In The Crowd - B.E.

Chapter Seventeen - Billie

"Listen, I'm sorry, okay? I don't know. I'll tell you when I know," Y/n says, walking downstairs on the phone. I just got home from recording. "I know, I know. And I'm sorry but what are you expecting from me?" I watch as she starts pacing around. "I know you're mad, but -" I guess she got cut off. "Okay, okay. I'll talk to them, I promise. Alright, bye." She says and hangs up the phone.

"What was that all about?" I ask as she sits on the couch. She sighs.

"Michael's pissed off,"

"Why?" I ask and sit next to her.

"Because I've been here longer than he expected me to be. Hell, I've been here longer than I expected to be. It's been two and a half weeks already."

"Do you need to go home?" She shrugs.

"Probably. But I really, really don't want to. I don't want to leave LA, and I really don't wanna leave you," she says, and that makes me smile. "Everything has been going so well over the last few weeks, and I know if I go home, that'll probably get ruined."

"Well, you already have one person mad at you. Let's not make it any more than that," I tell her.

"I know. I'm tempted to just call my dad and tell him where I'm at and explain it all to him. He'll know what to do, I'm sure," she said. She leans over and rests her head on my shoulder. I wrap my arm around her and pull her closer to me. "It's just if I leave, I don't know when I'll be able to come back. Once my mom finds out, she'll lose her mind, and I won't be able to leave the house once I'm home."

"I still think that's stupid. You're an adult," I say.

"I know, and I've tried telling her that, but she doesn't listen at all. She thinks she knows best," I laugh at that.

"Is that where you learned it from?" She pulls away and hits my arm.

"That is mean,"

"But it makes sense,"

"Fuck you, Eilish."

"Now that's mean," I say and she rolls her eyes.

"You're a pain in the ass,"

"I try," I say. "Would you like me to start looking for flights back to Seattle?" She just looks at me like she's thinking.

"Let me talk to my stepdad first and I'll let you know," I nod and watch as she gets on her phone again and walks away I guess she's calling her stepdad.

I pull out my phone and start scrolling through different social media apps. After a few minutes, I saw a news story with the headline "Billie Eilish Has A New Romantic Love Interest? (It Might Be A Girl?)". Oh shit! No, Y/n and I are not dating yet. We've been going out more and I know we've been seen together but I didn't think anybody would think anything of it. I better read this and see how real it seems.

After famous singer/songwriter, Billie Eilish admitted in a recent interview that she is "for the girls", the singer has been seen around the city with some mysterious girl. Nobody has identified who this girl is but some people have said they've seen the two on so-called "dates". People have also seen them holding hands and kissing.

The rest of the article then went on and on about how they don't know who this "mysterious girl" is and try to make up ways to say that Y/n and I are dating. Now would I like to be with her and make things official? Yes. Is that gonna happen soon? No idea. I mean, it is still kind of new. The friendship I mean. So it makes sense to say that we're not together yet. But yes, we have been going around holding hands and going on dates and maybe we have kissed here and there but I didn't think we'd get caught. I guess that was stupid of me to think.

"Okay," Y/n says and walks over to me. "I talked to my stepdad and he said to do whatever I feel like because no matter what my mom's gonna freak out."

"Did he say anything about you being here with a stranger?" I asked her.

"He just said how he knew I wasn't with Michael he just didn't know where I was. But also said how I'm an adult now and I can make my own decisions and can deal with the consequences. And then said how my consequence to this is going to be my mother." She says and laughs. I didn't say anything. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I mumbled. "Maybe you should go back to Seattle," I say and I can tell she was completely caught off guard by that. She looked hurt, too. That's not what I wanted to do.

"What? Why?"

"Because it might be for the best,"

"What are you talking about?" She asks. And then she smiles. "Are you scared of falling in love with me so you're trying to push me away?" She says and I can tell she's joking but I don't laugh. "I'm sorry. But what's going on? Why are you all of a sudden trying to get rid of me?"

"I'm not trying to get rid of you," I reassure.

"Then what is it then?"

"Here, look at this," I show her my phone and she reads the article.

"Damn. I didn't know anybody could see us," she says giving me my phone back. "Is this why you're trying to get rid of me?"

"I'm not trying to get rid of you," I defend. "I'm just saying if we don't want these rumors going around when they aren't even true we should probably stop being seen together as much. Besides, you got a lot going on at home so maybe it would be better for everyone." She sighs.

"Billie, if you don't want people to know you're going out with a girl just say that," I stay quiet. "Do you not want to be seen going out with me?"

"What? No, of course not. I would love to be seen with you," I tell her.

"Then what is it?" I sigh.

"I just don't want to put a stop to your life. I mean, you're eighteen. You just turned eighteen a couple of months ago. You haven't even lived a life much, first of all. Secondly, I'm not busy right now but in a couple of months, I'm not gonna have time for a lot. I'll be touring and having back-to-interviews, meet and greets, going all over the world," I start to explain.

"I can go with you on tour,"

"But that's exactly what I don't want. I don't want you to put your life on hold just to be with me. You deserve to do stuff. Be with friends and family. That's the other reason I tried so hard not to like you,"

"You wouldn't put my life on hold. Yes, I'm eighteen but I'm an adult and I know what I want. What I want is you. What I want is to be with you. You wouldn't be putting my life on hold. I would be doing it willingly. And if I wanted to see my friends and family I would go see them. And I probably should go to that now but I'll worry about that in a few days. Billie, I want to be with you," I smile and kiss her.

"You're amazing," I say after I pull away. "And I want to be with you, too."

"Does this mean we're confirming things between us? Or are we still waiting?" She asks.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"What do you want?" I roll my eyes.

"I want to be with you," I tell her.

"And I want to be with you, too. I'd say that's pretty confirmed," she says. I smile.

"I guess it is,"