Arms Length

Chapter 14: The debt I Owe

**Jade**

It's been a few days since my talk with Billie, do I feel better about the situation? Not really. Am I going to ask her 'where do we stand?' Fuck NO. Are you kidding me? I'm an intern, and she's one of, if not the biggest popstar in the god damn world right now. I sigh and adjust the heating pad over my eyes hoping to ease the migraine I've been dealing with since 5AM; it's now been what feels like years, I look at my phone to check the time, huge fucking mistake-2:12PM. I groan and push myself slowly off the bed and pull the hood over my head as I walk into the kitchen.

"How's the head?" Daphne asks looking over her laptop. All I can do is groan as I grab a bottle of water and a banana out of the fridge. "That great, huh?"

"Mhm" I hum, breaking off the banana in pieces as I eat it slowly between sips of water.

"Go lay back down and I'll bring you some Advil in a bit, okay?" I just nod and saunter back to the guest room shutting the door gently with my foot and lay back down pulling the covers over my head willing sleep to come to me.

Migraine sleep is different from regular sleep, it's broken and can feel like a terrible out of body experience. What is normally a comfortable position is uncomfortable. Sometimes the pain radiates from your temples down to the base of your neck, other times it feels like you're wearing a helmet that's 4 sizes too small. Right now, I'm wearing a tiny helmet and I'm pretty certain it's pouring down rain outside.

I hear the door open gently but the light doesn't turn on, I hear quiet shuffling around the dark room and assume it's Daphne picking up what little laundry I've left on the floor; until I feel the bed dip next to me and a hand on my back and rub long, gentle figure 8's up and down my spine. I'm honestly in too much pain to turn my head but manage to muffle a 'Thank you' through the covers and feel shifting next to me.

"You're welcome mama." The sound of her voice sends calming vibrations through my body, I turn my head in what feels like ultra-slow motion.

"What, when did-how?" I'm not making sense; hell, I don't even know what time or day it is.

"You're going to make your head worse. Shush." She says just above a whisper, while still rubbing my back. "Go back to sleep. I'm not going anywhere." She places a soft kiss on the tip of my nose and gently pushes my hair off my face.

I'm not sure what time it is, but it's now dark outside, the rain is still falling in heavy sheets, I sit up slowly and notice the spot where Billie was laying is now empty, and the door is just barely open. I let my head roll from side to side gently and let my neck pop and the pain in my head immediately eases up and I let out a satisfied groan as I stand up and stretch slowly. I take a sip of the open bottle of water and walk out of the bedroom slowly.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" Billie asks from her perch on the island, she's got a mouth full of strawberry. Cute.

"Better."

"Yeah?" Daphne asks handing me a piece of dark chocolate.

"Yeah. What time is it?"

"A little after 10." Daphne says swatting Billie's hand out of the bowl of grapes. "Are your hands clean?"

"You saw me wash them." She rubs her hand and reaches for a bunch of grapes before Daphne can say anything again and just shakes her head at Billie who's tossing grapes in the air and catching every other grape in her mouth as Daphne picks the grapes up off the floor and tosses them in the sink.

"Jade, are you hungry?" Daphne asks wiping her hands on her pajama pants.

"I'm okay." I lay my upper body across the length of the island, resting my cheek against the cool marble.