Same Drugs (Billy Hargrove)

camisado

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After school that day, I had to go to the middle school next door to talk to the principal about some things. I was a minor part of the student council, and I decided to go over to talk to him about giving up some of the middle school's parking spots so that the high schoolers had more places to park. Once I was in the office talking to him, everything went well. He agreed to give up a section of their parking lot, and I was happy as I left. I walked down the hallway, trying to find the exit again before I bumped into a curly-headed boy frantically looking for something. 

"Sorry, little dude," I apologized to the stressed-out kid. "It's fine. Hey, have you seen a small slug-like thing crawling around by any chance? He responds to Dart?" He asked me, but I confusingly shook my head. "No, I haven't," I answered. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Great." "Need extra eyes?" I offered, and the kid perked up a bit. "Yeah, uh, I'm Dustin Henderson," He said, introducing himself. "I'm Jamie Harrington," I said back. His eyes shot up, "Harrington? Like Steve Harrington?" I nodded, and he nodded as well. "Interesting," He said. "Anyway, you go left, I'll go right," He said, and I nodded in agreement.  I began walking left down the hallway until I saw three other kids, a tall, lanky boy with long-ish jet black hair, a slightly shorter boy with curly brown hair, and a girl with fiery red locks. They all looked distressed, and I assumed it was due to the slug problem Dustin and had. "Are you guys looking for the slug too?" I asked, and they all gave me a horrified expression. "Who are you?" The black-haired boy asked. "I'm Jamie Harrington. I'm helping Dustin find Dart," I answered, oddly enough gaining attention from the red-head. She looked at me in a strange way, but I ignored it. 

"And you guys are...?" I asked after an uncomfortable silence. They all introduced themselves and I smiled, "Nice to meet you all. Now, split up, we have a slug to find," I said.cMike and Lucas went together and Max came up next to me, almost latching herself to me as we walked side by side. "You're Jamie Harrington," She said, almost as a statement. "Yes, I'm aware," I said with a chuckle, confused as to what she was getting at. "My brother has mentioned you," She said. I furrowed my brow and scoffed, "And who's your brother?" "Billy Hargrove," She said, the name hitting me like a ton of bricks. "What? What's he said?" I asked, genuinely curious. "I don't really know, I tend to zone out when he talks to me, which is rare anyway, but I've just heard your name. Sometimes it comes up when he's on the phone with his friends," She told me. 

"Weird," I said, looking back at the hallway we were walking through. We rounded the corner, accidentally bumping into Mike and Lucas again. Max and I groaned,  spinning on our heels to turn back in the direction we had come from. After some awkward silence, I struck up a conversation with the redhead once again. "You look nothing like your brother," I said with a chuckle, but Max only scowled. "He's technically my half brother. I'm surprised you didn't know, he pretty much shoves it down everyone's throat," She explained. "Why?" I asked. "He hates me, that's why," She said, running her fingers through her hair nervously. 

"Why does he hate you, Max?" I asked, not sure how anyone could hate someone so seemingly unproblematic. "He has some serious parental issues, and when his dad and my mom got married, he shit bricks," She told me. I nodded, taking in what she was telling me. "What happened to his mom?" I asked. Max sighed, shaking her head a little. "He never talks about it, and you can't tell him I told you, but his mom left him. She and Billy were being abused by Neil back in California. It was a lot to take for his mom I guess because she split and left Billy with Neil. He was obviously kicked around a shit ton, but that's why he's so rough around the edges," She told me. I absorbed all of this information, thinking everything over and allowing it to process. "That's awful," I eventually said, ", nobody should ever have to go through something like that." Max nodded, "I know. You really can't tell him though, he'd kill me. Besides, he'd rather die than have you throw him a pity party." I understood where she was coming from, which is exactly why I was going to keep the secret. I was just a little shaken up by what she told me about Billy. He was so... damaged. I wasn't sure how to act around him anymore, which was what worried me. I felt bad for him, but Max said no pity party, so I wouldn't treat him any differently. I swore to myself that I would just go back to hating him. 

***

After we looked and looked for Dart for an hour, we realized we had little to no shot of finding him. I sighed, having wasted an hour running around a middle school with a bunch of 13-year-olds for nothing. Dustin thanked me for my help and I went outside, walking back to the high school. At least one good thing came out of me wasting my time, Steve was still at the high school with a teacher for extra help, so he could drive me home. As I walked, I noticed Max tucking her skateboard under her arm and preparing to skate home, presumably. "Hey, Mayfield!" I called out, grabbing her attention. She turned and cocked her head to the side. "Need a lift?" I asked. She smiled and nodded, walking towards me, "Thanks." Steve came out of the school after twenty minutes, and I told him how we needed to drop Max off. He agreed and drove to her house, also known as Billy Hargrove's house. 

"Do you have to go home?" She asked me all of a sudden. I turned to her, confused, but shook my head. "No, why?" "Billy's gonna be in a bad mood because I made him wait, and I really don't want to deal with that. Maybe, if you're here, he won't be totally harsh," She said, and I chuckled slightly. "Okay, sure," I said, turning around to talk to Steve. "I'll be home later, okay? I'm gonna help Max with her homework," I told him. He looked suspicious of my excuse but nodded his head slowly. "I'll be home," He said, and I nodded. 

I followed Max into the house and noticed loud music blaring from a neighboring bedroom. We knew it was Billy but didn't want to say anything. Soon, his music went off, though, and we were relieved because of it. Max and I got to talking and she told me some stories about her old friends in California. I smiled as she told me about one time that she and her best friend, Sarah, tried surfing, but wiped out and got laughed at on the beach. We continued until we were both laughing hysterically on the floor. I could hardly contain myself, but soon go serious when someone threw her door open in a fit of rage. "Max, would you shut the fu-" Billy started, but cut himself off after seeing me look up at him. "Uh... Um... Jamie, what are you doing here?" He asked, and I stood up. "I'm helping her with some stuff," I said, and he continued to stand there, looking starstruck. I felt very awkward being in the position that I was in, so I asked where the bathroom was. "Down the hall to the left," Max said quietly from behind me, and I scurried past Billy and into the safety of the bathroom. 

I took a deep breath once I was in there, leaning up against the door, nearly hyperventilating. I wasn't even sure why I was reacting so severely. My face was flushed and my breathing had quickened, but I wasn't sure why. I guess it was because I knew Billy had been talking about me. I hated that he made me feel this way, but I was incredibly flustered. After about five minutes, I came back out and went back into Max's room. There was no sign of Billy, so I felt more at ease, but I couldn't help thinking about the feeling I had gotten after seeing him in Max's doorway.