Sweet Children Come Out and Play, chapter 26
Billie Joe stood in the front hall of his five room apartment. As he flipped off his slip on shoes with his feet and felt the soft carpet under them, he wondered where Delphine was. Usually, she would be over with the girls if she was not with him. If she was at home, she would hear the door creak open with a cat's hearing and come over with a hug and a kiss. He liked that. He had never really wanted the All-American family. The Brady Bunch was cute in all, but at the same time it made him want to throw-up. It was not the sort of thing to fit him. That's why he was in this band. That's why he did what he did. Somehow, he had managed to find a girl like her though and he loved the daily welcome home - wherever that might be.
Suddenly, when she was not there though, he realized how used to the routine he was. So as Billie walked through into the kitchen and onto the tile floor, he called her name, "Del! Hey, anybody here?" Maybe she was out on a walk. But she usually would not be alone if she was on a walk. Not since Alex. Damn, this tile floor was cold.
The door of their bedroom was closed. Billie walked over and knocked. "Delphine?"
He heard a sniff or two, a deep breath as she sucked it up, and Delphine answered inside, "Billie, you're home." He walked through the door, relieved she was all right, but confused. Delphine was sitting in the middle of the bed.
"Hey," he jumped beside her. She smiled, but her blue eyes were tinted with pink around them. "Something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine really."
Billie put his strong arms around her from behind. "Really. I mean it."
"Well..." then the tears started flowing out again, "I don't think I am going to be a good mom!"
"What? Of course you are."
"But I don't think I'm ready for this now. What if I fuck up?!"
"You're not going to fuck up with something like this."
"But I've never done any of this before!" she cried into her hands.
"Well, yeah, but there's nothing you could really do to practice anyway. Except baby-sit and you've done that a million times." He was right. She had had regular jobs with all of the neighbors and their two-year-olds during her teenage years. Only problem was, she was still technically a teenager, and she felt like one.
"But that was only last year. And I got to give those babies back after a few hours. This time it'll be my fault. How am I ever going to get all those things done? Like wash her and feed her and all that shit." It wasn't really shit to her. She never minded it much. But how was she going to do it all?
"Del, you've wanted a baby all you're life. You said it yourself. Even if we don't know, we'll figure it out. It's our baby and we can take care of her any way we want to. Every mom in the history of time has done it. It can't be impossible. You know. We're standing here. And I'll be there too." Delphine thought about it. He was right of course, but she still didn't feel right about it. "Well, would you take it back if you could?"
"Um, hhh...no."
Billie sighed. Ok, over that. "Ok, good. See, it's going to be fine. I wasn't so sure about it at first either, but, now, I think it'll be great. And hard too, but we're hardcore. We can handle it," he teased.
"But what if I do fuck up?"
"You're not going too and it's both of our faults. I think the only thing we have to fear right now is she'll be like me."
Delphine made a half laugh through a sniff. "Yeah, I guess so." Billie kissed her cheek.
"And just think! We'll get to teach her how to walk, talk, and play the drums like we are teaching you, speak Pig Latin and bead things like you, and how to skateboard like your brother, and how to flip-off jerks who try to make a move on her when she's fifteen..."
Delphine laughed, "Yeah, that's true. Let's hope she's total genius like you."
"I know, I am a genius. Every morning when I get up, I look in the mirror and go: Yes! I am god."
"Oh great."
"No, see, but she'll get your genius too so she can actually get through school and make a living. Then she can support us in our old age when Green Day fails out of music."
"Green Day is not going to fail. I said you were genius. You can't fail," she leaned over and gave him a kiss this time.
"Oh good. See, don't worry. We'll get the hang of it. You want a poptart?"
"Hmm, ok."
"Come on," he pulled her off the bed by the wrist and led her into the kitchen. Then he ran over and pulled out the box of strawberry poptarts. Two in a pack so they each had one.
"Hey, look, I got a surprise. Another one," he pointed to the bandage on his arm as he pulled up the sleeve of his shirt.
Delphine smiled, "Again, awesome. She leaned over and looked. Through the clear plastic bandage, she could clearly see her name spelled out in scrolly letters. "Aww, Billie, it's for me," she smiled and kissed him and stared at it for another second. Really, she had always thought putting your boyfriend or girlfriend's name on you permanently is not a very good idea. What if you break up later down the road? It was the top reason for getting a tattoo removed. But seeing her name on Billie Joe's arm made her all the more happy for that reason. He meant it when he said he still loved her. But she already knew that. Still, it gave her stomach a flutter all the same. Speaking of stomach; she was fucking starving.
"You wanna go sthee the guys?" Billie Joe said through a full mouth of pastry.
"Ok." She smiled, feeling better now. Although Billie didn't look like the sort of person to be much help with a baby, at least he was going to be there too.
The couple walked outside and one door over to Brites and Mike's house. It was so much closer. Nice. Especially now. They found them all in the living room - meaning Tre and Richelle were already taking up the entire couch and rooting themselves there so Mike and Jason could not push Tre off and make room. Brites stood on the side rolling her eyes with Cody.
"WHY DO YOU WANT THE COUCH!" she yelled at them, "THE TV ISN'T EVEN ON!"
"BILLIE'S HERE!" Tre called out seeing them walk through the archway. "WE CAN WATCH THE MOVIE NOW!" he said bouncing off the wall with his bright blue eyes gleaming.
"And what movie might that be?"
"House of a Thousand Corpses, by Rob Zombie," Tre said it so matter-of-factly that Delphine burst out laughing. Now, she liked a few songs by Rob Zombie and a few from his days in White Zombie, but she had never seen one of his horror movies before. However, being a true hearted horror fan, she was all for that. I mean, what's not to like in the title House of a Thousand Corpses? Sounds like another Dawn of the Dead (the wonderfully corny old one) or Land of the Dead or Something else of the Dead, but believe me it's not.
Ironically, Richelle was fine with this too - it must be Tre's doing - but Brites on the other hand was not all too excited. While Delphine sat in awe most of the time through all the gory Silence of the Lambs/ Halloween/ Friday the 13th/ Texas Chainsaw Massacre-esqu strangeness and violence, Brites spent the night physically attached to Mike's arm. Richelle hid behind Tre - who of course thought this was one of the coolest things in the world along with Delphine - and kept commenting about how that last thing was entirely uncalled for and disgusting. Then it kept getting worse and she was quiet.
Afterwards: "That was a disgusting movie you sick people!" Richelle was blabbering through the kitchen.
"But that's why it was good!" Tre was having no luck convincing her of Rob Zombie's genius either.
"I thought it was just delightful. Not very scary, though disturbing yet entertaining," Delphine philosophized walking over to the fridge. She pulled out a beer and was about to open it out of habit, but remembered and handed it to Billie.
"Thank you sweetie."
"Well, I need something," she rummaged around and pulled out an iced mocha. "I can't go to sleep now."
"What should we do?" Brites said looking around for something interesting. A lot of their things were still in boxes, which was pretty pathetic seeing as they hardly owned anything.
Tre, "Orgy?"
Richelle plugged his mouth, "NO! Stop suggesting that!"
Brites turned on the sink to wash the butter off her hands from popcorn and accidentally sprayed some water on the floor on which Tre promptly slipped and fell down.
"Shit!"
"Tre baby are you ok!?" Richelle promptly switched faces in record timing.
"Yeah, ouchy," he made a cute face so he could grab a kiss off Richelle.
"Sorry man," Brites wiped up the floor.
"Ok, let's go do something before someone ends up with a broken neck," Cody said.
***
Brites was standing alone in the hallway of her new little home admiring the lonely tree out the window. She had just gotten out of the shower and the only thing covering her was the thin towel around her waist. Then there was a tug on the bottom of the towel and it fell easily to the floor. She screamed and flipped around to find a guilty horny Mike staring at her and going for a kiss. For the first time, they had the whole house to themselves. Really, they didn't even have to wait until they reached the bedroom.
"Ah, FMike, is fthe door locked?" she said through full lips.
"Umhm." That meant yes.
"Mok."
He pushed her gently against the wall and started kissing down her neck. He wasn't wearing any clothes either. She stopped worrying that someone would see through the window and was just getting into this. That was why she never heard the knock at the door or when Delphine, Cody and Tre walked straight through the front door; making Tre first to turn around in the hall.
"Shot through the heart and you're to blame! You give Love...a bad name!" he was singing Bon Jovi until he turned around and "AH!" he just about screeched, and the girls looked their way as Mike and Brites scrambled to pick up the one towel and ran into their room with Brites yelling, "MIKE! I thought you said you LOCKED THE DOOR!"
"Wait! Can I join you!" Tre called after them.
"Oh, the door. Like the front door? I thought you meant the refrigerator," they heard Mike say dumbly back.
"Why on earth would I tell you to lock the refrigerator?"
"Well, I CLOSED the refrigerator. I wasn't listening to that part."
"And why are you people here!?"
"What were you doing it in the hall for?" Cody replied. "You've blinded us all!"
"Not me!" said Tre.
"Well, it is our house!" Brites called back through the door with much rummaging inside.
Mike walked out in a shirt and sweat pants. "You people ruined the moment you know."
"We did knock. Not our fault," Delphine said crossing her arms. "And you two do it thirty times a day anyway, so I will assume you will find another chance."
"I heard that!" Brites said, still inside. "What are you doing here?"
"We just wanted to see what you guys were up to."
"We can see now."
"Well that's just great!"
"Are you coming out?" Cody said.
"Wait! Don't put on clothes yet!" Tre cried.
"I have clothes on thank you and no."
"We're sorry, now come out."
Brites slumped through the door of her bedroom wearing a yellow bathrobe. "You're pretty hot when you're naked," Tre smiled smugly.
"Aren't most girls?" Mike added.
"Oh shut the fuck up Tre!"
"Tre, you're not helping me out here, man."
"You look sexy when you're mad too."
She hit him in the shoulder and crossed her arms before marching back into the room again. "Will you stop being a smartass!"
"Ouch, don't hit me!" he whined.
"Dude," Mike punched him in the same place and went after Brites.
"Ouch, ok seriously man, that one really hurt."
Mike walked in and sat next to Brites on the bed. "Sorry."
"Mike, they all practically saw us naked," she rolled her eyes again.
"I promise I will lock the door next time."
"Good, because that was a dumbass thing to do."
"I know... " he started leaning over the bed towards her.
"No. Mike! How can you still be turned on after that!" she whispered.
"Baby, I'm eighteen. Looking at linoleum turns me on."
"What are they doing in there?" Cody asked from outside the door.
Delphine sighed, "Um, I think they're going to be busy. Let's go." She knocked on the door, "Guy's we're leaving now!"
"MOk!" Mike called.
"Oh, dammit," Tre grumbled as they left. "I've gotta go find Richelle."
Suddenly, when she was not there though, he realized how used to the routine he was. So as Billie walked through into the kitchen and onto the tile floor, he called her name, "Del! Hey, anybody here?" Maybe she was out on a walk. But she usually would not be alone if she was on a walk. Not since Alex. Damn, this tile floor was cold.
The door of their bedroom was closed. Billie walked over and knocked. "Delphine?"
He heard a sniff or two, a deep breath as she sucked it up, and Delphine answered inside, "Billie, you're home." He walked through the door, relieved she was all right, but confused. Delphine was sitting in the middle of the bed.
"Hey," he jumped beside her. She smiled, but her blue eyes were tinted with pink around them. "Something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine really."
Billie put his strong arms around her from behind. "Really. I mean it."
"Well..." then the tears started flowing out again, "I don't think I am going to be a good mom!"
"What? Of course you are."
"But I don't think I'm ready for this now. What if I fuck up?!"
"You're not going to fuck up with something like this."
"But I've never done any of this before!" she cried into her hands.
"Well, yeah, but there's nothing you could really do to practice anyway. Except baby-sit and you've done that a million times." He was right. She had had regular jobs with all of the neighbors and their two-year-olds during her teenage years. Only problem was, she was still technically a teenager, and she felt like one.
"But that was only last year. And I got to give those babies back after a few hours. This time it'll be my fault. How am I ever going to get all those things done? Like wash her and feed her and all that shit." It wasn't really shit to her. She never minded it much. But how was she going to do it all?
"Del, you've wanted a baby all you're life. You said it yourself. Even if we don't know, we'll figure it out. It's our baby and we can take care of her any way we want to. Every mom in the history of time has done it. It can't be impossible. You know. We're standing here. And I'll be there too." Delphine thought about it. He was right of course, but she still didn't feel right about it. "Well, would you take it back if you could?"
"Um, hhh...no."
Billie sighed. Ok, over that. "Ok, good. See, it's going to be fine. I wasn't so sure about it at first either, but, now, I think it'll be great. And hard too, but we're hardcore. We can handle it," he teased.
"But what if I do fuck up?"
"You're not going too and it's both of our faults. I think the only thing we have to fear right now is she'll be like me."
Delphine made a half laugh through a sniff. "Yeah, I guess so." Billie kissed her cheek.
"And just think! We'll get to teach her how to walk, talk, and play the drums like we are teaching you, speak Pig Latin and bead things like you, and how to skateboard like your brother, and how to flip-off jerks who try to make a move on her when she's fifteen..."
Delphine laughed, "Yeah, that's true. Let's hope she's total genius like you."
"I know, I am a genius. Every morning when I get up, I look in the mirror and go: Yes! I am god."
"Oh great."
"No, see, but she'll get your genius too so she can actually get through school and make a living. Then she can support us in our old age when Green Day fails out of music."
"Green Day is not going to fail. I said you were genius. You can't fail," she leaned over and gave him a kiss this time.
"Oh good. See, don't worry. We'll get the hang of it. You want a poptart?"
"Hmm, ok."
"Come on," he pulled her off the bed by the wrist and led her into the kitchen. Then he ran over and pulled out the box of strawberry poptarts. Two in a pack so they each had one.
"Hey, look, I got a surprise. Another one," he pointed to the bandage on his arm as he pulled up the sleeve of his shirt.
Delphine smiled, "Again, awesome. She leaned over and looked. Through the clear plastic bandage, she could clearly see her name spelled out in scrolly letters. "Aww, Billie, it's for me," she smiled and kissed him and stared at it for another second. Really, she had always thought putting your boyfriend or girlfriend's name on you permanently is not a very good idea. What if you break up later down the road? It was the top reason for getting a tattoo removed. But seeing her name on Billie Joe's arm made her all the more happy for that reason. He meant it when he said he still loved her. But she already knew that. Still, it gave her stomach a flutter all the same. Speaking of stomach; she was fucking starving.
"You wanna go sthee the guys?" Billie Joe said through a full mouth of pastry.
"Ok." She smiled, feeling better now. Although Billie didn't look like the sort of person to be much help with a baby, at least he was going to be there too.
The couple walked outside and one door over to Brites and Mike's house. It was so much closer. Nice. Especially now. They found them all in the living room - meaning Tre and Richelle were already taking up the entire couch and rooting themselves there so Mike and Jason could not push Tre off and make room. Brites stood on the side rolling her eyes with Cody.
"WHY DO YOU WANT THE COUCH!" she yelled at them, "THE TV ISN'T EVEN ON!"
"BILLIE'S HERE!" Tre called out seeing them walk through the archway. "WE CAN WATCH THE MOVIE NOW!" he said bouncing off the wall with his bright blue eyes gleaming.
"And what movie might that be?"
"House of a Thousand Corpses, by Rob Zombie," Tre said it so matter-of-factly that Delphine burst out laughing. Now, she liked a few songs by Rob Zombie and a few from his days in White Zombie, but she had never seen one of his horror movies before. However, being a true hearted horror fan, she was all for that. I mean, what's not to like in the title House of a Thousand Corpses? Sounds like another Dawn of the Dead (the wonderfully corny old one) or Land of the Dead or Something else of the Dead, but believe me it's not.
Ironically, Richelle was fine with this too - it must be Tre's doing - but Brites on the other hand was not all too excited. While Delphine sat in awe most of the time through all the gory Silence of the Lambs/ Halloween/ Friday the 13th/ Texas Chainsaw Massacre-esqu strangeness and violence, Brites spent the night physically attached to Mike's arm. Richelle hid behind Tre - who of course thought this was one of the coolest things in the world along with Delphine - and kept commenting about how that last thing was entirely uncalled for and disgusting. Then it kept getting worse and she was quiet.
Afterwards: "That was a disgusting movie you sick people!" Richelle was blabbering through the kitchen.
"But that's why it was good!" Tre was having no luck convincing her of Rob Zombie's genius either.
"I thought it was just delightful. Not very scary, though disturbing yet entertaining," Delphine philosophized walking over to the fridge. She pulled out a beer and was about to open it out of habit, but remembered and handed it to Billie.
"Thank you sweetie."
"Well, I need something," she rummaged around and pulled out an iced mocha. "I can't go to sleep now."
"What should we do?" Brites said looking around for something interesting. A lot of their things were still in boxes, which was pretty pathetic seeing as they hardly owned anything.
Tre, "Orgy?"
Richelle plugged his mouth, "NO! Stop suggesting that!"
Brites turned on the sink to wash the butter off her hands from popcorn and accidentally sprayed some water on the floor on which Tre promptly slipped and fell down.
"Shit!"
"Tre baby are you ok!?" Richelle promptly switched faces in record timing.
"Yeah, ouchy," he made a cute face so he could grab a kiss off Richelle.
"Sorry man," Brites wiped up the floor.
"Ok, let's go do something before someone ends up with a broken neck," Cody said.
***
Brites was standing alone in the hallway of her new little home admiring the lonely tree out the window. She had just gotten out of the shower and the only thing covering her was the thin towel around her waist. Then there was a tug on the bottom of the towel and it fell easily to the floor. She screamed and flipped around to find a guilty horny Mike staring at her and going for a kiss. For the first time, they had the whole house to themselves. Really, they didn't even have to wait until they reached the bedroom.
"Ah, FMike, is fthe door locked?" she said through full lips.
"Umhm." That meant yes.
"Mok."
He pushed her gently against the wall and started kissing down her neck. He wasn't wearing any clothes either. She stopped worrying that someone would see through the window and was just getting into this. That was why she never heard the knock at the door or when Delphine, Cody and Tre walked straight through the front door; making Tre first to turn around in the hall.
"Shot through the heart and you're to blame! You give Love...a bad name!" he was singing Bon Jovi until he turned around and "AH!" he just about screeched, and the girls looked their way as Mike and Brites scrambled to pick up the one towel and ran into their room with Brites yelling, "MIKE! I thought you said you LOCKED THE DOOR!"
"Wait! Can I join you!" Tre called after them.
"Oh, the door. Like the front door? I thought you meant the refrigerator," they heard Mike say dumbly back.
"Why on earth would I tell you to lock the refrigerator?"
"Well, I CLOSED the refrigerator. I wasn't listening to that part."
"And why are you people here!?"
"What were you doing it in the hall for?" Cody replied. "You've blinded us all!"
"Not me!" said Tre.
"Well, it is our house!" Brites called back through the door with much rummaging inside.
Mike walked out in a shirt and sweat pants. "You people ruined the moment you know."
"We did knock. Not our fault," Delphine said crossing her arms. "And you two do it thirty times a day anyway, so I will assume you will find another chance."
"I heard that!" Brites said, still inside. "What are you doing here?"
"We just wanted to see what you guys were up to."
"We can see now."
"Well that's just great!"
"Are you coming out?" Cody said.
"Wait! Don't put on clothes yet!" Tre cried.
"I have clothes on thank you and no."
"We're sorry, now come out."
Brites slumped through the door of her bedroom wearing a yellow bathrobe. "You're pretty hot when you're naked," Tre smiled smugly.
"Aren't most girls?" Mike added.
"Oh shut the fuck up Tre!"
"Tre, you're not helping me out here, man."
"You look sexy when you're mad too."
She hit him in the shoulder and crossed her arms before marching back into the room again. "Will you stop being a smartass!"
"Ouch, don't hit me!" he whined.
"Dude," Mike punched him in the same place and went after Brites.
"Ouch, ok seriously man, that one really hurt."
Mike walked in and sat next to Brites on the bed. "Sorry."
"Mike, they all practically saw us naked," she rolled her eyes again.
"I promise I will lock the door next time."
"Good, because that was a dumbass thing to do."
"I know... " he started leaning over the bed towards her.
"No. Mike! How can you still be turned on after that!" she whispered.
"Baby, I'm eighteen. Looking at linoleum turns me on."
"What are they doing in there?" Cody asked from outside the door.
Delphine sighed, "Um, I think they're going to be busy. Let's go." She knocked on the door, "Guy's we're leaving now!"
"MOk!" Mike called.
"Oh, dammit," Tre grumbled as they left. "I've gotta go find Richelle."
