Only of You

Welcome to Paradise

Billie opened the door to find a tall, stalky man with brown hair.

He smiled. "I'm Mike."

"I'm Billie Joe, nice to meet you."

"Hungry?" Mike asked as he pointed down the hallway, towards the dining room.

Billie nodded and followed Mike down the hallway into the dining room. He most certainly was not hungry, but he knew he had to eat something. The room was filled was filled with long and narrow tables. At each table were people. Just ordinary people, eating their dinners and laughing.

Mike led Billie to one wall, which was lined with a large buffet bar. Mike grabbed a plate and Billie followed.

Billie went along the bar and took way more food than he could ever possibly eat; coleslaw, carrots, mashed potatoes, chicken, and a biscuit.

But once he reached the end of the bar he didn't know where to sit. He looked around for friendly faces, but everybody looked so intimidating, and he wasn't in the mood to be social right now.

He took a sigh and sat alone at an empty table.
Billie picked up his fork and stabbed it into the carrots and began to shovel them into his mouth. Carrots settled well in his empty and nervous stomach.

As he was stabbing carrots onto his fork, Mike and another boy set their plates down across the table from him.

"Sorry Billie, I had to find Trè, he's all over the place." Trè gave Billie a smile across the table as Billie munched on his carrots.

"Up for talking?" Mike gestured towards Billie, who was swallowing a mouthful of potatoes.

Billie shrugged. "What do you want to talk about?" He took a swig of his milk as he closely watched Mike and Trè. They looked so friendly to Billie and he felt like they were already best friends.

"What do you like to do?" Trè asked as he stirred around the food on his plate. He wore a crooked grin on his face and was chuckling the entire time he sat at the table.

"I like playing guitar." Mike nodded and gestured for him to move on. "I'm a huge fan of rock and roll." He gestured to his Led Zeppelin shirt. Billie picked his fork back up and began stabbing at his chicken.

"We like music." Trè said as him and Mike giggled. Billie raised his eyebrows at them as Trè started to play drums in the air.

Mike put his arm on top of Trè's arms to stop the pounding beat of his fake drumsticks. "We have a band." Billie dropped his fork. "Yeah, you're in, I mean if you want, we need a new guitar player."

"I'm so in." Billie smiled a real smile for the first time in what seemed like forever. Billie's always wanted to be in a band, but he could never make enough money to support him and his mother with just his music. His excitement got the best of him and he quickly lost his appetite. "Nice talking with you, I'll catch you later."

Billie walked back to his room and turned on the TV as he changed into his pajamas, nothing on his schedule until the morning.

He shut out the lights early, just as dusk was settling in, and pulled the covers over him. He let his eyes close as he drifted away.