CHAPTER 2 – GETAWAY CAR

~Soundtrack: Yungblud – Parents~

Penelope Skye slammed the front door of the house behind her with force, and let out a frustrated grunt. She took the first thing she could grab her, which happened to be a small, decorative flower pot, and threw it against one of the front porch walls, sending the shattered pieces everywhere. She was aware she was making a scene that might wake up the other neighbors, but she didn't care by this point. Tonight was just one of those nights.

It had all started like just a regular family dinner, too. She and her parents were sitting at the table, after they had forcefully dragged her out of her room to have "one decent meal together", and of course they couldn't help themselves and start the sharp, bitter, passive-aggressive comments. And Penelope knew this would happen the moment she'd sat down at the table, but she had the audacity to hope tonight would be different; that maybe they could pretend they didn't hate their daughter for one night. It was safe to say now she'd been asking for too much.

The first comment was about school. And Penelope could handle that, she was so used to it by now, and after all, she had her good grades to throw in their faces. She might not have gone to school that often, skipping a few classes here and there, but when she did, she made sure she wasn't going to fail any exams. After all, she wanted a great GPA, she would need one to go to college to NYU like she'd always wanted to. That was the plan. Graduate with the best GPA she could pull off, and get the hell away from her parents and this shithole of a town. In fact, NYU wasn't even set in stone, she would've been happy going wherever as long as it meant getting away from here.

But then they had hit her with it. After they'd mentioned for the hundredth time that they knew all about her skipping and that they were sick of it, they told her they were putting their foot down. They would not financially help her in any way to go to college, because according to them, if she couldn't even bother to take high school seriously, why would they waste their savings and have her fail college just like she did everything else.

Penelope tries to be civil at first. She tried reasoning with her dad, because she knew she could crack him faster than her mom. She tried to say her grades were good, so who cared if she wasn't so perfect. But she should have known it was a lost cause to begin with. They were having none of it. It didn't matter that it was her dream. It didn't matter that it was the only fucking thing she cared about by this point. It only mattered that they finally had the excuse to tie her down here, and spit in her face everyday how much they wished they'd never had her.

So then, Penelope did the other thing she knew best. She got angry.

She told them she didn't need them. She told them she would find a way to get out of there, because she was damned if she was going to spend more time than she had to in that disgusting house.

Naturally, hell had followed after that.

Now here she was. Standing alone on the front porch after she'd stormed out, at one in the morning, with nowhere to go. She couldn't go back inside. She wouldn't want to anyway. In fact, she had half a mind to get the backpack she'd grabbed in a hurry, leave and never come back.

But the other half knew she couldn't. The other half was tired and wanted to sleep, wanted to forget that she felt like she was stuck in quicksand.

So, with shaking hands that she ran through her messy hair, Penelope climbed down the stairs of her front porch and looked around at the quiet neighborhood. Everyone was sleeping. The few handful of people she called friends were most definitely sleeping too, and she didn't want to disturb any of them, since they would ask questions and she'd never told anyone about her home situation. After all, why would she bother? Everyone had daddy or mommy issues of their own.

With that last thought, Penelope's eyes drifted to her right. To the Hargrove house.

She had seen them move a few months back, the red haired girl and her slut-looking brother, along with the tough attitude dad and the fragile-like mom. She'd seen them at school, too, but that mostly applied to Billy. And it wasn't even 'cause she'd noticed him, it was all because how much everyone liked to talk about him, like he was some kind of James Dean. Penelope knew better, he wasn't shit. She'd seen the way he provoked one of her friends, Steve Harrington, the way he stunk of testosterone and fragile masculinity and the way he thought that doing keg stands and sleeping with the trashiest women of Hawkins High made him an alpha male. And she would have been the blindest woman alive to say he didn't look like some Greek God. But as far as she was concerned, Billy Hargrove's looks were the only good thing about him.

That was why the incident from a few days ago when he'd hit on her hadn't surprised her at all. She'd dealt with his type before, knew how to shut it down. She was left unbothered and only amused by his expression as she'd left, and since then, she'd barely given it any thought.

But now, she stared at their house and pondered. She hadn't been deaf, she'd heard the sounds of screams and slams from time to time coming from their house, and if one were to psychoanalyze Billy Hargrove, the logical deduction was that he was a product of abandonment issues and even more messed up daddy issues. So he must have known a thing or two about shitty parenting.

Why was she thinking all of this, Penelope wondered? The fucked up mess that was the Hargrove family wasn't her main concern right now, her only problem was that she was alone in the middle of the night, with no place to sleep. She thought about getting herself arrested for a second. At least that way she would sleep in a cell. But then it occurred to her that no one would come to bail her out. No one would have really cared or had the money to.

She kept gnawing at her bottom lip, thinking over her options. A bench? Too dangerous. A friend's house? Too vulnerable for her.

And as she ran through every single last one of her possibilities, her eyes landed on the beautiful blue Camaro parked in front of the Hargrove house. And Penelope almost laughed at how dumb she'd been not to think of this first, given the fact that she knew how to pick the locks of a car. She'd hijacked an ex boyfriend's car at some point after all.

So, with a smirk that meant trouble, she walked at a fast pace towards the car and thanked god she still carried around hair pins she never used. She kicked it once with her foot to make sure no alarm was going to go off, then used the pin she had in her pocket to work the lock. And either some devil down there was helping her or luck was just with her tonight, but the door opened in what couldn't have been more than three minutes, and Penelope climbed inside the backseat.

She wasn't dumb. She knew she could go to jail for this if that douchebag found out. And oh, what a fit he would throw, too. But he wasn't going to, Penelope decided. She would set an alarm for 6 in the morning, get her backpack and then walk to school, or wherever else she could think of, then come up with something from there. And then maybe, after a few days, she would come back home.

When Penelope climbed inside, she gave a short, appreciate huff at how clean it looked. She had to admit, she expected much worse. The leather seats smelt nice, and if she sniffed closely she could smell his cologne, but she decided against being that kind of girl. There were no thrown out panties around, or used condoms, not even an empty pack of cigarettes. She was impressed. For a guy, he kept his car neater than it would've been expected.

She lied down, and wanted to laugh at how ridiculous this was. She was sleeping inside Billy Hargrove's car, days after he'd hit on her and she'd rejected him. Whatever lady fate was up there must have really hated her. Or maybe she just had to admit to herself that she was that desperate.

So, with those thoughts in mind, Penelope Skye fell asleep.

o-o-o

~Soundtrack: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – I hate myself for loving you~

Billy woke up the next day in a pretty good mood. His dad had called last night, telling them it would be another few days before him and Susan would be back home, and then Billy had received a second happy phone call, from chief Hopper to tell him Max would spend the night over at El. He just had the entire house to himself, which meant only one thing for Billy.

As soon as he'd gone to a party and found someone new and dumb enough to cling to his arm for the entire time, he'd taken her home and spent the rest of the night making sure the neighbors heard the screams. And even after she'd left, or most likely after he'd kicked her out, the good mood had still stayed with Billy. Sure, the weekend was over which meant he would have to go back to that shit school. But the week was starting off pretty good.

So, he got dressed, went through his usual getting ready routine that took about an hour, had his usual cigarette for breakfast and headed out the door. Not even the smell of shit could put him in a bad mood this morning. So, whistling to himself, Billy got out of the house, wiggling his car keys in one hand, and stopped on the front porch. He looked to his left, like he did every morning since the last couple of days, and sighed.

There was no sign of her this morning either.

After that moment from school with the cigarette, and the mocking she'd given him by just smirking at him from across, they hadn't talked. He'd seen her once, maybe twice, once at the cafeteria talking to that douchebag Steve, and the second time from his window as she'd sneaked inside her house at midnight. He'd even asked at school about her, found out her name. Penelope Skye. He hated how much it suited her.

Billy would lie to say he hadn't hoped for another encounter. He'd had this whole idea in his head that there was a game going on that he'd started and she'd continued, and now he just couldn't wait for another round, and he was sure she was just playing hard to get. He had a feeling. And like he'd promised himself, this was far from over. He didn't like to go to extreme lengths for the things that he wanted, since he would normally get them anyway, but there was a certain thrill to this, too.

Still, it looked like today wasn't the day to run into her either. So, Billy shook his head to himself and headed over to the car, ready to take his good mood all the way to Hawkins High. He unlocked the car and got seated in the driver's seat, doing the first thing he always did in the morning: turning on the car radio, and letting the loud sound of rock'n'roll fill the air.

The second thing he did like every other morning was turn the side-view mirror to himself and smile. He looked good, he admitted, so he gave his reflection a wink.

"How you doin', gorgeous?" he told his mirror image, flashing his pearly whites, and before he could say anything else, the answer came from the back.

"I'm doing good, baby, how you doing?"

Billy's eyes widened as he startled and turned around abruptly, only to be greeted by none other than Penelope's Skye smirking face.

Jesus fucking Christ.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he yelled, and earned a shrug from her, which drove Billy even more furious. "What the…did you break in my car? What the hell do you think you're doing, I thought I was being fucking robbed. I swear to God –"

She groaned, throwing her head back, acting like she hadn't just fucking startled Billy to death. "Geez, relax already, it's not like I stole your car, I just borrowed it for a night."

"Borrowed," Billy repeated to himself, feeling like a vein was about to pop out of his forehead. How crazy was this woman exactly? "What the fuck are you talking about?"

And then it hit him as he took her in. Her normally wavy hair was now ruffled and going in all directions, and her eyes puffy with no more dark, heavy eyeliner around them. And she sounded like…

"Did you…" Billy started slowly, realizing that she'd just woken up. "Did you sleep in my car?"

She hesitated for a second before answering. "…Maybe,"

What in all the possible hells was wrong with this woman? How had he not realized how crazy she was in fact? Who the hell slept in other people's cars? And not just anyone's, but his car, the only thing Billy owned that he would've killed people for. No one touched his car.

"Look," Penelope hurried to speak, all traces of amusement gone from her face now as she leaned in towards him and rested her elbow on the passenger's seat. "I know how this looks, okay? It's bad. And I swear, I had no intention of you finding me here. The plan was that I was gonna wake up earlier, get out and go to school before you would even realize I was here, and then act like it never happened."

"What –" he tried to say, feeling himself getting even angrier, but she stopped him.

"I'm sorry. I really, really am. I promise I didn't mean any harm, and I didn't do anything to your precious fucking car, so can we please just act like this never happened?"

And Billy was just about to say that he was far from accepting that apology, not like that. But then it dawned on him, as Penelope reached for the car handle ready to get out. This looked familiar in some sort of way.

"Why?" he asked quietly, but Penelope still heard him and stopped.

"I'm sorry?"

"Why did you sleep in my car?"

His anger seemed to fade now, replaced by some sick sort of curiosity, and a gut feeling he couldn't shake. He had definitely seen this happen before, to himself.

She looked taken aback for a second by his question, and took a moment before answering. "I already said I'm sorry. What else do you want me to do?"

"I asked why."

"Fuck off," she said, ready to go out again, but Billy stopped her again.

Of course he had seen this before. During nights when his dad would get so bad he just knew he would come home to a beating, or after he'd do something that would most definitely earn him at least a shoving, Billy wouldn't go home. Not in California, not here in Hawkins either. Instead, as soon as he'd gotten his hands on this car, he would sleep inside and go back the next day, when he would feel more ready to deal with the situation.

This looked and felt exactly the same, except reversed.

"Was it because of your parents?"

And that question made Penelope stop dead in her tracks.

For a second, she just stood frozen with her back half turned to him and the door to the car slightly open, and for some reason it made Billy wonder if he should've kept his mouth shut. And the answer to that came right away, because Penelope closed the door again and turned to him, with a murderous look in her eyes.

"That is none of your goddamn fucking business. And if you ask me shit like that again, and I won't feel guilty enough to stop myself from punching you in the balls."

And if there was a second thing Billy recognized was that kind of reaction. It was the same reaction he would've had if someone would've asked about his dad. And maybe Billy didn't know what had went down, or had any interest in knowing, but he still scanned her body for any bruises, and found that she had none. None that were visible anyway. Not like he cared if she did anyway.

And because the air was growing heavier with things Billy didn't want to think about and Penelope was making another attempt at leaving, he decided it was time to flip the switch and change into his more comfortable skin, one that didn't talk about daddy issues and breaking into cars.

"Okay, you're right, fair enough," he held up his hands and smiled in the mirror at her. "But you do owe me one."

"I don't –"she begun to say defensively, but he held up a finger.

"You broke into my car, sweetheart, the least you could do is show me you really mean that apology," the eye roll she gave almost had Billy crack a laugh. "So let me give you a ride to school."

He heard the scoff she gave, but he knew he caught her there. She did feel guilty, he could tell, and as much as she didn't want to give in and let him win this round, just like she'd won the last one, she wanted to get rid of the debt, and he was offering something as simple as a car ride. Better that than something worse, she probably would figure.

So, Billy tried not to let his smirk show as she dropped back in the seat and crossed her hands against her chest as she said, "Fine, but I'm staying here and I'm not talking."

He laughed softly. "Of course you're not"

o-o-o

~Soundtrack: The Score - Heat~

Penelope kept good on her promise and stayed silent the entire ride. And because Billy was just as stubborn and because the car ride was short and he was still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened, he didn't say a word either.

Still, in spite of her sulkiness and the silence and the previous nerve he'd seemed to strike, when he parked in front of the school at his usual spot and they both got out, Billy didn't expect her to just start walking away without another word.

So, before he could stop himself or think twice about what he was doing, he caught her wrist as she tried to go past him and stopped her.

And in hindsight, Billy should have realized that was a bad move to make. But right now, all he knew was that after days when he hadn't seen this girl, he'd found her sleeping in his car, and for some reason, he didn't want to leave it at that. This was his second chance. And he hadn't even gotten the chance to play any of his moves yet.

So, seeing as Penelope didn't yet make a move to try to free herself, Billy let his hand linger on her wrist as he threw her a smile. "You know, sweetheart, I can't help but say I'm getting some mixed feelings here. First you turn me down, and then I find you sleeping in my car," his grin grew wider and his voice a little quieter as the only response Penelope gave was an arched eyebrow. "Next time you need a place to crash, you can just call me."

The feeling of déjà vu hit Billy again as Penelope studied him for a few seconds, in a way that had him replay his words inside his head. And when he thought he couldn't read her just like the last time, she leaned in a few inches closer and looked at him between lowered eyelashes in a way that almost made Billy gulp. God, she was intoxicating.

When she spoke, her husky voice came out more playful than Billy would've expected. "Too bad I don't have your number."

And out of context, that would've seemed like a perfectly normal flirty line. But Billy knew exactly what she meant by those words.

He bit his lower lip against a bitter smile. "Well, whose fault is that?"

For the second time in only a matter of minutes, Penelope surprised him again by leaning in even more, making him catch another hint of her scent. He could have practically leaned in and kissed her if he would've wanted to. And damn it if he didn't want to. And as if to drive him even wilder, she let her other hand rest on top of the palm that was still holding her wrist.

"You know what they say, big guy, maybe you should do yourself a favor and take mixed signals as a no."

And in one slow motion, she lifted his hand and made him let go of her wrist, before taking a step back and getting ready to turn once more on her heels and leave.

Jesus Christ.

Billy bit the inside of his cheek along with the swear he'd wanted to let out at the abrupt turn of events. How on hell had she managed to play him just like before, making him think she was finally going to give in before slapping him in the face with a refusal? He couldn't tell if that only frustrated him or made him even more interested.

So, because he wasn't ready for this to be over just like that, he still called after her, like a fucking fool.

"How about a smoke then?"

And shockingly enough, she stopped once again and turned around.

Billy had really meant what he'd said earlier about mixed signals. She'd turned him down not once, but twice counting this one, yet here she was. Sleeping in his car, and making him think she was flirting back, and stopping for a smoke with him. He had always known that women were mysterious, hard to read creatures, but he could safely say he'd never met one quite this nerve-wrecking.

He smiled victoriously as he took a cigarette out of his pocket and put it between his lips, lightning it, and waited for her to do the same. But she didn't.

Instead, she took another step towards him and crossed her arms against her chest. "You really don't like giving up, do you?"

Billy simply shrugged. "What can I say, I'm a determined guy. I see something I like," he paused, looking her up and down slowly, stopping his journey to stare a few seconds at her lips. "And I get it."

She narrowed her eyes at him and let out an incredulous huff, as if to say she couldn't believe he was still that arrogant. Truth was, Billy didn't know how he could still pull off that kind of confidence after his ego had taken such a beating in the span of a week from the same girl.

She looked at his lips, or at the cigarette between them most likely, before she reached and snatched it from his mouth with her fingers. "You're a waste of good looks, did you know that, Hargrove?"

And with what Billy knew now that it was her signature smirk, Penelope took a drag out of the stolen cigarette before turning on her heels for good this time and leaving him behind.

Even so, he could not bring himself to be frustrated or confused once again. He just felt…intrigued. Like the same kind of feeling one got at the end of a rollercoaster. Terrified, but with the adrenaline in his veins pumping and yelling for more.

Penelope Skye was one hell of a rollercoaster.

And even though he admitted that to himself, he couldn't help but call after her for the last time as her figure faded into the distance.

"At least you admitted I look good!"