losing him | billy hargrove [#2]

two

"Silence
Hurts more
Than truth"

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The next morning, I drove over to the Hawkins Community pool as soon as I had breakfast and gotten ready. I needed to talk to Billy and I knew he wasn't going to tell me truth unless I would stand right in front of him, so that's what I did. I hadn't even brought my bathing suit, not planning on staying and sunbathing again.

The pool was already littered with people when I got there. Kids were everywhere, dying to get into the water. I pushed through the people to get to the dressing rooms. He must be here already since his shift always started at twelve and it was already eleven forty-five. When I finally got through the mass of people, I saw Heather standing.

"Heather!" I called for her. She turned around and smiled at me.

"Hey, Grace. He just got here, he's out back," she said, already knowing that I was looking for Billy.

"Thanks," I quickly said to her. I walked through the gates that were right next to the dressing rooms. Pool visitors weren't supposed to come here, but since Billy worked here no one minded me going anywhere where he went.

I walked through the hallway, looking in every room I came across to find him. He was in the last one, his back facing me. I stepped in and silently waited for second behind him. Something was off, he looked different just standing there. He was never one to hide.

"Billy?" I called. He didn't respond and I scoffed. Now I was beginning to lose my patience. "You don't actually believe that I took your lame excuse from last night, did you? Gosh, you are acting just like a few months ago. What happened?"

No response.

"Seriously?! You're just going to ignore me like that?" I tried again. But nothing was happening. "Alright, fine. You can come to me when you are ready to talk, but don't underestimate me when I say that I am not going through this shit again, okay?"

"You don't understand," he said in a low voice. He turned around and walked past me, not giving me enough time to actually look at his face. I tried to grab his arm, but he was too quick for me.

I sighed and walked after him out to the pool again. When I looked at him from the other side, he was sitting on his lifeguard chair like nothing happened. He looked tired and maybe even a little sick, but I chose to let it go for now. Pushing him was never going to get me anywhere.

I told Heather to let me know if something happened with him and left. I drove to Starcourt, deciding that visiting Steve and rant a little to him about what happened might help me lose some anger. While driving I focused on the road and calmed down a little bit. Once I got to Starcourt and parked my car – which took ages because there was no parking spot since everyone was here of course.

The inside of the mall was just as crowded as the parking lot told me it would be. It seemed as people just lived here now and never wanted to leave. I took the escalator upstairs and walked over to the Scoops Ahoy – the ice cream parlor. Steve wasn't standing behind the counter, Robin was working now. When she saw me, she gave me a small smile.

"Hello again, preppy," she said. I couldn't tell if Robin liked me or not. She never specifically told me she didn't but then again, she called me preppy all the time. Steve said that when she gave you a nickname you were in the clear, but I didn't know if that was actually the same with me.

"Hi, is Steve around?" I asked. She rolled her eyes and turned around, knocking on the sliding window twice. Just a second later, it opened and revealed Steve in his blue uniform.