Dreams of Tomorrow

“I wanna be the minority!
One light, one mind,
Flashing in the dark,
Blinding by the silence of a thousand broken hearts!”

Lya was singing at the top of her lungs, while cleaning the garden. She was getting rid of the fallen leaves on the grass and in the swimming pool.

It was Sunday morning now, Thanksgiving was over and David and her grand parents were in their flight. Billie Joe had been the designated driver. You could tell he wasn’t thrilled, but at least David was out of his way, that’s all he wanted.

“One light, one mind,
Flash-…”

“Lya, I know you love that song, but I’m starting to regret the fact that I was the one to make you listen to it.”

Lya jumped up, startled by Billie Joe’s presence.

She turned around to face him. They stayed silent for a few seconds as she let go of the landing net she had been using for the pool.

“ONE LIGHT, ONE MIND!
FLASHING IN THE DARK
BLIN-” and she ran off, back to the house with Billie Joe running after her.

“Come back here!” screamed Billie Joe, chasing her around the house. Lya laughed and crouched down behind Joey.

“Protect me!” she said, half laughing, pretending to be scared. Joey put on a brave face and opened his arms wide, taking a step towards his father, blocking his way.

“Don’t hurt Lya! I won’t let you! I’ll protect her!” he said, serious as Lya was holding him like a shield, her hands on his shoulder her head resting on top of his.

“Buddy, let me pass… I need to punish her…” said Billie Joe, trying to reach for Lya.
“No you don’t! I won’t let you!” he said, frowning.

“What’s going on there?” asked Adrienne, peaking into the hallway, watching the scene with an amused face.

“Dad wants to punish Lya! I won’t let him!” exclaimed Joey, while Lya was rubbing her cheeks, they were starting to hurt from smiling so much.

“Actually, the thing is I was cleaning the garden and Billie Joe showed up, basically telling me to stop singing that song, but I wouldn’t, just to annoy him and now he wants to punish me for disobeying him. End of story.” Said Lya, with an expressionless face as Billie Joe was pursing his lips and starring at the young girl.

Adrienne glance at her husband and then back at Lya.
“And what was the song?” she asked, in an ‘innocent’ voice.

“One light, one mind,
Flashing in the dark…” Lya started singing, tilting her head from side to side, still crouching behind Joey.

“Ah yeah, you’re still singing it?” asked Adrienne, laughing slightly at Billie Joe’s expression.

“It’s so catchy! I just love that song!” she replied, getting up and picking up Joey in her arms, just so she could hug him.

“Well, if you do love that song that much… Then, please… Learn the lyrics to the whole song!” muttered Billie Joe.

“Yeah, yeah love you too Billie Joe!” said Lya, she pecked his cheek and walked back to the family room, still holding Joey who was delighted to be in Lya’s arms even though he was almost too old to be carried around like that.

**

It had been about a month since she first came to live with the Armstrong’s. It hadn’t been easy for her at first, then it became easier, but at the moment, she felt down. Christmas Eve was the next day and she had no idea how to feel about this as she zipped up a duffel bag Billie Joe gave her.

She starred at her room blankly. Every single day she had spent here felt like a dream. A fucking dream. She had no school, and was spending almost every day at the studio with Green Day. Best dream ever.
She was afraid that going back would have the effect of a blow in the face, harshly waking up from her ‘dream like’ stay at the Armstrongs’.

“Lya? Are you done yet? Dad is already in the car!” said Joey, running into her room and skipping on the wooden floor.

“Huh?” she whispered, her eyes drifting to the young boy.
“Let’s go!” he said, taking her hand and dragging her away from the bedroom. She quickly grabbed her duffel bag and followed him.

**

Lya was restless on the plane. She wanted to bounce her leg up and down but couldn’t really do as she wished since Joey was curled up on her lap, sleeping peacefully. He had fallen asleep 5 minutes after the plane took off.

It was still early for a Saturday, it wasn’t even 9am yet and the plane was now ready to land. She clenched her jaw and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. She tried to calm down her breathing. She wasn’t scared of landings, properly speaking. She was just scared of being back to Huntington.

With the help of Billie, they put Joey back in his seat and buckled his seatbelt.

Between the time the plane landed and the time they ended up in the car Billie Joe had rent, Lya was moving on auto-pilot, not fully aware of what she was doing.

She felt anxious, as if going back to her grandparents would make her cry and burst down in tears again. She didn’t want that, she wanted to believer that she was actually getting better now. And all that thanks to Adrienne, Joey and of course, Billie Joe.
She was sitting in the backseat, next to the window. Jakob was on his baby seat and Joey was stuck between the two. Now fully awake from his nap on the plane, he kept on talking, fast, about how excited he was for Christmas.

Lya’s eyes drifted to the man behind the wheel. Her heart missed a beat and she smiled. Billie Joe. She smiled even wider and focused back on whatever Joey was saying as they were driving down PCH, to Huntington.

**

The car came to a halt and Joey climbed over her lap to open the door and rush outside. She chuckled and followed him, leaving Adrienne to take care of Jakob as Lya started running behind Joey.
The front door opened and her grandmother stood in the doorway. Lya stopped paying attention to Joey and ran to her grandmother, engulfing the older woman in a tight hug, kissing her cheek.

Lya then let go of her grandmother and rushed inside in search of her grandfather. She startled him as he was peacefully reading his newspaper in the kitchen.

“Lya? Sweetie stop strangling your grandfather!” said David, coming into the kitchen at the same time Billie Joe appeared in the hall with the bags.

Both men eyed up one other, while Lya released her grandfather.
“I missed you Papy!” she said, grinning.

“I missed you too honey, it’s so good to see a smile back on your pretty face!” he commented, patting her cheek in a loving manner. She grinned and went to greet David. She hugged him, completely unaware of the fact that Billie Joe was glaring daggers at David.

“Missed you David!” she said, kissing his cheek and let go of him.

She turned to smile at Billie Joe as she took her duffel bag and went to her room.

She dropped her bag on her bed and smiled at the sight of her room. Her eyes drifted to the window and her smile faded as she saw Brian’s house.
She glanced at her alarm clock and saw it was 9.45 am now… He wouldn’t be awake…

The more she starred at his house, the more she wanted to go see if he was awake already. She felt the urge to go there…

“Lya?”

Lya was frozen in place, her eyes glued to the house.

“Lya!” repeated Billie Joe, snapping his fingers in front of the young girl’s face. “Snap out of it, what’s going on?” he asked, looking over his shoulder in the direction Lya had been starring.

“Oh, do you want to go see your friends?” he asked, smiling slightly as Lya’s eyes snapped to meet his.

“It’s too early” she said, looking down immediately.

“Oh honey, I’m sure Brian wouldn’t mind if you woke him up… He and the boys kept stopping by every two or three days, asking about you…” said Suzan, as she was passing by Lya’s room.

Lya’s eyes darted back to Billie Joe, asking for permission.

“Just go already…” said Billie Joe, as Lya took off running, leaving Billie Joe and Suzan to chuckle at her.

Lya put on a random black hoodie and hurriedly put on her shoes. She took a deep breath and shouted : “I’ll be at Brian’s!” before she left her grandparents’ house and made her way to the Haner’s backyard. She jumped over the fence easily and walked to the front door.

She stood at the bottom of the steps for a few seconds, wondering why she suddenly wanted to see him and the rest of the group. She shook her head, took a deep breath and walked up the porch, standing at the front door. She raised her hand and knocked softly on the door, 3 times.

The door creaked open, before she heard Brian’s step mother let out a surprised laugh and the door opened wider.

“Lya?”

“Good morning Ma’am Haner, I meant…Suzy!” said Lya as Suzy engulfed the young woman in a hug.

“I haven’t seen you in ages, Brian and the boys told me you went to San Francisco for a while…” she said, releasing Lya from the embrace and holding her by the shoulder, looking at her. “You do look better, less pale. And less tired.” She commented.

Lya just looked down at her shoes, embarrassed, but still managed to smile.

“Come in, come in! I’ll prepare you some tea, yes? You can go wake Brian up, you still remember the way?” asked Suzy. Lya just had the time to nod before Suzy disappeared in the kitchen.
She took off her shoes and slowly crept up the stairs. She stood in front of his bedroom and slowly twisted the knob. She entered his room softly and tried to find her way to his bed.

“Brian?” she whispered, hoping to wake him up softly. She heard a light snore in reply. She clasped a hand to her mouth, trying to quiet down her chuckle and went to sit on his bed.

She shook him a little.
“Come on Brian, I know it’s still early but wake up! I want to see my best friend, you know!” she said, a hint of a smile in her voice as she shook him harder.

“Damn, you won’t wake up…” she swore. She sighed and shook him again.

“Come on Brian, wake up!” she mumbled but once again, her attempt had failed. She pouted and got up from his bed, walking back to the door. She closed it behind her and she walked down the stairs, frowning.
She entered the kitchen and saw Papa Gates sitting in the kitchen, eating breakfast.

“Good morning!” she said, a little less enthusiastic than when she greeted Suzy.
“Oh Lya! It’s good to see you!” he said, smiling at her. She tried to smile back but somewhat failed as Suzy offered her a seat at the end of the table and a cup of tea, along with a plate of pancakes.

“Did you manage to wake Brian up?” asked Suzy, placing the maple syrup on the table.

“No, not really…” replied Lya, as she was taking the sugar from Suzy’s hands to put it on the table. Just as Brian appeared in the kitchen, only wearing boxers and an old Metallica T-shirt.

“Oh Junior? What are you doing up at 10am on a Saturday morning?” asked Papa Gates, briefly glancing at Lya with a smile on his face.

“I had a weird dream and couldn’t go back to…” and he stopped mid-sentence, noticing someone unusual in the kitchen.

“Lya?” he asked, his eyes widening.

She just smiled brightly at him. Before she could understand what was happening to her, she was trapped in Brian’s tight embrace, almost suffocating her.

Papa Gates and Suzy exchanged an amused glance at Lya’s surprised expression, clearly not expecting his reaction.

“Lya!”

“Hey Brian, nice to see you too!” she said, as she had wrapped her arms around him as well.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back for Christmas?” he asked, finally releasing her.

“Huh… Surprise?” she asked, shrugging.

“Merry Christmas you mean…” grunted Brent, coming in the kitchen as well. “Brian, stop squealing like a girl, you woke me up…” he groaned.

Brian just smiled at him. Merry Christmas in advance, indeed.
He focused back on Lya, looking at her from head to toes as she started talking to Brent. She looked slimmer but yet taller, but not by much… Her eyes were back to bright green with the ring of yellow in them. Her dark circles were gone. Staying away really did her some good.

“Do you want to stay for lunch Lya? Brian, how about you call Jimmy and the rest later on, I’m sure they’d be happy to see Lya too…” said Suzy.

Lya smiled at her and nodded, telling her she’d call her grandparents to let them know. Brian had a hard time tearing his eyes away from her and going to eat breakfast. He couldn’t believe she was back to Huntington for Christmas.
From what he gathered from the conversation at the table, which wasn’t much since he wasn’t listening... Lya had just landed a few hours ago. Brian felt special, because he was the first one who saw her, and she came to see him first. Not Johnny, not Jimmy, but him.

Brian smiled to himself and started eating his pancakes as Lya explained the view she had from her bedroom in the bay.

**

Lya was sitting on Brian’s bed, watching him as he kept on walking back and forth, picking up clothes and throwing them in a basket.
“Dam, I’m sorry you have to witness this…” he muttered, picking up a dirty T-shirt.

Lya just chuckled.
“I’ve seen worse… Don’t worry.” She assured as she felt sorry for him and decided to help him a bit.

“No it’s okay Athalya, go sit back…” mumbled Brian.

“Aw come on Brian, your room is a mess. Let me help! It’ll be done faster!” she said, grabbing the basket holding it with one arm and holding it against her hip. She started picking up every items of clothing that were on or near the unmade bed. As Brian went to try and make his bed for once.

“Psht! Leave that poor bed alone! When was the last time you change your sheets?” she asked, putting the almost full basket on his messy desk and going over to his bed. She grabbed the covers and pulled them off, she unmade his bed and put the sheets and pillows in the basket before picking it up again.

“Do you know where your mother keeps the clean sheets?” she asked.

“Yeah…” he said, blinking at her.

“Well, go grab some. I’m gonna bring that to the laundry room…” she said, walking out of his room.

Brian made a face and walked out of his room, “Mum?” he asked. “Where do you keep the bed sheets?” he shouted.

“What for?” asked Suzy, as she dried her hands with her apron.

“Change my bed sheets…” he said, in a ‘duh’ tone, as if it was obvious.
“Son, are you ill?” asked Papa Gates, coming out of the kitchen and looking at his son who was at the top of the stairs.

“No, but Lya just took them off…” he mumbled.

“Brian, did you found the bed sheets yet?” she asked, coming in the hall.

Suzy exchanged a knowing glance with her husband as Brian looked down, his cheeks tinted pink.

“You’ll find some in the closet in the corridor. Left door.” Said Suzy. Lya smiled and thanked her before dragging Brian with her.

Lya hurriedly made his bed as Brian stood in the corner, feeling helpless.

**

“Wow man! What happened to your room, it actually smells good!” said Jimmy, letting himself fall on Brian’s bed.

Brian rubbed his neck nervously, the guys still didn’t know Athalya was back. He hadn’t told them she was back, he wanted it to be a surprised.
He simply called Jimmy to pick up Johnny on his way, and he mentioned lunch, but that was it. And Jimmy showed up 30 minutes later…
Brian knew that if he had mentioned Lya, it’d have taken him only 15 minutes, at the most.

Johnny stood awkwardly next to Brian’s desk. It was neat, as if a hurricane had passed in his room and took away all the mess. It was probably the 3rd or 4th time Johnny came to Brian’s room but he had never seen it this neat…
He felt awkward…

“Brian? You mother told me that the gu-” Lya was cut short as Jimmy jumped of the bed and rushed to her, sweeping her off her feet and swirling her around.

“Lya! I missed you! My little Frenchie! I love you! When did you arrive? Brian, how could you hide this from me?! Did you miss me? I missed you!” Jimmy shot questions at her at the speed of light, not letting her the time to answer. She just starred at him and smiled, feeling overwhelmed by his blue eyes staring back at her. He let her go and stood in front of her. She grinned and hugged him again.

“I missed you too!” she mumbled in his T-shirt. Jimmy patted her head lovingly.

She let go of him and turned to face a shocked Johnny.
“Hey there Johnny!” she said and went to hug him, he gladly hugged her back. “Missed you!” she said cheerfully and kissed his cheek before letting him go and went to stand close to Brian.

“Now I know why the room is clean…” said Jimmy, smirking as Brian glared at him and Lya smiled.

“Yeah, it’s better this way, right? It smelled funny…” she commented, wrinkling her nose. “I got scared at the amount of clothes on the floor…” she added before she climbed on Brian’s bed and sat cross-legged. Johnny chuckled and Brian rubbed his neck.

“So, how have you been guys?” she asked.

“I’ve been good you know… partying, drinking, passing out, doing music, more drinking, more passing out and more music and sometimes, school…” said Jimmy. Lya chuckled as they all got comfortable in Brian’s room. Seeing Jimmy making fun of Johnny and Brian watching them, chuckling, it was something she admitted she had missed.

“What about you Shortshit? Tell Lya we’ve been taking good care of you!” said Jimmy, ruffling the younger’s boy hair.

“No need to lie Johnny” she cut him off before he could even start. “I know the guys weren’t nice with you…” she said smiling and casting a glance at Brian, who was sitting on the bed too.

The conversation drifted off to other topics. Lya was just happy to be in the room, hanging out with her friends. She was still quiet, mostly listening to them cracking jokes, unobvious to the fact that Brian was slowly but surely moving just so he could sit closer to her. He went unnoticed. That was until her arm brushed against his that she noticed and instead of frowning, she just smiled and him and laid her head on his shoulder while still talking to the guys about Mike’s bass, without saying who’s bass it was and the reason she knew about it.

There was a timid knock on the door and instead of being a member of Brian’s family, it was Joey. Lya immediately sat up.

“Joey?!” she asked, surprised.

“Your grandmother called me, the poor kid was worried about you… Especially when he heard that you would stay here for lunch…” explained Suzy, appearing behind Joey.

“Oh my… Joey!” whispered Lya, hurrying to the young boy who looked ready to cry.

“I thought you left me!” he whimpered, looking at the young woman as she crouched down to his level.

“Joey! How could you think that?! I would never leave you! Dummy!” she reassured him, hugging him to her chest and resting her head on top of his. Joey wrapped his smaller arms around her, gripping her T-shirt.

“Oh God… Guys, I’m sorry!” apologized Lya, as she held Joey in her arms and got up, she had trouble catching her balance. Joey was getting too old to be carried around like that. “I’ll be going I think…” she mumbled.

“No, it’s okay Lya! We don’t mind!” said Brian, looking at Lya and then at his friends, with a “you-better-agree-with-me” kind of look.

“You sure?” she whispered. They all nodded. She sighed softly in relief and set Joey back down. He immediately wandered to the guitars in the corner.

“My daddy’s got plenty of them!” he said, pointing at the guitar and then looking at Lya’s friends.

Lya’s eyes widened and she almost smacked her forehead.

“He does? What kind of guitar?” asked Brian, interested. Joey smiled at him and went to sit next to him on the bed.

“F-…Fe-…” he tried to remember, thinking hard. Lya chuckled at his cute face, her arms crossed over her chest, still standing up close to the bedroom door.

“Fender.” She said.

“Yeah! And Gi-something ones.” Added Joey.

“Gibson” said Lya.

“What does he do?” asked Jimmy, “I mean what’s his job?”
“Because he surely does have a lot of guitars” he commented, as Brian and Johnny nodded in approval.

Lya’s eyes widened, she immediately opened her mouth to say something but Joey beat her to it.

“My daddy is in Lya’s favorite band!” exclaimed Joey before Lya could stop him. Her eyes widened even wider and her face fell, losing all colors.

“Lya? Lya! Are you all right?” asked Johnny, concerned, watching her face changing colors.

Lya’s throat went dry and her heart was pounding so loud, it made her deaf. She brought a hand to her forehead and tried to reach Brian’s bed to sit but her legs gave out.

She thought she was going to fell face first on the carpet but Jimmy reacted at the speed of light and caught her by the waist before she could get hurt.
Brian was by her side in a blink of an eye.

“Lya? Are you all right?” he asked, taking her from Jimmy’s arms and carrying her to his bed, he laid her down on the mattress and rested his hand on her forehead. Her breathing was labored, her chest heaving, her lips parted and she was crying, a few tears had rolled down her cheeks. Brian wiped them with his thumb while his other hand was still on her forehead.

“Johnny, can you go and get me a glass of water please?” he asked.
Johnny nodded and ran off. Joey crawled on the bed and sat close to Lya.

“Lya?” he whispered, his eyes wide in fear.

Lya’s eyes opened and she starred at the ceiling, she coughed and tried to get her breathing back to normal. Brian helped her sit up and she bend down, resting her head between her knees. Brian kept rubbing her back and when Johnny came back with the glass of water, she gulped it down in one go.

“What the hell was that?” asked Johnny, starring at Lya.

“Panic attack…” said Jimmy, frowning slightly.

“But it was only a small one… We’ve witnessed worse…” explained Brian.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered, her eyes widening slightly. “I… I was-… I wasn’t expecting that…” she whispered, her voice a little hoarse.

“Neither did we!” said Johnny, relief written on his face as he realized that Lya was all right.

Jimmy was eyeing her suspiciously. What exactly happened to make her react like that…? What it something she remembered, something one of them did, or maybe it was something they said…?

He found it somewhat weird that she was perfectly fine just a minute ago, she started to become tense when the kid came into the picture.
Was he her son? Jimmy wanted to slap himself for thinking such nonsense, of course it wasn’t her son. It was probably really that guy’s son. But why did she react like that?

He frowned, glancing out of Brian’s window, starring at the clouds. Last time she had a panic attack, was the day she was supposed to meet her mother’s best friend. He also remembered that she kept on calling him B, but never did she once mentioned his full and real name.

So if that kid was that B guy’s son, and if he mentioned guitars, does that mean he was a musician?
Musician…

Panic attack, guitars, musician, B…

Jimmy frowned even more, his eyes ended up in tiny slit as he kept on starring outside of the window. Something was off…

Because if that B guy was just a basic musician, she wouldn’t have freaked out when Joey was about to…

What did he say again? “My daddy is in Lya’s favorite band”… Favorite band… Green Day.

Panic attack, Green Day, B, guitar-

Then it clicked, as if a light bulb had switched on above him and his head snapped to look at Lya. She was looking at him, wondering why he seemed so deep in thoughts.

Their eyes met, and from the look on his face, her face went blank and the only thing she could think about was those 2 words she had dreaded to think:

He knew.