Secrets, Deals and Lies

Chapter 14 - Billy's Apartment

I wake up in an apartment on a bed underneath some warm comfortable blankets.

I sit up fast – tired, alert and scared. Last time I checked I was on a streets’ seat.

Still a bit sleepy and feeling my head become light all of a sudden I lay back down and groan, rolling over and facing the door. Then a figure appears.

Billy?

‘Hey, rise and shine princess,’ he puts a glass of water on a bed side table and sits on the side-middle of the bed, gazing at me, grinning.

I lay there, silent, unsure what to say, did I dream all of last night? Was it all fake and I was somehow already at Billy’s apartment? I look up at the ceiling away from Billy and could almost hear the beating of my own heart and the heavy breathing from Billy.

He gives me a moment to think for a bit letting me just lay there, confused.

‘Why am I here? Where’s Jack? What happened? ...’ My voice trails off even though I still had dozens of questions in my head.

‘Whoa, whoa, whoa just… relax,’ I look him straight in the eyes and wait irritably. ‘Get some rest first and I’ll tell you everything later, ok?’ he says voice low and calm, but a playful smile on his face.

Without a word I roll my eyes, groan and roll over to the other side. ‘Good girl,’ he chortles playfully, slaps my hip a couple of times and then leaves through the wide open door.

I close my eyes for a bit – since I was sort of tired – and decided to sleep for a little bit.

I wake up with my stomach rumbling furiously, now noticing how hungry I am I get up and walk out of the room.

There’s no sign of Billy and I thought about going to the door and running off until I walked past a morning scrumptious meal; toast and butter, egg and bacon all piled up on a big plate, orange juice and tropical juice cartons, and mouth-watering pancakes with syrup and butter on top – all untouched and made for me.

I sat myself on a chair and found myself selfishly finishing nearly the whole thing – I really was hungry.

In the end I leave less than half of the meal on the table and walk to the door, take a deep breath and grasp the knob, I twist and to my surprise it was locked. I realised I didn’t seem that shocked as if I already knew this would happen. I try again but still it wouldn’t budge. I start to get frustrated and start strangling the door knob shaking it frantically like a mad-woman.

About ten minutes of nearly killing the door I stop and give up realising how much I tired myself out. I pace around the house and try to breathe the anger out of me.

Why would he lock me up? Who does he think he is?

When I turn my back on the door I hear some people talking on the other side, one voice that could only match Billy, I stand there watching the door knob turning slowly as a loud laughter erupts the quiet and stillness of the room. I jump on the couch throwing myself on top of the pillows and lay there listening, looking at the reflection off the TV.

The door opens and he walks in casually and looks straight into the TV at me as if he knew I would be there.

‘Hey, Remy, you’re up! You ok?’

‘Yeah, what time is it? Where’d you go? What am I doing here?’ suddenly all these questions floated into my head and I wanted to thrust them all at Billy.

‘Whoa, ok it’s-’ he looks at his watch, ‘-a quarter to 2 and I just went for a walk ‘round the block to go talk to some mates…’ he looks at the table eyes widening, ‘whoa, you nearly finished the whole food! Hungry weren’t ya?’ he grins as if pleased with himself for making me the breakfast. Did he really make it by himself?

I sit up and watch him scraping food off the plates and shoving it into the dishwasher.

‘So explain to me why I’m here?’ I say a bit softer and nicer this time hoping this would lead to other things. He turns around facing me, now that the table is all cleared, and instead of an answer he just looks at me blankly.

‘Okay? So, are you going to tell me or not?’ I ask impatiently. ‘You’re very stubborn, you know that?’ he comments calmly.

‘Billy, if you don’t tell me why I am here than I am going to have to leave immediately,’ I start to raise my voice standing up and staring at him seriously.

‘Relax, Max!’ he smiles teasingly.

‘Billy! I’m serious!’ his smile slowly turns into a thoughtful solemn frown.

‘Okay,’ he says slowly, and I sit back down still watching him. He walks towards me, staring in my eyes like he did to Luke – laying his territory. But me, unlike Luke, I hold his gaze.

He gives up, ‘I saw you on the street, with Jack. And I got my mates to help me bring you here…’ he trails off like that was all there was to it.

‘That’s it?’ I ask disappointed.

‘What do you mean that’s it?’ he asks sitting next to me, leg touching leg.

‘I mean, that’s not good enough,’ I scowl, moving back a bit as he inches closer and closer.

‘What do you mean? What more do you need?’ he tries to laugh, but it came out uneasy and I caught it.

‘Tell me, Billy, why bring me here? When at the end you know I’m going to leave. Why? What is it that makes you coming back for more?

‘What have you been hiding from me, Billy?’ I ask in his face, anger rising in my voice as I come up close making sure he can hear me, eyes narrowed accusingly.

We sit there, eyeing each other off; Billy’s knuckles turning white as he clenches it angrily; jaw tense.

Billy could no longer hold my gaze and instead of answering me he walks off.

‘Don’t touch anything!’ he yells just as he walks out the door. ‘You wouldn’t want to,’ I hear him mumble. I watched him the whole time as he walked off and just before he shut the door I sprinted and launched towards the door grasping the knob but I was too late and as I twist he locks it.