Sweet Children Come Out and Play, chapter 27

"Who's the birthday boy?... " Delphine leaned over the bed and whispered in a sing song in Billie Joe's ear.

"Umm, me I guess," he smiled and rolled over to meet her face to face.

"Happy birthday honey," they kissed.

"Damn, what's my age again?"

She poked his nose, "That makes you... 62."

"Really, how old are you then?"

"I'm still 25 or something."

"That's not fair."

"Fine, you can be twenty if you want to."

"Ok, that's better. Hey, one more year and I'll actually be LEGAL to drink!"

"Wahu!" she sighed.

"I can fight in a war, and I can smoke if I wanted, but I can't have a beer. What the hell is up with that?"

"I have no idea. Doesn't make sense," she yawned sleepily. "But I seem to have survived for the last six months."

"True."
***

Brites, Richelle, Cody and Delphine sat together in Brites' living room again. The guys would be back soon and they would get to go to a gig at another club, but until then they waited. Cody was all excited because she would get to see Jason play this time. He was going to help out and play a second guitar in a few songs for the first time in a Green Day performance.

Delphine stood up from the Spongebob playing on the tube and ran into the bathroom down the hall again. She always had to go to the bathroom now and it was really fucking annoying. As she walked back out the door, the front doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" she called down the hallway and took hold of the handle. When she looked up into the face of the person standing there before her, Delphine almost screamed and would have slammed the door shut had he not stopped her.

"Wait!" Alex said. "Delphine... " he held open the door with one hand with a sad look on his face.

"What they hell are you doing here?" she peered out from behind the wood.

"Delphine, I'm glad I caught you here. I'm sorry I scared you and I'm here to apologize." He actually sounded sincere. To tell the truth, Alex looked much more cleaned up. He had on a pair of clean new jeans and a white collar shirt. Not the sort of outfit she liked, but he was so different.

"How did you find me though? You're at the wrong house even."

"This isn't your house?"

"No." She was not about to say where her house really was, and just then Brites walked over.

"Well, they told me it was one of these-"

"Who is it?" Brites looked out and her mouth dropped. "You get out of here!"

"Wait, I'm sorry, I just wanted to talk to Delphine for a moment."

"You did that already! And you nearly sent Billie to the hospital. What the hell more do you want!" Richelle and Cody had dashed up behind Brites wanting to see what all the commotion was.

"I know. What I did was stupid. That's why I came. Delphine," he looked back to her and she let the door swing open a little wider, "I really messed up. I didn't mean what I said and didn't even realize what was going on until later... " Alex really looked hurt. She almost felt sorry for him. And he looked so different. Plus, her friends were all standing behind her with their guard up. So, she opened the door and looked at him like she would listen. "That was just a really bad time. My girlfriend broke up with me and moved back to La Jolla. I was drinking a lot for a couple of months and I flipped out when I found you. I'm shocked I didn't get arrested for it. I should of. But, I just felt sick about it so I had to come tell you I'm sorry. It doesn't make it any better really, but I am."

Delphine didn't say anything for a moment. Alex shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground. "You mean that?"

"Yeah. Really."

She smiled a bit. She wasn't sure she forgave him but this was such a flip-flop. "Well, ok. It's over now."

Unfortunately, at that moment, the boys returned home and were strolling up the their front door when Billie Joe spotted what looked like a guy standing on the porch to Mike's house talking to Delphine. That off the bat lit up a flag in his mind and he hurried over, heels pounding on the stone ground. Mike and Tre looked up wondering why he was racing ahead, saw and tried to do a fast walk to keep up. Billie almost dropped dead when he realized who it was. "Hey you!" he shouted running over. "What the fuck do you want?!"

Alex cowered back as if he was actually scared and his eyes became so wide he could have been an owl in a past life. Delphine stepped down next to Billie. "Well, I, I was... " Alex stuttered.

"Billie, it's all right," Delphine touched his shoulder.

"What the hell does he want!"

"I came to apologize," he said shakily.

Billie Joe looked doubtful. Delphine added, "Actually, it's true."

"I was really fucked up when I ran into you guys, I got jealous because my girlfriend was gone then and I freaked out. I didn't really know what I was doing and I'm sorry." Billie was still not looking convinced. Really, he wanted to punch the guy's face in right then and there. He might have too had things not happened since then.

"Just one question. What the fuck dude?"

"I know," Alex looked sideways and scratched the back of his neck. "I was out of a job, spare-changing on the avenue was all I did. And I was shooting up pretty much anything and the cough syrup and it was all fucking my fault. I'm sorry. I had to say something and I couldn't until now."

Billie sighed. The urge to crack his skull open was failing him. He liked it better when he hated him. That was a lot easier at least. "Ok, all right," he said slowly. "I'll get over it."

Alex looked up with a little more hopeful of a face and stuck his hands back in his pockets. "Ok. Thanks. Um, I actually have to go now. Work. It's just at the grocery store but it's something," he said starting to back away. This had been a lot more terrifying than he had thought. He had come for one person, and now she was surrounded seven more people. But at least he did it.

"Ok," Billie said reluctantly. "Bye."

"Thanks again for listening. Bye." And like that, he was around the white brick wall and gone. Delphine really did not know what to think. So, she really wasn't all the reason for his blow up months ago. She had felt sort of strangely flattered at the time, but now it was just stupid.

Finally, Tre spoke. "Dude! We have to go now! We're going to be fucking late-" The sun was already setting. Shit. Everyone broke the strained air and ran frantically to get all the equipment in the car for the gig. Delphine could not help thinking about Alex. Even during her favorite songs like Who Wrote Holden Caulfield? Which was playing right then.

Then she got a little side-tracked. Who did write Holden Caulfield? Wait, she read the book last summer and the summer before too for school. Let's see. Catcher in the Rye. That's J.D. Salinger. But that's boring. Just because he was the author, Holden Caulfield isn't an entirely unique character outside of the literary world. Billie Joe for instance. He could have wrote Holden Caulfield. Or maybe he was Holden. And she was Holden Caulfield too. Ha! Her last name is Caulfield even. Wait, WAS Caulfield. Let me rephrase that. Her maiden name was Caulfield. But that has nothing to do with being Holden. Holden is basically everyone in the world who ever though twice about their life. If you have never thought about your life, there must be something wrong with you. The older you get the more it's true.

Although children are exempt from that category. That's the point of being a child. You aren't supposed to think about the purpose of your life all that much. The problem is, children are thinking exactly that too early. It makes childhood so much shorter. It has for all of time though no one is quite ready to admit that. Wait, Delphine just completely contradicted herself. Is it better to question your life or not too? Well, I suppose you need to before you go out into the world alone. You wouldn't survive otherwise. That's why Holden Caulfield was alive at the end of the book. He knew who he was somewhat. Maybe Alex was just figuring that out for the first time. If that's the case, she didn't blame him. Poor kids.
***

Billie Joe walked gracefully down the sidewalk on the avenue. He had to drive to get here this time. That was with Mike, Tre and Jason really. They had all gone into Ameba Records to sort through the new and used CD's and albums. He loved that sort of stuff but today Telegraph Ave was too full of people and the place was packed so he wandered on down towards the school. Billie tripped on the sidewalk and caught himself; not paying much attention until he did it and looked down at his high top black Converses. They were pretty beat up. UC Berkeley is right at the end of this road. It was convenient as hell for all the kids going to school there. At his high school there was a 7-11 across the street. Here, there is a whole street the size of an outside shopping mall at their dispense. Telegraph Ave is huge like that. The next street over was Adeline Street. That stretched up parallel to the avenue but there was nothing on it. Just houses and cracked roads. But it was peaceful. Not like this.

Billie always loved looking at the people in this town. Almost everyone in sight had a tattoo somewhere on them. There was a sea of dyed hair - natural colors and rainbow ones - and piercings in all the right spots. You could come here just to get ideas for any of those. It was really great. He remembered how Delphine loved this too. Sometimes, they would just sit together on the side of the street and watch the people pass while they made comments. What was cool, what was punk, hippie or just too weird to classify. Santa Cruz was a lot like Berkeley, except a bit more spread out. Delphine was originally from Los Gatos forty-five, minutes south. Los Gatos prides itself with being a small down, but it really isn't, although everyone is still in everyone else's business. She hated that rich snobbish stuff and was happier than you can ever imagine - or maybe you can - to get out and move here. Berkeley was a city. One time, an old woman had handed them two dollars while sitting outside the Gap, thinking they were begging. Delphine had not known what to do or what was going on when she handed her the money and left. When her senses had popped back, she called a "THANK YOU!" down the street and the lady waved back.

"Do we look homeless or something?" she had laughed afterward.

"I don't know. You look fine to me. We are sitting by the Gap though." That's were all the yuppie college kids shop. So we decided the Hot Topic place (the original and only store that was not inside an actual mall) just a block down was a better hang-out place. Then again, they did just get some free money. So, they bought a doughnut and a coffee and that was lunch.

Billie walked past both those places on the other side of the street until he realized he had reached the end of the road. There was Berkeley University. So he walked up the short flight of steps on onto the campus. 'Ok, if this is such a goddamn great school, then let's just see what I'm missing.' On a bench to his left was a girl who looked a bit older then himself, though you can never tell, reading a book. She was turned crocked on the seat with her back to him, but as she turned around he saw her short hair was dyed black with almost white hair covering her long bangs that were wisped to the side of her face. She wore thin black rimmed glasses. She was pretty and no better than him, but he immediately felt like she was ages ahead of him. She was probably going to school here. Why? She most likely had a good reason. There was probably something here that she wanted to study. Otherwise she would not be here. Well, on second thought, if he were to go to this school, life would be as hellish as high school. No way he was about to agree to that again. So Billie Joe turned around, looking back at the girl and almost feeling sorry for her. She had to go to this penitentiary and he got to go play music all day for a living. Well, that and working part time at the Café (one among many odd jobs in the past), but soon it would be just music. He would make enough money either way to support a family and it wouldn't take college. Better even, he had people around him who really though they could do it.

Billie Joe spent the entire walk back to Ameba Records feeling like a million bucks. He got to play music and they had to work. Think about all those people out there who have to work in office cubicles, doctor offices and police stations. They get up at five in the morning so they can rush to an office, sit in traffic both there and back every day of the week and did the same thing year in and year out. He had it so much better. And all those yuppie college kids were just training to be that sort of walking zombie. He may be walking amongst the dead, but he was not going to be one if he could help it.