Time of Your Life - Green Day

Please Hurry, Leave Me

Rodeo, August 1988

Constance's POV

Oh god, I did it. I really did it. Its been three days and Billie Joe still has hardly said a word to me. Mike tried asking him what happened but he didn't give him an answer.

Its so strange. This little life that I'd created with these boys, it was all fabricated and yet it felt so real. I'd never felt so low in all my life and it was from interacting with these people who I technically didn't even exist alongside.

A part of me regrets telling Billie, hoping that summer could've lasted forever. Maybe I could've stayed with him for years to come, we could have moved out together, he could have even written Going to Pasalacqua about me.

But I know that its better this way. Summer is never supposed to last forever and neither were we. I'm glad Billie Joe's still letting me stay here, but I am scared that if we drift far enough apart, he's going to kick me out soon. But by now, it would be understandable. I've put him through so much and I feel like I've hardly given back to him.

Hopefully, Emrys will show up soon enough and take me off his hands. He's better off without me.

One afternoon, I got out some of the loose origami paper (shut up, it turns out I did need it) in my bag, found a pen and started writing a letter, tears forming as I did.

I had almost finished when I heard the door to the basement open. Fearing it was Mike or someone else, I quickly hid the letter. However, it was Billie Joe himself.

"Hi...", I croaked out.

"Hey," he said coldly before sitting down on Mike's bed.

The silence was chilling and I wanted to cry out just to kill it.

"Can you tell me what happens to my family?"

"Uh... I... I don't really know a lot, I'm sorry, you get rather good at keeping personal details," I hung my head, "Your mum lives a long time though, she's very proud of you. And your siblings are all well, I think."

He simply nodded.

"I wasn't lying when I said all those things. I wasn't just saying them to make you feel better," I desperately tried to get through to him, "I know it. You're going to do amazing things someday, and kids like me are going to fall in love with it, with you."

"Do you know if I'm happy?", he asked.

I paused. I truly had no idea of knowing if Billie Joe Armstrong is truly happy in 2023.

"As happy as I can tell. You've got friends," I told him.

He sighed, "You know I wanna ask you everything."

I blinked at him.

"There's so much I wanna know. How many times does my heart get broken before I find true love? Do I find true love? Do I get married? Does my mom die before she gets grandkids? Are me and Mike still friends? How many of my friends die? Do I turn into an asshole? Does my wife love me? Do my kids love me? Do I still make music?!", he paused as he caught his breath, "And I know you can't tell me any of that. If you live in a world where I seem happy on tv or whatever... I would want that to happen too."

I bit my lip to stop it from quivering as I started weeping, "I'm sorry everything turned out this way.

"It's not your fault," he said, starting to lighten the mood, "If you really did just fly out of a time machine or something, its kind of incredible you're not dead."

"I know, right," I nodded, "I honestly thought I was going to decompose into millions of atoms drifting through time and space without thought or choice, eternally burning!"

His eyes widened at my graphic description, "Has... has that happened before?"

"Oh, no nothing like that... to my knowledge," I said nervously, "Up until now, its all just been fun little adventures like uh... Oh, you guys have Mr Peabody and Sherman, right?"

"Uh... wait yeah the science dog and his kid," Billie nodded.

"Yeah, its like that mixed with Doctor Who," I explained.

"Who the hell is Doctor Who?," he asked.

"... Wait is this a time thing or country thing?," I asked myself, "Doctor Who started in the 60s so it definitely exists by now, but I know its mostly a British thing. But there are American fans? But then again, they are mostly huge geeks and you...," I chuckled, looking over at the punk rock legend-to-be before me, "Heh, you are not that."

That got a smirk out of him. So iconic, so charming, so boyish. So Billie.

"Good to know," he chuckled, "Say, we were gonna head down to Gilman tonight. Did you wanna join us?"

I beamed at the thought of going to Gilman with them again, "I'd be more than thrilled!"

He burst out laughing, "God I keep forgetting how British you are!"

I couldn't help but chuckle along with him, even if he was kind of making fun of me. It was just so nice seeing him happy again.

...

A few hours passed, I was getting ready to head off to Gilman with the guys. It was all smiles and light, everything I'd hoped for this summer. Maybe we still had a chance for it to last forever.

We were walking down the streets, Mike and John up front, Billie and I behind them. They couldn't see it but, as we were walking, I reached out to Billie's loose hand with my pinkie and interlocked his with mine.

He gave a happy yet confused look at the gesture but I simply whispered to him, "It's a future thing," to which he smiled at.

We stayed interlocked for a couple more blocks until my converse suddenly came undone.

"You guys go ahead, I'll just be a sec," I told them before sitting down and starting to re-tie my shoe.

I was about to get up and catch up to my friends just around the corner, when I heard a whisper coming from somewhere.

I turned around to look but before I knew it, something had grabbed my arm and covered my mouth.