Same Drugs (Billy Hargrove)

new kid combat

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(Christian Slater as Oliver Walsh) 

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Right before Halloween, I began to spend my time catching up on my studies and hanging out with Decker and Libby on the weekends. I unintentionally stayed away from Billy Hargrove, though it wasn't much of an issue. Steve and I began talking more in school after Nancy dumped him, so Billy tended to stay away. We only really talked in Physics class, which we had together every other day, but not even that much.

Steve and I decided to throw a  party after our parents announced to us that they'd be on "business" in Cancun. That was typical of them, though. They always had random "business" to attend to. Even for holidays they always went to some tropical location just to get away from us. When we were younger, we spent our Christmasses and other times when they were away with our grandmother, but now that we were older, we had started staying home. Our party wasn't anything traditional, obviously, and a LOT of people showed up to get drunk. Once the party was in full swing, there were too many people to keep track of. Of course, I wanted to let loose and have fun, but I also wanted to find my friends. Steve was hanging out with some of his basketball buddies, so I went through our house trying to find the two people I wanted. 

As I went past the multitudes of familiar faces, I found one that wasn't so striking in my memory. I slowly made my way over to the handsome stranger standing alone in my kitchen. "I haven't seen you around, what's your name?" I asked, noticeably startling him. "Oh, sorry, I'm Oliver, I just moved here," He said, knocking back a large sip of whatever filled his Solo cup. "Jamie, nice to meet you," I said charmingly, "Anyway, you're the second new kid this year, let's just hope you're more... how should I put it? Tame." Oliver chuckled and took another swig, "The other new kid must be pretty interesting. They here?" I looked around, and after locating the keg, I saw Billy. 

I pointed over to him, clearly drunk and slobbering over some girl I recognized from French class, and I looked back at Oliver. "He looks like a real charmer," He remarked, gaining a giggle from me. "You're funny, I like you. I know other people that'll like you too, follow me," I said. With Oliver close behind me, I set off looking for Libby and Decker once again. We walked past the "Keg King" and I tried to ignore the look he gave me. It seemed hostile while still laced with intrigue, but I made sure to keep looking in front of me rather than getting sidetracked. I led Oliver upstairs and to the only other place, I could think of that my friends could be. We walked into my room and my eyes fell on my ginger and brunette friends. "How'd I know," I said with a smirk as the pair looked towards me. Libby was cradling a beer in her arms and flipping through my magazines while Decker was laying flat on the ground running his hands through his curls. "You look fetching, Jamsie-Wamsie. Who's the stud?" Libby slurred, causing Decker, Oliver, and I to laugh. "The name's Oliver," He said with a chuckle. "And how on earth do you know I was talking about you? How do you know you're the stud?" Libby barked drunkenly. "I'm the only other person here, dollface," Oliver quipped, softening Libby's demeanor. "I suppose you're right, smartypants," She said with a smile. 

"She's funny," Oliver said. I looked down at Decker, high out of his mind and staring at the ceiling, and I shrugged. "He's usually the fun one. Libby's the mom of the group usually. You can always count on Decker for a wild time, though," I told him. Libby slipped further and further into sleep and I took a seat on my beanbag chair in the corner of my room, next to my record player. "What kind of stuff are you into?" Oliver asked, referring to my record collection. He began flipping through some of my stuff when my door was thrown open violently. "What the hell?" I exclaimed as I looked at the person in the threshold. "Hey, punk, get away from her," Billy Hargrove growled. He looked at Oliver with fire in his eyes and I scoffed at his behavior. "Hey, dude, I just met Jamie, I am not that kind of guy," Oliver explained. "Don't even say her name," Billy said simply, ignoring his reasoning. "God, Billy, we haven't spoken to each other in months, would you lay off?" I said, still shocked he even was in my room. 

Billy looked around, and after seeing Libby and Decker in the room, looked as if he had realized he had gotten it wrong. "You guys came up to your bedroom, what was I supposed to think?" Billy asked, crossing his arms. I stood and walked up to with a frown planted firmly on my face, "You're not supposed to think anything. I'm super confused as to why you're even up here. We're not dating, we're not together in any way, we're not friends, so why don't you just leave?" I hissed at him, finally done with his antics. "You may be the King of Hawkins High to everyone else, but you're nothing but a nuisance to me right now," I said, poking his chest, causing him to walk backward and out of my room with each poke, "You've moved on, clearly, with Ellie Green downstairs, so why don't you just go back down there, get more drunk than you already are, and leave me alone?" With one final poke, Billy was out in the hallway, looking more pissed off than anything else, but also a little hurt. I couldn't fathom why, but he did. I slammed the door after he just continued to stare at me and walked back over to Oliver. "I'm sorry you had to see that," I apologized. He shook his head as I slumped back into the beanbag chair next to him, "He seems like a real prick. But obviously, you guys have history," He said with a smirk. 

"Yeah, you could say that I guess."