Billie Joe Armstrong is my step-father... and I hate it [EDITING]

6. Words I Might Have Ate [Edited]

Friday came around. When I got home from school, feeling ready for the weekend ahead and anticipating my first social event in what must have been years, my mom called me into the kitchen. I expected to be ate alive after telling Billie I thought his oldest son was a douche bag but when I walked in, it was just her standing there, her messy hair pulled back into a ponytail as she struggled making dinner for seven people.

"Grace, good thing that's you. I need you to babysit Hollie tonight, is that okay?" she asked, turning to me and leaning against the kitchen counter. She looked tired - my poor mother was always not great with tending to a crowd larger than five. When dad was alive she even had problems with aunt Tracy coming to stay.

I shrugged and made my way towards the stove, plucking some cheese from the counter to eat. "Why, is Prince Charming whisking you off to some fucking dive bar to force you to listen to shitty music from the 70's?" I retorted, sarcastically.

My mom sighed and snatched the cheese out of my hand. "Grace, please. Not right now - and stop eating the cheese!"

"Why, you already used what you needed," I growled, gesturing to the pasta bake in the oven.

"Well, I don't know how much cheese the boys like, maybe they want more or... Jesus, I didn't even think if they wanted less!" she exclaimed, standing back to look at her bake and shaking her head slowly, her hand over her mouth.

I felt a little bad for her so I tried to reassure her. "Look, I'm sure it's fine. They're boys aged eighteen and twenty one, they'd eat anything you put in front of them, you seen what Kage is like," I told her.

She let out a small whine and sat down at the table, holding her head in her hands. "God, I never knew how stressful this was - dating with kids. From different people. There's so much to think about."

"Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'll definitely babysit for you tonight so you can go out and forget about it for a while," I told her, "Even if it is with... him."

She looked up at me, "You will? Thanks Grace. Once I get this damn dinner out of the way, I'll be fine again, I'm sure."

I helped her prepare the rest of it to de stress her as much as possible and for once, we seemed to get along (so long as Billie wasn't brought up into the conversation). It was nice to talk to my mom without it turning into a screaming match and made me feel better about taking care of a restless kid who seemed to think that if her big sister was telling her to do something, it didn't count.

The two of them left at about eight and I managed to get Hollie in bed and sleeping by half nine by some kind of miracle. I had no idea where Jakob had disappeared to, having only met him at dinner time that day, I didn't think to ask. He was eighteen, he could do what he liked I suppose. Kage kept himself to himself, as teenage boys do and I had assumed I had the house to myself, seeing as Joey mentioned doing something with his band.

Once I got Hollie in bed, I decided to go down into the living room to chill by myself for a bit and watch TV, seeing as it was the only time I was going to get to myself with seven people living under the roof for two weeks.

I walked into the living room, my eyes set on my phone so I didn't notice Joey sitting there when I entered. I jumped a bit when I seen him sitting there and he glanced up at me, giving me a brief nod as a greeting before looking away.

What a prick.

I considered leaving again, seeing as looking at him was making me angry already but my pride prevented me. It was my house and I wasn't going to let him push me around in it so I walked right in and sat myself in the armchair, swinging my legs over the side of one arm without saying a single word.