Wayfarer [Bill Cipher x Reader] [REVISED]

Chapter Fourteen: J'en ai marre

 The high spirits carried over, and the next day, after you'd made your way from Albuquerque to Lubbock, Texas, you found yourself in front of Bill's motel room, a smile on your face as you knocked on the door. Rap-rap-rap!

There was a long pause before a shuffling started up behind the door and it swung open, revealing a disheveled Bill. He blinked slowly in the sunlight and sighed. "What do you want now?"

"Oh, I just stopped by to see if you were interested in going to Prairie Dog Town with me," you said. "Want to come along?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "... a prairie dog town? Why the heck do you wanna go there?"

"... because they're cute?" you said. "And it's not everyday that you get to see a whole colony up close like that. We're here in Lubbock already, so we might as well go."

He shrugged. "Eh, I don't really care for them," he said. "No thanks."

"Oh, come on, prairie dogs are pretty cool!" you said. "I heard that they're pretty linguistically sophisticated, and their language has a super advanced vocabulary. They can specify size and color! Plus, they have really interesting communal structures and stuff. Don't you want to check them out?"

"Again, no thanks," he said. "Just go by yourself if you find them that enchanting, will you?"

"I don't want to go alone, though." You pouted.

Bill sighed. "And why is that?"

"Because it's more fun to go places if there's someone else going with you!" you said. "That way, you can talk to each other about what you're seeing and stuff. It's... kind of lonely otherwise." You looked down.

"Oh, great." Bill rolled his eyes. "Just my luck to get stuck with an extrovert."

"Wait, what? An extrovert?" Your voice went a little high. "What the...? I'm not... there's no way—"

He shushed you. "Oh, yes, you are. Regardless of whatever the Internet told you. I mean, what do you think it means? That you're this fantastic socializer who's the life of the party?" He snorted.

You put your hands on your hips. "Well, what else would an extrovert be? Someone who gets their heat from outside sources?"

"No, that's an ectotherm. An extrovert's someone who likes being around people, regardless of how good they are at talking to 'em. You," he pointed at you, "choose to be with people, even when you don't need to. Ergo, you're an extrovert," he said with a flourish.

"Hey, I don't necessarily like being around people all of the time," you said. "I'm generally OK being by myself. My roommate's the extrovert in our apartment." You rolled your eyes. "Leave her alone at a frat party, and ten minutes later, she already has two new best friends for life. She just can't not socialize, you know?"

"Yeah, well, just 'cuz you aren't an extreme extrovert doesn't mean you're not an extrovert. It's a spectrum! Not every extrovert's out here snorting coke at a rave with their eighty closest friends, ya know." He rolled his eyes.

You let out a snort. "That sounds like something you would do. Are you sure you aren't the extrovert here?"

He shrugged. "Hey, no one said I wasn't."

"Doesn't that mean you'd be lonely here by yourself, then?" you asked. "Why not come to Prairie Dog Town with me? Surely you'd find that more fun than staying by yourself in this motel room all day." You gestured towards the interior of his room, where there were clothes thrown haphazardly over the TV stand and a couple empty ramen wrappers on the ground. "Come get a change of scene with me, will you?"

Bill held his hands up. "Hey, just 'cuz I'm an extrovert doesn't mean I'm down to do whatever with whoever 24/7. I'm fine by myself. 'Sides, if I really want to talk to someone, I'll just call one of my friends." He shook his phone. "Trust me. I'm fine."

You huffed and crossed your arms. "Okay, fine. But you probably talk to those people all of the time, anyways. Don't you want to, I don't know, spend some time with me?" You gestured to yourself. "I mean, I just think it'd be nice to get to know each other better since, you know, we're travel buddies and all..."

"Yeah, and?" Bill asked. He gave you a cold stare. "In case ya haven't noticed, we only got two or three weeks left before I leave you for good. Why bother bonding?"

"Because, even if that is true, we are going to be spending, what, at least ten hours a day with each other for the next couple of weeks?" you replied. "At the very least, it wouldn't hurt to get decently acquainted with whoever the hell it is that you are when you aren't, you know, getting into drunk fights at parties."

"And what, exactly, do you mean by 'acquainted'?" Bill raised an eyebrow. "Aren't we already plenty acquainted?"

"Yeah, well, we should still get to know more about each other. Basic stuff, at least, like—"

"Like what, my favorite color?" Bill snorted. "It's yellow. There. Are you happy now?"

"Well, no, that's—that's not what I meant. I just—" You took a deep breath. "I just want to bond, okay?" you murmured.

"Yeah, well, I ain't here to bond," Bill snapped. "I'm here to get as far east as I can. That's it."

"Jesus Christ, you didn't have to say it like that," you said. "I'm just trying to be nice to you!"

"Yeah, well, I didn't ask you to. Leave me alone, okay?"

You held your hands up. "Okay, fine! I will! I don't need to be around such a crabby dude, anyways," you muttered to yourself. You stormed off to your car, fuming. Jesus Christ, what was with this guy?

A/N: Fun fact: while I was researching prairie dogs for this chapter, I found this article (https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/8-surprising-prairie-dog-facts) where, I kid you not, a very serious wildlife biologist referred to prairie dogs as "basically the Chicken McNuggets of the grasslands." Boy, did that make me laugh. Look at their little McNugget-shaped bodies. XD That's all I'll think about whenever I see them in the future.

Writer's reminder: Hey you guys, here's a friendly reminder that writers love feedback! Remember to vote or comment on this chapter to let me know how you feel about this chapter or the book so far. :)