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HEY NEIGHBOUR

BEFORE BILLIE COULD EVEN PUT A HAND ON HER CAR DOOR, SHE HEARD HER NAME BEING CALLED FROM ACROSS THE STREET.

Vincent Matthews was waving at her from his own spot lingering beside his car, and Billie all but blanched. She'd seen him out there, presumably on his way to work, and assumed he had undoubtably seen her too— but this had been the first time he actually acknowledged her.

She waved a small, tentative wave back before she opened her car door. Again, her name being called, yet this time it sounded closer than before. Looking up from the door, she saw her father walking towards her from the Davidsons old house with a briefcase.

"Hey, kiddo," he smiled easily, and Billie's grip on the door handle tightened.

Though, she tossed him a tight-lipped smile. "Good morning," she said politely, and the backpack felt extremely heavy all of the sudden.

"Morning," he repeated before shaking his head a little. "So, where you headed off to?"

Her eyebrows furrowed, gesturing to her backpack that was slung across her shoulder. "Uh— school?" she answered with a questioning tone, "it's Wednesday... so I've got school."

"Oh," he said in minute surprise, letting out a chuckle. "Yeah, that's right. Have you started touring any colleges yet?"

The blonde swallowed around air, shaking her head. "Not yet," she answered honestly.

"I see..." he hummed, almost in contemplation. "I have a few higher-up contacts at Seattle U, I'm sure I could set up a meeting if you—"

"I really have to get going," she interrupted, a faint grimace on her face. "I hate being late, for anything but especially for school, so..."

He smiled down at her. "Your mother was the same when we were in high school," he told her, and Billie wished Katherine hadn't gone into work early and could save her from this painful conversation. "We'll talk soon, yeah?"

"Sure," she nodded, already putting a foot into the vehicle. "Bye."

"Bye, Mina," he said, before he was jogging back to the other side of the street towards his car.

Sitting in her own car, though, Billie watched him drive away in her rear view mirror. In each and every one of the occasional birthday cards he sent her way over the years, he had always addressed her as Mina— and here he was, doing the same thing and offering her an in at the same university her mother attended, while acting like he was somehow better than Katherine.

It was almost like a slap to the face, and he might as well have said I don't like the name Billie, and your mother is beneath me instead. The whole ordeal happening this early in the morning, before eight AM, made her nauseous.

After she switched on the ignition, she held her stomach for a moment and breathed through her nose, hoping she could power through the day without any more hiccups.

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"Michael, will you please stop scribbling on the poor girl's rough draft?"

"Yes, oh great one. Whatever you say, oh almighty Billie Burbank."

"Thank you."

The group was seated at their usual table during lunch as always, with Jess and Billie hunched over the mock speech that the Stanley girl was writing out. Mike, however, kept reaching between the girls to scribble out anything he viewed as nonsense, until Billie literally begged him to give it a rest.

It was actually coming along quite well, if Billie was being honest. There were just enough comedic blips amidst the seriousness of it all, and she thought her friend was bound to do an incredible job at their nearing graduation.

"How about this," Mike started up, taking the pencil from Billie's hand when Edward and Bella sat down across from them. "Anything is possible if you just believe... blah blah blah, and you got yourself a speech."

Billie patted him on his back. "You're a very talented athlete, Mikey," she applauded him, taking the pencil back from his grip as the table erupted in laughter.

"That'll be my speech when I want people to throw diplomas at my head," Jess snarked in return, sitting back in her seat beside Billie. She crumpled up the paper she had and threw it at Mike, nailing him right in the forehead— and he simply took it with a pointed grin.

"Maybe we should embrace some cliches, J," Billie suggested, nudging her shoulder with her own.

Eric nodded, snapping a finger in the blonde's direction. "They are the bread and butter of valedictorian speeches," he quipped, only to make Angela shake her head.

"And that is why you are not valedictorian."

"Jess doesn't need cliches," Bella added, in support of the Stanley girl, "her speech is gonna be epic."

Jess took that and ran with it. "Epic? It'll change lives."

Billie preened, putting her hands on her friend's shoulders and shook her lightly. "Hey, that's the spirit!" she cheered, dimples poking through her cheeks.

Suddenly, Alice and Jasper took the two empty seats left at the cafeteria table, the former wearing a mischievous smile. "I've decided to throw a party!"

"After all, how many times are we gonna graduate high school?" Jasper chimed in with a sideway smirk directed at Edward, and Billie now understood the double-edged meaning of his statement.

She hid a smile behind her hand. "A party? At your place?" Angela asked, as if she hadn't heard it properly. Given that they still had a little over a month left until graduation, Alice sure was planning in advance.

Jessica's mouth was agape. "I've never seen your house," she addressed the Cullen kids at the table.

"No one's ever seen their house," Eric supplied matter-of-factly, leaning towards her space to tell her so. And come to think of it, Billie hadn't seen their house either, even now that she was involved in the supernatural aspects of their lives.

"It'll be fun," Alice stated, pointedly looking at Edward.

The discomfort in Bella's shoulders was evident. "Yeah, that's what you said last time."

The table was plunged into a suffocating silence, and Billie looked around aimlessly until she felt a hand on her elbow. She locked eyes with her blond friend, meeting his raised eyebrow.

"Are you inviting anyone else to grad, Billie girl?" Mike asked her out of curiosity, but she already knew what he was asking. "Like... a new neighbour of yours?"

Billie bit her lip while she thought, a flick to her cheek from Mike made her stop. "He hasn't been in my life for eighteen years," she sighed, itching at her neck. "Why would I?"

He nodded, tossing her a grin. "That's the spirit!" he mimicked with a cheer, and it made a giggle pass through her lips. "Now you just gotta decide where the hell you're going to college."

Instantly her posture deflated in faux annoyance. Right, college. "I might follow Eric to Bellevue," she teased, earning a larger than life gasp from Jess.

"What happened to Pepperdine?!" she exclaimed, fully putting her pencil into the table as she leaned forward. "I thought that was your dream."

It was her dream— it had been her dream for years. Yet, at the end of the day, Billie usually made her decisions based on the opinions of others, solely on the premise of making people happy. So, really, it was up to the person closest to her; her mother.

"I still have a week to decide," she brushed off with a smile, trying to appease her now frantic friend.

A wave of silence before someone cleared their throat. "Billie... the deadline is in two days," Bella reminded her with a pinched look. Usually the blonde was all over her deadlines, but maybe it had just snuck up on her?

Her eyes bulged out of her head, instantly switching on her phone to click on her calendar. And yeah, there the alert was.

"Right. Cool, cool, cool..."

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[ wyn's note ]

college deadline is coming up... oh where oh where will billie go?! we find out in the next chapter ;)

also her dad is a freakazoid... we are vincent haters here!!

all love xx