HEART FLAYER | b. hargrove

CHAPTER 011.

January 9th, 1985

"Ooh, look!" Robin leaned over where she sat next to Arwen on the hood of the girl's car to show her the pamphlet of places that will open in the new mall. "An ice cream shop! Maybe I'll apply there."

Arwen scrunched her nose and pointed at the photo. "With that uniform? No thank you. I'd rather be taken out back of the mall and put down."

Robin groaned, throwing her head back. "You're so picky. It's free ice cream all day, what more could you want from a job?"

"To not wear dumb little sailor shorts, thank you very much."

Arwen laughed at her own comment, but the smile dropped off of her face when she noticed Billy approaching them. She could see it in his eyes that he knew what she did yesterday... and he looked pretty pissed. 

"What the hell did you do?" He asked venomously, his face inches from hers as he leaned down and put a hand on either side of her on the hood of her car. 

"Uhh... what's going on?" Robin asked as she looked back and forth between the two with wide eyes.

"It's okay, Rob," Arwen reassured her with a small, forced smile and waved her off. "I'll see you at lunch, alright?"

Robin looked extremely hesitant to leave her friend with the clearly pissed off boy, but she nodded slowly and got up to head towards the school. Once she was out of earshot, Arwen settled her eyes onto Billy's hardened expression again. 

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She blinked her lashes in an innocent way and kept her face relatively blank. 

Billy scoffed loudly. "Bullshit," he spat. "You find out that my dad is an asshole and then the next day he comes home with burns and all shaken up. He looked like he'd just walked through Hell."

Arwen tried very hard, but she couldn't fight off the triumphant little smirk that found its way to her lips. He glanced down briefly at the expression before looking back into her eyes as his own narrowed into slits. She'd totally given herself away with just that one look and he licked his lips angrily.

"You had no fucking right to interfere with my life," Billy hissed. "I told you to stay out of it. That I didn't want your help."

Arwen rolled her eyes and lightly pushed him away from her with one finger on his forehead. She leaned back onto the hood of her car, resting her weight onto her palms in a very casual way.

"Even if I did do something, Hargrove," she said, still refusing to admit anything. "It wouldn't have been for you. It'd be for Max." 

"You see, that's absolute bullshit, too," he growled and pointed an angry finger in her face. His blue eyes were wild with rage. "You're not stupid or blind, you know for a fact that there's never been a scratch on Max. He's never touched her."

For the briefest second, a tinge of sadness haunted his tone at that final sentence. As if it pained him to speak out loud about the fact that it was just himself that was tormented by his father. That he was the least loved child. Arwen swallowed thickly and gazed at him with furrowed brows, her eyes searching his face. She slowly stood up from the hood and slung her backpack onto her shoulder. 

"What can I say, I just really don't tolerate bullies." She said simply and gave him one last pointed look before walking past him to go towards the school. 

Throughout the rest of the school day, Arwen could feel Billy's piercing glare on her whenever they were in the same room. She just did her best to ignore him. He'd get over it and end up grateful for her 'interfering' one day. Hopefully that day would be soon. She couldn't do anything to repair the last seventeen years of abuse he endured, but if she had the ability to stop it from continuing then she would. Nothing would make her regret her actions from yesterday. 

However, it would prove to be a pain in the ass to work on the project with him when he was just pissed off at her and not wanting to speak. So towards the end of English class when they'd gotten damn near nothing done, she passed him a note with her address on it and insisted that they work more after school. Even though her dad would probably burst a blood vessel at a boy being in her room, at least it wasn't Billy's dad. Billy had just stuffed the note in his pocket with a quiet muttering of 'whatever.'