Yours Truly | B. Hargrove

13

It had been a week since Max took off with Billy's car and the rest of the weirdness. Billy and Eden had yet to figure out what the hell happened that night, and honestly began to forget about it. Winter break was kicking off the following Monday and school wouldn't be back in until January 1st. It was a Saturday, December 15th to be exact, the night of the snowball dance. Eden was over at the Hargrove, helping Max get ready. She was originally there to hang out with Billy, but she ended up noticing how all over Max was and remembered her Snowball dance. Eden was currently braiding a front piece of Max's hair to clip into the rest of her hair while Max gossiped about Lucas Sinclair and Dustin Henderson.

"They're like totally weird. It's always some sort of like... competition between them. It's honestly so annoying." Max ranted as Eden took a big white clip and placed the braid against her head to flow with the rest of her wavy hair.

"Max, you do know they like you right?" Eden giggled.

"What?! No way. No, they're just total dorks." Max shook her head, her face turning a shade of crimson and Eden smirked.

"Oh come on, which one do you like?" Eden whispered as she smirked at the girl.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Max glanced over into Billy's room as the girls were in the bathroom right across the hall.

"You have to like one of them, they're both charmers." Eden smiled, making sure Billy wasn't paying them any mind.

"You're just gonna go tell Billy." Max sighed, patting down her plaid sweater.

"I pinky promise I won't." Eden said, holding out her pinky for the girl to take.

"Fine. Lucas is kind of cute." Max blushed, wrapping her pinky around Eden's.

"I called it!" Eden semi-shouted, Billy looking over at the girl with a confused look.

"Called what?" He put whatever he was doing down and walked toward the bathroom.

"Uh- that- that Mr. Clarke is still really weird from when I was in school." Eden quickly made up a lie, shrugging her shoulders.

"Okay.." Billy nodded, not necessarily believing the girl, "well, max. Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Max nodded, sending Eden a smile and the two girls exited the bathroom getting ready to head out of the door.

Billy and Eden dropped off Max at the dance and Billy of course told her to not be late meeting back up, while Eden told her to be safe and have fun. Eden saw Steve's car and soon after Dustin got out of it with a can of Farrah Fawcett hairspray before quickly tossing the can in Steve's car. Eden shook her head at the thought of Steve giving Dustin his hair tricks, before Billy decided to speed out of the parking lot. Once they arrived back at the Hargrove household Neil's car occupied the driveway, to which Billy cursed. He sighed and looked over to Eden who had already been looking at him.

"We can go somewhere else if you want." Billy stated, gesturing toward the tall figure that passed by the living room window.

"Billy it's fine. I'm sure it'll be nice for us all to finally meet anyways." Eden shrugged.

"Okay, just- just don't listen to anything he says. Okay?" Billy grabbed her face and leaned in to give her a small kiss.

"Okay." Her voice came out small as they exited the car and headed inside.

"Hey dad, uh, Susan. There's someone I'd like you to meet." Billy spoke, holding Eden's hand in his. Susan came out of the kitchen and into the living room where Neil was seated, Billy hesitating before he spoke again.