"The night is calling, I have to go,
The wolf is hungry, he runs the show,
He's licking his lips, he's ready to win,
On the hunt tonight for love at first sting."

Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions

/

It quickly became a habit, late on Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights, Billy would turn up at some point, and he and Joss would spend an hour or so talking. They began to exchange rare and underground demo cassette tapes and introduce each other to bands they enjoyed. They talked about any new movies that were coming out at the cinema or video store too, finding they both had a love for horror. He claimed he was a fan of all the T and gory violence, while Joss loved a fun final girl, but Joss thought he liked a good feisty heroine that fought back too, just as much as all the gratuitous shower scenes.

Billy talked a lot about his love of heavy metal music, how much he enjoyed the anger in each drum beat. Joss supposed it allowed him some kind of release, just as it did for her. When life was shit, letting loose to something heavy felt like the biggest release in the entire world.

He liked to work out too, almost obsessively to her sport detesting ears, but his hard work stood testament on his body, defined muscles and strength. He also enjoyed working on cars, a skill he'd seemed forced to take up to keep his own running, not having the money to get it fixed had made learning a necessity.

Joss talked openly about her love of artwork, especially album sleeve artwork, and she could go on for a long time about symbolism, or how one band had captured the feeling of the music so well in a particular motif. He caught her a few nights drawing, but she never allowed him to see her own work, too self-conscious to allow anyone that peek inside her inner workings.

Joss surprisingly found she enjoyed the attention from such a good looking guy. Someone wanted to hang out with her with no strings attached, no "hellos" in the school hallways, no expectations of social performances around other people. It was light and easy with Billy, Joss didn't feel the usual strain of social interactions. They flirted often, it was part of his core nature, but she always managed to defuse it from going too far by turning everything into a joke, played off as if they were just teasing each other, and to his credit, he always backed off without pushing.

She got the distinct feeling that although Billy enjoyed their meetings, he was unsure why he kept coming back every weekend. Was it to talk about music or try and hook her into his latest attempt at seduction? Joss felt like he enjoyed trying to find a way in, to conquer that which seemed like a challenge, but it never really felt serious, more like a game, a bit of fun, friendly banter. When he talked about others in passing, the latest girl he was with or one of his male friends, it felt somehow detached, like each person had their own category and he knew exactly how to keep them in order, like some petty perfectionist. Joss didn't think she and their little meetings fitted quite so neatly into any of his boxes, and sometimes she felt his frustration at the situation, and he'd try and make sense of it by forcing them both into a mould he could understand. Another notch on his bedpost, an obstacle to be overthrown and routed, but Joss always managed to evade that train of thought and take them down a different path until he became relaxed and easy going again.

She shared very few actual classes with him at school and Joss always made sure her seat was in a corner right at the back anyway, barely anyone noticed her, even the teachers forget she was there half the time. She watched him sometimes, sat with all his cronies around him, the teasing he gave out to others, cruel names and suddenly kicked out legs tripping unsuspecting feet, but he never seemed to notice her, his eyes never even so much as flicking to her. That was just fine with Joss. Sometimes she even wondered if the girl she was at school and the girl he met up with at the arcade even flashed up in his brain as the same person.

Tonight it was only a little past 8pm, and Billy stood as usual, leaning on the counter in his blue stone washed jeans, white vest and denim jacket combo. A long silver spike earring with black beads dangling from one ear, the metal glinting in the unforgiving neon lights. His hair carelessly coiffed in an effortless style that spoke in subtle undertones of a little too much time taken in front of a mirror preening. He was dressed up, not single, but certainly ready to mingle, at the latest high school party Joss never even got a whiff of an invite for.

"Have you been to the new mall yet?" he asked, rolling the thick silver ring on his middle finger with something Joss would have taken for agitation in anyone else but Billy. He had an airy composure that always felt slightly aloof when he wanted to come across as cool and collected.

"Starcourt?" Joss said.

He quirked an eyebrow in silent impatient affirmation.

"Nah, Gus would kill me, the arcade there steals our customers. I'm not really the shopping, capitalist loving type either. Not my jam," Joss gave a casual shrug.

"They have a pretty cool cinema," he rolled his shoulders, still shifting his fingers against the ring.

"Hawk Theatre is good too. Or was. My parents went on their first date there when they went to Hawkins High." She looked off past him a moment, remembering something a little melancholic. "Hear they'll close soon, business hasn't been great since that big monstrosity of a mall opened. Way we'll all go eventually, big stores will be the death of small places like this."

Billy sighed like he was displeased with where this conversation was going. "Well, the mall is showing some good movies. Maybe we should go? Fright Night looks kinda fun," he queried with a raise of his brow in anticipation.

Joss huffed out a laugh, but upon seeing his serious expression remained in place, her own face became stern. "Are you serious?" She laughed again, but more through nervous anxiety than humour. "Oh okay, sure, let's go on a date and see how much we are the talk of this whole shit hole of a town by Monday, shall we?"

"I didn't say it would be a date," he smirked.

Joss gave him a disapproving look. "No, you didn't, but everyone else would say exactly that."

"Well, fuck what everyone says."

"That's real easy for you to say 'mister-do-whatever-you-want,' you wouldn't have to deal with all the gossip. I want a peaceful last few weeks, thanks." She noticed he now looked mildly pissed off and took a different needling tack. "Besides, you'd have to deal with whoever your current girl of the week is. Tammy is it? Or Gwen? Tracey? Oh, is it Steph now from one town over, cheerleader of the Pumas right? Ra-Ra Yay!" She did a half-hearted attempt at pretending she was thrusting pompoms into the air, before winking at him in a teasing jibe. "I don't think you'd find that a whole lot of fun to explain. Maybe wait until you're in between dates, hmm?" It was unkind and mocking and what stood for the usual banter that passed between them on a regular basis, in defusing anything even encroaching upon romantic territory.

He glared at her and Joss felt taken aback by the sudden anger now rippling across his normally nonchalant features.

"Is that what you think I am? Some guy that goes about using girls?"

Joss regained herself, stung by his unexpected indignation. "Isn't that what you do? You always have a new girl pulling at your cuff sleeve every week!" She pushed back twice as hard, she wasn't wrong. He circled through girlfriends the same way he circled through tapes, maybe playing the same one a few times, a favourite song given another roll, but he always moved on to something exciting and new.

He pointed an angry finger in her direction. "It's a two way street!" he spat, his blue eyes flashing with emotion. "They use me just as much as I use them, they don't have time to deal with..." His anger seemed to deflate from him like air escaping a balloon, and a flicker of panic crossed his features for a split second, so fast Joss wasn't sure she'd seen it at all.

"What?" Joss crossed her arms in cool disdain, waiting for him to continue, but he remained silent, his body language becoming more and more uncomfortable and hostile by the second. "What don't they have time to deal with?" she pushed, and knew her voice still sounded contemptuous, that Billy 'king keg' Hargrove had anything to truly 'deal' with, other than girls throwing themselves at his feet, and guys thinking he was the coolest thing since outdoor swimming pools on a hot August day.

He looked back at her, angry again. "Forget it!" With that he turned on his heel and walked off in his normal confident strut, as if they hadn't even just had heated words at all.

"Billy!" She called after him but he either couldn't hear her over the music, or pretended not to. "Jesus," she mumbled under her breath in the sudden silence, "dramatic much?"

Joss had nearly finished her nightly clean up. She switched off the last few remaining arcade machines, silencing the noise they made, now all that could be heard was the music pumping through the speakers. She quickly recognized it as the song she'd first heard blasting out of Billy's car a few weeks ago, the Scorpions' 'Rock You Like A Hurricane'.

It bothered her how he'd just walked out like that without even a gesture of goodbye. She'd never seen him lose his cool before. What the hell was eating him? Maybe something had happened at school, or home, or maybe Joss didn't really know him as well as she liked to assume?

"He seemed really mad," she whispered to herself, as she began to brush up the candy wrappers and dirt from the floor.

It made her feel like shit, to know he was mad at her. Honestly, she really enjoyed their time together. He wasn't the guy she saw at school, the guy that started fights for seemingly no reason, and let his hands wander a little too liberally with his latest girlfriend, in full view of teachers, just to cause a flagrant scene. It wasn't that she thought he was a nice guy, she'd seen him being a complete dick on many occasions, but when he was in the arcade, he was relaxed and cool; not a different person, just a person she could get along with. It felt nice to talk so casually about things she was passionate about.

So, what had made him flip like a switch? Again the thought swam around her head like a persistently dumb goldfish, maybe she really didn't know him that well? Maybe he was putting up a front with her just as much as she did with other people? Jeez...

What was the point in dwelling on it? He'd come back or he wouldn't, it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of life. She shrugged as she began sweeping again, dancing along to the beat of the music as she worked. Softly she began singing along to the lyrics and soon she was dancing with the broom handle as her partner as she dipped and swayed along, taking her mind off the situation as the song continued.

"I didn't know you were that big of a Scorpions fan?"

She dropped the broom in fright as she turned, her heart feeling like it was ready to leap out of her throat. "Shit!" she screamed as Billy began to laugh. "You scared the shit out of me!" She walked purposefully up to him and pushed his shoulder, annoyed, but also thoroughly relieved to see him. Her lacklustre attack just made him laugh more.

"I would say I'm sorry, but it was pretty special seeing that dance." He raised his eyebrows as he teased, making Joss push him again before she retreated back to the broom and picked it up.

"Yeah, yeah," she dismissed with a threatening wave of the broom head. "Only one show a day, so laugh it up while you can, chuckles." She eyed him warily. "What are you doing back here anyway?" She tried her best not to make it sound like an accusation.

He shifted, that uncomfortable energy still clinging to him. "I just wanted to check you closed up okay."

"That's a first," Joss scoffed, sweeping the pile of dirt into a dustpan and pouring it into a trash can nearby. "Okay, so," she sighed heavily and turned to face him, "I feel weird, the way we left things before." Never one to mince words, Joss got straight to the awkward point.

Billy gave her a strange look, somewhere between mocking and annoyed, that she couldn't really read.

"I'm not going to apologize because I don't know what I did to piss you off. But can we just forget it?" she continued.

"Sure," he said, shifting again, a contained roll of his shoulders dismissing the tension. "You nearly finished up?"

"Yeah, just have to turn out the lights. Why?"

"You wanna go for a ride?"

It was Joss' turn to feel suddenly uncomfortable. "With you? In your car?"

Billy laughed and gave her a mocking raise of both eyebrows. "That is normally what 'going for a ride' means."

Joss rubbed the back of her neck lightly, anxiety and excitement jumping between her nerves. "I don't know."

"Look, it's like nearly nine thirty, everyone's on the other side of town at some shitty pool party. No one is going to see us together if that's what's worrying your one track mind." He walked towards her and took the dustpan from her hands, laying it on the counter in an act of finality on the matter. "I have a killer tape in my car, I thought you might like to hear?"

"How come you didn't stay at the party?" she asked, suddenly enjoying how close he was, even though his cologne was eye-wateringly overpowering.

Billy flashed her that same smile that lit up his whole face, he tilted his head in a way Joss knew meant he was unabashedly flirting. "I wanted to go for a drive," he said, and motioned for her to hurry up.

/

A/N

Hello, welcome back if you are reading and an even bigger thank you to those letting me know your thoughts.

I'm hoping I can walk the tight rope of showing Billy's softer side while still have him be mostly the Billy I saw in season 2. I want to keep his character in the middle rather than either extreme of him being a terrible person or an angel. I want to keep him as flawed and human as I can, as well as Joss too, both have their issues when dealing with others, but let's see if I can succeed.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and you'll come back next week as we go for that ride.