Love and Conspiracy

I awoke to the sound of Billie’s voice from the other room. Though I couldn’t hear what he was saying, I could tell that he was talking to someone on the phone. I was still half asleep when I heard his voice getting closer to the room.

“Yes, I promise I’ll stop by!” he spoke with a laugh, “Alright, I’ll see you soon.” It was a minute before I felt his warm breath on my face. As he kissed my cheek, I groaned from immediately starting to feel the headache from the night before. I opened my eyes to see him smiling down at me. However, the tattoos exposed on his chest were what caught my attention.

“Those are new,” I mumbled, closing my eyes. He chuckled before I felt cold, wet droplets hit my face. I squinted my eyes to see him shaking his freshly washed hair above me.

“New to you, maybe,” he answered, standing up straight. I looked up at him to realize that all he was wearing was a towel that hung low around his waist. All I could do was soak in the sight of his body before making eye contact with him and his cheeky grin.

“You’re really trying to mess with me, aren’t you?” I grumbled, starting to sit up. He gently grabbed my hand before he helped me stand up in front of him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he teased. I blankly looked at him.

“Just you wait, Armstrong. The tables will turn soon enough and you won’t be laughing then,” I said, causing him to laugh. He leaned in and playfully kissed me. I couldn’t help but smile against his lips.

“Hey, I want you to meet someone,” he changed topics.

“Okay… Like, right now?” I questioned literally.

“No,” he smiled, intertwining his fingers with mine, “But today.” I let out an exasperated sigh.

“I suppose, if I must,” I answered before smiling.

~~~

“Does she know that I’m coming along?” I questioned on our car ride over.

“Nope,” he stated. I bit my lip and glanced out the window.

“What if she doesn’t like me?” I asked quietly, starting to tap my foot.

“Luce, it’s gonna be alright. You’re over thinking it,” he said with a chuckle.

A few minutes passed before we pulled into the driveway of a humble, family home. I nervously got out of the car, taking a deep breath at the house in front of me. Billie grabbed my hand and squeezed it in reassurance before leading to the front door. Without even knocking, we walked into the house.

“Billie, is that you?” I heard a voice call. Before I was allowed another thought, a middle-aged woman walked into the room. “Billie—oh!” she said as she looked up to see that he wasn’t alone, “I would’ve tidied up a bit if I knew you were bringing someone over.” As she wiped her hands on her pants, she gave me another look before giving me a warm smile as if she had recognized me. “This is her,” she said more as a statement than a question.

“Hi, I’m Lucy,” I finally managed to squeak.

“I know,” she said sweetly, taking a step towards me, “I’m Ollie.” I started to hold out my shaky hand before she spoke again. “Oh, honey. You’re already family in my book,” she lightly laughed before wrapping her arms around me. I slowly returned the hug, feeling awkward yet comforted by the whole situation. Once she let go, she smiled and started to walk to the other room. “Come on, I’ll get you something to drink. Are you hungry?” she asked before disappearing into—what I assumed was—the kitchen.

“Starving!” Billie called, looking at me. “You alright?” he questioned with a small smile on his face. I nodded, still slightly bewildered by what just happened.

“I thought you said she didn’t know that I was coming?” I asked as we started heading towards the kitchen.

“She didn’t,” He answered shortly. We were interrupted by the soft-spoken woman again.

“Do you prefer coffee or tea?” she asked already getting cups out of the cupboards.

“Oh, uh coffee please,” I answered, sitting next to Billie. He still had a wide smile spread across his face as she handed us our drinks and joined us at the table.

“Can you believe that he hasn’t come to visit his poor mother in over a month?” she joked, smiling at her son. I couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty as I stared down at the table. However, I knew how much this moment meant to Billie, so I stopped myself from diving into thoughts of my own mother and looked up with a smile.

“Billie!” I fake yelled, lightly hitting his arm, “I promise I won’t let that happen again.” I was surprised even by my own effort.

“So when did you get back into town?” she casually asked, directing her smile towards me. The guilty thoughts were gnawing at the back of my mind, but I shoved them down and answered her question.

“Just a few days ago, actually. I got here just in time for Jess’ wedding.”

“Oh! Wasn’t that beautiful?” she said, quickly changing topics, “She looked amazing in that dress. And you guys just looked darling together, too!” Her voice was genuine; however, I could sense Billie slightly tensing up remembering how difficult that was for both of us. It was gonna take a while before we were both comfortable talking about that part of our lives.

“Thank you,” I answered with a small laugh, “It really was a wonderful wedding, though. I’m really happy for her and Chris. I couldn’t see them being with anyone else.”

“Of course not! They were made for each other,” she said as she smiled at us, “How’s Mike doing, by the way? I haven’t seen much of him around either.”

“He’s got a lot of his time occupied with Clarissa and work when we don’t have band practice,” Billie answered.

“Clarissa…” she replied as if she were trying to remember the name, “The small blonde girl that was with him at the wedding?”

“That’s her,” Billie nodded.

“Well, I hope Mike will bring her by sometime. She seems like a nice young, lady,” Ollie said with another smile. The room grew silent for a moment before she spoke again, “So Lucy, tell me about yourself. It’d be nice to hear from you personally.” She let out a small laugh and glanced over at Billie. I could only think that was a positive remark so I shyly smiled back.

“What do you want to hear?” I said with a shrug.

After telling Ollie a little bit about myself, her and Billie dived into memories from their past and shared them with me. I couldn’t help myself but laugh at some of the ridiculous stories that she had of Billie and his siblings. Plus, it only proceeded to get better once she got out one of her photo albums and showed me some of Billie’s baby pictures.

“Aw, that’s you?” I said, admiring a small, curly-headed child in the photo in front of me, “You were adorable!”

“Were?” Billie mocked in a fake offended voice causing me to giggle.

“Hate to break it to you, Billie, but nothing can top this little guy,” I teased. A small frown grew on his face before it was exchanged with a chuckle as he started to get up.

“Fine, the mirror will tell me differently!” he said, walking out of the room. I could only assume that he was going to the bathroom.

After he had left, Ollie stood up as well to start putting the dishes away as I continued to look through the old photos. I seemed to get lost in my own thoughts as I came across a picture of Billie and his dad (only knowing after they had pointed him out).

They both looked so happy. The pure innocence of a child just shined through the wide smile on Billie’s small face. In fact, I found myself smiling at the photo, too, before Ollie’s voice broke me from my trance.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him this happy,” she spoke softly. I looked up at her not knowing what to say. As she sat back down at the table, she continued, “Mike told me that he was going to try and find you, but I never thought it would happen. I’m glad that I was wrong, though,” she paused to smile and grab my hand, “I mean, Billie hasn’t had a great track record with his girlfriends, but the way that Billie used to talk about you… I don’t think he would’ve ever gotten over you. I’m glad that you gave him another chance.”I looked at her with surprise.

“I don’t think I would’ve ever gotten over him either,” I said to myself before directing my words back to her, “You have such a great son, Ollie. I’m just sorry it took me so long to realize it.” She smiled at me before standing up again. That’s when I realized that Billie had walked back into the room.

“Yeah, he’s a good boy,” she said sweetly to him. After a moment of silence, she sighed and spoke again, “Well, you are more than welcome to stay as long as you want, but I need to head to the diner.”

“Alright. I just wanted to give Luce a quick tour of the house and then we’ll be out of here, too,” Billie said, motioning for me to come with him.

“It was so nice meeting you, Ollie,” I said as she rushed to get her stuff together.

“Oh, honey, it was so nice meeting you, too. I’ll see you guys around soon, won’t I?” she asked before giving me a quick hug and Billie a kiss on the cheek.

“Of course!” I smiled.

“Great,” she said, heading towards the door, “Oh! Lucy, they’re hiring at the diner if you’re ever thinking about getting yourself a job around here. It’d be nice to have another set of young hands around there!”

“Oh wow, that’d be great!” I said actually interested in her offer.

“I’m running late, but we’ll talk about it more next time I see you! Love you both,” she said as she hurried out the door. Once it was silent in the house, I looked over at Billie to see him smiling.

“What?” I questioned. He shook his head before heading down the hall. I followed him until we came to a room that was scattered with posters and picks. However, it was much tidier than his room back at the apartment. “I’m guessing this was your childhood lair,” I commented in a slightly sarcastic tone.

“Yup, pretty much,” he chuckled as he sat on the bed, patting the spot next to him. I followed his action and plopped down before I caught him looking at me with the same smile as before. I gave him a suspicious look.

“Okay, you’re starting to weird me out. What is it?” I said with a small laugh. After a moment, he slowly leaned in and gently placed his lips onto mine before pulling away again to look at me.

“It wasn’t so bad, was it?” he barely mumbled as he leaned in for another kiss that was slightly more luxurious than the first. It took all that I had to swallow down the butterflies and look up at him again.

“Are you really getting turned on by me and your mom getting along?” I said bluntly, holding back the small laughs. He chuckled against my lips before continuing to kiss me.

“No, but the idea of having the house to ourselves is.”

After a minute or two of kissing, he pushed me backwards onto the bed so I was lying down and he was partially on top of me. His hand carefully moved its way to the hem of my shirt before gently resting it on my hip as our breaths started to increase. Once he focused his attention on my neck, chills were sent all throughout my body and fogging my mind from anything other than him. However, as he began to slide his hand further up my side, a sound of a door slamming echoed through the house and refocused my thoughts.

“Billie!” I whispered, putting my hand on his chest and pushing him to the side of me again. I quickly sat up and fixed my hair before anybody could walk by the door.

“Forgot my purse!” Ollie’s voice was heard from the other room, though it was quickly consumed by the sound of the door slamming again. I let go of the breath I hadn’t noticed that I was holding and looked over at Billie. He started to laugh.

“Way to turn off a mood.”