Gold ✧ [billy hargrove]

"EMERGENCY"

"I'm going out, mom!" Liv shouts from her room on Friday afternoon. "Babysitting for the Freehold family and then going to Joey's house!"

"We'll probably be asleep when you get back." Sarah leans on Liv's doorframe. "Are you seeing Billy?"

Liv's conversation with her mother regarding Billy was a weird one. Liv and Sarah had never been particularly close, Liv was independent from a young age, taking care of Wes without even being asked to, which is why babysitting and Liv Wilson go hand-in-hand. She's nurturing and has never really felt like she needed advice from her mom, because she could always figure things out on her own. But when you sneak a boy into your house after a party, everything changes a little.

It started casually, with Liv just telling her mom that she basically had a boyfriend, which was weird because she didn't even tell her about Steve, and they were "dating" for way longer than she had even known Billy, but Sarah is in the same bookclub as Mrs. Harrington, so Liv didn't even want to think about being the two of them topic of conversation for who-knows how many hours.

"Don't know. Penny said that she wanted it to just be us, so probably not."

"Do they not like Billy? I think that-"

"No, they really like Billy, but they just miss it being the four of us. Which I understand. We've been best friends since we were babies." Liv shrugs. "I haven't seen them without Billy at my side since he moved here, basically."

"It's good to split your time between a significant other and your friends. Don't forget that." She points at Liv and then walks out of the room.

Liv grabs her purse, throwing her keys and wallet into it before heading downstairs, to where she keeps a few coloring books and teen magazines. She's babysitting an 11-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy, so she's hoping that they'll want to keep occupied with these, but if not she can always throw on a movie for them. She drives over to the Freehold's house, and bids goodbye to the parents with the kids at her side before the girl, Jamie, takes the magazines from Liv, and heads back up to her room, while Liv stays with Mikey, the little boy, and colors for an hour before she puts him down to bed. At nine, she takes her magazines back and doesn't force Jamie to go to bed, but tells her that she should head to bed soon, because her parents are going to be home within half an hour.

"Mikey's sleeping, and at this point, Jamie should be too." Liv smiles at the Freehold's when the walk into the house. "I hope you two had a good night."

"We did." Mr. Freehold says, counting bills and then handing them over to Liv. "A little extra because it's a Friday, and I'm sure you had plans." He winks. "Drive safe, Liv."

"Thanks, Mr. Freehold." She smiles and heads towards the door, giving them another wave before closing the door behind her and heading to her car and quickly making her way to Joe's, only a few minutes away. "Hello, hello!" She walks into the house and down to the basement. "What?" She looks at her solemn friends.

"Your mom called like five minutes ago." Penny looks at her. "Emergency at the Byers' house."

"Fuck." Liv groans. "I'm not babysitting Sunday." She looks at all of them. "We have to hang out. All day." She looks at Penny, who looks the most upset.

"Fine." Jack nods and hugs her. "Don't worry." He whispers. "Smoke later?"

"I'll ring once." She giggles.

"Ringing once" is Jack and Liv's way of letting each other know that the other is ready to do something, that something more often than not being sneaking out to smoke.

"I'm really annoyed." She goes around and hugs each of her friends. "I really did want to hang out with you guys."

"Will's old. I don't get why he doesn't get to stay home alone." Penny groans, leaning back on the couch.