L'AMOUR DE MA VIE - Billie Eilish

Chapter 3

Em's POV

I couldn't breathe. The sight of her literally took my breath away, as if I'd been plunged into a body of water without any way to come back to the surface. I was literally drowning.

Thankfully, I had Ky to help me out as she noticed my state.

"Hey guys!" She said, awkwardly going around the room to hug her family as well as Finn and Billie.

You could cut the tension with a knife. I snapped out of whatever trance I was in and quickly hugged Susan and Mark.

"Oh honey, it's so good to see you. We've missed you. How are you? Are you settling in well? How was your move?" Susan gushed as she held my face between her hands.

I smiled, genuinely happy to see her despite the current circumstances.

"I've missed you guys too. I won't lie, I'm exhausted, but I'm really happy to finally be here," I responded. I could feel Billie's gaze drilling holes into the side of my face. I tried to ignore it, but I found myself quickly glancing at her, trying to gauge her reaction.

Did she know I was coming here? Had Claudia and Finn broken their word and told her that I was back? A million questions raced through my head, causing me to feel an overwhelming amount of anxiety.

Ky, sensing that I was struggling, grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs leading to her bedroom.

"Don't worry guys, we'll be back, I'm just gonna show Em my room," she shouted when we got to the top of the stairs.

"But she's already see-" Mark started before being cut off by the brunette currently dragging me.

"We'll be down in a few minutes!" She yelled back before slamming her door shut.

As soon as we entered the privacy of her bedroom, I lost it.

"Oh my fucking god! What is she doing here? Did you invite her? Did she know I was gonna be here? Well, of course not, why would she wanna see me after almost 2 years of no contact? But why would she greet me if she actually hated me? This doesn't make any sense. Ky, I need to leave, I'm not ready for this. I can't be in the sam-"

SLAP!

I looked at my best friend in shock, my hand covering my slightly aching cheek.

"I'm sorry but you needed this. You need to snap out of whatever it is you're doing right now. You need to get your shit together."

She was right, I needed that to stop me from spiralling any further. I could not lose my cool. Fact is, she's here and she knows I'm back in LA. I started pacing back and forth, desperately trying to find a way out of this situation. Truth is, I never prepared myself for the eventuality of actually bumping into her again. I had thought about it for sure, but I'd stopped entertaining those thoughts as much as possible in fear of actually manifesting a reunion between us.

"Ok, so what's the plan, Kyra? I don't think I can be around her right now. It's just too much," I pulled at the roots of my hair, feeling frustrated by this whole situation. I sat down on her bed, trying to concoct a plan of my own so I could get the fuck out of here.

The brunette I call my best friend kneeled down in front of me and gently stopped me from doing any further damage to myself.

"Look, I truly don't know what they're all doing here. As far as I know, we were supposed to be having dinner with my folks and that's it. Truth is, we can't just walk out, it would just cause even more tension and confusion. Let's just go back downstairs and you can steer clear from Billie. We'll eat, chat a bit with my parents and then we'll dip as soon as dinner's over, ok?" My friend tried to reassure me.