accompanied | billie eilish

sixteen

aria

"morning everyone," i say lightly, dropping down in between ashley and tyler at the breakfast table and snatching a bagel right out of tyler's hands. he leans over my shoulder and takes a bite of it just to spite me before getting up to fetch another one.

"no shows for a whole day," says finneas dreamily. "i've booked a hotel room just to nap."

billie looks at him, concerned. "the last time you did that you slept way past nap time. no one could find you and the show started an hour late."

"i'll set an alarm this time." finn waves his hand dismissively.

"morning bud," i say lightly as sam slumps into his seat opposite me. he just glares at me before piling his plate with food and leaving again.

i blink. before we went to the villa he was being kind of icy, and mean to everyone, but when we went to france he was his usual bouncy self again so i assumed something just happened that he didn't tell us about. although now that we're back, it's almost like france never happened at all, and i don't like it.

i feel ashley's eyes boring into me and turn to meet her gaze worriedly. she nods at me and i stand up, slapping tyler and shay on the shoulders as i pass them. "come on. now," i add as tyler picks up the rest of the loaf of bread he was eating. he rolls his eyes, but drops it reluctantly, following me and ash to the sofa area on the upper deck of the bus.

"what's up?" shay asks quietly as the four of us sit down.

"sam," ash sighs. everyone's face morphs into one of concern.

"yeah he's been on some weird shit lately," shay murmurs.

"what crawled up his arse and died?" tyler agrees, but i can tell that all of them are feeling the way i am: uncomfortable feeling so distant to someone we're so close to.

"it's almost like the old days," i say quietly. "when he didn't speak to us at all."

ashley turns to me, her eyes slowly widening.

"what-" it takes me a moment to catch on. "oh. no. no. nope. it can't be that much like the old days, he's grown from that."

"but it would make sense though," she argues.

"it's one of many possible explanations, yes," i say slowly.

she sighs and turns to the others. "we need to go and check sam's bunk. now."

"ash, wait," i call as she hurries away and down the stairs. "oh, fuck."

"hey. it'll be okay, right?" tyler says gently, draping an arm over my shoulders. "whatever happens. whatever shit sam's up to, we'll get through it together. us four, with or without him. okay?"

i nod quietly, and we head downstairs with shay.

billie and finneas are still sat at the breakfast table, talking and laughing loudly with marcus (i smile to myself at the fact that they're getting along so much better with him now), and i approach them hurriedly.

"hi, uh if sam comes back in here can you stop him from seeing we're going through his bunk?" i say quickly. "uh we are going through his bunk but it's honestly for a good reason that i can't disclose right now in case we're wrong about something, okay thanks."

i hurry back over to the other three, stood in a cluster going through sam's duffel and clothes pockets. i grab his backpack and begin to search, but eventually all of us hit a dead end.

"well this was a bust," ash sighs, flopping down onto his bed in defeat. "there's clearly something wrong though, so what now?"

"uhm. ash," i say quietly, pointing at sam's pillow.

as she sat down on top of sam's pillow, something slid out a little from under it;

her brows furrow in confusion as she reaches out to grab it.
"oh god," she murmurs, turning it over in her hands.

"is that...?" tyler says quietly, his voice heavy.

"i think so," i say. tyler wraps his arms around me tightly, sensing my distress.

shay looks up, his face stony and emotionless.
"we need to speak to sam. now."