Drowning • Billy Hargrove

Chapter 19

Jonathan and Will drove El, Max and I home, because he didn't want us to walk home with the Mindflayer and Billy running loose. Max had no where else to go and she was definitely not staying in the same house as Billy, so El and I took her in.
"Thanks for the ride." I say as we hop out of Jonathan's car.
"No problem." He says.
"So we'll pick you guys up tomorrow morning and set up the plan." He says.
"Yeah, that sounds good." I say.
"Okay see you then!" They say, pulling out of the driveway.
I look up to see that our fathers car was still not in the driveway.
I unlock the door for the three of us and we enter the quiet house.
"Are you guys hungry?" I say, turning on the lights.
"Very." Max says.
"Yeah." El responds.
"Okay so what do you guys want to eat?"

I scrubbed the dishes as El and Max watched a movie. They decided to watch Terminator, which was the same movie Billy and I watched together.
The phone starts to ring, startling all three of us. I dry my hands and pick the phone up.
"Hello?"
"Hi! Kate! You finally answered." I could tell by the voice that is was Brandon.
"Hi, sorry we've been pretty busy." I say.
"It's fine. I just want to say I'm sorry about the other night. I didn't know you two knew eachother."
I sigh. "It's okay. I didn't know you two knew eachother either."
He lets out a little chuckle. "Maybe we can hang out tomorrow. I hope that night didn't ruin our friendship."
"I hope it didn't either. Tomorrow I'm busy though. Like super busy." I say.
"Will you be at the pool?" He asks.
I think about lying because I didn't want to put him in dangers way, but that's not who I am.
"Yeah I will be."
"Okay perfect! Maybe I'll swing by tomorrow."
"Yeah, maybe." I say, sighing.
"Would that be a problem?" He asks, obviously noticing the change in my voice.
"No not at all. Sorry, I've had a lot on my plate recently." I say, which was a hundred perfect true.
"Oh okay. Well I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah definitely!" I say.
"Okay bye."
"Bye." I say, hanging up the phone.
I return to doing the dishes to get my mind off of everything.

"I'll wake you guys up when I get up." I say.
"Okay. Good night!" El and Max say in unison.
"Good night!" I say, closing the door.
I double-check to make sure all of the doors are locked and head to bed.

I couldn't sleep that night because I was too distracted thinking about Billy, dad and Brandon.
I was hoping that we would be able to burn this thing out of Billy, but I knew that this was going to be a challenge. It'll be one hundred times harder getting it out of Billy than it was getting it out of Will.
Also, I couldn't help but think where dad was. He left with Mrs.Byers to find out information about what's going on. I don't think anyone expected it to take more than three days.
With Brandon, I was extremely concerned and worried about tomorrow. He might accidentally end up being Billys next target and that would be my fault for agreeing to see him.
Some how, I managed to push all of that concern and worry away and I slowly fell asleep.

I woke up at the usual time. Today was the day I was hopefully going to get my boyfriend back.
I walk over to El's room to wake up my sister and her friend.
"Guys! Get up!" I say, gently shaking them.
They both rub their eyes and sit up.
"They're picking us up in twenty minutes so be ready." I say, leaving their room to get myself ready.

I got ready faster than normal today so I could make the girls some breakfast.
"Here." I say, serving them Eggos.
"Thanks." Max says. "You know you're really not Billy's type."
"How's that?" I question.
"You're actually nice and caring. The complete opposite of any girl Billy has ever brought home."
"I guess so." I say, smiling.
Around ten minutes later, Jonathan's car rolls into the driveway.
"Okay let's go." I say standing up.

We all leave the house and climb into Jonathans car. Jonathan and I in the front, Will, Max and El in the back.
"Hey." I say, putting on my seatbelt.
"Hey. So I'm going to drop you off at the pool, right?" He asks.
"Yeah, then you guys are going to go to Nancy's, get ready and situated, then head to the pool to set up."
"Okay." Jonathan says, carefully backing out of he driveway.

I walk into the change rooms being extra cautious incase Billy was in here.
The locker slams, causing me to jump. I look behind me and Billy stares at me for a few moments before stumbling out to the pool deck.
I change into my bathing suit and exit the change rooms.
I sat on my chair, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did for a while.
I kept glancing over at Billy. He was wearing a tank top and shorts and I could tell he was sweating profusely. Another thing he did was eat ice cubes out of a cup.
A flashback came to me. When Will was flayed, he always asked for the windows to be open and he liked it cold. This was clearly happening to Billy too.
A couple of hours go by without seeing Brandon or the group of kids, until it was ten minutes till closing. Somebody whistled at me from a far. I looked up to see Mike giving me the thumbs up. They were set.
"Hey Kate!" Brandon says, walking up to me.
"Hey!" I say, causing Billy to notice.
Brandon breaks out into small talk for a while, until he notices Billy staring at us.
"Isn't that your boyfriend?" He says, pointing over at Billy.
Billy and I lock eyes. "Yeah." I say.
"I didn't know he worked here too!" He says.
"Yeah, this is where I met him." I say, still staring at Billy.
"That's kind of cute. Two lifeguards drowning in love."
I smile and look at Brandon. "Exactly." I say.
I glance down at my watch, it was time for closing. "Cover your ears." I say as I blow into my whistle.
"Everybody out!" I can hear Billy yell.
"So now what do you do?" Brandon asks, genuinely curious.
"Everybody leaves and we just clean the tables and chairs. We also put away the toys and stuff like that."
He nods his head as I climb down from my chair and begin to do my job.
"Is he suppose to be helping?" Brandon asks, noticing Billy walk into the change rooms.
"Uh, yeah but it's fine. I'm used to it." I say.
"Is there something going on between the two of you?" He randomly asks.
I think about how I'm going to answer this question for a few moments. "He's just been sick and grumpy." I say, which was sort of true.
"Oh." He says.

After I was finished I entered the change rooms.
"You can come in." I say to Brandon. He follows me as I grab stuff out of my locker.
"I'll be two seconds." I say as I quickly change. I could hear the shower water running, so I knew that Billy was occupied and distracted.
"Okay let's go." I say, fixing my shirt.
"Okay." He says, walking out with me.
"Just hold on a second." I say as I walk over to Nancy and the group who were out in the hall.
"Is everybody out?" She asks me.
"Yeah. We're all set." I say.
"Who's the guy?" She asks.
"Long story. I'll tell you another time, but his name's Brandon."
"Okay." She says, turning around to Mike. "We're ready."