Chapter Text
The morning after Christmas 1984 dawns cold and snowy in Hawkins, Indiana.
Billy Hargrove wants to sleep in.
Sure that even an extra hour or two would do him wonders.
But that isn’t a luxury he gets this morning.
Normally, Christmas break is the one time of the year he can reliably count on for a slight relaxation of Neil’s usual expectations. The only time of year that Billy doesn’t have school, or a summer job, or a long ass list of chores that need to be done by nine in the morning for no fucking reason.
Neil never gets him any Christmas presents, and over the years Billy learned to consider the slight relaxation of the usual routine to be present enough.
But, like so many other things in Billy’s life, that all changed when Susan and Max came into the picture.
Billy rubs the sleep from his eyes and takes in the pale weak sunlight filtering in through his blinds.
His room is so cold it stings whatever skin isn’t protected by blanket or clothes, and it’s a real struggle to convince himself to venture out of the relative warmth of his bed, but he forces himself to do it anyway.
Neil doesn’t have work today, and he probably won't be awake for another hour at least, but if Billy makes Max late for her stupid party there’s going to be hell to pay when Neil finds out.
Steve Harrington is hosting a Christmas party for Max and all her weirdo little friends.
Max had been so beyond excited about it when she told her mom about the invite a few weeks ago. He remembers how loud she’d been talking about it, even though her mom was standing right there next to her.
Neil didn’t like the idea, at first. Billy could tell.
Neil generally doesn’t like the idea of anyone in the household going out anywhere that close to a holiday, and Billy could tell he also wasn’t all that pleased with the idea of the host being someone named ‘Steve’.
But, as soon as Max started blabbing on about how her new friend ‘Jane’ is going to be there, and how excited she is to spend more time with the other girl, Susan’s face had lit right up.
Susan is always trying to get Max to make more girl friends, and to be more feminine, and everyone in the house knows it. Neil, apparently, decided the argument wasn’t worth the hassle, at least for now.
Max is also, according to her overly loud ramblings to her mom in the lead up to the party, super excited to get to see Steve’s house.
Billy can’t exactly fault her for that one. He’s never been there personally, but from the stories that people tell about the parties he used to throw…
It sounds like King Steve’s got himself a nice little castle.
It may have been well over a year since Harrington last hosted a party, but everyone in that crowd at school still reminisces wistfully about the good old days from time to time.
Castle Harrington is prime party real estate. A little bit out of the way for sure, but that just means it’s further away from cops and angry neighbors. Add to that the fact it’s got a heated pool, plenty of rooms for couples to sneak off to, and that Harrington’s parents are away more often than most, it isn’t hard to understand why Harrington’s place was the party spot back in the day.
Billy still thinks it’s creepy that Harrington now hangs out with a bunch of middle school kids, especially since he isn't even related to any of them and has no obligations to have any interactions with any of them…
But… he learned his lesson at the Byers’ house.
He keeps his comments to himself and stays out of Max’s business as much as possible. Unfortunately with Neil and Susan resolutely avoiding parenting Max whenever possible, and Neil breathing down Billy’s neck about ‘respect and responsibility’ any time he’s not fucking off to work or to take Susan on dates or who even knows what else… there’s only so much staying out of Max’s business that Billy can reasonably do.
But he’s been trying. Mostly.
And he keeps his head down at home as best he can, just trying his best to not bring any attention to himself there whatsoever.
It’s impossible to fly completely under Neil’s radar, Billy knows all too well, but he can do his best to just keep Neil’s ire as minimal as possible.
He just has to make it to graduation. To eighteen. Then he’s out of here.
It’s become something of a mantra for Billy, these last few months. Graduation. Eighteen. Gone.
Billy shrugs on his warmest jacket, still too thin for the winters in Hawkins, and doesn’t flinch at the way the movement pulls on the bruises across his back.
When Billy makes his way into the kitchen Susan is sitting at the table nursing a coffee and looking still half asleep and Max is practically vibrating next to the front door she’s so eager to leave, an assortment of presents wrapped in old newspaper clutched in her arms.
“Have a good time honey.” Susan calls out to Max as Billy pulls open the front door.
She doesn’t say anything to Billy, and he doesn’t say anything to her.
There’s a fresh layer of snow on the ground and more of it still coming down, fat snowflakes drifting around in the bitterly cold air. Max seems delighted by this, as they crunch across the yard to get to the Camaro parked in the driveway, but Billy has other feelings about it.
Snow means the drive to Harrington’s is going to take longer and be more difficult. The tires on the camaro aren’t designed for snow, and they are far from new. He’ll have to drive carefully.
Billy’s driven in snow on bad tires before, but he hasn’t done it often, and it just feels like more shit he doesn’t want to have to deal with added on to an already shitty morning.
Billy clears some of the snow from the windshield with the sleeve of his jacket, his skin stinging wherever he accidentally touches snow or metal. Before deciding that he’ll let the rest come off as they drive.
He waits until they’ve rounded the corner at the end of the street before he cranks up the volume on the radio, the absolute soonest that he dares to.
He doesn’t want to piss Neil off by waking him up, but he also doesn’t want to give Max any more of a chance to try and start talking at him than necessary.
Things have been weird between them lately. Weirder, even, than he expected them to be after what happened that night at the Byers’ house.
He doesn’t know what exactly has changed in their relationship, but he doesn’t like it.
If it was just that she’s no longer scared of him, that’d be one thing. It sucks that she’s not scared of him anymore, he doesn’t have a clue how to keep her in line and keep Neil off his back if she isn’t scared of him, but if that was all it was at least then he’d understand what the fuck is going on.
But while that definitely is a factor in the shifted nature of their relationship, it's not the only thing that’s different now.
The weird looks she gives him sometimes, and the whole… trying to talk to him about shit… that’s something else entirely.
He’s not sure when it started, thinks maybe it was something that built up gradually, but he does know that he first noticed something was off sometime around when the bruises Neil left him with for failing to bring her home in a timely manner were finally fading.
Billy has no idea what any of it means, and it makes him feel wrong footed and off balance around her. This in turn makes him feel frustrated and angry, which is really not ideal because he’s been really trying to keep a lid on that to avoid any reappearances of the freaky nail bat.
Max doesn’t complain about his music selection or the volume he plays it at. She doesn’t attempt to start any more awkward, stilted conversations.
Instead she seems content to stare out the window at the ugly scenery and snow.
Billy, hesitantly relieved by this, tries to use the time to himself to figure out where he’s going to go while she’s at the party.
He definitely doesn’t want to head home, not with Neil still off work for another two days, but he’s not really sure he has any better options.
Back home in California, he’d normally take this as an opportunity to go park somewhere, maybe by the beach, and spend a few hours reading in the peace and comfort of his car. But it’s much colder in Hawkins than it is back home, and the snow is still coming down, so that’s probably not a good idea.
The library is also an option he’d normally consider, if it’s too cold to hang out in his car, but Hawkin’s Public Library is tiny compared to the ones Billy is used to, and it’s probably closed today because it’s snowing and it’s the day after Christmas and that place seems to take any excuse they can get to close down for a day or three.
He can’t even drop in on Tommy for an impromptu hang out session at his place, since he knows from Tommy’s bragging that his parents are taking him and Carol on a ski resort vacation during the entirety of winter break.
Fucking rich people , Billy thinks, not for the first time. What even is the fun of a ski vacation? Shouldn’t a vacation be somewhere warm and beachy?
Harrington’s house is out on the edge of Hawkin’s rich neighborhood. Far away from the neighbors and backing out into the woods. Billy rolls up the empty driveway carefully, mindful of the layer of tire tracked snow covering it.
He puts the camaro in park and doesn’t make any move to turn down his music, hoping that it will dissuade Max from trying to talk to him before going in. He taps his fingers impatiently against the steering wheel while she tries to gather up all the presents she brought with her for her friends.
Why she didn’t grab a goddamn bag or something to put them all in he doesn’t fucking know. Probably did it just to inconvenience and annoy him as much as possible or something.
That seems like something she might do.
Movement by the front of the house draws Billy’s attention to the big red double doors. Through which, Harrington is stepping outside. His hair looks extra fluffy and he’s wearing a ridiculous Christmas sweater that even from this distance Billy can tell is obviously hand made.
Harrington’s cheeks get rosy from the cold quickly, and his smile is wide when he calls out a greeting to Max.
He’s fucking adorable, like something out of a hallmark card or some shit.
This is far from the first time that Billy has felt this mix of desperate want and bitter jealousy when looking at Harrington, but unfortunately it’s not like practice has made him any better at dealing with it.
Some days he feels like he’s holding up his side of his deal with Max by the thinnest of threads, those days it feels like he has to use as much focus as he can muster just to ignore Harrington.
Not all days are like that, some days are easier than others, but today feels like one of those days.
Billy lost most of his outlets for all the hurt angry feelings inside him when they moved from California to Hawkins. He lost even more of them because of his agreement with Max. The ones he has left aren’t really cutting it on their own.
So those feelings have been building, faster than ever, helped along by the holiday season and all the extra shit that it brings to the surface, and let's be real, Billy’s hold on his self control has always been tenuous at best.
He feels on the precipice of an explosion, on the verge of doing something stupid, like he’s standing on the very edge of something dangerous.
Which is why he fully intends to get out of there just as soon as Max finally gets her shit together and closes the goddamn passenger side door.
Harrington knocks on the driver’s side window.
Billy suppresses a flinch, immediately frustrated with himself and Harrington and Max because he had been too busy glaring at Max to notice Harrington approaching.
Billy takes a deep breath, breathes it out through his nose, and reluctantly rolls the window down an inch or two. It’s rude, probably, but Billy doesn’t really care. That bridge was burned more than a month ago, and he’s unwilling to open the window more and potentially let more cold and snow into the car. Max has her door fully open, and that’s letting in plenty.
“Where are you headed while Max is here?” Harrington asks, voice casual and easy.
Like there’s no more history between the two of them then that of two classmates who are vaguely associated.
Billy hates it.
He’d rather Steve be spitting insults at him then sound so indifferent.
Billy raises an eyebrow in response to Steve’s question. He intends for it to come across as ‘How is that remotely your business’, but really he just doesn’t have an answer. He hasn’t figured that part out yet.
Harrington looks at him, his eyes sweeping over Billy’s face before slipping off to the side, back towards the road.
“The roads are pretty bad right now, the plows haven't gone through in a while.” Harrington says, observationally. “If you don’t have anywhere you need to be, why don’t you come in? Less driving back and forth that way.”
That… is not what Billy expected.
He’s not really sure what, exactly, he had been expecting from this interaction… but that was definitely not it.
He can’t think of a single reason why Harrington would invite him in.
Billy finds his eyes drifting over to Max. She’s frozen where she stands, leaning in through the passenger side door, her arms full of presents she scrimped and saved for because she wanted to be able to get her stupid friends stuff they’d actually like.
She’s staring back at him, one of those new expressions he can’t identify on her face.
Billy suppresses a sigh.
As nice as it would be to have someplace indoors to spend the next few hours, someplace that isn’t at home with Neil…
He doesn’t trust Harrington’s motivations. And, maybe… he doesn’t really want to ruin this for Max. Call it his Christmas present for her or something, since he didn't buy her anything.
“Thanks for the offer pretty boy,” Billy says, pulling a smile on that he knows Harrington finds obnoxious. “but I think I’m gonna have to take a rain check.”
“C’mon man, please?” Harrington says, voice tinged with a hint of pleading that completely catches Billy off guard. “Whatever you might think about me, spending the day corralling a bunch of thirteen year olds isn’t exactly my idea of a fun time.”
Billy can’t entirely smother the snort of surprised laughter that escapes him at Harrington’s words.
“I ain't helping you babysit.” He says, his smile turning a bit more genuine than he means to let it.
“No, no. I’ve got that part covered.” Harrington says, his smile making him even handsomer. “Just come in, hang out with me? Give me someone to talk to who isn’t a middle schooler.”
Billy glances at Max again. Nothing’s changed there except the amount of snow gathering in her hair.
Fuck it, Billy thinks.
“Alright, I guess.” Billy gives in, making sure to sound more reluctant than he actually is. “You better have some good food or something though.”