Serendipity//Billie Eilish

0.11

It was early Monday and Ella had school so Yohan was surprised to hear a knock on the door and Billie's voice asking if she could come in.

Billie stood near the door, unsure if she was allowed to approach. She finally broke the silence.

"Hey Yohan. I uh, I'm sorry for dropping by unannounced. I'll be quick, I just wanted to bring you this."

She had a phone in her hand. It looked expensive, which had Yohan a bit confused.

"It's your old phone." Billie continued.

"That looks... pretty new Billie." Yohan pointed out.

"Okay maybe it's not your actual old phone but it's still got your old number."

Yohan was surprised at that. It had been six years after all.

"I kept the line open, just in case, it was no big deal." Billie lied. It had been a big deal, it was an unnecessary cost at a time when Billie was struggling to stay afloat. She was a single mother with a newborn and suddenly double the bills to pay.

Before the accident Yohan had mostly supported the both of them because the success of her photography studio allowed her to. She had even managed to convince Billie to stop working part time so that she could focus on school. They had argued for months over it but eventually Billie had relented, especially once they decided to have Ella.

Billie would often feel guilty about it but Yohan would always joke that once Billie finished Law school, Billie would be richer than her anyway and then Yohan could finally have a sugar mama. Billie would always smack her when she said that but it always made her feel better because it was Yohan's cheesy attempt at letting Billie know that she knew Billie would do the same for Yohan if she could.

Then suddenly Yohan was gone. It had been the toughest time of her life. She had to drop out of school just so she could support her and Ella. She needed to get a full time job and make sure Yohan's hospital bills would be taken care of. She had to do all this all while grieving the absence of Yohan and daring to hope she would one day wake up.

Yet despite the financial stress of all of that she kept paying for Yohan's phone bill. She would never tell Yohan that she had done that just so she could call and leave Yohan voicemails when she missed her, which was very often. It made her feel like Yohan wasn't in a coma, like Yohan was just at work and would come home soon.

She knew Yohan didn't want to accept the brand new phone so Billie lied again, "it's one of my old phones, I don't use it anymore so just take it please." She had actually gone to the store that morning to buy the best smartphone they had for Yohan.

"Besides, Ella needs a way to be able to talk to you. She was upset with me last night when I told her I wasn't going to let her visit you until Friday because you two can't be trusted to be responsible.You're still in trouble for yesterday by the way." She narrowed her eyes at Yohan.

Yohan had the decency to look a little bit guilty, though she wanted to protest about Ella's visitation rights being revoked, Billie was probably right. It had been her fault. She was the adult and she had let a six year old precocious kid talk her into avoiding her homework. Yohan would feel ashamed but in her defense, Ella was a O'Connell, and O'Connell's had power over Yohan. Especially the adorable bite-sized baby ones.

"Anyway, you can call me any time you want to talk to her. All your old contacts should still be in there. The guy at the store moved them over for you."

"I thought you said it was one of your old phones." Yohan accused.

Billie stuttered her way into an excuse, "It is, I just went up there to have them transfer everything. You know I'm awful with technology."