CHAPTER 1 – LOVE AT FIRST STING
Billy Hargrove was not in the mood to be fucked with today.
And it was because today was shit. It was getting closer and closer to the end of the year, which meant end of highschool for Billy, but he was not any closer to graduation. Far from it even, and every teacher made sure to remind him that. Just like his father made sure to remind him he was like he'd always thought he was, a good for nothing, pathetic failure.
But for a funny reason, those were not the reasons for his pissy mood today. After all, the problem of his father had always been there, shadowing over him so much that unless he got another beating out of the man, then it was considered a good day. His problem though, right now, was Hawkins. Everything about it. From this stupid school that he was forced to go to, and then forced to become king of just because he loved attention that much, to his stupid sister Max.
And thinking of her made him even angrier.
Not only was he stuck babysitting her again, because his dad and that slut he called wife had disappeared for another few days, but his father had made sure to remind him what would happen if he'd get her out of his sight like that last time. So now Billy had to wait for her to finish classes like always, and on top of that, to make sure she wouldn't hang out with that Sinclair boy again.
And she was late, too. He was going to break something today.
He was leaning against his blue Camaro now, after having already gone through three cigarettes while he was waiting for his sister, and he was slowly losing patience. He wanted to go home, get away from this cow shit smell and lock himself in his room with rock blasting from every speaker. And he decided right then, as his hand reached for the pack of cigarettes, that after he smoked another one and that shithead wasn't going to show up, then he was going to let her skate home. If she wanted to go look for trouble on her own she could, he was not her fucking babysitter.
So, Billy took the cigarette out of his Marlboro pack and put it between his lips, and he would have been about to reach for his lighter if his hand hadn't stopped mid movement. In fact, Billy was sure everything had stopped dead in its tracks now, because there was a silhouette moving towards him. And it was not his sister Max.
~Soundtrack: Somo – Talking Body~
And what a silhouette that was.
The girl that was walking towards him had a cigarette between her lips, that was the first thing Billy noticed. And generally, it wouldn't have caught his attention, had he known any girls at Hawkins High who smoked. Sure, he had bribed a few "good" girls here and there between rounds, and they'd accepted giggling because the thought of rebelling was so damn intriguing. But a girl who smoked on her own? Now that was the real intriguing thing.
The second thing he noticed was her body. He would have been blind not to, in all fairness, because she was just as smoking hot as every one of the Hawkins' fresh meats, if not maybe hotter. His eyes travelled up and down her body shamelessly as he really took it in, from the tight black jeans she wore that hugged her body in just the right places, to the leather jacket that covered her slim waist and her tucked grey shirt, and then finally resting on her face.
And his eyes got stuck again on the cigarette. To the way her pink lips curved around it. To the smoke floating around her as she blew it casually. Oh, she was something, Billy decided. And he knew how he got when he saw something he liked. He would go ahead and get it.
After all, he thought, why not? Max was nowhere to be seen, and seeing as the girl was from the same high school as he was, she definitely knew about him. King of Hawkins. Who wouldn't? This was going to be easy, he told himself as the girls approached at a leisure pace, and was heading luckily enough for Billy in his direction.
So, dropping the lighter back in his pocket, Billy straightened his back, smiled with the cigarette still between his teeth, and spoke just as the girl passed him with no glance.
"Excuse me," he spoke in a voice he'd practiced in every mirror he would get his hands on, a voice that he knew worked every damn time without failure. "I'm really sorry, but do you mind if I borrow your lighter for a second?"
The girl stopped finally, with her back still to him, and slowly turned to face him.
For a second, she didn't say anything. She took him in, as if she hadn't seen him when she'd walked right by him, and took her time with it, too, while also taking another drag out of her cigarette. Except, to Billy's surprise, the girl had the best poker face he had seen in a while. He was used to girls' expressions as they would scan him from either up close or check him out from far away for the first time. He knew the small shape of "o" their mouths formed, the subtle interest shining in their eyes as they widened just enough for him to notice. But with her? He could read nothing.
So instead, Billy took the opportunity and studied her from up close, too. He started just as before, from bottom to top, and if he thought her curves were noticeable from far away, from here he had to stop himself from giving a sharp, appreciative whistle. He licked his lips slowly and continued his journey, finally stopping on her face again and noticed how her eyes were of the bluest color he had ever seen. Bluer than his. A different shade, too, because if what many girls had told him was true, then his eyes were ocean blue. Hers looked more like sky blue, and they would have almost looked innocent, like wide doe eyes, had they not been covered around with dark make up. With that, it almost gave them a dangerous look. Especially with how they were looking at him now, studying him but showing no emotion.
Billy smiled again as the girl reached in the pocket of her jacket and handed her lighter to him. He took it, letting his grin grow wider, and lit up the cigarette all the while maintaining eye contact.
"Now," he started again, blowing the first drag to his right, and took his shot. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but have we meet before? Because I definitely feel like I've seen you somewhere."
And funnily enough, that was not even a lie. There was something familiar about her face, something he couldn't quite place. But then the thought occurred to him that if he had seen her before and not hit on her, he must have been drunk. Even then, it wouldn't have been a good enough excuse.
"Really?" she spoke the first words to him finally, and her husky voice had Billy biting his lip involuntarily. Oh, he had a pretty good idea of what sounds that pretty little mouth of hers could make.
He waited a second before he took another drag. "Do you go to high school here?"
"Occasionally."
He gave a short laugh.
"Occasionally," Billy repeated slowly, and considered his next move carefully before he took a step closer to her, and then another. And if she was surprised at the sudden, unasked for closeness, she didn't show it. She was a tough cookie, Billy had to give her that. "I knew I didn't see you around that often because I know that if I did," he took the cigarette out of his mouth and pointed it at her with a casual smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "I would've remembered you."
And with that last line, he blew the smoke and waited for a reaction. He got her, he told himself. He got her good. And finally, after a long pause filled with silence, the girl broke her poker face and let a smile slowly form on her lips.
There it is.
And if Billy's years of flirting experience were any indication, he knew that smile. He'd seen it so many times before on girls, it was the smile that meant they were growing curious. Curious enough to explore him. And here he had been, thinking this would be a challenge.
"I'm Billy Hargrove," he spoke again, letting his smile drop this time and his back straighten.
The girl answered with no hesitation. "I know who you are."
Billy laughed again. "Well that doesn't seem fair, does it?"
She paused again and let her previous, short-lived smile fade and her face take another neutral expression, not before she dropped her finished cigarette on the ground. "So, Billy," she spoke in a more quiet tone, but without letting her voice lose any of that huskiness. "Do you think I could have my lighter back?"
Maybe the challenge wasn't over, he thought as he reached again in his pocket and took out his pack instead. And, looking for that special cigarette in the pack that he always carried around, because it had his phone number written on it, he took another step forward. Now, they were practically inches away from each other, and he could breathe in her scent, just as she could probably smell his cologne. He knew it was the right move to put some on this morning. After all, just like it was in the case with the phone number cigarette, you never knew.
But she didn't smell like perfume, Billy noticed. She smelled like cigarettes, leather, and a whiff of what was probably her shampoo, something mixed with mint and citruses.
Leisurely, he reached over and put the cigarette with his number behind her ear, and let it get caught in her wavy, dark brown hair. He even let his gaze drop to her lips in the less subtle way possible, then back to her eyes.
The cigarette thing wasn't a move he pulled often, he could say he had done it once or twice since he'd thought about it. But so far, he could vouch for its resourcefulness. And even if this girl liked to play cool and mysterious, Billy could tell she was intrigued. She had to be, he told himself.
"How about," his voice was now a whisper too, tickling her cheek. "You let me give you a ride home, and then you can have your lighter back. Sounds like a fair deal?"
She looked into his eyes for what must have been a couple of long seconds, and even though he was trying to tell himself she was just playing hard to get, he was starting to wonder how much composure this girl had. He could not read her for the life of him.
And then, just when he was sure she was on the verge of agreeing, she did the most unexpected thing. She started laughing.
It wasn't a whole laugh. Just short and a little unkept, and if Billy hadn't been so confused, he would've thought it sounded nice. But he was too busy frowning at her reaction.
"What's so funny?" he asked, and in response, she just shook her head and took the cigarette from between her long locks.
"How about I tell you what, Billy," she said, her voice sounding still amused. "I take back my lighter, and as a little parting gift, I don't embarrass you in front of your sister with a rejection."
She looked over his shoulder at the last part, and with a frown still between his eyes, Billy turned around and saw Max heading over on her skateboard.
Billy had never thought he could hate that little shit more than he already did.
And before he could protest, the girl took her lighter back from his hands, and gave him the second biggest surprise for today. She put the cigarette with his number on it between her lips and lit it without a second thought.
As embarrassing as it was, his jaw involuntarily dropped.
"I'll see you around," she said her last words to him before she blew the smoke, smirked and turned on her heels, leaving Billy gaping.
For seconds, he just stood like that, still processing what had just happened. Had she just rejected him? After she'd sat there, playing along to his little game and not backing away, had she really just played him?
"Who the hell was that?" Max's voice came from behind him, and he took a few seconds to still process before he turned around.
But when he did, all Billy could do was glare at his sister.
o-o-o
~Soundtrack: Scorpions – Rock You Like A Hurricane~
After the initial shock had faded, all there was left for Billy to do was get angry.
Today was just not his day. And it wasn't because he'd been rejected. If anything, he understood rejection. He'd been rejected before by girls who played the goody two shoes and who thought that if they'd as much as hang out with someone like him, they'd catch some kind of plague or STD. He knew the girls that went for him, the girls who wanted to rebel, who wanted to stick it to their parents and prove they weren't like any other girls, even though each and every one of them was the same. He was their weapon of rebellion. Not like he'd ever minded.
And he'd thought this girl was just the same. Not a good girl gone bad, no. Maybe just a girl who'd wanted to play bad to begin with, without his nudge. Yet…
It was unnerving him, and he told himself it was only because he was having a bad day to begin with. He'd just needed a win, and it had blown in his face unexpectedly. That was all it was. A challenge unconquered. He was going to get over it as soon as he'd be deep in someone else tonight.
Still, he couldn't stop the usual fight with Max from happening. He had given her an earful, even gave her another scare when he sped down the highway that led to their house dangerously. He had to admit, the turned all the way up "Scorpions" song and the smell of gasoline, along with Max's scared expression put him in a better mood.
So, by the time they got to their house, Billy was already feeling lighter. He got out of the car after his sister stormed out angrily, not before flipping him off, and laughed at her reaction. He was rubbing off on that little shit, he could tell. He took out his pair of sunglasses and looked around, stretching his stiff back.
It was all just the same. Smell of cow shit, quiet neighborhood, nothing remotely interesting going on. He missed California. It was impossible not to when being stuck in this hellhole of a town.
Yet when he was about to head inside as well, his eye caught something again. And the déjà vu feeling hit hard, along with another wave of shock.
Because, on the front porch of the house next to theirs on the left, stood none other than the girl he'd met just minutes before, smoking another cigarette.
To say his jaw was on the floor was not even remotely covering it.
He took a few seconds to process it. How had she gotten there so fast? No, what was she doing there to begin with? Was she…
Oh.
Of course she had seemed familiar. He must have seen her before at least once. She was his fucking neighbor. How on hell had he missed that?
And he was just about to go over there and give her a piece of his mind for having messed with him before, when she'd clearly known they were neighbors, but she beat him to it. Because as soon as she saw him, a knowing smile spread on her lips and she put out her cigarette, ready to go inside. But before she did that, she put her middle and index finger together in the finger gun style, pointed it at him and pretended to shoot in a mocking gesture.
And Billy should have felt angry again, he thought as the sound of the closed door behind her rang in the quiet neighborhood. The girl was playing him for a fool, and that was a thing Billy Hargrove rarely tolerated. But he wasn't feeling angry. No, that previous anger had slowly faded.
Instead, he let a smile of his own tug at his lips. This was far from being over.
Game on, he thought, before going back inside as well.