[2] A Game Of Survival ➳ ST (S2) 💙

|04| Flirting With The Asshole

Chapter 4!

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This chapter will introduce Billy Hargrove, who is routinely off-putting and sexually forward. Due to many people strongly disliking Billy and his actions in S2 I may put a TW certain chapters that Billy is 'featured' in. Please proceed with caution.

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When the alarm rang the next morning, Christine slammed the snooze button with much more force than was necessary. She shoved her face back into her pillow. Five minutes wouldn't help much, but she'd take what she could get.

She lay motionless for a few more seconds. Then her eyes snapped open. It was Halloween.

Christine smiled as she jumped out of bed, suddenly energized and ready for the day. Sure, she didn't have plans anymore. She didn't want to suffer through hours of trick-or-treating in awkward silence with Jonathan. She didn't want to third wheel Steve and Nancy's couple costume. But just knowing it was Halloween, a day of candy and autumn and horror, was enough to get her going.

At the high school, no one wore costumes anymore—they were all too cool for that—but Christine didn't care what social capital it cost her: she would be damned if she wasn't going to at least dress festively. She pulled her hair up with a bright orange scrunchie and unearthed her Texas Chainsaw Massacre T-shirt, even though it had gotten her sent to the principal's office the last time she'd worn it to school. Apparently the shirt wasn't "school appropriate," which Christine might have understood if the shirt had Leatherface on it—a mass murderer wasn't exactly G-rated—but it was just the title and the film's female lead, Sally. Okay, Sally was bloody and screaming in horror, but it wasn't like it was anything explicit. She'd said as much to the principal, but he had written her up for "advertising an indecent depiction of women."

Frankly, Christine thought that was bullshit. Sally was a Scream Queen. She screamed and survived, and that was the whole point. You could be utterly terrified and still strong enough to survive. Why should that be indecent?

She was prepared to debate anyone who had an objection to that, but hopefully the staff would be a little more lenient on Halloween.

"Hope you're ready for your close-up," her father said as she joined him in the kitchen. "Claudia's had her camera ready for about twenty minutes."

"She's just taking pictures of Dusty." Christine kissed her dad on the cheek on her way to the freezer. She pulled out a box of Eggos and plopped two in the toaster. "He always has a photoshoot Halloween morning."

"She's already been over here twice to see if you're ready."

Christine groaned, making him laugh. He turned to comment, only to flinch and shield his eyes.

"God! Christine, are you really wearing that shirt again?"

"What's wrong with my shirt?"

"Why don't you ask your principal? He seemed to have quite a few ideas on the subject, as I recall."

"It's Halloween," she reminded him. "Just think of it as my costume. I'm a rebel."

"I don't care if you wear it. I just wish you'd—I don't know, sneak out of the house or something. This way when they call me about it, I can swear up and down that I didn't see you leave and I'd never approve. Save me the lecture."

"Oh, well in that case I'll just tell him that you bought it for me."

She stuck her tongue out at him. Her father responded in kind, pulling a grotesque face as he reached around her for his travel mug.