Stranger Things - Imagines

Billy Hargrove X Reader - Trust Issues

A/N - This chapter was inspired by the song Trust Issues by Abigail Barlow. I hope you all enjoy it.

T/W - This story contains mentions of cheating and emotional manipulation within a relationship (not with Billy, but with an ex-partner.) Also, Billy does get frustrated and does yell at the reader. Please do not read this chapter if you are likely to be negatively affected by this content. 

It had been easy to enjoy your time with Billy when he had been happy being kept at arm's length. You could happily flirt with him when there wasn't really anything on the line. But then, before you had known it, you guys were basically exclusive and everyone around you had noticed before you had. 

"You should invite this new boyfriend of yours over for the 4th of July party." "We can go on double dates; Billy'll get on great with my boyfriend." "You guys make such a cute couple." 

It was easy to ignore the comments at first, brushing them off with some comment about how Billy wasn't the type to commit, especially not with you. But then he'd made a comment of his own that had lingered with you. Neil and Susan want you to come over to dinner. Hell, Billy didn't talk about them often, you'd known from day one that his dad was a touchy subject, but here he was, asking you to meet them. He wanted you to sit down and talk to them. 

You supposed that was the moment you decided to pull away a little bit. You turned down offers to hang out. You pretended not to notice him in the halls at school. You basically avoided him like he was the last person you wanted to see when deep down, you knew that it was the exact opposite. 

If you didn't like him, it would be easy to turn him down, but you did like Billy. In fact, you liked him a little too much and it was terrifying. 

You had managed to last about three days, keeping yourself busy to stop your mind from lingering on him and eventually caving. And then, he'd shown up at your bedroom window, smiling softly at you when you'd let out a startled yelp at his sudden appearance. 

"Hey," he hummed, elbows leaning on the windowsill. "You busy?"

You hesitated for a moment. "I've got homework-"

"On a Friday night? You really don't have anything better to do?" he teased, pulling himself up and through the window, into your bedroom. "Come on, let's go and do something fun," he pressed on. 

"I've got to get my work done-"

"What work?" he uttered, glancing over to your desk, finding it completely empty. "Looks like you're already finished."

You bit down on the inside of your cheek, all too aware of how he'd so effortlessly caught you in the middle of a lie.

"Did I do something wrong?" 

"Nope," you murmured, hurrying over to where you'd ditched your backpack when you'd got home that afternoon and fishing out some paper. "See, lot's of homework."

"Right," he hummed. "You mind if I hang out anyway? Save me from going home?" 

Your gaze lifted to find him frowning at you. "I don't think you should."

"So, I did do something wrong?"

"No, you didn't."

"Then why are you pushing me away?" 

You crossed your arms over your chest, trying to compose yourself. This was way harder than you had expected. You'd never thought he would just show up unannounced and push you into having a conversation that you'd been hoping to avoid. 

"I'm not," you uttered. 

"Will you quit fucking around and just tell me what's going on?" he bit out, his voice louder than you were used to. Sure, Billy was known to have a bit of a temper, but he'd never raised his voice to you before, and your stomach dropped at the tone he was using. He'd always been so gentle with you before, but clearly, your frosty attitude was enough to break that streak. 

"I-" you started, your voice wavering. "I'm not ready to meet your dad," you murmured, swallowing down the lump that had formed in your throat.

Billy's brow furrowed slightly. "This is about dinner?" he murmured. "You don't ever have to meet him if you don't want to. Hell, I'd give anything to never see him again-"

"It's not just dinner, Billy. It's everything," you told him, biting down on your bottom lip to stop it from trembling. "And I wish I could explain that better, but I don't know how."

He nodded, his tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip. "So you don't want to see me anymore?" he uttered, shifting awkwardly on the spot, fighting the urge to dive straight back out the window and pretend this conversation had never happened.

Your breath caught in your throat. "No, I do," you started grabbing at his arm to stop him from walking away from you. "I do, but It's complicated."

"Complicated?"

"I had this boyfriend before you moved to Hawkins and he really messed me up, okay? It's not you. It's never been you."

He nodded, his hand moving to rest over yours on his elbow. "Do I know him?"

"He graduated before you moved to town; went to college out of state." 

"That's why you broke up?"

You shook your head. "He cheated on me," you breathed out. "With a couple of different people, actually-" Your words trailed off into a soft sigh. "And every time, he promised it wouldn't happen again. And every time, I believed him. Because I was an idiot and he kept telling me that he loved me and I thought that maybe if I put out more he'd be satisfied, but he wasn't and-"

"He sounds like a total scumbag," he told you, watching you let out a snort of laughter at his comment. 

"God, wish you'd been around to tell me that back then," you breathed out. "Wish someone had."

Billy was smiling softly at you, nodding slightly. "You're scared of getting hurt again," he murmured. "You're scared of trusting someone."

You nodded your answer as he took your hand in his. "Yeah," you finally uttered, taking a deep breath.

"Then we'll do this at your pace, alright? We don't have to put a label on anything. You don't have to meet Neil. We'll just go slow, okay?"

"I don't want to go slow," you corrected. "I just need you to understand that I'm going to have days where things are really tough and-" You paused for a moment, taking in another deep breath. "I don't want to push you away, but part of me is probably going to try, to protect myself from getting hurt."

Billy was watching you so intently that it made you feel a little queasy. You'd loved your ex, there was no doubt about that, but he had never looked at you like this. He'd never made you feel as effortlessly safe as Billy had in the space of a couple of minutes. 

"I won't let you push me away," he confirmed, his entire body softening when you moved forward to burrow into him, your arms clasping around his middle. 

"Thank you," you murmured against him, your words coming out all muffled by his t-shirt. 

He reached up, tilting your head back to look up at him. "You're welcome," he told you, watching as a small smile pulled at your lips. "You still got homework to do?"

"It can wait."

Please consider supporting me for just £3 using Ko-Fi. The link is available on my profile page. If you have any questions about Ko-Fi please feel free to private message me. Thank you. L x