𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐞 | steve harrington

010| billy's promise

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BRIAR WALKED INTO SCHOOL THE FOLLOWING day with enough fear inside of her to inspire the cast of a horror film. Oliver gave her a lift, giving the school a dubious glance before he got out of the van and attended just like everyone else. Briar wanted to stick to her brothers side all day but their classes didn't correspond.

She saw Clover and Robin sat on the trunk of the rust orange car. They waved her over, Clover with a rather feeble smile. Briar gave Oliver one last look, wondering if her eyes conveyed the terror she felt. Her brother was too lost in his own resentment towards having to be in school that he didn't notice.

The three girls didn't have much time to talk. The bell rang and Briar looked across the parking lot to see the space that Billy had been stealing the last month was now filled by Steve's maroon BMW, in fact the large navy car was nowhere in sight. Briar breathed a sigh of relief before she followed her friends into English class.

Her mind wandered the entire day. In English she imagined Billy slitting her throat and in gym she got hit by the ball and jumped wildly because she was scared he'd arrived. She could barely eat at lunch because Briar thought she might actually throw up with worry. Bitterness filled her over Eddie not giving her weed, she was desperate to relax. Then again it probably wouldn't work, her nerves were far too jittery.

She watched the world go by while Robin and Clover talked gently about star signs. Both of them asked what was up with Briar, Robin accompanied with a glance that told her whatever she'd said previously about Briar sharing her problems was completely irrelevant. Robin didn't cope well with stress but she would always be a fiercely protective friend. However, Briar had told them that nothing was wrong. She couldn't drag them into this.

As Briar was placing her stuff back into her locker and getting out her books for math. Someone knocked on her locker door. She knew that Billy would never do something as gentle as this. She closed the door to see Steve leaning against the lockers smiling at her. God she loved his smile.

"Hi" said Briar, "sorry about yesterday, my brother was being a dick, I didn't ask him to send you away"

"S'alright" Steve shrugged, "we'll just have to watch Grease another time"

"Tonight?" Briar asked hopefully.

"Yeah" Steve grinned, "I'd love that"

"I broke up with Billy" Briar said quickly. She knew why she wanted to tell Steve this but she actually hadn't intended it to come out. Steve's eyes widened in surprise but he remained casually rested against the lockers. Briar knew every time Steve told her he'd broken up with someone she'd had to fight the urge to smile. More often it had been someone breaking up with him which was a different situation entirely.

"How come?" Steve asked, "you're not upset about it?"

"No I'm not" Briar shook her head, "we just... didn't work"

"How'd he take it?"

Briar remembered the ice cold eyes of anger, the flash of movement as he slammed her face into the window and the blood that had leaked from her temple as he'd thrown her against the side of the road.

"He wasn't best pleased" Briar shrugged, "but I'm happy it's over"

"Okay" Steve didn't look convinced, "I broke up with Polly"

"Oh really?" Briar asked as though she didn't know, "how come?"

"Honestly she drove me insane" Steve shrugged, "definitely not the one for me"

"Brunette though" Briar mused.

"What?" Steve frowned.

"You... only date girls with brown hair"