Reformed

Chapter Twenty-four

January 20th,

Grunkle Ford apologized again this morning about the whole thing with Bill, even though it's been over three weeks since it happened now. I forgive him, we all do and we've told him that, but he still feels bad. His apology did remind me to write an update about Bill, though.

He's been sleeping in our bedroom with us since that night. He switches off between sleeping in my bed or Mabel's, and, fortunately, it's been working out pretty well for all of us. He's also stayed in our room for the most part of the last three weeks, which isn't entirely good for him if you ask me. He only leaves to take a shower or use the bathroom, or when he knows no one else is home, then he'll go downstairs to watch TV or stare out the kitchen window.

But because he's confined himself almost completely to our room, I've started letting him use my laptop- which, I know, probably isn't the smartest idea but he'd be bored out of his mind without it. I monitor his internet use, though, just to make sure he's not looking up how to build a bomb or something like that. He mostly just watches dumb internet videos that Mabel recommends for him, or documentaries that I thought he might like. He also likes reading the books I have, so he's been pretty well occupied and entertained while we're at school.

He's still pretty quiet and hasn't really spoken a word about that night. If I'm being honest, I worry about him a lot. I catch him staring off a lot like he's thinking about something, and I can take a pretty good guess at what that something is, and I swear I've heard him have a few nightmares now, too. He twitches in his sleep, and then wakes up and is borderline hyperventilating... then he just sits there with his head in his hands. Whenever I try to ask him what's wrong (or Mabel asks him, because she's caught him a few times, too), he gives me some half-assed excuse, turns his back towards me, and immediately tries to go back to sleep.

I know he'd never admit to another living soul, but what happened that night clearly... messed with Bill. I want to use the word traumatized, but I'm not sure if I should... plus, this sounds like a thing of past trauma coming up to haunt him rather than just that event traumatizing him. But either way, I know how this kind of stuff works, and I see a lot of it in Bill. It sure as hell has made me feel a lot worse for the guy, even IF he's done all that terrible stuff. He has to feel bad for at least some of it if he's acting like this.

Anyways, I've kind of decided that Bill's done enough sulking around. I'm sure he feels like shit, and it's starting to show, too. I don't want him to feel like that anymore, so...

I think I'm going to have a talk with him today.

"Hey, here's my keys. Mabel said you wanted to borrow my truck."

Dipper looked up from his journal to catch the keys Wendy tossed to him. He caught them and put them in his pocket before shutting his journal. He stood up from the kitchen table and smiled at her. "Thanks, Wendy."

"What do you need my truck for anyways?" she asked, leaning on the doorway. "Taking Gabe out on a date?"

Dipper snickered. "No- though, that's not a bad idea! I'm, uh... actually planning on taking Bill out for a drive."

"Oh, so you're taking Bill on a date."

"Gross, no!" Dipper exclaimed, though still smiling. "I'm just planning on having a talk with him... I think he needs one."

Wendy's eyebrows furrowed together upon hearing that. "Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean... what if he acts the same way he did with Ford but with you?"

"I've given him almost a whole month to think about this now. I would hope that would've had enough time to gather his thoughts about it by now," Dipper replied. "Plus, he likes me more than Ford, and I'm not going to handle it the way Ford did. I think it'll be okay."