Just a friend (Billy Hargrove)

Chapter Nine

Aleah Johnson

"I can't ride a skateboard for shit Max" I state as she pushes her board towards me with her shoe.

"Just try it Leah, you never know, you could be better at it than me" She says and the smile on her face causes me to pull the board under me.

Twenty minutes later I've got mild cuts and bruises on my legs due to the numerous times I hit into the curb and fell over. The pain was worth it because I actually learnt how to ride the skateboard down the street with my body balanced right. I've been hanging out with Max all afternoon because Billy was apparently sick, I didn't mind skating around the street with her, I just found it weird because Billy would've called me to tell me he was unwell.

But I didn't question it and still hung out with Max. While she's cruising down the sidewalk on her board for what feels like the hundreth time, Susan pops out of the front door and tells her to go inside because it's getting dark.

"Sorry we'd invite you inside for dinner but it's probably not a good time" Max says, her eyes scanning the front of the house cautiously before she turns back to me.

"Billy's not sick is he?" I question her, and she looks down at her board before she nods silently.

"Neil was mad at Billy for not cleaning the garage the way he likes it so he started beating him" Max mumbles and I sigh heavily.

"When was this?" I ask her.

"Last night, after my mum and him came back from dinner" She says and after we hear the sound of Neil's voice talking to Susan, she sighs heavily.

"Sorry I should go, see you around" Max says as she smiles at me before she picks up her board and carries it with one arm while she walks up to her house.

I wouldn't be able to call his house, I'm confident Billy wouldn't answer and I didn't want him to get in more trouble with his dad. I definitely wasn't going to go up to the house and try to see him, I know for a fact his dad will turn me away and give me a shitty excuse about Billy being sick. So I decided that I would wait until they finished dinner and sneak into Billy's room through his window.

While I made my way home to kill some time, I reflected on the past times Billy would show up to my house with random bruises. Early in our friendship when I would spot the bruises on his wrists or his arms, he would try to cover them up by saying he got them at training. And easily enough, I bought his excuses until the bruises started to escalate.

They started showing up on him more frequently and slowly started to appear in more obvious places. One day he'd show up to school wearing shades all day because he had a black eye, and the next week he'd be clutching his side everytime he'd laugh because his ribs were sore. Eventually I caught on that he wasn't getting actually getting the bruises from his training, or any of the other excuses he fed me, and I confronted him about it one night.

He resisted from telling me the truth for a while but he finally told me about everything when he showed up to my house with a bloody and bruised face. He was a sobbing mess when he was telling me about how his dad is an asshole and about how he beats him for stupid reasons, sometimes he does it to get a kick. It made my heart ache seeing the pain in his teary eyes while he exposed his dad's harrowing abuse.

I've told him numerous times that he should report his dad and try to get some help, but he didn't see the point. He didn't want to rat on his dad and get in more trouble if his plan went to shit, so he's just soldiered through the abuse and continues to live his life the way it is.

Once I got home I couldn't sit around. I paced back and forth in my room while I constantly checked the time. I've snuck into Billy's room heaps of times, but under different circumstances. It's usually when I just get bored at being home by myself and want some company. But knowing that Billy is going to be in a bad condition when I see him only makes me more nervous, but I had to see him regardless.