Lost my reputation | B.E.

Chapter 3: coffee in Santa Barbara

Narrator: Someone

Y/N listens distractedly to "The Office". It's quietly playing in the background – a very common occurrence – as she stares at the bold, black letters on the pages of her book. 

She's seen the show so many times now, she's lost count of the number of times she's started it all over again; it's funny, witty, and above all comforting - no wonder everybody's obsessed with it.

She wills herself to ignore the fidgety person lying next to her as she tries to go back to reading the book clutched between her hands. For a brief second, her eyes dart to the left, staring at nothing but emptiness, nostrils flaring with every deep breath she takes in an attempt to calm herself.

She's lost the line, and she's pretty sure it's the third time she reads over the same paragraph.

Y/N hears another low groan flow past Billie's lips, and it takes all of her willpower not to show her irritation and snap at the girl. 

She's been doing it for the past however many minutes – alternating between grumbling to herself and frantically scrolling down the screen of her phone, painstakingly going over her tags on Instagram and desperately seeking to figure out how it all went wrong.

Y/N's pretty sure there's not one post with the paparazzi pictures that Billie hasn't seen, and she's not sure how to feel about it. Not that it really compares to how Billie herself must feel.

The thought alone immediately lessens her annoyance.

"Fuck me" Billie whines frustratedly, slamming her phone face down on the comforter by her side. Y/N bites back a joke.

She looks up at her best friend, and when her eyes meet hers, she notices the distressed look on the blonde's face and she feels like the shittiest friend because frankly, she doesn't really know what she could do or say to make the situation any better. 

She wishes Zoe was here. She'd for sure know what to do.

In all honesty, Y/N hasn't really seen the pictures, can't really speak on them – her friend has been in this industry long enough that she is quite used to Billie having small breakdowns over paps and stolen pictures.

But this time around seems to be quite a big deal to Billie - at least bigger than usual - and the only reason is that her boyfriend appears in them.

 With a deep sigh, Y/N sets her book aside – she doesn't even bother making a mental note of the page number – and reaches over Billie's body to grab her phone.

The device is already unlocked and logged in to Instagram, the page opened on Billie's tags. She doesn't even need to look for the pictures because they are already there, waiting to be seen as a disturbing number of small squares all portray the exact same thing; Billie in a black hoodie holding a coffee in her hand, Shark trailing behind her, and a mysterious older man standing by her side.

She doesn't need to think for too long, either, because the second she sees them, she realizes she knows exactly when those pictures were taken.

Billie and Finneas had taken their respective partners out on a weekend in Santa Barbara. They had even shared a beautiful house along with their parents, using the opportunity to celebrate Maggie's Plant-based party.

The pictures were a few days old, and truthfully, Y/N's surprised it took this long for them to surface. She doesn't know if it'd taken a while for the paparazzi to leak them or for the fans to get their hands on them, but either way, she somehow feels this may be a turning point in Billie's life and career.