Metathesiophobia || Billie Eilish

Chapter 1

Tradition in the Vanderbilt family states that every freshly graduated High school student in the family has the choice to discover themselves for a month before returning to their family and continuing the life that has been set out for them.

"Felton!" Henry my best friend and future husband calls again from somewhere inside the house. I'm currently cuddled up in my favorite little reading nook in the spacious library of my family's penthouse apartment in the Upper East Side of New York City. Music is being blasted throughout the room, obliterating the stigma of silent libraries while prohibiting me from hearing Henry open the door after he found out where I was hiding. He tells Alexa to pause before turning to me who was currently pouting because he paused on the good part of the song.

I sigh while sliding the book mark between the two pages I was rereading for the third time since my thoughts had found a way to distract me in a way that everything was just blurring together.

"You need to decide in a week," Harry says after he had read the expression of frustration on my face. "I know," I say as I run my hands through my blonde hair before hugging my knees to my chest and lowering my head. I feel the couche sag down as Henry goes to sit on the opposite side of the piece of furniture. I lift my head to look into his green orbs, by far his best asset and adding to his dashing good looks. Henry was a simple man. He was kind, he knew how to treat people with respect and was overall a people's person. It made sense that he wanted to go into the politics world. People automatically liked him from their first encounter with him. Right now he was just adding to the list of pros I had made since the day I met him, which was roughly around ten years ago.

"It's scary to think that you only have such a short time to figure yourself out before you have to be committed to the life your family has planned for the rest of your life. I have no idea how or who you're going to be after that month, but just know, I'll be right here when you get back," he says encouragingly before he stands up and walks to me, slowly resting his hands on both the sides of my head, leaves a soft kiss on the top of my head. With that, he leaves the room and I press play on my phone's screen to let the music drown out the sounds of the busy city below me.

I'm terrified at the thought of changing. The word change overall just...sparks a feeling of unease throughout my whole body. I've always been the same. The ideal daughter to the ideal family. If it was up to me, I wouldn't even want to spend a month away from home. I just don't see the use. My mother insisted that it's tradition and it's something I would remember for the rest of my life. She went though the same process when she was my age, as her family had also adopted the tradition. Quite a few high class families do it. There are rules though. You're not allowed to talk about that month to anyone including the person you're marrying for the rest of your life. Another rule (that has never happened in my family's history) is that if you decide to not return, you would get completely disowned. That includes that no one you knew before, is allowed to make contact with you for the rest of your life and the trust fund you get as soon as you graduate gets cut off. I've heard some instances that had caused great shame on some families in the city.

The most controversial one, that is often still a widely talked topic among the elite class woman of the Upper East Side, still manages to elicit a feeling of curiosity in me. His name was James Koch. His family was in the oil business and also had a big influence in the politics world. He was set. Hell, he might've been the most eligible bachelor of his time and even convinced the princess of Monaco to marry him. His month of self discovery came and when he left, his relationship with the young princess seemed stronger than ever. After a month away from his fiancé as well as his family, he never returned. He just disappeared. Everyone was devastated and concluded that he must've felt he wasn't cut out for the life back home. Two years later, they found out that he was a relationship with another man. How could someone discover such a vital piece of themselves, completely diverting from being in love with a woman and then after a month, realize you're attracted to men.

My mom still doesn't talk about her brother or that whole experience. Being just two years younger than her sibling and them being inseparable since the day she was born, made the news of never seeing her brother again so much harder for her to take.

My daydreaming was interrupted when a ad popped up on instagram that immediately caught my attention. It advertised a company that hires you to accompany a stranger for precisely a month. You travel with them, live at their expense and entertain them for that time frame. The idea of getting to know a complete stranger seemed scary, yet, it might finally get me out my comfort zone. With a hesitant finger, I tapped on their name and the page seemed pretty legit.

After scrolling through a endless amount of stories people had sent the page describing their experience while working for the company, I got up and walked downstairs to show my parents what I found.

"Hey honey, are you excited for next week?" My mom asks while watching some cooking show on the TV.

"Yeah, I think I might've found something, but since I can't really talk about anything I want to do next month, I just wanted to let you know," I say sitting next to her on the leather couch.

"That's great news hun. Do you have enough money on your card for whatever you're planning next week?"

"I'm not like my sister and her spending habits," I say and just then the elevator dings and my sister Avery walks in with shopping bags covered with designer logos while I just smile and shake my head, since she had just proved my point.

"Oh the joy of having daughters that are as different as night and day," my mom says jokingly.

I chuckle before my phone buzzes in my pocket. When I'm finished fishing the device out my grey Nike sweatpants, I look at the screen, seeing that the company had already contacted me back with a form I have to fill out. Once I'm done doing the paperwork, they send me my first and last person I'll be a accompanying for a month. The only information they give me is the date I'm starting, the adress, how much I'll be traveling and the name of the person. The flight to Los Angelos that I'll be on is next Monday, all expenses are being paid for by, I'm guessing is a man, since the black and white typing states it's a Billie O'Connell.

I just hope he's a chill dude to travel with because we're going to be doing that quite a lot.

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I had major writers block for a bit and I hated every second of it, but I suddenly got inspired again so a new book was born.
Stay safe (and healthy)
- D