{42}✔️

Dahlia's POV

************

"No, Billie. I don't give a damn shit what you say. I'm not taking it."

"Fucking take it you little bitch."

"Very convincing, but the answer is still no." I rolled my eyes before shoving the box away from me. She sighed and yanked at her hair in frustration before pulling on her long chain and pretending to choke herself.

"Please, just do what I say this once. Just this once! Take it!"

"Hmm..." I hummed as I pretended to think. I waited until Billie seemed to believe I was actually thinking about it before I spoke again. "No!"

She groaned and threw the box down on the couch before plopping down as well. "I broke your fucking phone, I owe you a phone, take the phone." She talked as if I was stupid and I kicked her foot before sitting down on the other side of the couch.

"You broke my iPhone 6 Plus, Billie. This is an iPhone XR."

"Who gives a shit if it's an iPhone XR, an iPhone XSR, or an iPhone XXFL?! Take the fucking phone, bro!"

"It's more expensive than the one you broke, therefore if I took it I would owe you."

"Fucking kiss me after you take the phone and then we're even."

"No."

Billie and I, much like the majority of our classmates probably did, decided it'd be a good idea to skip school today. That party was fucking wild, so much happened and my heads still spinning from it. I'm still hungover, my migraine refuses to leave me, and I'm tired as fuck. We didn't get in until like three last night.

I'd still rather be at school than having this conversation, though. Billie left the house for like fifteen minutes earlier saying she was going to go pick up some food. She came back with a brand new iPhone for me instead.

It's really nice of her to buy me a new one, especially considering she's the one who broke my old one, but I can't accept a more expensive phone than what I had before.

"Take the damn thing!" She nearly shouted. Everyone else in the room groaned as her volume increased. Billie doesn't seem prone to hangovers, but literally, everyone else is.

"Just take the stupid phone, Dahlia. Suck her dick to pay her back for it if you're really so worried." Jaylen grumbled before pulling a pillow over her head.

"I like that idea." Billie nodded.

"I'm not taking the fucking phone and that's that." I huffed before storming into the kitchen. I heard Billie tell everyone she'd be back before she came in as well.

"What's the big deal, D? It's just a phone. You needed a new one, I got you a new one, what's wrong?"

I sighed as I grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and then turned around to face her. I bit my lip as I stared at her, trying to find the right words. We're one day into our new relationship and I don't wanna fuck it up. I wanna be honest with her about everything, that's how you keep a healthy relationship.

"I can't compete with you and your money. You're rich and I'm not and I'm scared that's gonna be a problem." I mumbled.

"It was never a problem before and it won't be a problem now." She smiled. "What is it, the fucking 1600s? It's not like my parents are forcing me to marry someone in my class."

"Billie," I rolled my eyes. "You always pay for my shit when we go out, you always buy me shit and I barely do anything for you, not because I don't want to, but because I can't. I can't just buy you whatever you want whenever you want—"

"It's not important to me. I don't need shit from you except for you just like you don't need shit from me except me." She cut me off as she walked toward me and trapped me between her body and the counter. "You're gonna take that phone because I can't return it and I owe you one anyway. And then I promise I'll try to refrain from buying you shit for a while, although I make no promises because I absolutely don't mind buying things for you. I like it, actually. Makes me feel like a sugar daddy."

I laughed loudly and then pouted as my head started to pound again. She reached up to rub a thumb across my forehead. "Your vein shows when your head hurts." She observed.

"Mhm."

"Maybe I can distract you from the pain?" She grinned as she lifted my shirt up a little.

"Maybe not."

We jumped apart quickly at the sound of my brother's voice and Finneas' laugh.

"Let the two lovebirds be lovebirds." Finneas cackled, patting Denver's shoulder. I watched as Denver's body tensed up before relaxing again and he looked at Fin, a soft smile barely noticeable on his face. "Yeah, okay." He mumbled.

They walked out of the kitchen again after grabbing some fruit and I sighed and pushed my fingers through my hair.

"He really likes your brother."

"Sorry, what?" Billie coughed. I filled her in on what I'd heard last night and all the things I'd seen while Denver and Fin were together. I also told her about that day when I'd come home from hanging out with her and talked to him. He'd asked so eagerly if Fin had been home and he'd been so disappointed when I told him he wasn't.

"I wish he wasn't older." Denver had said.

Fuck.

"Dude, that is not good. Finneas isn't gay and he has a girlfriend that he really likes and he'd never date someone that much younger than him. I mean, Denver's eighteen, but—"

"Yeah, I know." I sighed. "He's got a crush on Fin and he'll get over it eventually. It's not good, but it's not what I care about. Why didn't he tell me he likes guys? I'm gay, he should know he could talk to me about that." I frowned. "We used to tell each other everything. We're not really as close as we used to be and I hate that."

Denny and I are still close, but we used to be best friends, basically. Seems like as soon as I hit tenth grade we stopped talking to each other as much as we used to. I miss him.

"I think you guys should hang out. Have a fun little sibling day. Maybe he'll talk to you about it."

"Maybe." I perked up. I'd love to hang out with him like we used to. I also need to figure out when my dad's next off day is so I can spend some time with him. I feel like I never talk to him anymore either. I text him every day, but he's usually at work when I'm at the house, which isn't a lot lately since I've been hanging out at Billie's place so much.

I think I'm gonna plan some nice family days soon.

"I think we should actually find something to eat though," I told her after a while. She smirked. "We'll all eat after you set up your new phone."

I sighed.

***

This is really, really awkward.

Billie ordered Japanese food and pizza. Pizza for those of us who aren't weirdos who like to eat raw fish for fun, and Japanese for those who need serious professional help. That's not what's awkward about this situation.

What's awkward is that after the food came, we all decided to sit down on the living room floor and eat, but Finneas had told us that we needed to discuss what happened last night so we could get some things settled, and he'd made us sit across from the person we had issues with.

Billie sat across from Kai, Caden sat across from Cadence, I sat across from the girl Billie had been with last night who's name is apparently Bea, not that I give a shit, and Jaylen sat beside her and in front of me as well. Finneas joked that he and Denver were the only ones without any issues as they sat across from one another, but if only he knew how Denver was feeling, I don't think he'd still think that.

"This is stupid, I want you to know that." Billie talked around a mouthful of vegan pizza and Finneas scolded her for it.

"We're all gonna take turns expressing our feelings—"

We all groaned at that. I love Finneas, but that is the worst thing he's ever said.

"I don't wanna hear it!" He cut in. "Jaylen and Dahlia, why don't you two go first?"

"My hand wasn't raised, Mr. O'Connell," I grumbled. He shot me a look and I sighed before talking again. "Jaylen, I'm sorry about last night. Sorry for fighting with you and for...Sleeping with your girlfriend." I muttered the last part and put my head down in shame.

"Homewrecker." She spat.

"Alright, well, seeing as you two barely even had a home to begin with, I do think that's a little harsh, but that's none of my business—"

"Do you want a round four?!" She growled. Kai put a hand on her knee to calm her down and I narrowed my eyes at her. "Don't act like you're a victim, bitch. You and those other two bitches jumped me twice, you deserved what I did to you. And me being with Kai was a mistake that I made after smoking half a blunt, eating three weed brownies and taking an edible, so let's move the fuck on."

"Wow. Three weed brownies." Denver shook his head. "I only had one...Hey, what the hell are you doing getting high?! I told you you could drink a little, not fucking get high—"

"Yeah, so sorry." I mumbled sarcastically.

"Alright, moving on." Finneas patted Denver's knee and he froze for a second before smiling and nodding. "Kai and Billie? Maybe you two could apologize?"

Billie nodded before taking another large bite of her pizza. "Sorry you had my girlfriend jumped by three bitches. Sorry she was hurting because of that for almost three weeks. Sorry for cutting your cheek there. That really is an ugly scar. Sorry for not following through on my promise to beat your ass the next time I saw you. Sorry for allowing you and your bitch to come into my house last night instead of getting arrested." She finished and grabbed another slice of pizza. I sighed before scooting closer to her and grabbing her hand.

"Billie, Kai and I talked about some shit last night and we're gonna try to move on from all of this. We're obviously never gonna be best friends, but we can be civil."

"Good for y'all. What does that have to do with me?"

"You can't stay mad forever, Billie," Kai grumbled. "What happened happened and now we're moving on."

"I'm not fucking moving on from shit. You're acting like you did what you did twenty years ago! It was literally less than a month ago that you told everyone at school about Dahlia's past, tried to force her to stop being friends with me, and had her jumped. I don't give a damn how much you apologize or how much you wanna move on from it, I like to hold grudges, bitch. You hurt my baby girl, so it's fuck you forever. Period."

My cheeks flushed and I smiled at Billie's pet name for me and at the fact that she slung an arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to her. Damn, she's so cute.

"Now, you guys can put all this behind you if you want, and you guys can play nice, but me? I'm gonna watch you like a fucking hawk and the first time you fuck up I will be beating your ass just like I should've before you had the chance to kiss up to Dahlia and act like her friend again." Billie finished. Kai nodded and rolled her eyes, clearly done with the conversation as she shoved some sushi into her mouth.

"Right...So, I guess we'll go on to Bea and Dahlia then?" Finneas rubbed his palms on his jeans and I laughed a little. I can't believe he actually thought this would go well.

"I don't have any beef with you. Sorry I fucked your girlfriend. To be fair, I would've fucked literally anyone else had they asked before her." Bea shrugged. I side eyed Billie and she squeezed my thigh a little before leaning over to whisper in my ear. "Play nice, baby."

"Did you play nice with Kai?" I whispered back before clearing my throat.

"It's cool. A lot of mistakes were made last night and you just happened to be one of them." I sent her a fake smile and she shrugged her shoulders again before putting some noodles in her mouth. Billie popped my thigh and let out a small laugh.

"Caden and Cadence?" Finneas called.

Neither of them said anything. Cadence just sat there picking at the carpet, her head held down as it had been ever since last night. I wanted to go over and hug her. We need to have a girls day soon, just us two. I know she needs to talk about what happened and I know she's gonna need help dealing with it.

Caden sat there glaring at her with his arms crossed, one side of his face swollen and a large bruise covering it. He'd had to tape up his forehead too.

"Guys?" Finneas tried again.

Nothing.

"Well, at least we got some of our feelings out in the open! Don't you guys feel so much better?" He asked hopefully. I smiled softly at him. This guy is so damn pure and sweet, I love him. I can see why Denver likes him. "I feel better." I told him. He smiled largely and nodded, seemingly reassuring himself.

"I knew this would help."