Sweet Children Come Out and Play, chapter 24
Brites and Richelle knocked quietly on the front door of Billie Joe and Delphine's place. Billie was out with the boys at the studio. Tre had run off that morning singing some perverted song he insisted would be called Dominated Love Slave and that they need Richelle's voice to be in the background for it or something. She was not quite so sure about this - knowing the things that come out of Tre's mouth when someone gives him the microphone and a guitar (bad combination by the way) - but he vowed not to give up. And so continued nagging.
This was the first time Billie could be pried away from home. Delphine had been back nearly a week now. She was feeling much better - or so she said an uncountable amount of times to Billie Joe - but was not able to do much without the pain of moving. Sitting was fine. Sitting and not moving didn't hurt, but it was frustrating when Delphine was the type of person who was always up and doing things around the house, even with her friends there. It was a curse from her mother too.
So Richelle and Brites walked over to cheer her up now that she was feeling better. Brites knocked again. This time a, "Come in!" was heard from far inside. They swung the unlocked door open and made themselves at home.
"HELLO DELPHINE!" Richelle ran over with open arms and fell onto the couch, trying not to fall on her. That would not be the best at the moment.
"Hey guys. Richelle. Someone's had coffee."
"Uh, yes-"
"She's been taking lessons from Tre," Brites said with a smug look. She was raiding the fridge.
"Oh, shut up."
"I'm glad you guys are here. I was getting lonely."
"Yeah, I wasn't. Tre would not shut the hell up about this new song that, for some reason, Billie and Mike agreed to."
"Ah yes, that one."
"And what is the problem with se'd song?" Brites had no idea what this was about.
"Oh, don't worry. Treness spreads fast. You will find out soon enough."
"Hey, I haven't seen Cody in a few days. Did we scare her off?"
"Nope. She's on a date right now... with Jason!" Richelle giggled in her little secretive way.
"Really?"
"Apparently, they hit it off at the show," Delphine fiddled with the three guitar picks hung around her neck on the silver chain.
"That's cute."
"Speaking of Mike... " Brites jumped over to Delphine's other side. "Have any of you noticed anything about him?"
"No."
"No, why eh?"
"Well, he's been acting a little weird. I don't know, he's been extra quiet lately, and like, sheepish."
"Sheepish?"
"Yes Richelle, like a sheep. No, I mean just withdrawn."
"I suppose that is true. But I didn't see anything weird with all the things that have been going on lately."
"Yeah, I suppose. I don't mean to be suspicious. I can't help it."
"Well, we might as well say it then. He's one of three things. He's on drugs, he's cheating or something else is going on and it's probably harmless."
"Well, what do you think?"
"It's not drugs, I haven't seen any."
"So he's cheating or he's fine. I wouldn't worry Brites. I just can't imagine him doing that."
"Well then I'm worried about him."
***
Jason sat on the wall looking out over the bay. He had sat there a dozen times before and looked out over the cold dirty yet calming water and thought about things. Everything. Everything from which girl he wanted to marry, where they would live and how many kids there would be, to blowing his brains out into the bay and letting someone else take care of it. He never thought he would be sitting next to this girl who was with him now though. In fact, he had never sat next to anyone on this wall. The girls he had loved before never would want to come to this cold dirty place in the late hours of the night like he did. But then, he had never met another girl like Cody before. Now she was sitting with him by the docks.
For awhile, neither said a word. This was just one of those times to be quiet. Eventually, Jason spoke, "It's 12. Do you want to go back yet?"
"Only if you want to."
"Well, I don't know. I could sit here forever so it's up to you."
"Let's stay a little longer. It's nice out here. Sort of fresh and away from the city."
"Ok," Jason looked back out across the bay like he had done a thousand times before since he moved to California from out east. For a time, he used to sit on the other side of the bay, in San Francisco, looking back over the Bay Bridge to Oakland. He always thought about how he wanted to be over there. 'Over there must be so much better than here. Anywhere is better than here.' When he finally moved out of his parent's house two years ago, he moved straight across the bridge. Then he found the same things he had left. It was the same town, different people. At least here he could start over with new faces. So he stayed.
If all he moved here to do was to meet Cody, then that would have been just fine with him at that moment. For once, he was starring at the water but not seeing. Instead he was imagining the girl beside him. First her pretty pale face, her dreadlocks and then undressing her in his mind. And she asked to stay so he cautiously placed his hand over hers which was resting by her thigh. She didn't flinch or move away or anything as all girls seemed to do in the past. They all had taken a long time to warm up to him. She didn't think twice. 'No wonder she had become such a good friend to them all so fast,' he thought as a fire engine when roaring by.
As it passed by, Cody looked up to see it disappear in the other direction and the lights flee into darkness, and as her gaze fell back, she met Jason's. Then she stopped. This seemed like one of those classic moments where he should have leaned forward and kissed her, but the moment came and time ruined it with his hesitation. But then she did something he would never expect. Cody leaned forward and slowly kissed his lips. For a second, Jason was too stunned to think. Then he reached forward and kissed her again with tingling lips. He smiled at her thinking, 'I didn't know girls were allowed to do that,' and Cody thinking, 'Life is too fucking short so live it up.' Damn, he should have looked for girls at the rock shows before.
Jason blew his brains into the bay that night, just before he hopped off the wall, got into the car beside Cody and drove home. He left someone else behind, but the kid named Jason kept running. (That's his name. And everyone's name. Don't you fucking wear it out.)
***
Billie Joe burst through the door of his home, "Delphine! DELPHINE!"
Delphine shot out of her chair frightened. "Billie?"
"Delphine I have a surprise!"
"A surprise. Billie you just scared the shit out of me."
"Oh, sorry. It's a happy surprise! I got us an offer for an apartment in a complex on the edge of the city just a few blocks from the beach!"
"Really!" Delphine jumped up and ran into this arms. "That's awesome! We have to take it! Is it nice?"
"I have pictures, here," he pulled some crumpled photos out of his pocket. Delphine held them up to the light.
"Billie, this looked perfect! And it's bigger too."
"Yep, and it's in a condo instead of an apartment building."
"That's awesome. How the fuck are we going to afford it?"
"Actually, that's the second thing. We are finishing Kerplunk! and we got pay checks." He slipped it out of his pocket and showed his wife giving the edges a little tug.
She read the amount, "You're kidding! Billie, that's so cool!" Delphine kissed him she was so happy. "Oh, I'm just sad that we'll be so far away from everyone."
"It's only fifteen minutes away from here. But, there is one more thing." He was really on a roll here with the news casts. "There were five openings at the condo left because it was just built and opened a month ago, and Mike and Tre want to each take one."
"Really? Ah! That's awesome!" Delphine jumped on Billie she was so happy. "We're all moving together then?"
"Yep, I just have to go make the call."
"I've run out of adjectives so go make the call!" she ran and personally got the phone. Five minutes later with a random guy mumbling over the phone and Delphine staining to here what was going on before she realized she could just go pick up the other receiver to ease-drop, Billie clicked the phone off and smiled.
"We got it. Mike and Tre already called. We're moving in two weeks."
"Two weeks!?"
"It's now or never."
"That's not a lot of time. Let's start packing right now."
"You are not starting now with heavy stuff."
"But I feel so much better now."
"But you're also six months pregnant. Let's go celebrate," He pulled her body close to his and kissed her.
"Ok, that sounds good too."
***
Packing was actually not too bad on account that they did not have much stuff. There was a lot of "do we still need this piece of crap?" and "Yes! Of course we have to keep that! It's my lucky broken drum stick, guitar pick, box of rags, shirt tags, harpoon and other random stuff...
And then there was Billie rampaging through the two houses before just before they were about to leave, found them packing and frantically gasped, "WHERE'S BLUE!?"
"We packed Blue."
"Oh. Ok... " he breathed.
"Sorry baby, Blue is safe."
Two weeks total later and they were standing in front of their new homes. There they were all in a row. Billie and Delphine's first, Brites and Mike to their right, and Tre and Richelle's last. It wasn't long before they were moved in. At least, the boxes were moved IN the house, around the corner and onto the floor. Then they did what just seemed right; crash at Mike and Brites' house. They had the biggest kitchen and living room so that just made sense.
When everyone finally stumbled through the door and onto the living room floor, Tre pretended to clasps and die of exhaustion before Richelle did the same falling on top of him. "AH! Get off woman!"
"I'm too tired!" she whined.
"Bitch! I'm suffocating!"
"Tough."
"I'm hungry!"
"Nope. Not good enough."
"Man, I'm hearing this now and in two months I'm goanna have ANOTHER baby to take care of."
"But Richelle's sitting on me!"
Mike got up suddenly and ran into the other room. Brites was laughing as she saw him go. Then the smile ebbed and she added, "What's he doing?" Richelle shrugged.
"Getting the sledge hammer so you will get off probably," Tre called as loudly as he could.
"No, I really don't think so."
"Maybe I should go check on him-" Brites said but just as she did, Mike appeared back in the doorway. "Hey, what's up?"
"Uh, I was just thinking... " he said walking back over to her, "This is a good time. You know. We are moving into our new house, we finished the record, we're all back together again," he shook his head, "And there's goanna be a baby even. Which... you two are just crazy. But this is like the time for us all to start over a little. And I really don't want any of it to end. We've got some really lucky stars. So, I was wondering... " He paused and looked into Brites' dark green forest eyes and sunk down to the ground, his ice blue eyes peering up at her. Brites' mouth dropped as if she was about to say something but didn't. Then Mike reached into one pocket and held up a little box. Then the words just spilled out his lips after that, "I love you Brites. Will you marry me?"
Brites' mouth hung open, then she scrunched it up and hid her face in her hands like she was crying, but she shook her head in a definite "yes". You could never imagine the rush of happy relief on Mike's face as she opened her arms and fell on top of him and held him tight. Billie kissed Delphine passionately on the side, and Richelle sat making googly eyes at them until Tre reminded her she was still sitting on top of him.
Finally, Brites let go and Mike handed her the little velvet black box. At that point, Brites really could have cared less what was inside, but she opened it with a fluttering heart. As she lifted the hinge, she laughed. Inside was a little mood ring.
"Oh, Mike, it's beautiful!" she took it out and slipped it onto her ring-finger for the first time, and wiggled her hand around in the light as if it was a diamond.
"Uh, yeah. About that. Sorry hon. We kinda spent the next six month's salary on the house, but I didn't want to wait that long. I'll get you a real one soon." Also, mood rings were sort of their thing. Brites had told him he was being a grouch one day senior year and bought him a mood ring to prove it. They never got it to work but if ever in doubt ask the three dollar mood ring.
"Oh, no. I love it!" she kissed him. "Don't worry, I'll just take the wedding ring and that's enough for me."
This was the first time Billie could be pried away from home. Delphine had been back nearly a week now. She was feeling much better - or so she said an uncountable amount of times to Billie Joe - but was not able to do much without the pain of moving. Sitting was fine. Sitting and not moving didn't hurt, but it was frustrating when Delphine was the type of person who was always up and doing things around the house, even with her friends there. It was a curse from her mother too.
So Richelle and Brites walked over to cheer her up now that she was feeling better. Brites knocked again. This time a, "Come in!" was heard from far inside. They swung the unlocked door open and made themselves at home.
"HELLO DELPHINE!" Richelle ran over with open arms and fell onto the couch, trying not to fall on her. That would not be the best at the moment.
"Hey guys. Richelle. Someone's had coffee."
"Uh, yes-"
"She's been taking lessons from Tre," Brites said with a smug look. She was raiding the fridge.
"Oh, shut up."
"I'm glad you guys are here. I was getting lonely."
"Yeah, I wasn't. Tre would not shut the hell up about this new song that, for some reason, Billie and Mike agreed to."
"Ah yes, that one."
"And what is the problem with se'd song?" Brites had no idea what this was about.
"Oh, don't worry. Treness spreads fast. You will find out soon enough."
"Hey, I haven't seen Cody in a few days. Did we scare her off?"
"Nope. She's on a date right now... with Jason!" Richelle giggled in her little secretive way.
"Really?"
"Apparently, they hit it off at the show," Delphine fiddled with the three guitar picks hung around her neck on the silver chain.
"That's cute."
"Speaking of Mike... " Brites jumped over to Delphine's other side. "Have any of you noticed anything about him?"
"No."
"No, why eh?"
"Well, he's been acting a little weird. I don't know, he's been extra quiet lately, and like, sheepish."
"Sheepish?"
"Yes Richelle, like a sheep. No, I mean just withdrawn."
"I suppose that is true. But I didn't see anything weird with all the things that have been going on lately."
"Yeah, I suppose. I don't mean to be suspicious. I can't help it."
"Well, we might as well say it then. He's one of three things. He's on drugs, he's cheating or something else is going on and it's probably harmless."
"Well, what do you think?"
"It's not drugs, I haven't seen any."
"So he's cheating or he's fine. I wouldn't worry Brites. I just can't imagine him doing that."
"Well then I'm worried about him."
***
Jason sat on the wall looking out over the bay. He had sat there a dozen times before and looked out over the cold dirty yet calming water and thought about things. Everything. Everything from which girl he wanted to marry, where they would live and how many kids there would be, to blowing his brains out into the bay and letting someone else take care of it. He never thought he would be sitting next to this girl who was with him now though. In fact, he had never sat next to anyone on this wall. The girls he had loved before never would want to come to this cold dirty place in the late hours of the night like he did. But then, he had never met another girl like Cody before. Now she was sitting with him by the docks.
For awhile, neither said a word. This was just one of those times to be quiet. Eventually, Jason spoke, "It's 12. Do you want to go back yet?"
"Only if you want to."
"Well, I don't know. I could sit here forever so it's up to you."
"Let's stay a little longer. It's nice out here. Sort of fresh and away from the city."
"Ok," Jason looked back out across the bay like he had done a thousand times before since he moved to California from out east. For a time, he used to sit on the other side of the bay, in San Francisco, looking back over the Bay Bridge to Oakland. He always thought about how he wanted to be over there. 'Over there must be so much better than here. Anywhere is better than here.' When he finally moved out of his parent's house two years ago, he moved straight across the bridge. Then he found the same things he had left. It was the same town, different people. At least here he could start over with new faces. So he stayed.
If all he moved here to do was to meet Cody, then that would have been just fine with him at that moment. For once, he was starring at the water but not seeing. Instead he was imagining the girl beside him. First her pretty pale face, her dreadlocks and then undressing her in his mind. And she asked to stay so he cautiously placed his hand over hers which was resting by her thigh. She didn't flinch or move away or anything as all girls seemed to do in the past. They all had taken a long time to warm up to him. She didn't think twice. 'No wonder she had become such a good friend to them all so fast,' he thought as a fire engine when roaring by.
As it passed by, Cody looked up to see it disappear in the other direction and the lights flee into darkness, and as her gaze fell back, she met Jason's. Then she stopped. This seemed like one of those classic moments where he should have leaned forward and kissed her, but the moment came and time ruined it with his hesitation. But then she did something he would never expect. Cody leaned forward and slowly kissed his lips. For a second, Jason was too stunned to think. Then he reached forward and kissed her again with tingling lips. He smiled at her thinking, 'I didn't know girls were allowed to do that,' and Cody thinking, 'Life is too fucking short so live it up.' Damn, he should have looked for girls at the rock shows before.
Jason blew his brains into the bay that night, just before he hopped off the wall, got into the car beside Cody and drove home. He left someone else behind, but the kid named Jason kept running. (That's his name. And everyone's name. Don't you fucking wear it out.)
***
Billie Joe burst through the door of his home, "Delphine! DELPHINE!"
Delphine shot out of her chair frightened. "Billie?"
"Delphine I have a surprise!"
"A surprise. Billie you just scared the shit out of me."
"Oh, sorry. It's a happy surprise! I got us an offer for an apartment in a complex on the edge of the city just a few blocks from the beach!"
"Really!" Delphine jumped up and ran into this arms. "That's awesome! We have to take it! Is it nice?"
"I have pictures, here," he pulled some crumpled photos out of his pocket. Delphine held them up to the light.
"Billie, this looked perfect! And it's bigger too."
"Yep, and it's in a condo instead of an apartment building."
"That's awesome. How the fuck are we going to afford it?"
"Actually, that's the second thing. We are finishing Kerplunk! and we got pay checks." He slipped it out of his pocket and showed his wife giving the edges a little tug.
She read the amount, "You're kidding! Billie, that's so cool!" Delphine kissed him she was so happy. "Oh, I'm just sad that we'll be so far away from everyone."
"It's only fifteen minutes away from here. But, there is one more thing." He was really on a roll here with the news casts. "There were five openings at the condo left because it was just built and opened a month ago, and Mike and Tre want to each take one."
"Really? Ah! That's awesome!" Delphine jumped on Billie she was so happy. "We're all moving together then?"
"Yep, I just have to go make the call."
"I've run out of adjectives so go make the call!" she ran and personally got the phone. Five minutes later with a random guy mumbling over the phone and Delphine staining to here what was going on before she realized she could just go pick up the other receiver to ease-drop, Billie clicked the phone off and smiled.
"We got it. Mike and Tre already called. We're moving in two weeks."
"Two weeks!?"
"It's now or never."
"That's not a lot of time. Let's start packing right now."
"You are not starting now with heavy stuff."
"But I feel so much better now."
"But you're also six months pregnant. Let's go celebrate," He pulled her body close to his and kissed her.
"Ok, that sounds good too."
***
Packing was actually not too bad on account that they did not have much stuff. There was a lot of "do we still need this piece of crap?" and "Yes! Of course we have to keep that! It's my lucky broken drum stick, guitar pick, box of rags, shirt tags, harpoon and other random stuff...
And then there was Billie rampaging through the two houses before just before they were about to leave, found them packing and frantically gasped, "WHERE'S BLUE!?"
"We packed Blue."
"Oh. Ok... " he breathed.
"Sorry baby, Blue is safe."
Two weeks total later and they were standing in front of their new homes. There they were all in a row. Billie and Delphine's first, Brites and Mike to their right, and Tre and Richelle's last. It wasn't long before they were moved in. At least, the boxes were moved IN the house, around the corner and onto the floor. Then they did what just seemed right; crash at Mike and Brites' house. They had the biggest kitchen and living room so that just made sense.
When everyone finally stumbled through the door and onto the living room floor, Tre pretended to clasps and die of exhaustion before Richelle did the same falling on top of him. "AH! Get off woman!"
"I'm too tired!" she whined.
"Bitch! I'm suffocating!"
"Tough."
"I'm hungry!"
"Nope. Not good enough."
"Man, I'm hearing this now and in two months I'm goanna have ANOTHER baby to take care of."
"But Richelle's sitting on me!"
Mike got up suddenly and ran into the other room. Brites was laughing as she saw him go. Then the smile ebbed and she added, "What's he doing?" Richelle shrugged.
"Getting the sledge hammer so you will get off probably," Tre called as loudly as he could.
"No, I really don't think so."
"Maybe I should go check on him-" Brites said but just as she did, Mike appeared back in the doorway. "Hey, what's up?"
"Uh, I was just thinking... " he said walking back over to her, "This is a good time. You know. We are moving into our new house, we finished the record, we're all back together again," he shook his head, "And there's goanna be a baby even. Which... you two are just crazy. But this is like the time for us all to start over a little. And I really don't want any of it to end. We've got some really lucky stars. So, I was wondering... " He paused and looked into Brites' dark green forest eyes and sunk down to the ground, his ice blue eyes peering up at her. Brites' mouth dropped as if she was about to say something but didn't. Then Mike reached into one pocket and held up a little box. Then the words just spilled out his lips after that, "I love you Brites. Will you marry me?"
Brites' mouth hung open, then she scrunched it up and hid her face in her hands like she was crying, but she shook her head in a definite "yes". You could never imagine the rush of happy relief on Mike's face as she opened her arms and fell on top of him and held him tight. Billie kissed Delphine passionately on the side, and Richelle sat making googly eyes at them until Tre reminded her she was still sitting on top of him.
Finally, Brites let go and Mike handed her the little velvet black box. At that point, Brites really could have cared less what was inside, but she opened it with a fluttering heart. As she lifted the hinge, she laughed. Inside was a little mood ring.
"Oh, Mike, it's beautiful!" she took it out and slipped it onto her ring-finger for the first time, and wiggled her hand around in the light as if it was a diamond.
"Uh, yeah. About that. Sorry hon. We kinda spent the next six month's salary on the house, but I didn't want to wait that long. I'll get you a real one soon." Also, mood rings were sort of their thing. Brites had told him he was being a grouch one day senior year and bought him a mood ring to prove it. They never got it to work but if ever in doubt ask the three dollar mood ring.
"Oh, no. I love it!" she kissed him. "Don't worry, I'll just take the wedding ring and that's enough for me."
