CHAPTER NINE
THE FATHER

Jess's Converse-clad feet dangled off of Billy's bed like bait for a fish. After Max had left, the pair had sat in a comfortable silence for about ten minutes. Billy was still working out and Jess had fallen asleep on the sofa. They now moved to the bedroom where they had been talking for the past minute and listening to music.

"So..." Jess clicked her tongue at the stillness of the air surrounding her. It wasn't uncomfortable per se, but what do you talk about after a kiss like that?

"So," Billy took his muscle shirt off and threw it into his hamper. Jess trailed her eyes away and stared intently at the Metallica poster on his wall. Even though they shared an intimate moment earlier, it still felt fresh and seeing Billy without a shirt seemed oddly more intimate than their kiss.

"I gotta be honest, I don't know how to do this." Billy hung his head. Jess laughed at what seemed to be a joke but the boy made it clear that he was dead serious.

"You don't know how to put on a shirt?"

"No, I don't know how to do... this," Billy motioned to the air between him and the girl. Jess still seemed confused and she tilted her head to the side slightly, as if she were a playful puppy.

"I've never kissed anyone and stopped there." Finally understanding what Billy was trying to convey, Jess sat up straighter and tried to suppress the amusement that had built up in her throat.

"You've never had a girlfriend?" Billy shook his head no. Jess cackled, not able to take it any longer. Bad boy Billy Hargrove never had a girlfriend. "That's hard to believe."

"Not when you think about it," Billy shrugged. "I usually just... hump and dump?"

"Oh, God!" Jess fell over and onto the bed, snickering uncontrollably. Billy fisted a shirt in his hands and threw it at the giggling girl.

"This is why I don't tell you things." Billy turned away and searched his closet for a shirt that he'd change into after his shower.

"Aw," Jess cooed. "It's okay my, poor, little Broody-Brood!"

"Shut up," Billy stuffed a cigarette in between his lips. "Imagine your friends hearing you say that."

Jess's grin faded from her face like melting butter. She took a large breath of air and awkwardly fidgeted with the jeans that stuck to her knees.

Billy turned to her, ready to hear her answer, when he noticed that her mood had shifted as quickly as the winds.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jess chuckled lightly and shook her head.

"It's nothing."

"It's obviously something. It was enough to wipe that smile off your face." Billy wasn't looking at her but Jess's cheeks erupted in a firework show of red.

"I just... I don't really have friends. I mean, I have Delilah, but that's it. And don't get me wrong, I love her to no end, but I just kinda wish I had more people to share experiences with." Jess shrugged. "I know, it's stupid."

"Yeah that is." Jess whipped her head up to look at the boy in front of her. She didn't expect him to agree with her. She thought that people were supposed to comfort others when they shared intimate pieces of themselves.

"What?"

"Yeah. That's pretty stupid," Billy stood in front of Jess with his thumbs hooked on his pant loops. "Stupid that you want more people to call friends than just have a few good people to rely on."

"Billy, you can't blame me." Jess stood up abruptly. "I came to this stupid town with nothing. No friends, no job and no recollection of the event that caused me to uproot my life in the first place. It's not like I was slumming with the most popular kids on the first day."

Billy lightly laughed at her statement. He knew she was talking about him.

"Don't laugh at me."

"I'm not. Believe it or not, I'm surprised." Jess raised a brow at this. Billy finally lit his cigarette with a gold-gilded lighter. "You might be more antisocial than me."

"How can you say that? I know people..." Jess scoffed.

"Really? Like who?"

"Pft, some... people?" Jess guffawed and hung her head while she held it with her hand. Maybe Billy was right. Maybe she was antisocial. "I don't know, shut up."

Billy laughed. "I'm just tellin' like it is."

Jess gave a light hearted laugh in return, but behind her crinkled eyes were gears slowly turning like an old clock that has been fixed.

Billy's words rang in her head as he grabbed his clothes and left for the shower. Sitting alone with her thoughts, Jess laid back onto the bed, careful not to get her shoes on his covers.

She always thought that she was an outgoing person. At least, right before her accident. She suddenly became distant, only allowing certain people to talk to her. Or rather, only talking to certain people. A sudden feeling that everyone was out to get her only settled into her mindset when she came to Hawkins. Before, she knew everybody, and everybody knew her.

Maybe the reason she hates everybody is because she thinks everybody hates her.

No, Jess thought. I only hate people 'cause people suck.

But not everybody sucks. Delilah and Billy are proof of that. Jess supposed she could use a little loosening up. But how did Billy make friends so fast?

He didn't make friends that count, Jess figured. They both were victims of loneliness, just in different ways.

The shower had turned off and Billy came back with jeans and a button-up maroon shirt on. The buttons were undone until the last two at the bottom which were tucked in under his jeans that were held by a belt with a large buckle.

"Aren't you gonna be cold?" Jess pointed to his exposed chest. "This isn't California. It's not seventy-five degree weather."

"First off, California can get cold in the winter. And secondly, I'm used to wearing my button-ups like this."

"Are you sure that's a button-up?" Jess got up and pulled the fabric together to close over his chest. "Looks more like a button-down."

Billy gave her a hearty laugh and opened his shirt again. He grabbed a bottle of cologne and sprayed some on his exposed chest, then setting it back down on his vanity.

"Back to what I was saying before..." Billy cleared his throat. "I don't really know how to do the whole... dating scene. Sorry if I mix it up."

"Oh, so we're dating now?" Jess teased. Billy suddenly went back to be stoic and unreadable.

"No, that's not what I meant. Keep dreamin'." Billy turned around and flapped up his shirt collar, ogling himself in front of the mirror.

"Billy," Jess walked slowly up to him, as if not to startle him. Carefully placing a hand on his shoulder, Jess comfortingly rubbed it, smirking at how stupid Billy could be sometimes. His arm relaxed at her words. "Stop trying to 'cover your tracks'. We kissed. That's done. We're not acquainted anymore."

"This is just so stupid," Billy threw his cigarette box down. "You'd think I'd know how to act."

Jess laughed freely. It sounded like tinkling bells ringing in the wind. "Same."

It was quiet for a minute as Jess quietly wandered around the room, looking at the posters on Billy's wall. She had seen them a million times but with awkward silences like these it's hard to not look at something else.

"What do people do on a first date?" Billy asked her, shoving his wallet into his pocket

"I dunno, I've never had a first date before."

"No kiddin'," Billy smirked at her. This was both new to them and it comforted Billy to know that what he felt, she felt too.

"Do you wanna eat something?" Billy asked after a while. Jess nodded eagerly.

"Please, I'm starving!"

"Do you have a place in mind? I dunno this town." Jess shrugged and gave him an open-minded look.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"How about we drive around until we see something?" Billy grabbed a leather jacket from his closet and started to put it on.

"Sounds good- "

Jess was cut off by someone opening the back door and stepping in. Fear struck Billy's eyes as the sound of footsteps walked through the house.

"Hey guys, we're home!" A woman's voice came from the kitchen. There wasn't anything significant about her voice to make anyone afraid but apparently Billy was not fond of it, especially not the other voice. "Guys? Hello? Max?"

"Shit," Billy whispered and brought a hand up to cover his face.

"What? What's wrong?" The brunette leaned over to Billy and tried to touch his hand so that he'd know she was in front of him.

"Jess, you gotta leave now."

"What?" The sudden change in demeanor made Jess tremble with fear. Billy wouldn't just bail on her now, not when they have been talking for the past few hours. Why would she leave? What made Billy so frightened that he had asked her to get away?

A knock came through the door, through the music and to the pair's ears. Billy gulped and started to usher Jess to his window.

"Billy?" The feminine voice called.

"Yeah, I'm a little bit busy here, Susan!" Billy tried to stall for more time as Jess gripped the window pane with an iron grasp.

"Billy, I'm not leaving you," Jess whispered to him. He shook his head violently.

"I'm not gonna have you where while- "

"Open the door. Right now." A dominant, male voice rattled the flimsy wooden door and Billy's hands shook. They vibrated on Jess's stomach and she knew that whatever was about to happen, she wouldn't like very much.

Jess crawled away from the window and back onto the hardwood floor. Billy slowly opened the door to come face-to-face with his legal guardians.

The man that stared straight back at the dirty-blond looked a bit like Billy if he were twenty years older. There was a mean, angry aura surrounding this man. There was so much hate, so much violence pent up in the man that Jess could practically see it gushing out.

The man looked straight at her. He had a knowing look in his eye and suddenly Jess felt dirty. She crossed her arms and looked down to avoid eye contact.

"What's wrong?" Billy asked his father.

"Why don't you tell us?" Billy still had no clue what was going on though he knew that it had to do with Max. That kid was always getting him in trouble.

"Because I don't know," Billy talked back.

"We can't find Maxine- " Susan's frail voice finally chimed in.

"- and her window's open." Billy's father finished.

Suddenly, Billy tensed. He looked away from his father and silently cursed at Max.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know." Billy tried his best to be sincere. His father hated liars, and he knew what he did to liars.

"You don't know?" The father scoffed in his son's face. It was the type of scoff that lets you know that they were not buying what you were trying to sell. A dark look flashed across his face as Billy stepped back.

"Look, I'm sure she just, I don't know, went to the arcade or something," Billy walked away from his father to straighten his jacket. He grabbed Jess's arms and moved her further away from the man outside his room.

"You were supposed to watch her."

Jess watched Billy's father groom his mustache as he sauntered into the room, taking control of everything in there. Billy's back was facing him, unknowing.

"I know, Dad, I was. It's just, you guys are three hours late and, well, I have plans. I'm sorry, okay?" Billy fixed his sleeves and looked his father in the eye.

The man looked at Jess who was silently trembling in the corner, not wanting to say anything that would set him off. Billy's dad smirked at her, knowing what plans his son had.

"So that's why you've been staring at yourself in the mirror like some faggot instead of watching your sister?" Jess's back straightened this. She felt her fear dripping away and something else hardening around her. Anger settled into her heart and she so badly wanted to reach out and strangle the man.

"I have been looking after her all week, Dad, okay?" Billy raised his voice and his father flexed his arms that were crossed as a sign of warning. "If she wants to run off, that's her problem, alright? She's thirteen years old, she shouldn't need a full-time babysitter."

Billy reached for the radio that had been playing music quietly and turned it off. "She's not my sister!"

For a moment, everything was still. No one moved, no one breathed. It was calm, but a dangerous energy had been building up under the father's exterior.

"Susan," he called for his wife. "Take this girl and get out of the room."

"Yes, Neil," Susan quickly grabbed Jess and yanked her towards the door.

"No! Let go of me!" Jess twisted her wrist and popped out of Susan's grasp. "Billy!"

The boy ignored her as he stared at his father. He knew what was going to come and felt grateful that his father had spared Jess the horror that was about to ensue.

"Come on, darling," Susan gripped the brunette but the shoulders and dragged her out of the room. Jess gripped the doorframe and tried to claw her way back into the room, but Susan placed her behind her tall frame, blocking her from Billy's sight, then shut the door.

The tall redhead held Jess in a vice grip. It felt like a straight jacket tightening around her torso, pinning her arms against her side as she was unable to escape.

The sounds of skin striking skin made Jess want to cry. She kicked Susan in the shins to let her go, but she only dropped Jess on the floor in response, careful not to hurt her.

Muffled sounds of yelling, punching, and things colliding with other items all traveled to Jess's tortured ears. Neil had the last word before the door opened again.

Jess stood up, now free of Susan's grip, and glared at Neil. He walked by her, keeping eye contact the whole time. When he got shoulder-to-shoulder with her, Jess summoned up all of the saliva in her mouth and spat in his face.

Wiping it away with his hand, Neil didn't do anything except walk away. Once he and his submissive wife were gone from sight, Jess opened the door quickly to find Billy on the floor with his head in his hands.

"Billy," Jess breathed as she crossed the room and fell to her knees, gripping the boy's jacket and pulling him to her. "I'm so sorry."

Billy didn't say anything as he gripped Jess's hand so tight that she thought he might've broken a few bones. He heaved, still hanging his head.

"Don't..." Billy looked up at her and she finally saw what Neil had done. A big, red, fist mark on his cheek. "Don't tell anyone."

"What?" Jess stuttered over her words, appalled by what Billy had said. "B-But we have to! The police will- "

Billy chuckled dryly. "The police won't do anything. Jess, think about it. My dad looks like the typical, square dad. I look like a delinquent, you said it yourself, and you're an attempted-murderess. Just think about who the police are going to trust."

Jess's mouth hung open. She tried to sputter our words, but she knew he was right. No one would believe them. Not even the police.

"I gotta go find my sister before my dad strikes again," Billy grunted as he stood up. Jess followed him up, gripping his arms tightly.

"I'll go with you." Billy gave her a funny look as he stepped over broken items that his dad had thrown in a fit of rage.

"Why?"

"Because..." Jess didn't want to tell Billy that she felt partly responsible. He'd hate her since she had let Max go and promised not to tell. It was all her fault and now Billy had paid for it. "Because I want to be with you."

Billy gave her a small smile and gripped her hand in his. He started to walk out of his room quickly, making Jess jog behind him to keep up. They passed through the living and out the front door where Billy had parked his car.

When they got in, they both took a breath. They looked at each other, both not knowing what to do.

"Where are we going first?"

-

[SEMI-EDITED]

a/n happy death day to billy!! also, new cover alert! what do you guys think?