All yours // Billy Hargrove

\\ Chapter 11 // Eris //

On the plane, Eris ripped at the skin around her fingertips. Trying to focus on the bright cloudy sky that the metal tube drownd it. 

 The girl's stomach spun. She wasn't a good flyer. A terrible flyer in fact.  But it was made so much worse as she was travelling to the place that had caused her to repress all her trauma and get as well as she could, as fast as possible. 

Eris should have stayed in the hospital. She wasn't well enough to leave when she did. But she could not handle that place. So she lied. Pretended to be better. She knew Hawkins would be her cure. She would make it her cure. So Hospital in her eyes was useless, a waste of time and effort. They tried to help, But there is only so much you can do if your patent isn't really getting better, only faking it.

This is what scared her. 

She was terrified of slipping up. Exposing the truth. She was stable enough. And Hawkins had helped her. Giving her a sense of belonging. Almost a purpose as a sister, daughter and friend. Something Eris didn't really have with her own family, she was consumed with LA. With the parties, drugs and drinking, yes, her parents loved her, unconditionally but could not rely on her. and certainly, didn't trust her. 

But Joyce did.

 She allowed her to be home alone in the house - with no fear of coming back and finding the house filled with drunk and cocked-up teens. She didn't question where Eris had been if she came home late from school. Eris no longer felt like a broken little girl, the girl she had been when she arrived. She now had responsibility, something to live for.

The plane began swinging and dumbing, the warning of the seatbelt sign caused the girl to turn green. She tried to distract herself. Her mind fumbled as she clasped her eyes tightly shut, Remembering Will helping her pack.

"I'll draw you something... for when you get back!"

he grinned up at her, his imagination already sparkling.

"what are you going to draw for me then?"

The girl smiled down at the boy who rolled his eyes ignoring her -  it was obviously a surprise. Eris smirked as she began folding up a tatty old navy hoodie. It had belonged to her dad. It still smelled of him. like oranges and lemons mixed with liquor. An odd pairing, but that was her dad.

 that old hoodie was the only thing Eris had felt safe in since she could remember. No matter where she was like it was like her dad's strong hers were holding her tight.

Eris smiled at the memory, as her brain began to wander away from it.

But She had felt that same sense of security in Hawkins. 

With Billy.

She remembered his arms around her two days ago. As he sobbed into her chest. And then when he clung to her hand while she slept.

They were still practically strangers. But bonded by each other's trauma. The root of their demises, and that was certainly something. They were vulnerable together without knowing anything about each other. Not their middle names, favourite colour, food, or animal. Not knowing the little insignificant things that shaped a person. 

Why was that? Why was it that whenever either of them needed someone the other was at their rescue? What was it that had drawn Eris to him in the first place? What magnet was in his eyes? What magnet was with him? She had never felt so pulled toward a human being in her life. But why?

Billy wouldn't leave her thoughts for the rest of the journey. She analysed every aspect of him. Trying to wrap her head around why he did what he did. But nothing. She had no explanation for why he gave her a lift or stayed with her at the party, why he was outside her house, and most importantly, after all that, why he wasn't speaking to her. That stumped her entirely. How could aperson go from being so lovely and vulnerable to a dickhead, and for no reason that Eris could think of, it just didn't make sense.