SUSPICIOUS MINDS | BILLY HARGROVE

1. A BABYSITTER FOR MAX

One day. It had only been a day and Billy was already sick of driving Max to and from school. It was bad enough he had to take her to the stupid arcade all the time, but at least there were no girls there (or at least not ones that he had any interest in), and he couldn't imagine a lot of the girls he was interested in would enjoy riding around with a middle schooler. He really couldn't fathom why it had become his responsibility. She had her skateboard, and she didn't even like riding around with him anyway, so why his father insisted on such a thing was beyond him.
The one and only excuse Neil had given him was ensuring Max's safety, but he had a hard time believing anything even remotely awful could happen to a child in a shit-hole town like Hawkins.

"I'm gonna find you a babysitter." He announced suddenly on their drive home. Max whipped her head away from the window to look at her step-brother with a shocked expression.

"A what?"

"You heard me."

"I don't need a babysitter, I'm not a child."

"You should try telling Neil that, save us both the trouble of spending time together." Max rolled her eyes at the sarcasm that dropped from his tongue but wasn't subtle enough to not be caught. "I saw that. Didn't Susan ever tell you that rolling your eyes is rude?"

"Sorry." She mumbled.

"Watch it next time." He took a long drag of his cigarette before blowing the smoke in Max's direction. "Neil seems to think that you're some sort of precious cargo that needs to be watched over at all times, and since I have no interest in doing that, I'm going to find someone else to do it, and if I find out that you told Neil or Susan that I found someone else to do it, we're going to have an issue. Got it?"

Max remained silent.

"Got it?" Billy repeated.

"Whatever." Max sighed staring out the window. Billy huffed and tossed his cigarette butt out the window.

"Brat."

~

It hadn't taken long for Billy Hargrove to become the talk of the town. It seemed everyone knew about the native Californian, everyone except Valerie Henderson, who had been out of school for a week with a rather awful head cold. All she knew was what her little brother, Dustin told her, which was almost everything but not quite. All she knew was that there was a cute new girl in his class named Max, and she was some sort of video game wiz who didn't like being stalked and apparently didn't care for Camaros since she always raised her middle finger at the one that dropped her off and picked her up everywhere.

"I'm gonna ask her if she wants to go trick-or-treating with us tonight." Dustin announced while Valerie helped him put the finishing touches on his costume.

"Aw, you're asking your little girlfriend out on a date?" She teased with a pinch of his cheek, laughing when he shoved her hand away.

"Quit it! She's not my girlfriend!" He huffed.

"Oh I get it, you just have a little crush on her!" Valerie threw her arms around her little brother and squeezed him tightly. "Oh, my wittle baby Dusty has a wittle cwush on a wittle girl! He's gwowing up!" She gushed much to his dismay as he attempted to writhe out of her vice-like embrace.

"Stop!" Dustin whined as he finally broke free from her arms. "I don't know why I tell you these things." He grumbled as he smoothed out his jumpsuit. "You're still coming with us tonight, right?"

"Of course I am."

"Oh, Valerie, do you really think it's a good idea? It'll be so chilly out tonight and you just got over your cold!" Mrs. Henderson walked into the living room with a worried expression and a camera, ready to capture hundreds of pictures of Dustin in his costume.