In The Crowd - B.E.

Chapter Eleven - Billie

I wake up to my alarm at 7:30. For a second, I forget why I'm waking up so early. And then I remember. Y/n. I quickly get out of bed and get into the shower. I get around and check the time. Eight. Okay, I have about an hour or so before she lands. I can't believe she said yes. I really can't believe I asked. I see that I have a text from her. I open it and it's a picture of the sunrise from when she was on the plane. Pretty.

At about 8:30, I start making my way to the airport. I can't believe this is actually happening. Oh, my God. By the time I get there, it's nine. Okay, she should be landing soon or something. I pull my phone out and text her to tell her I'm here and where she can find me. Now I sit and wait. After about another fifteen minutes or so I see her and she's already walking towards me. I stand up and walk closer to her. When we met I hugged her and she hugged me back.

"Oh, I can't believe you're actually here," I say and pull away and look at her.

"Trust me, I can't believe I'm here either," she says and I laugh.

"Come on, let's get going," I say and take her bag. "You've been bringing this around enough. Let me take it." And I can tell that she wants to argue but I give her a look and she doesn't say anything. We got back to my place a little after 9:30.

"Come on, I'll show up where the guest room is and then we can go on a little tour if you want," I offer.

"That sounds great," she says and follows me to the guest bedroom.

"I cleared the closest out in case you wanted to use it because I know you're probably gonna be here for like a week at least so," I say. She nods and then I start showing her around. After the tour, I stop and look at her. "So, what do you think?" I ask.

"Amazing. I love it," she says with a smile on her face.

"That's good. You're free to make yourself feel at home," I tell her and she nods. "Oh, and the Oscars are in three days so tomorrow, if you want, we can go get you something to wear or you can wear whatever you have and I'm sure it'll look great. It's whatever you decide."

"I thought about maybe going and looking to see if I can find something I like, if not I'll wear something I brought," I nod.

"That sounds good. Would it be alright if I joined you?"

"Of course,"

"Great. So, I have things I need to work on and get done with Finneas at the studio. I'm getting ready to head out. I'll be gone a couple of hours maybe. Three hours tops. You think you'll be okay by yourself that long?" I ask and she nods. "Great. There's food in the fridge and don't be afraid to call if you need anything." I tell her as I start gathering my things to leave.

"Alright,"

"Bye," I say and leave. I need to calm down. My heart is actually racing right now.

-

When I get home, it's a little after one. I put all of my stuff down at the front door. I'll get to it later. There's no sign of Y/n. I sigh and go up to the guest bedroom and that's exactly where I found. I figured. I knock on the opened door to get her attention. She looks up at me and smiles.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi," she replied and sat up. "How was everything?"

"Everything's good. Almost done," I said and went to sit next to her.

"What's almost done?" She asked.

"Just things that I need to get done," I say and smile. "I can't tell you much. Just because you and I are friends now, doesn't mean you're gonna know everything about what I'm doing now."

"Damn," she said and I laughed.

"You hungry? Did you already eat something?" I ask her.

"No, I haven't eaten yet,"

"Do you want to go get something?" She nods and we both stand up. "Where would you like to go?"

"Oh, don't make me make a decision. I don't like doing that. You just pick a place and we can go there," she says.

"You sure? We can go anywhere you'd like. Because if I'm picking, we're going to Taco Bell," I tell her.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I don't like making decisions. Please, just pick somewhere. Taco Bell is fine," I laugh. "What's so funny?"

"You,"

"What about me?" She asks with a terrified look on her face.

"You're cute," I tell her and I watch as her whole face goes red. She turns around and hides her face. I walk over to her and grab her arm making her turn back around to face me. I pull her hands away from her face and look at her. "You good, mama?" She just stares at me. "Breathe, Y/n. Breathe." I say and laugh. She nods.

"Yeah, I'm good," she says. Her face is still really red I'm just trying not to draw attention back to that and embarrass her more.

"You sure?" I ask.

"Yeah, let's go get food. I'm hungry," I nod and we leave.

On our way there she spends most of the time on her phone and being quiet. I'm tempted to say something and ask if something's wrong but I don't know if I should. I keep thinking about earlier and how I called her cute. Was that a bad move? Should I not have done that? I don't know. If it really was bad I'm sure she would've said something. Maybe. I'm really not sure. I look over at her again. It looks like she's texting someone. I can't be worried about that right now. I'm driving. When we get back to my house we sit in the kitchen and eat at the table. She sits across from me and after a few minutes of silence, I give her a small kick on the leg. She looks up at me.

"What the fuck was that for?" She asks.

"I don't know," I shrug. "For fun, maybe."

"Mhm," she hummed.

"Are you mad?" I ask her. She gives me a confused look.

"Mad? Why would I be mad? Mad at who?" She asks.

"Me,"

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know. You've just been quiet ever since we left. I didn't know if I had done anything to piss you off or upset you because that's not what I ever intended to do." I told her. She smiled at me and reached across the table to grab my hand.

"I'm not mad at you, I promise. You've done nothing to upset me or piss me off," she reassured. I nod.

"Are you sure?" I think she knows that I'm talking about earlier just doesn't want to say it.

"Yes, I'm sure," she says and we keep eating. Well, that was easy. I can't believe she made it so easy to talk to her about something. I expected to get yelled at or ignored. Not actually reassured. It's whatever.