West Coast // Billy Hargrove

thirty // excuses

Billy was fiddling away at a loose screw on one of the chairs at the gym when Tommy burst through the door, chin up and a determined look on his face as he grabbed a chair across from him and plopped himself down on it; loud screech and all as he dragged it along the floor and flipped it so he could sit on it backwards.

"What the hell is your problem?" Tommy asked.

Billy put his tools down and sat up, looking at Tommy as a sigh escaped his lips wondering where the conversation was going and not being in the mood to deal with it in the slightest.

"Well hello to you too" He replied.

Sophie had left to go back home yesterday and he hated how empty he felt with her being gone even though it had barely been twenty four hours. Billy had slept terribly, tossing and turning and practically seeing every hour of the clock which presumably had only added to his current irritable mood. He'd spoken to her once last night when she phoned to let him know she'd made it to Hawkins safely but the conversation didn't last long, claiming she was tired from the travel and when he'd phoned this morning to talk to her, Steve had told him that she had gone out shopping with Nancy.

He couldn't necessarily tell if she was annoyed with him but he could definitely feel like she was upset, even from so far away he could read her like a book and it had been the last thing he wanted to do but it seemed as if he was naturally gifting in ruining things and had spent most of the day taking out his frustration on various things around the gym and right now the chair was his latest victim.

"Why the hell aren't you going to the wedding with Sophie?" Tommy asked "Sam just told me you're cooping yourself up in this sweaty gym instead of going to spend the holidays with your girl, what's the deal?"

"I don't do weddings" Billy replied, feeling as if he was about to have the same conversation once again.

"You don't do fun parties with free alcohol, good music and a shit ton of fun?" Tommy retorted, raising his eyebrows.

Billy was growing frustrated himself, not understanding why it was such a big deal that he didn't like weddings or want to be a part of them. What difference did it make? Everyone else there would still have fun with or without him there.

"Parties are fun" Billy sighed "Weddings are bullshit, marriage is bullshit"

Tommy knew Billy didn't come from the best upbringing and that it obviously influenced him in a lot of his decision making but he could tell that deep down he didn't really believe the words he was saying and that he was just attempting to protect his own feelings and vulnerability.

"C'mon man, what's this really about?" Tommy probed.

The gym was now deserted, the place was closed in ten minutes and they both knew that no one would be joining in the short window of time that remained.

"I just don't want to go to a fucking wedding, alright?" Billy said, his frustration seeping out.

"And what about Christmas? New Years? You're going to spend it all alone here instead of being with Sophie?" Tommy replied.

Billy was used to being alone on those holidays, even before he had moved out to California, he never spent them around the warm fireplace with an extravagant dinner on the table. For the first few years after his mom left, Billy was lucky if he'd get anything from his father unless it was practical, like clothes or toiletries. The first Christmas without his mom had been the hardest, he'd desperately tried to continue the traditions they would do like writing christmas cards for his class at school and making fresh cookies but Neil simply called him a pansy for even bothering over activities like that and scoffed in his face when Billy had asked when they were going out to get a tree when it hit the day before Christmas Eve. They never had a Christmas tree again until he married Susan and by then, Billy didn't care about it anymore.