Photograph

Sixteen

"Look at what I can do, bitches!"

Billie was spinning on the spot in her little black chair, a bright blue boot with familiar Louis Vuitton print hugging her left foot. She had a huge smile plastered to her face as she moved around.

"Billie, if you spin any fucking faster you'll probably fly away. Slow down." Felix yelled. "You gotta try not to force it."

"Nope. I'm quicker that way."

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, ripping me out of my gaze, and making me realise I was staring. "You coming back to Billie's when she's discharged or what? All our shit is on the bus now anyway so if you wanted to fly to LA then you can get your stuff and Finn can book a p-"

"Yeah, Katherine. She's coming with us. Pretty stupid if she's the only one getting a fucking plane to LA when she could just come with us." Billie barged in.

I nodded aimlessly. "Uh, yeah. I'll come with you guys."

I heard Katie clap her hands.

"Brilliant. We're gonna have so much fun."

We were currently roaming around outside the hospital car park (which I learned was called a parking lot, due to the endless arguments me and Billie had prior, she wouldn't let me hear the end of it) , and we were letting Billie enjoy civilisation from the cooped up hospital.

The Florida afternoon air was warm and the sun was beating down on us, not one white cloud in sight cruising around in the lazy sky above us. It was a clear day, and I think it was our last day in Miami.

And that lead to Billie constantly complaining about the heat. And that she hadn't had a burrito in over 24 hours, and she's dying more of the gross hospital filth she's being fed than her injury itself.

"Can we not go now? It's fucking hot as fuck."

"Can you stop bitching? Mom's asking!" Finneas said.

"Sit in a big ugly chair with big ugly wheels with a big ugly boot and move it all fucking day in blazing fucking heat and then come back to me, doof. I will bitch if I wanna bitch." Billie shot back, making her way over to me.

"I take that back." She quickly added. "My boot is sick."

She then patted her lap, implying she wanted me to get on the wheelchair with her, a smirk plastered on her face that I had grown used to recently.

I had noticed her manicured hands weren't... As manicured.

"Hop on." She grinned.

Giving her a polite smile back, I made my way over towards her. "What happened to your nails?"

As she pulled me into her lap, she showed me her now bare hands. "Felix literally worked me so fucking hard that they all broke off. Now I'm literally left with god damn nubs. Nubs. Not my fire ass nails I had before, man. Nubs."

She started to wheel us around the small, cramped space, giving each of her family members high fives as she went past, and flipping off Felix as she cruised by him.

"Are we all here?" A familiar, warm voice echoed across the parking lot, "Fiona discharged Billie! We can go straight to the bus!" The happy voice cheerily sung.

I felt Billie punch the air slightly in enthusiasm under me. I could tell she was relieved to hear those words come from her mother as she looked so tired from all the sleep she didn't get in that dreadful hospital.

She turned the chair around to make her way over to Maggie.

But, her face dropped as she saw a figure standing beside her that she dreaded. A familiar, scruffy man who looked exactly like a homeless caveman. He had grown a stiff beard over the course of time we weren't acquainted, and it only made him look more idiotic than what he did before.