Love me •|Billy Hargrove|•

•|4|•

I groan and sit up in my bed, a short cry comes out of my mouth when I sit all the way up.

My door opens and Hopper rushes in. "Are you ok, Cassie?"

I nod and put my feet on the cold, wooden floor. I sigh and look up at him, frowning deeply.

"Sucks getting beaten up, huh?" He asks, sitting on my bed next to me. I nod again and lay my head on his shoulder.

We sit for a second before he sighs. "Get ready for school, Kid."

———

"Bye El," I say, ready to leave for school.

"Cassie?" She asks, using my real name instead of Four.

I stare at her with my brows furrowed. "Y-Yes?"

"I love you," she says, starring at me deeply. She's never said that before, ever.

"I love you too. Is- Is everything ok, Eleven?" I ask hesitantly taking a step towards her. She nods and goes back into her room. 

Baffled, I stand in the doorway of the cabin for an extra minute. She's planning something.

———

4th period Chem.

Billy's been ignoring me all day. To my knowledge, he hasn't even looked at me.

I sit down at our lab table and wait for him with my head down.

In my peripheral, I see him sit next to me, jaw clenched uncomfortably.

After a few more minutes of awkward silence he speaks, "Cass?"

"Yes?" I say quickly looking up at him. His brows sadden as he looks at my face. Then he sighs.

"I'm sorry I've been ignoring you. I just, um, I feel guilty about what happened yesterday," he tells me.

I'm at a loss for words. Billy Hargrove just apologized.

"It's fine, Billy. I mean really it's ok. I'm fine. I've had way worst happen to me," my shoulders slump at my memories from the lab. I shake off the memories and smile at him reassuringly. To my surprise, he actually smiles back.

When the bell rings, we walk to lunch together. We sit in our usual spots which are slightly away from each other. He sits in the middle of his 'friends' and I sit with Nancy and Steve, except today, Steve isn't there.

"Where's Steve?" I ask, looking around the cafeteria.

"I think we broke up," she says, not looking at me.

"Oh... why?" I ask hesitantly.

"When I was drunk at that party, I told him I didn't love him and then today he asked me to tell him I loved him and I couldn't do it," she says sadly.

"Damn," I whisper. "Sorry."

She finally looks up at me and her eyes widen. "Oh my god! What happened?"

I sigh. "Tina and two of her friends kicked my ass."

"Did you fight back?" She asks, enraged.

I shake my head. "I was out numbered so I just let them kick me."

Suddenly, I hear someone on my left say my name. It's a popular boy that I don't know the name of.

"Cassidy, what happened to you?" He asks, leaning over the table a bit to look at me, since he's kind of far away.

I smirk a little. Tina and her slut friends are sitting right by the guy talking to me. All the super popular kids are looking at me.

"Well, this insecure bitch cornered me into an alley, and she was so unsure she would win, she had to bring two of her slut friends with her to beat me up," I tell them, staring straight into Tina's eyes.