crucio ↠ billy hargrove

000

Location; Hawkins, Indiana

-CHARLOTTE-
June 1980

I grabbed the purple pillow and I tossed it at Billy from across the living room. He dodged it by punching it, making it land on the ground. "Don't start," he smiled at me as he's doing his homework. I can't help but smile back. The lights are flickering softly, I have no idea why.

"Homework can be done later! I'm bored!" I whined. "But, I wanna finish this first and then we can hit each other with pillows!" he explained with an amusing aura. "Pleeeaase?" I playfully stomped up to him and I plopped myself next to him. He's currently doing math homework and I can tell he's struggling. Math is his worst subject. "Wait? Is this summer homework?" I asked him, surprised. I never got summer homework luckily.

He nodded, "And I know I'll spend the last minute finishing it up."

"You can finish it tomorrow." I laughed, grabbing his pencil lightly from his hand. He sighed. "Well, I suppose," he closed the packet and sets it aside. We both stood up and before I knew it a pillow slammed my face gently. Oh, you're so on.

"Hey! I wasn't ready!" I squealed and I ran all the way to the corner of the living room. "Are you..scared?" Billy asked me mischievously. I shook my head, laughing. "Go on." I then cover my face and I can feel the pillow flying towards me.

But the pillow doesn't hit me, it struck a vase and I try my hardest in the mists of seconds to levitate the vase but I heard Billy's dog bark loudly which made me jump. Thanks a lot, Polly. The vase shatters into four pieces, I gasped. "Billy! The vase! Your dad's going to be pissed!" I looked at him with wide eyes. He gave me the same expression in return.

"Go get the broo-" The door opened and it revealed Billy's father, looking angry as always. "Hi, Mr Hargrove! How..are you?" I greeted him and Billy greets him as well, but he ignored us. I moved the pillow and I set it on the sofa. I stood right by Billy and we watch his father put his things away.

"Should we say something?" I whispered to him, Polly's barking still heard in the background. "No, it's all my fault anyway. Don't worry about me," he replied back, grabbing my hand and kissing it lightly. It takes a bit for his father to find the mess and he doesn't look very happy. Like someone threw his favourite cologne on the floor. He's furious.

"Billy! Did you do this?" He shouted at him and I can tell Billy is scared. "I-" he started. "No. I did it. We were fooling around and I accidentally hit the vase. I'll clean up the mess." I interrupted Billy. "I know you're blaming yourself for this but I know Billy did this," Billy's father got closer to him and Billy lets go of my hand and it looks like he's going to cry.

It makes me so angry when his father abuses him. I wish he wasn't this abusive towards him, verbally and sometimes physically. Billy is my best friend and he never deserved this type of abuse. I would always try and stop him but Neil would sometimes snitch on my parents and my parents would ground me.

Neil goes up to him and gets onto his face. "You know that vase was expensive but your dumb ass chose to break it." His father is at least a few inches taller than Billy.

"Why'd you break it?" Billy sheds a tear. "I didn't mean to-"

"Stop lying and tell me the truth before I hit you, and you know how much it hurts." Neil evilly smirked. "Mr Hargrove, he didn't mean to, I did it. It was all my fault."

"Shut up!" he shouted at me. "Don't you talk to her like that! Never ever talk to her like that!" Billy yelled at him. Neil starts smacking him with his bare hands and I try stopping him but he doesn't stop. He continues and I suddenly see a flash of red on Billy's face. And that's when I had it.

"STOP!" I screamed at Neil and I sent him flying across the room and all of the windows in the house shattered simultaneously. The room became quiet and I turned towards Billy and he's holding his bloody nose. "Billy, are you okay?" I softly said to him. He nodded and he grabs a tissue and cleans his bloody nose. His right cheek looks like it's going to swell up and his face, in general, turned a shade of bright red. I can hear Polly barking like crazy now. Can she like be quiet for a moment?

Billy knows about my "superpower" but he has never told anyone about it. His father doesn't, well didn't know about it, until now. His father has never hit him to the point where he starts bleeding. Not until today, over a vase, I broke.

Neil is struggling to get up and I stepped in front of Billy for protection. Neil surrendered by placing his hands in the air. I never meant to do that but I have had enough of him hurting my best friend. I embraced Billy into a hug and he hugged me tightly and sobbed on my shoulder.

"I'm here," I whispered into his ear. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise." he nodded.

"It's all my fault. It's my fault for breaking the vase," he said. "No, it's not. It's mine. I should've let you finish your homework." I looked into his blue eyes and I gave him a small smile. I reached up and I lightly kissed his cheek. I can feel my ears burn up.

"Should I stay or.," I asked him. "Stay. Please," he begged. I nodded, "I just have to call my mom and let her know." I smiled at him and he gave me one in return. I can feel him lean closer to my face but instead, he stopped and said, "I'll go clean up the mess," I nodded and silently sigh. I followed him to the broken vase.

word count; 1046