Fallout || Stranger Things [2]

thirteen || records and revivals

Music was often a type of solace for Billy Hargrove. That's why he loved working at Ralph's Records in downtown Bloomington – the music was always flowing and his thoughts were almost always subdued to a minimum.

But his afternoon shift on November 7th just felt wrong.

Nothing about the music was out of the ordinary and he followed his typical duties of tidying up the record stacks, but something seemed to hang in the air the he couldn't quite grasp.

He wanted to blame it on the lack of events to happen the day before, that the Ouija board must have been wrong and they were all so freaked out that one of them subconsciously started to move the planchette. Maybe they were so desperate for an explanation that they needed something to believe in.

In reality, the only thing that he knew was there was no longer a nip of imagined fingers on the nape of his neck, and he found himself missing it.

The overhead bell chimed as the front door of the record store, blowing a cool breeze through the aisles.

"Welcome to Ralph's," Billy said as he re-alphabetized the F section, having to look up twice before catching the blonde headed in his direction. "Oh, hey Kate."

Kate offered a warm smile, her hands tucked in the pockets of a colorful windbreaker. "Hi, Billy." Her expression was more subdued than the bouncing and bubbly one she always wore around him. "How's it?"

Billy gave a light shrug, jostling his red flannel as he rotated several records into their rightful home. "Alright, I guess. Trying not to stress too much for finals."

"Same here on that front," she replied with a light smile. "I, uh, I hadn't gotten the chance to talk to you since the Halloween party. It's hard to catch you after class and I knew you would be here."

"Did you want to talk about the exam review or something?" he asked with a quirked brow, rescinding his hands from his work and resting his hip against the table. "I can't say I'll be an insane amount of help."

"Oh, please. I've seen your notes. You're smarter than everyone in that class." Kate chewed the inside of her lip for a moment, growing quiet despite Guns N Roses playing overhead. "I actually wanted to apologize."

Billy's brows furrowed, absently folding his arms over his chest. "What? Why would you need to apologize?"

"At the party," she began, "I didn't mean to upset you. I know I'm not the most graceful person, but just because I was drinking isn't a good excuse for not being sensitive." Kate sighed. "I didn't consider that you might have known the Rivers kid, and I'm sorry. You're just so quiet and I couldn't think of anything else to talk about. It wasn't the right place and I wasn't in the right headspace to ask you something like that."

The hitch in his chest that had formed halfway through slowly filtered out, a light smile forming on his face. "That's really nice of you to say." He paused, the corner of his mouth twitching before reaching into his back pocket. Producing his wallet, he slid a polaroid from the billfold and held it out to Kate. "You asked if I knew her."

Kate hesitantly took the slightly worn image, reviewing a self-snapped picture of Billy and a stunning brunette under his arm with the hint of a beach behind them. He had more a smile on his face in that picture than she had even seen in person.

"She was my girlfriend," he told her, the past tense of the phrase hanging a little heavy in the air. "We were together nearly the entire time I lived in Hawkins. She was the first person that made me actually care about anything."