Max slammed the door to her room behind herself after she heard her mother and step father leaving the house.
She didn't want to stay home with her step brother but she had no choice if she didn't want Billy to get beaten up again.
Though he was a total asshole to her all the time, the girl knew that even he didn't deserve to be hurt by his dad for something she did, but it happened rather often.
Max had come home from the arcade once, seeing Neil standing over her brother with his belt, and Billy sobbing on the ground in pain.
She didn't do anything then, she was too afraid to be hurt as well, and just quickly went into her room, covering her ears to ignore the cries that had come from Billy who Neil had basically thrown into his room once he was done with his son.
She had later learned Neil had been mad at Billy for not picking her up from the arcade, even though she had insisted on going home by herself. But the asshole didn't want to hear it, just seeing an opportunity to hurt Billy.
Now, Max was sitting on her desk, doing homework so she would have a free rest of the weekend.
Their parents would be out of town for the weekend, leaving her with Billy.
She didn't care, since he would probably not stay home, going on dates with some girls who just wanted a piece of him without seeing his abusive nature.
Max's head shot up when she heard something fall from the room next door, and a small whine following.
She raised an eyebrow at the noise, but decided to ignore it.
There were more important things right now than if Billy dropped something.
But the whining didn't stop, and that was rather unusual for her brother.
In fact, Max didn't even know he could sound vulnerable at other occasions than when his dad was unhappy with something.
So Max got up, now curious what was going on, and sneaked over to Billy's room.
Since they were alone at home she didn't need to be quiet, but it was something you just kind of learned to do around Neil Hargrove.
She softly knocked on the door, but got no response.
Max waited for about another minute before turning the doorknob around slowly, so Billy would have plenty of time to tell her to piss off.
But when he still didn't say a word, the girl pushed open the door.
Her mouth fell open in shock at what she was seeing.
There sat Billy Hargrove, a dark red pacifier between his lips and pushing a small toy car around.
His eyes shot up when he noticed the movement in the doorframe and he quickly ripped the pacifier out of his mouth.
„Get out!" he yelled, and Max was quick to do so, slamming the door closed and running back into her room.
She didn't get what she had just seen, but she was sure Billy would murder her now, or if she ever dared to tell anyone.
The redhead went back to her homework in hopes to just ignore what had happened.
Billy hadn't come after her, so she just hoped he was too embarrassed to do anything that involved hurting her.
Max's eyes wandered over to the clock on her wall, reading 6.54pm. She had been done with her homework for about an hour, and had been doodling over an empty page in her notebook.
Now the girl got up, deciding to warm up some of the food her mother had left them in the refrigerator.
When Max entered the kitchen, she froze.
Billys door had opened and closed and now he was coming over to the kitchen as well.
She quickly grabbed the food she wanted to heat up, and raised her head only when she felt Billy stand on the other side of the room.
His eyes hushed around, trying to find any emotion on her face, but she wouldn't let him.
This was a battle they regularly played, and Max always won.
No one was allowed to know how she felt, especially not her brother.
„Do you want to eat here or do you have a date?" she asked, looking deep into Billy's eyes to find out why he was so quiet.
Normally, he would've yelled at her by now or maybe even hit her but he just stood there.
„No date" he finally muttered, sitting down at the table as Max heated up the food.
„So...do you want to talk about earlier?" Max asked, looking over at her brother who visibly stiffened.
„There's nothing to talk about" he whispered, voice shaking a little.
„Well I think there is, I didn't know you liked playing baby like some weirdo" Max teased.
She didn't really care if he did it or not, but this was Billy, and having something against him could safe her ass more times than she'd like to admit.
The redhead turned around to put some of the boiled carrots and mashed potatoes on both of their plates, but stopped to turn around when no response came from Billy.
He usually would've yelled at her by now or pushed her to the floor or some stuff, so not hearing any movement from him confused Max.
When she looked over at the dinner table, her heart ached at the sight.
Billy had lowered his head, biting down at his bottom lip, obviously trying to hold back tears that already formed in the corners of his eyes.
Max sighed, grabbing cutlery for the both of them and brought the plates over, setting Billy's in front of him and sitting down.
„I'm sorry, I shouldn't make fun of you for it" she spoke softly, carefully trying to grab his hand.
Surprisingly enough, he let her.
But still, there was no sound coming over his lips, so the younger girl continued.
„Do you maybe want to explain to me what was going on? I promise I won't tell anyone" she smiled reassuring at her brother, who just quietly shook his head no.
„That's okay too. We can just have dinner now and never talk about it again, I don't really care. But eat now, please, mom cooked for us."
With that, Max let go off his hand and started eating, shooting quick glances over at Billy from time to time.
He barely touched his food, only pushing it over the plate.
„Billy, I'm not asking you again. You haven't eaten anything all day if I'm not mistaken. You're not getting up until at least half of that plate is empty" she said sternly, waiting for her brother to look at her confused, but he did pick up his fork again and started eating slowly.
Max smiled softly at him, and went on with her own plate.
Once Billy had finished shortly after her, surprisingly having eaten everything, Max brought the dishes into the kitchen and turned around to look at the other through the window that lead from the kitchen into the dining area.
They stared at each other for a minute, before Billy took a shaky breath and looked down again.
„It helps sometimes" he whispered, Max raising her eyebrows.
„What was that? You gotta speak up a little, Billy" she smiled, realising he wanted to tell her what had been going on earlier.
„I don't know what it is, or why I'm doing it, but sometimes when I don't feel like an adult anymore that helps me with being calm" Billy explained, looking down again as he finished.
„Okay, thank you for telling me" Max smiled, coming back to the table.
„And you were doing that earlier? Is that right?" she asked, wanting to make sure.
Billy nodded, and so did Max after thinking for a second.
„Okay" she simply said, leaving the dining room.
Billy looked after her in a mixture of fear and confusion, not being sure what he should think of this encounter.
It had taken him every last bit of bravery in his body to even leave his room again and not hide forever.
But Max didn't seem to really care, which was a big relief for him.
„By the way, can you drop me off at the arcade tomorrow?" the redhead asked, her head peaking through the door again.
Billy nodded quietly, now getting up as well.
„Thanks Billy" she smiled, and the blond passed her in the hallway.
Before he could enter his room though, Max stopped him, grabbing his arm gently.
„If you need company while doing this kid stuff, come see me okay? I'm not gonna judge you" she smiled, and Billy felt a blush creeping up his neck.
„Don't get ahead of yourself shithead" he muttered, stopping when he felt Max not letting go off his arm.
„That wasn't very nice Billy, I would like you to apologise" she spoke softly but in a stern manner, making the boy shiver slightly.
„I'm sorry Max" he muttered, looking at her.
The redhead smiled, finally letting him go.
„There we go. Good job for apologising, Billy" she said, leaving him standing in the hallway as she went into her room.
Billy whined quietly, entering his room.
He didn't like what just happened, but on the other hand it had felt nice, being put in his place. He felt like Max didn't even wait for him to come to her when he was feeling small but rather just went along with it and helping him being little.
The blond flopped down onto his bed and pulled a stuffed toy from the space between the bed and wall.
It was a blue dog with matted fur and scratched beaded eyes, but it was the only toy he still had that his momma had given him when he was little.
Now he hugged the toy tightly, his thumb slowly finding its way into his mouth.
Taking a small nap wouldn't hurt, would it? Neil would only be back on Sunday and it was Friday, so he had plenty of time to relax for a bit.
So Billy closed his eyes slowly, sighing in content when the darkness surrounded him.
Max on the other hand was still awake, thinking about their conversation earlier.
She hadn't even noticed that she took over a babysitting role just then but now she did.
But Billy didn't talk back and even did as she asked, so how bad could it really be?
She rolled over, grabbing a comic book since she wasn't tired yet, normally not being able to sleep for at least a few hours after the house was quiet.
But tonight was different, as about two hours into Max reading her book, there was a soft knock on the door.
The redhead raised her eyebrows, waiting for another knock since she was almost sure she imagined it.
They were alone, and Billy never knocked.
He always barged in, not caring about her comfort.
But there was a second knock on the door, and Max put her book down.
„Come in" she said, loud enough to be heard outside, but not quiet shouting.
The door opened with a creek, and Billy sneaked in her room, clinging onto a stuffed toy and tears in his eyes.
„Sissy?" he whispered, looking absolutely terrified.
Max quickly pulled back her blanket to make space for her brother and patted on the mattress next to her.
„What's wrong Bills?" she asked worriedly as the blond sat down next to her, now the girl also noticed he was shaking a little.
„Had a bad dream" he whispered, wiping over his running nose.
It was obvious that he had been crying for a bit, eyes red and puffy, and Max guessed he had debated to come over to her for quiet a bit before actually doing it.
„Awh, poor little thing" she cooed, pulling him into a hug.
Billy was hesitating at first, not really letting himself relax until Max started to softly pat his hair.
It reminded Billy of the way his mother used to cuddle him after a bad dream, and he softly started crying again.
Max didn't know what to do so she just held her brother, letting him get the bad emotions out of his system.
Soon she realised the boy had cried himself to sleep in her arms, clinging tightly to her, so she didn't even try to move away, accepting the fact that her brother needed her.
Despite the fact that she had every right to not give him this type of comfort with how he treated her, she wanted to.
She wanted to be there for Billy, since no one else was.
So she turned off the lamp on her nightstand, putting the book on it and fell asleep shortly after Billy, arms secured around him.