losing him | billy hargrove [#2]

four

"Fear has favourites
Don't let one
be you"

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Mrs Wheeler let me in when I rang the doorbell. She told me she was happy to see me, and I told her the same. After a little small talk, I told her I needed to speak to Mike. She looked a little weird when I said that but told me he and the other's where in the basement. I had calmed myself down from the rage I had yesterday and was ready to talk about Billy again.

When I got downstairs, the boys – except for Dustin – Max and Eleven were all sitting around the small coffee table. The boys gave me a weird look when they saw me, not expecting me to be here. I smiled at Max who was always happy to see me and also Eleven, one of my new favourite girlfriends.

"Nancy is at work," Mike said when he saw me. He probably thought I was looking for her.

"I'm not here for Nancy," I said. I had sort of half-expected Max to fill them in about how she told me and the whereabouts of us and Eleven yesterday.

"I was just about to tell them what happened," Max said as if she could read my mind. The boys looked at us with their brows raised.

"You told her, didn't you?" Mike said to her with his voice raised. I rolled my eyes as I took a seat on one of the empty chairs. He was always getting so defensive, so quick. "You are always so quick to open your mouth and tell the nearest person the truth! Why do you do that?!"

"Mike!" I called out. His head snapped up when he heard me call his name. He looked at me with wide eyes before his eyes darted off to Max again. "She had to, okay."

"What do you mean, she had to?" Lucas repeated my words. I looked at Will to see that he had already figured it out. He had the same scared eyes as the last time I saw him, which was when Billy and Steve fought at his house.

"We think Billy has been flayed," Max said in an almost inaudible voice. The boys all looked at her with confused eyes, waiting for a bigger explanation than just that. "He had bailed on his date with Grace with some lame excuse that didn't add up with his whereabouts. When he didn't come home that night, I called Grace and we went out looking for him. We found him at Heather's house, they work at the pool together."

"Well, I am sorry, Grace, but it seems like your boyfriend is an asshole after all," Mike declared the situation for himself. I rolled my eyes at him.

"No, he isn't, dipshit. He says he didn't cheat, but something did seem fishy. He's acting strange, even with me," I explained the situation further. I know that Billy wasn't the nicest person around – he could be a real class asshole sometimes – but with me he was always the same, nice and caring.

"Who says he isn't just lying to you?" Mike took it further. He really did have a problem with Billy.

"Because I know him. The real him," was all I said. He rolled his eyes and turned around, devoting his attention towards Max again. For someone who was so passionate about wanting to do the right thing, he did always have an opinion ready and going for anyone who told him different.

Max explained further what happened and why we think Billy was the newest victim of the mindplayer. She let out the details about me going off on him when I thought he was cheating for a second, and I was thankful for that. They didn't need to know any of that.

"I say, let's get to the pool and find out if it's him," Lucas said.

"Okay," I agreed with him.

We all huddled up in my car – being short of one seat, which resulted in Max sitting on Lucas' lap – and drove to the pool. Once we got there, it was just as crowded as always, being filled with people that were fighting the warmth. I saw Billy already sitting on the lifeguard chair when I parked the car. He didn't look like he normally did. We all got out and stood next to the fence, where we could see him but he couldn't see us.