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Dahlia and Billie's wedding binder. 😏 Pretend it's a big ass binder and not a notebook.

Dahlia's POV

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

It had been a long week. But a good one! I got a lot accomplished.

Wednesday after school, Denver and I got a lot of shit done. I bought $50 worth of hole punchers just in case anyone in Mrs. East's class needed one, and I bought a shit ton of printer paper because I'm sure she's gonna need it. It felt nice doing something for my classmates, even though I hate most of them.

I bought Billie and I's wedding binder—boy, is that weird to say—and I'm so ready to fill it up! Denver and I went to the bank and we each started a savings account and I finally started a checking account. I already started helping him apply for some scholarships too, probably like twenty.

"Holy fuck, this dress is everything." I whispered to Cadence who was sitting right next to me at the kitchen island. I pointed at my laptop screen and she gasped, nodding quickly. "Definitely save it."

I did. After doing so, I switched tabs and looked down at my notebook. "Okay, I've sold fourteen things so far and if my calculations are correct...I've made $276.32. I'm gonna put every cent into my savings account." I mumbled to myself.

"So, I still live here, really, because of Billie," Finneas said before taking a sip of his coke. He, Caden, and Denver were sat on the other side of the Island, talking. "I'm 21. I could've moved out long ago, but my parents are gone a lot and I wanted to stick around and make sure she didn't do anything stupid all alone in the house—"

"I don't need a babysitter, I'm eighteen." Billie grumbled from beside me.

"Hey, this conversation is for people over here." He gestured to the boys sitting next to him before continuing. "But I'd say, the first step to moving out is definitely saving...You know, if you want I could ask the boss if he'd be willing to give you a raise. He likes me, so he might do it. I'll even ask if he'd be willing to pay me less in order to give you one."

"Dude, no," Denver shook his head quickly. "I can't ask you to do that for me."

"I'd be happy to do it, man! It's not like I really need it. I don't work there for the money, I just work there because it gives me something to do and because I like music. It's seriously no problem."

Denver smiled softly at Finneas before looking down, his cheeks flushing. "Thanks." He mumbled.

"No problem." Fin grinned.

"I have to ship some more orders on Monday." I sighed happily as I looked at what had been sold. So far, my Etsy shop is doing really good. It's only been open for a few weeks, but a lot of people are starting to notice it.

"This is the third college application I've done and I already wanna kill myself. This is too much." Cadence sighed. She'd switched her tab back from the prom dress shop she was on to her application.

There's a lot going on right now.

It seems like everyone's got a billion things going on at once, but it's not really a bad thing. I think we're all pretty excited about the future and about all the new doors opening for us. I know I am.

"Okay, okay, I'm gonna stop looking at dresses and worrying about my shop for right now. Bil, we need to focus on this project."

I smiled as I pushed my laptop closer to her. She was too busy chewing up a burrito to notice me immediately, but she nodded at me once she did. "Yeah!" She muffled out.

"Okay," I opened up google docs. "Let's start easy. Date, Venue, and budget?"

"You like winter. We could have a winter wedding." She grinned. "December?"

"That'd be really cool," I giggled. "What about a fall wedding, though? I think it'd be a little less 'miserable', as Cadence calls it."

"Whatever you want."

"What month do you think would be best?"

"October. That's when we got together." She smiled as she grabbed my hand. "And the weather is really nice, and it's always beautiful in October."

"Sounds great!"

"It could be a Halloween wedding? I think that'd be cool. We got together on Halloween night."

"We did," I mumbled, my cheeks turning red as I thought about it. "Okay, so, October 31st."

"Indoor or outdoor? I think I'd really like an outdoor wedding, especially in the fall."

"Same." I typed it in quickly and twisted my lips to the side as I tried to think of a venue. "Where?"

"Paris. It's romantic and shit."

"But what about all our family and friends? They wouldn't all be able to fly to Paris, that's expensive."

"I could pay for everybody's tickets and hotel rooms." Billie shrugged nonchalantly as I gasped. "I know you're rich, but that's a lot, Billie, and it's especially a lot for two people getting married! That'd be half the wedding budget right there, and plus, you have to think about the future. If we're getting married that means we're gonna be moving in together and we need to focus on bills and—"

"It's not like it'd be that many people," She shrugged again. "It's not like half the world is attending our wedding."

"How many people do you think are coming?"

"A hundred or less."

"What? I myself know way more people than that!" I scoffed.

"Yeah, but I mean, we don't have to invite everyone. Just our closest friends and family."

"You don't want a big wedding?" I frowned.

"No. That makes the wedding less special. It becomes less about committing to each other in front of the people who've cared about you and rooted for you throughout your relationship, and more about throwing an extravagant wedding that'll impress all the strangers you haven't seen in years who just showed up so they could judge you and be nosy."

"But...But you only get to have one wedding—hopefully—so why not go all out? And why would you have a wedding in Paris if you don't want it to be big and extravagant? That's a total waste. If it's gonna be a small wedding with just a few people, it should just be in a courthouse or something around here."

"Well, just because it's not some huge wedding doesn't mean it has to be in a dingy little courthouse. It can still be somewhere beautiful!"

I bit my lip as I thought about it. Since I was a little kid I've always wanted a huge, fancy wedding with tons of people there. I can't believe Billie doesn't want that too. I mean, I get it, but I'm pretty bummed.

I mean, not that I have to be. It's not like we're actually getting married.

I mean—Not that I don't think we could! I do love her, and all that, I just don't—Well I won't say I can't see myself marrying her because that'd sound bad, it's just...Just that I don't see it happening any time soon? Obviously. We're just kids.

It's weird to think about that. We joke about being married all the time, but its weird to actually think about it. I wonder if that could happen for us, though. My mom and dad got married when they were nineteen, going on twenty. Their marriage obviously wasn't the best, but they did get married. Lots of people marry their high school sweetheart while they're young! Is that gonna happen with me and Billie?

Fuck, this is stupid. I shouldn't be thinking about this just because of this stupid project. If she knew I was thinking like this she'd freak out and run away. Hell, I wanna freak out and run away, only I can't because all this is happening in my head so running would do nothing but make me even more exhausted and I'd still be stuck with all these dumbass thoughts even while sprinting like I'm Usain Bolt. We've been together less than a year. This is ridiculous.

"I don't think Paris is a good idea." I mumbled after a while. I wonder if she'd ever reconsider the whole 'small wedding' thing? Or maybe we could have two! One big one and one small one. Nick Jonas and Priyanka had like four thousand weddings, why can't we have two?

Well...Maybe because I don't think we have 'Two weddings' money. Billie's rich, but she can't always pay for everything.

Damn, that really bothers me. She has so much money and I don't have shit. She buys me all this expensive shit all the time and I never seem to buy her anything, and when I do it never feels like it's enough because I know it's nothing compared to whatever she got me.

Is that how it's gonna be if we ever do get married? Me constantly thinking about the fact that I'll never be able to pay her back for everything she's done for me? Me always being aware of what she buys me and how much it costs and obsessing over it?

Well, it won't be that way if I get rich too, but how the hell am I gonna do that? Certainly not with a fucking Etsy shop...

I could be a Youtuber? I have lots of great YouTube video ideas! Or I could be a porn star. That might fucking pay more.

Would Billie be alright with dating a porn star?

Hard question to answer. Billie's unpredictable. On the one hand, she's the protective type who doesn't like to share. On the other hand, I think she'd like to be able to meet new people and say 'Yeah, your girl is cool and all, but guess what mine does!'

But what if she doesn't want me to do porn but I wanna do porn? I mean, I don't wanna do porn, but what if I eventually decide I want to and she doesn't want me to? What then? Am I supposed to just give up my porn dreams for her?

Relationships are all about sacrifice, but I shouldn't have to sacrifice my porn career just to—

What the fuck is wrong with me? Why am I thinking about this? Why am I allowing myself to get all worked up over this? I don't even fucking like porn, I don't want a job in it. Billie would never make me not take a job that I really wanted just to please her anyway. She'd let me do whatever I wanted if it made me happy, and I'd do the same for her.

Damn, what if Billie wants to be a porn star? Ew.

I mean—Not ew. She's hot and I'm not judging porn stars I just—

"Are you okay? You've been zoned out for a good minute." Billie squeezed my fingers and I blinked a few times before focusing on her face.

"Yeah! What? Yeah! What? Yeah!" I stumbled over my words as I snatched my hand away from hers. "M-maybe we could work on this later? Denver, how are your applications coming?" I slammed my laptop closed and slid off of my stool quickly, nearly sprinting around the counter to stand beside Denver who'd been talking to Fin this whole time. I felt bad for interrupting, but I needed a distraction. I could feel Billie's eyes burning a hole in the side of my face as I did everything I could to avoid looking at her.

I sighed a little as I tried to pay attention to Denver when he started talking about a question on the application. Three fucking decisions. We'd only talked about three fucking decisions out of probably, like, a thousand, and we're already having issues.

Or...I'm having issues.

This is gonna be a long and difficult project.

***

Billie's POV

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

A couple of hours after everyone left, I was just about to drift off to sleep, tired from the long day, when there was a knock on my room door. I groaned in response and didn't bother getting up, burying my face deeper into my sheets.

"Billie, someone is here to see you." I heard my mom say. I furrowed my brows, wondering who the hell was here so late at night. Granted, it was only...7:00 on a Saturday night. But still.

The door opened a few moments later and I poked my head out from under the covers to see who it was. I rolled my eyes probably the hardest I've ever rolled them after seeing who it was.

"Fuck are you doing here, bitch? Have you lost your shit?" I grumbled. I didn't move from my spot as she closed the door behind her and then stood in front of me.

"Billie, I need a place to stay." She mumbled.

"Okay...And I ask again...What are you doing here?"

"You told me you'd protect me!" She spat. "Both my parents, my brother and my uncle are sitting in jail cells right now and they're definitely not getting out any time soon. My uncle was arrested yesterday, my parents and brother today. I can't stay in our stupid house because I'm scared that if one of them does get out they're gonna come after me. My mom called me and told me that my uncle told her about our little visit to my uncle, and long story short, she no longer considers me a daughter and if she sees me again she's gonna kill me."

She paced around the room, biting her fingernails anxiously. "My brother's 'customers' aren't gonna be able to get their drugs anymore and once they find out about this they're gonna think it's my fault, and since he's probably gonna snitch on some of the people helping him sell his shit, I'm sure they'll be pissed too. Whether they're pissed at me directly or not, they're gonna be pissed. I'm scared and—and all this is only happening because of you. You forced me to go to my uncle's house with you—despite the fact that it was honestly pointless and I told you I didn't want to. I didn't know all this shit was gonna happen, but I knew something bad would happen. But you didn't listen! You made me go and now I'm in deep shit because of it!"

"Is Valerie in jail?" I sighed.

Kai stared at me blankly for a few moments before letting out a small laugh. "I don't fucking know. All I know is that I'm scared and I need a place to stay. And you promised—"

"Yeah, Yeah, I know what I promised. Shut the fuck up." I rolled my eyes again as I got up and stretched. "Follow me."

I scratched my head as I dragged myself across the room and opened the door. Kai followed closely behind me as I lead her through the house, heading for the basement. "My parents are leaving on Monday for another business trip for about a month. We'll just make them think you're my friend and you're spending the night until they leave. I'm gonna take you to the basement—"

"If I'm your friend, wouldn't it make more sense for me to spend the night in your room?" She questioned.

"Well, see, that's the thing. You're not my friend. I don't fucking like you."

"But if you want them to think—"

"We'll tell them you snore!" I spat. "Don't fucking talk unless I ask you to! Jesus...The basement isn't the worst. It's got a comfortable couch, it's pretty clean, the air and heat work down here. You'll be fine. This is where you're gonna stay while you stay here. Don't touch any of my shit."

"I-It's dark down here." She mumbled as we walked in. I sighed and flipped the light switch on before sending her a look.

"Punk ass."

"A lot of people are scared of basements." She muttered. I quickly grabbed her arm and shoved her against the hard wall, smirking as her eyes widened. "Trust me, there is nothing down here that  is scarier than me. Nothing down here wants to hurt you, that's the difference between the basement and my room. If you slept in my room I might end up waking you up just to smother you."

"Um—"

"I know I promised to protect you, but that doesn't fucking mean I like you. It doesn't mean I care about you, it doesn't mean we're friends, and it doesn't mean I won't still beat your ass if that's what I need to do. Stay the fuck out of my way, don't fucking talk to me, and don't tell anyone you're staying here or I'll end you. Got it?"

"When are you gonna get over what happened between me and Dahlia?" She asked quietly.

"I already told you, I like to hold grudges."

"Hatred is not a good look for you, you know?" She cocked a brow and I grinned before punching her in the face and pushing her down.

"A busted lip isn't a good look for you. Quit trying me. I meant what I said. We're not friends. Don't come upstairs until I come down here and say you can." I turned and walked out after that.

God damn I wish I wouldn't have promised to protect that little bitch.

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

A/N: so this is the last time I'm updating for a day or two bc I'm posting the Q&A next and I decided I needed to leave y'all with...a lot of questions lmao

I'm excited for all the shit going down next. What do you think is gonna happen?

Also IMPORTANT BITCH

Cash shit by Megan Thee Stallion has the same beat as the last forty seconds of bad guy. To me they sound exactly alike. It just occurred to me one day and I was like ?????? WTF LOVE THAT.

Anyways have a good day and thanks for reading 💋