A/N: Nice to see so much love for the previous 'episode'. Thanks, folks :) Went a little outside the box with this one. Hopefully, you'll like it...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

16. The Girl Next Door - 3rd September 2021

It was the day of the Annual Stars Hollow End of Summer Madness Festival. Billy Danes wasn't exactly nuts about attending those kinds of events anymore. It was cool when he was a kid, but at fourteen and about to start high school in a few days' time, he kind of thought the whole thing was a little lame and beneath him. His dad approved of that attitude and said he was quite happy to have Billy stay in the diner with him, away from all the crazy party atmosphere. Unfortunately for Luke, Lorelai was determined to man a booth this year and roped her husband into helping her. Everybody knew, as Billy did, that his mom could not be denied, and with Rory equally determined that Jess was not wriggling out of the Summer fun, it was decided that the diner should be closed for the afternoon.

"Hey, how about I clean the place some while it's closed?" Billy suggested to his father. "I could use some extra cash and you're always saying you keep meaning to deep clean the place."

Luke had looked at Jess and he had shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, I'll pay to get out of that job," he admitted. "I'll go five bucks an hour if you will?"

"Works for me," Luke had agreed then and the deal was done,

Billy wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of being elbow deep in bleach and water, scrubbing surfaces and the floor all day, but he made the offer knowing how much cash he could probably get for his trouble. He had been saving for a while now and planned to continue to do so until he was sixteen, because he really, really wanted a car just as soon as he could get one.

Two hours into his cleaning, with headphones in and music blaring, Billy was happily oblivious to the world outside and not expecting to be anything else for a while yet. It was then he saw movement beyond the glass between the diner and the Soda shoppe. Though Taylor was all for making as much money as possible during festivals, he had taken all his supplies out into the town square to sell during the festivities, locking up the store for the duration. That meant nobody should be in there, but Billy was sure he just saw someone.

Propping his mop over by the counter and pulling out his earbuds, he moved over to the wall, standing with his back flat against it right by the internal window. In one quick movement, he turned fast and peered into the Soda shoppe and then whipped his head back again before anyone saw him. There was definitely somebody there, a dark figure huddled near the edge of the counter. How they got in, Billy had no clue, since they would have had to break the locks and somebody out in the street or at the festival would surely have noticed.

"Okay, let's take a look," he said to himself, throwing off his gloves and hurrying towards the back door.

Outside in the yard, he moved along to the back door of the next shop and found it left ajar. Somebody had broken in, at least he thought so at first, only nothing was actually broken. Maybe somebody with keys then, but surely that would only be Taylor and he wasn't likely to be wearing black and hiding out of sight behind the counter!

Billy thought for a moment, going back into the diner and looking around for a weapon of some kind to arm himself with. Once he found one, he went back to the soda shoppe's back entrance and crept inside.

If anyone asked him, Billy would be the first to admit he didn't really know what he expected to find in the shop or what he would do about it when he did find out. All he knew for sure was that somebody was where they shouldn't be and he was going to look into it. Maybe, in hindsight, he should have got to get his father, his brother-in-law, one of his uncles, but it was a little late for that when he was actually in the main part of the store, about the face the mysterious figure in black. His shadow fell over the stranger and he took a breath.

"What the hell?! Are you trying to get me into more trouble? Sit down!"

The voice was female, as was the hand that grabbed onto Billy's arm and forcibly pulled him to the ground. He didn't have the chance to think about fighting back, and then suddenly he was face to face with kohl-rimmed eyes and a mascara streaked face. In spite of that, she was not exactly tough to look at.

"Oh my God, it's you!" she said then, turning her face away.

"Okay," said Billy, more to himself than her. "And you know me because...?"

"Because you're Billy Danes." The girl rolled her eyes dramatically. "Find me a person in this town that doesn't know and love you. Your family is practically royalty here," she told him, surprisingly without the least amount of malice or jealousy. "Besides, my dad used to know your dad, back in the teen years or whatever. John Pressley?"

"Yeah, I think maybe my dad might've mentioned a John from when he was younger," Billy considered. "Um, sorry, I still don't know who you are... or why we're on the floor of the soda shoppe," he said then, just a little frustrated by this whole crazy situation.

"I'm Tara," the girl told him, seemingly suddenly self-conscious about the state of her face as she wiped it it with her sleeves. "And I'm here because... Well, my sister, Belinda, works here. She has keys in case of emergency. I kind of stole them so I could come hide out when... Well, when I needed to," she explained, turning away again. "I don't know why you're here."

"I thought the place was being burglarised or something," Billy admitted.

"And you were gonna, what? Roll the burglar to death?" asked Tara, eyeing his 'weapon' with some amusement now.

Billy pushed the rolling pin away out of sight and sighed.

"Yeah, well. Doesn't matter now. Apparently, you're not a burglar, just somebody who needed a place to hide from something, or maybe someone?" he tried.

"Astute observation, Holmes," said Tara, rolling her eyes. "It's not like I'm going to tell my problems to you. The last thing I need is some jock running off and telling his buddies how they finally made the goth girl crack."

"My buddies?" Billy echoed, sure he looked as confused as felt. "My friends, who by the way are mostly my family, would not make a stranger cry, that's not them."

"I don't mean that crowd." Tara sighed. "Your fellow jock buddies. Didn't I just say that?"

She was getting snippy and Billy couldn't really blame her. It was not cool if a bunch of guys had been making fun of her until she got to upset she bolted, hid in an empty store, and cried like that. That kind of thing was never okay and made him pretty mad actually. Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do about it. The kind of people she was talking about were bound to be on the football team at Stars Hollow High, a team he planned on joining. He really needed to not alienate all the other players right now. At the same time, he did hate that they had done this. It was just wrong.

"Okay, I'm sorry they upset you," he said, turning to better face Tara. "But those guys are not friends of mine. I mean, I'm sure I've played on a team with them and I probably will again, but we don't really hang out much outside of practice and games. A few of them, sometimes, but not the kind of people that would bully other people, much less girls."

Tara turned her head to look at him, and for a moment Billy was sure she was going to yell and call him a liar. He got a surprise when instead she nodded her head and even smiled a little.

"I actually believe that," she admitted.

"You should," Billy replied, smiling too. "It's true."

She really was beautiful, he realised, as they stared at each other. There were a lot of girls in his class that were called hot by his friends and Billy never really disagreed, but Tara was genuinely beautiful, in spite of all the dark makeup, black clothes, and crazy hair. Actually, the whole thing kind of worked for her. He wondered how he never noticed her at school, but then the goth crowd generally kept to themselves, and were considered kind of scary and dangerous. Billy might have carried on believing that if he hadn't met Tara like this. Now he just thought she was cool, and beautiful, and he had a real need to get to know her better.

"So, I need to get back to the diner," he told her them. "I'm kinda mid-way through a whole cleaning process, earning some extra cash from my dad and Jess."

"Okay." Tara nodded. "Go, I'll be fine."

Billy got to his feet and held out a hand to her.

"I'm not leaving you here like this. C'mon, I'll get you a soda and some pie or something. Assuming you eat pie?"

"I eat pie," Tara admitted, staring at his offered hand still.

Tentatively, she reached up to take it and allowed Billy to pull her to her feet. They were almost exactly the same height now they were standing, and the thought crossed Tara's mind that would come in real handy for making out. She must've coloured at the thought because Billy asked her what was wrong.

"Nothing," she said fast. "What's wrong with you?" she countered lamely.

"Okay. Let's go get that pie," he suggested, tugging on her hand.

"Yeah, let's do that," Tara agreed, smiling as she followed him.

They were still holding hands, and apparently, neither of them had noticed, or maybe they just didn't want to let go.