The Artist / Billie Eilish

Chapter 52

Billie's POV

"Someone please go on it with me! Seriously?! Are you all fucking wusses? Come ON!"

Ethan groaned as he grabbed Justin by the shoulders, shaking him aggressively as they inevitably got into one of their weird brotherly fights.

Everyone formed another little circle away from the brothers, and Macy started to speak.

"There's no way in hell I'm going on that thing."

Behind us loomed an insanely huge roller coaster, one bigger than I'd ever seen at a fair before. It was a vertical climb and a vertical jump, and I'm anything but a little bitch, but I had to admit it made me feel a little queasy just to look at.

"Someone just take one for the team."

"Rose, Ethan's like your little puppy, it's only fair if you babysit him on this ride."

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as everyone laughed, the color draining quickly from her face. "I wouldn't even survive on that, Finn! I'm 5"3! Do you know what happens to 5"3 girls on rides like that?! They fall out! Is that it? Do you want me to fall out and die?"

Everyone couldn't contain their laughter at this point as the twins stumbled back over to us, Rose squealing as Ethan threw his arm over her shoulder like he always does.

Claudia rolled her eyes with a smile, shoving Ethan out of the circle as she wandered towards the huge metal death trap, the younger boy jumping in celebration before running after her.

"Y'all owe me so bad!" She called over her shoulder, flipping us off as Ethan hurriedly sorted out their tickets.

Laughter dotted across the group again as we all turned back to each other, deciding to split up, as we all wanted to do separate things. Finneas and Sully went to go find a hot dog stand, Justin and Macy went to the go-karts, and my parents had gone to the ferris wheel forever ago.

That left...

Rose. And me. Alone.

She smiled up at me, her eyes twinkling against the fairy lights and neon signs filling the space around us, being the only sources of light we had against the midnight-black sky.

Her breath fogged up as she laughed against the freezing cold air, and she held out a mitten-clad hand.

"Come on, let's find some fair games. I want you to win me a stuffy."

•

Laughter bubbled up out of my throat as I watched Rose attempt to throw a ball at some cans.

We'd been playing all of these games for at least an hour, now, and I'd come to the conclusion that Rose sucked at every single one of them.

She groaned as she watched the ball hit the wall of the stand, so far away from the cans.

"I don't understand why this is happening. This game is homophobic."

I laughed again as a smile stretched her lips, and she picked up her last ball with concentration dancing in her eyes.

"November 2019, the Official Ball Throwing Olympics," I blared out, wandering up to the girl as she giggled, watching the cans intently. "Here we have Rose, with her last ball of the season."