The Artist / Billie Eilish

Chapter 4

"So... you gonna, like, sing? Or what? Because we're kinda in the middle of something here." Billie smirked, cocking her eyebrows at me and leaning against a pillar.

It was kind of sexy, but the amount of mortifyingly horrific embarrassment I was feeling sort of overruled that thought.

My mouth awkwardly opened and closed, but no words would form. I didn't know what to say, but I needed to say something.

Anything.

Literally anything.

"Uh, no... I wouldn't start with Ocean Eyes, bit of a mood duller."

... Anything but that.

A laugh escaped Billie, as she slowly nodded and wandered towards the stage.

I gulped.

In one swift move, and hopped up onto the higher platform and dawdled towards me - hands in her pockets, smirk on her face.

She carried on coming closer until her face was inches away from mine as she opened her mouth to speak.

"How's soundcheck going?"

We jumped apart, startled by the unexpected voice. Billie's hand flew to her chest and she breathily laughed at her brother, hopping down off the stage.

"You fucking scared the life outta me, bro," she chuckled, hitting him playfully in the back of the head.
He laughed and brought his attention to me, furrowing his eyebrows with a smile. "Having a good time up there?"

I blushed, and tried to avoid eye contact with Billie's ever-present smirk. "Yeah, sorry, I got completely lost. I was just trying to, um... Find my bag."

Finneas told me to follow him, telling me something about how he must give me his number so that I can ask him questions, but all I could see was Billie grinning, and shaking her head as we walked away.

•

We all went out for burritos later that night.

Finneas, the twins and I went in his car, whilst Billie and her friends Macy and Luke rode in hers.

The day was essentially just filled with us all getting to know each other. I felt so much more comfortable around everyone now, especially Finneas. Macy and Luke were a bit intimidating, but I think that was just because they reminded me of Billie.

I still haven't really spoken to her much.

"So where are you staying whilst you're in LA? You need a place to crash? Because you always know you can stay with us." Ethan slung his arm over my shoulders as we all piled into the empty burrito place. It was pretty late, so there wasn't really anyone else around.

I smiled up at him, gently nudging his head with mine. "Yeah dumbass, management's paying for a hotel for me - the same one everyone else is staying in. Are you staying there too? You're quite a drive away from here, right?"

Ethan shrugged, glancing down at a menu once we'd all settled into a booth. "A couple hours maybe. I'll ask Justin later."

As I started looking through the menu too, I felt eyes on me from across the booth. Once I glanced up, I noticed Billie was staring at me. The eye contact must have pulled her out of her thoughts, because she just smiled and shot me a wink, before getting up to order with Finneas and Justin.

"Umm, what was that?"