Not Your Baby ║ Billy Hargrove

Chapter Two

I took a deep breath in and took in the smells of our musty, high school. Despite the pungent smell of old sneakers and probably asbestos, I felt like I blended right in. A typical student at school who was in Cheerleading only because of Nancy and was forced to take placement tests because my father graduated cum lade and wanted to "continue the tradition". The one thing I was proud of was my friendships. I had Nancy, my best friend of all time. She and I went all the way back to when we used to have sleepovers in Mrs. Wheeler's basement and used to scare ourselves by putting sheets over ourselves and claiming we were ghosts. I reminisced as I ran my fingers through the closed lockers, slowly getting to number 1183. Oddly excited for the first day of what felt like a good start to the year, I unlocked my locker and began putting my notebooks away. Determined to get the best seat and not have to suffer in the back with the dumb linebackers from the football team, I closed my locker to head to class. As soon as I swung the locker shut, I was met with a curly blonde-headed boy inches from my face.

I gasped, absolutely scared to death, to find that it was that guy from the parking lot! Irritated and quite annoyed, I stared into his blue eyes with angst. His hair was redder up close, with his curls falling inches from his face. He twirled a toothpick around in his mouth as that half smile that I painfully remembered moments ago wiped its way across his face once more. His one hand leaned itself on our crusty, yellow lockers as the other massaged the toothpick into a different direction on his lips as they licked together.

"I never got your name." he spoke with his words that sounded like velvet, passing through his lips into the air with minimal effort. He looked me up and down once more, waiting innocently like a puppy for a treat. I adjusted my backpack on my shoulder and turned my head to the side. I can play this game, too...

"You never asked." I stared past him to the hallway I needed to go to in order to get to my class. I began walking and soon noticed he was walking right next to me. I thought by not giving him what he wanted, he would take the not so subtle hint and walk away. Instead, he was seemingly trying to get closer to me than before.

"By the speed in which you were running away from me, I'd think you'd seen a ghost." His gave a half chuckle before flashing his broad smile to me as we walked through the hallways. As I tried to avoid this boy's complete existence as much as possible, I realized that the entire school body of Hawkins High was staring me down as if I won an award for having this random new guy talk to me. It was as if they were all shocked and disappointed that I was engaging in conversation with him. I looked at him once more as I walked, shaking my head and turning a corner to try and lose him. I knew I had one more hallway left until I was thankfully in class and all of the heads could stop turning.

"Get out of the way, god damn it!" I heard from behind, causing me to swiftly turn around. To my surprise, I think I had in fact lost him. The caveat is that he realized and pummeled a poor freshman to the ground for being in the way of his path to me. With my feet planted in the ground, I took a deep breath in as he approached me with rapid fashion. "You're cute, you know that? Trying to make me lose sight of you." His face was inches from mine. I could smell what seemed to be the combination of cologne and stale cigarettes. Without breaking gaze with him, I continued to stand rigid (despite screaming inside).

"I'm not your babysitter." I spoke just as he did to me, up close and breaking any personal space boundaries possible. "You might think you're 'so cool'," I turned my head to the side "but I don't buy it." I watched as his eyes softened, almost as if he let his guard down. "Better to find someone who will." I let the last few words roll off my tongue with steady intent. Suddenly, those softened eyes turned hard as ice once more as he grinned larger than I knew to be possible. He began to belt out a laugh that was one of pure menace. I quickly looked around me to see that a circle had formed around him and I; everyone eager to see more of this "new guy". The school bell began to ring signaling first period had began. Students began to scatter left and right for class. I adverted my eyes back to the strawberry blonde in front of me. He gingerly slid the toothpick out of his mouth before throwing it to the floor.

"You're cute when you talk back." His face was inches from mine once more. "Billy, by the way." He slid his hands up his jean jacket to give it a good tug, eyed me once more, and began to continue down the hall. I stood, frozen. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I was about to die or what, but my body was filled with so much adrenaline that I physically couldn't move. I felt my heart beating out of my chest. Why would you do that? Who do you think you are! I kept repeating over and over to myself. You don't know him, he could have hurt you! Thoughts of my mother's stranger danger conversations flooded my head as my weak knees struggled to stay upright.

His name was Billy.