i hate scary movies.

1.5

I down my coffee as soon as the waitress comes back with it. Billy raises his eyebrows at me. I chuckle. "Sorry, I'm tired and thirsty."

He shakes his head. "No, you're fine. Really."

"Do you wanna go back to my house after we're done at the park?" I ask. "We could watch a movie or something."

He nods. "Yeah, that'll be fun." We both nod, then sit in silence. He sips his coffee, and I snack on a chocolate covered croissant. We make small talk, which I absolutely hate with a passion, then we're off to the park.

We sit on the swings, swinging back and forth only a little.

"Is it weird to feel like you've known someone your whole life without even knowing them for that long?" I ask him.

He shrugs. "I don't think so. I think our whole group is kind of like that, right? I mean, we've all only known you for a week, and I think you know me better than almost anyone. Well, besides Stu. But Stu and I have been friends forever."

I nod. "I don't know, I think I felt like a pull towards you guys the first day I got here." I laugh. "God, that sounds so stupid out loud. I don't know how to explain it. I think you guys just looked to interesting and different. You weren't all the same as everyone else. You stood out more to me, you know?"

He nods, and we swing back in forth in silence for a while. Then he starts talking. "I know this might not be the best topic, but I saw that picture that Randy had. The one of you and your brother. You guys looked a lot a like. You know, besides the whole different clothing style thing."

I smile and shrug. "Yeah, we were like the same person. After everything that happened, you know, with him passing and all, everything changed for us. Everyone copes different ways, mine just happened to be becoming like an exact copy of him, just ten times worse. My parents are still sad, so am I, but they're just on a whole other level."

He leans his head against the chain holding the seats up. "Tell me about him."

"I never used to break my parents' rules. That was what was so different about us. He broke my parents' rules all the time. He snuck out, he got into their beer cabinet, he did drugs, he blared his music when they were sleeping, he kept his bedroom door locked to everyone except me, he had a different girl over every day; anything and everything he could think of to piss them off, he did it.

"I never did anything like that, you know? I was the perfect kid. I was a cheerleader for my first three years of high school. I was always back by curfew, I always stayed hydrated, never even dreamed of doing drugs. I never played music too loud, never locked my bedroom door, and I never had sex. Ever. If anything, that's the one thing my parents have always hated the most. They never wanted us to be teen parents, but he always got past them. Me? I never gave the guys at that school the time of day. And he always protected me from them anyway.

"But after he died, I gave my light clothes away, stole all his things before my parents could give them away. I got his clothes, his cassette tapes, his posters, his boombox. Everything in my room besides the bedding and makeup and that kind of stuff, is all his. I dyed my hair without my parents knowing. They were pissed. I did everything they hated that he did. I drank some of their wine and whiskey, I smoke weed whenever I get too overwhelmed, I blare the music he loved. Even though they took the lock off my door, I still open my closet door so they can't just open the door all the way. Only thing I've never done is bring a guy over—or a girl."

"You've never had sex?"

I blink at him. "That's the only thing you take away from that?" I ask him. He furrows his brows a little, so I start laughing. "I was joking. And no, I've never had sex."

He nods, and pauses. "You were close with him?"

I nod. "We were best friends. No matter how many school friends we had, we were never that close with any of them. We were inseparable." I pause. "Okay, I've told you my sob story. Now you tell me more about yourself."

And he does.

—

I don't check the time when we get into my house. I make sure Dolly, who is asleep on the couch, has food and water, then we head to my room.

I walk in first, and Billy closes the door behind him. I open the closet door so it's semi-locked.

I click on the small lamp next to my bed before my shoulder is grabbed. I turn, and Billy's lips are immediately on mine. I run my hands through his hair and kiss him back as his hands trail down my body.

We stumble around before he pushes me down onto my bed. He's on top of me again, trailing his lips up and down my neck, moving my shirt to get my collarbone. He starts kissing the side of my neck roughly, which is definitely going to leave a mark, before kissing my lips even rougher.

Our hands are all over each other, and our bodies are pressed close together. I can feel him all over, and he can feel me as we run our hands over each other. Our lips only leave each other to breath and kiss other areas.

When we hear the door open downstairs, we pull away from each other. "Shit," I mumble as Billy gets off of me and sits down next to me. "They'll come up here to check on me and see you."

"And that's bad?"

I smack his arm. "They don't know I'm friends with anyone, let alone making out with you. Not that I care if they care, but they'll try to do something. And my dad will kill you." I huff. "If you climb out the window, I can go downstairs and tell them I accidently grabbed something of Tatum's and I have to run it by her house. I can pick you up a few houses down and drive you home."

He shakes his head and covers my mouth. "I can walk home. Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure? I don't want you walking alone."

"I'll be fine. I promise."

I nod, and he gets to the window and opens it. "Billy?" I ask him quietly when his feet are on the roof. He bends down and turns to me. I grab his face and place my lips on his, then pull away. "Bye."

"You do too many things to me," he breaths with a smile before standing up and walking across the roof. I close the window and change my clothes quickly. I hear footsteps up the stairs, so I click off my lamp and get under my covers quickly and quietly before my parents try to open my door.

—

"I'm just saying, if the shoe fits, the shoe fits," Randy says, shrugging at lunch. "If you're a virgin, you'll survive a horror movie."

Sidney is sitting next to him, shaking her head. Tatum is sitting on Stu's lap, and I'm in between Billy's legs while he rests his chin on my shoulder.

"D, you've been awfully quiet today," Stu says, making everyone turn to me.

I shrug. "I'm tired. That's all." Yeah, because I got up early this morning to try and find a turtleneck, but apparently they're all getting washed. The first thing I did when I saw Billy this morning was drag him away from our group and scold him for giving me a very noticeable hickey, which he seemed very proud of. Luckily, none of our friends have noticed it yet. Yet.

Yet now means, until now.

Tatum gasps, then smirks at me. We all send her confused looks. "Nice hickey," she says to me, the smirk only growing on her face.

I sigh and cover it with my hand before anyone else can get a look at it. Billy raises his brows and hides his smirk on the back of my shoulder.

Stu laughs. "Someone was getting it on last night."

"God, Stu," I groan. "Stop. That's horrible."

Billy hums quietly into my shoulder, but I can feel his smirk growing.