accompanied | billie eilish

seven

aria

"interviews day!" sam yells, rollerblading down the narrow aisle of the tour bus. finneas rolls out of his bunk and stands up just as sam takes off and a moment later, the two collide dramatically.

"oh shit, you okay?" i hear tyler yell from his bunk, peering down at the two lying on the floor.

"what the fuck, sam," finneas laughs, getting to his feet.

i roll my eyes and hop down from my own bunk, tossing the hairbrush i was just using onto the nearby sofa and helping sam to his feet.
"please don't do that in any actual interviews."

"no promises," sam grins, but when i raise my eyebrows he sighs and takes off the rollerblades.

"how many interviews are actually scheduled for today?" ashley asks, her hand resting on my shoulderblade from behind.

"only five, and guess what? some of them are those fun game ones, and mike told me we get to make milkshakes in one of them," says sam excitedly.

i look at sam, eyes narrowing. "sometimes i wonder how your interchanging levels of wisdom and childish immaturity can simultaneously exist," i tell him. he winks and picks up his rollerblades, strolling off.

i wrinkle my nose as i think back to how me and sam even became friends, which goes back all the way to when the band first got together.

he was the last addition to the band. ashley, tyler, shay and i had reached high school at this point and had already formed a group and were hanging out regularly. sam joined our school halfway through the third year of high school and after we got paired with him during a class project, we all kind of clicked. his ridiculous childishness brought a lightness to our group that slotted in perfectly. within a few months we all came together officially as a band and our journey had begun.

"hey, earth to riri," ashley hums gently in my ear, bringing me back to the present. "things are all safe here pretty, no need to zone out. we're about to leave, though. ready for a taxi dash?"

"ah, the joys of the paparazzi," i sigh, throwing an arm over her shoulder as we make our way towards the small crowd formed at the front of the bus.

"press time," says billie as i appear by her side. "you ready?"

"the interview lineup for today isn't that bad, actually," finneas shrugs from next to her. "out of the six that you and i have, two are with the vision. and none of them are with pricks."

mike, the manager, yells to everyone from up the front.

"come on everyone! press shouldn't take the whole day, afterwards we can meet here and go out for a nice meal or something."

everyone begins to disperse, heading outside into the taxis we're taking. i hop onto tyler's back to get a piggyback like i always do and he touches my hand briefly in acknowledgment.

as it turns out, the interviews aren't even that bad. some are hellish, and it can be a real chore to get through them, but the ones we have today are light-hearted and fun.

they pass pretty quickly, as i guess time does when you're enjoying it, and suddenly we're in our last interview of the day.