Drowning • Billy Hargrove

Chapter 42

I turn around to see James, my ex boyfriend. I roll my eyes.
"What do you want?" Billy starts. "To get beat up again?"
The last time I saw James was when Billy and him got in a fight. And for some reason, I decided to step in and throw a few blows at James.
"No! No!" He responds, pointing to the little girl he was with. It was his sister, Christina. "I just want to talk to Kate, privately."
"Like hell yo-" I decided to cut off Billy because I wanted to see what James had to say.
"It's fine." I say looking up at Billy and smiling.

James and I walk off to somewhere more secretive, which was just a corner hidden away in the back.
"I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry about everything." He says.
I smile at him and look at the ground. "I accept your apology." I respond.
"No, no. I don't want you to accept my apology because the things I did to you don't deserve to be accepted."
I slowly nod my head. He was a shitty and awful boyfriend and he had a point.
"And I'm so sorry about your dad."
I look up, surprised he would mention my father. "Thanks."
"I just want to let you know that I'm here for you, and I hope we could be friends again."
I smile at him. "I'll think about it."

With that, I turn back and walk off towards Billy and Steve, and now, Robin.
"Is everything good?" Billy asks me.
I nod my head and smile. "Yeah."

Steve, Robin, Billy and I all hung out for about an hour until Billy thought it was time to go.
I was glad that Billy pushed his altercations with Steve aside and just enjoyed the moment.

As Billy and I walked down the street away from the arcade, I spotted a familiar face. Brandon's father.
I knew I couldn't be rude, so I decided to run over to give him my condolences.

"Mr. Miller!" I call out, as he opens his car door.
Immediately he spots me. "Hello Kate." I haven't seen Brandon's father, Paul, since the first altercation with my mother, his wife.
"How are you?" I ask politely.
He sets his briefcase in the backseat. "Not so good, that's for sure."
I give him an apologetic look. I wasn't totally sure if he knew that all of his pain was coming from my family. El and I accidentally killed his wife, and my father put his son in a coma by closing the gate.
"That was really nice of you to leave Brandon flowers." He finally says, bringing up something I did a couple of weeks ago.
I smile. "Oh it was nothing! He was a really great friend to me." I respond. "How's he doing?" I ask.
He looks down to the ground. "There hasn't been a change since he was taken into hospital."
"Oh, I'm sorry." I reply.
"I'm actually heading over to see him now, if you'd like to come."
I smile at him. "I'd love to, but I can't today."
His smile slowly fades. "Oh, okay. Nice talking to you again, Kate."
I smile at him as he hops into his car and drives away.

I make my way back over to Billy who was leaning against a streetlight, smoking a cigarette.
"Who was that?" He asks.
"Brandon's dad." I respond.
"Oh." Billy says, deciding not to ask anymore questions.
I couldn't help but wonder if the Mindflayer still had control of Brandon's body. As harsh as it sounds, the Mindflayer never exited his body, like it did for Will and Billy.
I pushed those thoughts aside and carried on with my day.

Billy and I decided to go back to Joyce's house to spend some time with the kids. When we arrived, we found them all huddled around the tv in the living room. I also noticed Tyler was there too.
"Hey." Tyler says when he sees me.
"Hello." I simply respond.
"Hey Kate!" El says excitedly.
I smile and sit down on the couch beside her. "What are you guys doing?" I ask.
Will looks up at me. "Mom got us an Atari. We're playing Pacman."
I smile. "Cool."
"This is way better than going out to the arcade! Because now we don't even have to leave the house." Max starts. "Billy we should get one."
Billy looks down at her. "When you start working and earning money you can buy one for yourself." He responds.
Max rolls her eyes in response. "Whatever." She finally says.
"Kate, I'm thinking of buying one of these for the apartment. Wouldn't that be awesome?" Tyler asks, focusing on the game.
I giggle and look over to Billy. This time, he was the one rolling his eyes. "Yeah, that'd be fun." I respond.
Max turns back around to look at Billy. "I guess I'm going to go and move in with Tyler and Kate."
Tyler and I begin to laugh.
"That's perfectly fine with me." Billy says truthfully.
"Want to try?" Lucas asks, passing Billy a remote. For some reason, Billy never really liked Lucas. I figured it was because Billy was being overprotective of Max and he didn't want Lucas to end up hurting her.
"Uh, sure." He responds, grabbing the remote from his hand. "How do I play?"
Lucas shows him the controls and he begins to play.
We all watch the tv as Billy slowly collects more coins and dodges the ghosts.
"You're actually pretty good at this." I say to him.
"I'm good at everything, what can I say?" He responds, not taking his eyes away from the tv.
"Watch out for the ghosts!" Dustin yells as a ghost approaches Pacman.
"Shit, shit, shit." Billy mumbles under his breath.
"Oh you're so dead!" Max says, giggling.
"Shut your trap." He responds.
Not surprisingly, the ghosts catches up to him and the game is over.
"Damn it!" He yells. "This game is stupid!"
"It was a nice try." El says.
"Whatever. It's a stupid game." Billy responds, setting the remote controller down on the table.
"Anyone else want to go?" Lucas asks, picking up the remote.
"Give it back to me." Billy says, snatching the remote from his hands.
I begin to giggle as Billy presses the 'start' button again. "Uh oh." I say through laughs. "We've created a monster."

We all continued playing Pacman until the sun went down.
Tyler had already left back to his hotel and Joyce had gotten back from work.
"Yes!" Billy yells. "I did it! I passed the level!" A small grin appears on Billy's face, shocking us all. Nobody would have expected the bad boy to find joy in playing Pacman.
Billy goes to click on the next level before I interupt him. "I think we should get going."
Billy looks at me. "Okay fine. C'mon Max."
"Do I have to?" She asks.
"Susan and dad probably want you home."
She sighs and stands up.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" Billy asked me. Currently, we were laying in his bed.
"I don't know."
He nods his head. "Hopefully it'll be a good day. You'll get your dad back and nobody will get hurt."
I nod my head. "I hope so."
After a few moments of silence, Billy finally spoke again.
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you guys?" He asks.
"I'm sure. I don't want you to get hurt. Plus, you've already had enough interactions with the UpsideDown."
"But I don't want you to get hurt."
I smile and roll over so I'm looking at him. "I'll be fine."