As I Follow This Little Lies

For another couple of days, other concerts, interviews and tour in France, Sydney didn't smile. Knowing that her worst enemy was on the same bus that Billie, she only could hope not to go insane. She couldn't imagine how Mike or Trè could survive there. Maybe Mike could, but Trè was probably in agony by now.
When they stopped near some wayside inn, with hoodies, hats or hoods on their heads and sunglasses they headed to get some proper dinner. There weren’t much people, but still they were quite recognizable. Fans could appear from nowhere. Sydney could now appreciate the great invention that sunglasses were. Sunglasses were covering her shadows under her eyes after sleepless nights and giving the opportunity to look in direction of Billie's table, without being noticed.

"Why can't we just... strangle her and drop into a ditch?" Allison grumbled, picking on her food.

"Because that's no fun. Some worse torture?" Sydney suggested

"Why do you hate that chick so much? Enjoy the tour and shut up. Stop acting so...bitchy." Dave said, looking up from his book. Sydney titled her head to the side, while Allison glared at him just like she wanted to kill him. "Maybe Billie likes that girl? It's not like Sydney cares."

"Oh, man. I told you everything." Matt said holding back from laughing. The two girls looked like they were about to kill him.

"She does care!"

"Billie!" Dave screamed, causing all three guys and Brittany to look up. "S-"

"Shut up!" Allison smacked him on the head, before he could say anything. "Don't even try mister big mouth!"

"I'd like you rather to say master." Dave replied.

"Bitchy? I act bitchy?!" Sydney said in a low voice, ignoring the little argument between Allison and Dave, coming back to reality.

"Hey, hey. Calm down, Sydney." Matt pulled her down when she suddenly got to her feet, glaring at Dave. "No one wants to cause problems here. No arguing."

"Stop talking to me in that tone like I'm a psycho!"

"You are." Dave muttered. Allison smacked him on the back of his head once again and smiled nicely at Sydney. "I think that you should take some pills, go to sleep and wait till your time of the month will f-"

"Shut up." Allison elbowed him.

"They just won't understand." Sydney said more to herself than anyone sitting at the table.

"Understand what?" Matt snorted. "That it's all about one guy?" Sydney got to her feet suddenly and if Dave and Allison didn't jump in time to hold her back, he'd never get up from the floor again. She only managed to kick him under the table. Everyone was staring, some silently laughing at them. Other simply rising their eyebrows with wonder.

"Let me go!" Sydney got away from Allison's and Dave's grasp and headed to the bathroom with her hands shaking slightly from nervousness, passing by Green Day's table.

"Oh, Frank! You're so funny." Brittany giggled loudly as Trè scoffed, crossing his arms and glaring afterwards at her.

Once she was in the bathroom she took off her glasses and glared at the sink, propping her hands on it. She was sick of this tour. She needed something to distract her from the mess she lived in. Something to ease her pain and anger. Anything to kill the thoughts and memories. Anything to take her away from the reality.

No matter what she said or did, she still loved him and still there was nothing she could do about this. She couldn't go back to what passed.

"Wow. If I looked like you now, Billie would never look at me.." Brittany said in a triumphant voice. "It's funny...He doesn't care at all, while you still hope..."

"Do you always butt in someone else’s lives?" Sydney asked in a hoarse voice.

She wasn't calm yet. She tried to fight all the emotions that were building up inside of her for so long. She couldn't let them out of control. She didn't want to tell anyone about this. It was so hard to even write songs, which she destroyed later. It didn't ease the emotions. With Brittany in this little room she was about to explode and she didn't know why, but she didn't care. She didn't think if that was good or bad. She couldn't stop it.

Brittany sighed happily, walking up to the mirror and started fixing her blond hair. The both of them looked so different. Brittany, once a punk girl turning now into a preppy, conceited girl. Sydney, miserable, emotional wreck, a girl that tried to cut off her ties with the reality.

"You're pathetic." Brittany smirked. "Why don't you just...disappear? Everybody would thank you."

"Oh, really. So, maybe I should turn off the lights, cut my wrists, overdose drugs and cry?"

"Do so." Brittany narrowed her eyes, while Sydney tightened her grip on the edge of the sink.

"You know what? Billie's not so stupid to be with anyone like you." she said in a low, dangerous voice, narrowing her eyes. "Remember what I told you? I'll die before he'll be yours." she turned to Brittany and stepped closer. "I'm not going back to what I had with him, but you won't ruin lives of anyone in here. Understood?"

Brittany started laughing and angered Sydney even more. What Sydney was sure of, was that Brittany was obsessed about Billie. She couldn't take anymore that laugh and did only thing she could in her state. She punched Brittany hard across her face, so the girl stumbled backwards and tripped over her high heels, hitting the wall behind her with her back.
Her pained voice echoed in the bathroom as Sydney stared at her wide eyed, with her clenched fist still in the air.

"Y-you b-b-bitch!" Brittany got to her feet slowly, massaging her back and shoulders. In no time the blond girl plunged at Sydney without any warning. Both girls stumbled out of the bathroom into the restaurant and fall onto the ground. Brittany was pulling on Sydney's hair, screaming insults at her, but also causing people to stare.

"Cat fight!" Trè yelled, jumping to his feet.

"S-Sydney?" Billie whispered, slowly standing up and feeling the need to get her out of Brittany's punches.
Sydney came back to her senses and punched Brittany off of herself.

"You'll pay for this! I should have done that earlier." Sydney rolled her eyes and this time she didn't stay in place doing nothing. She clenched her fists and punched Brittany several times as hard as she could across the face, causing her nose to bleed and giving her a black eye. She had one too, along with swollen lip and some other bruises.

Allison laughed as Brittany was again punched. Matt and Dave looked quite troubled, not knowing what to do about this.
"Shouldn't we stop them?" Dave asked.

"Go Sydney!" Trè yelled grinning. Another punch and Sydney was again on the ground, but before Brittany could do something again, she was lying too on the ground kicked by Sydney.

"Enough." Dave said hurrying to Sydney. Billie seemed to read Dave's mind, cause he was the first one to separate both girls.
He got between both of them, luckily avoiding the punches as the two girls didn't see him, blinded by hate. Dave caught Sydney by her waist as Billie tried to hold Brittany in place.
"It's not the end Syd!"

"Will you finally shut the hell up? Should I help you, huh?" Sydney screamed trying to struggle free of Dave's firm grasp.

"Calm down, Sydney. We're leaving. Now." Dave said in a strong, definite voice.

"Let.Me.Go." she said through gritted teeth.

"Brittany?" Billie exclaimed when she suddenly went limp in his arms. Everyone in the restaurant stopped dead in their actions and stared in shock at the girl. "Mike! Come here!" Billie didn't have to call him twice, because Mike was already rushing towards his cousin.

"She just... fainted." Mike sighed. Everyone looked accusingly at Sydney.

"What? It's not my fault... this is... if Billie didn't make her pregnant. Then you’ve got a problem."

"Do you even care about others?" Billie looked at her disbelieving.

"You'd be surprised, Armstrong." she replied and getting out of Dave's grasp, she exited the restaurant.
Not everyone felt sorry for Brittany. Only Billie, Mike and Dave. They all thought it was only Sydney's fault all of this happened. Another reason to avoid all of them.

She was cleaning up her bruises and examining her swollen lip and black eye. She had some scratches on her back and her knee hurt when she was walking. The great result of Brittany using her high heels.

"That was awesome Syd!" Trè burst through the bathroom doors on Strawberry's bus.

"Trè! I could have been naked right now!"

"So?" he shrugged "Anyway, she has stopped simulating and she said she has to get back to the USA for a while."

"Since when she has so much cash she can go wherever she wants?" Sydney sighed, looking up at Trè from the floor. He sat down in front of her on the ground.

"Exactly!" he pointed into the ceiling. "I mean, she came here to kill some of ours brains."

"You do have a brain?" she asked in a poor attempt at being funny. Her face fell and she looked down. There was no sense in pretending everything was fine.

"Sydney. Something's wrong?"

"Duh!"

"Hey, why don't you ignore them like I do? Let's talk about chickens and pigeons fighting about the control over the world!" Sydney smiled sadly.

"How the hell are you doing this? Being happy all the time?"

"How?" he titled his head to the side. "I dunno." Sydney nodded her head and suddenly not knowing why, she burst into tears. Trè looked at her quite scared. "What's going on Sydney? Why are you crying?"

"I-I c-can't ta-take this a-anymore!"

"Brittany?"

"The tour!" she said looking up. "It's... it's k-killing m-me." Trè pulled her into his arms and sighed. "I-I d-don't wa-want to b-bb-be here!"

"Sydney, you got me!" Trè said in a cheerful voice. "If you can't deal with anything come talk with me. Like we always did." she pulled away from him and sniffed. Her eyes glimmered with tears and sadness. "Don't you trust me anymore?"

"I d-do." she smiled sadly. "I-I just g-got a h-hard time w-with everything." she confessed.

"Like what?" he asked. She shook her head. "Come on. You can tell me."

"I.. thought about drugs to kill the pain. I thought about.... death. I can't sleep at night. I-I can't look at him. And she's now there and that's even worse. I can't deal with this. I can't stay here. I-It's so bad. I-I don't know w-why I'm still here." she told him everything that was such a weight for quite some time. Trè stared at her wide eyed, not knowing what he should do.

"Sydney. Promise me. Please, promise me you'll never do all of this things. I'd die if you did that! You... you're my little sister. There's no fun without you. Only you treat me somehow serious." She started sobbing again and hugged him tightly. "If I can help you somehow... tell me."

"How can you help me when I don't know what to do with myself? I try to fight this thoughts, but lately it's all getting worse. It's not going to end well." Trè bit his lip, looking straight into her eyes. "I can't even control my anger. I gained some ADHD. I guess." she laughed quietly. "It's not good. I... go everyday from every kind of emotion and it's killing me."

"What's killing you?" Allison walked suddenly into the bathroom, with troubled expression on her face.

"Brittany in my nightmares." Sydney said not looking at her.

"Well, Trè, you're staying here? We're leaving now.” he raised his eyebrow.

"Oi... trying to get rid of me? Not happening!" he exclaimed and helped Sydney up. "I'm going to stay with my hero right now." he said in a girly voice.

"Um.. fine." Allison said looking at them with raised eyebrows.