Time Spent, chapter 7
My first day back was a Thursday. I walked into the building with Pete, thinking it would be a good day, but everyone stopped to watch me walk in.
I stopped and turned to Pete with a questioning look on my face.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the lobby, shaking his head in disbelief.
"It got around quick. Really quick," he told me once we were out of earshot.
"What did?"
He hesitated, clearly wishing he hadn't had to bring it up at all.
"What did?" I repeated a little more forcefully.
"What happened to you the other day," he sighed.
"Everyone knows?!" I yelled angrily, stopping in the middle of the hallway.
"Yeah," he answered regretfully stopping beside me. "None of us told anyone, but these kinds of things are hard to keep quiet you know? I'm really sorry."
"Don't be sorry, it wasn't your fault."
"Just don't let it get to you. Ignore them and they'll forget about it soon enough."
I faked a smile and pretended that none of it bothered me, but the truth was that it did. I was angry and hurt at the same time. I felt horrible about what Tim had done to me and I didn't need a whole bunch of strangers pitying me. I didn't want their pity! I just wanted to forget that it had ever happened!
Pete headed off down the hall once again and I fell into step with him.
***
We had finished working for the day and I was talking to Greg, one of our recording technicians. The guys had already gone and it was only me and him left. We were laughing about something he had said when McMillan came walking in.
"I was hoping to find you alone. There are some... 'issues' we need to discuss," He told me.
"Oh ok. I'll meet you in your office."
He nodded and headed in that direction.
"Um... Issues?" Greg asked tentatively.
"I have no idea what he wants. Probably something about the album or something," I replied.
"Hopefully; I'd hate for you to get fired!" he told me.
"Fired?!" I exploded with laughter, causing him to laugh as well.
"What was I thinking? They can't just fire you. I need some coffee... or sleep, which would be even better."
"Go home to your wife Greg, you're delirious!"
I laughed and headed towards the door. I picked up my bag and waved goodbye before I went off to McMillan's office.
***
I arrived at McMillan's office a short walk later and knocked softly. His secretary had already gone home for the evening and it was uncomfortably quiet.
"Come in," I heard through the door.
I opened it and inched into the room. His office had always intimidated me.
"Oh good, have a seat," he told me, motioning towards the twin chairs facing his large mahogany desk.
I sat down and set my bag down on the floor beside me.
"So how have you been?" He began.
"Uh... fine," I responded, uncertain where this conversation was headed.
"That's good. I'm very glad to hear that."
"Thank you?"
"You may be wondering why I've asked you to come by my office so late and without the other band members."
"Yes, I'm a little confused by it."
"Well, I needed to talk to you alone. You see, I need to discuss with you certain... actions taken by a certain person."
"If you mean Tim almost raping me in the middle of the studio I'd rather not talk about it!" I spat angrily.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to upset you. However, we must discuss the legal issues. Legal action will be taken if you decide to press charges against him. We have already threatened court action should he come 100 yards from the building, however you may be able to get a restraining order on him if you so choose."
"What would that mean for us and our album?"
"I cannot be definite in my answer; however, it may affect both. You would have to spend a lot of time in court meaning that you may not finish the album in time, putting extra pressure on you and the rest of the group."
"So what do you recommend?"
He was silent for a moment, leaning back in his chair and playing with his goatee.
"I am unsure what to advise you to do. Should you do nothing and depend solely on his promise that he is truly repentant and would never lay a hand on you again, you may be making a mistake. You trusted him once and he abused that. And if he were to try something of that kind again when you were widely known to the public, unlike now, it would be more of a scandal that would bring negative publicity, possibly at a critical time. However, to take action now would, as I said before, seriously disrupt the release schedule and could hurt sales when it is finally released. It is a gamble and only you can choose."
I sighed. Neither option was a very good one. In one hand I had the album and the guys. In the other, I had myself not getting raped. Wow, great options.
"I care more about this album and the rest of the band than I do about Tim. I would never forgive myself if I was the one responsible for ruining everything before we were really even given a chance to show the world who we are and what we can do. I won't push for a restraining order."
"A very political answer. Have you ever considered being a politician?" he asked, smiling slightly.
I smiled back. "And leave all this? Not a chance."
***
The last days before deadline went flying by; but when August twelfth finally came, we finished by noon.
We rushed out into the sunshine together and walked over to where the cars were parked.
"We should do something fun. I mean, we haven't done anything fun for weeks now, we've been too busy," I said as I slid my bass into the bed of Pete's truck.
"Yeah we should. Anybody got any suggestions?" Pete asked as he put his guitar into the back and slammed the door shut.
"Hm... it's not like there's much to do around here. Let's see, there's the movie theatre, uh... that place where you can bowl and play pool, um... the park... that's all I can think of," Travis said.
"I'd rather do something outside," Brandon told us.
"Me too," Pete said.
"Well, we can get some food and have a picnic at the park. Maybe we could get some other people to come," I threw in.
"Who should we ask?" Travis asked.
"Oh, we should get some people from school! We haven't seen any of them since school got out!" Pete suggested.
"Good idea. Ok, Travis and I will call and see who all can come. You two go get some food. We'll meet at the park in an hour. Oh, and bring a ball or something," Brandon said excitedly.
"Alright, see you in an hour," Pete agreed.
We climbed into the truck and drove off towards home.
***
"We should stop at the store on the way. I don't think we have enough food," I told Pete.
"Good idea."
He pulled into the grocery store and parked. We got out and walked towards the store.
"I'll get a basket," Pete said as he headed over towards the parked baskets.
"Alright."
We walked inside and looked down the aisles.
"Drinks first?" Pete asked.
"Um... we should probably find out how many people are coming. I'd feel bad if we didn't get enough-"
My phone started to ring, cutting me off.
"Hello?"
"Hey, are you guys done yet?" Billie Joe asked.
"Yeah, didn't Brandon call you?"
"No, was he supposed to?"
"No, I just figured he would. We're going to the park to have a picnic and play around and stuff. He was in charge of seeing who could come, I guess he just stuck to the people we used to go to school with. If you want to come, you can. Mike and Tre too."
"I'll run it past them, but I'm in for sure."
"Awesome. Ok call me and tell me if they're coming."
"Will do."
"Bye."
I hung up and turned to Pete.
"That was Billie Joe."
"I figured. Are they gonna come?"
"He is for sure; he's callin the guys to see if they're in."
"That'll be cool. Oh, by the way, I called Brandon while you were on the phone and he said so far nine other people are going."
"So that makes fourteen so far, we'll plan for twenty people then, I'd rather have too much stuff than too little."
"Drinks are closest, we should start there."
"Ok, I'll follow you."
***
The day was nice, the sun shone and there was a slight breeze. Pete and I were the first to get there, followed by Billie Joe.
"You're early," I told him.
"Yeah, traffic was unusually light," he said, grabbing a bag from the passenger seat of his car. "I brought some beer, hope you don't mind."
"Not at all man," Pete declared, shaking his hand.
He helped us unload all the food from the back of Pete's truck and spread out a few blankets. Soon after we had finished, Travis, Brandon, Jon and Alex all arrived in Brandon's car.
They headed over towards us, Jon and Alex fighting over who would win in a fight, the Easter Bunny or Santa Clause.
"Hands down the Easter Bunny," Jon said.
"Nah, Santa Clause!" Alex argued back.
"Please, he's old and fat and lame. The Bunny could take him any day!" Jon reasoned.
Billie Joe caught my eye and raised his eyebrows. I giggled and shook my head.
"But Santa Clause has magic," Alex suggested.
"The Easter Bunny does too actually," Billie Joe put in.
"Yeah, what he-" Jon stopped mid sentence and turned his head. His eyes were the size of dinner plates.
"Holy shit!" Alex said faintly.
"Uh guys, this is Billie Joe Armstrong. He works for Reprise too," Brandon said trying to keep a straight face.
With that, Mike's car pulled up and Billie Joe's fellow band members walked over to us. Jon and Alex looked like they were ready to faint.
"Oh, and his friends Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool."
None of us could contain our amusement any longer. We exploded in laughter and Jon and Alex finally regained their composure.
***
After everyone had finally arrived, gotten over their initial shock of seeing Green Day, and got introduced to everyone, we all sat down to eat. Everyone was laughing and getting along well, and we were all having a really good time.
Billie Joe was sitting next to me having a hard time trying to control himself while I talked to Zack and Will, Pete was deep in conversation with Jon and Alex, Brandon was talking about the album with Cliff, Garrett and Liz. Travis and Tre were really hitting it off. They were almost the same person; they both played the drums and had the exact same personality. It was entertaining to watch. Mike and Kelly were discussing a movie she had seen earlier that day.
After everyone had finished eating Travis and Tre jumped up and started tossing the football Garrett had brought back and forth. A couple more people eventually joined in.
"We should play a game of football. We have plenty of people," Zack suggested.
"Yeah, we should. Who wants to play?" Brandon asked.
Everyone agreed to play and Brandon and Travis were chosen as team captains. Travis immediately chose Tre, giving Brandon first ball. It ended up being me, Brandon, Pete, Cliff, Kelly, Mike and Jon on one team and Travis, Tre, Alex, Zack, Will, Garrett, Liz and Billie Joe on the other.
"Are we gonna play touch or tackle?" Travis asked.
"Tackle!" shouted several people while several others shouted "Touch!"
"Flip a coin," Pete suggested.
Brandon flipped a coin after debating with Travis which heads should be, touch or tackle. It landed on tails, meaning we would be playing tackle.
***
It was the fourth quarter and we were all tied up. If we scored this one, our team would win the game.
We lined up and prepared to play. Brandon, playing as quarterback, yelled "Hike!" and I ran down towards the endzone.
Brandon threw the ball to me and I ran to catch it. I could hear somebody coming up behind me fast and I could see Pete to my left, running over towards me, preparing to catch the ball should I not make it.
I caught the ball and, despite my efforts, somebody was gaining on me. I pitched the ball to Pete just before they finally tackled me.
"Gotcha!" yelled Billie Joe from on top of me.
I heard cheering and rolled over to see Pete score the winning points.
"Ha! Not good enough Armstrong!" I laughed.
"I'll show you, you little... "
He began to tickle me ruthlessly and I begged for mercy.
"Please... stop!" I managed to choke out between fits of laughter.
"No!" he laughed.
I squirmed and tried to twist my way out from under him.
"Billie Joe!" I yelled, laughing still. "My sides hurt! Let me go!"
He finally released me and helped me stand up, grinning evilly all the while. I hit him playfully on the shoulder making him smile even bigger.
"Jerk... "
***
It was getting dark fast and we started to pick up everything and bring it to Pete's truck. Slowly, people started to leave until only Pete, Brandon, Travis, Mike, Billie Joe and I were left. Billie Joe kept finding reasons to touch me and I could feel eyes watching me.
I looked around at all the faces standing in the circle. I found myself looking into a pair of startlingly blue eyes. For a moment I held them before looking down. I knew that he knew about me and Billie Joe just from that look.
Finally everyone got fed up with being eaten alive by mosquitoes and that it was time to leave. They all started to get in their cars and start them and I ran over to Billie Joe's. He rolled down the window.
"I think Tre knows about us," I told him quietly.
He glanced out the window at Tre who was getting into Mike's car and sighed.
"Maybe it would just be easier to tell them all. I mean, Pete knows and Tre now knows... " I proposed.
"We need to talk this over, hop in," he told me.
"I'll go tell Pete he doesn't need to wait for me."
I jogged over to Pete's truck and told him that I was going to Billie Joe's and not to wait up for me. He gave me a disapproving look.
"Spending the night?" he asked.
"It's not like that; I think Tre has figured it out. I think we should just tell the rest of them but he's not so sure."
"That makes me feel better," he muttered.
I ran back over and got in to Billie Joe's car.
I stopped and turned to Pete with a questioning look on my face.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the lobby, shaking his head in disbelief.
"It got around quick. Really quick," he told me once we were out of earshot.
"What did?"
He hesitated, clearly wishing he hadn't had to bring it up at all.
"What did?" I repeated a little more forcefully.
"What happened to you the other day," he sighed.
"Everyone knows?!" I yelled angrily, stopping in the middle of the hallway.
"Yeah," he answered regretfully stopping beside me. "None of us told anyone, but these kinds of things are hard to keep quiet you know? I'm really sorry."
"Don't be sorry, it wasn't your fault."
"Just don't let it get to you. Ignore them and they'll forget about it soon enough."
I faked a smile and pretended that none of it bothered me, but the truth was that it did. I was angry and hurt at the same time. I felt horrible about what Tim had done to me and I didn't need a whole bunch of strangers pitying me. I didn't want their pity! I just wanted to forget that it had ever happened!
Pete headed off down the hall once again and I fell into step with him.
***
We had finished working for the day and I was talking to Greg, one of our recording technicians. The guys had already gone and it was only me and him left. We were laughing about something he had said when McMillan came walking in.
"I was hoping to find you alone. There are some... 'issues' we need to discuss," He told me.
"Oh ok. I'll meet you in your office."
He nodded and headed in that direction.
"Um... Issues?" Greg asked tentatively.
"I have no idea what he wants. Probably something about the album or something," I replied.
"Hopefully; I'd hate for you to get fired!" he told me.
"Fired?!" I exploded with laughter, causing him to laugh as well.
"What was I thinking? They can't just fire you. I need some coffee... or sleep, which would be even better."
"Go home to your wife Greg, you're delirious!"
I laughed and headed towards the door. I picked up my bag and waved goodbye before I went off to McMillan's office.
***
I arrived at McMillan's office a short walk later and knocked softly. His secretary had already gone home for the evening and it was uncomfortably quiet.
"Come in," I heard through the door.
I opened it and inched into the room. His office had always intimidated me.
"Oh good, have a seat," he told me, motioning towards the twin chairs facing his large mahogany desk.
I sat down and set my bag down on the floor beside me.
"So how have you been?" He began.
"Uh... fine," I responded, uncertain where this conversation was headed.
"That's good. I'm very glad to hear that."
"Thank you?"
"You may be wondering why I've asked you to come by my office so late and without the other band members."
"Yes, I'm a little confused by it."
"Well, I needed to talk to you alone. You see, I need to discuss with you certain... actions taken by a certain person."
"If you mean Tim almost raping me in the middle of the studio I'd rather not talk about it!" I spat angrily.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to upset you. However, we must discuss the legal issues. Legal action will be taken if you decide to press charges against him. We have already threatened court action should he come 100 yards from the building, however you may be able to get a restraining order on him if you so choose."
"What would that mean for us and our album?"
"I cannot be definite in my answer; however, it may affect both. You would have to spend a lot of time in court meaning that you may not finish the album in time, putting extra pressure on you and the rest of the group."
"So what do you recommend?"
He was silent for a moment, leaning back in his chair and playing with his goatee.
"I am unsure what to advise you to do. Should you do nothing and depend solely on his promise that he is truly repentant and would never lay a hand on you again, you may be making a mistake. You trusted him once and he abused that. And if he were to try something of that kind again when you were widely known to the public, unlike now, it would be more of a scandal that would bring negative publicity, possibly at a critical time. However, to take action now would, as I said before, seriously disrupt the release schedule and could hurt sales when it is finally released. It is a gamble and only you can choose."
I sighed. Neither option was a very good one. In one hand I had the album and the guys. In the other, I had myself not getting raped. Wow, great options.
"I care more about this album and the rest of the band than I do about Tim. I would never forgive myself if I was the one responsible for ruining everything before we were really even given a chance to show the world who we are and what we can do. I won't push for a restraining order."
"A very political answer. Have you ever considered being a politician?" he asked, smiling slightly.
I smiled back. "And leave all this? Not a chance."
***
The last days before deadline went flying by; but when August twelfth finally came, we finished by noon.
We rushed out into the sunshine together and walked over to where the cars were parked.
"We should do something fun. I mean, we haven't done anything fun for weeks now, we've been too busy," I said as I slid my bass into the bed of Pete's truck.
"Yeah we should. Anybody got any suggestions?" Pete asked as he put his guitar into the back and slammed the door shut.
"Hm... it's not like there's much to do around here. Let's see, there's the movie theatre, uh... that place where you can bowl and play pool, um... the park... that's all I can think of," Travis said.
"I'd rather do something outside," Brandon told us.
"Me too," Pete said.
"Well, we can get some food and have a picnic at the park. Maybe we could get some other people to come," I threw in.
"Who should we ask?" Travis asked.
"Oh, we should get some people from school! We haven't seen any of them since school got out!" Pete suggested.
"Good idea. Ok, Travis and I will call and see who all can come. You two go get some food. We'll meet at the park in an hour. Oh, and bring a ball or something," Brandon said excitedly.
"Alright, see you in an hour," Pete agreed.
We climbed into the truck and drove off towards home.
***
"We should stop at the store on the way. I don't think we have enough food," I told Pete.
"Good idea."
He pulled into the grocery store and parked. We got out and walked towards the store.
"I'll get a basket," Pete said as he headed over towards the parked baskets.
"Alright."
We walked inside and looked down the aisles.
"Drinks first?" Pete asked.
"Um... we should probably find out how many people are coming. I'd feel bad if we didn't get enough-"
My phone started to ring, cutting me off.
"Hello?"
"Hey, are you guys done yet?" Billie Joe asked.
"Yeah, didn't Brandon call you?"
"No, was he supposed to?"
"No, I just figured he would. We're going to the park to have a picnic and play around and stuff. He was in charge of seeing who could come, I guess he just stuck to the people we used to go to school with. If you want to come, you can. Mike and Tre too."
"I'll run it past them, but I'm in for sure."
"Awesome. Ok call me and tell me if they're coming."
"Will do."
"Bye."
I hung up and turned to Pete.
"That was Billie Joe."
"I figured. Are they gonna come?"
"He is for sure; he's callin the guys to see if they're in."
"That'll be cool. Oh, by the way, I called Brandon while you were on the phone and he said so far nine other people are going."
"So that makes fourteen so far, we'll plan for twenty people then, I'd rather have too much stuff than too little."
"Drinks are closest, we should start there."
"Ok, I'll follow you."
***
The day was nice, the sun shone and there was a slight breeze. Pete and I were the first to get there, followed by Billie Joe.
"You're early," I told him.
"Yeah, traffic was unusually light," he said, grabbing a bag from the passenger seat of his car. "I brought some beer, hope you don't mind."
"Not at all man," Pete declared, shaking his hand.
He helped us unload all the food from the back of Pete's truck and spread out a few blankets. Soon after we had finished, Travis, Brandon, Jon and Alex all arrived in Brandon's car.
They headed over towards us, Jon and Alex fighting over who would win in a fight, the Easter Bunny or Santa Clause.
"Hands down the Easter Bunny," Jon said.
"Nah, Santa Clause!" Alex argued back.
"Please, he's old and fat and lame. The Bunny could take him any day!" Jon reasoned.
Billie Joe caught my eye and raised his eyebrows. I giggled and shook my head.
"But Santa Clause has magic," Alex suggested.
"The Easter Bunny does too actually," Billie Joe put in.
"Yeah, what he-" Jon stopped mid sentence and turned his head. His eyes were the size of dinner plates.
"Holy shit!" Alex said faintly.
"Uh guys, this is Billie Joe Armstrong. He works for Reprise too," Brandon said trying to keep a straight face.
With that, Mike's car pulled up and Billie Joe's fellow band members walked over to us. Jon and Alex looked like they were ready to faint.
"Oh, and his friends Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool."
None of us could contain our amusement any longer. We exploded in laughter and Jon and Alex finally regained their composure.
***
After everyone had finally arrived, gotten over their initial shock of seeing Green Day, and got introduced to everyone, we all sat down to eat. Everyone was laughing and getting along well, and we were all having a really good time.
Billie Joe was sitting next to me having a hard time trying to control himself while I talked to Zack and Will, Pete was deep in conversation with Jon and Alex, Brandon was talking about the album with Cliff, Garrett and Liz. Travis and Tre were really hitting it off. They were almost the same person; they both played the drums and had the exact same personality. It was entertaining to watch. Mike and Kelly were discussing a movie she had seen earlier that day.
After everyone had finished eating Travis and Tre jumped up and started tossing the football Garrett had brought back and forth. A couple more people eventually joined in.
"We should play a game of football. We have plenty of people," Zack suggested.
"Yeah, we should. Who wants to play?" Brandon asked.
Everyone agreed to play and Brandon and Travis were chosen as team captains. Travis immediately chose Tre, giving Brandon first ball. It ended up being me, Brandon, Pete, Cliff, Kelly, Mike and Jon on one team and Travis, Tre, Alex, Zack, Will, Garrett, Liz and Billie Joe on the other.
"Are we gonna play touch or tackle?" Travis asked.
"Tackle!" shouted several people while several others shouted "Touch!"
"Flip a coin," Pete suggested.
Brandon flipped a coin after debating with Travis which heads should be, touch or tackle. It landed on tails, meaning we would be playing tackle.
***
It was the fourth quarter and we were all tied up. If we scored this one, our team would win the game.
We lined up and prepared to play. Brandon, playing as quarterback, yelled "Hike!" and I ran down towards the endzone.
Brandon threw the ball to me and I ran to catch it. I could hear somebody coming up behind me fast and I could see Pete to my left, running over towards me, preparing to catch the ball should I not make it.
I caught the ball and, despite my efforts, somebody was gaining on me. I pitched the ball to Pete just before they finally tackled me.
"Gotcha!" yelled Billie Joe from on top of me.
I heard cheering and rolled over to see Pete score the winning points.
"Ha! Not good enough Armstrong!" I laughed.
"I'll show you, you little... "
He began to tickle me ruthlessly and I begged for mercy.
"Please... stop!" I managed to choke out between fits of laughter.
"No!" he laughed.
I squirmed and tried to twist my way out from under him.
"Billie Joe!" I yelled, laughing still. "My sides hurt! Let me go!"
He finally released me and helped me stand up, grinning evilly all the while. I hit him playfully on the shoulder making him smile even bigger.
"Jerk... "
***
It was getting dark fast and we started to pick up everything and bring it to Pete's truck. Slowly, people started to leave until only Pete, Brandon, Travis, Mike, Billie Joe and I were left. Billie Joe kept finding reasons to touch me and I could feel eyes watching me.
I looked around at all the faces standing in the circle. I found myself looking into a pair of startlingly blue eyes. For a moment I held them before looking down. I knew that he knew about me and Billie Joe just from that look.
Finally everyone got fed up with being eaten alive by mosquitoes and that it was time to leave. They all started to get in their cars and start them and I ran over to Billie Joe's. He rolled down the window.
"I think Tre knows about us," I told him quietly.
He glanced out the window at Tre who was getting into Mike's car and sighed.
"Maybe it would just be easier to tell them all. I mean, Pete knows and Tre now knows... " I proposed.
"We need to talk this over, hop in," he told me.
"I'll go tell Pete he doesn't need to wait for me."
I jogged over to Pete's truck and told him that I was going to Billie Joe's and not to wait up for me. He gave me a disapproving look.
"Spending the night?" he asked.
"It's not like that; I think Tre has figured it out. I think we should just tell the rest of them but he's not so sure."
"That makes me feel better," he muttered.
I ran back over and got in to Billie Joe's car.
