tick tock

nine

I sit anxiously in the passenger seat of billies car, my neck jerking as my heart rate rises. billie didn't do anything wrong - we were just cruising and blasting snow tha product. 

she was maybe speeding a little, but that's it.

i look over at billie, who looks just as nervous as i do as she pulls the car to the side of the road. "bil, how fast were you going?" i ask softly, my hand fiddling with the hem of my tank top. 

"i don't know," she says quietly, her lip twitching as her neck jerks harshly. "fuck - my parents are gonna kill me."

"it's my fault," i frown, looking down at my hands. "if i hadn't gotten so angry-"

"don't you dare," billie says through her teeth, her right hand grasping onto my own. "it's no one's fault - we were just cruising."

"but-" i start to say, but billie cuts me off once again.

"no," she says softly, seeing the officer walk around the car slowly, his hand covering the weapon on his hip. "we were cruising because we were both upset."

i nod once before the officer stops at billie's window. 

"license and registration, please." the pale man says lowly, his stance making it seem as if he didn't want to be here. 

billie leans over the center console and over my lap, digging in the glove box for her registration. the officer rolls his eyes and shakes his head as billie curses, dropping practically everything in the glove box - old napkins, a few tubes of chapstick, a tyler, the creator CD, and the manual that comes with the car - onto my feet on the floor board.

"okay, forget it," the officer says loudly, startling both billie and i. "you were going one hundred-five in a seventy-five, but judging by the jerking of the necks and the insane amount of time you're taking to get me a goddamn card with insurance information, i'm going to assume that you're both teenagers who aren't even supposed to be out of the house right now." he says in one big breath, his face getting red with every word he says. "so, just slow the fuck down and don't let me pull you over again."

with that, he walks back to his car and turns his lights off, typing something into the computer attached inside his vehicle.

i look over at billie, who has her lips folded into her mouth and is watching her rear view mirror like a hawk. as the officer pulls away from the median, billie's eyebrows furrow as she bursts into laughter. 

my eyes widen at her outburst, and i begin to pick up the items that had fallen at my feet. "bro, what is going on?" i say softly with a laugh, her laughter becoming contagious. 

"his-" she pauses, her hands moving to her stomach as she gasps for air. "his f-face!" 

i let out a chuckle, slapping her arm playfully. "breathe, bil, otherwise he might come back,"

this statement only egged her on. she rests her forehead on the steering wheel and laughs loudly, a hearty laugh that i'd never heard before. the sound of her laughing made my laughing escalate from a chuckle, to a full on laugh like billie's. 

so here we are, sitting in billie's car on the side of a freeway. the both of us have our hands on our cramping stomachs, and our cheeks hurt from the overwhelming amount of smiling we'd been doing. both of our throats hurt from the constant whale type noises we were making, and the entire vehicle seemed to be rocking with our laughter. 

i take a deep breath, gripping onto billie's arm as she continues to sound like a dying cat in the driver's seat. "bil-lie-" i try to say her name but when i look at her again, i can't help but to laugh again at her permanently laughing face. 

i press my hands to my forehead as another round of laughter wracks through my body, my head leaning back as the sounds leave my lips. 

"oh my god, i need to breathe," billie says, a smile still present on her lips as she takes a deep breath. "what the fuck even was that?"

"i don't know," i say, another soft laugh leaving my lips as i slowly come down from my own laughing fit. "i don't even understand why you were laughing in the first place."

"don't get me started," she said, pointing her index finger at me. she turns the car back on and grabs her phone from my lap, putting on a random sad song to keep us from laughing any more. 

she pulls away from the median, but my mind is still on the officer. my lips fold into my mouth and i look out the window, my chest feeling like its caving in as i try my hardest not to laugh. 

billie's hand reaches over the center console and she intertwines her fingers with mine, squeezing my hand tightly as she hums along to a song i didn't know. the bass of the song could be felt in my chest, making my heart flutter. i look over at her, my laughter immediately dying as i look at her. 

she really is beautiful.

i smile to myself, my eyes moving to the road in front of us as the song changes.