chapter two;
a new home

TIMOTHÉE FINISHED THE LAST SIP OF HIS COFFEE. He placed the mug on his desk and continued to type away on his laptop. He'd posted the advert about 3 days prior to BillieRose65 answering it. She'd apparently be arriving today. He had no idea what she'd be like but he hoped that she'd be kind, clean and quiet. Timothée is about to send the detailed email he'd written when the buzzer sounded from the small box next to the front door. He jumped out his seat, almost too quickly, and rushed to the front door, he pressed the 'speak' button and waited for a moment. He was so nervous for some reason- usually he was pretty confident.

"Hi, who's this?" He asks.

"Hi! Its Billie!" A sweet, almost melodic voice flows through the speaker.

"Wicked, I'll just buzz you in," He says, releasing the button and pressing the one beside it. He heard the buzz of the apartment blocks front door through the speaker, and then heard several voices before he heard the door closed. He stepped to the right and looked in the mirror that was leaning against the wall, yet to be hung up. He ruffles his curly hair  before rolling down the sleeves of the wooly jumper his mother had gifted him for his last birthday. He frowns at his rushed actions and then turns back to the door, fumbling with his hands as he awaits the knock. He jumps when he hears tapping on the other side and leaves it a moment before opening the door.

"Hello!" She grins once the door is fully open. Shes's holding two boxes stacked on top of each other, her short bobbed, almost white hair was pulled back in a half up, half down fashion. Her lips painted a bright red, that would have looked awful on most other people, and her eyes a gorgeous icy blue. He blinks at her for a second before smiling back.

"Hi," He says, "Can I help with that?"

"Urm, no its fine," She says and he steps aside to allow her, and the two friends he'd somehow not noticed stood behind her, inside.

"Oh, hi," Timothée greets the other two girls.

"Hey," They say in unison, both of them also carrying boxes which seemed to be overflowing with kitchenware, bathroom products and a few decorative items.

They place them down in the middle of the room, and Billie takes a moment to observe her new home. It was clean and quaint just as he'd described. The living room and kitchen were attached, to the right of the front door was the bathroom and bedrooms. Large windows that stretched from ceiling to floor let the sun shine into the flat and it made Billie smile.

"Its quite pretty," She remarks and Timothée laughs.

"Were you expecting a shithole?" He asks and Emma laughs from beside Rochelle.

"Rochelle here certainly was," Emma says, nudging Rochelle with her elbow. The girl rolls her eyes in response and sticks her tongue out at Emma.

"The kitchen has plenty of empty cupboards and drawers for your kitchenware," Timothée says, gesturing over, "The fridge freezer has plenty of room too, and I doubt we'll clash over the oven or toaster,"

"The living room is free for use, I barely spend time in it, but like my ad said, its got the TV and couch's," He nods and Billie nods too, following him into the bathroom, "The bathroom is small, but it works, no bath unfortunately, but hey-ho a shower is good enough, sometimes the taps leak, so just make sure they're turned completely off when you're finished,"

"Great," Billie nods.

"Now, my room is on the left and yours is this one," He guides her into the room closest to the bathroom.

Inside is a decent sized room. Immediately as you enter, to the right is a bedside table and the bed which is metal framed. On the other side of the bed is thin, tall wardrobe that just about squeezes between the bed and the wall. Opposite the bed is a ceiling to floor window that looks over the New York City streets. They were quite high up in the apartment block, and it actually offered a decent view but Billie suspected that Timmy had a better one. Beside the window, to the left, was a small desk that had a mirror hanging above it, and a tattered computer chair with a little pillow slumped in it.

"The furniture is all new except the desk and chair, they were brought by the guy who lived here till recently- I've been living here for like 2 years and paid for the whole place myself for a year before I decided to offer this room out for someone else," Timothée explains, "Obviously, if you want to buy all new furniture then be my guest,"

"I don't think I mind having this stuff honestly...I have my cheese plant to sit in the corner to add some colour," She chuckles, the whole room was furnished white except for the bed which had its grey metal frame, "This is super nice though,"

"Good, glad you're happy," He says, "The landlord is quite nice too, he bought all the furniture and if theres ever any issues, he's quick to get out and sort stuff, and for the apartment its not that expensive,"

"I thought the price was great for the location," She says, following him back into the living area.

"Definitely," He says, "Anyway, I'll be in my room if you need anything, I'll leave you girls to...Move in,"

"Great, see you in a bit," Billie says and Timothée awkwardly waves bye before disappearing into his bedroom. From the glance Billie gets of it, it looks like most of his furniture is black.

"He seems like he's not a psycho, lets put it that way," Emma says immediately, quite loudly.

"There's still time," Rochelle laughs and Emma chuckles.

"I don't know how thin the walls are," Billie chuckles as she grabs a kitchenware box and puts it on one of the countertops. Rochelle heads for the bathroom while Emma starts on the bedroom, unloading clothes into the wardrobe.

It takes a few hours for everything to be moved in properly, and once its done the three girls sit down on the bed, which creaks a little whenever you move a lot, and finally relax.

"You have our numbers if you need us," Rochelle says before reeling off a list of things that Billie mostly ignores. Rochelle had always been the more serious, mother-like figure.

"We actually have some news," Emma cuts in after Rochelle has given her mini-speech.

"Oh, right okay," Billie nods, sitting up a little bit.

"Me and Rochelle have decided that its time for a new step forward in our life, so we've decided that we're going to join the adoption register, and we're going to be moving into a new house," Emma says and Billie just blinks at them, a little starstruck that all this news is flooding her mind.

"Oh...Oh wow...Congratulations," Billie smiles, nodding quickly, "You two deserve it,"

"We hope that you can be the child's godmother when we get him or her," Rochelle says, reaching out and taking Billie's hand, "And we'd love it more if Zac could be the godfather too,"

The mention of Zac made a lump form in Billie's throat- she still hadn't told him about moving into a new place, let alone telling him her two lesbian best friends wanted him to be their new kids godmother when they got the all clear.

"Oh...This is a lot to take in," She says softly, "But yeah...Of course, I'd be honoured,"

The two girls smile in return, "We're so excited, and we've been waiting awhile to tell you, we didn't want to tell you while you were staying with us, in case you felt bad about holding us at the apartment while we could move into our new home, but now you're here and have your own place, we thought it was right,"

"Yeah, yeah of course," Billie nods, she was still at a loss for words, unable to comprehend it. She felt awful for the selfish thoughts that seemed to be rushing through her mind. She'd spent so long being their third wheel, and now she was about to be a fourth wheel to their new little family. They were all only 24 years old and they were already getting their own child. Billie felt so lost, so way out of line with their life. They were settling down as a couple, with a child, which were two huge commitments and she had barely just settled back into American life after university in London, she lived with a total stranger, she had no idea what her feelings were towards her boyfriend and she was stuck in a dead end job.

Though she felt happy to finally have her own place, or sort of, she felt completely crushed by their news to move out of their little apartment, into a whole house and to be getting a child? The concept had blown her mind, but at the same time, she was so proud of them, so pleased for them- it felt wrong to also feel so negatively about it.

"I'm so happy for you both, its what you deserve, I know you've wanted this for a long time," Billie nods before pulling both girls into a warm embrace.

__________

I hope you enjoyed guys!!!

Thank you for reading

~bobbybasic ❤️