Villains ➵ bill skarsgård a.u.

forty two

"She's fucking with us, right?" Dalton chuckles awkwardly, slicing the quiet in half and nudging his brother's elbow to get a reaction. But Dustin didn't respond. In fact, nobody did, staring at the messy boy right next to me who smacked his mouth loudly from the sandwich in his hands like he was a creature of the night. I sighed, placing a hand up to my face and rubbing it in frustration.

"No I am not."

"Guys," Georgie began through a stiff grin, stepping into the scene and breaking the thick tension in the air. "Why don't we let-- Bill enjoy his breakfast . . alone and we can all talk in the living room about this, yeah? C'mon." She suggests, pulling up everyone who was seated from their chairs and nodding in my direction, motioning for me to do the same.

I turned to Bill who didn't know anything else but his sandwich, placing a hand onto his bony elbow. Part of me envied him staying there, unintimidated by the responsibility of having to explain an absurdity to his friends, but I had to. I've been keeping this all on my own for the past two weeks, I'm about to lose my mind trying to think of ways to make it work, and they were the only people who can understand everything, still, something about Dalton's remark made me doubt that idea. "Stay here, I'll be right back, okay?" I tell him. He simply nods without a word, taking the other plate of sandwich in front of me and biting down on it. I got up from my chair against my will, not pulling my eyes off his hunched up figure leaning on the table as I trudged out of the kitchen along with Jumper, the rest of the pack standing around in a circle in front of Georgie's dad's couch, including Arthur.

"Are you even going to bother explaining what the actual fuck is happening?" Dalton started, his voice echoing throughout the entirety of the living room, piercing my eardrums. "Since fucking when are you a homeless shelter?"

"Dalt—" Georgie tried to stop him.

"No, Georgie, I need a fucking reason right now." He continues, eyes widened as he looked straight at me, veins lining the thin skin of his neck. "I didn't say anything when she dragged pretty boy right into this bullshit, but this is just crossing a line. She's holding a knife to her own neck!"

"Dipshit, he's standing right here!" Jumper chastised, pointing to Arthur who only stood by the sidelines with his arms crossed, gnawing on his bottom lip. I wished he just went to school with Romina and he wasn't there to see all of it come down, but it was too late. Whether I liked it or not, he was a part of all of it now.

"He's right, how come we're not informed on any of this?" Dustin barged in, also seeking an answer from me as if there hasn't been a million questions thrown at me already.

I hitched a breath, pushing away all the bees screaming into my head as gazes trained on me from all corners of the room, my skin crawling with anxiety. "Because I knew you'd react like this!" I defended, "I didn't want to say anything just yet because we were already dealing with a lot of things, and I've fucked up enough, okay?!" I don't know what part of me thought Dalton was going to be alright with any of this, or any of them for that matter. Jumper and Georgie's reactions weren't exceptions, I would've thought the same if they were the ones to tell me something along the same lines, but he didn't need to remind me I was holding a knife to my own neck, everything else around me was already a daily reminder. I've wanted to tell them for so long, find some kind of consolation from everything that happened just so I can forget about it, but every day since I got out of the hellhole of being bed bound from my cast, we've been nothing but emotionally and physically exhausted, I didn't want to bring them another baggage to process.

"He comes in here unannounced and you tell us he's a homeless person you found at Hillside Cross Station, and now he's been living with you . . Not to mention, without your family's knowledge! How exactly did you think we would react, Adrianne? This is fucking ridiculous!"