As I Follow This Little Lies

The little bell, hanging just near the door, rang when furious looking girl walked into the book store. Allison stared at her with confused expression as she went towards the back room. Allison had nothing to do on her shift so far. No one visited the book store during this long, boring day. The last couple of days were not so nice and sweet for her too. She got kicked out from the band that had no future since Sydney wasn't there. Allison now knew how her ex-friend felt, but also she didn't know that Brittany could be such a person. Cold and angry at the whole world, getting rid of her friends cause they don't like something or just don't agree with her.

From the back room she could hear quiet conversation with her boss - Joanne. She couldn't make out what they were talking about, but after Allison saw Sydney entering, she thought something happened. A couple of minutes later Joanne walked out of the room and came up to Allison.

"Allison, maybe you want to go home? Sydney can replace you today." Joanne said, with her bright smile never leaving her face.

"Oh, no, no. I would rather stay. I've got nothing better to do."

"Oh, okay." she bent over to Allison and whispered into her ear. "So watch over Syd. It seems like something bad happened. She's really sad today."

"Do you know what happened?"

"Oh, I guess she'll tell you, if she wants." she smiled at worried Allison "Now I've got to go. Bye." she waved to her worker and hastily left the store, got into her red SUV and left.

Joanne was a nice woman in her late thirties. She had two daughters and a loving husband. She was not only a boss, but also a good friend with her workers. She should rather work as psychologist than in a book store... she was a really good listener and she helped out a lot.

Allison sat back in her chair and went back to reading some guitar magazine she bought before she came to work this afternoon. Minutes later Sydney appeared, looking less frustrated and calm. She walked to the book shelves and searched for some interesting book. After a couple of minutes she took a horror book about Freddy Kruger. She liked that stuff. She could read it over and over again. She took out cash from her valet and laid it on the counter.

Allison looked at her inquiringly.

"You know you don't have to pay for the book."

"If I leave it at the store then yes."

"Oh, well." Allison sighed and put cash in a cash box. As Sydney was going back to the back room Allison called out after her. "I'm sorry."

"I didn't want this to happen. I'm really sorry. For…everything."

"You mean...a band?" Allison nodded slightly. "I don't care about that anymore. It's not like we would be in that forever... It was a waste of time a little."

Allison winced at the coldness in Sydney's voice. "But we were friends back then."

"Right."

"Syd. Do you... Do you know what really happened?"

"No. Not really." she shrugged, starting walking towards the back room again.

"But... it concerns also Billie" Allison bit her lip as Sydney stopped in front of the doors as she was frozen.

"Billie?" she smiled weakly after long moment of silence. "Then it means he's a big trouble to me, huh?"

"Sydney...”

"If someone asks, and I hope that not, tell them I'm not in here." she shot a quick glance towards Allison. "At least do this one thing for me. I'm not asking for much."

She entered the back room, not waiting for a reply or noticing gloomy expression on her ex-friends face.

***
As three hours passed Allison was almost falling asleep as there were no clients for at least an hour. She had her head lying on the desk and when dream was overcoming her, the doors burst open and two guys walked inside. Allison fell from chair and looked up at the intruders.

"Where's Sydney!!!" Billie Joe breathed as he pushed Matt away from the counter.

"I've got no idea." she said, shrugging and eyeing both of them. Matt pushed Billie away.

"You're lying!" Matt exclaimed

"I'm not lying..." she glanced at Billie with raised eyebrows. He had cut lip and bruise under his left eye and a black eye. Then she looked at Matt, who had black eye and some blood on his shirt that probably came from nose bleed.

"Why does Billie look like... panda and you-"

"Doesn't matter." Billie chimed in "Where is she."

"Not here?" Allison rolled her eyes. "We're not even talking, so why should she be here?"

"She must be here. We checked everywhere." Matt cast a glance at Billie.

"Aha... Cool... Maybe she's home already?" she suggested.

"Listen." Billie growled. "I need to talk with her and you won't stop me if she's here." Allison sighed and looked down. Matt smirked.

"We'll look around here... somewhere."

"Okay. If that helps me in convincing you.." she crossed her arms and sat in her chair.

Matt went towards the book shelves in search of Sydney, while Billie decided to check the back room. Sydney looked around to find a way to escape, but she had no chance in getting out through the back door without a key. Damn. she thought as she heard footsteps. She ducked to the small toilet and locked the door. At the same moment Billie entered the room and with a sigh of relief he stopped in the room.

I guess now it's the hardest part… he looked towards the toilet room.

"Sydney?" Billie called "Please, talk to me."

She sat there in silence and wished he would walk out the door and stop speaking in such sad tone. He tried to open the door. She heard him mutter something to himself.

"Please, answer me at least." she took a deep breath considering if she should say anything. "Oh, come on. I know you're there!" Billie whined.

"And what if I am here?" she asked.

"Then we can move to the part when you open the door." Billie said, sounding a bit happier.

"Um... No?"

"Aw, why?"

"Think."

"But we need to talk about this shitty situation."

"I don't want to hear about that."

"Sydney!" Billie whined. She stared at the ceiling in silence. "What should I do to get you out of there?"

"You ask me?" she snorted. She heard him sigh and both of them were silent for a while.

"I... I'm sorry for being such an asshole."

"Wow. You needed Matt to beat you up to realize that?"

"No. I just...”

"You didn't even try to believe me."

"So why didn't you just tell me you was going out?!" he exclaimed frustrated.

"Yeah, start it again...” Sydney growled.

"Will you open the door?" she sighed and slowly opened the door. Billie looked at her sadly.

"I am not about to jump into your arms and say I missed you."

"But that would be... nice?"

"Perhaps." she looked at the ground. Billie wrapped his hands around her and laid his head on her shoulder.

"Don't ever run away like this." he whispered.

"Hey." Sydney laughed slightly. "Don't tell me you was scared about me." The smile left her face when he looked at her seriously. "Oh, well. Sorry then."

They went out from the room and went over to Matt and Allison. Matt grinned at his sister and hugged her tightly.

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Oh, right. I'm just your little sister getting into trouble." Sydney rolled her eyes. She pulled away and smiled at Allison.

"Well..." Billie cast a glance at Matt "I think we should go home."

"No, Sydney is not going anywhere with you!" Matt exclaimed.

"Matt." she said stepping between them. "I don't care if you two don't like each other. At least pretend to, okay?" she looked from Billie to Matt, who nodded avoiding each others gaze.

"Whatever you want, Sydney." Matt said.

"Good. Oh, right. I guess you could talk with Allison a little while longer." she winked at Allison and pulled Billie by his hand out of the store. Matt watched her leave.

"Don't worry. She'll be okay. Billie's not that bad."