The Ghost Of You, chapter 1

She didn't know how this had all started. She remembered, but she didn't want to believe it was real. The way this had all started was perfect. It was practically impossible for it to lead into what it was now.

Brie had always believed that everyone eventually ended up with what they deserved. Whether they got it when they were 8 or 88. And she thought she had finally gotten what she deserved when she was 22. All the pain in her life had finally led up to what she deserved.

She was in the deepest, most wonderful love with the man she had been waiting for all her life. But now... now she wished he had never met her.


A bar. It had started in a bar. That was where they had met...


Brie sat alone at the bar. She sipped her apple martini and looked around the place. It was buzzing with other Oakland locals, half of them already drunk. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. She wondered now why she had decided to stay. Her two friends wanted to go to another bar a few blocks away, but she had said, "No, I like this one. Someone interesting might come in. I'm gonna stay here. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Now, she was beginning to regret it.

Across the room, he spotted her through the droves of people. He gazed at her from his seat by his friends and the group of important people they were talking to. She had medium-length, blondeish-brown hair and wore dark eyeliner with red eyeshadow. Her skin wasn't tan, but wasn't exactly pale either. She was about 5'4 or 5'5 , it looked like, and had long legs and arms. She was definitely no model, but she was still attractive in her own way, like her own, personal uniqueness. He quickly noticed that she looked kind of lonely.

"Hey, I'm gonna go talk to this chick over here, guys," he told his friends.

"Good luck!" one of his friends told him as he got up and walked towards her.

Her back was turned to him when he sat down next to her.

"Hey," he said.

She turned around, surprised. The man next to her looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place his face, or where she'd seen him before. "Hi."

"I'm Tré," he introduced himself, holding out his hand.

"I'm Brie," she smiled, taking his hand and shaking it gently. "You look familiar..."

He gave her an odd look. "Uh... yeah, I play in a band. Green Day. You may or may not have heard of us."

She quickly covered her face with her hand shyly, smiling, her cheeks deepening a shade of red. "Oh my god, I'm so dumb. Of course! You're the drummer, right?"

Tré nodded, smiling. "Yeah. I'm actually really surprised you didn't flip out. Mostly glad, though."

Brie laughed softly. "Well, one: I'm not the kind of person to get star struck or anything. You know, growing up in Cali. And b: I'm not like, a huge Green Day fan. I just like the music, listen to whatever's on the radio or on TV."

Tré chuckled. "Okay, that's pretty cool. So, where're your friends? You didn't come here alone, did you?"

She shook her head, taking a sip of her martini. "No, they left to go to another bar. Probably whoring themselves out again. I wanted to stay here. But uh... I kind of see now why they wanted to leave."

He laughed quietly at her joke, then reminded her, "Well, if you'd left, you wouldn't be talking to me right now!"

She shrugged, smiling. "Yeah, true. But uh... where're your friends?"

He turned around and pointed to the table across the room. "Over there, talking to a bunch of people I don't give a shit about. They're pretty boring."

Brie nodded. "Ah, I see. You don't like the business part, just the music part."
He nodded in agreement, then turned back to her and started asking her questions, like her interests and where she'd lived in California. They talked and laughed, entertained each other, and realized just how much they had in common over the next two hours. They were eventually interrupted, though, when Tré's band mates, Mike and Billie, interrupted them.

"C'mon, Tré, we're leaving. Claudia probably wants you home fairly early tonight anyway," Billie said when he'd approached the two.

Brie looked at Tré questioningly, her heart dropping a little at the sound of a woman's name. "Claudia?"

"She's my ex-wife. We live together to raise Frankito. We don't want to have him bouncing in between two houses, you know?" Tré quickly explained, having not gotten to the part about his second ex-wife in his conversation with her.

Brie looked relieved, nodding her head in understanding. "Oh! Well, that's cool. And what about Ramona?"

He shrugged a little. "She lives with Lisea in New York. I see her every chance I get, and she comes down here sometimes."

She nodded again. "Oh, okay. Well, that makes sense then."

"Dude, c'mon, let's go already. Get her phone number and you can have sex tomorrow night," Billie urged the drummer impatiently.

Brie looked a bit disappointed as Tré stood up. He noticed and suddenly asked, "You wanna come with us back to my place? I can drive you home later, or you could just crash in my guest room and I'll take you home tomorrow morning. Y'know, if that's not too weird."

"We don't bite," Mike told her, quickly aiding Tré in trying to persuade her.

"Hard," Billie added lowly.

Brie chuckled at his comment, then glanced at her watch. She was surprised at how late it had gotten, not believing she'd spent that much time talking to Tré. But she figured that by now, her friends could be clear over in Berkeley.

So, she agreed, "Yeah, I'll go back to your place."

"Sweet," Tré said, holding out a hand to Brie to help her off the bar stool.

"Thank God. Let's fucking go already," Billie said, leading the way through the slowly dissipating crowd to the front door.

"What's with the urge to go?" Mike asked, following his best friend.

Tré, arm-in-arm with Brie, followed right behind Mike out into the warm night air. His blue eyes were more glued to the girl next to him than anything, but she didn't really seem to notice, seeing as her own eyes were looking down more to the ground, a little shy at being around these huge rock stars, and now being so welcomed by them.

"He's probably supposed to get laid tonight," Tré assumed, finally peeling his gaze from Brie to the back of Billie and Mike.

"Yeah. How'd you guess?" Billie said, adding a small chuckle. "Actually, I'm just not really in the mood to talk to those corporate asses, and I want to spend some time with Adie. I don't want to spend my entire break talking about what to do when we get off of break."

Tré nodded, turning back to Brie with a smirk. "That means they're gonna tie each other up and do some kinky shit."

They all laughed, except for Billie of course.

'These guys aren't that different from any of my guy friends,' Brie thought to herself, surprised. 'I don't even know what I was expecting... but surely not something [u]this[/u] normal.'

They all got into Billie's black car, Billie and Mike in the front seat and Tré and Brie in the back, and drove to Tré's house. It was dark inside, the porch light the only light left on.

"Claudia and Frankito are probably already asleep," Tré said as they walked up the sidewalk to the front door. "So BE QUIET!"

"I"m just going in here to get my jacket," Billie said as Tré unlocked the door.

"Yeah, and Stella left her swimsuit here the other day," Mike said.

Tré pushed open the door and reached over to the wall, flipping on the living room light. Billie and Mike went inside and got what they needed. Tré, still standing by the door with Brie, looked down at his arm. She seemed to be clutched onto it absent-mindedly as she gazed around at the large house. When she looked back at him, she quickly pulled her arm out from under his. He looked back up at her and smiled, their eyes locking. She smiled back warmly.

'She's really beautiful when she smiles. So harmless and innocent and... perfect,' Tré thought to himself, gazing into her deep, green eyes. 'I think I might really like her...'

Slowly, their faces drifted closer. Their eyes closed, and their lips met. Tré kissed her, and she slowly kissed back. His hands eventually drifted up and held the back of her head, easing her lips more into his.

When they pulled away, they looked into each other's eyes in surprise and amazement. Suddenly, Tré's head shot to the side. Brie turned to see what he was looking at.

Billie and Mike stood in the doorway of the kitchen, staring at the scene they had just witnessed. Mike smiled mischievously, as if he knew what kissing would eventually lead into. But Billie's eyes were narrowed, and they had something in them that kind of frightened and confused Brie.

"Hey, guys! So you just witnessed the first kiss... You can go home now." Tré said angrily.

Mike laughed and headed out the front door, shouting over his shoulder, "See you tomorrow, Tré "

Billie slowly peeled his feet from where they were standing in the kitchen doorway and walked to the doorway, jacket hanging limply from his hand. He had a weird look on his face.

"I'll... see you later, Tré," he said oddly, then walked out the door, closing it behind him.

When Tré turned back to Brie, he saw she was bright red from embarrassment. She smiled shyly at him, trying to cover it up.

"Don't worry, they always act weird around... you know... new girls," he assured her.

She shook her head. "You know, maybe I should just go. I can tell they don't like me, and I don't want to like, get in between this whole band mates/best friends thing."

"No " Tré insisted. "No, please, you don't have to go. Really, Billie and Mike don't give a shit. My relationships don't affect the one we have. Just... stay."

"Tré, I -"

"C'mon! They like you! So do I, they just-"

"It's not about them. I don't-"

"Please, just stay and-"

"No, I'm serious, Tré, I need to-"

"God, please don't do this. I swear they were just a little drunk. It wasn't anything. I-"

"Tré, please, let me finish!"

He abruptly shut his mouth and waited, blue eyes pleading.

"It's not all about how awkward the first kiss thing was. Just look at this We've known each other for, what, two and a half hours? I don't want to be some one night stand," Brie explained. "You didn't pick me up at a bar to fuck me and bring me home. I mean, really, I thought I was giving off a different message. But, if that's all you want, I'm sorry... I'm not like that."

Tré frowned, his brow furrowing. "That wasn't my plan at all. I-I was wanting you to stay. Because... like... you're really beautiful and I really... uh... like you."

Her expression softened, looking at him with surprise. "Well, thanks... But would you still want me to stay if I told you I won't sleep with you tonight?"

Tré looked at her dumbly. "Well, yeah!"

She smiled, shrugging her shoulders a bit. "Okay... I'm sorry I got kinda mad there."

"It's okay," he shrugged it off. "You want something to drink?"

She walked over and sat down on his couch. "Sure."

He slipped off his shoes and tossed them on the floor next to the front door, then went into the kitchen. He shuffled around the kitchen for a few minutes, gathering something for her to drink, making sure there was enough alcohol in it, but not too much. When he had two drinks ready, he came back out into the living room and handed one to Brie. She smelled it suspiciously, then slowly took a drink of it.

He sat down next to her and observed her for a moment. "Is it okay?"

She nodded, looking over at him. "Yeah."

He smiled, taking a sip of his.

He turned on the TV and they watched it for a few moments in silence, not sure of what else to say. They had made perfect conversation in the bar, surrounded by tons of people, but now that they were alone, they found it more difficult.

'Awkward! Do something!' Tré told himself inside his head.

"So, uh... how old are you? I don't think you ever told me," Brie said, breaking the silence for him.

"Oh, guess not. I'm thirty-two. And you?" he replied, relieved.

"Twenty-two. I guess now that I see how old you are, it was kind of dumb for me not to expect you to have been married and had a kid by now," she said with a smirk, remembering their conversation earlier that night when he had told her about Lisea, Ramona, and Frankito.

"You callin' me old?" Tré asked, pretending to be offended.

"No. Well, yeah..." she joked, smiling.

He clasped his hand to his chest and gasped melodramatically. "Harsh!"

She giggled, curling her legs up beside her on the couch.

They stared into each other's eyes, caught in another silence. Then, Brie said, "You know, I uh... really like you, too."

He smiled. "I'm glad the feeling's mutual."

"Even though you are a bit of a perverted freak who wears eyeliner... I'm really attracted to you," she admitted quietly, a bit surprised at herself afterwards.

He smiled again, shrugging and looking down into his lap shyly. "What do you expect? I'm a fuckin' rock star."

She bit her lip slightly, giving a quiet chuckle. She realized how much she loved his smile.

Almost hesitantly, Tré scooted closer to her and leaned in to her face again, just like earlier. Soon, they found themselves kissing again. But this kiss was different. It was filled with passion and attraction, and not to mention some very daring tongue.

Brie finally gave in and leaned back until she was lying back on the couch, Tré on top of her, their lips locked in a deep kiss. He slipped his hand up her shirt, touching her soft skin, running his hand across it gently.

'Fuck it. I'm letting him. He's a nice guy, and I don't think he's the type to take advantage of a girl like me. Well... maybe he is. But he's sending off these signals like he actually cares, and I haven't had that in so long... Whatever, just... forget everything and go for it,' Brie thought to herself, a debate going on in her mind.

Goose bumps ran up and down her arms and legs as his fingers ran over the smooth skin of her stomach and chest.

"Tré," she whispered, pulling her lips away just slightly.

"Hm?" he whispered back, staring into her eyes with his own deep blue, entrancing orbs.

"I told you I wouldn't let you do this tonight," she whispered as he continued to softly massage her skin with calloused fingers.

He quickly stopped, moving to get up. "I'm sorry..."

She stopped him from getting up, then whispered in his ear, "It's okay. You just have to promise to marry me after we do this."

He looked at her face and saw she was smiling. He smiled back. "Of course."

He softly kissed her neck. She reached down and pulled his shirt up over his head, tossing it over the back of the couch. Then, she slipped her shoes off as he continued kissing her neck, her hand on the back of his head. He smelled so good, and his hair felt so warm and soft. She loved the way he touched her, and the softness in his kisses. His skin was so warm and smooth, too.

'Should I?' she kept asking herself inside of her head, still debating.

He gently slipped her shirt off of her and their eyes met again. Instead of thoughts of alcohol and sex, though, she saw deep passion and sincerity in his blue eyes. And even though they had met a mere few hours before, this felt so right. She knew, also, that even if they didn't have a relationship after this... her life would probably never be the same.

Their lips met again, and Brie realized how much she loved the taste of Tré. She knew, as long as she lived, she would never forget that taste.

They laid on the couch together for hours. They touched each other softly, went slowly, made love like neither of them ever had before. It felt so good and different. And when it was over, Tré held Brie in his arms and kissed her softly on the neck as the dim sunlight slowly filtered in on them through the windows and their soft whispers faded to wispy breaths.

The events of that night were surprising to both of them. Tré had only experienced real love-making a couple of times in his life, but not like that... and Brie had never met anyone like Tré and felt enough spark to do something so passionate only hours after meeting him. She never thought she would, either. She wasn't the kind to get attached easily, or give in so quickly. But Tré was making it so hard... and he seemed to be different.

As the sun rose, they fell asleep on Tré's couch, awoken a few hours later by an angry Claudia.