~No One Knows~ A Green Day Story

•Chapter Eight•

*Mike's POV*

I still sat there on the leather couch long after Velvet had gone to "bed". I hoped that she would sleep. The bags under her eyes were unreal and she looked exhausted. I thought I had been tired before, but I couldn't imagine what she felt like. She was going through withdrawal for one, and she had never slept on the bus before. Plus she was probably still worried about those guys in the rain.

I had been playing with her hair while she told me what happened, bribing her with the cigarette I knew she was desperate for. No matter how much she says she's changed, everything she does I can still see the little six year old in her. Except for the drugs of course. And the lying. But I didn't like thinking about that.

I liked touching her hair and it being as soft as it used to be when she was a little girl. I saw her crying in the rain and her tears looked the same as they fell on her cheeks. Her hair looked the same wet except now she had dyed it a maroon color. I could still see her black roots, that little reminder that she was the same girl. Her emotions were the same. Except now she didn't want anyone to believe that she had feelings or that she could possibly interact with anyone. She still had the same attitude when it came to me teasing her. Her eyebrows lifted, her arms crossed and her lips twitched when I pissed her off. She was exactly the same.

And now as I sit here thinking about her, I wish she'd come back and spend the rest of the night with me. Just talking to me, being with me and telling me about her stories. About how she grew up. About how we got farther and farther apart. 

Some people when they went through withdrawal, they were given small doses of the drug they needed, just to help them along the way. Well I wanted to be her drug if that made sense. I wanted her to let all those feelings out and talk to me. Not just move her mouth and say words, but actually say something. 

Rubbing my eyes, I groan at myself and try to gain some sense. I was sitting here daydreaming about spending a day alone with Velvet. It wasn't right, she was Billie's sister and he'd kill me for thinking such things. And yet it's the only reason I can find why I shouldn't think about her the way I do. I told myself that I didn't want to throw away my whole relationship with Billie just to be with his sister. She was just a girl. 

Just a girl, I told myself, praying that it would be true if I said it enough times. 

****

It's the first time she's sat backstage and actually watched us. Her sitting there on one of the speakers with her high tops dangling reminded me of when she was little, the image stuck in my brain.

I gazed out at the crowd of people, jumping and moshing to us as we played our music, but the image of her kept resurfacing, like a bad headache you couldn't get rid of or a song that's your guilty pleasure. 

She was definitely a guilty pleasure. 

Moving around with my bass, I step back, her now in my line of vision where I try and discretely look over, catching her eyes.

She smirks, raising an eyebrow as she began to make a slow golf clap with her hands. 

I pretend to not let it take effect and move away before anyone can notice our private share of eyes.

I had made up my mind earlier that I was done being a coward because of what Billie might've thought. I was helplessly attracted to his sister and tonight I would stop isolating myself away from her. I was gonna spend the time I cherished with the one girl I couldn't get out of my head.

I knew all along she was gonna come on this trip. 

I never expected to admire her. 

****