Chapter Text
“Me and Susan will be going to Indianapolis for the next two weeks. I expect that you keep this house spotless and that you watch over Maxine. I don’t want to hear any complaining from you, or anything from Maxine saying that you ignored her.”
Billy wasn’t anybody’s chauffeur, but at the prospect of not having to deal with Neil’s bullshit for two whole weeks, he’d drive the entire nerd squad wherever they pleased.
“Yes sir.”
Neil stepped closer to Billy, looming over him. “And I don’t want you bringing anybody back to the house.”
“Yes sir.” It wasn’t like Billy had made any friends since living in Cali or Colorado, nor did he put in the effort to make any since moving to Hawkins. So he most definitely wouldn’t risk bringing any of his classmates or any of the others on the basketball team back home on the off chance Neil found out.
The silence after Billy responded was only seconds, but felt like hours. Neil finally backed down and started for the door with Susan.
“We’ll see you in two weeks.” and with that, he and Susan grabbed their luggage and left.
Billy watched as the two drove off. Now it was just him and Max. He walked straight to his room, closed the door, and blasted music as loud as he could. Neil wasn’t here to object to the Twisted Sister that was playing loud enough to be heard from the next house over. Billy was going to enjoy these next two weeks of freedom.
- - -
He slept in until ten that morning. Once he got up, Billy went to make breakfast for Max and himself. He got started on making waffles and listened to the quiet sounds Max watching TV in the living room. She must’ve walked in at some point, because there she was, sitting on one of the kitchen counters.
“Outta the way, shitbird. You're blocking the silverware drawer.” Max sat there for a few more seconds, smirking, and finally relocated to the kitchen table.
“You’re such a joy to be around in the mornings, Billy.”
“Oh, how you wound me with your words, Maxine.” he deadpanned, bringing in two plates of waffles for him and Max. They both ate in silence, the only noise in the house coming from He-Man playing from the living room.
“After we eat, could you drive me up to the arcade?” Max asked, a mouth full of waffle. ”The rest of the party was planning to meet there today.”
Not wanting to listen to Max whine, he responded “Fine. Be ready in an hour and I'll drive you up.”
Max just looked at him. “Really? No objections? No insults about my friends or anything?”
“Would you like me to insult them? I really wouldn’t mind doing so-”
“Nope I’m good, forget i said anything.” Max got up, put her dishes in the sink, and left for her room. Billy went and did the dishes, leaving the kitchen spotless. When he finished, he went to his room to get ready. He took a considerably longer time getting ready that morning because who could stop him? Neil was gone for the next two weeks, and screw it, Max would get to the arcade sooner or later.
“Billy, hurry up! We’re going to be late!” Max shouted from outside the door.
“You’ll be there soon,” Billy was looking in the mirror, trying to get the curl in his face to look just right. “Nobody’s gonna care if you’re there a couple minutes late or not.” He finally decided his hair looked good and left the bathroom. Max grabbed her stuff and walked out to the Camaro while Billy locked up the house.
Billy lit a cigarette and blasted one of his Metallica cassette tapes as he pulled out of Cherry Lane. “How long you gonna be out for?” No response. He looks over to Max. “Maxine, this does require an answer. It’s not an optional question. Capiche?”
Max looked a bit nervous, opening and closing her mouth like she couldn’t form any words. “No, yeah I get it. For sure. I was just wondering if, yunno… ifyoucouldstayandhangoutatthearcadewithus? ”
Billy couldn’t even understand what she said for a moment. Not until he really thought hard about what she said. “Huh? Maxine, your friends hate my guts, the fuck are on about?” Billy was just confused. Since when has Max ever willingly hung out with him?
“I mean, you’ve left us alone for the last couple months, and I thought maybe that you could try and get on their good sides. Maybe try apologizing to them?”
I need to apologize to them. “...Fine.” Billy finally responded. Max looked sullen for a second, then instantly bewildered the next.
“Wait, for real?” Did Max just expect Billy to blow up at her for asking? No shit she did, Sherlock. Did the mystery syringe at the Byers’ leave you with brain damage too?
“I’ll go. But what do you want me to do? I don’t think your friends would exactly appreciate me looming around the whole time.” Max didn’t really think this part out, just that maybe it would be good for Billy to come apologize.
“Umm… I think Steve is going to be there. You could probably hang out with him.” Harrington is his only option. Steve “Billy Hargrove smashed a plate into my head” Harrington. Shit.
Billy knows he doesn’t really have a say in what he’s going to be doing this afternoon, but can’t help pointing out the elephant in the room. “I’m not exactly in his good books either, Max.” Somehow, Max must’ve forgotten about Billy beating the shit out of Harrington, but she’s not letting this derail her plans.
“You can just apologize to him too. Plus, Steve needs more friends his age, and this rivalry you two have going on is dumb as hell.” Both of those were pretty fair points, but it didn’t make becoming Harrington’s friend an easier task. “You guys both play basketball, maybe talk about basketball or some shit, I don’t know.”
“I’ll figure something out, Max. Don’t worry about it.” Billy sees his interaction with Harrington going two ways: either it’ll be ok, or it’ll turn into an absolute shit storm… he’s hoping to avoid the latter.
Why couldn’t Billy have stayed in San Diego? He would’ve even settled for staying in Denver. Even with all the Grabber shit that happened while he lived there, at least he had a group of friends. Friends that knew what he went through. Friends he could confide in. In Hawkins, all the “friends” he has are just tokens of his social status. Billy hasn’t seen his real friends in three years between moving back to Cali and then to Hawkins. If only he could’ve stayed.
- - -
Billy put out his cigarette as they finally pulled into the parking lot of The Palace. They parked and walked to the arcade, Max running further ahead towards her friends waiting outside. It looked like all of her friends were there; Curley, Wheeler’s brother, little Byers, the Sinclair kid, and Harrington.
Curley looked at Max and waved. “Hey Max! I’m going to absolutely beat your score in Dig-Dug toda-y.” His voice faltered when he saw Billy walking towards them. Curley tried, keyword, tried , to subtly ask Max “What the hell is he doing here?”
“Billy just wanted to say something to you guys.” Shit , Billy thought. Thanks for putting me in the spotlight there, Maxine .
He cleared his throat. “Uhm… yeah. I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you all, I was being a total dickhead, and the way I handled that night at the Byers’ wasn’t… good. I’m sorry.” Wow Billy, what a thoughtful and thorough apology you gave there, genius.
There was an awkward silence surrounding all of them for a moment. Curley and Wheeler’s brother looked like they wanted to say something, but they never did. They all stayed quiet until Max decided that this situation was too awkward to continue. “Dustin, the day you beat my score is the day pigs fly,” she taunted as she ran inside the store.
“Oh you’re on, Mayfield!” Curley ran into the store, closely followed by Wheeler, Byers, and Sinclair. Leaving only him and Harrington outside.
- - -
Now it was just him and Hargrove. Neither of them had really talked to each other since November. The silence from before returned and remained for a moment before Billy spoke up.
“Harrington, I really do regret how I handled that night at the Byers. I shouldn’t have gone from one to ten so quickly, but you have to realize how everything looked from my point of view.”
It was that moment when Steve really tried looking at that night from Billy’s point of view. Thinking about it, he realized how weird that situation would look from an outside point of view. The Hargoves had barely been there for two or three weeks, and Billy had found his sister in a random old house in the middle of nowhere filled with random drugs, creepy drawings cluttering the walls, and several boys and an older dude that he went to school with. That actually does seem sketchy as hell from an outside point of view. Along with that, Billy probably never found out what was even going on that night after he got knocked out.
“No I understand, thinking about it now, it did seem like a pretty sketchy situation to find your sister in.” Steve took a beat to think of an explanation for that night, but couldn’t think of anything that good. “The kids were planning this D&D campaign and Max said she’d tag along that night, I didn’t think she was sneaking out or anything. And about the syringes… they were for Will Byers. He was pretty sick at that point, and that was his medication.”
Billy furrowed his brows for a moment. If he didn’t believe Steve’s half-assed explanation, he didn’t bring it up. “We should head inside. Maxine’s probably wondering where we are.” He stepped into the arcade, Steve following right behind him.
- - -
Billy hadn’t been into the arcade in Hawkins before. As he stepped in, he noticed it was mostly filled with coin-op games. Steve walked up beside him as he looked around. “The kids have dragged me in here a couple of times, but I’m not very good at any of the games here other than Pac-Man. I always end up losing money here.” Billy strolled around to see if there was anything worth doing other than standing around and watching Max and her friends.
“I haven’t been to an arcade in ages, Harrington. Let’s hope that the one here can compare to any of the ones back home.” Steve and him walked around for a little bit, making small talk about school and comments about the games there they thought were dumb or too hard to play. It didn’t take long for them to walk around the entire arcade and make it back near to where they started. This time around, something caught Billy’s eye. Fuck yes , he thought.
Steve noticed that he had stopped and looked to where he was facing. “You any good at pinball?”
“Watch and learn, Harrington. Just watch and learn.” And with that, Billy pulled out a quarter and walked over to the machine.
- - -
“Holy shit dude, how are you so good at pinball?” Steve at this point is fully invested in Billy’s pinball streak. “You probably beat the high score by a long shot at this point!” And Billy wasn’t planning on stopping anytime soon.
“98,000 is easy, you haven’t seen anything yet” Billy should’ve come here sooner, he hasn’t been able to play pinball in years. He put his full focus into the game, trying to beat his high score from back in Denver. He had made it to 10,000 points when he heard a voice, one that took him straight back to being 13 again. Billy went completely still. Holy fuck.
“Damn, now I owe Griffin 20 bucks.”