"What's the worst that could possibly happen if we chose to stay and not run away from anyone this time?" Sydney turned to the side of the bed with a grunt. She's greatly troubled and having a hard time sleeping and it's all because of what she and Ellie discussed earlier before bed.
She suggested that they stay instead of fleeing from this place tomorrow morning. It was hard to convince Sydney to agree to this, however, Ellie was successfully able to persuade her to agree to stay. It wasn't easy but it was definitely worth the try.
"Ugh, f**k this!" Sydney cursed under her breath and got off the bed with a heavy huff. She ran her hands through her hair and then stood from the bed to go get a drink from the kitchen, to quench her throat which was suddenly feeling thirsty in the middle of the night.
Sydney is being careful to not mistakenly make a sound as she was going down the spiral staircase. Roman would wake up at the slightest noise and she wasn't ready for any drama right now, not in the middle of the night. It takes a lot of strength and energy to make him fall asleep unless he decides to do that on his own.
"Jesus Christ, you scared the f**k out of me, Ellie! What are you doing down here?" Sydney yelped dramatically and clutched her chest at the sight of Ellie, sitting on one of the couches in the living room and munching down snacks.
"What? you scared yourself. You've never woken up in the middle of the night and started to crave snacks?" Ellie asked so innocently as if she just didn't scare the living hell out of Sydney and shrugged cluelessly.
"God, Ellie. You know you are just so..ugh" Sydney gave up and threw her hands in the air with the feeling of annoyance when she couldn't find the right word to describe Ellie with.
"Sorry, I didn't know I was going to scare you. No one usually comes down here when it's this late and I'm eating snacks" Ellie got off the couch and followed Sydney entering the kitchen.
"Yeah, maybe, next time check well and wipe that ketchup off your lips. It looks like blood, you could actually do well in a ghost movie" Sydney opened up the bottle of water she grabbed from the fridge and gulped half down her throat. She took another sip and then kept the water on the counter.
"Couldn't sleep?" Ellie questioned, sitting on the kitchen counter after she wiped the ketchup stain on her lips.
"Yeah, what about you?"
"Couldn't sleep too but I'll probably do when I'm down with these snacks and head back to my room" Ellie grabbed the bottle of water that Sydney kept on the counter and took a sip from it.
"Hey, get your own water. I was about to drink all of that" Sydney softly grabbed the bottle of water from Ellie in a flash, before she could keep it back on the counter and warned her to get water by herself.
"Chill, I only just wanted to take a sip. You seem exhausted. You are even sweating, were you not able to sleep only or did you have a bad dream?" Ellie asked out of concern, looking at the huge beads of sweat covering the top of Sydney's head.
"I don't know, maybe I had a bad dream, maybe I didn't…" Sydney deliberately taunted Ellie and wiped off the sweat on her forehead, which seemed to be bothering the girl.
"You know I'm not going to ask that again. I was just too concerned to not ask" Ellie shrugged.
"Stop worrying about me, Ellie. You seem to be quite worried about me a lot these days. It's not like I'm dying or something" Sydney drank up the rest of the water remaining in the bottle.
"Maybe you are, I don't know. You haven't fed on anything recently. Maybe your wolf is hungry and that is what seems to be stressing you out, I don't think I've ever seen you sweat and that much was a little bit scary" Ellie said, letting Sydney know why she was worried about her.
"Who told you that I'm stressed out, Ellie? I'm kind of worried only and my wolf is doing just fine. Thanks for asking and please don't ever ask that again. You might be what my wolf wants to eat" Sydney teased and was the only one to laugh. Ellie must not have found that funny.
"Yeah, funny. I think I'm going to go to bed now. That wasn't funny at all, Syd" Ellie got off the counter and washed her hands in the sink to leave the kitchen.
"Hey, sorry if that scared you. It was just a joke, you know I can never do that to you, I could never eat you" Sydney apologized, thinking that would stop Ellie from leaving but she didn't even allow her to touch her, as she walked past her after washing her hands.
"Yeah, a joke that wasn't funny. I'm just going to go to sleep now, you should too. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. Good night, Syd"
"Night" Sydney waved to Ellie, watching the girl leave and leaving her all alone in the kitchen.
"Well, guess I'll have to force myself to sleep tonight " Sydney sighed with regret and began to depart from the kitchen to go back up to her room.
****
The Next Day
"Here, hold this for me so I can lock the door" Sydney handed her handbag over to Ellie, who took it from her so she could lock the door.
"Done, okay now, Roman…" Sydney called after locking the door and handing the key over to Ellie. She then crouched to attend to Roman before she would leave with him to school.
"I want you to promise Mommy that you are not going to fight anyone at school today. Today's your last day there though, but If Ray or anyone else tries to look for your trouble, you are just going to avoid them and report to Mommy Gibbs instead. Okay?"
"Okay"
"Are you sure?"
"I am sure, Mom. I promise not to fight anyone at school today"
"Good, that's my boy" Sydney gave Roman a peck on his forehead and then took his hand for them to proceed with the journey to his school. When she set eyes on something that made her heart want to sink into her stomach immediately this early beautiful morning.
"Uhm, hey Ellie. Mind if you take Roman to school for me today? I..I..just remembered that I got something to take care of first and it's urgent"
"...okay?" Ellie, with confusion written all over her face, couldn't help but begin to wonder why Sydney wanted her to take Roman to school all of a sudden. And she was trembling, her hands were quivering to a great extent.
"Okay, Roman. I'm sorry but Mommy can't take you to school today but I'll come to pick you up when school's over, okay? Go with Auntie, Ellie. You guys should go now," Sydney being in a hurry to send Roman and Ellie off with the way she was suddenly acting became suspicious. However, she can't ask her what was wrong. Sydney would probably just lie to her.
Sydney hurried her steps over to the next house opposite hers to be sure it was Shane that she had just seen.
"Oh my God, you scared me, Syd" Shane was startled, turning around only to see Sydney suddenly standing behind. The stuff he was carrying in his arms to keep inside the house almost fell.
"What are you doing here? I clearly remember telling you that I would have the cops around the next time I set my eyes on you anywhere around me" Sydney gritted her teeth in anger.
"Uhm, well, I don't think I see any cops around right now, Syd" Shane joked, turning around to find the cops that Sydney vowed to have around the next time she sees him and he couldn't find any.
"You think this is funny, Shane?" Sydney scoffed at Shane's unseriousness around her.
"It's not, Syd. That's why I'm your new neighbor" Shane dropped a bombshell that almost made Sydney's ears bleed.
"What?..."
"You heard me, I said I'm your new neighbor. Hope we become the best of neighbors in this hood"
When Ellie asked what's the worst that could possibly happen if they chose to stay and not run from anyone last night. Sydney guessed this must be exactly what she meant by that, although she didn't, because Shane must be joking around right? This must also be the reason why she found it kind of hard to sleep well last night.
She should have done as she wanted, she shouldn't have listened to Ellie. Now, this is exactly what happened when she had the chance to disappear from her brother just this morning, but she didn't and now she's f**ked🤦.