Patience//BILLIE EILISH

five

I watch Billie's concentrated face as she takes the pen and draws it along the paper.

When she hands it back to me, I read, "You mentioned your name sign when we were texting before, what is it?"

I look up at Billie and show her, putting my hand in a claw formation and dragging it from my ear down to my chin with a smile.

Billie tries to copy my movement, but is a little off, so I take her hand and adjust it before bringing it to her face again. She blushes as she nods in understanding.

I write in the journal and turn it around, showing it to her. She's not the fastest reader, as I can see her furrowed brows articulating the words that read, "You blush a lot."

She playfully rolls her eyes and swipes the journal from me. I can see the page as she writes and it's literally just a bunch of lines?

I raise an eyebrow as I look at the page,
"----  --  ----"

She writes again, "Guess a letter."

I make an 'o' shape with my mouth as I realize what we are doing. I assume during her ASL cram session last night she learned the alphabet, so I hold up the 'a' handshape.

She grins and shakes her head, writing it off to the side. I always start with vowels, so I continue to guess.

"E"

Wrong.

"I"

Billie smiles again and fills in the letter,
"----  --  -i--"

I squint my eyes at her smirking face.

"O"

Wrong.

"U"

Billie does a little dance as she draws in a 'U' amongst the dashes, "-u--  --  -i--"

I look at her questioningly and motion for the pen. She hands it to me and I write, "You missed a letter," and point to the word in the middle with no vowels written.

She takes the pen back, "Did not."

I squint at the page and realize that 'Y' works as a vowel to!

I confidently hold up a 'Y' and she smiles and bites her lip. This game is so cute.

"-u--  -y  -i--"

"M"

"-u--  my  -i--"

I pinch the bridge of my nose, contemplating what could be next. I guess 'S' is a pretty common letter.

"S"

"su-- my -i--"

Suck? I think that's that word. Awfully crude, but what else can I expect from Billie?

"C"

"suc- my -ic-"

Woah two C's, I wasn't expecting that.

"K"

"suck my -ick"

I throw my head back, no longer being able to hold in a laugh, "Billie!" I squeal. At least I hope it came out  right, I wasn't exactly focused on correct speech patterns. I hold up a 'D' as I giggle uncontrollably at the sentence laid out before me.

Billie fills in the last letter in looks up at me with a cheeky smile, before turning her attention back to the page, and writing in it.

I take the journal off of her hands and see what she wrote, "Your laugh is really cute-"

I quickly take in a breath and cover my mouth, remembering that people can actually hear things like that, and I blush.

I sign a tiny, "Thank you," before turning away from her gaze with pink cheeks and reading the rest of the passage, "-and I like hearing you scream my name."

My eyes widen as I look up at Billie, flustered. I clutch the book close and quickly scribble inside, trying to hold down the rising blush in my cheeks, "You've lost your journal privileges."

Billie scrunches her nose at me and I giggle, quieter this time, hyper-aware of her hearing abilities. She throws up her hands, undoubtedly wanting to say something smart but, haha, I have the journal now.

I hold it behind my back and grin at her with a challenging stare. I want her to try and get it. I look her up and down as I wait for her to make the first move.

She lunges towards me, reaching behind for the book, but I squeal and stand up, running away from the couch, journal still in hand. I run to the kitchen island and stand on the opposite side as I watch her walk closer.

She makes a run for it and I scurry around to the other side of the island. We make a few more rounds, but this fight is going no where.

Soon, Billie stops trying to get around the counter at me and relaxes her features into a chillingly calm stare. She slowly walks around the counter and I clutch the book tighter, keeping myself on the opposite side of her.

Instead of continuing around the circle, she walks down the hall and into my room. I stand there for a moment, wondering why she just walked away like that, but curious as to what she's doing in there.

My heart beats faster as I walk in slow motion towards my room, no Billie in sight. I slowly walk in and look around but no one's in here. I feel a tap on my shoulder and whip my head around to see nothing.

"Billie?" I say tentatively, hoping she could hear me.

My heartbeat pounds in my chest and I leave my room, still walking slow and steady, making my way back down the hall, and passing a couple of other doorways on the way. When I make it back to the living room, I speak again, "Billie?"

Two hands grab my shoulders and I squeal in shock, going to turn around, but stopped by the girl behind me. I feel her face get closer and she pulls my hair to the side, her breath tingling the back of my neck. Billie snakes her hand around my waist as I am frozen with butterflies and gently clutches the book before she leaves a lingering kiss just under my jaw and pulls it out of my grip.

I shiver and lean back into her, not wanting her to pull away. She pats my shoulder, and I feel her presence leave behind me. I don't turn around for a few more seconds, gathering my thoughts before I face her.

When I turn around, I see her sat back down on the couch, writing inside of my stolen property.

I'd let her steal from me like that any day.

I walk over and sit facing her, peering down at the words on the page, "look who's blushing now."

a/n:

I was writing this and whaaaat??? This book is #1 rn in #billieeilish ??? Idk how that happened but it's very much appreciated for sure.