Blondie Wannabe: A Billy Hargrove Fanfic

Consequences

When I returned home, I parked down the road from our cul de sac, cranking the seat all the way back to sleep off the rest of my high and escape my recent humiliation, at least for a few minutes. The cold isn't what eventually prompted me to turn on the car and drive up to my house, but rather my bladder contracting painfully, my entire abdomen burning with infection. When I entered the foyer, Sal was sitting at the kitchen counter, a cigarette between his teeth.

"Don't let my mom catch you with that," I said. "She hates people smoking in the milieu."

He turned to me, jaw clenched. "Do you know who called me at work today?"

"Um, I don't know, but I really have to pee, tell me in a minute."

"It was Donald." He followed me up the stairs, probably hoping I'd stop to hear him out, but I'd piss my pants if I did, so I pressed on to my bathroom, leaving the door the open so he could talk to me. "Apparently his sister was brought into the Hawkins High principal's office to give a statement about you."

Sarah Jones. Donald Jones. Fuck.

"Yeah, what was the testimony about?"

He stayed in the doorway, uncomfortable watching me use the bathroom even though we've had sex dozens of times. Billy would never act like such a pussy. "About you having an affair with a student."

"Can you not call it an affair, please?" I wiped, then stood up, buttoning my slacks. "It makes you sound like goddamn People magazine."

"You slept with a teenager." 

I rinsed my hands, shaking them dry before pushing past him to sit on my bed, flinching as a stabbing pain went from the top of my cervix to the spot behind my navel. "You've known about Billy since Colorado, why are you getting all worked up about it now?"

"Because you got caught, Deb, you got caught, and soon the whole town will know." He pressed his balled fists to his eyes. "I've been cuckolded by a fucking teenager."

"Aww, poor Sal, everything's about him, the world is so unfair."

"How can you be so needlessly cruel?" he demanded. "I love you, I've done nothing but cherish you, and now you laugh at my pain."

I kicked off my shoes, removed my blazer, and climbed under the covers, exhausted. "I've never wanted to be cherished; I wanted a boyfriend who met me halfway. You tried to make this relationship into your personal fantasy of what it should be like to date Norman Harrington's daughter, a girl you helped raise. You don't care what I want or what I need. And it's probably my fault too, for expecting you to be someone you aren't."

"Why does it sound like you're breaking up with me?"

"Probably because I am."

His knees connected with the floor loudly as he fell beside my bed, grabbing my face. "Don't say that; I'm sorry I got so angry."

"No, don't be sorry; you have every reason to be upset. We're not good for each other."

"Yes. We. Are." He kissed me, but his mouth felt like a dead fish. "We're meant to be together."

I pushed him away, rolling over. "Leave me alone, Sal- please."

After no more than a few hours of sleep, I awoke to the front door slamming closed, feet thudding up the stairs, and someone crashing into my room.

"What the fuck?!" Steve shouted, ripping the covers off my body.

I curled up in a ball, shivering. "What do you want?"

"You slept with Billy fucking Hargrove? How the fuck could you do this to me?"

Sitting up groggily, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "Why do men always think everything's about them?"

Steve ignored me, continuing with his tirade. "Everyone's talking about it- the whole school. They think Billy's this sex god who banged the older, hotter Harrington, and they think I'm an idiot for allowing my only sister to hook up with my worst enemy."

"First off, I don't need your permission to-"

"Oh spare me the pseudo-feminist bullshit. If you had a self-respecting, empowered bone in your body, you wouldn't have fallen for that womanizing asshole. He treats women like shit, and other men like shit, and treats his sister worse than anybody. Not to mention the fact that he beat my face in last November."

"No, he didn't."

This finally made my brother stop, his nose scrunching up. "What do you mean, 'no, he didn't'?"

"I know it wasn't Billy who hurt you," I said softly. "It was dad, you just didn't want to admit it to me, so you made up this lie about getting in a fight with Billy."

After a pregnant pause, he snickered, rubbing his face with his hands, exasperated. "Who told you that, Billy?" Steve said his name with such malice, my blood froze in my veins. "Dad's a piece of shit, and he's roughed me up a few times, broke my things, but he would never do that kind of damage- if only to protect my face for family portraits. But I'm sure misleading you was in Billy's best interest; if you thought he was a monster, you might not have fucked him. But he is a monster, and you've given him yet another weapon to destroy my life with. You're the worst sister ever."

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