Flower Girl (Billy Hargrove)

Chapter Thirty One

As the four of us made it out the building and through the gate that the supply trucks go through and into the parking lot I saw Billy's car on fire and then out came Billy stumbling from around the car. We all yelled shit and turned back around to run back through the gate and into the building, the three kids ran in front of me as I stopped and pressed the button which made the gate start to slowly close behind me.

We made it back into the back hallways in the mall but El was starting to lose her strength but luckily we made it to the elevator Mike started spamming the button when I heard a door slam open. I went a bit out into the hallway to see who it was and it was Billy making the fastest strides he could while limping from what I'm assuming was a crash because of how his car looked in the parking lot.

"Billy, stop. Billy. Your name's Billy, Billy Hargrove. You live on 4819 Cherry Lane. Billy, please. I'm y/n. I'm your-" I didn't get to finish my plead before he grabbed my head and hit it against the wall. Suddenly everything went black. 

When he got closer he put the camera up to his eye so he can look at what he wanted to a picture of and somehow it was me. "Say cheese" he laugh from the other side of the camera made my cheeks flush up and made a smile appear onto my face *Flash*  "Perfect" he grabbed the Polaroid and shook is for a second before he shoved it into his pocket. "Come here" he used his free hand to signal me over to him which I happily did. When I got to him he pulled me into his side and he the camera out in front of us and wrapped his other arm over my shoulder and held his middle finger up while he looked at me and I looked at him and we both had goofy smiles on our faces. I held my middle finger up along with him and we both started laughing *Flash* He moved his arm from around my shoulder and grabbed the picture and slipped it into his pocket with the other one. We posed again just like the other picture but instead of our heads looking at each other my head faced straight ahead while his faced mine and his lips were against my cheek. My cheeks flushed up and I couldn't contain my smile, we both kept our middle fingers up *Flash* how many damn pictures is this boy going to take.

I opened my eyes as I felt someone shaking me, my head felt like it was pounding out of my skull and against the wall or something. I looked at the two kids in front of me and saw blood on their faces and I'm assuming mine is the same way. Billy knocked all of us out, I looked around for El but I couldn't find her. "Guys... where's El?" The two looked around and their eyes went wide as they soon realized that she was missing. "Fuck, Billy." The three of us ran to the backdoor entrance to scoops. It was the fastest way to get into the mall.

As we made it to the scoops entrance right in front of us in the middle of the mall was the Mind flayer, Billy was standing in front of it while El was on the ground behind him. The Mind flayer was screeching and roaring at Billy as I screamed out his name but he didn't hear me. As I stepped out of scoops to make my way over to Billy the mind flayer's mouth opened and one of the tentacle shot out of its mouth just like at the cabin. Billy put his hands out to stop it from getting to El. The tentacle covered Billy's arms while he was screaming.

I couldn't move, it was like I was stuck in place as my heart dropped to the floor. Tears were running down my face and I didn't even notice until I felt the droplets fall down onto my arms. More of the tentacles went into his sides until his sides were completely covered. I started moving my feet as fast as I could but it felt like I was running in place as one last tentacle went straight over his heart. I wasn't moving fast enough, it felt like everything was in slow motion as I was watching my world fall apart right in front of me. I was begging god or anyone at all to help me. I heard Max scream his name right as he fell to the ground.

I made it to him right as the Mind Flayer fell to the ground in pain. They closed the gate. Max ran over to me and Billy as I was telling him to just hold on. His white wife beater was now a dark red, he had blood coming from his mouth as he weakly grabbed my hand. He looked to me and Max "I'm sorry." I shook my head because he'll be okay, the hospital will help him. He'll be fine everything will be fine.

"No no no Billy just stay with me. Steve! Help! Steve! Somebody call 911!" It was like no one could hear me. A couple tears rolled down his eyes before he exhaled sharply. "Billy. Billy, wake up. Billy get up." Max was shaking his shoulder to get him to move "Please Billy! Wake the fuck up! Please!" I started moving his other shoulder a bit harder.

This isn't it. This can't be it. We were supposed to move to California, he was supposed to be a mechanic and I was supposed to do CSI.

Max fell back into El's arms while she sobbed but I continued on shaking his shoulder to get him to wake up. I got louder and louder with every shake. I felt two arms come up behind me and pull me into them. It was Steve. He held me tighter after every attempt that I had at trying to get out of his grasp and go to Billy. My whole body went out, I feel back into Steve's chest and screamed.

I should've moved faster. I should've helped him. I should've noticed something was wrong with him. I should've been a good significant other and saved him. I should've saved him. It's my fault that he died. I didn't save him.

I couldn't hear anything, it was like it was a radio that got unplugged. I felt Steve pull me up and another person came up to my left side and helped me walk outside, it was Robin. I looked around and there were cop cars and ambulances and everything.

A paramedic ran over to the three of us and ushered us to an ambulance. My heart felt like it was ripped out of my body, I felt like I had no air in my lungs, I felt like nothing like I'm in a completely empty and dark room. We sat down at the end of inside the ambulance. The paramedic shinned a small flashlight in my eyes and his lips were moving but it was still silent, there was nothing. I looked over at Steve who's lips were moving too. There was a sudden coldness to my face as the paramedic started cleaning the blood off my face from when Billy slammed me into a wall. I looked down at my ring. Billy's ring.

"Well you're okay to go but if you have any problems then please go visit the hospital." I stood up as Steven grabbed my arm and pulled me to his car with Robin trailing behind us. I sat down in the back as Steve and Robin sat in the front. There was no music and no one was talking. We were all just trying to process the events that had just happened. We quickly dropped off Robin and then quickly made it home. As soon as we parked I got out the car and made my way inside the house and up to my room.

It felt like something was missing when I walked in my room and didn't see Billy waiting for me like normal. The scent of his cigarettes and my perfume still lingered in the air. His items were  scattered around in my room. He basically lived here and that's how I liked it. His ashtray was  on my bedside table with a pack and a lighter right next to it. I laid down in my bed in Billy's spot hoping to feel comfort but it just felt empty and cold.

I heard my door open and close "Here you're gonna need this for tonight. I'm going to lay on the floor to make sure you're okay." I turned over to face Steve and he had a pill in one hand and a water bottle in the other. It was flurazepam. I took the sleeping pill out of his hand and used the water to help wash it down. Steve made himself a pallet on the floor as I felt my eyes get heavier and heavier until I couldn't keep them open anymore.

*Three months later*
Over the past three months things have been very slowly getting better. I still have nightmares at night and I still feel like piece of me is missing but I've gotten better. We had a funeral for Billy on the 6th so it was hard to get up and go bury my boyfriend not even a full two days after he died. Max has been doing okay, she seems pretty okay right now but there are times where she breaks and I've slightly noticed that she has been slowly pushing people away.

I found out that at Starcourt Hopper died to close the gate. It took a toll on El but everyone's been there for her every step of the way. She's been living with the Byers and today they are moving to bright and sunny California.

Mom and Dad were mad about what happened at Starcourt saying that Steve lost his job and that I let my boyfriend die in the fire. Oh yeah, the government covered it up as a fire since making the Russian machine explode it actually caused a fire but they couldn't go into details about what had happened.

Robin and Steve had a job interview at Family video today. Me and Steve said our goodbyes to the Byers yesterday since Joyce said she didn't want me to help them move anything since she understands how it feels to lose someone you love like that. It's sweet that she is looking out for me but I'm okay, Billy would've told me to get my ass up and stop crying all the damn time so that's what I had to do.

No matter what happens in my life, I'm always going to be thankful for Billy and everything we went through together and I'm never going to forget anything about him or us. Just like he always would tell me, I'm always going to be his flower girl.