Arms Length

Chapter 27: Let me surround You

**Billie**

"I'm worried she's going to push me away." I say as I stuff another hoodie into my bag while Fin watches me pack.

"She might, but she's been through a lot Bil. Even if she pushes you away, it has nothing to do with you. Just be there for her."

"But what if when we get there, right? She's pissed and tells me to leave?"

"Just be there for her Bil. If you were in her shoes, would you wanna be alone?"

"Yes... and no. Does that make sense?"

"You sure this is a good idea Bils? I mean you post-poning a tour for someone you're not even sure you're in a relationship with yet...? Like would she do the same for you?" Sophie drones on while we're collecting our bags from the overhead bins.

"Jesus fucking Christ. You never shut up do you?" Fin says looking at Sophie as he helps me get my backpack from the overhead bin. "Why did you even come?" He asks handing me my backpack.

She just rolls her eyes and follows my mom and dad off the plane. "I didn't ask her to come, she came on her own..." I say adjusting my backpack. At least she offered to stay at a hotel.

"I hope Jade slaps her."

"If she doesn't, I will." I say pulling my hood up over my head and walking off the plane.

The airport where Jade lives isn't a huge, sprawling airport like LAX, it's small, and in the early morning hours of July no one here gives me or my family a second glance. The guy behind the rental car place thinks nothing of it when my dad rents an SUV at 8:46 on a Thursday morning.

"It's about a 20-minute drive from here, I think." I tell my dad after he and Fin load the bags into the SUV.

"You don't know where her sister lives?" Sophie chimes in.

"I know where she lived..." I snap, "but I didn't drive last time I was here, damn" I can feel a tic and I sigh deeply trying to suppress it.

I feel Fin put his hand on the back of my hoodie covered head to calm me down as my dad starts driving to Jade's sister's, or is it Jade's house now? I don't know and now doesn't seem like the appropriate time to ask.

A girl with dark blonde hair and hazel eyes answers the door with a questioning look on her face. "Can... I help you?"

"Grey, sweetie if it's more Jehovah's Witnesses tell them to go away." I hear a man say.

"We're not Jehovah's Witnesses, we're friends of Jade's." My mom says gently.

The girl, Grey cocks an eyebrow, then looks at us then at me. "Okay..." she opens the double-front doors to let us and our luggage in.

"Who is it?" A woman with brown hair and gray-blue eyes asks walking to the door.

"Friends of Jade's..." Grey says shutting the door behind us as the woman with brown hair approaches us.

"Hi, I'm Maggie, this is my husband, Patrick." My mom says reaching out to shake the woman's hand.

"I'm Sherri, Jade's aunt." She says smiling warmly. "She's checking on her nephew right now. Can I get you anything? Coffee? We've got fruit and donuts in the kitchen."

An hour later, my mom, dad, Jade's aunt, Sherri and uncle who I've learned is named Frank are sitting around the island talking and drinking coffee, while Grey sends the occasional dirty look Sophie's way and Fin rolls his eyes and some stupid comment Sophie makes.