Is that... Billie Eilish?

epilogue - 38

clarification: I'll be using some photos of Billie with Ava (@avahorner). Anne will be represented by Ava in these, but I don't picture her looking like her physically.

that's all, enjoy the chapter.

••☆••

Billie's pov...!

"This is all my fault" Ann murmured, her voice barely audible as she covered her face with her hands.

"What? No. Shut up" I said immediately, moving closer to her, my heart racing at how defeated she sounded.

"None of this is your fault" I squatted down in front of her, gently pulling her hands away from her beautiful face, needing her to look at me. Her eyes were red, and I could see the weight of everything hitting her "you hear me? None of this is your fault" I repeated, making sure she understood. I needed her to get that.

"She's right, Ann" Finneas said from across the room, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, looking just as stressed as the rest of us.

"I swear to God, this guy is taking fucking forever" Claudia muttered, nervously fidgeting as she leaned against the back of the couch, where my girlfriend and I were.

We were all on edge, sitting outside Justin's office, waiting for what felt like an eternity to see what the hell was going to happen next.

Apparently, after my party, someone had snapped some photos of Ann and me leaving the Forum. Those photos? They dropped this morning. And now? They were fucking everywhere. Blown up, on every gossip site and social media page.

The worst part? We didn't even see the damn photographer. We thought we were all good, just doing our thing, but clearly, we weren't.

The sound of the door suddenly swinging open snapped us all out of our thoughts. Our heads whipped toward the door where Justin stood, looking as serious as ever.

"Come in" he said, nodding his head toward the office before turning back inside.

We exchanged quick glances, all of us equally freaked out but trying not to show it, and got up to follow him inside. I took a deep breath, tightening my grip around Ann's hand as we stepped in.

"Okay..." Justin let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his temples like he'd been dealing with this shit all day, which, let's be honest, he probably had.

He glanced at the team of people behind him before looking back at us "there's no way we can deny this. The photos are out there, and the internet's blowing up. So, if you're ready... we can confirm everything" he said, his eyes trying to meet mine, which was hard since I was sitting behind Ann, her sitting on my lap, like she was shielding me or maybe the other way around.

Either way, we were in this together.

"Uh..." I looked over at Finneas, searching for some kind of reassurance. He nodded, his face calm but serious, like he knew this was coming.

My girl shifted in my lap, and I could feel her hand gently stroking my arm. The way she touched me, soft and familiar, made the tightness in my chest loosen just a bit. My heart was still pounding, but that simple gesture made it manageable, made it feel like we could face this.

I took a deep breath, glancing at my girl before I looked up at Justin "yeah, I think we're ready"

Justin gave a small nod, then glanced over at his team. They shuffled some papers around and clicked through a few things on their laptops, like they were preparing for war or some shit. Honestly, it kind of felt like we were.