Drowning • Billy Hargrove

Chapter 9

"Okay bye!" I whisper as Billy speeds out of the driveway and out of view.

I quietly sneak into my house, trying not to wake anybody. It was around 6:00am and I knew El and our dad would still be sleeping so I tiptoed to my bedroom. I quietly creaked the door opened and changed into my comfy pajamas. Next thing I knew I was out cold, sleeping.

I woke up around four hours later, at 10:00am. The smell of Eggos drifted into my room, so I knew that El and our dad were now up.
I contemplated on getting up or staying in bed till dad left for work at 11:00am.
I decided to get up and pretend like nothing happened last night.
"Morning!" El says, causing our dad to look up from the newspaper. He stares at me for awhile, rolls his eyes, then begins to read the newspaper again.
From that interaction, I now knew that he caught me sneaking in this morning. Our relationship has been slowly going downhill and it hurt me to see it, because at one point we only had eachother.
I sigh. "Morning." I say to El, as I stumble over to make myself a bowl of cereal.
"Alright El, I'm going to go now." He says, grabbing his hat and keys from the counter. He walks over and kisses El on the head and walks out the front door, completely ignoring me.
"Do you think Max can come over today?" El says, looking at me.
I smile and nod. "Yeah."
El runs to the phone hanging on the wall and dials a number.
"Hi is Max there?" She asks.
"Oh." She says, turning to look at me. "It's for you."
I walk over to the phone. "Hello?"
"Hey." Billy says. "How are you feeling this morning."
"Fine. How are-" He cuts me off.
"I want to see you. I have something very important to ask you."
"Oh okay." I say, smiling. "How about you drop Max off at my house and we can go for a drive." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see El smiling.
"Deal." Billy says.
"See you soon." I say before I hang the phone up.

I run to my room to change into some appropriate clothes, which was nothing too fancy but nothing too casual. Next, I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth and fix my hair.
I exited the bathroom just as the doorbell rang.
"Hey." I said, as Max pushed past me to get to El.
"Hey." She says, quietly.
"If you guys leave, lock the door and leave a note!" I yell, as El nods in agreement.

I lock the front door and turn to see Billy leaning against his car.
"Hey hot stuff." Billy says.
"Hey!" I say back.
I hop into the car as he gets in the driver's seat.
"Where do you want to go?" Billy asks. "We can go back to the spot we were at last night, if you want?" He says, smirking.
I start to laugh as I turn to look at him. I was suddenly distracted by a big purple bruise on Billy's left eye. "What the Hell happened?!"
"Nothing." Billy says, pushing my hand away from his face.
"Did you get into a fight last night?" I ask.
"No! No I didn't."
"Did you get into a fight this morning?" I question.
He doesn't respond.
I try to think where Billy would have been early in the morning, but it finally hits me. It was probably his father. I knew there had been issues between Billy and his dad but I didn't know it was that bad.
"Oh Billy!" I say, pulling him into a hug. He doesn't hug back untill he realizes I'm not letting go anytime soon. So, he hugs back and places his chin on my shoulder.
After a few moments of silence, I pull away and smile. He smiles back and together we pull out of the driveway.

"No way!" I laugh, almost spitting out my drink.
"Oh yeah!" Billy says laughing so loud, other customers start to look at us and stare.
We decided to go to the diner, to hang out and talk.
"So I have something to tell you." Billy says, causing me to worry.
"What?" I ask, sitting up straight.
"I really like you and I was wondering if-"
"Shoot!" I say, cutting him off.
"What?" He asks, worried.
"It's my dad."
"Don't worry. I'll be on my best behavior." He says, winking.
I start to smile as my dad makes eye contact with me.
"He's coming." I whisper.
I watch as Billy straightens his jacket and fixes his hair.
"What are you doing Kate?" My dad asks, eyeing down Billy.
Thankfully, Billy stands up and sticks his hand out.
"Hey! I'm Billy Hargrove. You must be Kate's dad. I've heard a lot about you." Billy says, smiling.
I notice my dad's muscles in his face relax as he shakes Billy's hand.
"Hopefully all good." Dad says with a small smile.
"Definitely." Billy says.
"What are you doing here?" I ask.
"I just stopped in for a coffee and saw you here. I'd like you home by 6:00, we have to talk."
"Okay." I say as he turns and walks away.
"That went really well!" I say excitedly.
"You think?" Billy asks.
"Yeah! He smiled. He never smiles!"
"I mean, who doesn't like me?" Billy chuckles.
I sigh. "Steve Harrington, James Turner, should I go on?" I say, smiling.
"They're nobody's." Billy says, rolling his eyes.
"What were you going to ask me before?" I ask, changing the subject.
"Oh, yeah. About that." Billy says, scratching the back of his neck. "I know we haven't known eachother for a very long time but, I was wondering if you'd maybe want to be my, you know, girlfriend?"