mary. [ BILLY HARGROVE ]

viii. CHAPTER SIX

~*~
warning: mature language

     That night, Mary was trying to do her homework. She was doing pretty well until she heard some type of chittering from her brothers room. She ignored it the first time, returning to listening to the Blue Hawaii record next to her bed. The chittering started up again, followed by Dustin shushing something. 

     Mary pushed her papers off of her thighs, stopping the needle on the record right as Slicin' Sand was beginning to play. She slid open her door slowly, taking small steps towards her brothers room. She listened for a moment as Dustin was shushing something every few moments. 

     "Dustin?" Mary questioned, tapping the door a few times. She could hear him repeat the word 'shit' a few times before the door swung open. Her brother flashed her a smile, pretending like he hadn't been hiding anything. "I heard some type of chittering noise in here. Everything okay?" 

     "Yes, everything's great!" Dustin smiled widely even more, if it was possible. 

     "You sure? Because your turtle is on your desk, and there's a blanket over it's container," Mary said nodding to it. Some chittering came from the exact container, Mary looking to her brother this time. "What's in the cage, Dusty?" 

     "Nothing?" he answered, his tone questionable. Mary pushed past him, going to the container. She pulled the tarp off, her eyes widening at the creature sitting in the cage. 

     "Dustin, what the fu-" His hand quickly covered her mouth, motioning for her to be quiet. He slowly removed his hand, Mary's eyes writing anger as it moved away. "What the hell is that?" 

     "Well..." Dustin trailed off. "His names d'Artagnan. Dart for short." 

     "I didn't asked for his name, I asked what he was," Mary continued. "What kind of... Where did you even... How?" 

     "Okay, I was coming back from trick-or-treating when I found him in our garbage," Dustin confessed to his older sister. "We think it's from the Upside Down." 

     "'We'?" Mary asked raising an eyebrow. 

     "I kind of told Lucas... and Mike... and Will... and Max," Dustin said, scared of the girls reaction. 

     "The Upside Down? I though there were no more open gates to the upside down. The government closed all of them last year," Mary said, turning to look at the creature. "It's not possible." 

     "But what if they didn't get all the gates?" Dustin asked. "What if they were doing more experiments?" 

     "The lab claimed they shut down all the research for the Upside Down. I'm telling you it's not possible. We need to get rid of this thing," Mary said glancing into the container. 

     "This thing has a name, and his name is Dart," Dustin defended. "Oh, you want to feed him nougat?"

     "You said you didn't have anymore candy," Mary gasped, turning to her brother again. 

     "I lied!" Dustin retaliated. 

     "If you give me some, I won't tell Mom that you're hoarding a gross and possible murderous creature in your turtle cage," Mary negotiated. 

     "Deal." 

~*~

     Friday morning was dreadful for Mary. She didn't want to go to her first period class. She was very seriously considering skipping to sleep in. She probably wouldn't actually sleep in, though. Probably get up normal time and study for her history test that was later in the day.

     But, she decided to go to school anyways. First period and all. She wasn't excited about it, per say, but she had to do something other than think about what could happen then. Yesterday began to cloud her mind, Mary thinking to when Billy had her pinned against the locker. Yes, she may have burst out laughing seconds later, but she had to admit that it was a bit intimidating at first. 

     So, she sat in her regular spot in first hour physics, her head automatically finding its way to the table. Drowsiness took over her eyes nearly immediately, but Mary knew she couldn't fall asleep. She'd get in trouble for sure. 

     "Earth to Mary," Steve called, waving a hand in front of her face. 

     "What do you want, Harrington?" Mary asked, not moving her head. 

     "Uh, the history notes. I need them to study before the test during eighth," Steve said like it should be obvious. "Come on, you told me on the ride home you'd lend them to me during first." 

     "Right, right, I remember now," Mary nodded. She pushed herself off the table, pulling her yellow history notebook from her bag. She held it out to Steve, pointing to the marker that was in the notebook. "Move the page marker and I kill you." 

     "Got it. Thanks so much. Oh, also, incoming," Steve whispered. He pat her shoulder once, Mary jumping slightly. She hadn't slept the night before because the chittering from Dart kept her up the whole night. And now, here she was, tired as ever. 

     Billy set his own books on the table, Mary shuttering at the loud thump on the table. Billy smirked at her reaction, the girl managing to push herself up again. She grabbed her notebook for the class from her bag, opening it to the page marker. 

     "You drunk, Mary?" Billy asked. 

     "No, just sleep deprived. Why?" she asked, grabbing a pencil from her bag. 

    "Because you just pulled out your history notebook," Billy informed her. 

     "Oh, shit. Then what did I just give Steve?" Mary asked, sitting up quickly. Steve walked back into the room seconds later, setting down Mary's physics notebook in front of her. She gave him a sheepish smile, holding out the correct notebook this time. He walked out again, Mary letting her head fall onto her notebook. 

     "Rough night?"

     "Hell yes," Mary responded. "My brother got this new pet, and it was keeping me up all night. It wouldn't fucking shut up. Now my head is pounding because I tried to drown it out with music, but that didn't work. Hence me." 

     "What music?" Billy asked, quite interested. 

     "Elvis. Blue Hawaii. When that didn't work, I moved onto the Golden Records," Mary said with a small sigh. 

     "Elvis... I like it," Billy smirked at her. "I can get on board with that." 

     "Could you now?" Mary chuckled. "Okay, Hargrove. What are you into?" 

      "It's a wide variety. You'd have to come check out my record collection to figure it out. Which is in my bedroom," Billy smirked, Mary seeing right through his plan. 

     "Hm, same one you took Ashley to, last night?" Mary questioned, running her fingers through her hair. "If you want to make me jealous..." Mary leaned towards his ear to whisper, "you're going to have to try a little harder." She leaned away from him again, Billy clenching his fist at the small encounter. His mind was in a jumble and he didn't know what he was thinking anymore.

     What he really wanted to do was to pick up Mary with both arms and throw her over his shoulder. He wanted to carry her all the way back to California, and he wanted to stay there forever. He didn't want to be in Hawkins, but Mary made it a little more tolerable than he'd imagined. And he hated the way he was feeling. Because it made him feel weak around her. Billy hated to feel weak around anyone. 

     But Mary made him feel different about that, and he liked it.  

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short but it sets the foundation for season 2
y'all i'm so excited to get this going. it's slow right now
but it's going to get a lot better, trust me