Good Riddance || Billie Joe Armstrong

When It's Time

"Are you locked up in a world that's been planned out for you?" I stood side stage watching, well trying to watch, the boys last overseas show of this tour. "I'll take the heed just for you..."

Billie glanced my way once he finished the song which caused me to laugh and shake my head. He knew that was my favorite song off Dookie, and it wasn't even because he wrote it about me.

"So," Billie began pulling his electric guitar off, "There are a lot of things being said about me right now. Most of them are true though." One of the guitar techs ran out to swap an acoustic for his electric. "However that shouldn't be something you guys worry about. We're here for the music, not my personal life."

A confused look formed on my face as Billie turned into my direction after slinging his acoustic over his shoulder. Landon then came out of nowhere and grabbed my hand leaving me completely confused. "You see, there's this song that I want to sing for all of you. I've only ever showed my wife this because of how special it is to me. I wrote it for a special girl when she and I began dating way back in 93, but I never got to sing it to her since things between us went to shit in 94."

"Y'know, sometimes I wonder what would be different now if I had actually had the balls to find her before now." Billie gave Landon a slight nod before turning towards the crowd. "Will you care if I bring her out here to sing for her?"

The crowd immediately screamed, and Landon began pulling me out towards center stage, "Billie what are you doing?" I whisper awkwardly waving to the giant crowd of people staring back at me.

"We're going to take a walk down memory lane," Billie said into the microphone before the giant screen behind us showed a picture from around the time we first met. His hair was the bright ass fire red I remember and mine was blonde with green tips.

"Jesus Christ what was I thinking back then?" I mutter shaking my head.

Billie shared my reaction to our colorful choices of hair color, "For fucks sake..." The crowd laughed at his comment. "So I'm just going to pretend this picture isn't up behind me, but this was probably taken a week or so after I met this lovely girl." Landon pulled a chair out for me to sit in and immediately jumped on my lap after I took a seat.

"Would it be bad if I said I met her in one of the bars we played a show in? Wait I met Adrienne in one as well... What the hell is up with me and bars?" Billie questioned looking deep in thought on the topic.

"Dude it's because you're an alcoholic," Mike answered while laughing.

Billie proceeded to throw one of the guitar picks at his blonde friend, "Where was I? Oh yeah, well at the time she was only seventeen and I think I was what? Twenty four?"

I nod looking down at the boy in my lap in embarrassment, "We kind of hit it off right away. She was different from other people, and I liked that. From there she moved into one of the warehouses in Oakland with me."

"They had sex a lot," Tre added trying to embarrass Beej and I, so it was my turn to throw something. "What it's the truth?"

My cheeks were burning up at this point and Billie just had a smirk on his face, "Hey we can't deny it. I was a horny bastard back then."

"Shut up Armstrong you still are," I mutter rolling my eyes at the dark haired lead singer.

"Pft... Nooo." The picture in the back changed to one of us at Woodstock causing a smile to form on my face at the memory. Blue haired Billie Joe with a nose ring and a busted tooth. Good times if I do say so myself. In the picture my hair was a silver color and I was pushing Billie's muddy body away from me.

"We were a pretty happy couple some would say, but the age difference is what killed us. I wanted to be with her, but we knew that if we went public that her family would come after me and no record company would want to sign the band," The thought of this made a frown form on my face.

The next picture that came up was of us in the hospital after Landon was born. "Now let's talk about this. You see, this was the best and worst day of my life. I was a complete asshole to this lovely girl, and I've regretted it to this day. She and I had made a deal that I'd take Landon after he was born so both of us could continue our lives in peace, but this day I had pissed her off so much that she was going to leave with Landon with her. However she ended up going into labor."

I bit my lip at the depressing memory of those nights alone when Billie had disappeared. "Mike here pulled me out of my stupidity, and from there on stayed by my side while raising this dude."

Landon got up and hugged Mike before his father leaving me sitting in the chair awkwardly. "People think that she was selfish for leaving our kid with me, but it was all she could do. Both of us had our reasoning's for the choices made back then, and they were all for the best. I remember the first time I saw her again a couple of months ago, I was furious. It was stupid of me to be, but I was because I loved- love her."

"These last couple of months with you around have been a blessing Lauren," Billie began causing my heart to beat faster, "I wrote this when I knew I had fallen in love with you all those years ago, and it's still true to this day. Mike and Tre walked over and took London's hands before pulling him away from the stage.

"Words get trapped in my mind, I'm sorry I don't take the time to feel the way I do." Billie sang softly while playing the chords to the song, "'Cause the first day you came into my life, my time ticks around you. But then I need your voice as the key to unlock all the love that's trapped in me. So tell me when it's time, to say I love you..."

Billie continued singing and playing, but I became lost in my own thoughts and exhaustion. This was it; this was going to be the last thing I ever see. I don't know how I know, but I know...

Yeah the song wasn't released at this point in the timeline, but it was written since it was from the beginning of Addie and Billie's relationship. :)