slowburn | billie eilish

chapter six

sage's pov:

the piercing ringing of my cellphone invades my ears, waking me from deep slumber. whoever thinks it's okay to call me this early- it's most certainly not. i ignore the call and roll over to try and fall back asleep.

only for it to ring again a minute later. a loud groan leaves my mouth and my eyes begrudgingly open. i grab the phone and pick up with, "whoever this is, please let me sleep. it's not okay to call me this early."

i love love love mornings, but not when i'm being brutally awoken at the ass crack of dawn. when i wake up, it should be when i want and how i want.

as i lift my finger to hang up, i hear, "okay miss morning voice, i see you," in billie's teasing voice.

i'm now fully awake and heat rises to my cheeks. "billie i- why the fuck are you calling me right now?"

she giggles, and says, "good afternoon to you too. it's almost 1 pm. you're leaving tonight, and i wanna see you again before you go, so please text me where you're staying so i can meet up with and go on a walk with you or some shit."

despite my previous bitter feelings, i feel a smile involuntarily creep onto my face.

after a second, her tone is lighter as she says, "you there?"

i giggle at her concern towards my lack of response, the cocky edge to her voice immediately lost. "yes, i'm here. i'll send you a pin in a second, but i'm still hanging up. it's far too early to be talking right now."

i hear a loud laugh come from the other end of the line and, after an "okay," the sound of the call ending.

as promised, i share my location with her on imessage. i sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes and let my fingers run through my tangled hair.

a mere ten minutes later, i'm ready to leave the small hotel room.

i tell my mom i'm going for a walk and she looks up from her laptop to say goodbye before returning to busily typing away. i chuckle at the concentration on her face while she does her work.

i walk outside of the tall building to find billie waiting for me with the same sunglasses and beanie as last night, but a bright orange hoodie instead. i could swear this girl is just looking to be found.

upon seeing me, she wraps her arms around me in a warm embrace before pulling back with an innocent smile. "hi, sage."

i smile at the excited tone in her voice. she's cute.

she looks into my eyes as she starts walking, and i follow. i ask, "where do you wanna go miss eilish?"

her eyes widen and she yells "shhh!" before whispering, "i don't know, wherever with you, i really don't care. but what the fuck, are you trying to get us mobbed?"

i can't help but laugh before leaning in towards her and whispering back, "no one's around us babe," and she follows my hand gesturing around us with her eyes.

i do use "babe" and other pet names a lot to refer to friends, but it felt a little bit different on my tongue as i said it to billie. when i used it, i caught her eyes widen a very small bit, almost unnoticeably.

she bites her lip and just keeps walking, almost losing me. we start to engage in light and innocent conversation.

"so like, what do you wanna do when you get older?"

i inhale a long breath, thinking, before i respond, "honestly, i couldn't tell you. i want to do something with psychology or possibly writing? or maybe even like art or something or become a doctor."