LIFEBOAT ✧ billy hargrove

EPILOGUE

Later that night, Emily sat across from her Hargrove boy, the two sharing a vanilla milkshake at her favorite diner, in her favorite booth in the back corner.

     "You can sing too? Jesus, could you be anymore perfect?" Billy leaned back in his seat and threw his hands up incredulously.

"I'm far from perfect, Hargrove."

"I don't believe that at all, Sinclair. How could you not be perfect?"

"Well, for starters, I can't draw for shit, I'm an awful driver, and I have terrible taste in men." Emily replied, giving him a little smirk.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, you have a mullet and you wear the same jeans as my mother." Emily joked. "Your ass does look great in them though."

"Damn straight." Billy rolled his eyes and smirked at her. "Is that the only reason you said yes to a date? Because you like how my ass looks in my jeans?"

"Man, I was hoping you wouldn't figure that out." Emily laughed.

Billy leaned forward and looked at her adoringly.

"Your laugh is adorable." He told her, making her cheeks flush red as she looked away from him. Billy reached over and took her hand that rested on the table.

"Listen, Em. I know I'm not a great guy, and I know I can be the biggest dick sometimes, but I'm trying to be better. I want to be better for you. You don't know how much I hated myself for what I did to you. I wanted to leave, I had no idea what would happen when you woke up, I thought you'd hate me. I was ready to run away, back to California, but I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I left you without saying goodbye. You have every reason to hate me. I hurt you, and that is something that will haunt me forever." Billy ran his thumb over her knuckles. Nothing felt more right to him than the feeling of her hand in his, and he was just hoping that she wouldn't pull away.

"Billy, I couldn't hate you if I tried, and believe me, when I met you, I really did try. When you hurt me, I couldn't blame you. I saw what your father did to you, and you didn't deserve that. Everyone thinks that you're an awful person and that you don't care for anyone but yourself, and I know damn well that it's not true. You care for me, and you care for Max. You've convinced yourself that you don't care, but you do, I know it." Emily squeezed his hand just slightly. "I must admit that I care for you as well. I wish I could say that I didn't, but I do, and I figured that I'd tell you because if I don't tell you soon then you might—"

     Billy cut her off by leaning over the table and kissing her, moving his hand that wasn't holding hers up to tangle his fingers in her wild hair. Emily kissed him back as her cheeks turned completely red, and she couldn't help but smile into their kiss.

     And that was how the rest of that night went, the new, unofficial couple sharing stories and kisses and milkshakes. The weeks to follow would all be the same, excluding milkshakes, until Billy finally asked her to be his girlfriend. She said yes, of course, and the two were possible the most well known teen couple in all of Hawkins. Emily would help Max with boy problems, and even helped Billy with his father, simply by being with him constantly, protecting him from the older man, as he wouldn't dare lay a hand on his son when someone else was around. Susan loved Emily, and was so happy that she was there for her daughter and step son. Emily helped Billy and Steve get over their egos and the two became somewhat decent friends due to always being around each other, since she hung out with them both constantly. The kids looked up to her and would become her biggest fans when she would go on to write a book only two years after the incidents of Hawkins lab. She wrote of their stories, changed everybody's names, and marketed it as fiction. Only the witnesses of what occurred would know that the book was entirely factual, and they chose to keep it that way. The group lived as a happy little family, and learned that whether they were having relationship problems, or being attacked by a flesh-eating monster who's face opens up, all they really needed was each other.