CHAPTER ONE : girls

( come and get it, part ii )

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MARILYN: I MET CAMILA at a laundromat, the same day Billy met her. Mom asked Billy to go do the washing for her, she was busy helping our neighbour, Mrs Robinson, with some errands. Mrs Robinson was really, really old and widowed and couldn't do much by herself anymore. Mom liked to help her out, she was nice like that. Anyway, Billy didn't mind going alone, but I was itching for an excuse to leave the house and Graham was already out with some of his non-band friends, so I tagged along.

BILLY: I really do wish I could forget that Marilyn was there on the day I first met my wife, but, uh, no such luck,

MARILYN: Camila walked up to him as he was putting detergent in the little, detergent holder, thingy, and the second she opened her mouth, Billy was all like, [in a deeper, more Billy-like voice] "Yeah, I'm Billy Dunne, of The Dunne Brothers, pleasure to meet you," [in her regular tone] and he put his hand out for her to shake, and she shook it, and then told him that she was just wanting to know if he was using this laundry basket that he was standing next to.

CAMILA ALVAREZ (photographer): The first sound I heard leave Marilyn's mouth was the loudest, most honking, goose-like laugh I've heard in my life. I looked around, and she was just slumped over a washing machine, shoulders rattling from how hard she was laughing, and like, oh my God. [laughing] Here I am, trying to act cool in front of Billy Dunne, because, obviously, I know The Dunne Brothers, I don't live under a rock, and now I'm nearly cracking up at his expense because of this girl.

MARILYN: [laughing] I've been on this planet with Billy for forty-three years, and only once have I seen him get humbled like that. The look on his face? Priceless.

BILLY: I really thought Marilyn had ruined my shot. I mean, this girl. Wow. And then, along comes my sister, laughing at me for making an assumption, like I'm the only person who's ever assumed wrong.

Marilyn's laughter is contagious, because, in barely any time at all, Camila's got her hand covering her mouth and nose in a desperate attempt to stifle her own giggles. Billy, on the other hand, is a mixture of totally stunned and totally peeved-off, because he knows that he's about to try to rectify the situation and it's really hard to do that with his little sister stealing the attention away.

He passes the laundry basket over to the pretty girl next to him and stammers out the question he's dying to know the answer to — if she actually doesn't know who she is. She responds in the negative. Billy tries to improve his standing with a humble brag about being in a band.

She replies, "cool."

Marilyn loses it again.

     MARILYN: He literally told me to go stand on the street.

     BILLY: Of course, it's the one time Mari actually does what I ask, which absolutely made it look like I tell her what to do all the time, and that's not the look I was going for.

     CAMILA: I think she realised that he might have been losing me, which, for the record, he wasn't. I mean, it's Billy freaking Dunne. She was halfway to the door before she turned around.

     MARILYN: Billy totally thought I was about to embarrass him even more, and sure, that's to be expected. But, he's my brother, and I love him. I got Camila's attention and I told her, "Look, he's annoying, and he's totally insane, and a little narcissistic sometimes, but, he's cool. He's worth a shot." And, then I left.

     BILLY: [pauses, smiles] Marilyn is one hell of a wing woman, I'll give her that.

     ME: Would you say any of that, getting [Camila] to give Billy a chance, was self-serving? Getting another girl around?

     MARILYN: It wasn't exactly self-serving. I mean, I did genuinely think she should've given Billy a shot. But, yeah, Cami and I were already getting along great, so I definitely wanted to keep her around. Being surrounded by boys was doing a number on me, so, I needed a girl in my corner. And, I'm not gonna lie, right, [deep breath] I kinda thought she was cute. Back then, I mean. She's my sister now.

     ME: Wait, you thought Camila was cute?

     MARILYN: [nods] Yeah, I mean, who wouldn't?

     ME: Okay, before we continue, I want to make sure of something. This can be off the record, if you want.

     MARILYN: What is it?

     ME: Is this you coming out? Like, publicly?

     MARILYN: [winks]

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a/n:
i said that's my camila and i love her <3

published : march 13, 2023
word count : 0.8k