𝖊𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙.

"Dₒₙ'ₜ ₜₑₗₗ ₗᵢₑₛ ᵢₙ ₕₑₐᵥₑₙ ₒᵣ ₐₙ ₐₙgₑₗ wᵢₗₗ gₑₜ ₘₑₐₙ"
— ³⁶⁵ ᵈᵃʸˢ ᵇʸ ᶻᶻ ʷᵃʳᵈ

• • •

The brunette girl walked down her stairs with a box of items in her hand. A dead look in her eyes as she had made it to the bottom of the stairs. Her father had come into view when he saw the girl, he raised an eyebrow at her. Unsure of what she was doing with a box of random things.

"Josie, what are you doing?" He asked which had caught her attention. She plastered a smile on her face as she turned to look at the man.

"I'm just going to burn a few old things, Daddy." She smiled, using her fake charm as her father's face relaxed slightly. He was still a little confused as to why she was doing that but he didn't want to question her further.

"I just figured it was the best time to do it. Before the new school year starts and all." Josie explained more.

"Well, you have fun with that. Also, is there a chance you can pick Sidney up from the Riley's house once you're done... burning things. I was going to go to bed early because I have some business down at the office in the morning." He asked his eldest daughter and she nodded.

"Sure thing." The girl had grabbed her keys off the table and bag to throw into the box as she made her way out the door. Her father shook his head at her new cheery mood, before he headed up the stairs to his room. Josie watched his bedroom light turn off from the driveway as she sat in her car. She had started the car and began to drive away. But her first stop wasn't to the Riley's household for her sister. Josie had parked a few houses down from the Loomis residence as she had taken the box out of the backseat of her car. Then she walked to the trunk, taking out the small tank of the gasoline her dad had in the shed for the lawnmower.

While the girl had been pouring out the contents of the box onto the sidewalk in front of the house, Billy and Stu were inside Billy's room. The two had just had a smoke session as a present for Billy's birthday. Then they began to talk about some of their ideas. Eventually the two boys had gotten onto the topic of sweet little Josie. But speak of the devil and they shall appear. Billy had first heard the commotion outside but he didn't think much of it until Stu had peered outside the window. He had seen the girl pouring the can of gasoline onto a pile of things as his mouth formed into an 'O'. Billy watched his friend in confusion as Stu put his hand to his mouth.

"Billy. You might want to take a look at this." Stu trailed off as he watched the small flame of a match ignite. Billy made his way over, he peered his head out the window to see the girl standing there. In the streetlight and the small flame light, he saw the smirk on her face.

"Happy Birthday, Billy Boy." She called out as she threw the match onto the pile of his belongings and a few pictures of them. Stu tried to cover his laugh as he watched Billy have a wave of different emotions flood across his face. The Prescott girl was quick to raise her middle finger up to him as she began to walk away, not setting her finger down until she got out of view. The boy looked on at the fire pile in front of his house before a smirk fell onto his lips.

"Billy, aren't we supposed to be mad?" Stu asked, a bit confused.

"No."

"What do you mean?" Stu looked completely lost.

"She still cares." Billy continued to smirk.
"I'm not following." Stu raised his pointer finger up slightly.

"If she didn't care she wouldn't have done that. Especially on my birthday." Billy said as Stu nodded, slowly getting what his friend was saying.

"Now go get the fire extinguisher so we can put out the flames." Billy nudged Stu who had quickly rushed out of the room. Billy stared down at the fire a bit longer as he began to think about Josie. He could promise that this school year would be different from the other ones. Senior year was going to go out with a bang.

While Josie had finally made it to the Riley household, she had honked the horn for Sidney to know she was there. Her sister had waved to Tatum who stood in the doorway then Sidney made her way to the car. She had gotten in and buckled herself with a sad smile. As Josie began to drive them home she peered over at Sidney to see her looking out the window. She raised her eyebrow in questioning and debated if she was going to say anything or not. Was it her business? No. Did she need some sort of entertainment during their silent car ride since the radio stations weren't picking up in the car at that moment.

"What's up, Buttercup?" Josie piped up as Sidney had looked over at her older sister who kept her eyes on the road.

"It's nothing." Sidney brushed it off.

"Clearly it's not nothing since your sadness is drowning us in here right now." Josie said.

"Billy and I broke up." Sidney told her as Josie peered over at the girl.

"What? Really?" Josie questioned.

"Yeah. I feel like we were just drifting apart. It was bound to happen. But I wish it didn't drag out as long as it did. A part of me felt like he was just with me because of what happened to mom. Like maybe he didn't want to seem like a jerk breaking up with me after she died." Sidney began to go on.

"I feel like you two won't be broken up for long. It's probably just one of those random phases." Josie tried to throw a random thing out there.

"Josie. I see the way he looks at you." Sidney said as Josie gave her a confused look.

"He never looked at me like the way he does with you. And when you weren't talking with him he was always in such a bitter or upset mood. I'm not dumb. I see these things." Sidney told her. Josie felt like that 'dumb' part was a bit debatable. But that was probably something the sister's both shared. Afterall, they were both seeing the same guy at the same time. And Sidney was still very much in the dark with that piece of information.

"Sid. He was my best friend. Maybe you were just reading too far into things." Josie shrugged her shoulders.

"Josie, you have feelings for Billy." Sidney tried to state as the girl quickly looked over at her younger sister.

"I do not." Josie lied.

"I won't be mad. I should have noticed it sooner." Sidney admitted.

"I do not have feelings for Billy. And I don't plan on even starting something with him. I'm actually already seeing someone." Josie continued to lie as Sidney looked at her in shock.

"You are?" She asked.

"Yeah. We didn't want to officially put it out there until the first day of school." Josie told her sister as she kept her focus back on the road. Josie wasn't fully committed to this mysterious person. But she had the perfect person in mind who would stir the pot. So once she got home she knew who she had to make a phone call to. He was collateral damage she was fine with putting into the line of fire. If people could look into Josie's mind, they would question what happened to her. But in reality, this version of herself was deep inside her. Billy Loomis was just the one to light the candle to awaken the beast beneath.

𝖊𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙.
ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛ ʙᴜᴛ ᴘꜱʏᴄʜᴏ

*note: most of the songs I use at the beginning of each chapter are from the Spotify playlist I included at the beginning of the story so if you haven't, I suggest to check it out :)) *