HEART FLAYER | b. hargrove

CHAPTER 026.

June 9th, 1985

Hopper had been pretty stressed about yet another one of his daughters having a boy over, but he seemed to calm down a bit when he was informed that they'd just be hanging out in the living room to watch movies. Billy and Arwen sat on the couch while he sat leaned back in his recliner. Honestly, it was pretty nice -

"HEY!" 

Billy had jumped a little at the booming voice of Hopper yelling towards Eleven's room. She'd probably been caught making out with Mike... yet again. Arwen laughed at the boy beside her and his reaction and he shot her a playful glare.

"Why can't they just be like you two?" Hopper sighed, throwing his hands up before dropping them back down on the arms of his chair. "Sit out here and watch some tv with the old man every once in awhile."

"Because dad," Arwen explained. "They're kids who just learned about sucking face and their hormones are -"

"Ah! Shut up!" Her father interrupted loudly while covering his ears. 

She grinned. "I mean, it also helps that me and Billy aren't a couple. We're just hanging out."

Hopper turned slightly to look over at the two; they were sat extremely close with Billy's arm around her shoulders. Her dad raised one bushy eyebrow and mumbled a 'mmhmm' in a very disbelieving way. Arwen caught Billy side-eyeing her with a little smirk on his face so she elbows him in the ribs. 

She fought a smile off as she gently placed a her hand over the place on his side that she'd elbowed. She tried so very hard to pretend like everything was normal and they were just spending friendly time together like usual. But the events of last night and her growing feelings were gnawing at her insides nonstop. She wanted to tell him... but how did she even do that? When? And on top of it all, if Steve and Robin were wrong and he didn't feel the same way, it could ruin everything between them. She didn't want to lose him and wasn't sure if it was worth the risk. 

It started to get darker out once they were about one and a half movies in. Mike had left to ride home on his bike a little while ago and Hopper seemed infinitely more relaxed after that. He even drifted off to sleep in his chair a couple of times and snored which Arwen and Billy would quietly laugh about. After awhile, he finally caved and stood up to head off to his makeshift bedroom. 

"I'm going to bed," Hopper grumbled as he turned to look at them from his doorway. "Behave yourselves. I know you're adults, but it's still my house. If you spend the night, Billy, you sleep on the couch. Understood?"

"Of course, sir." Billy responded in his polite, charming tone that he always used on older adults.

Hopper pointed a finger towards Arwen, giving her a stern look. She'd shrugged her arms and raised her eyebrows at him as if to ask 'what?!' but he just walked off into his room without another word. 

"What was that about?!" Arwen whispered with a gesture towards where her dad disappeared. "I'm the good kid!"

"What?!" Billy looked at her incredulously. "You literally hid boiled eggs in the ceiling of Mrs. Click's classro-"

She quickly covered his mouth with her hands and glanced wide-eyed back at her dad's room before glaring back at the boy. 

"Dude! Shut up! He'll hear you!"

Billy licked the palm of her hand and she retracted it quickly with a disgusted sound, wiping it off on his shirt while he laughed at her. She flipped him off as she stood up to go put 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' into the VHS player. She'd picked it out specifically for him and he seemed pretty pleased about it as she sat back down beside him. 

As they sat and watched the movie, a strange tension began to form in the air. Arwen wasn't sure if she was the only one who felt it, but she obviously couldn't just ask him. She tried to relax and stretched her legs out to lay them across his lap to get more comfortable. Billy placed one of his hands on her shin and the other on her thigh; it was a mindless, casual action. But it made her heart start to race and she became hyper-focused on the feeling. 

She turned her head to look at him as if she could somehow figure out if he was nervous like she was. But she just found herself in somewhat of a trance as she looked at his profile. The light of the television was illuminating his face in the dark living room and reflecting in those blue eyes. Her gaze moved down to his lips and she had to fight off the urge to just reach over and kiss his stupid mouth. 

"A picture will last longer, sweetheart." 

His voice snapped her out of it and her eyes snapped back up to meet his as he turned to look at her with a lazy smirk. Arwen cleared her throat and avoided making direct eye contact as she tried to figure out a way to recover from being caught.

"Oh, suddenly you hate when girls stare at you?" She shot back.

"Not when it's you."

Billy's tone became very serious suddenly and it made her eyes locked onto his again. He leaned forwards just the slightest bit, but it was enough to make her breath catch in her throat and her palms to get clammy. She completely froze in place and her gaze slid down to his lips once again. He seemed to notice this and smiled, slowly leaning forward more. 

Everything in her was screaming to kiss him, but she simply couldn't move. She was caught like a deer in headlights and her impending doom was approaching her in the form of pretty eyes and curly hair.

His hand moved from her shin to rest on her cheek and he tilted his head, pressing his lips very gently against hers. 

It was as if she was woken from some dream and she immediately placed her hands on either side of his face and molded her lips with his. His arm on her thigh moved to wrap around her back and pull her gently by her waist to be closer to him as his mouth parted slightly to run his tongue against her lips. Arwen felt like she had burst into flames, but fire was always the one thing she really knew. She felt safe. She felt comfortable. Happy. 

When they pulled away from each other, they just stared into each other's eyes while trying to catch their breath. Billy had this look in his eye that she'd never seen before. It was almost tender, like she was something precious and important. 

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that." He admitted very softly. 

"Are you serious?" Arwen scoffed and rolled her eyes with an amused smile. "I figured I didn't have a real chance. Like I couldn't compete with all the other girls drooling over you."

"There was no competition." Billy said firmly, stoking his thumb against her cheekbone as he gazed at her intensely. "It was only you. Ever since you saved my ass from those Demodog things."

Arwen chuckled a little and raised an eyebrow. "What about all those girls I saw you take home when we weren't speaking?"

"That was me trying - and failing - to deal with ruining things with you." He admitted while exhaling through his nose as if he hated to remember it. "Nobody could ever compare to you."

"You need better coping mechanisms." She smirked slightly.

"Yeah, yeah." He laughed and kissed her on the tip of her nose. "I'm learning."

"I haven't really told you, but..." Arwen became serious once more and lifted her hand to move a stray curl out of his face gently. "You're doing fucking amazing. My friends are really starting to like you and, well, obviously I really do too. It makes me genuinely happy to see you enjoying life without being so angry all the time."

"I can't say the anger's not still there," he said in a tone that was near a whisper. His eyes looked a little glassy as he spoke. "But I try harder to control it. I refuse to fuck this all up again." 

"I'm proud of you, Billy."

At her words, Billy pulled her to sit sideways in his lap fully. He wrapped his arms tightly around her as he kissed her once again. For his sake, Arwen pretended to not feel the wet droplet that slid down his cheek and onto her hand as she held his face. His stupid, beautiful face.