Good Riddance || Billie Joe Armstrong

Paper Lanterns

I sighed when the child in my arms finally fell asleep. Billie was in the middle of an interview at the moment so I was in charge of watching the boys. Joey and Landon were pretty easy to get to behave however; Jakob was a completely different story.

Ever since the flight over here he'd been extremely irritable and tired, but wouldn't sleep. I honestly think Billie planned this so I'd have to deal with his son while he got a free pass.

I jumped into the chair that was given to me when we arrived and began finally watching the interview that was taking place. They'd talked about all sorts of things from the music, to the bands history, and even some funny tour stories.

"So I see you brought the whole family along with you today," The interviewer said with a smile causing Billie to laugh and nervously rub the back of his neck.

"Yeah," he nods glancing over at us, "They boys were off of school and Adrienne wanted to go visit her family so I decided to bring them along."

"Did you bring the nanny too?" The interviewer tried to joke and I bit my lip lightly. Maybe that's why I was here. Not to get to know my son, but to watch all his kids for him so he can run off and have fun.

Beej shook his head, "Actually that's an old friend of mine. She's here to visit with me and the guys."

"Old friend eh?" The interviewer said skeptically, and I instantly knew he was planning something, "Do you think she'd mind joining us?"

Fuck, fuck, fuck..

Billie shot me a look and I shook my head furiously as my cheeks burned from embarrassment. He sighed in relief, but it didn't stop there. The interviewer got the audience to begin cheering for me, and eventually I gave in.

"Can I go commit suicide now instead of later?" I asked Billie through clenched teeth.
My anxiety was just eating this up.

"So what is your name love?" The interviewer asked and I felt a hand grab mine which caused me to relax. I inwardly thanked Billie before finally making eye contact with the man.

"Well," I began slowly, "My names Lauren but most people call me by my middle name, Nicole."

The older man nods and smiles at my compliance, "So you've known the boys of Green Day for a while I assume?"

"I guess you could say that. I met Billie and 93' before they got quote unquote famous." I responded squeezing Billie's strong hand for relief.

"Eleven years is a long time," he comments, "Most of my friends I met recently. It's nice to know that people are still connected to people from their past."

"Well," Billie interjected, "We actually just recently got back in touch. We lost contact in 94' due to some back circumstances during the Dookie blow up."

The interviewer gives us a weird look before turning his attention to the audience, "We have time for five questions so raise your hands and they'll pick some of you." This could end badly..

Billie quickly called on a girl in the front row who looked to be around my age with natural red hair and bright blue eyes, "So I think I speak for everyone when I ask if you have any god Green Day stories?"

Great all the questions are for me, "Well... I remember this one time when I was at Billies, at the time he was living in this warehouse on the far side of Rodeo, and Trè was running around naked because he dropped some acid. Billie was in the studio recording for Dookie so I couldn't get his help."

Billie smiled and shook his head at the memory, "I remember that day. He ended up on the roof drinking a carton of milk and shouting abut aliens coming to take him to Krypton."

"That wasn't even the worst of it," I mumbled shaking my head, "Do you remember the random fire pole that Mike got? Trè stole some of my clothes and began pole dancing. I didn't have the heart to stop him, so there's probably a camera rolling around somewhere with a video of him on it."

"Sugar and spice, and everything nice wasn't made for only girls," Billie sang lowly causing some members of the audience to chuckle.

"We aren't reliving King for a Day again Billie," I shot him a look and his face burned red. After we all became quiet again I picked a guy who looked to be in his late teens to ask the next question.

"So speaking of your band," he flipped his dark hair out of his eyes, "Where are Mike and Trè?"

"Oh they're at the venue working on set up," Billie answered easily, "They'd much rather do that than sit and do interviews."

"They stuck that job with twitch her," the words left my mouth and I instantly froze along with some members of the audience. Billie squeezed my arm in reassurance and proceeded to call another fan.

"Why did you call him twitch?" This girl was much younger than the rest and obviously didn't know much about Billie and his past.

"Honestly everyone has different reasons for calling him it," I sigh, "I've always called him it because when we were younger he'd always get high and be extremely twitchy."

---

"That was the most awkward thing I've ever had to do in my life," I sighed while carrying a sleeping Jakob to the car.

Billie chuckled and opened the doors do the kids could get in the back before taking Jakob from my arms to put him in his car seat, "I just can't believe that girl asked if you were a stripper."

"I can't believe I said I was," I laughed and leaned up against the side of the car.

He shrugged and closed the door and turning his full attention to me, "I mean you could pull it off." The dark haired male winked causing my cheeks to heat up.

"You dirty little shit," I chuckled and shoved him slightly, but he grabbed my wrists and pulled me into his chest.

I was at a loss for words and my breath hitched in my throat as we stood there just staring at each other for a couple seconds. However Billie knocked himself out of it, pushed some of my bangs from my face, and then retreated to the driver's seat leaving me dumbfounded.

God damn it Nicole you can't do this. You can't get attached to him, or anyone for that matter. You're only going to end up hurting them in a couple of months. Fuck...