Mirrors

So maybe Twitch wasn't all bad. Once he quit his flattery, he really wasn't as terrible as I stereotype all guys like him to be. That doesn't mean I like him or anything, he's just much more tolerable that way. After spending breakfast with him, I learned that he's also in a band, like Billie, in which he sings. He also invited me to his next show, and told me that he can get me a backstage pass. He then winked which made me just scowl at him. He still has a lot of learning to do on limits, especially with me.

The next day, I didn't see Twitch, which I was kind of thankful for, honestly. I did, however, see Billie. At least, it looked like Billie. At this point, I really couldn't be sure. I watched him as he came closer to me; he was on his phone, most likely texting someone. He looked up almost as soon as I started watching him, and he saw me. It took him a second to register who I was, but then he smiled at me and stopped when we crossed paths. "Hey, Bella," he said.

"Heard that one before, too, Billie," I said.

"Dammit! Today is just not my day."

"Well I'm sorry to hear that. How are you otherwise?" I asked, smiling lightly.

"Great! I'm finding my way round pretty well, and I've met some pretty cool-sounding people," he answered.

"That's awesome to hear, Billie," I said, my smile wider, and more genuine.

"So where are you headed?" Billie asked.

I held up the piece of folded notebook paper in my hand. "I'm off to mail a letter to my sister back home."

"Ah, I see. You like to stay close with her?" Billie asked.

"She's my younger sister, and she's in juvy right now. We only correspond by letters because that's the only way we can talk to each other, and she knows that no one else is going to take the time to write a letter except for me, so she asked me in the first letter she sent me from juvy," I briefly explained.

Billie's eyes widened as I told him the story. "Holy shit, juvy? How old is she?"

"Sixteen."

"And what's she there for?"

"Prostitution."

"What the fuck?"

"This undercover cop found her on a street corner all dressed down and shit, and she tried to seduce him, and she got caught and was sent to juvy. Not that anyone in my family was surprised; my sister's been a whore since she was, like, ten."

"Well shit. You're definitely much more than meets the eye, there, Belle," Billie said.

I thought for a moment. I then smiled and nodded toward him. "Good one," I said.

"Fuck, really?" Billie asked, excited.

"I'm pretty sure no one has called me Belle before."

"Fuck yes! Thank you for giving me today's first win, Belle, it was greatly appreciated," Billie said, smiling widely. "I would give you a hug, but there's my whole thing about not being too forward."

I chuckled and I felt my cheeks burn a little. Dammit, what is it about Billie that makes me blush so much?? I felt like I could trust him, though. There was just something about him that made him seem so innocent and trustworthy, and able to keep a secret, which was definitely a quality that I looked for extensively in a friend, and a boyfriend. My thoughts had just started to get away from me when I remembered about Twitch, and how much he looked like Billie. I was about to ask him about Twitch, when my brain decided to make my mouth ask something completely different entirely. "Hey, when I mail this letter, do you wanna come back to my place and check out out some of the work that I've done?"

Billie didn't even hesitate. "Yeah, definitely. I was just about to ask you about that, actually," he answered, chuckling lightly.

He turned around and he followed me to the mail center, us talking about my art on the way there. When I was filling out the envelope, I was actually impressed he was standing next to me instead of behind me, like I'm sure Twitch and the rest of the male population would have done. I don't care how crazy I thought my thoughts about boyfriends right now were, Billie was definitely a contender, hands down.

On the way back to my house, Billie started walking towards the big residence hall that was behind the commons, and I said, "Billie? Where are you going?"

He looked over at me, confused. "Your place?"

"No, Billie, I don't live in there."

"You don't?" he asked, turning around. "Then where do you live?"

I pointed in the direction of my house. "This way."

Billie jogged back over to where I had stopped. "Lead the way, Belle."

"Okay, calm down Billie, you're gonna wear that out and make me hate it," I warned.

"Oh, alright, alright. Are we going to your house?" Billie asked impatiently.

"It's right here." I pointed to the door of my building that we were standing in front of.

"Whoa! There are houses back here?" Billie exclaimed.

I laughed. "Yes, Billie, there are. Welcome to the back corner of campus, newbie. I live here, along with another good chunk of the campus community."

"Well shit. I guess I still had some things to learn about the campus," Billie said.

I opened the door to my building, and gestured for Billie to walk inside. He shook his head, took the door from me, and gestured for me to go inside. I chuckled and walked inside, walking up the stairs and pulling my keys out of my back pocket. When I reached my apartment door, I looked down over the railing to see Billie coming up the stairs. I waited for him to stop right behind me, and I looked up at him when he did. "Welcome to my humble abode. Please ignore the decoration on the living room wall; I had nothing to do with it."

Billie chuckled. "Alright. Are there any decorations you have something to do with?"

I chuckled softly at the awkwardness of the statement. "Only the decorations in my room. Sometimes I have these little shows of my art and stuff in my house, and I ask people to leave comments on index cards which pieces they thought were the best, so I hung those up around my room," I briefly explained.

Billie grinned. "That's really awesome, Belle!"

I smiled. "Thanks. I love art; it really is one of my biggest passions in life."

"Good thing you're studying it then," Billie remarked.

I just giggled. I then tried the doorknob; it was still locked from when I left this morning. I put my key in the lock and turned it, bracing my shoulder against the door and pushing to open it. I held it open for Billie and he walked in. He looked around and looked relatively impressed by how clean I keep the place, and then his eyes fixed on the far wall. "I see why you made the comment about the wall," he said, looking at me and pointing at it.

I blew out through my nose. "Yeah. The girls I live with put that up. I think they're partial alcoholics; there's almost always some sort of alcohol in our fridge."

"Sounds like my type of fridge. Except there's usually just cheap beer in my fridge," Billie said.

"Cheap beer? Saving your pennies for something?"

"Yeah, actually. I want to get a tattoo soon."

"Yeah? Well alright then. Certainly need to be saving your pennies for that." Billie chuckled. He then pointed down the hallway with a cocked eyebrow. "Oh yeah, let's go." We took a small trip down the long, narrow hallway and I stuck my key into the locked door. I turned the handle and slowly opened the door, exposing the multiple pieces of artwork up on my walls.

Billie looked around in awe when we entered the room. "Shit, Arabella, this is amazing!"

My cheeks flushed bright pink and I hung my head, not wanting him to see. "Thanks," I mumbled.

Billie walked up to one of the pieces on the wall that I saw he had spent more time looking at than all the others. "Wow, Belle, this is beautiful. I've never seen so much detail!" he exclaimed. He the turned to me and saw I was staring at the floor. "Belle?" he called.

I looked up hesitantly because my cheeks were still a very noticeable shade of pink. "Yeah?"

Billie then grinned. "Aw, did I embarrass you with all my compliments?"

I giggled. "Yeah, kind of a lot. I've never had that much of a positive reaction before." I peeked behind Billie to see what particular piece he was praising. "Oh, you like the Gibson portrait?" Billie nodded furiously, the grin still on his face. "My best friend dragged me out to a party at her boyfriend's townhouse here on campus, and I had wandered upstairs to use the bathroom and I didn't want to go back downstairs, so I wandered into the room with the open door and saw a beautiful blue Gibson sitting in front of an amp in the corner of the room. I immediately went and found Lee's boyfriend and asked if I could come back with my sketchpad and pencils, so two days later I showed up at Lee's boyfriend's house again and I went back for three weeks sketching his guitar. When I finished the sketch, I thanked him greatly for allowing me to be there all the time, and then came back home and spent the next two weeks secluded in my room coloring it to perfection. So when I had my next show, I personally invited Lee's boyfriend to come see the portrait, and he just spent, like, a half hour fucking staring at it. I watched him for a good five minutes, and his eyes were roaming all over the details. When the show was over, he sought me out and he talked to me for about five straight minutes about how honored he was to have such a beautiful portrait of his guitar. He even asked me if he could have the portrait, but I told him that I don't give away my work to anyone ever, so he just took out his phone and snapped a picture of it. He comes over now and again just to admire it. It was one of my proudest moments as an artist."

"Well, that has me convinced," Billie said.

"Convinced of what?" I asked.

"Convinced that you're the perfect person for the cover art job."

I grinned. "Thanks, Billie, that actually means a lot."

Billie smiled back at me and walked over to me. He then actually leaned down a slight bit and gave me a hug. I was a bit startled at first, but then I wrapped my arms around Billie in return. "You're welcome," Billie said as he pulled away. What startled me much more than the hug though, was when Billie very lightly kissed my cheek as he straightened. I gasped, put my hand to the spot on my cheek, and looked up at him. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

This was the moment of truth. This was the moment when I either accepted or rejected Billie and changed our relationship forever. I smiled lightly and took a step closer to him. I can't believe what I was about to do, because it really wasn't like me to do anything like this. "Don't be," I whispered back.

Billie now took a step closer to me, and was looking down at me, meeting my gaze with his. Our eye contact didn't break as I felt Billie's hand come up and lightly cup my chin. I could feel my heart racing, and I was hardly able to control my breathing. I saw Billie's face come in closer to mine steadily, and my brain was screaming. I was going insane just for a kiss.

When Billie's lips finally touched mine, I literally jumped. He pulled back, thinking he was making the wrong move, but a barely audible "No" came out on my next exhale and Billie pushed his lips back against mine, more firmly. His lips were so soft, making me kiss him back. We kissed once, twice, three times before Billie pulled back. "Wow," he whispered.

I chuckled nervously. "Yeah," I whispered back.

Billie kissed me one more time before stepping back and dropping his hand from my chin. Now, he took my hand and just held it. "That was unexpected," he said, louder than a whisper now.

I just shook my head, smiling and biting my lip, unable to form coherent words without whispering.

Nothing would be the same between us now.