Still Time / Billy Hargrove

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧

CHAPTER TWENTY

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧

SOMETHING WAS OFF. Addie could tell, but couldn't say exactly what. Billy had ended up telling Max to tell Will that dinner with his family was off. When Addie asked if Max said anything else, Will shrugged and said "just that you didn't need to come over for dinner anymore."

She tried to call his house, and was happy that it was Max that picked up, but she sounded worried, or scared to say the wrong thing. She said Billy had just left the house and he didn't say where he was going. Addie didn't want to press her too much, so she thanked her away and hung up the phone.

Tonight was the night before Halloween, and Joyce decided that when Bob came over, they were going to have a movie night. She was in the kitchen, making popcorn on the stove, and it was Jonathan's job to get Will and Addie into the living room.

They'd been spending a lot more time together, usually to discuss theories about what happened to them. Neither wanted to bring it up to their mom or Jonathan, they already felt crazy enough.

Currently, they were both in Will's room, with him on the bed sketching a "zombie boy" drawing, and Addie laying down on the floor, drawing "ghost girl". There was a drawing taped to Will's locker at school, and apparently they'd earned some new nicknames. Addie felt terrible, but was also grateful those names hadn't reached the high school. She was also thinking about Billy, but she tried to force those thoughts from her head, at least until tomorrow when she might see him at the party.

There was a knock on the door, and a second later, Jonathan came in. The kids had all technically been in charge of deciding what movie to watch, but after seeing the mood that his siblings were in, Jonathan offered to run down to the local video store and choose for them.

"Hey, umm, I didn't know what you guys wanted so I just got a few. You guys can choose from these."

"Whatever you want."

"Any of those look good."

"Alright guys. Wait... who's zombie boy and ghost girl?"

"We are," Will said softly.

Jonathan sat on the floor next to his sister, and gently took the paper from her when she rotated it around for him to see. "You guys, you can talk to me. Whatever happened, you know that, right?"

"Stop treating us like that," Will put the pencil down and the paper down next to it.

"Like what?"

"Like everyone else does. Like there's something wrong with Addie and I."

That caught Addie's attention. It wasn't often that Will snapped like that. Sure, she felt like everyone was walking on eggshells around her, but apart from mentioning anything to Steve, she hadn't said those thoughts out loud.