is... "
He flipped open the phone and answered it.
"Hello?"
Then his eyes got real big.
"Oh hey Billie Joe... "
With that we all jumped straight up. My heart skipped a beat and I couldn't help but blush slightly.
"Huh?!"
We went over closer to him.
"No way!!"
I looked at Pete and he looked at me and nodded his head towards Brandon with a confused expression.
"Yeah man! Shit yeah!"
I shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea what he was talking about, but it must be real good news.
"Alright, see ya 'round."
Brandon hung up the phone and sat on the nearest chair. His face was glowing and his eyes were still round and enormous.
"Brad?" Travis asked with a worried look on his face. "Brandon? Are you ok man?"
He looked up at Travis and smiled.
"Yeah man, never been better," he replied.
"So what did he want?!" Pete pressed him.
He smiled. "We are going on tour with Green Day when our album is finished!"
I hugged Pete and screamed in delight. Travis was whooping and running around the room while Brandon still sat there with an amused look on his face.
"So tell me exactly what he said!" I yelled excitedly.
"Well, he said he had heard some of the stuff we recorded a couple of weeks ago and that he thought it was really good. Oh and something about McMillan owing him a favor... " he explained. "... but none of that really matters; do you realize how good this is going to be for us?!"
He jumped up and went to the window.
"We are going to be in front of thousands of people on our FIRST TOUR. I mean, bands have to wait years before having such an honor!"
He sighed excitedly.
We all sat there in awed silence. I was deep in thought when I realized something. Billie Joe wouldn't have done all that simply because he thought we were pretty good. So what was his real motive? Or was I just over thinking all this...
***
I woke up in the morning to the harsh sound of my alarm clock.
"Where the fuck is the snooze button?!"
I ended up falling right off the bed and onto the floor. I scrambled for the lamp switch and clicked on the light. It was still dark outside and it made me feel depressed... until I remembered why I had to get up so early. We had a photo shoot for the album today.
I tiptoed down the hall to the bathroom and started the shower. I stood there in front of the mirror for a moment and looked at the person staring back at me.
God... soon millions of people would know who I was; my name, what I looked like, my favorite foods... everything. I hadn't really hit me before. I mean I knew that it was a possibility when we signed on with Reprise Records, but it never truly registered that I would be famous.
"Don't think about that... " I told myself out loud.
"You know, you shouldn't talk to yourself. People might think you were out of your mind."
I turned to see Amy, my little sister. She was 16 and had already had more boyfriends than I will ever have. I hated her sometimes, but we got along decently well most of the time.
"Shut up!" I told her rolling me eyes. "It's perfectly acceptable to talk to yourself as long as you don't talk back. What are you doing up so early anyways?"
"I am a morning person, remember? Besides, it's almost seven and mom told me that you guys had your photo shoot today," she said.
"Yeah and?" I asked casually.
"So I want to help." She answered.
"Help with what?" I looked at her and saw she was smiling.
"Um... I dunno. Did they tell you what to wear? I could help with that," she told me.
"I very much doubt that. First off, I don't wear pink everyday. Secondly, I'm not blonde." I shot at her grinning.
"Oh come on, I don't wear pink everyday... and I can't help I was born blonde." She informed me flipping her hair.
"Ok fine, you don't wear pink everyday, but you do wear both Hollister and American Eagle you filthy prep. Oh, and yes, you were born blonde, but it grew darker as you got older. You dye it that way now. So there," I retorted back at her, giggling now.
She gasped in pretend hurt.
"You dye your hair too you dirty punk!" she shrieked.
We both burst out laughing. It was our inside joke; we always made fun of each other about how we were so different in taste. She was a prep and I was a punk, and yet somehow we got along really well... despite the fact that I hated preps.
***
I got out of the shower and used a towel to wipe the condensation from the mirror. I brushed my teeth and went to go finish getting dressed.
I was debating what all to bring along with me when Amy knocked on the door.
"Hey," she greeted.
"Hey, which do you like better?" I asked as I held up two shirts.
"The left one," she answered as she walked over to the bed and sat down.
"Oh good that's what I thought too," I confirmed.
"I thought they provided that kind of stuff at photo shoots," she said.
"Well they have to approve everything, but it wouldn't really be us if they dressed us in all their stuff. They did tell us what kind of things to bring though, a couple casual outfits and a couple nicer ones. And no makeup," I told her.
She cringed at that.
"You mean you have to go outside... looking like that?" she whispered pretending to be horror struck.
I laughed. "Yeah but just think, makeup artists are gonna do it when I get there. That should be cool."
She was excited about that. She spent nearly ten minutes talking about the time her friend's, cousin's, step mom who was a makeup artist came down and gave them all makeovers. I finally stopped listening and got up to put International Superhits in the stereo. As "Maria" began playing, Amy glanced around the room. Her eyes stopped on the poster above the closet of Billie Joe.
"Is he nice?" she asked.
I followed her gaze to the poster and smiled.
"Yeah, he really is. All three of them are... well Tre is a little insane but he makes me laugh pretty hard," I confessed.
"And... " she paused and blushed. "Is he really that hot in person?"
I blushed too and got butterflies in my stomach. "Hotter."
"Wow," she sighed. Then she laughed, "And I don't even go for punks! So how many times have you talked to him now?"
"Um... 6 maybe? I run into him at the studios a lot and he usually stops to talk to me." I replied.
"Oooooh, keeping count are we? You have a crush on him don't you!" she teased.
I blushed. "No... "
Of course I didn't tell her I purposely found reasons to have to go near the particular studio they were recording in.
I caught her looking at me with a strange look on her face.
"Go away. I have to go soon and you're gonna make me late!" I shoved her out of the room while she laughed at me.
***
Pete and I pulled up to a large building in the city and I stumbled, somewhat ungracefully, out of his colossal black pickup. We walked into the building and spoke quickly to the lobbyist who pointed us in the right direction.
Brandon and Travis were waiting for us outside a set of double doors.
"Why are you just standing out in the hall?" Pete questioned them.
"We should go in together, don't you think?" Brandon replied.
"Good thinking," I agreed.
We took a deep breath and walked in together.
A lady holding a clipboard greeted us at the door and two men took our bags from us.
"Please follow me."
We followed her over to meet the photographer and a bunch of other people we were going to be working with for the next couple of hours. We were then sent over to wardrobe to get changed into whatever they wanted us to wear.
Our clothes had been taken out and hung up and two ladies were discussing them. They told me to come forward.
"Ladies first," one of them told me.
They put me up on a pedestal in front of some mirrors and held up a bunch of clothes trying to figure out what to dress me in. They finally decided on a shirt I had brought, a pair of pants they provided, a studded belt, a couple of different bracelets and the Vans I was wearing. It felt weird to let other people dress me.
I was sent to makeup as they brought Brandon to the stand. The lady there sat me down and looked at me in the mirror.
"First photo shoot right?" she asked me.
"Is it that obvious?" I asked her.
She smiled and began to hold up color swatches to my face.
"Let me guess, heavy black eyeliner around the eyes... hair down?"
"Yeah usually. But you're the professional so I'll trust you." I told her.
She laughed. "Why thank you. Most people tell me exactly what they want me to do. You're a nice break from the ordinary. Ok so here's what I want to do: black eyeliner, black eye shadow and mascara on the eyes. And since you have such gorgeous long hair I want to leave it down, parted to the side. And even though it's naturally straight, ill use a flat iron on it anyways. Ok with all that?"
"Uh yeah, sure," I responded.
She started getting to work and I began to think this would be an all day event... it was taking forever and there hadn't even been a picture taken yet.
***
The photo shoot was pretty successful I thought. They showed us the various poses on a computer after they were all taken so we could decide which ones we liked and would use for various things. McMillan thought it was better to have a lot of different ones for different occasions. We would need some for the album, publicity... even a fan site they were going to set up.
We walked out into the night air and I waved goodbye to Brandon and Travis as I climbed into Pete's truck.
***
A few days later I was sitting on the couch flipping through the channels. Nobody could do anything so I was bored. Amy was with yet another new boyfriend, Pete went with his dad somewhere, Brandon was hanging out with some girl he had asked out and Travis was grounded for climbing up on his roof one night. Don't ask.
Spike TV was playing some Star Trek re-run. Dull. Comedy Central had some comedian on that wasn't funny. Next. Fuse was playing bad rap music videos. Stupid.
I turned off the TV, put down the remote and closed my eyes. I hated it when I had nothing to do.
My cell phone started ringing, "Don't wanna be an American Idiot... "
I reached over to pick up my cell phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey it's Billie Joe. You doin anything?"
OH MY GOD! HOW DID HE GET THIS NUMBER?! OK CHILL. DON'T JUST SIT THERE, SAY SOMETHING!"
"Nah, everyone's busy."
"Yeah same here. You wanna go do something?"
My heart skipped a beat.
"Uh... just you and me?"
"Yeah... is that cool?"
"Totally."
"Cool, I'll come pick you up. Oh wait... where do you live?"
I told him the address and agreed to be ready in half an hour.
I hung up the phone and set it down on the table. Then I let out a shriek of delight. Billie Joe Armstrong had just asked me to go hang out with him.
Holy shit., was this a date?
