Scream 4

Chapter 32

No, they couldn't have. All of the curtains had been drawn shut, you were sure of it. Recalling Emma and yourself making jokes about it. The only time they could have spotted you was when you rolled into his driveway with her and when you went back to your place with Jed.

"Gotten real close with him, have ya?"

You were more than impressed with yourself by not showing any signs of fear other than the tightening of your grip on the pillow you were hugging to your chest. So they had seen you. Question was, what did they know?

One look into Stu's direction made your heart inexplicably ache. There was confliction in his eyes, but unlike Billy's, they weren't murderous. They were clouded by all sorts of emotion, pain being the most prominent, but something told you that neither of them had seen anything other than you leaving through the door. There was definitely aggression coming from Billy's body language, but not enough to make you think he was going to hurt you.

You kept a calm surface, raking your brain for what to say to defend yourself. For a moment, it felt like you were going to come clean and confess your fuck-up with Jed by telling them what had taken place, but you didn't get the chance to when Stu murmured something under his breath.

"That guy's one shady figure." He looked up at you and there was a deep furrow between his eyes.

"'Shady figure?'" Billy repeated flatly. "This ain't some dun dun dun flick."

Your eyebrows rose comically, silently asking what the hell a dun dun dun flick was. From behind you, you could hear Billy take a steadying breath to compose himseld. "You've seen 'em. The ones buildin' suspense and drama 'til they hit the climatic ending?"

You could see Stu's depressing mood crumble a little bit at this, his voice taking on a chiming ring of excitement as he sunk further into the bean bag. "Like all good pornos."

You groaned, shooting Billy a long-suffering look from over your shoulder. The murderous glare was no longer there as all you recieved a lousy shrug in response.

Stu went on to add something to that last part, but you didn't hear it, really. You just wanted to get to the point.

Before long the two were stuck in an argument once more, and though you heard them loud and clear, you didn't really listen to any of it. Your face began to flush crimson, but it wasn't from butterflies fluttering in your stomach. You were actually starting to see red but didn't mutter a word, feeling tears prickling at the edges as your hands balled into fists.

"(Y/N)?" The look on Stu's face was a whirlwind of worry. It was the gentle rubbing of his hand on your forearm that made you flinch and turn away. "Did we say somethin' wrong?"

Not that question. You could feel their pair of brown and blue eyes on your back, searching as to why your demeanor changed so abruptly. The floodgates broke all at once and you started to sob, feeling like you had carried the burden of bottling everything up for years instead of weeks.

Were it weeks? Were it years? You had no clue anymore. The moisture brimming in your gaze spilled over as you whipped around, ready to give them the scolding of their lifetimes.

"You can't keep doing this!" You cried. Stu practically jumped up, slowly approaching you, but you weren't having any of it, shoving at his chest—pushing him twice until he almost lost his balance. "You can't keep pretending nothing's going on! You can't keep treating me like this!"

Billy didn't do as much as blink with no small amount of bewilderment while Stu was making no effort to defend himself. He wasn't even trying, and somehow that made it feel even worse for you. His mouth was open, lips parted as he gaped at you, looking dumbly taken aback by your outburst.