═══ 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚛 ═══

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖜𝖔

A few months went by as the two would regularly take the weekends to spend their time on the beach with Richie's pop, his older friends, and Richie. The group of older men associated with Richie's old man casually slumped in a group, chatting about fishing or some shit. Whatever it was, Billy wasn't really too interested, minus the Heineken he saw in its richness, half empty and spilling. What an absolute waste.

"Hey Billy!" Said Richie, waving over to the brunette, catching him off guard. "What?" he replied blandly, his mouth watering. He knew he was too young, but he'd be lying if he hadn't already taken a few sips behind his father's back, not that his father would care anyway. "I found something cool!" He was quite eager to show Billy so he couldn't simply ignore him without feeling just an inch terrible of doing so. This kid made him soft; he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

He made his way over, hovering over his shoulder in minor curiosity. Richie had found a living crab, prying at some sand to hide. It was cool, at least. "Oh? We should eat him," Billy suggested casually. Richie nearly gagged, eyes white and jaw dropped, looking at Billy as if he had committed murder. Jesus, this kid was dramatic. And what couldn't be even worse, tears started to trickle down his cheeks. "How could you think such awful things?!" He spat, practically crying like some little baby, well that wasn't too far from the truth. 

 "Okay! Okay! I am sorry, damn." Billy raised his hands in defeat. "Better be!" He held those puppy eyes that nearly made Billy want to rip them out by how they worked so well to carve under his bad boy facade. There was some silence that left Billy feeling a bit awkward, so he arched his brow and bent down to look at the crab more closely.

"Whatcha gonna name it?" Billy asked. "Name it?" Richie tilted his head in response. "Uh yea, seeing how you found him, might as well give him a name." He implied. "Oh uh, true hm. Let me think!" He said, scratching his stubbles chin. He had such a baby face. "Billy Jr!" He said with absurd confidence in his choice. "Bi- what?!" Billy perked his head up, wondering if this kid had actually lost it or if he was just messing around. Nope, he was quite serious. 

"Why me of all things?" Billy asked, his name wasn't even remotely special. "Because you're my best friend; you are special to me." Richie said, his attention diverting to the crab, analyzing it. "Oh! It has a black dot on its back, one singular black dot!" He said cluelessly, totally moving on with what he had just admitted. Billy stood there watching Richie without much of a thought spacing around. It was cloudy, riddled in confusion yet somehow, he felt so. . .whole. He felt special, needed, important. It was far better than forcing those things onto others. Billy couldn't hold it; he was far too engulfed in his emotions when he had noticed he had taken Richie by the hand and pulled him in for a hug. "Billy?!" Richie screeched, scared at first before he realized he was only embracing him, in fact that shocked, no scared, him more. "Billy I, uh-" he stuttered, "shut up," Billy interrupted. He wasn't going to elaborate even if he kept bugging him.

Billy, with a firm push, caused Richie to stumble back, cheeks flustered and a vast smokey huff coming from his nostrils. "ShUt uP," Billy's voice cracked, blame puberty. Both of them laughed after a long silence, staring at each other before they both held their stomach and started laughing simultaneously. This was one hell of a summer.

         Billy had just woken up from his father who had been calling him, apparently more than once since he was now irritated. Billy, who had just packed his bag to head over to his friend Richie's for the weekend before summer casted its final shine since it's already been a week from their last encounter, and he was quite excited for it, he was stopped in place, his father staring down at him with a smile. 'Wasn't he just irritated?' he thought to himself. "Guess what son!" He said with such ungodly file enthusiasm that nearly made him piss his pants more than watching some horror movie. Billy took in the view, noticing his father had minty breath, a decently cleaned shirt, assumingly new denims and freshly cleaned boots. His hair was even gelled back. This didn't seem normal, in fact Billy only hoped this wasn't what he thought it'd be.

"What?" Billy said with not so much enthusiasm. In fact, he didn't even care.

"You're gonna have a stepsister!" Those words chewed in every crevice of his brain before gnawing the inside of his cheeks before the taste of metallic.

"Excuse me?"