nothing lasts - b.e

|11|

Billie meets me at the front of the car and grabs my hand in the loosest grip imaginable, "I'm only doing this until we get to your locker", she says under her breath, "God your hands are sweaty".

"And yours are as cold as your heart", I snip back, "Just smile and work your hot girl magic"

She takes a deep breath, her eyebrow twitching slightly. I ignore the nervousness in her eyes as I take a deep breath of my own.

And then she's pulling me like along through the parking lot dog like a dog on a leash, strutting with a winning smile on her face.

I keep my eyes locked ahead of me and grin as wide as I can, everything is a blur, but I know we're having the desired effect.

People are stopping to watch us.

"The fuck?", Oliver laughs.

"Are they together?" Some girl shrieks.

"Since when are you gay, Eilish?" Someone else calls causing billie to twitch reflexively, but she keeps her head held high.

When we reach the senior locker hall, the effect is magnified: the shocked whispers and hissing gossip are enough to make my heart beat out of my chest.

Without meaning to, I clasp Billie's hand tighter.

I don't know how she's handling this so well.

Several people are blatantly gawking at us, one guy has the nerve to snap our picture and Elodie Chandra actually stops in the middle of Facetiming her St Greggs' boyfriend to turn our way and say, "You're fucking kidding me right now".

Billie ignores her and continues through the chaos like a queen in a fucking parade. I've got to hand it to her, when she sets he mind to do something, she puts her all into it.

It's not until we reach my locker, all the way at the end of the hallways, that I realise I've been holding my breath. I relax my shoulders and loosen my grip on Billie's hand.

I didn't realise how tightly I'd been holding it.

Asteria watches us approach, her eyes narrowed, "Fascinating couple", she says as Billie steers me to my locker.

Billie all but drops my sweaty hand and wastes no time wiping her palm on her jeans, "Fucking hell. Can you get her gloves or something?" She asks Asteria.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Asteria questions.

"You can't tell? We've fallen for each other", Billie says, batting her eyelashes at me.

"Give it a rest", I tell her.

"Fine", she resumes her usual tone. Now that we're past the rest of the hallway, her nerves are on display again, her left brow twitching causing her to quickly rub it.

"I'll see you later.. oh an if anyone asks, which I know they will", She lowers her voice and leans closer to me, "you asked me out".

I scoff. This time her whole head jolts causing her to wince slightly but before I could question it, she was gone, wading back through the sea of onlookers.

I try to avoid Danielle's pointed stare, but she moves to block me from my locker.

"Zira. What. The fuck."

"What?" I say innocently, "just trying something new".

"Are you blackmailing her or something?"

"Why does everyone assume I'm blackmailing?"

"What's your angle here?" She asks me, "you do realise the entire hallway was staring at you?"

I give her a smug smile, "Yes. And hopefully Amyra has seen their stories by now".