It's Not a Question, but a Lesson Learned in Time (Green Day Fanfiction)

Chapter 3 - There's no doubt, I figured out I love you...

Billie Joe's POV -

I really loved spending time with Steph. I made an effort to spend time with her every chance that I got. Over the past year, I'd been on tour pretty consistently so I hadn't been able to see her as much as I would've liked. Being in a band definitely has its perks and its downfalls. I mean, don't get me wrong; I love playing music, being able to meet the fans and explore new cities. I hope Green Day continues to be successful and attract new audiences from all over the world. But I'm grateful for where we are right now - in that comfortable space between being recognized by strangers and casually being asked for an autograph and picture to an occasional paparazzi troll dying to know who our most recent one-night-stand was.

Y'know, I'm not that kind of guy, though. I can count on one hand the number of girlfriends I've had in my 25 years of life, and while I've loved each of them, there's only one girl that I've fallen in love with.

That girl just so happens to be Steph, my best friend since the 6th grade. The only problem is, she doesn't feel the same way about me. I don't doubt that she loves me, but she's not in love with me. And she probably never will be, but for some fucked up reason I still have some hope that she might change her mind about me. Or that her feelings might change. You can't force someone to love you, though. I may be an idiot, but I know that much. We had tried dating once before and she had had enough of me after just a few days. I couldn't be the man she needed.

Anyways, fuck it. Enough of the sulky bullshit. It's really nice to be able to hang out with Steph, take her to dinner and not be bombarded with camera flashes in my face or microphones shoved up into my mouth. Thankfully, Green Day wasn't quite at the point where we needed full-time security whenever we went out. We had a couple of security guys we'd ask to hang around us once in a while if we were going into a really crowded place where we thought a lot of people would recognize us. That's when shit gets crazy sometimes, in the big crowds. The security dudes are pretty beefy, though, so they mostly just intimidate people into not putting their hands all over us without anyone having to get physical.

After Steph and I finished dinner, I drove us back to her apartment and walked her inside. I don't know how I managed to drive or how the fuck we even managed to walk once we got back to her apartment, in part because of the ice on the ground and our prison-worthy blood alcohol levels. The wine we had at dinner must have been made out of some damn fermented grapes because we were both completely shitfaced. Laughing, we stumbled into her kitchen where she poured us both some cold water.

"Billie Joe, I should've known you'd be trouble," she slurred at me with a smile, leaning on her kitchen counter for balance and resting her delicate face in the palms of her hands.

"You know me too well," I slurred back with a giggle. She looked up at me with a smile again. For several moments we just stared at one another in silence. It was so quiet you could almost hear the snow that had started to fall outside. Her deep, brown eyes seemed to slowly be taking residence of my soul and I didn't care one damn bit. After just a few seconds of her eyes on mine, I felt my heartbeat kicking into overdrive and blood rushing everywhere it shouldn't. I knew that was my cue to get going before I did something stupid. I cared about her with every fiber of my being and I didn't want to fuck up everything completely.

"Well, I better get going so we can both get some rest," I stuttered as I broke our stare and looked down, rubbing the back of my head which was starting to ache - whether from the alcohol or the fact that all the blood in my head had gone straight to my now-throbbing manhood, I couldn't tell. "I had a great time tonight, Steph. Thank you for letting me take you out." Keeping one hand on the kitchen counter, she walked over to me and we hugged. "I had an awesome time with you, too. Thank you, Billie Joe," she said with a sleepy, but sincere smile. I wanted to just hold her forever but I knew my hard-on was going to be poking her in the leg if I didn't let her go. Taking a step back, my eyes met hers and she was smiling at me like she always did. It was almost as if her facial muscles controlled mine now, and I couldn't help but smile too.