1987 [BoyxBoy]

Chapter 18 - I Know Who Killed Brenda

It took Billy forever until he came to a definitive answer to the question he was given by his friends. "Was Brenda worth more pain?" It was almost a month later when Billy invited his friends to his house and finally told them.

"It's great to see you out of the hospital," Peter beamed as he, Denise, and Sarah walked into Billy's house.

"It's great to be out of the hospital. I swear I can still hear beeps every few seconds," Billy stressed.

They all chuckled in response. There was an obvious elephant in the room, and each of them were waiting for each other to talk about it.

Sarah rolled her eyes and finally spoke. "So, do you want to go back to hunting for clues and killers? We haven't talked about it in a month, so I've been assuming you want to stop, but I just need to know. We all do."

Billy sighed and nodded. "I'm done. No more searching. I go back to school tomorrow, and I just want to feel normal again. No more worrying."

Sarah consoled her friend, putting her hand on his shoulder. Denise and Peter joined, showing support for Billy decision.

"I'm sorry I brought you guys into this shit. These last few months have been actual hell and it's all my fault."

"Hey," Sarah started. "You could ask us to scale a mountain with you, and we'd do it. The same way you'd do the same for us."

Billy smiled and let out a quiet chuckle. The friends shifted the subject to school, as Billy would be going back and needed a lot of catching up. This was the second time during the school year that Billy found himself out of school for more than a day. The boy vowed to himself that he wouldn't let it happen again. He wanted to catch up and finish the school year strong.

"Okay, so, I brought you all the notes we've taken in Crutch's class since you've been out, Denise brought the math notes, and Peter, to my surprise, went to the rest of your classes and got your assignments and notes."

"This is so ridiculous. I miss over a month of school and they still expect me to do hundreds of assignments for multiple classes. There's no way I'm gonna get this done."

"Don't worry. We all agreed that we'd take turns helping you. We won't leave you behind, I swear it."

Billy gave Sarah a smile in response. He was grateful that, even though he'd made his friends follow him into a dangerous situation, that they still cared for him and wanted to help. He'd spent so much time chasing after Brenda and what happened to her that he didn't ever show his friends how much he appreciated them, yet they still somehow knew and continued to go along with everything he did.

The friends continued their hangout into the night until eventually they all had to go home. The girls walked out of the house before Peter did. He stayed behind in an attempt to talk privately with Billy.

"So, are you nervous for tomorrow?" Peter asked.

"A little. I've been on the local news like four times this year and people are going to ask questions. I'm just so tired of question."

"Well," Peter started as he walked closer to Billy. "Me, Sarah, and Denise will be there to divert any Curious George's."

Peter continued to shrink the space between him and Billy until they were centimeters away from each other. Peter cupped Billy's cheek, gently stroking his thumb across it to console the boy.

"My mom is in the other room." Billy wanted to pull away, but he'd been missing the feeling of being with Peter for awhile.

"I'd better make this quick then." Peter quickly stood on his tippy toes and placed a kiss on Billy's lips, to which Billy returned. The kiss slowly intensified but was brought to a halt when the horn of Denise's car was triggered from outside.