Billy has a tone problem.
Dad says it all the time, "Watch your tone, young man," and sure sometimes Dad is full of shit, but it’s not just him. It’s lots of people. All the time.
It's, "Why are you so mad about it?" when he’s just shooting the shit.
A sarcastic, "Well don't sound so excited," when actually he was kind of looking forward to the movie.
"I've had about enough of this attitude, Mr. Hargrove," from teachers when he was just answering the goddamn question.
And over, and over, "You don't need to bite my head off!" when he was just... he was just fucking speaking. It's just how he sounds sometimes. When he's tired mostly. Goes real good with his face that wasn't scowling actually, he was just spaced out.
So he practices. In private, in the shower, in mirrors, he rehearses. Line readings again and again, 'til he finds the right way to deliver it. Fleshes out the character. Hits the right note. Says nothing when he doesn't have something prepared. He can pull off the strong, silent type, that's better than saying it wrong. Builds himself a nice little bit of leeway by leaning in to the asshole persona, makes the slips ups less noticeable.
He gets better at it over the years, but it never gets easy. He thought it might. He thought maybe everyone had to learn how to be a person like this and then once he had it down it would be as easy for him as it was for them. No luck though. It stays hard.
And it's harder when he's tired, so it's a vicious circle.
If he spends all his energy at school, then he's got nothing stored up for home, and he'll piss Dad off. But if he keeps up the act at home, he can't manage it at school, and then he's in trouble, and when Dad hears about it... yeah, another one of those circles.
Either way, he's really got nothing by the time he’s alone in his room. Just blank. Staring at the ceiling. Music loud enough to rattle his skeleton. Shake him loose. Maybe loud enough to fill him back up so he can start again tomorrow.
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