And the Stars up Above - Chapter 9

April 11th, 1986
Billie Joe

They hadn’t said as much as ‘hi’ to each other since their fight. Today was the last day before the weekend. Billie knew that they wouldn’t see each other then. He also knew that Jason and Mike would. And he knew that he would be spending his weekend in his room, alone with his guitar.

Right now he was considering skipping lunch since he knew that both Mike and Jason had lunch at the same time as he did. But his stomach was screaming, and it’s hard to say no to food when you’re hungry. Billie sighed and started walking towards the canteen. Hopefully he wouldn’t see them.

Billie Joe did see them.

Billie was pushed over.
“Watch were the fuck you’re going, moron!” Billie shouted.
“Watch it yourself!” Billie Joe heard Mike’s voice say. All the sudden Billie felt very cold. He looked up, expecting Mike’s blue eyes. They weren’t there; Mike had already started walking away with Jason beside him. Billie watched them leave, Jason watched Billie Joe stand there. Jason walked straight into a lamp post. Billie Joe laughed. Mike looked at Billie angrily and pulled Jason to his feet. Jason held his head. Mike told Jason that he was stupid, Jason agreed. Billie Joe continued to laugh. Mike told him to shut the fuck up. Billie continued laughing, just to annoy Mike. Mike started walking again, Jason did not. He stood between them, looking from Billie Joe to Mike, then back to Billie and so on. Mike realised that Jason wasn’t with him.
“Are you coming or what? Or would you rather stand there all day and watch that monkey?” Mike said, with a nod towards Billie.
“I don’t know…” Jason said, looking very unsure. Mike sighed loudly.
“You know what? No, I’m not.” Jason said, looking very sure all the sudden. Mike looked gob smacked.
“What?” he said, staring at Jason.
“I’m not leaving until the two of you are friends again. I know that you’re both pretending to hate each other right now, but I also know that what you really do is miss each other. Mike,” he said and turned his back on Billie Joe, to face Mike “you haven’t been yourself since whenever that happened, you barely laugh, you barely speak and you barely eat. And Billie…” he now turned to Billie Joe “you’ve been all alone, although you do have other friends than Mike. Why, I’ve asked myself. And now I know. It’s because nothing’s really fun without Mike, is it?” Billie Joe looked across the yard towards Mike and a pair of blue eyes met a pair of green. “I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t happy that you weren’t friends, because I was at one point. But you know what? I’m not anymore, not at all. Both of you are unhappy, so why don’t you both just swallow your pride and apologise?” Jason finished and took a deep breath; he had spoken without any breaks, probably because he was afraid that somebody would interrupt him.

Magical, blue eyes were looking straight into Billie Joe’s green, and Billie knew that nothing needed to be said.

Billie Joe could not hate Jason anymore.