And the Stars up Above - Chapter 13

January 8th, 1987
Mike

Mike arrived to Jason’s house long before Billie Joe did. Mike’s legs were much longer, which meant Mike was faster than Billie. Usually Mike waited for Billie to even things out, but today he didn’t. He wanted to show Billie Joe that he wasn’t as great as Billie thought he was, and he couldn’t think of a better way. At least not right now.

He rang the doorbell and took a few deep breaths so he would be able to speak when Jason opened. He was still panting from running. He heard steps from the inside but no one came to open. He frowned and rang the bell again, longer this time. After a few seconds he heard a man’s voice shouting something from inside, but he couldn’t make out the words. Then he heard quick steps approaching the front door. Mike took a step backwards to make room for the door to swing open. He heard someone grab the handle from the other side, and then the someone opened the door and revealed himself to be Jason. Jason looked surprised to see Mike.

“Hi there buddy. Care to join me and Billie for school?” Mike said.
“Yeah sure. Where is Billie?” Jason said searching with his eyes for Billie.
“Oh he’s coming, we had a competition and…well… besides, he doesn’t really know the way to your house. But he’ll be here eventually. Let’s go inside and wait.” Mike said and took a step towards the door to go inside. From out of no where Jason’s arm came to stop him.
“My dad is home. He’s not… he’s not very good with people.” Jason said and pushed Mike backwards. Jason stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
“What do you mean ‘not good with people’? I want to meet him! You know, it’s pretty weird that we’ve been friends for like, almost a year now and I still haven’t met your father!” Mike said while stepping towards the door again, stretching out his arm to grab the handle. Jason slapped Mike’s arm away and shook his head.
“You’re lucky you haven’t. Trust me Mike, you don’t want to meet him.” Jason said, grabbed Mike by his hand and dragged him off of the porch.
“Come on, let’s go find Billie.” Jason said and continued to drag Mike by the hand. Mike pulled his hand back.
“I can walk on my own, you know.” He said. “And what’s so bad about your father?”
“Nothing.” Jason said. Mike was just about to continue questioning Jason when Billie showed up. When he saw Jason and Mike standing outside Jason’s house he stopped, bent over and put his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
“Your such a…” pant. “good friend, you know” pant. “Mike.” pant. “Leaving me…” pant. “like that…” pant. “when you know…” Billie finally caught his breath. “that I don’t know the way to Jason’s house. What if I had got lost? Huh? Did you think of that?” Billie stared at Mike, who didn’t answer, he just stared back.
“Fucking moron…” Billie muttered under his breath and walked the last steps to where Mike and Jason were.
“Are we going to school or what?” he snapped “or were you planning on standing here all day?” he said and crossed his arms. He was not looking at Jason, he was staring straight into Mike’s eyes and Mike got a feeling that this was going to be one of those days when Billie Joe ignored Jason. Billie Joe did that sometimes, when he felt that he was left out in some way. Mike sighed.“Yeah, let’s go. Come on, Jason.”