Part 27

I woke up the next morning in my bed - alone, though Billies touch still lingered on my skin. At least I didn't imagine last night.

I reached for my phone on the nightstand - 9am. I growned, crashing back into my pillows , pulling up the blanket. I didn't get much sleep last night. I mean, yeah, I had slept great after Billie came to bed with me, but before ...

I planned on just going back to sleep, but a loud knock on my door startled me out of sleep minutes later."Valerie breakfast's ready," Chris voice called through the door."I'm coming," I yelled back, hearing Chris murmure something about"That's what she said."

I crawled out from underneath my covers, the cool air instantly giving me goosebumps on my skin. I pulled on some sweatpants, staying in my shirt from last night, not caring about how I may look.

I pushed open my bedroom door, almost crashing into Finneas." Oh, sorry," I said, my voice still full of sleep. He let out a little chuckel at my appearance before following me into the kitchen. But to be honest, he didn't look any better than I did, still looking like he didn't get enough sleep last night.

The rest of the group was already in the kitchen, my eyes instantly searching for Billie. She was already sitting at the dining tabel , devouring a plate of pancakes while scrolling through her phone , not spearing me a single glance as I entered the kitchen.

"Valerie, do you want pancakes?" Claudia asked from the stove, spatula in hand." They're vegan." She instantly added a big smile sitting on her face.

"Uh yeah, I'll take some." I said, finally peeling my eyes away from Billie, walking over to Claudia. I grabbed a plate , holding it out for her to load some on my plate . "Thanks." I murmured, walking over to the dining tabel , flopping down beside Chris, who was chucking down a coffee.

Slowly, everyone settled at the tabel enjoying the pancakes that Grace and Claudia had kindly prepared. "How was the couch, Billie ? Hope it wasn't too uncomfortable. " Finneas said , his mouth still full of pancakes, making Claudia hit his shoulder, reminding him of his manners.

"Nah ,the couch was pretty comfy. I slept pretty well last night." Billie shrugged. Something in my chest acted at her words. "Yeah, you seemed pretty passed out on the couch when I came in." Grace laughed.

She had sneaked out of my room this morning?

To be honest, I don't know what I expected Billie to say ." Oh no, actually, I slept in Valerie's bed last night because I had a nightmare and was too scared to sleep alone." No. But her lying about it felt wrong as well.

I think the worst part was that she didn't look at me at all all throughout breakfast. Even after breakfast, it seemed like she was avoiding me , leaving the kitchen instantly as I came in to put my plate in the dishwasher. Weird.

Soon after, the others left as we had to be out of and on the road by 12. Even then, didn't Bille spare me a look as we all said out goodbyes."And text me, Valerie, so that we can hang sometime," Claudia said while pulling me into a hug. " I will." We quickly cleaned the place , did the dishes before packing up all of our things after they left.

I was knee-deep in clothing, wondering how I once got all of this stuff into my bag. Sweat was dripping down my forehead as I finally managed to sip up my bag. It only took like 3 times of unpacking and repacking my bag in a different way. After I was done, I went over to Grace room to see how far she had gotten with packing.

"Are you kidding me? You're supposed to be packing , not watching tiktok. " I sighted as I stepped into her room, clothing scattered everywhere where around the floor.

"I know, but I just gave up. There's no way I'll be able to bring all this back to LA." She whined, flopping backward onto the bed. She is so dramatic, but I laughed nevertheless. "Come on, I'll help you." I offered, pulling her back up.

Luckily, her things were packed in no time with my help. "Girls, are you all packed ? We have to be out soon." Chris voice called through the hallway before he leaned in the doorway , a silly smile playing on his lips as he spotted me balancing on Graces bag while she tried to sip it up - unsuccessfully

" Don't laugh." I warned him my tone serious." I'm not." He said, his hands shooting up in defense.

"Are you even pushing down, Valerie?" Grace scoffed. "I am." I said my voice a little stressed." No, you're not." Grace argued.

" Literally, what do you want me to do ? I have my full body weight on the bag."

"Ugh. You skinny bitch." She whined. My eyes  shooting to Chris, trying to contain my laughter at Grace struggling ."Chris, come on, get over here. Valerie is too light." Grace ordered. Chris and I switched places, him leaning his full body weight on the bag while Grace and I pulled the sipper. It's a wonder that it didn't break. After defeating Graces bag, we were out of the Airbnb in no time.

To be honest, I was really devastated about going back home, but we still had a 2 hour drive ahead of us  . It was filled with laughter ,arguments about music tastes, and endless unnecessary gas station stops to raid the candy section multiple times to make this trip longer.All of us not ready to face reality again.

I had to go back to college again tomorrow, and as much as I love photography, learning about it is super annoying. Grace has to work again tomorrow again aswell, only Chris is still free til Friday, when he leaves with a group of surf beginners to a beach more far down for a week. So this moment was one of our lasts together for a while.

"Hey Valerie, do you want some sour patch kids?" Chris called through half the store. My cheeks instantly flushed red at embarrassment. I rushed over to him."Shh. Do you really have to call through the entire store?" I whisper shouted. But he just shrugged a smile playing on his lips. I shook my head but couldn't hide the smile spreading on my face. Whatever. I ripped the sour patches out of his hand, making my way towards the checkout.

We've been in this store for like half an hour, and we were only like 20 minutes out of LA.

Somehow, we had turned a 2 hour car ride into a 4 hour long drive.Finally, we scrambled back into the car, ready to face the last few minutes of our drive.

As soon as Grace unlocked our apartment door , i instantly shot inside , throwing my bag somewhere on the ground before flopping face first onto the couch. "Wow, you really did enough socializing for the next few weeks , right. " Chria laughed somewhere behind me, but I could barely make out his words before falling into a well needed sleep.

As much as I enjoyed my time at Coachella, I was so happy to be back home, to crawl back into my bed for hours and hours without seeing a soul.

A.NI know this chapter isn't too long, but I wanted the chapter to only be this and not the time back in LA. Also, please don't hate me for kinda ruining the thing with Billie, but I have the plot already all thought out, so it had to be .But be patient. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed nevertheless.