Under One Condition || Eddie Munson

chapter twelve

Light beamed in from outside, disturbing my sleep. I groaned loudly and looked towards the clock. 7:13. Fantastic. I knew I wasn't going to fall back asleep so I dragged myself out of bed and headed towards the bathroom.

The warm water pelted the top of my head as I thought back to the night before.

"Oh good, Aspen you showed up right on time! The phone is for you." I heard my mother's voice yell through the house as I walked in. My heart still felt heavy, but I knew I couldn't let it bother me for long.

I rounded the corner and picked up the phone, "hello?" There was a brief pause on the other end.

"Hey gorgeous, it's Billy." His voice rung clear through the phone. I furrowed my eyebrows, unsure of why he was calling.

"Uh, hey Billy. What's up?" I asked, looked down at my hand.

"Can you be ready in 10 minutes?" This confused me further.

"I guess so—." There was a brief pause and then a dial tone. I looked at the phone and slowly put it back on the hook.

"Who was that?" Steve asked, making me jump.

"Jesus Steve, a little warning next time." Steve chuckled at my response and then looked at me questionably.

"It was Billy, I'm not exactly sure what he wanted." I turned away from him and headed towards my room.

Steve must've been happy with my answer because he never responded and went back into his own room. I sat on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. Some time must've passed because a tap on my window broke my thoughts. I glanced over and saw a figure behind the blinds.

Cautiously I pulled the blinds open to find Billy standing there. I gave him a confused look and then quietly opened my window.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned. It was hard to see all of his features in the dark. I could see a smile grow on his face as he hoisted himself through the window. I backed up in surprise.

"So this is what your room looks like," Billy said looking around. He picked up my butterfly collection and looked at it with wonder. "I didn't think you liked dead things."

I snatched the collection out of his hands and set it back on the shelf. "Look around Hargrove, most of the things in here are dead." It was true; I had a bunch of random bones and skulls that I found, plus a few taxidermy animals.

He nodded his head thoughtfully, "Satan worshipper?" He questioned. I have an exasperated sighed, to which he put his hands up in defense. "I'll take that as a no." I nodded in agreement.

"So, is there a reason you dragged yourself through my window?" I asked, taking a seat in a chair.

"Yeah, I wanted to tell you to be at my house at 6 tomorrow," Billy replied, sitting on my bed. I glanced at him with a confused look on my face.

"Right. And you couldn't tell me this over the phone, because?" I drew out the 'because', the confused look permanently on my face.

Billy shrugged his shoulders and smiled at me.

A banging at the door broke my thoughts, "Aspen! You're taking all the hot water!" Steve's voice yelled through the door. I quickly shut off the water and hopped out of the shower.

Not much happened while Billy was over. He made some lame excuse as to why he had to tell me in person, something about not wanting his dad to hear. He left not long after he showed up.