ARTIFICIAL // B.E

13

aspen

"i'm so excited to be back in los angeles," billie beamed as we walked through the airport. "the energy at these shows are always amazing, dude!"

i shook my head as she walked ahead of me, rambling on and on about how excited she is.

she stopped though and turned to face me. she held her hand out. "gimme your hand, i wanna hold it." she complained.

i placed my hand in her's and she grinned before turning back around to pull me through the airport.

the first two months and the u.s. leg of the tour went by a lot faster than i expected it to. i guess i have billie to thank for that though, because she's kept me pretty occupied and i've had a lot of fun with her.

there's nearly a two month period of no shows from the last los angeles show to the second leg of the tour. it's not a complete break though; we're still gonna have hella press, interviews, photo shoots, and anything else that our jobs entails.

as we were walking through the airport, i couldn't help but notice the handful of paps that were here. one of them had definitely gotten a picture or even video of billie telling me to let her hold my hand.

surprisingly though, they weren't bombarding us with questions like they always seem to do.

thank god. i can't fucking stand paps like that. it always makes me nervous.

"so," billie started as we made it out of the airport and into a car to be taken to the venue for tonight. "my best friends, zoey and drew, are coming to the show tonight, and i want you to meet them. is that okay?"

"yeah, of course," i playfully shoved my shoulder into her's. "i'd love that."

she bit her lip. "alright, cool."

§§§

"drew! zoe!" billie practically squealed as she ran across the venue to crash into their arms.

"oh my god, hi!"

"i missed you so much, bro, what the fuck?"

unlike billie, i leisurely walked across the venue over to drew and zoe. after they hugged and told each other how much they've missed one another, billie turned to me.

"aspirin, hurry up." she motioned for me to speed up as i approached them. once i got to the three of them, billie wrapped her arm around my shoulders. "okay, these are my best friends, drew and zoe." billie introduced me to them.

"hi." i raised my hand in a small wave as i smiled.

"drew, zoe, this is my girlfriend, aspen." she grinned.

"you are so pretty." drew complimented.

"hot as hell." zoe added with a nod.

"thank you," my eyes widened. "you two are too, though, the fuck?"

we talked for a bit before we all started walking to the green room. drew and zoe walked ahead of us, and me and billie walked hand in hand.

"so, girlfriend, huh?" i raised as a brow. "since when?" i asked in a teasing tone.

her eyes widened a bit. "i didn't mean to just label us like that, i'm sorry, i—"

"calm down, baby," i laughed. "it's okay. i mean... i'm cool with that as long as you are."

"yeah?" she bit back a smile.

"mhm." i hummed.

"okay, then yeah, you're my girlfriend." she grinned.

"yeah," i giggled as i leaned closer to her. "i am."

we walked to the green room, and we sat around with drew, zoe, finneas, claudia, and xavier for a bit.

eventually, me and billie had to do soundcheck, so we went and did that. billie insisted on laying on the floor the whole time, and even made me lay with her.

§§§

"okay, so, uh... i've got a new song to play for you guys tonight. i've never played it live before; you'll all be the first to hear it."

the crowd cheered loudly and i laughed as i held the mic back some.

i looked back towards xavier and gave him the green light to start playing the song.

"every second counts, i don't wanna talk to you anymore. all these little games, you can call me by the name i gave you yesterday." i sang as i looked out across the crowd.

they were all silent as i sang. i could see several people recording it.

once i finished singing, they all erupted into loud cheers again. i heard people demanding that i release it right now, which made me laugh again.

§§§

"'look at the way she smiles when she glances backstage. she was definitely smiling at billie,'" i read the caption of a fan page post of a video of me singing 'bags.' "then all the comments are saying that me and you are cute as hell together."

"'cause we are." billie grinned as she sat next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"for sure." i agreed before giving her a kiss.

i commented "true" on the post before continuing to look through the posts on my explore page.

"baby." billie caught my attention after a moment.

i turned to her and raised a brow. "hm?"

"after all the shows here... i wanna take you on a date." she told me.

"for real?" i smiled.

"yeah," she nodded. "just us; no one else around."

"i'd love that," i admitted softly. "like... i'm so down for that."

she gently pulled me into her lap. "yeah?"

"yeah." i confirmed before cupping her cheeks to pull her in for a kiss.

she kept her hands on my waist, rubbing it a bit as we made out.

"yo, billie, aspen, we gotta—" finneas started as he walked into the green room, but he quickly stopped. "oh. gross. uh... i'ma just go. we needa leave soon though, so just... you know, keep that in mind..."

i laughed loudly as he walked backwards out of the room.

"he's so awkward." i continued to laugh some as i rested my forehead against billie's shoulder.

"he needs to learn how to knock." billie grumbled.

§§§

a/n ayooo

thoughts?

predictions?

anything you wanna see?

y'all good?

words:
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