accompanied | billie eilish

thirty-seven

billie

"hey aria, catch," i call from my perch on the sofa by the tour bus window, while she rifles through the kitchen cupboards in search of hot chocolate powder. she spins around, catching the tin i've thrown her perfectly and looking delighted at how well she caught it.

"you're quick on your feet," i praise her, impressed.

"she's quicker off her feet," ashley giggles, her laughter increasing as she ducks away to avoid aria swinging at her with the tin.

"this is heavy," aria contemplates, inspecting the tin in her hands. she swings it playfully at ashley, who only just dodges in time, before adding, "the perfect murder weapon."

"what's in it to make it so heavy?" i prompt. she gives me an openly confused look before opening it.

"wait- you had the hot chocolate all along?" she whines, turning back to look at the cupboards she's emptied in search of it.

when i laugh, she only pouts harder.

"we're recording our next song today," finneas reminds us as he makes his way down the stairs and through the narrow downstairs bunk area, towards us in the kitchen space.

"just the vocals, thank god," aria replies, beginning to stir the hot chocolate powder into a mug of milk. "i can't be the only one who's grateful that we pre recorded the instrumentals for this one."

"you're not," ashley tells her bluntly. "if i have to play bass in a recording booth one more time this week i'm gonna spontaneously combust purely out of protest."

"oh no," says tyler sarcastically as he plops down into the seat next to me. "our only bassist. it's not like bass guitar is the easiest type to play or anything."

ashley gasps and smacks his arm. "excuse me, it's a refined art," she says, primping her hair and biting her lip to hide a smile.

"two words for you," he says to her, picking up a donut from the table and speaking the next sentence through a mouthful of it. "four. strings."

ashley shoves him and he chokes violently on his mouthful of donut, collapsing to the floor and beginning to roll around, clutching his throat.

"you've- killed me," he coughs dramatically. ash snorts and flicks his ear, resulting in further squealing and writhing.

"stop it, you're shaking the whole bus," someone calls irritably from upstairs, causing aria to giggle.

leilani walks into the tour bus from the outside area, and pauses as she sees tyler rolling around violently. she looks at all of us questioningly before reaching out with her leg and prodding him gingerly with a toe.

"uh, it's time to leave for the recording studio," leilani tells us. aria looks down sadly at the hot chocolate she's only just finished making.

"put that in a flask and you can bring it with you," i whisper to her and she perks up instantly again.

"everyone ready to go?" leilani calls, having returned to the front of the bus. when everyone calls yes, we all stand and begin to leave.

i feel a hand snake into mine, and i look down to see aria's fingers entwined with my own. i look back up at her face hopefully, and even though she's faced away from me and engaging in conversation with tyler...

i feel this happy shy butterfly feeling in my stomach, like i always do when i'm around her. but i'm beginning to wonder if she maybe does too.