Adopted by Billie Eilish

15

"Brooke, what's this?"

I freeze and look at the couch.

Oh.

My.

Gosh.

I did not forget about the couch! 

"Um . . . what's what?"

"The couch, Brooke. What happened to the couch?"

I shrug. "Ohhhhh, the brown stuff! Shark kinda jumped onto the couch," I admit. It feels good to spit out the truth and not lie to her about it. "I tried to get him off, but wouldn't leave until after a few minutes." Okay, so this is a lie. But I don't care. At least I'm partially telling her the truth.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was afraid that you'd be mad at me, that you wouldn't want me anymore and return me to where I came from," I reply, tears building up in my eyes. She wraps her arms around me.

"Baby, I'm not going to return you. You're my daughter. I love you, and you mean the whole world to me. You can tell me anything and I'm still going to love you. I promise I won't take you back."

"Really?"

She nods and holds out her arms. I crawl into them and let her hug me. 

"I love you, Brooke," she says.

"I love you, too, Mom."

She freezes and looks at me.

"Did I say something wrong?"

She shakes her head and wipes her eyes with her sleeve.

"No, you didn't say anything wrong, baby. I just wasn't expecting you to call me 'Mom' yet."

"I wasn't expecting to say it, but I think you deserve to be called 'Mom'."

She smiles. "I don't wanna ruin the moment, but I'm enrolling you for school tonight.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I groan. "I just got here! Why school? Do you want to get rid of me?"

"Do you want me to get arrested?"

I slink down on the couch. "Nope," I say, popping the P. "I'll go to school."

"Good girl. What do you want for dinner?"

"Nothing," I say. "I'm going on a diet for a day or two. Then I'll eat something again. But I'm going to get dressed and then head to bed."

She nods. "Okay. Goodnight, baby. I love you."

"Goodnight, Mom. I love you, too."

I walk down the hallway and into my room. I change into a fresh T-shirt and athletic shorts before turning off the light and sliding into the waterbed. I cover myself up with the blanket and close my eyes, letting sleep overcome me, letting a fresh dream wash over me.

***

I'm sitting at the kitchen table, beginning to peel a banana. Unexpectedly, Billie's head is the banana. I let out a scream as the Billie Banana screams, "WHERE ARE DA AVOCADOOOOOOS?!" 

"Um, I don't know," I say with a small chuckle. "Go find one, I guess."

A spider bursts from the banana with Billie's head on its body. It jumps down and begins running around on the ground. The Billie Spider turns towards me and opens its mouth, thousands of little Baby Billie Spiders come out and begin to cover the kitchen floor. I hear a heavenly singing and see a cabinet open up. An avocado jumps out, also with Billie's head.

"YOU FOUND DA AVOCADOOOOOS!" Avocado Billie screams.

The spiders rush up and begin to eat the avocado.

Then Billie walks into the kitchen and grabs a banana herself. Everything goes back to normal. She sits down beside me and begins to unpeel the banana. This time, my head is in the banana.

"KETCHUP ON MY AVOCADOS, PLEASE!"

***

I wake up in a laughing fit at six in the morning. It's hard to breathe, and tears are rolling down my face. Billie rushes in.

"Brooke? You good?"

"Best . . . dream . . . ever!" I say in between my laughs.

She chuckles. "What was it?"

I tell her every detail of my dream, and soon she's laughing along with me.

"That's pretty funny!" she tells me. "You know what else is funny?"

I shake my head. "No. What else is funny?"

"You start school today!"

I stop laughing.

A/N: That dream though 😂 I'm at school right now and it's too dark, so I can't post a drawing for this chapter, unfortunately. I'm in the theater in the back row so nobody can see me writing this. But I hope you enjoyed!