Not Your Baby ║ Billy Hargrove

Chapter Eighteen

"That was close!" I heard Steve laugh to Nancy as he flung his bat in the air and caught it with the same hand.

"Right?" Nancy sighed with relief as she put a hand on her hip, wiping sweat away on her head with her opposite hand. Jonathan checked on the boys and Eleven as he placed his crowbar back in the car. Dustin was seen laughing with Mike before his eyes caught my terrified stare.

"Uh," Dustin interrupted the ongoing conversation. "guys?" talking turned to murmurs as they all stopped and turned to where Dustin was pointing; directly at Billy and I, a few dozen feet away.

"Oh my god!" Nancy called out as she and Jonathan frantically ran over to the both of us who hadn't moved in minutes, leaving Steve behind with my brother and his friends. "I was going to tell you." She began justifying.

"What the hell was that?" Billy roared, fueled with fear and aggravation.

"I told you it wasn't role play!" Steve called out from the side of the car; Dustin nodding in confirmation.

"That thing almost got us killed! You've got a hell of a lot of explaining as to how you knew it was going to be in this street. What are you, the next generation of creature killers?" Billy threw up his arms in frustration as he shook his head with the fall of his arms. He reached in his back pocket and drew out a single cigarette and a lighter. His fingers trembled as he clicked the lighter several times before a spark formed. I took my first step forward since I fell backward.

"Nancy," I mumbled as I made eye contact with her for the first time. "what is going on?" I forced the words out.

"More like, what is going on between you and the baddie?" Steve scoffed, interrupting Nancy as she was about to explain. Nancy rolled her eyes as her face furrows with irritation. 

"Shut up, Steve!" she screamed as she whipped her head to give him a glare of dissatisfaction. Steve shook his head and raised his hands in the air, mumbling that is wasn't his problem as he took a seat in the trunk of the car with Lucas and Eleven.

Nancy averted her gaze back to me as she placed both hands on my arms. Her warm, sweaty touch brought comfort to my cold, clammy posture.

"Listen," she spoke softly; loud enough for Billy and I to hear. "It's a long story, but Dustin told me he tried to tell you the other day. What he told you was true, okay?"

"Yeah?" Billy took another drag of his cigarette, letting it rest in between his more-stable fingers. "And what was that?" he leaned against the tree next to us for support. Nancy sighed in frustration as she looked at him and then back at me.

"These, Demogorgons." She gave a quick glance at the dead creature in the road. "They are what you've been hearing at night. They're not supposed to be here, and they're the reason why Will is gone. But we can stop them with her." She pointed at Dustin's friend, Eleven. "She's got a weird thing going on that can help stop these Demogorgons from terrorizing us." My emotions got the best of me as I erupted into nervous laughter; noises erupting from my mouth like a fountain. The nervous smile on my face quickly faded as I placed my hand on my head in realization that there were more of these lurking.

"How-," I hesitated. "how long have you been doing this?"

"Only a week or so." Nancy confirmed with Jonathan shaking his head in approval.

"She really wanted to tell you." Jonathan interrupted before catching eyes with Billy and taking a step back.

"Yes!" Nancy threw her hands in the air in front of me; the sudden movement causing me to gasp in fright from my adrenaline still pumping through my veins. "I wanted to tell you so bad. But I didn't want you to be in harms way."

"Well." I sighed, letting out another nervous laugh.

"Yeah..." Nancy looked down and kicked a rock forward with her shoe as she realized the irony in her statement.

"Alright," Billy broke the awkward silence by stepping forward and throwing the butt of his cigarette to the ground before stomping it cold with his Converse. "This has got to be a joke, right?" He walked forward and rested his back against the hood of the Camaro. "Like, some sort of drama project? You, camera boy." He pointed to Jonathan with his camera around his neck. "Are you like, recording this or something for a hidden project?"

"Be thankful you're not dead." Steve approached our conversation, bat still in hand. Billy's posture straightened as he removed himself from the hood and stood up, towering over Steve by a couple inches.

"Yeah, Harringson?" Billy glanced Steve up and down before cracking a slight smile.

"It's Harrington." Steve spat as his knuckles whitened with his forceful grip around the rigged baseball bat. "Nel, what are you doing with him?" Steve broke contact with Billy to look my direction. 

"We went to see-," I began.

"We were on a date. Have an issue? Wanted to join?" Billy cooed up Steve's ear as Steve whipped back to face the curly headed strawberry blonde.

"I'm about to have an issue." Steve drew an inch closer to Billy, their eyes at war with each other.

"Hey," I walked forward and separated the two. "enough okay?" I faced Steve. "Billy and I went to see the Halloween movie, which should be completely insignificant to you as there are much bigger things to deal with right now." I pointed to the dead Demogorgon just a few feet away. "And you," I whipped around in my shoes to face Billy, who immediately gave me those puppy eyes he debuted the first day we met. "stop harassing my friends. You are going to have to learn to deal with Steve." I turned right back to face my childhood best friend. "And you're going to have to deal with Billy." Steve scoffed and turned to walk back to the car as Billy propped himself back on the car.

I turned to Nancy's car where I saw Dustin and his friends in awe that I just broke up what could have been the fight of the school year. I picked up my feet as I walked over to my brother.

"Hey." I exhaled as he nonchalantly hopped out of the passenger seat. I smiled in relief as I pulled him in for a hug, playfully tussling his hair as I pulled him back. "I'm glad you're okay." I hugged him once more.

"Sorry you had to find out this way." Dustin apologized as he fixed his hat from my bear hug.

"I can't believe you weren't joking." I gave a little giggle as I tussled his still-poofed hair once more. Looking over at his friends, I gave a quick wave before crouching down to Dustin's height once more. "So," I began. "if you weren't kidding about this, does this mean that your friend over there can actually move stuff with her mind?" I asked, remembering a conversation he had over his walkie-talkie about his new friend Eleven flipping a car.

"Yeah!" Dustin exclaimed with excitement as he glanced back at the girl with the buzz cut in the back seat.

"I cannot believe I'm not dreaming." I mumbled in complete shock as I stood upright and faced my friends near Billy's Camaro. "Okay," I placed my hands on my hips and looked at the crowd "what do we do now?"