Chasing Air // Billie Eilish

Chapter 12

BILLIE'S P.O.V

I jumped as somebody knocked on my door. It was a little late and I hadn't invited anybody over. I opened the door cautiously and my chest tightened at the sight. Elliot was standing on my porch and she'd obviously been crying. Her lip was bleeding and I could see a bruise forming around her eye. I wondered if they found her again. I felt like they would've done more though, if that was the case. "Elliot? What happened?" I stepped aside, allowing her to come in before shutting the door.

"Jeremiah was acting crazy so I broke up with him, but I kind of lived there so..." She shrugged, her eyebrows knitting together. "I also wanted to apologize and not get jumped—by you or AJ." She laughed, biting her lip in an obvious attempt to suppress her smile.

"Oh, yeah. You definitely gotta watch out for me. There's nothing I'd love to do more than jump you." I nodded, a stupid grin playing at my lips to ensure she caught on to the sarcasm.

"There is nothing I would love more than for you to jump me," she said, a smirk finding it's way onto her face as heat rose to my cheeks.

"No, but really, it's okay, Elliot. I understand. He was your boyfriend and he's known you much longer than I have." I stepped aside, letting her come in. "Acting crazy how?"

"He was just—I don't know. I guess it wasn't really that crazy. It just scared me. He was yelling at me and he kind of—it's nothing really. Talking about it out loud is making me realize how stupid it was."

"No. If he was scaring you, he was scaring you. It's not stupid, okay?" I raised my eyebrows, connecting the dots on my own as I asked my next question. "What'd he do?" Did he hit her?

"He just—he kept asking me if he was scaring me and if I wanted... him to hurt me?" she replied confusedly, tilting her head.

"But did he?"

"I mean, not really. He kind of choked me and he also shoved me into a door frame and our coffee table—but I don't think that was on purpose. He was just being aggressive in general, you know, but he wouldn't let me leave until I finally told him I was gonna call the police."

"And your eye?"

Her hand came up to touch the skin around her eye and I noticed her wince a little although she quickly tried to play it off. "Oh. I punched him, so of course he punched me back."

"Why'd you punch him?" I ask. I didn't expect that at all. I wouldn't have ever expected her to punch him.

"He was kind of talking shit about my mom and I didn't like that." I didn't know just how much I didn't know about her mom at this point. And now, I feel so incredibly bad that she had to deal with his ignorant ass. "I guess that's what I get for even talking about her." She shrugged. "I shouldn't have punched him but I can't say that I regret it."

"But that's not okay. I know that you punched him first but he was putting his hands on you before that. You don't need to be with somebody who puts their hands on you when you're arguing—I mean, is he normally like that when you guys get into arguments?"

She placed her hand on her mouth, shrugging. "No."

I thought she was lying so I decided to ask again. "Are you sure? He's not always like that? That's not why you obey him so thoroughly?"