Insomnia // Billie Eilish

Chapter 3

We all agreed to watch Insidious. I hated horror movies, but I didn't want to say anything about it. I pulled my knees up to my chest and shook my head as the character in the movie walked through a dark house. He approached a red door and that was when I decided to take my leave. "I need to use the bathroom."

"Again?" Finneas asked as Billie started laughing. "You haven't even been drinking anything."

I looked at him for a second and then raised my eyebrows. "You don't know that." I pressed my lips together and then went to the bathroom.

I probably should've mentioned that I hated horror movies but I just decided to go along with it. I realized I didn't have my phone so I flushed the toilet, washed my hands, and then left. I sat back down on the couch and Billie turned to me. "Somebody called you."

"Oh." I turned on my phone to see who it was. My eyes went wide and I could feel all of my anger from earlier return at the sight of her name. Olivia. I didn't want to give her the time of day, but I also wanted to know what she had to say.

My mouth hung open for a minute before I slid over to click 'call back'. "Sorry, I'll be right back."

I walked outside and quietly shut the door behind me. I clicked the button and she picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey!" She replied abruptly. I jumped a little at the sudden burst of noise.

"What do you want?" I leaned back against the wall, waiting for a response.

"Oh, I just called to apologize and ask if you wanted to meet me for burritos tomorrow."

"Yeah, sure. Sounds fun," I said cheerfully.

"Really," she asked, excitedly.

"No! Why the hell would I want to get burritos with you?" I got ready to hang up on her but then she spoke again.

"Because if you don't, I'll open my mouth again and something you don't want people to know might just slip out." She laughed.

"What time," I asked, gritting my teeth so that I didn't say something I would regret.

"Let's say... 12:45. Sound good?"

"Mhm." I hummed in response and hung up. "Mother fucker!" I yelled and punched the brick wall before resting my head against it and wiping the tears off my face. I just had to be fake friends with her so that she didn't tell my secrets? And if she'd make me do that, what else was she willing to make me do? I closed my eyes and tried to get my breathing back to normal. How did I always get myself into those situations?

"You good, baby?" Somebody asked from behind me.

I jumped backward. "Holy shit! You scared me." I quickly wiped my face one last time. "Yeah." The word sounded groggy and quiet. I cleared my throat and tried again. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Who were you on the phone with?" she asked.

"Oh, it was my best friend. She just wanted to know if I wanted to get burritos with her tomorrow." I bit my lip anxiously.

"So, you needed to come outside to call your best friend back about burritos... and something about those burritos pissed you off enough that you felt the need to punch a brick wall?" She tilted her head a little, running her fingers through her hair. "Something about that seems off."

"Something about you seems off," I replied, instinctively. Awfully fucking attractive. God damn.

She raised her arms in surrender. "My bad. You just seemed a little too upset for that to be the case, but if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

"I'm sorry. It's just... Ugh. It's a confusing situation. I don't really know what to do." It was quiet for a minute as we both stared off. "You can go finish watching the movie. I'll come inside in a minute." I sat down with my back to the wall.

"The movie's over." She sat down next to me. "I can tell you really enjoyed it."

"No. I didn't feel like embarrassing myself by screaming. I can't watch scary movies," I said with a laugh.

"How'd you get that scar on your face," she asked, pointing to the right side of my face.

I reached up and let my fingers run over the scar. "What? Oh. My brother shoved me into a window when I was thirteen. They're on my arm too."

"On purpose?" She raised her eyebrows.

I inhaled sharply through my teeth. "Yeah, anger issues seem to be common in my family." I laughed.

She smiled and shook her head at me. "God damn."

Finneas walked outside, Claudia trailing behind. "What are you guys doing?"

"We're just talking." Billie shrugged. Claudia stood beside Finneas.

"Okay, well Claudia and I are going somewhere. Do you need a ride home, Mackenzie?"

I shook my head. "No, I can walk."

"Are you sure?" He wiggled his eyebrows as he spun his key chain on his finger.

"Yeah, I need to kill time anyway so that my dad doesn't get suspicious, but thanks for the offer."

"No problem." We watched them walk to the car and drive off before continuing our conversation.

"Is your hand okay," she asked.

I looked at my knuckles. Some skin is peeled and they were bleeding a little. I made a fist and then opened my hand again. "Yeah."

We talked for a little while before I finally decided that I needed to leave. I stood up and dusted my butt off. "I need to leave, but you wanna give me your Instagram and we can hang out one day or something?"

"Yeah." She stood up and typed her name into my phone, clicking follow. I watched her unfollow somebody on her Following list, bringing her number of people she's following back down to 666.

I looked at my phone wide-eyed. "You're verified?"

"Yeah."

"And you have 58.4 million followers?" I laughed and shook my head, looking back up at her. "What do you do?"

"I sing. I figured you knew." She rubbed the back of her neck, looking around.

"Nope. Well, thanks for letting me annoy you for a little while." I laughed.

"Shut up," she said with a smile. "You weren't annoying me."

"Bye." I pursed my lips and waved as I walked away.

"Bye."