Chapter Text
“I know it’s been a month now, but it’s still so weird without Billy here,” I said to Eddie while we were having lunch at school. “I think even more so, because he’s back home now.”
“It is,” he agreed, “I still can’t believe he would’ve been fine with … you know.”
“Me neither, he changed a lot since he accused me of cheating in June,” I chuckled drily. The memories of that week weren’t the best, to say the least.
“Feels like forever ago.”
“It does.”
We quickly dropped the topic when three trays were slammed down on the table in front of us. Dustin, Mike and Lucas sat. The other club members took the remaining seats at the table.
“Billy is home, right? How is our savior?” Dustin asked after sitting down.
I chuckled, “he’s good. Can’t do much without me, but he’s good, yeah,” I smiled at them.
“That’s good to hear,” he nodded.
They talked about their next D&D meeting and I focused on my food.
The past month had been hard. Without Billy there, a lot of questions arose and people talked about what had happened, or more like guessed. No one had seen him since July 4th and they made up stories, some going as far as saying he left Hawkins with another girl. They were weirdly obsessed with the thought of Billy leaving me.
There had been some people who were overly nice to me after I came to school with my Porsche on the first day -just like I had guessed- but I didn’t go beyond a hello and how are you. I wasn’t interested in people who were only interested in me because of my car or money. I really had bigger problems than that and no time for fake friends.
Nancy, Ally, Stacey, Chrissy and I didn’t hang out as much anymore, a lot had happened during summer, it seemed.
Nancy had been with Jonatan every day, wanting to spend every last second together. She also joined the school’s newspaper and stayed there even after school was over sometimes.
Ally was spending most of her time with Micheal.
Stacey had met someone at the pool, who she was dating now? I wasn’t even sure.
Chrissy was in a worse mental state ever since she came back from her vacation with her parents. Whatever we had achieved related to her eating disorder had basically been undone. She hadn’t attended any parties and I barely heard from her in general. I did see her coming out of Ms. Kelly’s office occasionally, so at least she was talking to someone. And well, I was busy with Billy, so unless any of them came over to my place, I couldn’t meet them, either.
Dustin, Mike and Lucas had joined Eddie’s Hellfire Club within the first week of school and were proud members. They went to every meeting and Eddie seemed even more thrilled than before, when he planned their campaigns or told me about them afterwards. New members were good for him. Freshened everything up a bit.
Eddie and I sat in the back together in our next class. I wanted to avoid stares from others at all cost. No more front row for me, or still, it wasn’t like I used to sit there anyway. I tried to follow what the teacher said, writing down whatever I thought was important and exchanged little notes with Eddie. We had been caught talking one too many times already, so we didn’t want to push our luck.
I had picked Eddie up that morning, so he left with me too. He turned on the music and sang along to Paranoid, bobbing his head like Ozzy did in the video, bouncing around and trying to brighten my mood. Successfully, of course. We were laughing and chattering by the time I pulled up to my driveway. It didn’t last long when I saw a familiar car there.
“There’s no way…”
“What?” Eddie asked.
I rushed out of the car and ran, scrambling to open the door. I heard screaming right away. Eddie was behind me and I stopped in my tracks when I got to the living room.
Billy was on the floor, his wheelchair tipped over.
“...fucking disappointment. Get your act together and stop being such a pussy!” Neil screamed, hovering over him.
Billy had his arms over his head protectively and I saw him flinching.
“Hey! Get out of my house!” I yelled and Neil turned around. “You have no right coming here. What the fuck is wrong with you? Did you push him over? Fucking son of a bitch!”
I rushed over to push him away from Billy. I kneeled down, taking his face in my hands and wiping his tears away. I heard Neil grunting behind me, sure that Eddie was taking good care of him.
“Hey, baby, I’m sorry,” I whispered, kissing his cheek.
Billy sniffled and laid his head on the floor, exhausted.
“Did he hurt you?”
He hesitated but then nodded. I hummed in acknowledgment, raking my eyes over his face and body. Not having to shield his head anymore, he was clutching his stomach. I slowly reached down and pulled up his shirt, exposing his red abdomen.
I turned my head to see Eddie holding the same knife I had held up to Neil’s throat.
“You should leave,” Eddie threatened.
Neil shook his head in disbelief, but took a step back. He kicked at Billy’s wheelchair. Billy winced, his eyes closed in fear, but Neil turned around and left.
Eddie followed him and locked the door, making sure he couldn’t come back inside.
We helped Billy get up and sat him on the couch. Eddie grabbed some water and offered him the bottle.
“Where’s my mom?”
“She went to the store,” Billy explained, “I opened the door because I thought it was her.”
I sat on his lap and hugged him close to my chest, he buried his face in my neck, taking shuddering breaths. I looked to the side where Eddie was sitting down on the couch next to us and giving me a small smile.
“We have to do something about him, this can’t go on,” I mumbled.
“No, he will be furious if he finds out.”
“He can’t do anything about it if you get a restraining order.”
“He won’t care.”
“But then the police could do something,” I argued.
“I said no, he will let it out on Max and Susan,” he said, getting louder. He disentangled his arms from around me and pushed me away, effectively putting some distance between us.
“Hey, man, don’t let it out on her,” Eddie defended me, “she’s right. We can’t have him bully and harass you like that. We can’t just do nothing.”
“No,” Billy said with a finality in his tone that we decided to drop it.
I got up and went to the kitchen, busying myself with making early dinner.
Eddie followed me, sighing. I smiled up at him and he grabbed the tomatoes and a knife, cutting them. I was just making a simple tomato sauce for pasta, adding herbs and stirring it.
“It’s gonna be fine, you know that, right?” Eddie spoke up, while he added the diced tomatoes.
“I know,” I sighed, “but we have to do something.”
“And we will.”
Eddie put an arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer. I laid my head against his chest and kept stirring the sauce.
“Should we add cheese?” I asked.
“Always add cheese, baby!”
He was insane.
We decided to eat in the living room, my mom still wasn’t back so it was just the three of us. I had called her to let her know we were home, so she could stay out longer if she wanted to and didn’t have to rush.
Setting the plates down on the table, Eddie followed with the drinks, I looked at Billy who was staring down at his lap. I sat next to him and leaned down to look at his face. There were tears in his eyes. A couple were running down his cheeks.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
He sniffled and wiped at his nose and eyes. “Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me. Tell me what’s wrong, please?”
“It’s stupid. It doesn’t matter,” Billy dismissed.
“Billy. You’re crying. Of course it matters. You can talk to me.”
He looked up and his bottom lip wobbled, a fresh tear escaping his left eye. “I just hate ... this,” he motioned to his body with his hands, “I just wanna be normal again. And,” he took in a deep breath, “I don’t want you to get tired of me,” he mumbled.
“I won’t get tired of you, why would you think that?”
“Look at me,” he almost yelled through his tears, “can’t even go out with you without having you push me around in my fucking wheelchair.”
“I don’t care about that. I won’t leave you because you can’t walk for a few months, that’s silly.”
“I don’t understand why you don’t,” he huffed. “You could be with anyone. Someone who can take you on dates and you can do stuff with,” Billy said. “Someone who can fuck you properly,” he added after a pause, “like Eddie.”
“I mean we would probably make a great couple, but we’re much better friends,” Eddie interjected.
“Why do you think it never turned into anything?” I added. “Baby, I’m not leaving you,” I said more serious. “I love you, Billy, no one else.”
“I love you,” he sniffled with a small smile.
I pecked his pouty lips a few times until it turned into bigger one.
“Let’s eat, yeah?”
I handed him his plate and grabbed my own and we ate in silence.
“Are you okay?” I quietly asked afterwards.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Billy said and kissed my lips.
I snuggled into his side, his arm around my shoulder. Eddie brought the plates to the kitchen and stood at the end of the couch when he came back.
“I can leave if you want some alone time,” he said.
“I drove you here.”
“Yeah, well, I could call Steve,” he shrugged.
“He has his first day at Family Video today. And he might come over after.”
“Right..”
“You can stay, man, it’s fine,” Billy said.
“You sure?”
“‘Course. It’s nothing against you, I just,” he took a deep breath, “I get a bit insecure sometimes with this ... whole ... situation.”
I knew admitting that wasn’t easy for Billy. He always wanted to appear strong and confident. Like nothing could get to him.
“No worries, man, I understand,” Eddie pat him on the shoulder and sat back down.
“I know you said you wouldn’t mind, but we would never do anything behind your back,” I said.
“I really wouldn’t mind, baby. If you want some good sex, then I understand,” Billy said, “as long as you stay with me.”
I chuckled, “I’m fine with just riding you until you’re better,” I shrugged. “Besides, your cock is fucking perfect, I could never leave that.”
Billy smirked and I giggled, leaning in to kiss him. Eddie groaned in faux disgust. He was the last person to mind overhearing some dirty talk. Especially from people he had joined twice now.
The knob on the front door turned and then the doorbell rang. Eddie rushed over to open it, we expected it to be my mom, but it was Steve and Robin.
“Were you just gonna come in?”
“Yeah,” Steve shrugged, “not like it would have been unannounced.”
He had gotten way too comfortable, but I just laughed it off. It’s not like I would have minded.
“Good to see you back here, Hargrove.”
“Good to be out of the hospital,” Billy replied.
Robin didn’t know Billy well before everything happened. She also didn’t visit him in the hospital often because of that, saying she didn’t want to take up a visitor spot if she wasn't even friends with him. So this day kind of acted as a proper getting-to-know-each-other.