A Brief History of Falling for Billy Hargrove [harrington x hargrove]

13.

The first time Billy met Steve's parents was a few weeks after Billy semi-moved into Steve's house. Steve was leaning against the fridge, sipping a beer. Billy was sitting on the counter with one of his legs pulled up, resting his chin on his knee. He was wearing a shirt buttoned all the way up to his neck. Steve was rambling about college again and Billy pretended to listen when the sound of a key being turned in the lock brought Steve to silence.

For a heartbeat, he stayed absolutely still and then he almost stumbled over his own feet as he rushed out of the room. He stopped short when he came face to face with his parents who were standing in the hallway, their suitcases lying by their feet.

His mother threw her arms out, all dramatic gestures and broad smiles, and sang horribly out of tune, "Home sweet home!" When she spotted Steve she grinned even wider. "Aren't you going to welcome your beloved mother with a hug?"

Steve shook his head. "I haven't seen you in two month. You didn't even care enough to call. For fuck's sake, you were supposed to be gone for... how did you put it? Oh yeah – just a fortnight, darling." Steve scoffed in a mockingly high voice with a really bad fake British accent that was worryingly close to how his mom actually sounded.

"A little bit of respect would be due, Steve," his father scolded, trying too hard to make his face transform into a stern look which his muscles didn't seem to be capable of. His father was a man of martinis and small talk, not a respected parental figure.

"Honey," his mother touched her husband's arm softly, "don't be like that." Then she turned her attention back to Steve. "We had... matters to attend to," she giggled, looking at her husband mischievously, making him, in turn, chuckle lowly.

"Sure you did." Steve snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. This was one of the very few things that were stable in his life – the sun would rise in the morning and his parents were snobbish assholes who cared about nothing but money and their respectable reputations.

Steve could exactly pinpoint the moment Billy walked into the room. He could see the way his mother's demeanor changed, how her spine straightened and how she squeezed her arms a little closer together to make her cleavage seem larger. Her eyes twinkled as if she was a starving lioness about to take a bite of her prey while his father stood there, completely oblivious.

"And who is your friend?" she purred, giving him one of her famously dazzling smiles.

Billy swallowed thickly and tried to back away a little without looking too obvious.

"That's Billy," Steve said dryly. His parents were not worthy of any more of an explanation and he was not obliged to give one. "He's been hanging around here a lot lately. You'd know if you were ever here."

"Steve," his mother sighed in exasperation, "don't make a scene in front of our guest."

Steve wanted to laugh at her word choice – their guest. He almost felt bad when Billy gave him a wide-eyed look that practically screamed 'please keep her the hell away from me' but it was just all way too funny.

"Well, we were just leaving anyway. Weren't we, Billy?"

Billy scratched the back of his neck nervously, "Uh, yeah. It was nice meeting you Mr. and Mrs. Harrington."

Before his parents had a chance to respond, Steve grabbed two random pairs of shoes and pulled Billy out of the front door and into the Camaro.

"Fuck that was weird," Billy said, fumbling with the jacked he had grabbed from the backseat, looking for a cigarette.

"Hawkins mothers seem to enjoy your company," Steve wiggled his eyebrows. "Hungry for young flesh, those old cougars. Can be appeased by nothing but a good big bite of Hargrove meat." Steve should have been angry. He was always angry when his parents came home with some ridiculous excuse that wasn't even an excuse at all. But this time the whole situation seemed just too damn hilarious. Maybe he realized that, in comparison to Billy's father, his parents were just a couple of shallow idiots that held no power over him.

Billy threw his head back and groaned. Steve exploded into hysterical laughter. Tears streamed down his cheeks as Billy glared at him. But, after a while, Billy gave in too. And so they sat there, laughing and laughing and laughing until they couldn't laugh any more.

"Your parents are... something," Billy said, still a little breathless.

"Tell me about it," Steve grumbled.

"Everything considered, you turned out pretty okay, I suppose," Billy smiled, nudging Steve with his elbow.

Steve smiled back, "You didn't turn out that bad yourself. Everything considered."

Billy's face clouded over, as if a storm was coming after a sunny day. "Don't lie to me, Steve."

Steve shook his head. "I'm not."

That night, they (with some difficulty) sneaked back in through the window. Steve really didn't desire another uncomfortable conversation with his parents and Billy seemed ready to bolt if he had to survive another encounter with Steve's mom. Or any other Hawkins mom for that matter.

They both anxiously counted down days until graduation.