Drowning • Billy Hargrove

Chapter 31

I awoke to my alarm clock ringing loudly in my ear. It had been two weeks since the ghostly encounter and now I was starting school. I luckily managed to get a small job in those two weeks, waitressing in the evenings. I had a lot of free time on my hands since I only received one call from Billy, which was extremely strange since he promised to call me every night. El, on the other hand, called me every night. She said everything was going good and she was excited to start her first year of school.
I quickly got dressed and ate breakfast with Tyler. Today was also his first day.
"Are you excited or nervous for today?" I asked him as I ate my cereal.
"A bit of both." He replies, sitting on the counter.
I nod my head. "Same."
Tyler and I have been getting along quite nicely over the free time we spent together. He was very easygoing and laid back and I liked that about him. Also, Billy was wrong on this one. So far, Tyler hasn't made a move on me.
We put our bowls in the sink and left the apartment. Thankfully, the campus was near by so we could walk.

We arrived around five minutes later.
"Do you know where you're going?" He asked me.
I looked down at the map I got, searching for my class. "Yeah, I think so."
He flashes a smile at me. "Okay. Well see ya." He says, turning and walking off. I watch him walk over to a group of jocks, who were staring at me and pointing.
I roll my eyes and entered the campus to find my class.

I got home at around 11:00pm. Right after school, I headed to my job at a restaurant downtown. I worked my shift for around six hours and I was exhausted. My plan was to do my nightly routine and get to sleep, just to repeat it tomorrow.
I climbed into my warm and cozy bed and closed my eyes. I was rudely awakened to my phone ringing right in my ear.
"Hello?" I answer, a little annoyed.
"Hey!" It was Billy.
I roll my eyes. I was pretty mad at him for not calling me or answering any of my calls. "Finally."
"Finally what?" He questions, sounding innocent.
"Finally you called me. It seems like you've been ignoring me for over two weeks!" I say, raising my voice.
He stays silent.
"I was right." I respond, a little shocked.
"No, no, no!" Billy responds. "I was just busy."
"Busy doing what?" I ask. Before he met me all he did was work out in his house and get wasted at parties. Long story short, he was never busy.
"I got a job." He quickly replies.
"Oh, that's good." I knew he was saving up to rent his own apartment and get away from his abusive father.
"Yeah. That's what's keeping me busy."
"What's the job?"
"Uh," He begins. "I'm- I'm-" He stutters out. "I'm building houses."
I get a little suspicious as I knew he was lieing to me. Billy was a terrible liar. "Oh, nice!" I say, pretending to sound normal.
"Yeah, yeah. But I've got to go now. Bye!"
I was cut off by Billy hanging up the phone.

I lie in bed, feeling sick to my stomach. I don't know why Billy would feel the need to lie to me about something so simple.
I immediately thought of the worst: Maybe he was cheating on me? Or maybe the Mindflayer took over his body again and he was possessed. I shake it off, knowing I was being paranoid. We told eachother that we trusted one another and that's what I had to do.

Hours passed and I was still thinking about Billy and the possibility he could be cheating on me.
The flashback of Billy introducing me to a group of his friends hits me. I couldn't remember many of their names, other than Greg and Jenn.  
Jenn seemed to hate me as Billy's girlfriend and she appeared extremely jealous. Maybe she took Billy from me, since I was nowhere in sight.
I once again shake that thought away. Billy was loyal and trustworthy... Right?
Eventually, I dozed off to sleep.

"He was a great father and police chief." The pastor spoke.
I looked around and I was at a church. My eyes wandered and danced around the beautiful building. Billy was sitting beside me, holding onto my hand and El sat on the other side of me.
El quietly sobbed, causing tears to form in my eyes. Even if I was in a dream, seeing her upset made me upset. I grabbed onto her hand with my free hand and squeezed it. She looked at me and I smiled.
I turned my attention back to the front to see the pastor. He was standing beside an open casket, decorated in roses. My heart dropped as I saw a body laying peacefully in it. My father's body.
I had the strangest feeling. I wasn't upset like El or Joyce, I was confused. Confused about how they got my father's body, since he basically disappeared into thin air.

The pastor finally finished speaking and everybody left the church.
"Are you coming?" Billy asked me.
I shake my head. "I want to stay here for a little while."
He smile and nods his head. "Take as much time as you need." He left the room and now it was just me and my dead father.
I stay sitting in my front row seat, looking at a photo of him that was on a stand. It was a picture of him that was hanging in the police station, recognizing the many police chiefs they've had over the years.
I knew for a fact that he wouldn't like having a proper funeral, that's why we threw him the one we did. A little gathering and a celebration of life.

I decided to walk over to the open casket. As I neared, I could see him dressed in a tux. He looked nice, but if he were alive, he would definitely hate it.
I now stood over his body. He had a blank expression on his pale face and he had his eyes closed.
I wondered how this was possible. Even in the dream, I could feel like this was real life for some reason.
I stayed there, studying his body. Suddenly, his eyes flashed opened, causing me to start screaming my head off. He gasped and tried catching his breath, which wasn't working. He struggled and struggled until he finally spoke.
"Help me." He whispered out. After that, he closed his eyes and returned to being completely still and well, dead.

After that, I woke up shaking and sweating.