Jailbird || Stranger Things

thirteen ➵ merging lines

The headache arrived the day before. A harsh, stabbing kind of ache that made her hide her face each time she winced. Walking through the hallways, she kept her head down and behind the cover of her cap, grateful for the bit of hair that fell around her face.

That morning, however, it had alleviated for some reason. Nevertheless, she found some refuge in it, blasting Black Sabbath's Paranoid as she cruised into the school's parking lot. The heavy bass and drum beats drew some eyes, but she couldn't find it in her to care. She turned the key as the guitar solo finished, cutting off Ozzy Osbourne's vocals before her headache could return. Having pulled into the space beside a familiar Beemer, she got out, looping her arm through her backpack's strap while she closed the door with her boot covered foot. Reaching up, she took the large envelope from her mouth, piling it onto her textbooks and blank sketchbook as she turned to lean against her own car to wait for Steve and Nancy. As the latter got out, she immediately spotted the papers in the girl's hands, and Reese pushed away from her car to read over her shoulder.

"Is that your essay?" she asked, eyes already on the lines as Steve flailed an arm in annoyance.

Teresa was just about to start asking the questions Nancy had already voiced to the senior, when the bustle of the car park was interrupted once again.

The blue Camaro cruised into the parking lot, Teresa watching as it slid across two parking spaces across hers with he papers now loosely only in her hands. The Scorpions' Rock You Like a Hurricane, a song she put on plenty of mixtapes, caught the interest of a lot of the students. She even saw Steve and Nancy watch the car, the California plates sticking out as much as they had on Teresa's own car.

Wasn't this exactly how Steve and Nancy had discussed Teresa's ex to be like when they joked about it on a random summer afternoon?

The track cut off as the passenger door of the Camaro opened. As the girl slammed her skateboard down onto the concrete, she disappeared towards the middle school. It had been the driver everyone at the high school was interested in.

Teresa let out a light sigh of annoyance as Billy Hargrove shut the driver's side door behind him. Dressed head to toe in denim, an unlit cigarette between his lips, she noted that his hair had grown, and she even noticed the slightly darker shadow of facial hair. The smirk he wore when he knew he had eyes on him, however? That was the same.

As was the way his eyes found her immediately.

Billy's smirk stretched wider as he turned to approach Teresa, much to the amazement of Carol, Tina, and Nicole, who watched him leave. Eagerly. Teresa noted in seconds.

"Tessa," he greeted easily, Teresa ignoring as Steve and Nancy shared a look at the unfamiliar nickname.

"Hargrove."

"Got a light?" he asked, the girl keeping his eye contact as she easily pulled out her zippo, brushing the metal against her arm, before she pushed her thumb down to light it. "Nice lighter," he commented.

"Thanks."

Billy pulled one corner of his lips into a small smile, but it wasn't pure and innocent at all. He leaned forward, letting the end of his cigarette hang into the flame until it was lit.

Closing the zippo, Teresa slipped it back into her pocket, lifting an eyebrow impatiently as Billy took a drag from his cigarette.

"Funny running into you here, sweetheart," he drawled, leaning on the familiar Range Rover, ignoring her friends just beside them.

"Yeah, how about that?" she replied, not at all affected like the other girls in the parking lot. She could practically feel all the eyes burning holes into her skin.