HEART FLAYER | b. hargrove

CHAPTER 009.

Later That Day

The initiation into Hellfire Club lasted for about two hours after school had ended. Arwen had to rush to bid goodbye to everyone and practically jogged to her car to leave for Billy's house. She felt bad about making him wait for so long at first, but then remembered that he's an absolute dickbag and she suddenly felt less guilty. She eased her foot off of the gas pedal as she drove and turned the radio up a little louder. 

Max answered the front door when she arrived and she greeted the girl cheerfully, reaching out to ruffle her fiery hair. 

"Hey Max! Good to see you," she leaned down a little closer to her and lowered her tone. "Is he still being decent towards you?"

The younger girl chuckled, nodding her head. "Yeah, he's been fine. I can tell he struggles with it sometimes, but he doesn't need murdered yet."

"Good to hear." Arwen grinned and made her way down the hallway to Billy's bedroom. It was obviously his since rock music was making the door shake.

She knocked and his door swung open a second later. He eyed her up and down briefly before ducking back into his room to turn his stereo down and put out his cigarette. Arwen walked into his bedroom slowly, taking a look around as she did. It was a little messy, but it reeked of cologne and smoke. Then again, so did he.

"C'mon, let's get this shit over with." He muttered as he sat down on his bed and gestured for her to sit next to him.

"You think I'm gonna sit on that bed?" Arwen asked with a little scoff and sat herself down on the floor in front of him. "Fuck no. I'm gonna get secondhand cooties off of that shit."

Billy rolled his eyes, leaning forward a little with his elbows resting on his knees as he stared down at her. 

"For your information, no girls have been in this bed for a while now. Unless you'd wanna change that?" He grew one of his signature cocky smirks and winked.

Arwen very obnoxiously gagged as she started digging through her backpack for their project stuff. His expression dropped and he sighed. She pulled out her notes, the book, and the paper that she'd written Aragorn's lines on for Billy. She handed it to him and he stared at it for a long moment before glancing at her incredulously.

"I can't even pronounce half of these made up fucking words." He complained flatly.

She laughed a little bit, but honestly it wasn't unfair of him to say. Some of Tolkien's words and writing could be a bit confusing and hard to say correctly. She scooted a bit closer to him on her knees so that she could point at certain words on his paper to teach him the pronunciations. She'd glance between the paper and him, making eye contact with him as she'd say the word and he would repeat it back to her slowly. 

"Good! And 'Undómiel' is pronounced like -"

"Are you the reason why a locker door hit me in the face on our first day of school when I was trying to hit on Tina?" Billy suddenly asked as he stared at her. 

She looked up from the notes to blink at him for a second as he'd caught her rather off guard with the question. She then realized what he was talking about and started laughing, playfully smacking a hand across his knee. 

"I totally forgot about that," she admitted between giggles. "But yeah. That was me. You pissed me off, so."

Billy's eyebrows forcefully knitted together and he glared at her, but she could easily see the corner of his lips twitch in an attempt to fight off a smile and he held a bit of a mischievous glint in his eyes. 

"Were you jealous?" He asked in a low voice with a charming smile.

"Pardon the fuck out of me?" Arwen asked with a laugh, her brows raised as she shook her head at him in joking disbelief. "Jealous of you flirting with Tina? No, no, pretty boy. I was annoyed because you told me to ditch Eddie."

"You and Munson a thing, then?" His expression was more serious now as he seemed to stare into her soul.

"No," she rolled her eyes, but went on to make a bit of a joke about it with a smirk. "And especially not now because he's my Dungeon Master. Dating your DM makes things too complicated."

Billy just continued gazing at her in an almost amused way.

"You are so fucking weird and I can't tell if it's hot or horrifying."

"I'd like to be both, thank you very much. Now, focus on the project."

Arwen continued to help him learn how to say some of the more complex words and then they started to actually go over the lines. They worked for about an hour and managed to memorize a couple lines pretty decently. Billy's tone sounded quite a bit too flat while he recited the words, but she figured they could work on that another time. For now, the sun was damn near gone from the sky and she knew her dad would have her head if she came home too late. So she packed up her things, leaving Aragorn's lines with Billy for him to study more (he probably won't), and he began to walk her towards the front door of the house. But then it opened and a middle-aged man with a mustache and stern, dark eyes comes inside. 

The man's eyes shift between Arwen and Billy before his brows pull together to craft a scowl on his face. 

"What have I told you about bringing whores to this house, son?"

Arwen stepped towards the man with a cold glare. "What the fuck did you just call me?"

Billy quickly comes to Arwen's side and places a hand in front of her shoulder to stop her from going any closer to his dad. He stared at his father in an a mixture of anger and almost pleading.

"Dad, please, leave her alone. She was just going home."

His dad gets into Arwen's face now and raises his tone. It booms through the house and would be enough to make anyone back down, but she just stared at him unblinkingly. 

"Who the Hell do you think you are talking to me like that?!"

"I'm Arwen Hopper, asshole."

Surprisingly, Billy's dad falters a bit. His brows raise just a miniscule amount and if she blinked she would have missed the flicker of fear that passed through his eyes. 

"You're the... Chief's daughter?" He asked, his voice at a much lower volume now.

"Yes."

They engage in an extremely tense stare down for what felt like forever before the man finally speaks again, his tone calm but still holding a tinge of a threat within it.

"Get out of my house."

He began to walk past Arwen, taking a moment to shove a finger into Billy's chest and look at him with unhinged eyes. 

"I'll deal with you later." He said it so quietly that Arwen almost didn't catch it. Almost. 

Once his dad is far enough away, Billy grabs onto Arwen's hand and forcefully pulls her out of the house. He shut the door behind them and they stood in his front yard. His pupils were enlarged and darting around in a sort of frantic, anxious way. His jaw was clenched tight and his shoulders appeared squared and tense. He appeared as if he were looking through her.

Arwen had to take a deep breath to calm herself. The audacity of that fucking old man. And she could see the terror that his son was trying so very hard to hide. She took a step closer to him and gently placed a hand on his bicep, her eyes scanning his face and her expression softened. There was no doubt about it now. Billy was abused by his dad. It explained a lot about him, but it made her chest feel tight.

"Listen, let me help you." She said softly. "I could... do something. I could scare him or threaten him with my powers, I don't know. Maybe my dad could help. I could make him leave you alone, Billy."

His eyes finally focused on her and his eyebrows pulled together. A cold glare washed over his whole face and he shrugged her hand off of him. 

"You don't know what you're talking about." Billy replied in a low, dangerous tone. "I don't need or want your help."

Arwen's eyes widened and she took a step back to process his words. Why was he still denying that anything was wrong? She'd just seen it herself. The guy was the worst. She had never once seen Billy look afraid... not of anyone at school, not of Demodogs, not even of her. But just a minute ago she thought he might end up in tears. 

But she'd also known very well what abuse was like. How someone you love could manipulate and hurt you so much, but they're still someone you love despite being terrified of them. It felt like there was no escape and no end to it. 

So she let out a slow, deep breath and just nodded. She started backing away as she spoke.

"Alright. Suit yourself."

She turned and walked off to her car. This wasn't over.

This wasn't the first time that she wouldn't listen to Billy and it probably wouldn't be the last.