Insomnia // Billie Eilish

Chapter 18

"Pizza's done," Finneas called from the kitchen.

We all made our way to the kitchen. "You guys can get as much as you want. I'll make another one if I need to."

"I'm not really hungry." I shook my head.

"You haven't eaten at all since at least four in the afternoon yesterday," Billie pointed out.

"I'm just not hungry."

"Can you please just try to eat one piece?" She tilted her head a little, waiting for a response.

"Okay. Fine." She handed me a plate. I got a piece and sat down at the table.

"When are mom and dad gonna be home?" Finneas asks. "Do you know?"

"They said they'll be back around nine," she replied, taking a bite of her pizza.

"Okay."

Finneas and Claudia started up their own little conversation and Billie scooted her chair closer to me, setting her hand on my thigh. My heart skipped a beat. "Why aren't you eating? Is something wrong?"

I shrugged. "I just can't eat right now. I'm not hungry."

"Let's find something to do." Claudia sighed as I stared at my pizza. The thought of eating made me feel sick. I didn't know why. I was honestly just not hungry.

"We could watch a movie," Finneas offered.

"I don't want to watch any more movies. Me and Mack already watched three." Claudia scooted her chair out and put her plate in the sink.

"Me either." I shook my head.

"It's super hot outside. We could swim," Finneas proposed.

"Oh, hell yeah!" Billie grabbed our plates and put them in the sink.

"We have to run back to our house to get our swimsuits. Shouldn't take long." They both got up and left.

"Mmm." I thought for a minute. "Billie."

"Yeah?"

"Two problems. One, I don't have anything to swim in. Two, I can't really... swim very well. At all." I pursed my lips and looked around, rubbing the back of my neck. That was embarrassing.

"I'm sure I have something, but you're kidding, dude. You don't know how to swim?"

I chewed on the inside of my lip. "A little. I've only ever been swimming like twice."

"This is gonna be so much fun. Come on." She grabbed my hand and took me upstairs.

"Oh, Lord. You're gonna drown me, aren't you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Shut up." After finding her swimsuit, she dug around for a while. "All I've got for you is a T-shirt and shorts."

"Works for me." I shrugged. I went into the bathroom and changed while she changed in her room.

"Mackenzie, can you help me?"

"Yeah." I opened the door. "What do you need?"

"Can you tie this?" She held the strings to her swimsuit top around her neck.

"Yeah." I tied it and she turned around.

"Thanks."

"Yeah. Yep. No problem." I focused on keeping my eyes on her face rather than her body. She didn't even usually wear shorts around me and now she was hardly wearing anything. I averted my eyes to the floor, feeling rather flustered.