The Sun is Gone

Lies

"Yeah, I'm with one of my friends that moved up here a few years ago," I said, twirling the phone cord between my fingers and staring at Kurt worriedly.

"Okay..." Craig's confused voice answered on the other end of the line. I couldn't believe what I was doing. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to meet a friend, Liz? I've been so worried since I woke up. I didn't know what to do. I was thinking of calling the police if you didn't come back soon."

"I'm so sorry Craig. I called her last week to tell her I'd be up here. I didn't mention it because I didn't think I'd actually visit her. But then I was having such bad trouble sleeping last night that I figured I'd see what she was doing."

"Geez, Liz. I mean, I wish you just would have left a note or something." Craig's voice was more concerned than angry, which made me feel even worse about lying. "I'm fine with you visiting your friend, but I wish you would have let me know."

"I'm really sorry, Craig. I wasn't thinking. I walked outside to get some air and I saw a payphone and I called her. It was really on a whim. And it took me a while to get a phone book to look up the hotel number. It was stupid of me."

"It's okay. I'm just glad that I know you're okay. Where are you now?"

"I'm at my friend Shelli's apartment. I slept here last night because it got really late. Everyone had some drinks and no one was safe to drive me back. It's too far away to walk, especially at night."

"Everyone? Who's everyone?" Craig asked, now raising his voice a little. Shelli, who was actually sitting next to me on the couch at her and Krist's apartment, grabbed the phone from my hand.

"Hi, Craig. This is Liz's friend, Shelli." I pressed my eyes tightly shut, nearly sick with guilt. Now I had my friends lying for me too.

"My boyfriend, Krist, who lives here with me and a few of our close friends were over... I'm sorry about Liz. I feel like it's partially my fault... when she called I was really excited, because I haven't seen her in forever, and I just drove right over to get her." I couldn't hear what Craig was saying on the other end of the line, but I felt ready to have a panic attack over the whole situation. My knees shook and I buried my face in my hands. Kurt rested his hand on my back, but at the moment that only made me feel worse.

"Yeah, I promise she's safe here. I was hoping it'd be okay if she hung out with me for a while. We have so much catching up to do... oh, okay. Well that's perfect then... sounds good... yeah, I'll put her back on... no problem, here she is..." I looked up at Shelli as she offered the phone back to me.

"Thank you," I mouthed to her, feeling ill as I took the phone back from her.

"Hey, Craig. It's me," I said.

"Your friend seems like a really nice girl," he said. "I'm glad you're getting to visit her, but please, Liz, let me know when you're going to do stuff like this."

"I will. I promise. I'm really sorry."

"I forgive you, Liz. You can make your own choices and do what you want. I never want to control you. I just want to know that you're safe." I got an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach because Craig was such a good person and I was being horrible to him.

"Thanks, Craig," I managed.

"Listen, I actually got a couple offers to meet with some bands today. I hung around after the show last night and talked to some people."

"That's really cool, Craig," I answered.

"Yeah, so I'll be busy most of the day. So if you want to spend the day with Shelli, that's cool."