HEART FLAYER | b. hargrove

CHAPTER 025.

1 WEEK LATER
June 8th, 1985

A coworker quitting unexpectedly caused Arwen to work every day for the next week. She was completely exhausted and thankfully their manager had just found a replacement, so she finally had a day off and her schedule could go back to normal. She'd missed seeing her friends outside of work and she had only seen Billy on days when he was off work and he'd bring in lunch for her and Robin. On top of it all, her nightmares were horrible the past week. Last night, it was a memory of the time Dr. Brenner tried to get her to use her pyrokinesis on another kid in the lab. She'd refused and was put in solitary confinement for three days. 

Hopefully, a night out with her friends tonight would help her stressed mind out a little. They'd all made plans to go to a bar that Eddie's band usually played at and they tended to slack on asking for IDs; not that Arwen wanted to drink much tonight after the hangover hell she'd experienced last weekend. 

She opted for a tight, short black dress tonight instead of her usual over-sized shirt and baggy mom jeans. But she still threw a flannel over top with Converse on her feet. It was comfier, okay?

At around eight o'clock, Eddie's van pulled into her driveway and she said goodbye to her dad and sister as she ran outside to climb in. Steve and Robin were already inside and the four of them screamed along to music on the radio on the way to the bar.

Upon entering the bar, Arwen's eyes scanned for the familiar curly mullet that was expected to meet them there. She spotted Billy leaned against the bar with two drinks in his hands and a pretty girl standing beside him and chatting his ear off while she twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. Arwen felt hot, nauseating anger in her stomach as she approached even though Billy looked extremely bored and didn't even spare the girl a glance. 

But his eyes lit up as soon as they landed on her and that vexation in her gut was replaced with fluttering. At least, kind of. He didn't say a word to the nameless girl as he walked up to Arwen and handed her one of the drinks. Arwen watched as the girl shot her a glare full of spite before stomping off. She couldn't help the tiny smirk that tugged at her lips and Billy followed her gaze to see what she was looking at. He turned back to her with his brows raised. 

"Hey," he touched under her chin with his index finger, grabbing her attention as he grinned smugly. "You jealous or something?"

"What?" Arwen deadpanned and took a sip of her drink. "No, of course not."

He rolled his eyes and put an arm around her shoulders. "Kind of nice to see you being the jealous one for once, honestly."

"Dude, I will fuck you up if you call me that one more time."

Billy laughed loudly. "Whatever you say, doll. You look gorgeous, by the way."

Arwen felt her face grow warm, but refused to let him see it as she downed her drink quickly and put the empty glass in his hands before wandering off to join Robin on the dance floor. She laughed and danced with her best friend with them singing whatever song was playing and Arwen trying very hard to get Robin to go dance with a pretty girl who was eyeing her obviously. It took about ten minutes of convincing, but she finally did it and she watched her friend proudly as she went to go talk to the girl. 

Arwen was only left alone for about thirty second before she felt hands on her waist and hips from behind. A spike of rage shot through her and she turned around quickly to potentially kill whatever stranger dared to touch her. But it was Billy, getting close to her and staring down at her like a predator with its prey. The light-hearted nature from earlier was long gone and it made Arwen almost intimidated. Almost. 

She pushed away the nervousness and wrapped her arms around his neck to dance with him. He didn't take his intense, blue gaze off of her for even a second the entire time. He looked like he was absolutely mesmerized... and she probably looked the same way. Especially when a slower song came on and they swayed together silently with their eyes locked. Her heart hammered in her chest with just the way he stared at her and the way his thumb gently stroked her side. Arwen just wanted to be like this forever... she felt so complete and happy...

Oh.

Oh fuck.

Arwen quietly excused herself from him and found herself in the bar's bathroom all alone, gripping the porcelain of the sink while in a complete daze. She exhaled through her nose slowly and tried to slow down her heartrate, but the memory of his face from a few moments ago wouldn't leave her mind and made it impossible. 

She fucking liked him. A lot. How did she let this happen? The one guy who she absolutely was not supposed to fall head over heels for? Of course, she knew she cared about him. And wanted to see him be a better person. Wanted to see him happy and spend time with him. And break any other girl's greedy little fingers if they got anywhere near him.

God damnit. 

She almost jumped at the sound of the bathroom door opening and her head snapped to see Robin's worried face as she walked in and put a hand on her back.

"What's wrong?"

"I am in such deep shit, Rob." Arwen groaned as she pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes.

Robin's eyes widened. "What?! What happened?"

"I have the fattest fucking crush on Billy."

"Well... duh."

Arwen lifted her head to gawk at her best friend incredulously. "The fuck do you mean 'DUH?!'"

"You are a blind dumb bitch." Robin replied with a deadpan expression. 

"ROBIN?!"

"Sorry, sorry," Robin chuckled and put her hands up in surrender. "But Steve was right last week. Billy's changed into a whole new guy just to be closer to you. And he looks at you like... you're the only girl on the planet. And you look at him like you'd kill for him without a second thought."

Arwen sighed. "What do I do?"

"Tell him. Kiss his face a little bit, I dunno." Robin leaned against the other sink casually.

The thought made her face heat up furiously which her best friend laughed at. Robin stepped forward to hug her tightly, pulling back with her hands on her shoulders so she could look her in the eyes.

"Arwen, relax. He likes you too." She reassured. "I mean, seriously, that guy is whipped. You've got this. Don't worry about it. Okay?"

Arwen took a long, deep breath and nodded slowly. Her friend was right. She's dealt with Demogorgons and evil scientists - not that Robin knew that, of course - so why was she so stressed out over a boy? This was nothing to her. She had this. 

With the pep talk over, the two girls returned to the rest of the bar. Arwen's newfound confidence, however, quickly slipped as Billy stepped into her line of sight as he'd been waiting for her outside of the bathroom. He looked down at her with his brows knitted together in concern.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Y-yeah," Arwen cleared her throat and forced a smile through her anxiety, though she couldn't quite look him in the eye. "I just needed some air. I'm good." 

"Ari," Billy gently grabbed her chin in his fingers and turned her head to look at him. His face was so incredibly close to hers and her stomach flipped. "Look at me. Are you sure you're okay? Did I make you uncomfortable earlier?"

Arwen couldn't help but melt at how much he seemed to genuinely care. Her smile turned genuine and she chuckled breathlessly before taking his hand and dragging him back over to go dance more. They danced, laughed, and had a great time for the next few hours. Lately, everything about being around him was just easy and fun. It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. 

When it was time to leave with her friends, she found herself longing for more time with Billy. So she invited him over to her house tomorrow night to hangout and watch movies. He'd accepted without a second thought and she swore she'd die at how big his smile was. 

Would she be nervous as all hell tomorrow night? Probably. 

'Fuck it,' she thought as she gave Billy a quick kiss on the cheek before climbing into Eddie's van and going home for the night.