#dcbillie

Janika sat on the sofa in the living room, nose once again buried in the book she had been trying to finish for ages but continued to discard as she got distracted. Which was exactly what was happening now, though there was nothing to distract her but the silence of the house and her own thoughts. Since Billie had run off to who knows where the house had been unnervingly silent. Not that Billie was loud in any way, but it was just so different living by herself and not at least hearing her footsteps upstairs or the quiet guitar music coming from her room.

With a groan, Janika flopped over until she was lying upside down on the sofa, her head hanging off the edge. Her hair pooled on the floor below her and she could feel the blood rushing to her head. She missed Billie’s presence in the house, she couldn’t deny it. Over the short time they had lived together she had grown quite fond of her clone. She had worried a lot when Billie disappeared, but there was no way to contact her. The only thing she could do was wait for the DYAD to find her and bring her back, which she knew must happen eventually. There was no way the organization would just let her go.

Until then, she spent her time off trying (and failing) to read her book. She hadn’t touched anything in the house, though she had said she was going to paint and decorate for Halloween. Though she knew it was ridiculous, she didn’t feel right about changing things without Billie being in on it. There was no way she could know when her roommate would return, or honestly, if she even would. But something still held her back from changing things.

She lay in silence for a little while longer, feeling her face turn increasingly red the longer she remained upside down. Suddenly, the door opened. Janika jumped a little and sat up straight on the sofa. Or at least, she tried to. Having sorely misgauged her distance from the coffee table, her head smacked into the corner.

It had been a day since she had been threatened by Sarah Manning. She observed her carefully, realizing her family, as she referred to them, didn’t seem to include a few of the other clones in the neighborhood, at least not yet. So what she was about to do didn’t technically violate what Sarah had threatened. It did however violate what her bosses said, but her curiosity to meet someone and just talk was overwhelming.

Glancing around the coffee shop, she checked to see if Sarah were around (she didn’t seem to be), and checked to see if any of her bosses were grabbing a drink (no to that too). 

With a deep breath she moved forward to the girl sitting at the table, tapping on her phone.

“Hello.” Delphine greeted, her voice an octave too high than she would have liked. 

The girl looked up at her. Delphine cleared her throat, pushing down the fear she felt at how Billie was going to react to her approaching her bubbling up. For all she knew Sarah had made a poster with her name on it and given it out to all of them saying If You See Her Shoot and Kill. She just wanted to talk. DYAD clad contract free.

Janika fumbled with the set of keys, trying to keep her bag from slipping off her shoulder. Her head was sweating under the thick fur hat that she wore. It was way too hot for such a hat, but really, what better way was there to carry it when one’s hands were already so full? But finally the right key slipped into the lock, making a satisfying clunk as she turned it and pushed the door open.

The little house was nice, if minimally furnished. Janika walked into the living room, dropping her bags on the floor and leaving them where they lay. She wasn’t a messy person by nature, but having just traveled such a long way she couldn’t really bring herself to care much at the moment. As she gazed around the room she found herself already making mental notes about how it could be decorated and rearranged. ‘No,’ she told herself. ‘You can’t get carried away. You have a roommate to consider.’

The DYAD had informed her that she would be living with someone else, but that was all she knew at this point. In fact, she had been rather ill-informed of the entire situation. With a sigh she turned back to her bags, thinking that she could at least move them to her room before realizing that she didn’t even know when her roommate would arrive. Could she choose her room without consulting this other woman? (She couldn’t quite process the word clone. Not just yet.)