Burning Love ~ Billy Hargrove ( +18)

Prologue

California, 1977. That was the year Madeleine "Maddie" and Maxine "Max" Mayfield met their new stepfather, Neil Hargrove, and their stepbrother, Billy Hargrove. Billy's mother had abandoned him and Neil a few months earlier due to Neil's abusive behavior, leaving young Billy completely helpless and under his father's continuous abuse. Neil married Susan, Maddie and Max's mother, that same year.

Maddie was the same age as Billy when they met, 10 years old, while Max was four years younger than her older siblings. In addition to his father's mistreatment, having to accept a new mother and two sisters was the last straw for Billy. The combination of all these factors, but mostly due to Neil's abuse, led Billy to become an abusive child and to have an unhappy childhood.

For her part, although Maddie was not a bully, she also had a strong character like Billy, which caused them to clash from the very beginning, especially when it came to little Max. Although Maddie couldn't stand having to take care of Max, she disliked even more when Billy mistreated her. As a result, the redhead always confronted her stepbrother, and they ended up clashing over the smallest things constantly.

The hatred between Maddie and Billy grew as they progressed through their teenage years. It is true that Billy also directed some of that hatred toward little Max. For him, the worst part was always having to play babysitter to the Mayfield sisters.

What he hated the most was that when Max disobeyed either him or Maddie, he was the only one who got beaten. It wasn't that his father had never mistreated Maddie, in fact, he had also mistreated her until one day, with one of his blows, he broke her wrist and nose. He never touched her again because Maddie was ready to report him to the police for the abuse, but Susan stopped her out of fear.

Things became more complicated as Maddie developed into a slender 17-year-old girl with long, wavy red hair, beautiful blue eyes, and a few freckles dotting her sun-kissed Californian skin. Naturally, being an independent girl with a strong, explosive character made her one of the most popular girls in high school, and she was invited to all the parties. Since Billy was just as popular as his stepsister, he also attended the same parties.

At these parties, their hatred for each other flared even more. For Billy, it was because he was fed up with having to endure his sister's presence everywhere and also had to worry about protecting her from anyone who might lay a hand on her, as Neil would fly into a rage and take it out on him. For Maddie, she couldn't stand having to put up with her obnoxious stepbrother at parties because he wouldn't let her enjoy herself. The moment any boy approached her, Billy would quickly appear to scare off anyone who tried to get close to her.

Although Maddie wasn't a fool by any means, over the years, besides standing up to Billy, she had also learned to slip away from his watchful eye on many occasions. Occasions in which she took advantage to distract her adolescence and to discover her sexuality with whomever she wanted. She wasn't going to allow Billy to be the only one having a good time before going to college, no way.

But, of course, not everything was going to be so rosy. Both Billy and Maddie, although they managed to pass their subjects with rather mediocre grades, continued to be problematic teenagers due to their temperaments and constant fights, whether with each other or with other students. Because of all this, they were expelled from their California high school, and Susan and Neil decided to start fresh in Hawkins, Indiana.

The family, far from united, arrived in the new city in late October 1984. As soon as they settled in, Billy and Maddie's reputation as 'bad kids' quickly spread throughout the school. While many students rejected them, others only thought about when they could start attending classes to become their friends. After all, as teenagers, there's nothing better than being friends with the most popular boy and girl in school.

As expected, Maddie and Billy blamed each other for having to leave their beloved California, the sun, and the waves for a gray, sad, and boring town. They arrived in Hawkins carrying all that hatred from many years, perhaps even hating each other more than when they first met. But anything can happen, as they say there's a thin line between hate and love.

Could that line also exist between stepsiblings? How dangerous or crazy would it be to cross it?