Two of a kind...... A Billy Hargrove story

Chapter 5: Romeo, Romeo

Kali scrambled to get ready for school the following day. She was still in a lot of pain from what had happened the previous night but she refused to let anyone see just how much pain she was in. She grabbed her leather jacket off the back of her chair and quickly ran down the stairs and out of the door. She had decided to leave before either of her parents had woken up, she didn't want any kind of confrontation this morning.

As she was driving to school she noticed that her car was making a strange clunking sound, she tried to push it to the back of her mind but as she pulled into the school parking lot, her trusty impala came to a sudden stop. She rolled her eyes and let out a sigh as she pulled the keys out of the ignition. She quickly got changed out of her long skirt and white polo top and into her short, blue denim skirt that stopped midway down her thighs and a black camisole top. She pulled on her black, heeled boots and tied them loosely. She kissed her necklace before closing the boot and putting her jacket back on to cover her arms. She didn't want any funny looks from the kids at school and she knew that rumours would soon fly around if they saw the burns on her arms.

She lit a cigarette as she lifted the hood of her car. She messed around trying to find the source of the clunking noise and didn't even notice that people had started arriving at school. She carried on checking everything over, wiping a bead of sweat away from her forehead as everyone stared at her. The boys staring out of admiration whispering to each other about how hot she was, while the girls couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that she was fixing her own car. She had spent most of her childhood fixing up the impala with her grandfather, he taught her everything she needed to know about cars so that she'd never have to rely on anyone to help her. He wanted her to be as independent as possible and every time she sat inside the car or heard the engine purr it would remind her of her grandfather.

"Well, well" she heard someone say, the voice sounded familiar but she was too occupied with her car to notice who it was approaching her "now that's what a guy likes to see in the morning" she turned her head, ready to give the him a piece of her mind, but soon stopped herself when she noticed Billy leaning against the passenger side door, looking her up and down, with his signature smirk spread against his face.

"Oh hey handsome" she grinned as she buried her head back in her car, sticking her tongue out slightly as she finished up "do me a favour and turn her over for me" she said throwing her keys at Billy. Without any hesitation he whipped round to the drivers side and slid into the seat, taking a moment to run his hands over the steering wheel and appreciate the beauty of the car he was sat in, he put the key in and turned the engine over. It sputtered a couple of times before roaring to life, Kali let out a sigh of relief as her baby finally spoke to her. She put the hood down gently and then kissed the top, she didn't care if it looked weird to everyone else, this car was her pride and joy and she loved it more than anything. She looked up to see Billy staring at her, licking and biting his lip. She felt herself blush "sorry I know that was weird" she said, grabbing a rag and wiping the excess oil off her hands "no, no I get it, if anything happened to my baby I'd be devastated" he grinned, stepping out of the car. Kali couldn't help but stare as his blonde curls and blue eyes shone in the sunlight, she had never met anyone that loved their car as much as she did. She stepped beside him and bent over to grab her bag out of the back seat, giving Billy a little wink as she looked back and noticed he was staring at her ass. "Just can't keep your eyes off me can you handsome" she placed her hand on the side of his face and slowly started to run it down onto his chest as she looked into his ocean blue eyes, a smile appearing on her face as he met her gaze.

They walked into school together, talking about their love of cars, turning into their first class of the day and sitting down next to each other, not breaking conversation once. They both gushed over their cars and argued about who's was better as the teacher walked in and signalled the start of class. "Right, today we're going to be reading Romeo and Juliet..." he droned on but Billy and Kali just couldn't stop looking at each. It was obvious that there was some kind of chemistry between them but neither of them seemed to notice it. They were quickly pulled back into reality as their teacher slammed two separate copies of Romeo and Juliet down on their table, giving them a stern look before moving on. They glanced back at each other and laughed as they each grabbed their books.

"Oh Romeo, Romeo. Where for art thou Romeo?" Kali mocked, holding her hand to her chest and looking over at Billy,"but soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun" he continued, gesturing over to Kali as he read. They both burst out in laughter again as they noticed everyone staring at them, their teacher was definitely not amused "O'Donnell, Hargrove!" He shouted causing both of them to stare at him "outside now!" He pointed to the door as the whole class erupted in 'ooos'.
As the door closed behind them, they stood up against the wall and burst out laughing again. Kali had never felt this comfortable around anyone, she felt an instant connection to Billy, they had a lot in common and always managed to make each other laugh, no matter how serious the situation.

Kali's jacket had fallen off her shoulder slightly, revealing her bright red arms, she quickly pulled it back on hoping that Billy hadn't noticed but when she looked over at him she could see the concern in his eyes "what happened?" He asked

"I um...I" no matter how hard she tried, Kali couldn't find an excuse as to why she had carpet burn on her arms. She shifted her gaze back to the floor and slumped down against the wall, she knew she had to tell him something but she didn't know if she could tell him the truth "Kali, what happened?" She could hear the anger in his voice as she continued to avoid his question until she finally thought of an answer "oh this? It's just a little sunburn" she knew it was stupid the moment it left her mouth but she prayed that he believed her. He let out a sigh and held his hand out to her, helping her to stand as he slowly removed the jacket to access just how bad this 'sunburn' was. She was reluctant at first before letting the jacket fall onto the floor. She turned her head away, trying to hold back the tears as Billy inspected her. She winced as he gently ran his finger over her raw skin, he looked back at her and saw a tear roll down her cheek "it's just a sunburn" she kept saying over and over again, hoping that the more she said it the more he would believe her. She felt his arms snake around her waist and she knew as soon as she looked into his eyes that he didn't believe her but instead of questioning her, he just placed a light kiss on the top of her head and held her close. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder, still trying to fight back the tears. She couldn't help but let out a cry as he tightened his hold.

Hearing her cry, he quickly pulled away. He knew she was in pain, he moved his hand to the bottom of her top and looked over at her waiting for her to say it was okay before he lifted it up. She gave him a slight nod and turned her head again as he revealed the bruising on her ribs. He let out a gasp and held a hand to his face, "who did this?" He seethed, he could feel his anger rising as he let her top fall back down "was it Tommy?" Kali couldn't get any words out, she was biting her lip and trying her hardest to stifle any cry's as he took her head in his hands, she opened her eyes and saw the concern in his face. She didn't understand why he was so concerned about her, but as soon as their eyes met, she could no longer hold back the tears.

"Kali, who did this?" His voice was softer this time but you could still hear the anger that was boiling up inside him. Kali took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she muttered "'my father".