In The Crowd - Billie Eilish

Chapter Ten - Y/n

"YOU'RE DOING WHAT? WITH WHO?" Michael yells at me.

"Shush! Can you be quiet?" I say while covering his mouth, and he quickly moves my hands.

"Why do I need to be quiet? You're going to the Oscars, with Billie Eilish. THE Billie Eilish. Who, do I need to remind you, invited her to go with you." He says.

"No, you don't need to remind me of anything. I know," I say.

"And you said yes, right? Y/n, I swear to God if you said no, I will kill you," he threatens.

"No, I didn't say no. I said yes, and I leave tomorrow morning,"

"Tomorrow? Are you kidding?"

"No, I'm not,"

"And your parents actually approved of this?"

"Well..."

"Y/n, you did tell them, right?" He asked.

"Not necessarily,"

"What do you mean?" I can hear the fear in his voice.

"See, I only told you this because for one, I trust you the most, and I don't want you telling anybody. Including Gia and Liam. But also because I told my parents I'd be staying with you for a few days." I admitted.

"Y/n," he says, both upset and annoyed. "Why on Earth would you do that?"

"Because just because I'm eighteen, I know my parents, my mom especially, would never let me go to LA by myself and stay with someone she's never met. Even if they are famous." I told him.

"Wait, you're staying with her? Like staying in her house or whatever?" He asks, and I nod. "Oh, my God! You're actually staying with Billie Eilish. You're living so many people's dreams right now. I hope you know that. I'm one of those people." I laugh. "No, I'm serious."

"You have to cover for me if my parents question anything," he nods.

"How long will you be gone?"

"Well, I'm not so sure yet. I know that I leave tomorrow morning, and the Oscars are three days later. So maybe a week?"

"A week?!"

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry. I don't mean to dump this all on you, but I really need the help," I begged.

"Well, obviously I'm gonna help you. I'm just in shock."

"Good. So I told my parents I'm gonna be staying with you starting tonight. I'll probably wake up at 2:30 or three o'clock and leave to go to the airport so I can get through security and everything. I'll drive myself so you don't have to worry about anything other than covering for me if need be." He nods.

"If this was for literally anybody else, I would not be doing this for you." He says.

"Remember, you can't tell Gia and Liam," I remind him.

"Got it, but why not? Isn't Gianna like your best friend?"

"Well, she is, but I can't trust her to cover for me like you can. You're the better liar,"

"True," he agrees.

"I can't believe this is actually happening,"

-

I wake up my alarm going off at 2:30. I turn it off as fast as I can so I don't wake anybody up. I get up and quietly start getting around and getting my stuff ready. While I'm in the bathroom getting around, there's a knock at the door. I jump.

"Y/n?" I hear Michael whisper, and I open the door.

"You scared the shit out of me,"

"Sorry,"

"Do you need something?"

"No, I was just making sure it was you. I heard your alarm go off and heard you turn it off, and I just wanted to make sure that you actually got up. This is the one thing I'm not gonna let you miss," he says. "Okay, I'm going back to bed."

"Goodnight,"

"Night," he mumbles as he walks away.

It's about 3:30 when I start heading to the airport. It's only about ten minutes from Michael's house, so I'm okay right now. Once I get there, I make my way inside and check in. After that, I make my way to TSA and go through all that. By the time I'm done, it's already a little after five. The closer I get to leaving, the more real this all starts feels. It's reasons like this that I'm happy I graduated early. I'm not missing any school, and I have more time to do things.

I started getting a little hungry, so I decided to go to one of the coffee places they had to get coffee and food. After that, I go and sit down and wait for boarding to start. This is gonna feel like forever. At 5:45, they start boarding. When I get on the plane, I realize I have a window seat. Great. The worst and best seat on the entire plane. You get the best view but if you need to go to the bathroom you have to climb over everybody.

I get myself all situated and as comfortable as I can get in these seats, and then I look out the window and see the sunrise. I take a picture because it's very beautiful. After a second of looking at it, I decided to send it to Billie because why not? I know she's probably not awake, but it's whatever. She'll see it when she wakes up. After about ten more minutes, the pilot comes over the intercom and starts talking. Alright, there's no turning back now.