AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, and get away from there,” Billie said.
With a sigh, Jules came to sit down. “You’re so touchy, it’s silly.”
“Me? Silly?” Billie said, picking up a coffee cup and not looking at her. “You’re the one chasing after some woman that you’ve already lied to, some woman that you’re hoping to impress by playing one song.”
Jules grinned. “Ah, but I might impress her, mightn’t I?”
“You sound confident, more confident than I’d be in your shoes,” snorted Billie. She took a drink. “Why’s it so important anyway?”
“Ah, I see, I get my head bitten off for asking you personal questions, but you get to ask as many as you like?”
“It’s my house,” Billie pointed out, crossing her legs primly.
For a moment, Jules watched her, the fury and fear that bubbled inside her all the time, then she shrugged again. Maybe a little personal connection would be good for Billie. “It’s a prophecy,” she said easily.
“A prophecy?” spluttered Billie, half-choking.
“It’s like this,” Jules said. And she told the story, told Billie about her mum, about everything really, until she was sipping on the dregs of her coffee and Billie was staring at her wide-eyed.
“And you think this is going to come true?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Jules asked. “I mean, it’s not like it hasn’t come true yet, has it? And, to be honest, whilst Whitebridge does seem to have an inordinate amount of gay women in it, most of them are already attached, so it’s not like there are tons of options.”
“You say that like Alea isn’t the one you want.”
Which was maybe the first time Billie had said Alea’s name, it made Jules feel funny, the way Billie said it like it was almost a bad word. “Alea is kind and talented, she’s lovely,” Jules said calmly. “And you don’t know her.”
“I know her music.”
Jules put her cup down and folded her arms. “Go on then.”
“Go on then what?”
“It’s your turn.”
“My turn for what?”
Jules growled. “Listen, this is how it works when you have friends. It’s give and take, it’s a balance. I told you something personal and that’s supposed to make you feel like you can open up to me. It’s like… a sharing of troubles or something.”
Billie opened her mouth and closed it again, then opened it again, then closed it again. Finally, she looked down at her lap. “You think we’re friends?”
“Aren’t we?” Jules asked.
“I thought we were keeping things professional.”
Jules growled again. “For god’s sake, Billie, you don’t make this easy, you know. I was cross with you, you’d insulted me, so I lost my temper a bit. But of course we’re friends. What else do you call someone that you see nearly every day? Unless you don’t want to be friends, I suppose.”
“No,” Billie said carefully. “No, I do want that. I think. I just…” She took a deep breath. “I just haven’t really had friends before.”
Jules’s heart broke just a tiny bit but she knew that if she showed it, Billie would get skittish and would back off. “It’s not like it’s hard,” she said briskly. “Little kids can do it, I expect you can handle the pressure.”
Billie looked up at this, a small smile showing in the corners of her mouth. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
???
Jules had helped her. She’d stepped in and helped without Billie even asking for it, that was what made the difference. She wasn’t just sitting here talking the talk, saying that they were friends, she’d actually acted too, taken her to see Mila, stood by her when she was anxious.
All of which made Billie think that maybe that’s what this all was. Maybe the irrational anger she felt around Jules, the fierce pride she felt when Jules accomplished something, the calmness that could overcome her when Jules was around, all added up to friendship.
