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ONCE SUSAN LEFT, Mary put on her jacket and slippers and sat on her porch. Billy came sauntering up to her, cigarette in his mouth, "I don't understand." Mary muttered when he got closer, "You act so sweet one moment and the next you're a jerk."
Billy sat next to her and smoke billowed out of his mouth, "I don't know what you want me to say, sweetheart."
"I want you to be honest. I want you to be..." Mary sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "I just want you to be you, Billy. Not some alpha jock who needs to rule the school."
"What if that is me?" Mary looked up at him,
"I don't believe that."
"I'm not your boyfriend, Mary. I'm not that All-American boy who you'll bring home to your parents." Billy scoffed,
"I know that." She sat up and grabbed his hand, "But you're not the bad boy everyone thinks you are either. I get it, Billy, because of your dad-"
"Don't!" Mary stopped talking and Billy sighed, "Don't talk about him." He said softly.
She nodded, "I want to get to know the Billy that brought me home when I was drunk. The one who was willing to stay with me when I have nightmares."
"He won't always be around."
"I know." Mary leaned over and kissed his cheek, "But it would be nice to see him every once and a while." She said before getting up and going back into the house and Billy watched her go.
The next day Mary realized how little their conversation meant to Billy. He pushed Steve to the floor during their basketball game in gym class and ended up going home with Carol.
"Are you okay?" Susan asked, placing her hand on her shoulder,
"Yeah." Mary sighed, "I just thought we had something going on."
Susan flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder, "You don't want to get close to those kinds of people anyways, Mary. He'll just hurt you, in the end, you know he will."
Mary nodded, looking at the blue Camaro pulling out of the parking lot one last time before heading to her own car.
When she got home, she heard her mother shriek in relief, "Oh, Mary, there you are!" Mary spotted the redness around her eyes,
"Mom, what's wrong?"
"Mews is missing! I can't find her anywhere!" She sobbed.
Behind her mom, Dustin stood in the doorway. He looked guilty and Mary narrowed her eyes at her younger brother, "It'll be okay, mom. Why don't you check around outside and I'll check my room."
Her mother nodded before leaving the room and Mary glared at her brother, "Dustin, what did you do!?"
Dustin gulped before running for his bedroom and Mary followed, "It wasn't my fault!"
"Where's Mews!"
"In my bedroom!" Dustin answered while they ran around the kitchen counter,
Mary froze, "Why didn't you tell mom that? What happened?!"
Dustin played with his fingers, "I may have brought home an intergalactic slug and it ended up growing and eating Mews."
She stared at him in shock, "So basically, you brought home a Gremlin and fed it after midnight?"
"Yeah." He answered.
Mary threw a spoon at him, "Dude! Mom loves that cat more than she loves us!" Mary stopped as a question popped up in her mind, "Dustin... where is this slug now?"
"In my room." He answered, "And he's no longer a slug. He's the size of a dog."
The redhead rolled her eyes, "I'll stall mom and you figure out what to do with your Gremlin." Mary told him before grabbing her coat and going outside.
Sorry for the delayed update! I've been working on some of my other stories before coming back to this one. Speaking of, I just published a Percy Jackson story! Go check it out by clicking on my bio.
