Insomnia // Billie Eilish

Chapter 22

I scrubbed the wall with a rag. "What is the point of this? Nobody comes over. You don't let my friends come over and I know damn well Mathew doesn't have any friends."

"Don't question me." My mom smacked the back of my head.

"Why are you guys redoing so much of the house and trying to clean so much?" I asked, blowing some hair out of my face.

"Well, it's a little surprise for later. I'm not gonna tell you right now because I don't want to hear your bitching. Now, get to it. The wall's dirty." She walked away, lighting a cigarette. Since when was smoking allowed in our house? And why the hell wouldn't she just tell me?

I scrubbed the walls until there was nothing else for my mom to complain about. I pushed the door to my bedroom open and the smell of smoke hit me immediately. My mom was sitting on my bed, talking to Mathew. They were both smoking. What the fuck was even going on anymore? They had be trying to piss me off on purpose. I waved the thick smoke in an attempt to clear it. "Do you mind?"

"No. Not at all." She shook her head and I rolled my eyes.

-

"Please, Matt. What will it take? I just need to call one person." I followed him as he walked around our room.

"Mom, told me not to let you use my phone." He rummaged through a drawer, looking for something.

"Come on, dude. What will it take?"

He spun around to face me with a smirk. "Well... if you really want to know..." He ran his finger down my arm.

I stepped away. "Ew! Fuck off!"

"But you're eighteen now, so it's fine." He shrugged.

I tilted my head. "There are so many reasons it's still not fine, but most importantly, you're my brother!"

He rolled his eyes. "So? I'm your half brother. It's not that bad."

"Never mind. I don't want your crusty ass phone anyways." I opened my closet and looked for one of Billie's hoodies that I'd taken.

"You know, you act just like mom some—"

"Don't fucking compare me to that bag of dirt." I grabbed my soccer ball instead of a hoodie and went outside. I passed it up against the wall for a while until my terrible excuse of a mother came out.

"I'd almost rather burn at the bottom of fucking hell than live with your annoying little dyke ass." She pinched her nose.

"You're the one that drug me home," I pointed out.

"That's because you have a loud ass mouth that I can't trust you to keep shut." She picked up my ball. "I get rid of one annoying hobby, and you get another." She stabbed the ball with her pocket knife and dropped it before walking away.

I walked through the gate to the front yard when I heard a car roll up. It was my dad. He got out of the car and gave me a hug. "I see your back from taking care of your grandmother. You know that was so sweet of you."

"What?"

"Your mom told me you went to take care of your grandmother for a little while and that's why you haven't been home," he said, walking through the front door.

"Oh, yeah. Right." I clicked my tongue and decided to go along with it. "It was no problem."

He looked around and smelled the air. "Was somebody smoking in the house?"

Just as I was about to speak up, my mom beat me to it. "No, I had the windows open. The smell must've traveled inside. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, sweetie." He kissed her and I tried my hardest not to throw up all over the both of them. That was disgusting. She was disgusting. I didn't know how he kissed those crusty ass lips of hers.

I went upstairs and showered before going to bed.

-

I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my sweatpants. I was gonna have to change twice today since we had our last game, so I shot for comfortable rather than cute. I also just really didn't give a shit. I was wearing one of Billie's hoodies and some gray sweatpants. I trudged through the parking lot, staring at the ground.

"Kenzie," somebody called. I thought it was Billie. It sounded like her and she was the only one I let call me that.

I looked around. "Billie?" I saw her black car with one of the tinted windows rolled down and ran over. She opened the door and pulled me into a hug. "What are you doing?"

"I missed you and I figured your phone got taken, so I decided to be bold and just come here." She shrugged.

"Oh." I smiled. "Well, I'm glad." I thought for a minute before throwing my head back. "Dude. Nobody in my house will buy watermelon. I'm seriously suffering right now."

"You'll be fine." She laughed.

"How would you like it if you didn't get Taki's anymore?" I crossed my arms.

"That'd be terrible. I don't want to imagine that."

"Exactly."

"That's a dope ass hoodie, bab—" She squinted at me. "Wait a second. That's mine."

I grinned. "Not anymore."

"Oh, that's how it's gonna be?"

"Yeah." I bit my lip and nodded, raising my eyebrows.

She groaned and pulled me into another kiss. "I can't deal with you."

"Whoa. Wait a fucking second! Mackenzie Cameron Jones!" I turned around to see one of my best friends, Starlit, walk up. She had brown wavy hair with a pair of hazel eyes, and never fading dimples. Her nose was covered in barely noticeable freckles.

"Starlit, what the hell do you want?" I laughed.

She ran over to me excitedly. "Please tell me this is Billie?" She peeked through the door and turned back to me wide-eyed. "It is. Are you guys a thing now?"

"Starlit, shut up, you bozo! I'm gonna beat you. But yes."

Billie popped her head out and waves. Starlit waved back. "Wait, I'm offended. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I forgot." I inhaled through my teeth. "Sorry."

"It's all good. I've gotta go put some shit in the locker room before first period, but you better get me caught up on what's happening at practice."

"Okay." She walked away and I turned back to Billie. "I probably need to get to class, but I have another game today. You can come if you want, but you don't have to."

"Are you kidding, baby? Of course I wanna come."

"Okay. Well, it's the same time as the last one and it's a home game. See ya later."

"Bye."

-

"Are you gonna be able to play tonight," Kempley asked.

"Yeah. My ankle's fine now. It wasn't that bad."

She let out a sigh. "Thank God. This is our last high school game. It's possibly your last game ever if you still don't want to go to college."

"I don't, but there's always rec teams," I said with a sigh. "I doubt I'll join one though. I have enough to deal with as it is."

"Yeah. So, let's make this a hell of a last game."