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walking into the hargrove house, billy held my suitcase in his hand. i kept my head down as we walked through the house.
we walked into his room, and i sat down on the bed.
"where are your parents? max?" i asked as he started unpacking my things.
"parents are at some kind of event. i have no idea where max ever goes," he said, his back towards me.
"max is out there with all of this going on?" i asked. "we have to go find her."
he shook his head no before turning around and leaning against the dresser. his white shirt clung to his body.
"there's no way in hell i'm leaving you alone right now," he said, clearly meaning what he said.
nodding, i stood up from the bed.
"you're right. you shouldn't leave me alone. that's why the both of us are going to go look for max. not only because she's a child out there but because she's your sister and my friend," i said, equally meaning what i said.
i started for the door but he grabbed my wrist gently. he slipped his jacked over me before nodding.
"let's go."
in the car, we kept the radio off. it was silent as the night outside.
first, we had checked the arcade. yelling her name as i walked down the isles of games, max was nowhere to be found.
then, we checked the wheeler house. their mom opened the door only clad in a bathrobe making me avert my eyes with a slight blush on my cheeks.
billy, however, went straight to flirting which caused me to shift back and forth on each foot awkwardly.
after being invited in and eating some cookies, we finally got the information we needed.
driving towards will's house, i kept my eyes focused on the woods as they blurred past.
"are you not going to talk to me?" he asked, strumming his fingers on the steering wheel to nonexistent music.
i opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. i was too angry. one minute he was making me feel special, like i mattered, and the next he was flirting with nancy and mike's mom.
"i only did that to get the information quicker," he said, his voice low. i kept my eyes on the window to my right, trying my best to tune him out.
he reached over and grabbed my hand, keeping one hand on the wheel.
"if i had just asked her where mike was, she would've gotten suspicious. flirting with her distracted her enough to get the information we needed," he said, his voice raising a bit.
turning towards him, i asked, "do you promise that's all it was?" i wasn't trying to be clingy but if we were going to try to be something after all that madness was over, i needed to know.
"yes. i promise, betty," he said, bringing my hand up to his lips. he continued to hold my hand until we pulled up to will's house.
steve came out of the front door, his eyes widening at the sight of us together.
while they talked, i noticed four little faces in the living room window, making me sigh in relief. they were okay.
billy heard and looked in my direction. their faces quickly dropped out of sight.
and before i could stop him, he was running into the house.
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big scene coming up. do you think betty with stick with billy or go with single mom steve?
