Billy didn’t think he could hate Hawkins more than he already does, but he’s proven wrong again and again.
Today, about two weeks into moving to Bumfuck, Nowhere, he’s sent to the grocery store to pick up some items for Susan and he takes his time. Why would he rush back home to his dad?
He’s got the handwritten list in his one hand as he leans over the bar of the shopping cart in front of him, moving his mouth to the side and running his tongue along his teeth as he eyes the produce.
He spots some bananas and grabs a bunch, and back home they used to put the avocados right next to them, so it’s basically a reflex for him to look right next to the yellow fruit — but there’s nothing. Just bananas.
And as he stands there, holding about five or six bananas, he feels his stomach drop.
There’s no avocados here.
An employee walks by, an older woman, and he puts on his usual smile that gets him what he wants as he asks, “Excuse me? Would you be able to show me where the avocados are?”
The woman turns pink with a smile and says, “Oh, honey, I am so sorry — we don’t have any exotic foods like that here in Hawkins. You might be able to find some in the city.”
Fucking Christ. The city, being Indianapolis, which is hours away by car.
Despite the sinking of his stomach, he gives her a bigger smile and purrs, “Thank you, ma’am,” before pushing his cart away, feeling her eyes on him as he huffs quietly.
Exotic foods. What a bunch of bullshit.
He even told Max as she came out to help him bring in the groceries — Neil’s orders.
“What?” She scowled, her freckled face twisting up in disbelief, “Like, you’re not joking?”
“I wouldn’t fucking joke about that.” It’s a little passionate for something like avocados, but it was a staple for them back home. Everyone ate them.
“That sucks for you,” Max rolls her eyes, obviously annoyed by his snapping at her, and he lets her go with just a glare to the back of her head.
Fuck. Maybe one day he’d make a trip of it.
Months go by. Shit goes down.
Monsters and parallel worlds. He’s not exactly sure how to process it all.
But, Steve helps him. Surprisingly.
A lot has gone down between them, but somehow, despite the petty fights and violence, they become…friends.
They’re becoming closer, he supposes. Sometimes they make out when they’re drunk enough. Sometimes Billy pretends to get so drunk he sucks Steve off. They don’t talk about it, but they’re close enough now that Steve invites him over to smoke some weed one day, and who is Billy to decline such an offer?
It’s not his first time in the Harrington house, he’s passed out on the couch or on Steve’s floor a couple times, but this is when the sun is up and he can actually look around.
“Should I order pizza now orrr…?” Steve trails off as he goes towards the phone on the wall in the kitchen, Billy following close behind him.
“Now,” Billy mutters, taking in everything, his blue eyes flickering around the room as Steve begins to punch in the number for the local pizza place—and then he sees it.
A single avocado, nestled so perfectly in Mrs. Harrington’s fruit basket.
His jaw drops as he rushes over to it, picking it up in disbelief as he turns it around in his hands. The skin is dark, it’s got a little give when he presses his fingertips into it.
Fuck. It’s fucking perfect.
“You alright?” Steve asks with a hint of amusement in his voice.
Billy whips around, seeing Steve leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, a smirk on his face. He must’ve ordered the pizza when Billy was…busy.
“I’m fine,” he huffs, wanting to put the avocado down but being unable to.
“You like those?” Steve asks as he scrunches his nose, pushing himself off the wall to approach Billy.
“I fucking love them,” Billy admits quietly, feeling a little embarrassed as he looks down at the fruit, unable to meet Steve’s eyes.
“They take like grass,” Steve huffs, leaning against the counter with Billy.
He flicks his eyes back up to the pretty boy and gives him a glare, weirdly defensive, “Yeah, if you don’t know how to eat them properly.”
Steve’s eyebrows lift, his eyes still full of amusement as his gaze goes from Billy’s face then down to the avocado in his hands. He looks lost in thought for a moment, like he was going to say something but then changed his mind. “My mom likes to eat them,” he hums, “She buys them when she goes on trips with my dad. This is her last one.”
Fuck Steve’s mom, this is his avocado now.
“She’s on a trip right now, isn’t she?” Billy mutters, gripping the avocado just a little bit more when Steve runs a fingertip along the skin, in between Billy’s fingers.
The pretty boy looks up again, into Billy’s eyes, and smiles as he asks, “You really want it that bad, Hargrove?”
Billy feels a wave of heat go down his body at that look Steve gives him, along with that question. “Fuck yeah, I do,” he mutters, his gaze dropping down to Steve’s lips for just a second before he looks down at the avocado.
In what might be a horrifying moment, Billy mutters all too vulnerably, “They…remind me of home.”
He regrets it the second it leaves his lips, his eyes widening and snapping up to Steve’s face, who looks at Billy with a sort of pity that he hates before it’s immediately gone, replaced with neutral pout that’s paired with a shrug as he says, “Take it. I don’t care.”
And Steve leaves towards the hall, but not before he hesitates, like he wants to stay. Like he wants to ask Billy why they remind him of home.
And maybe, if Billy were drunk or too high, he’d say they were his mom’s favourite.
Instead, he shoves the avocado into his jacket pocket and follows the pretty boy up to his room, where it’s not mentioned again, not for a very long time.
