Marlboro Love [Billy Hargrove]

Chapter 9: Conversations

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-'ˏ Charlotte Anderson's Pov ˎ'-

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Hawkins Community Pool
Monday , 6:54 p.m
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I harshly scrubbed at my skin as I replayed his "Don't" over and over in my head. I angrily hit the water button again in annoyance at how short the timer was on the community pool showers.

I thought about the dark circles under his eyes and wondered if he was also having insanely vivid nightmares. I shook my head to get rid of my thoughts as flashes of my dream about the woods and of my father replayed in my mind.

As I pulled my jean shorts over my hips I was still mulling over it. I finally slammed my locker shut and made up my mind to sleep over at Tina's house. Partially because I couldn't face my father and because I was scared of being caught in the dark on the long walk home to my house.

Tina lived only a couple of blocks away from the pool and I easily made it there before sundown. As I walked the air turned from a baking heat to a tolerable warm breeze.

I lightly knocked on the door and waited as I rocked back on my heels, hands gripping my backpack straps.

The door opens slightly and I see an older replica of Tina peek through the chain lock. She smiles widely at me before the door shuts, the lock clicks open, and the door is thrown open wide.

"Char! It's so good to see you!" She exclaims before ushering me inside. I look around the organized living room before my eyes stop on Tina. She's sitting on the couch with her little sister watching TV with her hair in rollers. "Hi! It's good to see you too." I respond honestly. Tina finally notices me and waves as she gets up.

She must have noticed the forced smile on my face because she rushes forward.

"Sorry mom, I must have forget to tell you. Me and Char are having a girls night if that's okay?" She says as she practically pushes me down the hallway.

"That's fine! Have fun!" I think I hear her mom respond as Tina's bedroom door slams shut and it's locked behind us.

She ushers me towards her bed and we both lay down. I fold my arms under my head while she gets comfortable just like we did when we were children.

"What's up?" She questions as she faces me. I vividly remember our roles being reversed as she cried to me about her ex boyfriend.

"Nothing really." I respond as I anxiously pick at the seam of her pillow sheet.

"Char." She says in a motherly tone.

"Can I tell you a secret?" I say giving in.

"Of course." She says as she scoots closer.

"Nicole and Hargrove had sex on the last day of school party." I finally say as if I didn't care.

"I'm so sorry." She says as her hand reaches out to rub my shoulder. She didn't even question how I found out.

"It's nothing." I tell her.

"It's not nothing." She responds with a frown.

"It doesn't matter." I respond as I shrug her hand off of my shoulder.

"If it matters to you, it matters to me. I'm really sorry Care Bear." She says using my childhood nickname.

"Im okay Tina Beana." I respond using her own childhood nickname trying to lighten the mood.

"I never liked Nicole anyways." She lies to me.

"Shut up you liar." I say as I lightly punch her arm.

She giggles before saying "Well I dislike her now."

"Mmm." I hum as if I don't believe her.

"Do you really like him?" She blurts out.

"No. I don't know. He's so complicated. He can be charming when he wants to be, but simultaneously can destroy every ounce of ego you have left." I complain.

"But he's hot." She adds.

"He's hot." I amend. "That's definitely half of it. But you can tell he's not always such a dick under the mean facade. In fact he's kind of funny."

"Funny?" Tina snorts. "How would you know that?"

"Sometimes we end up alone together at parties when we smoke." I say with a shrug before nervously picking at her pillowcase seam again. "Which is when he's the nicest, and then he's mean again at work."

"At work?" She questions.

"Oh yeah I got a job at the community pool." I tell her with a nonchalant wave of my hand.

"Nice!" She says with an outstretched hand and a grin on her face.

I high-five her back before saying, "Yeah, yeah except that's when he's a complete asshole.

It goes quiet for a moment as she thinks of what to say. "How's your family?." She tentatively asks, knowing that I always want to sleepover when I can't go home.

"Acting as normally as they usually do." I say with a forced laugh, knowing that she knew what I meant.

Her arm reaches out and pulls me into a hug. I finally relax against her and let my head rest into her neck.

"Life just sucks you know." I tell her.

"I know." She says as she squeezes me.

"Can I tell you something insane?" I mumble as my face is still pressed against her.

"More insane than having a crush on Hargrove?" Tina says with a laugh.

"Yeah ." I laugh back as I wipe under my eyes.

"Go ahead." She responds.

"Do you remember that kid that went missing in the woods a couple years back?"

"Of course. Everyone was talking about it."

"I think that whatever took him is still out there. In the woods." 

"What do you mean?" She says as her eyes pop open in shock.

"I just.. it sounds crazy." I say as I move away from her and sit up. "But the woods. I swear to god I walk past them and they move. They stop when I get too close. I've had lights flicker and go out on me. I feel like I'm being watched." I quickly spill out before I backed out of telling her.

"Char.." She responds as she slowly sits up too. "What is in the woods? There can't be anything out there. There was a chemical leak remember. That was it." She questions.

"Wouldn't you say that to save your own ass too? Something took that boy and it's out there now. They had a funeral for him. They were covering something up."

She debates what I said as her hand comes up to anxiously tug at her necklace. "Okay.. okay. Lets go see it then."

"See it?" I whisper.

"Yeah." She unsurely mumbles as she slides off the bed to put her shoes on.

A/N- Sorry for the crazy long writing hiatus I've been banging Eddie Munsons irl literal doppelgänger and I've not been able to think straight since hope yall understand 🤌🤌