ARTIFICIAL // B.E

17

aspen

"baby, stop," billie whined as she reached for me again. "let me hold you!"

it's currently one of our free days. neither of us have any press, interviews, photoshoots; nothing.

so of course, we're spending the day together at her house; just the two of us.

"you've been holding me," i sent her a look. "calm down."

"yeah, but i wanna hold you some more," she pouted.

"no," i placed my hand on her forehead to playfully push her back.

she let out a low groan as i did.

i've learned that if i refuse to cuddle her or don't let her hold my hand, then she'll get even clingier. whenever i finally let her cuddle me, she holds me really close to her and holds me tightly.

it's amazing.

"why can't we cuddle?" she continued to pout.

"'cause i don't wanna."

"rude," she huffed as she pulled her phone out and went to get on it.

i got on my phone as well. i went to instagram and checked the comments on my recent post, which was of me and conan gray.

yeah, me and him became friends over quarantine. i kinda still can't believe it.

we had hung out the other day. we ended up taking hella photos, and we both look good as fuck in them, so i posted some on my insta yesterday.

i checked the comments.

user1: conan and aspen content is something i didn't know i needed until i had it

user2: i love this sm

user3: okay but did you write a song together is the question? 👀
  ↳ aspen: i can neither confirm nor deny
    ↳ user4: omg????
      ↳ aspen: kidding lol we didn't
        ↳ user5: so funny haha 😐

user6: wait are they dating
  ↳ user7: girl have you been living under a rock or sum— she's dating billie 😃
    ↳ user8: didn't aspen cheat tho 🤨
      ↳ user9: don't worry about it??? it's not your business dude
        ↳ user10: right... don't believe everything you see on the internet lol

user11: she's so short compared to him 😭
↳ user12: she's short compared to billie and that's saying sum 💀

conangray: we better hang out again before you go back on tour
  ↳ aspen: for sure :)

"can i cuddle you now?" billie asked.

i glanced over at her. "no, it's too hot for all that."

"homophobic!" she claimed with another huff as she turned away from me.

"no," i denied simply.

"yes," she nodded.

i got up from the bed. i placed a kiss on her forehead. "no."

she bit back a smile as i pressed another kiss to her forehead. "i guess not."

i giggled before planting a final kiss on her lips. i then walked out of her room. i walked over to her piano to mess around and maybe write a song.

§§§

"cameras on, and i see the faces changing. i wanna run. i wanna run. cameras on, now i'm friends with every stranger. i wanna run. i wanna run," i sang. when i finished, i let out a sigh.

i turned to face billie as she sat beside me on the piano bench. "did you write that?"

"yeah," i nodded a bit. "it's all i have so far though."

she wrapped her arms around my waist, and she rested her head on my shoulder. "i wish i could tell you it gets better, but it really doesn't. the bigger of an artist you become, the more and more people will try and use you for their own clout and shit," she sighed with a bit of a frown.

"it's so annoying. i just want people to wanna be friends with me and shit because of me, not my fame," i mumbled.

i grabbed one of her hands. my thumb ran across her knuckles. "if you— do you regret posting ocean eyes? do you ever wish that you hadn't?"

"if you would've asked me this a couple of years ago, i might've actually said yes," she told me. "i've definitely become more comfortable with my fame recently though. there are still parts that are really shitty, but for the most part, i honestly like it. to be honest, it's all about your mindset, you know?"

she raised a brow. "do you wish that you would've never gotten famous?"

i stared down at our interlocked hands for a few moments. "sometimes," i admitted quietly. "i love my fans, and i love performing, but i hate fake people and how so many people don't respect my privacy. it just gets to be a little too much sometimes."

she pressed a kiss to my shoulder, which made a small smile tug on my lips. "there are some positives though, for sure. i got to meet you."

an adorable smile immediately came to her face. she brought our hands up, and she kissed my knuckles. "yeah, meeting you was pretty great. if nothing else made all of this worth it, meeting you definitely did."

i felt heat rise to my cheeks. i cupped her cheek with my free hand, and i pulled her close to connect our lips.

i pulled back after a few moments. my eyes scanned her's. i smiled shyly and let out a small giggle before burying my face into her neck. she started pressing tons of kisses to the side of my head.

i kissed her neck a few times, before leaving kisses up her jaw. i pressed my lips to her's again, though it didn't last long because we were both smiling.

i cupped her face; my fingers threaded into her hair as i pulled her close to me. she wrapped her arms around my waist, and she picked me up as she stood up. i kissed all across her face as she brought us over to the couch.

she laid me back across it. her legs were on either side of me as she hovered over me. she smiled before leaning down to kiss me. again, again, and again.

it feels so good to finally be in a healthy relationship.

§§§

a/n hey y'all🧍‍♀️

i'm finally continuing this 😍

don't expect much tho lol

i probably won't have a very frequent uploading schedule. please do not rush me cause it makes me wanna do the exact opposite of make another chapter lmao 🥰🥰🥰

lemme go at my own pace 🤞

i don't plan on making this hella long or anything like my other books, so again, do not expect much from this

it's honestly probably gonna end on chapter 30 or sum. i dunno yet

anyways

thoughts??

any predictions?

anything you wanna see happen?

how are y'all doing??? are y'all doing good?

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