Yours Truly | B. Hargrove

17

It was the afternoon of Christmas Day and Eddie and Eden had just finished unwrapping each others gifts and spending time together. Apparently Eddie had a D&D tournament to host at one of his friends garages so he left pretty quickly, which left Eden all alone. As for the Hargroves it was nothing other than a shit show. Neil had been scolding Billy the whole day since he walked through the door at 9am. Billy tried to explain he didn't come home due to the snow storm but Neil wasn't having it. Susan finally got the man to calm down and the family opened gifts and did festivities together. They were going to have dinner later that day and had some extended family come in. It wasn't long before Billy's uncle and aunt stood before them, as well as his grandparents. None of Susan and Max's family could make it into town due to finances so the two were a little discouraged at the fact. Billy was told by Neil to be in his nicest attire and not to disappoint him, so Billy had gotten changed into a white button up and some dark slacks. He couldn't deal with the length of his sleeves so he cuffed them at the center of his forearm.

"Billy, dear! How do you not have a nice young lady by your side?" Billy's grandmother complimented as she brought the boy into a hug.

"Oh, I-I do. I was actually just with her yesterday." Billy smiled, his cheeks turning a shade of pink at the thought of the girl.

"Well then why isn't she here, sport?" His grandfather now chimed in.

"Um-" Billy went to begin.

"We thought you'd like if it was just family today." Neil spoke, shooting a look to the boy.

"Oh, now Neil. Any girl of my grandsons ought to be family. Why don't you invite her over, Billy?" His grandmother suggested.

"Billy, would you come here?" Neil asked, to which Billy complied, "since your grandparents want to meet her, bring her over. But you better make sure she doesn't look how she normally does."

Billy swallowed hard at the blatant disrespect, "yes, sir. I'm going to pick her up if you don't mind."

"Just hurry up."
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Eden heard a knock at the door and wondered who it could be. She knew Billy had family coming in from town today so she had no clue that it could be him. She scratched her head as she made her way to the door, opening it without caring to check. She assumed it would just be carolers, but boy was she wrong.

"Oh! Billy. Hi." She blushed as she snapped her head down to her side, from her messy hair.

"Hey, my family wants to meet you. We have to get you ready." He cleared his throat as he pushed past her and went into her room.

"Oh. Okay?" She furrowed her brows as she walked behind the obviously nervous boy.

Billy sat rummaging through her closet to find the perfect dress, however he was struggling to find even one. He was sighing loudly and Eden had her arms crossed, growing annoyed with the boys demeanor. "Are you looking for something?"

"Dresses. Do you not own any? Um, you can start on your hair and makeup. Just, nothing super flashy makeup wise, just super natural but like, pretty. I'd curl your hair too, you look good with it curled." He spoke as he continued to search.

"They're in the back of my closet. Why do I need to look a certain way? Is there something wrong with how I normally look?" Eden grew emotional from her hormones as she sat at her vanity and Billy let out a small sigh.

"There's nothing wrong with the way you look. I love it, it's just.. my dad. You know? I don't want him to say anything about you especially in front of the rest of my family. They'll love you." Billy finally set eyes on a long cream colored pleated sweater dress and grabbed it.