"I'm planning on getting a lot of stuff," Goldie warns as the bell jingles when the door to the store opens. "Don't worry though, I'll help pay."

"Nah, don't worry about it," Billy waves her off, "I stole some cash from my step mom earlier."

"Billy you should return that," she shakes her head disapprovingly. "I really don't mind paying. I don't want you to use money you stole. Plus, Steve gives me money pretty often. So does my mom. In other words, I've got enough."

Billy frowns lightly, knowing her advice to not use the money is probably best.

"Well I've got some of my own money too, so don't worry about it," he states sternly, preventing her from arguing any further.

She quickly grabs a bag of chips, bean dip, twinkies, beef jerky, and chocolate. Billy watches with amusement as she sets the junk food at the counter.

"This isn't it," she stops the cashier from scanning anything. "I just couldn't hold any more things. Give me a sec."

From there she grabs a mini pizza, and a large cherry slushy. Billy walks over, switching her mini pizza for a full sized one, and adding in his own slushy- blueberry.

As soon as the cashier looks up to see Billy, she blushes brightly.

"Billy! Wow, I didn't expect to run into you here," she flirts stupidly.

Goldie almost immediately rolls her eyes, stepping away from the counter and allowing Billy to work his charm while paying. They chat a bit longer than she would like, and she casually sneaks a bag of Twizzlers into her pocket while they aren't paying attention.

"I'll only scan half the items," the cashier giggles.

Billy doesn't argue, only smiles and winks.

As soon as he's done paying, they leave the store and Goldie speaks up.

"Why do you flirt with all these girls? Do you even like any of them?"

Billy glances to her as he climbs into the car, making sure she puts her seatbelt on before he pulls out of the parking lot and onto the deserted high way.

"What does it matter?" He simply responds.

She huffs, "it matters to them! What if you're leading someone on by accident and you hurt them? Don't you care at all about how they feel? I mean does any boy care?"

His eyes widen.

"Is this about you or me?" He questions.

She doesn't answer.

After a few minutes of silence, he decides he doesn't like the idea of her being mad at him. He can't place why. He's never cared what anyone's though before, but for some reason, he cares about how she feels.

"The only women I ever loved was my mother," he speaks softly. "Girls are a waste of my time. They never want anything serious. They pretend they do, but truth is most of them don't know what they want. Same goes for me. I don't know what I want yet. You can't be mad at me for doing something that all high schoolers do- flirt, date, cheat."

She listens carefully to his words, processing them.

"All girls are a waste of your time?" She wonders our loud.

She wonders if Mike feels that way about her.

"Yeah," he nods, before suddenly glancing off in thought. "Well, all of them expect you. A boy who spends time with you knows damn well that it isn't a waste. I would be stupid not to know."

That puts a smile on her face, lighting up her aura almost instantaneously.

It felt nice that she was important to someone who felt like nothing mattered. If she could matter to him, she could matter to anyone.

"Billy can I ask you a favor?" She softly questions.

He glances to her, noticing that she's staring out the window.

"Course," he nods.

She shifts her body to face him as best as she could, the seatbelt pressed against her collarbone a bit uncomfortably.

"Could you stay the night in my house tonight? I know it's stupid, but I don't really like the idea of staying there alone. I just- what if-" she chokes on her words, and Billy refuses to turn to her, scared to see her cry, "what if my dad comes back."

He presses the breaks hard, halting them to a sudden stop.

Goldie is stunned at his actions, even more stunned when he puts the car in park in the middle of the high way and turns to face her.

"That bastard is never coming back," he growls. "I won't ever let him hurt you again, Goldie. I don't care what I have to do to keep you safe. I will do it. So don't fucking cry because I don't like to fucking see it. I don't care how beautiful you are or how everyone talks about you're crying- I never wanna fucking see you cry ever again."

She's appalled at his aggressive affection, unsure of wether to cower at his tone or smile at his warmth.

"Do you promise to always keep me safe?" She suddenly questions.

He stares at her long and hard.

"Yes."

With that, he starts the car back up again and begins to drive.

"And I'm staying at your house tonight," he adds. "I can't just let you eat that entire pizza by yourself."

"Well that's a shame," she snorts.