Insomnia // Billie Eilish

Chapter 52

"So," Billie asks as I walk through the front door. Her eyebrows knit together and she bites her lip, waiting for my response.

"Well," I start, setting my phone down on the coffee table. "My dad relinquished his custody rights. The attorney doesn't know for sure yet, but she said that it's not looking good for my mom. It's quite possible that she'll be deemed unfit because of her criminal record and abuse of drugs and alcohol."

"That's good, right?"

"Yeah... I'm still worried though." I frown and Billie pulls me into a hug. "I have to prove that I'm mentally, physically, and financially fit to be his legal guardian, but even with all of the money I have from my dad, I'm not going to be able to afford rent here for very long. I mean, I don't even have a job yet. That's gonna look terrible."

"Well, I can help you with—"

"Absolutely not. I'm not letting you pay for anything."

Billie's quiet for a minute and then she finally says something. "So... I have a kind of crazy solution."

I pull away from her and lower my eyebrows. "What?"

She thinks for a minute. "What if I pay our bills?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, don't freak out or feel pressured or anything, but... what if we got a house together? And before you say anything, I know we're young and we've only been dating for about half a year, but it would help you. We're always with each other anyways."

"Are you sure this isn't just an impulsive decision that you're going to regret later," I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.

She shakes her head. "No. I was hoping it'd happen eventually, and now it's going to help you a lot."

"I don't know, Bil..."

She takes my hands in hers and I look up at her. "You can absolutely say no if you want, but just think about it, okay? If you don't want to do that, I'll help you figure out something else, but think about it."

"Okay." She puts her hand on my cheek and runs her thumb over my bottom lip. I turn my head a little and kiss her hand.

-

I knock on Billie's front door and Maggie opens it. She gives me a warm smile and pulls me into a hug. "I'm surprised you don't have a key by now," she jokes and I laugh.

"Billie's upstairs with Finneas. I think they're working on something."

"Actually, I'm looking for Claudia. She said she was here." I wiggle my eyebrows, waiting for a response.

"Oh. She's in the backyard."

I nod and start walking towards the back door. "Thanks."

I walk outside and see Claudia floating around on a float in the pool. I snicker and take a seat beside the pool. "Claudia."

She lifts her head up and takes her sunglasses off. "Oh, Mackenzie. Hey. Gimme one second." She makes her way over to me, slowly but surely. "What's up," she asks when she finally makes it over to me. Kempley is at a summer program for college, so I've had to find somebody new to rant to.

I take a deep breath. "Okay, so I have a dilemma."

"What is it?"

I get her caught up on all of the information about my dad being in jail and me trying to get custody of Brian.

"God, that's a lot. Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. And here's my dilemma. I was talking about everything with Billie—you know, like how I don't know if I'll be able to keep paying the bills."