Drowning • Billy Hargrove

Chapter 30

I smile. "Yeah, that's me."
I look over at Billy and he does not seem impressed. He seems angry and pissed.
"Well I'm Tyler. Nice to meet you." He sticks out his hand and I shake it.
"Nice to meet you too!"
"And who's this?" He asks, looking at Billy. "Your brother?"
"Boyfriend." Billy spits out. "I'm her boyfriend."
"This is Billy." I say, breaking the tension that was forming.
"Okay cool." Tyler responds. "I'll show you to your room now."
I nod my head. "That'd be a good idea."

He takes us through the house. I noticed that the living room was extremely small. The living room had a couch, table and a little tv sitting on the tv stand. The kitchen was the same, having only the essentials, such as a stove, sink, cupboards and fridge.
"This is your room and bathroom." Tyler says, pointing to the two rooms.
Inside there was a desk, dresser, and a small nightstand beside the bed.
I look at the room, a little disappointed. It was very small.
"Okay, thanks." I say, turning to Tyler.
"No problem." He responds. "I'll be in my room, which is right across the hall."
I nod my head and watch him walk away. I turn and look at Billy who was standing beside me. I can tell he was fuming.
"What's the matter?" I ask.
"I don't like him." He responds. "He's going to try and go for you. I can just tell that's the type of guy he is."
"Yeah right." I respond.
"I'm serious Kate. Stay away from him."
"Okay, dad." I respond giggling. He reminded me of my dad.
He looks at me with a serious face.
"I'm not going to do anything!" I say.
"You better not." He smirks.
"You've got to trust me and I have to trust you for this long distance relationship to work!"
He nods his head. "I trust you with my life. I just don't trust him."
I smile at him. "I trust you too. If he trys anything on me, I'll call you and you can beat his ass."
He chuckles. "I like how you think."

After we unloaded a few boxes and set up my room it was time to say our goodbyes.
"I guess this is it." Billy says, standing up.
"I guess so." I say, my voice trembling. "It's going to get dark and you should maybe stay the night." At this point, I was just making up excuses for him to stay.
"I better get going." Billy responds, pulling me into a hug.
"I know." I mumble out.
He hugged me for a long time, neither of us wanting to let go.
After a while, he pulled me away. I quickly wiped the tears off of my cheeks as he stared into my eyes.
"I love you." He says, grabbing onto my hand.
I smile. "I love you too."
And with that, he was gone.

After he left, I finished setting my room up. I used the skills my father taught me and hammered in a few nails into the wall. I hung up photos and a few floating shelves.
When I was finished, I sat on the corner of my bed and gazed at my new room. I was proud of what I had just made out of nothing.
"Hey." Tyler says, knocking on my door.
"Oh, hello." I respond.
"Sorry if I startled you... I just figured if we'd be living together, we should get to know eachother."
I nod my head. "Uh, yeah sure."

He takes me out to the living room and we sit down on the small couch.
"Where do we start?" Tyler says, chuckling. "Well I'm Tyler Lawson. I'm from Michigan and I'm here to study medicine."
I nod my head, knowing that we'd most likely share a few classes.
"What about you? What's your story?"
"I'm Kate Hopper from Hawkins. I'm here to be a nurse."
He flashed a smile at me which reminded me of Brandon. I haven't thought of Brandon since I went to see him in the hospital, almost a month ago. Brandon was in a coma after the Mindflayer left his body.
"So Kate, how long have you and your boyfriend been going out for?"
I think about it for awhile. "Four and a half months." I respond with a smile.
He nods his head. "Cool, cool."
"What about you?" I ask, after a few moments of awkward silence.
"I'm single sadly." He says. "Oh I forgot to tell you! I like to host parties here sometimes. I hope you don't mind."
I think about it for awhile. I didn't really like parties, but I figured it would help me make new friends. "I don't mind."
He lets out a sigh of relief. "Oh good! Every other roommate I've had before never allows my parties."
I awkwardly smile and decide it's time to go to bed. "I think I'm going to head to bed now."
"Okay. Good night."
"Night." I reply.

I entered my room and was greeted by my phone ringing. "Hello?"
"Hey babe." It was Billy.
"Hey Billy! How was the ride home?"
"It was alright. Lonely, but fine." He responds. "Anyways how's it going? Has he tried to make any moves on you yet?"
I roll my eyes. "No he did not. He's actually very nice."
He sighs. "Fine. Anyways I should get going. Love you."
"I love you too. Goodnight." I say as I hang up the phone.
I put the phone down on the stand and turn the lights out. I lay down in my bed and close my eyes. I slowly drift off to sleep before I was awoken by a picture frame falling to the floor.
"Shit." I whisper, hoping and praying I didn't wake up Tyler.
I walk over to the fallen frame to see it was one of my dad, El and I. Joyce took that photo of us on El's first birthday she spent with us. Dad and I decided to throw her a big party at our cabin. Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Max, Nancy and Jonathan all came to celebrate.
I smile at the photo as I pick it up. My smile quickly went away as the lights started flickering violently.
"What the hell?" I say, looking up at the ceiling lights and my lamp.
Pens and pencils on my new desk started rolling off and landing onto the floor.
I stand by my door, looking at everything in awe.
It suddenly stops and everything goes back to normal, other than the fallen photograph, pens and pencils.