That night, you, Max, and El stayed at Hopper's house. You still had a room there, even though you stayed with Neil and Susan most of the time. As soon as you got there, you called Billy. He picked up right away. "Hey, Billy?" you asked. "Yeah?" he panted. "Umm, I'm gonna sat at Hopper's tonight, is that okay" "That's fine," he wheezed.
You three were in your room, since, you, being the older sibling, got the bigger room. Metallica was playing on your record player. "Master of Puppets" was currently playing. You loved this song. You sang along in your boy-sounding voice, "Come crawling faster, faster. Obey your master, master. Your life burns faster, faster. Obey your master..." You stopped when you saw Max pull a memory book off of your shelf. "Don't look at that," you told her. She smirked and opened it to a random page. She scanned the page for a funny picture, and, to her luck, she found one. "That's you?!" She exclaimed, showing El.
The picture:
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"That's me," you chuckled, "I was ten years old. Halloween." Max flipped to another page and pointed to another picture. "Why's Hopper crying?" She laughed.
The picture:
(The guy is Hopper)
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There were words scribbled in Sharpie next to the picture that read "Her first word was "Fuck"". You burst out laughing and Max and El started laughing, too. "Your first word was 'Fuck'?" Max giggled. "Yeah," you cackled, "My first word." You spent hours going through the book. When you got to the end, you put in the pictures that you took today at the photo booth.
You started talking about random shit. Max somehow got on the topic of boyfriends. "God, what I would give to see their stupid faces!" Max laughed. El's face straightened. "What?" Max asked, curious. You turned the TV on to an empty channel. All you could see was the black and white on the screen, and all you could hear was radio static crackling. El put the mask on while you and Max stayed silent. "I see them," El said a minute later. "What are they doing?" Max asked. "Eating," El stated simply, "They say we are 'species'. 'Emotions, not logic'." You and Max scoffed at the same time. A few seconds later, El tore the mask off. "What happened?" Max asked. El started giggling uncontrollably. "What?" You asked, starting to catch the giggles. "What happened?" Max laughed. Soon later, you were both laughing like hell.
You heard a car drive up, then heard someone walk through the front door. Hopper barged into your room in a flamingo shirt. "Three inches!" He hollered. You quickly got up and gave him a huge hug. "Hi Dad," you smiled, "I was hoping me an' Max could stay the night?" "Yeah, of course, sergeant," he smiled, softening his face. "Thanks, Dad," you grinned, letting go of the hug. You grabbed the bottle of wine from his hand and took a huge sip. Despite the fact that he was a cop, he had no problem with you drinking underage. "Can I keep this?" You asked with an innocent smile. "Sure," he mouthed, before closing the door, leaving you in contagious laughter.
You got up. "I need to go shower," you said, "I'll be out in a few minutes." They both nodded, then you went through the door, next to your bookshelf, to the bathroom. You took a cold shower and came back out in your black, sorta baggy, Nike, down-to-your-knees, sports shorts, and your black jog bra. Max had a game of Spin the Bottle ready. Both pairs of eyes were on your six-pack. "Is this okay?" You asked, "It's what I usually sleep in, so I kinda got used to it..." "Yeah, it's fine," Max shrugged, not paying any more attention to it. You sat down next to Max.
El spun the bottle. It landed on Mr. Wheeler. "Boring," Max scoffed, "spin again." El spun again, and it landed on Billy. "Blade's brother," Max jeered. "Ok, I gotta warn you," you announced, " he might be doing something really disgusting with a girl, so if he is, get out of there as fast as possible." Max got up, grabbed the blindfold and radio, then sat back down. She turned the radio to the right channel and El tied the blindfold around her eyes. "I found him," El spoke suddenly. "What's he doing?" you asked. El paused for a minute. "He's...on the floor," she said, "...talking to someone." You kept your mouth shut, then she ripped the blindfold off. She was completely horrified, breathing deep, shaky breaths. You hugged her in your arms, letting her breathing slow down, rubbing circular patterns on her back with your hand, in a usual, comforting way.
El told you everything that she saw, then Max and El went to sleep in El's room. You stayed up until 1:00 a.m. reading Agatha Christie's books, then went to bed.
You woke up at 2 a.m., did your workout till 5 a.m., then got dressed into the Carhartt jeans you bought yesterday, the navy blue Carhartt t-shirt you bought yesterday, and your black Converse high-tops. You read some more Agatha Christie until 8:00 when the girls woke up. You made them Eggos for breakfast, which, doesn't really count as "making", since all you have to do is heat it up. While they were eating, you all decided that you would stay at Max's house tonight, but go investigate your house before that.
You wrote a note on the fridge for Hopper that read "Love you, Dad. Me and El are stayin' at Max's place tonight. I'll take good care of them, don't worry. See ya later." Then, on the same note, under your writing, El wrote "I love you."
You drove to your house right after breakfast. You went inside your house to Billy's room. El went straight to Billy's bathroom. You looked at his sink, then El caught your attention. "Look," she spoke softly, pointing to the bathtub. You looked in the bathtub. It was filled with water and empty bags of ice were floating in it. "It's just ice," you said, "It's a workout thing. You sit in a tub of ice, and it helps your muscles. The same with cold showers." El looked at the cabinet and you followed her gaze. There were bloody fingerprints on the handles. You slowly opened it and found a lifeguard bag. It wasn't Billy's. Billy didn't use anything like that. You also found a yellow, bloody whistle next to it. You did the best you could to cover the look of horror on your face.
You drove to the public pool, with Max and El, where Billy worked sometimes. "Excuse me?" Max asked once you were all at the counter. "Nobody in the water until after the last strike," the guy mumbled, "And don't try and argue with me." "We don't care, Lucas-" you started. "That's not my name," he interrupted, not taking his eyes off the magazine he was looking at. "If I didn't make it clear yet," you said aggressively, "I don't give a fuck, jackass. Does this belong to anyone here?" You put the lifeguard bag on the counter. "That's Heather's," he said, looking at it, "I can get it back to her-" "We have it under control, thank you," you sassed, walking back to your truck, with Max and El. "But I need a picture to find her-" El started. "I got one," you said, driving to Max's house. "Can we stay at your house instead?" Max asked. "Fine," you groaned.
You drove to your house. You found a picture of Heather on your phone. After all, Heather was your favorite cousin's boss's daughter. "There's a bandana in the bedside drawer, and I'll be taking a shower, so..." you said, once in your room. You went into the bathroom and took a long, cold shower. Once you were out of the shower, you put on the same clothes as earlier.
El and Max were in your room in Red and Yellow coats. "Where'd you go, Ketchup and Mustard?" you chuckled. "We went to see Billy," El answered. You choked on your breath. "And he didn't murder you?" you gasped dramatically. "Ketchup and Mustard live to see another day," Max said triumphantly. You all laughed like hell. "So what happened?" you asked. "We went to the Holloway's house. Billy was there. We told him we were friends of yours and you were looking for him. Then he said to tell you that he was fine and he wouldn't be home till tomorrow, probably. Then Heather was there, and she offered us cookies. Then we left."
