{16} ✔️

Billie's POV

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"—You can't keep doing this, Billie, this is exactly why you got expelled from your last school! You're lucky you only got suspended but—"

I clenched my jaw and rubbed the palms of my hands into my eyes before sliding down in my seat. It had been a long fucking night and all I wanted was to get to bed and pretend none of this had happened.

How could I be so damn stupid? I should've known Kai would've had copies of that picture. Ruining her phone didn't get rid of the picture completely, it just pissed her off. I should've known that threatening her wasn't enough to keep her from doing something so stupid.

I closed my eyes tightly as I thought back on how heartbroken and scared Dahlia had looked when she saw Kai throw all those pictures. When people started picking them up and examining them, examining her body. A picture she didn't even know had been taken of her was now floating around for everyone to talk about and it was all my fault.

I shouldn't have let her run off alone at the party. I shouldn't have looked everywhere but the one place I knew she was. If I'd found her sooner maybe Kai wouldn't have had the time to take that picture. Maybe they wouldn't have even done anything. I should've told her about it as soon as I found out. I don't know how she would've reacted or how she would've handled it, but I do know that she would've at least been grateful for me telling her the truth and letting her get to decide how to deal with it. I do know that if I'd just told her what was going on she wouldn't hate me right about fucking now.

"Are you listening to a word I'm saying?" Finneas snapped his fingers in front of my face.

"Not fucking really."

"Billie—"

"I'm not just causing trouble just to cause it, Finneas!" I snapped. "What Kai did was horrible and she deserved to get her ass beat."

"I agree, but you could've at least waited until you were somewhere more private, or at the very least, somewhere not on school property." He huffed. "Mom and dad will be pissed when they find out."

"By the time they find out this will be old news." Mom and dad are on a business trip until mid-October. I'll be back in school way before then and it'll be like nothing even happened.

"Whatever," Finneas rolled his eyes. "I'm going to my room so me and Denver can start practicing a new song. You go to your room. You have a visitor."

I furrowed my brows as I watched him disappear. After hearing his door shut, I quickly got up walked to my own room.

I gasped as I walked in and saw Dahlia sitting on my bed. I didn't know where she'd run off to after the game, but I figured it was most likely that she'd gone home. I wasn't expecting her to still come over.

"Dahlia—" I shut the door and ran over to her, jumping onto the bed.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me?" She questioned, her voice hoarse from all the crying she must've been doing. Her eyes red and puffy, her skin shining from all the tears that'd slid off it, her lips quivering like there were more on the way. Now's not exactly the time to say it, but she looks beautiful.

"I just didn't want you to worry about it."

"You didn't want me to worry about it?!" She whisper shouted. "You didn't think this was something I needed to worry about?!"

"Honestly, no!" I shook my head. "I thought that I had it handled. I thought that if I told you you'd just freak out and be paranoid and miserable constantly so I kept it to myself! I threatened Kai, told her that I'd beat her ass if she showed anyone those pictures and I thought that she was actually going to listen to me, but I was wrong and I'm so sorry."

"You deleted it? You didn't look—"

"I looked at it when she sent it to me and deleted it five seconds later. I promise."

She sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly before shocking the shit out of me and leaning over to pull me into a hug, burying her face in my neck. I stayed quiet, rocking her from side to side as I felt her tears sliding across my skin.

"This is my worst fear," she cried. "People are gonna be talking about this until I fucking graduate and nothing's gonna be the same. How am I supposed to go back to school after this? It's—it's on Facebook, Billie, and people keep sharing it. I keep trying to get it down but people are screenshotting and—and my family has seen it and—" she cut herself off with more sobs and I could feel my heart breaking into a billion little pieces. "I don't know what to do."

"I don't either. I don't know how to fix this, but we're going to. I'm going to. I promise." I whispered, stroking her hair.

She pulled away from me and wiped her face again before grabbing my hand. I looked down as I felt our fingers intertwine, and then back up at her.

I'd expected her to scream at me until she physically couldn't anymore, throw things at me, tell me she never wanted to see me again, something. I figured the next time I saw her she'd do all those things or completely ignore me and we'd never talk again.

I'm really fucking lucky, and that's so clear to me right now.

She leaned over slowly and pushed my hair behind my ear before planting her lips on mine. I closed my eyes, immediately melting into the kiss. I'm shocked that this is happening, but I'm not going to question it.

The kiss was slow and sweet and I could taste the salt from her old tears on her lips as the wetness of the new tears made her face sticky. She was still crying, but a lot less.

She grabbed hold of the collar of my shirt and leaned back until she was lying down. She pulled me until I was hovering over her and then finally broke the kiss.

"You fucking suck for this, Eilish. But thank you for trying to protect me. And thanks for rocking her shit."

I laughed as I leaned down to kiss her lips again, then her cheeks, then her neck. I kept my hand on her waist, enjoying the warmth the feeling of touching her brought to me.

"I'd rock her shit for you any time, princess."

"Can you turn the red light on?"

I nodded and quickly did so before turning to look at her again. "You like the red light a lot, don't you?"

"Hides when I blush. Hides when I'm ugly from crying."

"You're fucking beautiful when you cry," I mumbled before lying down beside her. "I'm so sorry, again. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I wanted something wild to happen and it fucking did. Tonight wasn't all bad, though. I got my damn jacket back. My favorite jacket." She cuddled into my side as she spoke and I wrapped my arms around her, grinning.

She's so fucking special and she doesn't even realize it. Who the fuck thinks about the positives on a terrible night like this? Dahlia Doe.

"Sorry I kissed you. Sorry if you don't feel that way about me. I've just been wanting to do that for a while and I decided I might as well do something to make this night as okay as it can get."

"I really like you, Doe. I have for a while. I just wanted you to make the first move."

She didn't respond for a while. I kinda figured she'd drifted off to sleep, but after a few minutes, she spoke again.

"Did you get in trouble?"

"Ten-day suspension."

"Your grades are gonna be such shit when you get back, and I'm pretty sure you're getting kicked out of your clubs..." I could just hear her frowning as she spoke. I kissed her forehead before turning to face her and grabbing her hip. "I don't give a shit, Dahlia. I didn't care about those clubs and I can get my grades back up. It's not like they were all that great anyway. Now I've got an excuse."

"Is she okay? You didn't like, kill her or anything did you?"

"She's still alive so I guess she's fine," I grumbled. "People took videos. I'll show you tomorrow."

"I think I owe you now. I just feel like you punched someone for me so now I have to do it for you, you know?"

"Punch Finneas in the face for me and we're even."