Sick Like Me

Shopping Trip

[1173 words]
~
  With a loud, exhausted huff, boxes drop to the floor of an empty, soon-to-be living room. It's your third day in Hawkins and you still aren't unpacked. Fortunately, the boxes that just hit the floor were the last ones. You rolled your eyes and turned away from the boxes, now looking at the front door. Perhaps you weren't unpacked yet but that didn't mean you couldn't do a little shopping to ease your mind. Besides, you'd still be doing something productive, just not as stressful. With that thought in mind, you took your keys out of your pocket, slid your sunglasses onto your face and headed out the door.

~

  Once finding a parking spot in front of the Starcourt Mall, you throw your car into park and quickly slide out. The clean, black, somewhat iridescent paint of your car paired with silver accents, stood out against the other cars nearby. All of the other cars looked old, beat-up, or just faded by the sun...all except a Chevrolet Camaro that also stood out against the other cars. You found it a little odd but didn't think much of it as you slammed your car door shut, locked it, and headed inside.

  Shoving your keys in the pocket of your black sweatpants and pulling your sunglasses up to rest on your head, your eyes darted around in attempt to take in all that the mall had to offer. As you walked around, you pulled your arms up and crossed them lazily across your torso which was covered with a white shirt which you had cropped yourself, as well as a light grey cardigan that draped over your shoulders. Your black combat boots made soft sounds against the ground beneath you, which was soon drowned out by a small group of women passing you by. You caught a snippet of their conversation as they passed.

"He was totally hitting on you."

"He was not."

"He was too."

  If you had heard any more of that conversation you could've sworn you would've blown your brains out. The way they were giggling and half-ass whispering got on your nerves but you tried to brush it off and put your mind back to the task at hand. As you stepped into a random store to get your mind focused on shopping for your new house, you found the source of those women's giggling and 'whispering.' Though, you didn't get a chance to look at him before he came up behind you, outstretched an arm onto the wall in front of you, and began to speak.
 
  "My, my, what have we here? Never thought I'd see you again. What're you doing all the way out here?" You could feel his eyes looking you up and down as his tone blew shivers down your spine. Finally, you lifted your head to meet face to face with the one person you'd never thought you'd see, Billy Hargrove. The very same Billy Hargrove who was an asshole to you all throughout middle school until one day he up and moved away from California. "The fuck do you want?" You shot back, almost instinctually, which caused Billy to give a low chuckle. He moved a hand up and placed it beneath your chin as his devilish smile pulled at his lips. At first you were shocked, almost frozen because of it. The feeling of him pushing your head up to meet his gaze so gently was odd to you. "Someone's gotten feisty. I like it." His comment brought you out of your shocked state quickly and you grabbed his wrist, ripping his hand away from your face. You glared up at him as he simply laughed at your actions. This only pissed you off more but you took a quick deep breath so as not to cause a scene in the middle of the mall.

"Mmm, you still got ahold of me there, princess."

"Fuck you."

  You mumbled as quiet as you could as you threw your hand away from his wrist. You hadn't even noticed that you were still holding onto him. Clearly, Billy had heard your remark because he laughed, once again. You didn't understand why you being upset was funny to him but it only made you more upset the more you thought about it. Your thoughts began to race as your anger balled up in your stomach, causing you to become flustered when his now free hand reached up and brushed a small strand of hair out of your face. "What the fuck do you want Hargrove?!" You shouted, taking a step back only to be met with him pulling his hand off of the wall, standing straight up, and stepping toward you. The smile never left his face, even as people in the nearby area stopped what they were doing and looked over at the two of you. You could feel their eyes beating against you but none were as pointent as Billy's. His eyes stayed fixed on you, not leaving for even a moment, almost as if he was studying you.

"What? I can't catch up with an old friend?"

  "We are not friends. We never were." A clearly fake look of pain over-came his expression at your words. He pressed a hand to his light blue button up shirt and gripped the fabric slightly. He made a fake wincing noise before speaking again. "Ouch," he paused to laugh a little and drop his hand back down to his side, "ya know I actually liked you, y/n. That was just hurtful." He then made faux puppy dog eyes at you which caused a light red coloring to appear on your face.

  "You were a dick to me." You stated back simply as his face relaxed back into a devilish smile. That smile still pissed you off just as much as it had before, you wanted to wipe that smug look off of his face and make him regret ever speaking to you. "Well, why don't you let me make it up to you then?"
 
  Those words almost immediately sent you into another wave of shock. The very same man who made your life a living hell in middle school was now asking you for a second chance. "Fine." The words fell out of your mouth without a second thought. You hadn't even processed that you said that until he laughed again and put his hand back under your chin. The red on your expression became deeper as his face inched closer to yours. "Good girl." He whispered.

  With those words, he was off. Almost as quickly as he had found you, he had left. He left you a shocked, confused, embarrassed, blushing mess. Unsure what to do with yourself, you threw your hands over your face and tried to process what just happened. The strangers' eyes had finally left you, which helped ease your mind a little bit, but you were still confused as to what had just happened with Billy.