-
Disclaimer: I do own anything from Stranger Things.
A/N: I've had some spare time, so I'm making the most of it, no judgement!
Chapter 6: A Thorn in His Side
Billy couldn't have gotten out of the house any faster, if he tried. He had nearly caught himself out wanting to just give up on his plans and stay.
Almost.
That wasn't him, he was Billy Hargrove, he made girls fall fast and hard; he then had his way with them and then
left them on the curb for some other poor bastard to pick up the pieces.
He wasn't the other guy,
-He just wasn't.
Before he had put his shoes and jacket on, el had toddled over with a glass of orange juice and two aspirin in hand, another gesture that she with a doubt cared about him.
It wasn't okay.
she was standing so close to him, he could smell her shampoo, he could see the tanned skin on her legs and the perfect delicate bare feet on the floor. She was vulnerable, honest and trusted him.
Why?
Pulling himself together, he briefly took his hands off the wheel, to slap his face, attempting to slap some sense into himself?
"Come on, keep it together." He chanted to himself.
"The first bohemiath blonde, I see. Is getting pounded." He said smirking to himself.
A tall blonde- the opposite to his little brunette intruder, that would fix everything.
Maybe I'll bring her back with me, kill two birds with one stone.
She'd hate me for sure then.
A small aching in his chest formed with that thought in mind, making her hate him more, meant that he'd have to hurt her. Why didn't that sit well with him?
He was deeply involved in his thoughts, when he spotted Rob's car, along with all his other acquaintances, it must have been some type of party.
"At this time of day?" Billy said to himself, peering down at his watch.
"Jesus, it's 5 pm." He added shocked that him and El had well and truly slept the day away.
Getting over the shock, he cruised out of the car, swinging his denim jacket over his shoulder, then proceeded to stroll up to the door, he hesitated for a moment, before knocking a few times, surprised that the door swung open so quickly.
"Hargove! Get the hell in here!" A tall jacked guy said, embracing Billy around the shoulder, basically throwing him into the house.
"Wasn't expecting to see you so soon, hope you're feeling better bro." he added, almost sincerely.
"Had to venture out, need to get laid." Billy said bluntly, smirking as he lit up a fresh cigarette.
"Haha, you sound like Rob man, he's so horny, he's nearly humping the furniture, outta control."
Billy smiled at his comment, silently laughing, as he blew the smoke out from his lungs, he gave a quick nod, then strutted out towards the crowd of people, working his normal angle: Act uninterested; and they will be.
--
El laid lazily on the sofa, she'd eaten what felt like her entire body weight in eggos, she hadn't bothered to get changed and was now feeling the cold evening air on her exposed legs, she regrettably sat up and began to walk towards the bathroom, she looked at herself in the mirror and was pleased to see that for the most part all the swelling on her face had gone down, there was only some slight bruising left.
She took off her t-shirt and neatly folded it,
"Bitchin'" She said smirking as she placed it the side for later, it was her favourite thing to sleep in, it had been Jonathon's, but since she had such limited clothing, he had gifted it to her.
-El being someone who was rarely gifted anything treated it as something valuable, if she was being honest, she had in fact, also taken a shining to the new band. – they were great.
She jumped into the shower and quickly shampooed her hair and scrubbed her delicate skin with the bar of soap already in there, after she had finished she then dug around in her closet looking for something to wear, she settled on a pair of high waisted jeans and a black cropped tee. She quickly finished her grooming by running her brush through hair and giving her teeth a thorough scrub. She hadn't even bothered to tie her shoelaces or zip her jacket. She was on a mission, she wanted to see Max, she also planned on stopping at a payphone to call Joyce before it was too late in the evening, waiting too long would make her worry and making her worry would mean a potential stop to her plans.
She ran most of the way, secretly because of how creeped out she got in the woods, once she had finished her now routine phone call, she set out towards Max's house. She had made the decision shortly after the arrangement of her new living conditions that she wouldn't tell her about living with Billy- she would find it weird and wouldn't get it.
She walked briskly the rest of the way, avoiding the puddles on the ground at an attempt of keeping her shoes dry this time. The night prior, by the time she had arrived at the cabin- her toes felt like they were going to fall off, she hadn't been entirely sure that they hadn't.
There was no wind, but the rain fell slowly in large droplets, El pulled the front of her hood together attempting to keep her already wet head dry.
She was relieved to see the front of Max's house after about half an hour of nonstop walking; she was anxious to see that all her other friends' bikes were out the front- including Mike's.
She held her breath as she made her way to the door and followed through with a few solid knocks, pounding hard enough that they heavy oak caused her knuckles to ache slightly.
Max opened the door, already mid-sentence, she had clearly looked through the peep hole as to who was at the door, because by the time she had opened it all the way, she was already at the words "Holy Shit!"
She screeched like a giddy schoolgirl, yanking her friend into an anxious embrace.
"You guys! You are never going to guess who's here!" The red head shouted frantically, causing all the gang to come bolting into the front room.
The all were overjoyed to see her, all embracing her in a long hug, except of course Mike, he kept his distance, but gave her a quick line of "it's really great to see you."
It was just Awkward,
his tone telling all too well that he had made a huge mistake and missed her a lot more than he led on.
She knew they were all having a good long hard look at the obvious trauma to her face, but no one seemed to care enough to ask her what had happened?
"What are you doing here?" Dustin asked, clearly asking the question that was on everyone's minds.
"I have some things to do here, I am actually going to need your help." She said softly.
"Oh God El, please don't tell me you're here, because of Billy, he hasn't been taken over again? By the Mind Flayer?" Max asked nervously.
"I haven't seen him in days, he basically missing…" she added.
"No not because of Billy, I have seen him though, he said he was going into town." El said honestly.
"Oh great, come on, let's go and find him, I want to talk to him." Max said yanking El by the shoulder to follow her.
"Come on guys, we can play the game later." Max said to the rest of the group, urging them to follow.
"He won't be in town, he'll be at that big party around the corner from here, Steve was talking about it earlier today." Dustin chipped in.
"That's even better, let's go and get dressed up and sneak in!" Max said excitedly.
"Sneak in," El repeated.
"Yeah come on, you guys wait out here for us, then we'll all go." She added, pulling El into the direction of her room.
"Um, I think we are going to go back to my house," Mike said casually.
"Max, do you know what seniors do to nerdy freshmen… They will MURDER us, you guys will be fine-you'll be better off without us- you're girls." Dustin reasoned.
"Fine, thanks for your support." Max said coldly, specifically looking at Lucas.
He responded to her anger with a simple sheepish smile and a gentle shrug of the shoulders, causing Max to roll her eyes, and continue towards her room as the group exited the house.
--
El sat in front of Max like prey being attacked by a predator, she drew the line at Max's attempt at putting a gallon of hair spray in her hair, she was however, sporting some bright pink lipstick and vibrant blush on her cheeks, Max had also managed to cover all the wounds on her face, she had felt compelled to when she had found out what had happened. Once her friend was done her work of art, she looked in the mirror slightly shocked at what she saw.
"Gorgeous," Max said peeling herself back from her masterpiece.
"gorgeous." El repeated smiling.
"Are you gonna wear that?" Max said prying through all the clothes in her closet.
"I've got a ton of dresses you can wear you know?" She said suggestively.
El shook her head as she flipped through a magazine on her bed.
"Suit yourself, I'm going to wear this one." Max said slipping into an emerald green dress, the sleeves bigger than her head.
El snorted a little, but quickly stopped as Max's head came spinning around to glare at her.
"Why are we 'dressing up'?" El asked clearly confused.
"Because there are going to be senior boys there and we HAVE to blend in." She explained, throwing her hair in a side pony.
El Nodded at her, in recognition of her answer, she looked nervous of the situation and there was no hiding it.
"It'll be fine, now come on, let's go! Neil and my mom are going to be home at 10 o'clock." She said gesturing to her friend to follow her.
--
It only took what seemed like thirty seconds to arrive at their destination, it was dark now, and there weren't many streetlights around the house. The music was blaring, but it was muffled so there was no determining what was playing.
The two girls were kneeling down, hiding behind a car parked, Max's suspicions were confirmed when she saw that Billy's car was indeed parked up on the front lawn.
"Come on, it's now or never," she said walking up the driveway, looking back to see El following closely behind her.
They made their way into the house, not needing to knock on account of the party fully pumping now, they placed their jackets on top the pile that was now on the floor and began walking towards where all the apparent action was.
"Hargove, it looks like you've pulled through." Rob said smirking suggestively, pointing towards the other side of the room. He'd known full well that he interrupted Billy mid pick up line.
Didn't matter though she'd wait.
Billy stood Shell shocked for a moment not knowing if he was hallucinating or not.
His sister,
And the girl,
Eleven.
El.
What
The
Fuck.
Are they doing here!?
"I guess I owe you big time now, that little brunette is a damn treat, haven't seen her around before, looks like fun-." Rob said licking his chops.
Billy's blood boiled under his skin, with out a second thought, he tossed, the tall blonde off his lap, and aggressively extinguished his cigarette into the ashtray on the coffee table in front of him, he then marched over the wear the two clueless girls stood.
She's a goddamn thorn in my side-
Had she gone looking for me?
Fuck, she looks gorgeous-
Stop it shit for brains, focus and get them the hell out of here.
He lunged towards the two of them, grabbing them both by the forearms, staring furiously into both their eyes, looking back and forth between them, not needing to say a word, his eyes demanding an immediate explanation.
"I just wanted to see you- to make sure that you're okay- I'm sorry, we didn't mean to crash and embarrass you." Max said shamefully.
"Max, just get home." He said releasing her arm, before looking to El who was looking up at him with her classic look of 'deer in headlights'
"You stay here. – I will drive you home." He said angrily, behind gritted teeth.
"Where are you sta-?" Max started, before Billy began escorting her to the door.
"It doesn't matter, just get the hell home, I don't want you leading dad here- I don't want to see his stupid fucked face okay Maxine? I'll take El home, just get yourself home!" He said slamming the door on her, giving her no choice but to head back home.
When he came back to where he had left El, he was annoyed to see she wasn't there.
"Where has she pissed off to now?" He muttered under his breath while scanning the room closely.
"She's over there?" A girl said pointing towards the backyard, giggling at his worried facial expression.
"What's the matter Billy, finally find a girl you can't just use and abuse?" She asked still giggling to herself.
"Rob scooped her up so quickly she's probably already got her legs spread." She added menacingly, clearly trying to wind him up… And it appeared to be working a treat because he then continued to stomp angrily towards her recommendation, ignoring her snide comments, too angry to bite back at her.
He was even more aggravated when he saw that El was currently pin against a wall between what Rob thought to be his enormous biceps.
Fuck me,
She looks terrified.
El stood frozen, her face so bewildered, people would have though she was lost, her face would most definitely be placed on a milk carton. Normally, she would just shove him off with a quick push of her powers, but as she remember she was currently lacking in that department, she decided instead to try and dismiss his advances, like any other girl would; with the power of words, unfortunately words were never her forte.
"You're stunning, you know that? Anyone ever tell you; you should be a model?" He said taking a swig of his beer.
"Model." She repeated, uncertain of the meaning of the word.
"Yeah, like that hot chick from that movie, what's it called? Oh yeah… Flash Dance… You look like you could dance like that…" He said eyeing the contours of her body, up and down.
El had no idea what this guy was even talking about, to make matters worse, he was breathing his hot beer breath all over her face making her feel instinctively sick.
"I like your style you know, you don't look like the rest of these chicks, they're fake and dressed up like they're going to the prom or some shit," He said chuckling to himself before leaning in to steal a kiss, El quickly ducked and moved her head to the side, avoiding the contact.
"I got to go and find Billy; he'll be looking for me." She said nervously, attempting to dismiss herself from this extremely uncomfortable situation.
"Don't you worry you're pretty little head about Billy, he knows you're with me, he owes me and you're more than enough." He said seedily leaning back in, more aggressively this time to ensure she couldn't avoid his advances.
"No." She said, pushing him back as hard as she could, unfortunately not even making him flinch, he just laughed in her face at her efforts.
It was fortunate for Rob that Billy had only seen the tail end of their interaction, because he was to put it simply- Livid.
Who the fuck does he think he is,
Praying on some innocent girl,
Who clearly is terrified,
And my sister's friend, like he didn't even think to ask me, if she was fair game.
It's not like I give a shit who he fucks, but I mean come on, this girl, she clearly needs a specific kind of guy, not some dickwad who just wants to stick it in her and be done with her, -no she needs someone who's going to actually be there in the morning.
Someone good.
He can't actually be interested in anything more than a one-night stand, what would he see in her anyways, besides a nice piece of ass-
--fucking perfection.
Just break it up idiot.
Just as Billy was about to get into his what would mostly likely be at least his one hundredth fight, Rob came spirally backwards, pushing Billy into a confused frenzy.
What the hell?
"I said no… mother breather", El said walking towards the confused jock.
"Yeah shit for brains, she said 'no.'" Billy added coldly pushing him back into the wall.
"She's a fucking freak bro, there's something wrong with her… she's crazy, she pushed me, I don't even know how, but she did." Rob said illogically.
"She pushed you? She weighs as much as my arm, how the hell would she have done that? You're a creep, is what you are." Billy said bitterly, as he closed in on him furiously.
"Billy come on, we're friends, you said I could- it's not like you guys are together or something? "He said nervously as if questioning.
Billy ignored his comment, too angry to even listen to the bull shit he was saying, he started wailing on him, too angry to stop himself, he would have kept going had someone from behind not pulled him off- it was Steve.
"What Harrington? What's your problem?" He bit back, his hands all bloody.
"He's had enough man, I came out here, because of El- She ran off, she was upset… She told me what happened..." He said awkwardly
"Fuck, which way did she leave?" He asked running his hand through his hair.
"She said to find Hopper, I know it's so crazy, she was obviously upset and not thinking." Steve said trying to assure the worried look on Billy's face.
"Why is she even here? And why are you two here together?" Steve pressed further.
"Long story, I gotta find her, you comin'?" Billy said looking back to his once arched enemy.
"Yeah, for her, not for you. You're still an asshole." He answered bitterly.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Billy said looking back at the battered victim on the ground.
