HEART FLAYER | b. hargrove

CHAPTER 004.

November 2nd, 1984

Robin and Arwen had made plans over the phone the night before to have a sleepover tonight and the latter girl filled to the brim with excitement. She'd never experienced an actual sleepover with a friend before and the anticipation made the school day go by incredibly slow. But finally, she made it to the final class of the day. It brought along conflicting feelings since she loved English, but despised who sat next to her. And as if he could read her very mind, Billy strolled into the classroom like the cocky prick he was and sat down at his desk. 

"Alright, everyone. We'll be doing some partner work today!" Mrs. Smith announced to the class a little too happily. Murmurs of complaint rang throughout the class, which she ignored. "You'll be working with the person next to you. Each of you will write a paragraph about your own favorite book, then you will talk with your partner about their own and write a paragraph on that as well." 

Arwen raised her hand instantly. "Uh, can I get a different partner? Mine smells."

Billy's head snapped so he could give her an incredulous look, but she ignored it.

"I can be her partner, Mrs. Smith." Eddie volunteered, with his own partner giving him a look that said 'what the hell?'

"No swapping!" Mrs. Smith said firmly, clapping her hands together with a large smile on her face. "This is for you to all get to know the person next to you a little bit better. It's due at the end of class, so get writing and talking!" 

Billy managed to make his desk scrape as loud as possible against the floor as he moved it next to Arwen's, a smug smirk resting on his face. The girl sighed at an obnoxious volume purposely before digging out her copy of 'Return of the King,' a notebook, and a pen. 

"Munson seemed a little eager there," Billy said quietly, glancing towards the back of Eddie's head and back to her with his shit-eating grin only growing. "'The Freak' and 'The Weirdo' would make a pretty cute couple."

"Oh, is that what people are calling me now? 'The Weirdo?'" Arwen scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "How uncreative."

Arwen silently got to work on writing her own paragraph about her book. She was surprised to actually see her partner having something to write about. 

"You've actually read a book before?" she asked, looking at him with an overly dramatic surprised expression.

"Of course I've read a fucking book." Billy huffed and stared at her like she was an idiot.

"You know Playboys don't count, right?"

He actually laughed at her remark, shaking his head before gesturing to his paper. 

"I liked 'Old Yeller' as a kid."

Arwen snorted. "Your favorite book would be one where the dog dies at the end." 

He slapped his pencil down onto the desk and gaped at her for a moment before his eyes narrowed. But it seemed like he was more so pretending to be pissed off rather than actually being so. She looked at him with wide eyes that seemed to ask him what his problem was now.

"I never finished it, actually. You just spoiled the whole fucking ending." 

Arwen burst into laughter at this, covering her mouth to stifle herself a bit as people had turned around to try and see what was so funny. Billy half-smirked at her outburst as if he was slightly proud of himself before going back to finishing up his paragraph on his own book. Once he was finished with it, he glanced over at her desk and grabbed her book off of it. 

"Isn't this where Munson said your name was from?" He asked.

"Yeah," Arwen nodded, glancing up from her work for only a quick moment to make sure he wasn't messing up the binding on her book. "My mom must've absolutely loved 'Lord of the Rings.' Or my dad. Maybe both of them, even. I can't blame them, it's a great trilogy."

"Hm." Billy set her book back down and crossed his arms, resting them on his desk and watching her intensely. "Where are your birth folks?" 

Arwen bristled a bit, her jaw clenching and unclenching a few times. She'd not really had anyone ask her yet about her real parents, so she didn't have a rehearsed response for the question. She glanced at him for only a brief moment and put on a straight face. 

"They're not around anymore." 

Her tone came out much more clipped than she'd intended. Talking about her deceased mother and father wasn't exactly her favorite topic of conversation, to be fair. Billy seemed to get the hint after that and thankfully didn't push the topic further. It surprised her that he hadn't, honestly, but she wasn't going to complain in the slightest. The two finished their work in relative silence with Arwen only speaking enough to give him a summary of 'Return of the King' to write his paragraph on it. She'd read 'Old Yeller' in the past so she didn't need his help on that part. Hell, she likely recalled the plot better than he did. 

She didn't even notice that her left sleeve of her sweater had ridden up slightly while she wrote until Billy opened his mouth again while staring at her bare arm. 

"You have a tattoo?" He asked casually, nodding his head towards it when she glanced at him as if she were confused. "What does it even mean?"

Arwen's eyes widened in the slightest and she rushed to pull her sleeve back down. The bell to end class rang, but she swore the ringing in her own ears was louder. Nobody was supposed to see that damn '002' tattooed on her flesh.

"None of your business." She uttered out and avoided his cold gaze as she gathered her things and turned her paper into the teacher before practically jogging out of the classroom.

-

Eleven had secured herself a ride home that day, so Arwen rode to the Buckley home with a ride given to her and Robin by the girl's mother. 

They surrounded themselves with piles of junk food and snacks while sat on Robin's bed. Arwen ranted for a solid twenty minutes about being partnered with Billy today in English class. She practically yelled through bites of popcorn, not even paying attention to the horror movie playing on the small television. 

"Wow," Robin said once her friend was finally finished. "You clearly either wanna murder him or make out with him."

Arwen gaped at her, a piece of popcorn falling directly out of her mouth and into her lap and pointed a threatening finger at her.

"You put that sentence back in your mouth right now."

"Okay, okay," Robin held up her hands in mock surrender and laughed. "Maybe not Hargrove. But is there anyone at the school that you do have your eyes on?"

Arwen chuckled and simply shook her head, picking up the popcorn she'd dropped and throwing it right back into her mouth. 

"Nope. Not really interested in anyone like that, if I'm honest. I just wanna have a good time and graduate." She admitted honestly. "How about you? Any marching band boys that you're smooching after practice?"

Robin's face lit up red with an intense blush and she just stuttered and stammering for a second. The only cohesive words coming out of her being: "no" and "I" and "uh." Arwen stared at her for a good moment, wondering if her friend was actually having a stroke or not. Eventually, she reached forwards and flicked the girl on the forehead.

Robin stopped stuttering and smacked her hand away before taking a long, deep breath and locking eyes with Arwen. 

"I actually, um..." she started, her voice low and full of nervousness. "Really like a girl..."

Arwen blinked in surprise, but it was a fleeting feeling before a huge smile spread across her lips and she excitedly squealed. She scooted forward a bit as she excitedly motioned for her friend to 'go on.'

"It's Tammy Thompson."

"I don't know her," Arwen admitted. "Does she also enjoy the ladies?" She asked while wiggling her eyebrows teasingly.

Robin groaned dramatically and flopped onto her back on the bed. 

"Definitely not. She's got her eyes glued to that damn Steve Harrington every single day."

"Steve? Really?" Arwen asked incredulously. "I mean... Steve's cute, I guess. But he's like a brother to me so I don't really see the appeal." 

"It's infuriating. He's infuriating! With his stupid hair. It's a curse liking girls in this age."

"You like girls and I'm apparently 'The Weirdo' in school. We're a match made in heaven." Arwen joked. 

"Just us two weird outcasts against the world, huh?" 

"I wouldn't have it any other way, my dear Rob."

They both burst into a fit of laughter. It set the tone for the rest of the night and they both had a very good time. Arwen's heart was filled to the brim with affection for her new potential best friend and for the first time in who knows how long, she ended up sleeping through the night without any nightmares.