Chapter Text
~🌊~
Billy finds himself drifting through the motions; a never ceasing flow through this new life he's had to build for himself so far from home. It's a too-small-town in a too-boring-state, filling him with dread more often than not. Every corner he turns is another sleepy abode just passing the time; not really existing — stationary. He pays no notice to this form of existence, and he even finds himself concurrent to the never-ending cog of life here in Hawkins.
And then he finds Eddie.
Eddie, who reeks of cigarettes and stale ash and raw buds of weed, who never seems to care what anyone has to say, who reflects promises of something you never expected. It's no wonder he fell into the man so quickly.
Because that's what he is. A man; dredging through the despondencies of a second senior year. Just floating through the motions of some government requirement; an idea more than a member of the social workings of Hawkins High.
And he's the first person that actually feels like a friend in this hell-hole; the first one that sticks.
Eddie Munson, aptly nicknamed ‘The Freak’, appeared to him in what still feels more like a fever dream than reality, all loud twitches of limbs and words that tend to sting. He floats along through the halls, mirroring the smoke consistently pouring from his mouth; an echo of a person, however outlined by bouts of insanity and philosophical thought. Billy knows that if this were even one century ago, Eddie would be thriving in the throes of a greater creativity; many an artist had some sort of sponsor for their own creations. There's no doubt in his mind Eddie would have had the same.
None of this manages to push Billy away; not as everything that Eddie shows him draws him nearer still.
While most of Hawkins had — until then — treated him as either a living skin mag or something not to be trifled with, Eddie was the first person to talk to him.
They don't have much in common, at least on the surface, but Billy finds himself pulled into the man constantly and consistently, and no attempts as to finding out why have been successful as of yet; that's not for lack of trying.
Make no mistake. Billy remains quite aware of how the two differ, as well as how they appear to be so very similar. Most everything about the two seems to parallel, contradicting while also complimenting.
Eddie is messy where Billy is clean, loud and expressive where Billy maintains an air of nonchalance unless provoked. They both omit a certain mysteriousness, Eddie because of his little drug trade and Billy…
Well, let's just say that moving to a school full of rich assholes tends to keep you tight lipped.
Make no mistake; Billy has heard the rumours (‘fag’, ‘queer’, ‘pussyboy’), but he's far more inclined to find that out for himself rather than listen to the people of this hell town; and oh — an enuciation of his thought on the matter — how he would like to find out.
And who is he to judge? Cali was good for a lot more than drugs and crime and sun. Having his fair share of fucking around with guys was more of a given than anything. He had been called ‘pretty’ since he was old enough to know what cigs to buy his dad and which ones would get him covered in bruises and welts that would last well through the month.
Older men knew how to pay him enough, and he had to have some way to keep food on the table lest his father actually become sober enough to realise his stomach was empty and beat him again.
That was all before he had met Susan and cleaned up his act. That was before moving to Hawkins.
And, yeah, some of it wasn’t just from needing money too bad to refuse. His best friend was as pretty as all those men claimed he was, and they had more than one drunken night of being in the other’s bed. His dad had obviously suspected something, but he had brought home enough girls for the man not to say anything.
So, yeah, Eddie being gay — that is, if he even is — is the least of his problems. He doesn’t want to be friends with any of these rich, lame-ass wannabes, anyway.
That doesn’t stop bitchy little Tommy Hagan from attaching to his side like a tick. The boy is pretty and smarter in ways people don’t give him credit for, so he lets him stay, even if it drives Eddie away during school hours. However, Tommy being pretty eventually isn’t enough when the guy starts spouting some homophobic bullshit. He drops him as fast as possible, but not before Tommy warns him about Steve ‘The King’ Harrington.
He asks Eddie about Harrington one day in their little spot during their lunch period.
Eddie had screwed his face in a way that made his freckles pop out even more. “I don’t fuck with Steve,” he had said through a drag of his cig. “He’s pretty and all — could give you a run for your money — but he’s kind of dumb and was never interested in buying.”
Billy doubts that the ‘King Steve’ is dumb. Most people are very smart, just in different ways. He would know. Little Maxine doesn’t know when to stop, but she can beat anyone he knows back in Cali in both skating and arcade games. His best friend back there didn’t know a verb from an adverb but could spout off mathematical equations like it was no one’s business.
He sets himself on the challenge of finding out for himself because while he knows he isn’t the best or nicest person in the world, he can see the good in people, even when the bad was the only thing being portrayed.
His first chance at attempting this sort of espionage occurred during a shitty Halloween party thrown at some rich kid’s house. Their mommy and daddy let them throw a party, and the two had even gone in on some of the drugs and alcohol, from what he could tell.
He refuses to get shit-faced in the company of people he doesn’t know, but Eddie was there too, so he allowed two or three shots, trusting the other man — who absolutely refuses to drink or do anything more than cigs or the copious amounts of weed he seems to consume on a daily — to make sure he had gotten home fine, but even five shots barely get him tipsy. He refuses to leave his car — his baby — all alone, so even if he did get shit-faced, he made Eddie promise to take him home in his own car instead of the piece of shit that is the other man’s vehicle.
The staunch thickness of body odour still haunts Billy to this day, and he can’t help but miss the parties his friends had thrown if this particular party is an example of all of those that are thrown in Hawkins, Indiana.
“Screw you!”
The loud proclamation had drawn his attention towards the middle of the room, as well as that of many others, even through the extreme thrums of bass coming from the expensive speakers. His eyes had pulled toward two bodies, Harrington and his little girlfriend evidently arguing as they made their way through the crowd.
Billy had followed, pushing his way through pheromones and drunken stupors to follow them, not wasting a second in case something happened between the two that either one would regret.
They had slammed into a bathroom before he could reach them, the door closing quickly behind them. Billy strained his ears to hear through bustling teenagers and loud music playing through expensive speakers.
In the end, he only heard a few loud curses through it all, the sound of the party overtaking that of their argument. Harrington pushed through the door not long after, shoving Billy along with it, and he struggled to follow along through the same people he had just pushed through a moment earlier. Eventually, they had both made it to the house’s backyard.
The music bumped ridiculously loud through the closed door of the porch, cheers and yelled conversations floating along with it. The noise was excessive, and Billy remembers the way his ears rang in the comparative quiet.
The party at that point had been going on for far longer than any party he had ever attended; no cops or neighbours knocking down the door attempting to end their fun. He remembers thinking of how ridiculous it was that no one had shut it down, especially when a party to this degree back home would have been raided by cops as soon as it hit eleven.
Perks of being rich in a small town, he guesses.
Harrington had stumbled his way from the porch to a more subdued area of the backyard, the thrumming of the music much quieter there than anywhere else. He hadn't appeared too drunk, but Billy kept his distance anyway, observing for a moment to gauge exactly how to go about confronting the other. He followed behind him when Steve had plopped down on the ground underneath a sturdy willow, the drooping branches had danced in the cool breeze, so different from California it had shocked his system.
The entire ordeal had gone off without too much trouble. He had stood there, waiting for the other to acknowledge his presence before speaking.
“What do you want, Hargrove?” he had asked, sounding so defeated it had twisted at Billy's heartstrings, softening anything he could have said in response.
Even through the darkness that settled around them, Billy could see Steve's doe eyes purring up at him.
“Trouble in paradise?” Billy had asked, careful to keep his voice steady so as to not scare the other away. It wouldn't do to kill his experimentation before it could begin.
Through carefully thought out questions, he had been able to garner from Steve every little trouble the two had, including how their fight had been about some girl who had gone missing during the throes of their early relationship, something Nancy still blamed Steve for. Though, Billy could not tell exactly why that was.
He's sure there's more to the story even now, considering how much he could feel was left out every time Steve stuttered through a sentence or cut himself off halfway into explaining something. Billy had thought nothing of it at the time, sure that there were things that the other just wanted to keep to himself. He can't blame him for that, not with how Billy had just moved into the town.
Even still, he learned quickly how little Steve thought of himself and how little it seemed Nancy thought of him.
Trouble in paradise indeed.
Another carefully worded question had Steve spouting all of his other woes, words laden with self-hate and disappointment at his actions — though, Billy could tell the other wasn't exactly sure what he had done to earn the Wheeler girl's ire besides whatever he thought he did to lead to that one girl going missing.
He had talked Billy’s ear off about missing assignments and poorly graded tests. Billy can’t imagine how he talks to his friends if that was how he talks to someone that he just met.
As a direct result of the doe eyes and pitiful words the other had given, he had found himself offering to tutor the other teen. While they technically had the same classes, Billy was also on a higher learning level, so tutoring him wouldn’t be too hard. He had also already set up something with Eddie — who, again, was working through his second senior year — so making an odd little study group would benefit both of them.
It would also get Neil off his back and help Maxine stay out of too much trouble.
So, studying every Monday and Wednesday after school is honestly a little selfish on his part, but who can blame a guy for wanting something for himself? Honestly, it's a wonder he hadn't thought of this before back home, especially since he'll be hanging out with the prettiest boy he’s seen this far east and the first acquaintance he’s made in this hellhole.
Oh how James would hate him for thinking of this only now.
He knows nothing will come out of it, but he’ll have his fun while also trying to stay out of trouble, and maybe he'll actually help the two graduate.
~🌊~