Burning Love ~ Billy Hargrove ( +18)

Chapter 1

Maddie POV

And here we were, on the way to Hawkins, leaving behind a whole life of memories.
Leaving behind my friends, being the queen of the high school, the sand mixed with salt stuck to my skin, the rays of the sun, surfing...

Damn conceited blonde, as handsome as he is stupid. Because of him, we had to leave California behind and move to some godforsaken, gray, boring town, nothing compares to California and I was convinced Hawkins wouldn't even come close. I'm sure the only fun thing there would be some typical bingo for grannies or, at most, a movie theater. Hawkins looked like the typical town of losers where nothing ever happens. But worst of all, as always, I had to have my stepbrother glued to me.

To go to Hawkins, obviously Billy didn't want to part with his beloved blue Camaro in any way. In fact, I think he loves that car more than any woman he's ever had between his legs. And yes, I say woman because he's so horny that most of the time he only goes after desperate older women. The thing is, due to Billy's reluctance to part with his beloved car, we had to make the trip to Hawkins with Neil's car and Billy's Camaro. And, of course, Susan didn't want Billy to be alone in the car on such a long trip, so I had to share the car with him.

I think I've never hated anyone as much as I hate Billy, maybe partly because from the first day we were repeatedly told that we had to love each other because we were siblings. Moreover, it was almost an obligation imposed by Neil that Billy, Max, and I love each other like blood siblings. Max was very young, so she couldn't have an opinion.

Billy and I have few things in common, but one of them is that we both hate being forced to do something, so our paths were destined for hatred from the very beginning.
It didn't help that he was a bully, arrogant, and conceited, traits that became more pronounced as the years went by. Another thing we have in common is our hatred for Neil, that man is at least the devil incarnate. Fortunately, he stopped hitting me, although I'm still angry because my mother didn't let me report him. But poor Billy—and yes, in this case, I do say poor because, as much as I can't stand him, the beatings he gets from that specimen are horrible, they are completely unjustified.

Luckily, both of us would be turning 18 next year and would be old enough to escape that house, obviously, each of us would go our separate ways, wishing never to see each other again. So, I would have to find a job to start saving money and, although I hated having to bury my nose in books, I would have to try to get decent grades to get into a university as far away from Neil as possible, even though the idea of leaving Maxine and my mother alone with him doesn't thrill me.

We were already halfway through the journey, and my gaze was lost in the sunset that could be seen along the road. Besides, the only good thing about riding in Billy's car was the music he listened to. We both liked rock, and at least it made sharing so many hours with him in such a small space more bearable, as the music helped me ignore his presence a little more.

Suddenly, the sensation of extreme speed coursing through my body pulled me out of my thoughts and brought me back to reality. At that moment, I realized that Billy kept accelerating, almost exceeding the highway speed limit.

Here's the translation into English:

"Brake, brake!" I screamed in fear. "What the hell are you doing? Slow down." I gripped the dashboard tightly, as if that would save me if we crashed.

"Having you as a co-pilot is like carrying a dead weight." he laughed, turning to look at me with an almost cynical smile. "I was getting bored and thought overtaking cars would be fun."

"As if you ever enjoyed talking to me, idiot." I huffed, grabbing onto whatever I could.

"In that, you're right, you look better with your mouth shut." he laughed and pressed the accelerator even more. "But it's even more fun to see you get scared."