California Secrets (Billy Hargrove)

- 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎 -

- Billy Hargrove -

I walk into Katherine's house, and she closes the door behind me. I take a look around the space; its small but open. On the left side is the living room, and to the right is the kitchen. If you were to go forward, it would be a hallway and what I assume are the bedrooms and bathrooms.

"Nice place," I compliment, looking back at her. She seems somewhat nervous, and I just assume its the fact that I'm barging into her house uninvited.

"Thank you," she says quietly. I turn back to the living room to see a little boy, maybe around the age of two to four, sitting on the couch. He is memorized by the cartoon playing on the screen. He watches as a coyote attempts to blow up a bird, but he fails and exploded instead.

"This show doesn't seem very kid-friendly," I tease Katherine. She smiles at my joke but keeps her stare on me and the boy intense.

I walk over to the little boy. I take a seat next to him on the couch, my weight pushing his side up. "Hey," I greet the boy. I'm not good with kids. At all. But girls like a guy that gets along with babies, so I try my best.

The little boy turns to look at me, his eyes staring into mine. His are a bright blue, while his medium-length hair is dark like Katherine's and it curls at the ends. "We have the same eyes," I say, but he doesn't seem to be impressed. He nods in agreement that we, in fact, both have blue eyes before turning back to his cartoon on the television. I sigh and get up and off the couch, returning back to Katherine. She's subtly biting her lip deep in thought, and I don't think she knows she's doing it. It's cute.

"I don't think he likes me very much," I say as I make my way next to her, us both looking in the direction of the boy.

She snaps her head to look and me. "Trust me, he will. He just needs to get used to you." She nods with her words, smiling as she does so.

"That doesn't seem very convincing."

"He will," she says, that smile still on her face.

"So what's his name?" I ask after a small silence.

"James," she says proudly.

"James," I repeat. "How old is he?"

"Three."

"Wow, very big."

She smiles again. "Tell me about it."

"So is he your brother?"

She snaps her head back to me again. She pauses for a moment before answering. "Yeah," she agrees. "Yeah, he's my little brother." She clears her throat before quickly changing the subject. "So did you need something?"

I shrug. "Just wanted to check in on an old friend."

She gives me a look that says 'that's bullshit, but okay.'

I wink at her and she looks down at her feet, trying to cover up the blush growing on her cheeks.

"You know, I could use some food though."

She scoffs at me. "You are not coming to my house to eat my food. I just cleaned it up."

"Fine, fine," I laugh off. "Come here" I gesture to the floor in front of the couch.

"You want to sit on the floor?"

"Why not?" I say as I take a seat on the carpet. She sighs before joining me, sitting right in front of James. She slouches a little to make sure he can still see his show. We sit and watch with him for a minute before Katherine speaks up.

"So Billy," she starts. "Why did you move to Hawkins?"

"I could ask you the same thing," I say to her, avoiding the question.

She looks down at her hands. "We just needed a new start," she says. "Me and my mom," she clarifies, looking back up at me. "What about you?"

I shrug. "Same thing," I lie. "My dad and his wife wanted to go somewhere new." She nods like she understands. But she doesn't. There is more to the story.

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They both out here being a bunch of big ass liars smh

THANK YOU FOR READING!!!! MUAHHHH

-Liz<3