{79}✔️

A/N: again, I was only gonna update once today but I already have a billion chapters typed up and so much is happening nd it's great nd I can't wait for u to see it I wish I could just post everything rn but I'm trying to have some self-control OKAY. Enjoy the chapter.

OH

AND THANKS FOR 66K. I HOPE ONE DAY I MAKE BILLIE PROUD ND REACH 666K 🤞🏽

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Dahlia's POV

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Mondays fucking suck. That seems to be a common theme.

"I think our wedding should totally be in the summertime!" Ken grinned and Caden nodded, typing it into his computer. The twins, Ken and Gigi are sitting with us in home ec today, and they all seem so fucking happy. Then there's me and Billie.

"I don't care who the florist is, I don't care who the caterer is, and I don't care what kind of cake there is." Billie muttered as she glared at the wall in front of her, tapping her pencil on the desk constantly. I glared at the pencil and tried to block the annoying sound out, but it was hard to ignore.

I sighed after a few moments before scooting my chair back abruptly and walking to Mrs. East's desk.

"Do you need help with something, Dahlia?" She smiled. I nodded. "When you said there would be no switching partners—"

"I meant I'd rather dig my own grave, lay in it, and let my worst enemy piss on it before I allow anyone to switch. Once one person does, all the others want to too, and it makes my job much more difficult." She shook her head.

"Right...Great to know."

"Are you and Billie having trouble? This happens a lot. This project, especially when done by actual couples, is...How do I say this right?" She thought for a moment before letting out a small sigh. "Pretty fucking shitty. And stressful."

"Yeah." I agreed. "Billie and I broke up, so it's a little weird...You know, planning our future wedding that's never going to happen."

"I'm sorry," She smiled sadly. "But I can't let you guys switch."

"Can I get another one of those planning sheets with all the wedding info on it?" I asked hopefully. She nodded and handed me one. "Thanks." I mumbled before walking back to my seat. I drew a line down the middle of the list and then handed it to Billie.

"I'll figure out everything on the left side, you can figure out everything on the right." I muttered.

"Cool." She didn't stop tapping the stupid pencil or pick up the paper. I sighed as I ran a hand through my hair. "Are you gonna work on that now, or..."

"No, I'll do it when I get home." She mumbled.

She will most certainly fucking not. I was with her for 5 and a half months. I know damn well she won't even look at that paper when she gets home.

If she thinks I'm gonna let her fuck up our grade in here, she is sorely mistaken.

"Billie, I know we're not together anymore, but we still have to do this project, and I want a good grade on it. We can just put all our shit to the side and—"

"I thought breaking up meant I wouldn't have to hear your nagging anymore." She grumbled coldly.

"I don't fucking nag!" I whisper yelled.

"What do you call this?" She raised a brow.

"Me trying not to get a fucking F on a huge project because you wanna act like a baby!"

"Me? Acting like a baby? No, Doe, that's your thing." She chuckled.

"I'm not doing this with you, Billie. Just fucking do your half of this stupid project." I huffed as I slammed my laptop closed and shoved it into my bag. The bell is about to ring, thank fucking Christ. I can't stand to be around her for another minute.

I'm also mad because I don't think I could stand to not be around her either. Im kinda happy we have this project. We have to talk because of it, and even though I'm furious with her and everything she says is fucking stupid and wrong and stupid again, I still don't wanna stop talking to her.

When the bell rings, I fly out of my chair and then out of the door, practically running to the lunchroom.

Ten minutes later, after we've all got our food and taken a seat at our table, Cadence reaches over to squeeze my hand.

"Dahlia, I know you two are fighting, but this is all gonna be okay." She smiled.

"We're not just fighting," I mumbled. "We broke up."

"You broke what?!" Caden yelled, dropping his hot dog. I shh'd him quickly and patted his back as he began to cough after swallowing down the wrong pipe.

"Caden—"

"Who gets custody?!" He whisper yelled. I sent him a confused look. "We...We don't have a child, Caden, I—"

"We're your children! We call you guys our parents all the time behind your backs!" He pointed between himself and Cadence, who was blushing. "We're both of your friends, but we were your friends first, but Billie is really cool and she's really grown on us, and who—Where do we go during the Fourth of July?!" He rambled.

"Fourth of July?" I furrowed my brows. "What—"

"What if she wants us to come to her house for the Fourth of July and you want us to come to your house for the Fourth of July? What happens then? Do we go to both of your houses? Do you each get a twin? What are we supposed to do?!" He cried.

"...I won't be mad if you don't come over to my house on the Fourth of July, Cade."

"You say that now, but just you wait! The day is gonna come and you're gonna decide you want us there but we'll have already made plans with Billie and then you'll be mad if we don't show up, but Billie will be mad if we cancel on her and then all our friendships fall completely apart and then Cadence and I choose sides and then we start to hate each other and the next thing you know, we haven't talked for eighty years and then the only reason we do talk is because we're both about to die because we're old as shit and it's like that scene in the notebook—And all this because you two idiots decided to break up before the Fourth of fucking July! Well, I won't have it!" He shouted.

I put my head down and pretended to be interested in my salad as I noticed people all around the cafeteria staring in our direction as Caden had his little meltdown. Even Billie was staring.

"Caden, I don't even care about the fucking Fourth of July. Woohoo, white people stole this land and decided to call it America, big deal. She can have you on the Fourth of July, Jesus!" I whispered, covering my face with my hand.

"Calm down, Caden, this is no big deal." Cadence shook her head. I raised my brows at her. "I mean, I wouldn't say no big deal...My girlfriend and I broke up." I mumbled.

"Yeah, for how long?" She laughed. "You two are not going to be able to stay away from each other for more than a week, I bet. All the time you guys have to spend together working on that project, I bet it'll take even less than that for you to talk this shit out and get back together."

"Denial is probably the saddest part of the grief process." I patted her hand softly before rolling my eyes.

"You two were supposed to go to prom together, get married, have three kids and four pets and live in a cute little house right on the e-edge of town." Caden's voice cracked as he began to legitimately cry and I sent Cadence a look as I rubbed his back comfortingly.

"It's okay, big guy. Come on, buddy, this will all be okay." I sighed.

"Damn right it will be. You guys have had fights before and you always got past those, didn't you?" Cadence grinned.

"This isn't the same thing, Cadence. We've never had a fight as big as this one."

"There's a first time for everything," She shrugged. "And I'm sure the next fight will be even bigger than this one, and then the fight after that will be way bigger than that one, but the important thing is that you guys will still be together so that you can have those fights."

"I appreciate the optimism, but you're wrong." I cringed as Caden buried his face into my chest as he sobbed. "But maybe we should talk about this later? You know...When he's not around to blow snot onto my nice fucking shirt." I gritted my teeth.

She nodded in agreement before reaching over to steal his last, half-eaten hotdog. "Fucking pathetic." She mumbled.

***

I sighed as I flipped through the TV channels, desperately trying to find something that wasn't a romance movie, but apparently, that's all they fucking wanted to play today. I threw the remote down on the couch after turning the TV off and decided to head to the kitchen to grab a snack, but upon stepping in there, I saw Josephine sitting on my dad's lap at the table.

I tried to back away before they saw me, but I was too late.

"Oh, hey, kiddo!" My dad blushed as Josephine quickly slid off of his lap. I held my hands up. "No, no, don't worry guys, it's fine. As you were." I giggled as I walked toward the fridge. "I'm just here to grab a snack."

"Okay..." My dad cleared his throat awkwardly. "I thought you were gonna be over at Billie's house working on that project today? How's that going?"

"Ugh—we just work on it at school now. We're kind of ahead, so we don't really need to work on it after school." I lied. "She's gonna be really busy for a while anyway so...Won't be seeing much of her."

"Oh, I'm sorry." He sighed.

"It's fine." I smiled as I grabbed some Nutella and crackers and sped walked out of the kitchen. I practically ran up the stairs.

Cora was coming out of the bathroom as I was walking to my room, and I nearly bumped into her.

"Whoa, dude, slow down!" She huffed. "You almost knocked my ass over."

"Almost is never enough." I mumbled as I pushed past her and walked to my room. I tried to slam the door shut behind me, but she caught the door before I could, apparently. I plopped down on my bed and turned to lay on my back, nearly shrieking as I noticed she was in here as well.

"Can I help you?" I questioned. I furrowed my brows as I looked her over. "Why do you look so good?"

"I'm going to hang out with Liza," She smiled. "We're together now. I told Matthew I think we should just be friends and he agreed."

"That's good!" I smiled softly.

"Yeah, I guess Billie won that bet that you two had that you thought I didn't know about." She smirked. "What do you owe her?"

"I'm...Not sure." I mumbled. "So, are you heading out now?"

"Yeah, I guess I should be. She's gonna be here in a few minutes and I have to take out the trash before I go."

"Have fun."

"Thanks!" She smiled as she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. I sighed as I turned onto my side and picked up my phone to scroll through Instagram.

Apparently, my phone hadn't been charging like I thought it had, though. It wouldn't come on when I picked it up.

Whatever. Maybe this is a sign that I shouldn't be using the phone Billie got for me anyway.

Prince Styles jumped onto the table beside my bed and then jumped onto my chest, lying down and making himself comfortable before closing his eyes. I sighed as I petted him softly.

Well, I haven't cried yet. I'm bored so I guess I'll do that now.

***

Billie's POV

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"No, Finneas, I don't want to talk about my feelings." I sighed as I rubbed the palm of my hands into my eyes.

"Kai told me it was a bad fight—"

"Kai talks too much for someone with a busted lip." I hissed.

"Billie, Dahlia and you were like...Serious. I know you're hurting right now and I just want to help you." He whined.

"You know, ever since you started those online therapy classes you've been trying to help everyone with everything, even stuff they don't need help with. It's annoying, Doctor Fin."

"Hey, those classes have come in handy a lot!" He defended. "Look, I understand if you don't wanna talk right this second, but we're going to talk about it eventually."

"Great," I mumbled as I began flipping through the TV channels. "Do you want to watch Pokemon?"

"You hate Pokémon."

Dahlia loved Pokémon. Fucking nerd.

"You're right. Do you want to watch the Incredibles?"

He snatched the remote and began flipping through the channels himself. "Kai said something about needing to talk to you earlier. I think it was something about her finding a place to stay?"

"She can wait." I grumbled, snatching the remote back. He took it again and held it away from me, planting the palm of his hand against my forehead to keep me away.

"Why is she even still in the basement? Mom and dad are gone now, she could've come out hours ago."

"Well, I didn't want her to know that," I mumbled, sighing as I stood up. I guess since he's being an annoying little prick I'll go talk to her. "When I get back we're watching what I want to watch!"

"Doubt it." He mumbled as he turned on a football game.

I flipped him off before heading down to the basement. I let out a loud sigh as I swung the door open and walked in, stopping in my tracks as I saw Kai jump and try to hide a piece of paper. She scrambled up from the couch and sent me an awkward smile.

"Hey—I didn't—I ugh—"

"What the hell was that?" I questioned, closing the door behind me.

"W-What? What was what?" She squeaked.

"Let me see." I rolled my eyes as I walked closer to her. She shook her head, backing away quickly as she held the paper behind her back.

"No, Billie's it's nothing. Seriously, don't—" she struggled to keep the paper away from me as she spoke, but I quickly snatched it from her hands.

I opened it and read over it for a few moments, trying to make sense of the words. I sighed once I did.

"You think you're gonna kill your fucking self in my house?" I questioned, shoving the paper back into her hands. She sighed and bit her lip to keep it from quivering. She sat down and ran a hand through her hair before pulling her feet onto the old couch.

"It's from over a year ago. I'm not trying to kill myself." She mumbled.

"Good. Nobody in this household is dying any time soon. Not on my fucking watch. Not even you."

I sat down next to her and stared at her for a moment, watching as she folded the note up again and put it back in the little notebook she had on the floor beside her. "Why...Why'd you write it? I mean why were you gonna..."

"You don't care." She rolled her eyes. "And it isn't a big deal. It's from over a year ago, I swear!"

"I don't fucking care if it's from over ten years ago! You clearly were in a bad enough head space to write it at some point! How'd it get to that?"

She stared at me for a moment before letting out a small breath. "My whole life has sucked ass."