LIKE A HURRICANE ⭑ - Billy Hargrove ⭑

04 | No Fortunate One

Max got home shortly after Billy got out of the shower last night. He didn't say anything to her, but they shared a look and she left a full-size chocolate bar on his pillow. She didn't need to give him anything but Billy is touched, not that he'd tell her. So Billy decides to forgive her tardiness, just this once. It's Halloween and kids are bound to be out late anyway. He can't scold her for that.

When he arrived at school this morning, the parking lot was basically empty and many students were absent be it from being hung over from drinking too much last night, oversleeping from staying up too late, or a combination of both. The school felt empty, making it all the easier to pick out faces that Billy may have seen at the party. He doesn't recognize very many, mainly because he honestly didn't pay all that much attention to everyone there.

On his walk to his first period, Billy took note that many if not most of the girls gossiping in the hallway had their eyes on him. Blinking fast, biting their lips, flouncing their hips with hopes of gaining his attention one way or another. They were practically throwing themselves at him and the guys were rolling in jealousy. They all must already know that he's dethroned Steve Harrington and has taken up the mantle as the new King of Hawkins. His sudden, new-found popularity feels nice. He's no longer just the new guy with the devil-may-care attitude. He's now somebody in this shithole of a town and he didn't even want to be. Billy didn't want to be king. Billy doesn't want fame. No one will care once they graduate in the spring. His father wouldn't even care right now if he was in town. The elder man never cares.

Billy shakes his head to reset his thoughts and thinks back to the party last night and how the previous king, Steve Harrington, basically gave him the crown for free. How– despite the way everyone spoke about him– was nothing more than a broken boy with a broken girl trying to survive the night. Trying to look as though they lived normal lives in a normal town. For what specific reason, Billy isn't sure, but he's been too close to that exhaustion too many times to simply just ignore it in someone else.

The first four periods and lunch pass Billy by quickly and far too easily. He would have liked to spend the last few hours alone but Tommy and his gang of meatheads, practically followed Billy around like a bunch of ducklings after their mother. The only exception being that they were much more dangerous and much more stupid. Billy can't help but roll his eyes at how they treated one another. The animals. There is no loyalty here. It's just a den of hyenas looking for their next target to devour. And Billy could do nothing but tag along, pretend that he was enjoying himself surrounded by these losers. It almost made him sick. Almost.

After lunch, Billy quietly peeled himself away from the group to head to the gym. His next class would be there anyway and he'd much rather get changed into his gym wear in silence than listen to a bunch of hormone-driven boys argue and make fun of those who weren't lucky enough to stand up for themselves. Why was he thinking this all of a sudden? Since when has he given a shit about the less fortunate? What the hell is this town doing to him? His mind slips back to when he was in the car yesterday with Max. He had felt guilty then. And again at the party when he met eyes with Steve Harrington. First his step-sister, then some random boy that seemed to share a darkness with him. Probably not the same thing, but close enough that Billy felt some weird connect there.

Billy picks up his gym shirt just as the door to the hall slams closed. He glances up and meets eyes with a slightly overweight boy with a mop of curly dark hair barely secured under a ball cap.

"I- uh... sorry," The boy mumbles and hastily disappears around a wall of lockers.

Billy hears nothing more from him, other than the opening and closing of the locker door. And for a moment, he doesn't think about how the boy briskly shied away from him until he glances at his reflection in the mirror lining one wall. His shoulders are tense and his face is twisted into something that looks like a scowl. He is... intimidating, even to him. No wonder the other boy was quick to hide from him.