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Billy was finally doing it.
His camaro was full of his clothes, blankets, and a small box of memorabilia. A jar full of sand (he missed home), a few pictures of his mother he had managed to salvage from his father's rage years before (he missed home), and a map with directions to California from Hawkins Indiana (he missed home).
He had been able to save up quite a bit of money since he began working at the pool, though his father demanded at least half for the water bill and the food Billy ate.
But that didn't matter now, Billy was out, he was free.
So as he drove towards the highway he sang his music loudly, letting the stereos blast it louder. So loud infact, that he didn't notice the truck honking at him before it hit his sweet blue camaro, flipping it over.
-----
He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep for, but he knew his stomach was hurting, his legs too, infact everything he could feel was hurting. Was this from his father? Had Neil figured out he was leaving?
He tried to open his eyes, but found them stuck shut, his throat making a coughing noise when he tried to speak.
"William? Son?" He heard a voice, his fathers voice, say.
Suddenly his eyes were no longer stuck, opening wide as he tried to take in his surroundings.
"You're alright son, you're okay, you're in the hospital." His father explained.
Billy frowned, he wanted to ask what happened, he wanted to ask if his father knew what he had been doing, what he had planned to do.
"Some drunk asshole was running his truck all over town, he hit a few other cars before you stopped him." Neil smiled, patting the boys arm, leaving his hand resting on it.
Billy wanted to slap it away, wanted to scream and shout at the man before him. This wasn't fair, he was supposed to be in California. But he found his arm imobile. In fact, besides his eyes and head, he couldn't seem to move anything.
"Don't worry about that," Neil hummed nodding at Billy's casted leg, "You got a bit bruised during the crash, but you'll be fine, you're strong." He spoke proudly.
Billy tried to speak again, this time managing a few words, "My car?"
"Yeah, we'll have to find you a new one, but for now you can take the bus when school starts back up." Neil answered him, "I should go tell the doctor your awake, you think you'll be alright if I leave?"
Billy nodded slowly, getting out a quiet, "Yeah."
"Yeah you will," Neil nodded back in agreement, "That's my boy."
Billy's father stood up, patting Billy's arm once more, "You did good son, don't think im not proud of you. You stopped a bad man, did a good thing. You're a good kid William." He smiled proudly, leaving the room to find the doctor.
This was the hard part.
When his father would compliment him, when he would seem happy to be known as Billy's father. It would be easier if his dad was mean all the time. Not that he was mean that often anymore, Billy was a stubborn kid, he knew that. He didn't necessarily make it easier for his dad to father him. He wasn't cooperative with Susan, and he refused to get along with Max.
Neil had reason to be mad at Billy, God, Billy would've done worse had he had a kid like himself.
So yeah, maybe Neil was a good parent. Maybe he had been overdramatic trying to run away from home like that.
Hell, he had a roof over his head and food waiting for him at the table every night. There were thousands of people out there without either of those.
Neil had been proud of him, he had said so. So maybe Billy could stay, work towards being a son Neil would be proud of all the time.
He missed home, of course he did, but he was an adult now, he had to learn to move on.
-----
Neil came back in with a doctor minutes later. The two spoke cheerily to eachother as the doctor went through his notes, finally allowing Billy to be discharged from the hospital.
He was offered a wheelchair, which he quickly denied, to which Neil patted him on the back. "Just a crutch for him, my son's strong, bet you by next week he'll be walking on his own again." Neil bragged to the other man.
The doctor laughed as he sent the two off with a prescription (one that Neil was certain Billy wouldn't need), as well as a reminder for Billy to get lots of sleep.
It wasn't until they were in Neil's truck that his father spoke again, "You ready to go home, son?"
Billy managed a smile back at his father as he nodded, "Have been since we got here."