HEART FLAYER | b. hargrove

CHAPTER 022.

May 31st, 1985

Steve had been hesitant over the situation, but ultimately said yes to Billy coming to the party.

He'd said, "It's obvious you care about him... for whatever reason. If you wanna give him one more chance then we will too."

Arwen had been over the moon and extremely thankful about it. She swore to keep her eye on him the entire night and if anything went wrong, it'd be her responsibility to deal with. It certainly helped that she had powers so everyone knew she could handle that beefy bag of dicks with no issue if it came down to it.

After that, she'd called Billy to actually invite him. He'd opened up with some cheesy ass line about her 'missing him already,' which she shut down swiftly before asking if he wanted to come to the party. She explained that it was Eddie's idea and would be a great chance for him to prove that he can go at least a singular night without beating someone's ass. He'd seemed incredibly unsure at first, but came around pretty fast.

"For you?" Billy had said in an overly sweet way over the phone. "I'll be an angel."

Arwen had rolled her eyes, told him what time to show up, then hung up.

It was now the next night and she was stood in Steve's kitchen with him, Robin, Eddie, Gareth, and Jeff. She informed everyone of Billy's imminent arrival and they'd all seemed pretty surprised except for Steve and Eddie; the latter of which had the most smug expression she'd ever seen.

"Isn't that the popular douche that beats people to near death for looking at him wrong?" Jeff questioned with his arms crossed.

"Yes," Arwen looked up briefly from pouring shots for everyone. "However, he did also fuck up Jason Carver, so..."

"Hey, I'll drink to that." Eddie beamed while taking a shot she handed him.

Arwen chuckled at his enthusiasm before passing out the rest of the freshly filled shot glasses. They all clinked their little glasses together, toasted Steve for hosting the party, and downed the liquor. They all chatted for a bit after that while sipping beers and taking one or two more rounds of shots before the doorbell rang. Arwen set down her beer and jogged over to the front door, opening it to reveal Billy.

God damn. Why does he always have to look so good?

He hesitated at coming inside so she rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand to pull him in. She led him to the kitchen to greet everyone. He was pretty quiet and even a little out-of-place looking, but he stayed polite and calm. Jeff and Gareth were wary of him, but the rest were decently casual about him being there. Arwen got to work on pouring another round of shots since a new face had arrived and passed them around. She walked over to Billy to place one into his hands and looked in his eyes with a small smile.

"To Billy," she rose her little glass and everyone else mirrored it, though Billy looked caught off-guard. "For being a pretty decent lifeguard and saving my ass."

He laughed at the toast and touched his glass to hers as everyone else let out a quick cheer. They tossed back the drinks before deciding to all go change into their swimsuits for Steve's pool that had just recently been filled up. Thankfully, his pool was only about four feet deep, so Arwen didn't have to worry about having another drowning experience. If she fell in, she could just simply stand up.

Within thirty minutes, Arwen is holding Robin on her shoulders and playing 'Chicken Fight' against Steve and Gareth. It was pretty funny since Arwen was absolutely using her powers a tiny bit in order to cheat and it had been super obvious to Steve, but he couldn't say anything without exposing her so he just kept glaring at her. It made Arwen laugh loudly every single time even if she did keep having to wipe her bloody nose on her swimsuit.