Bleh

You’re not even fully out the door before he is hot on your tails, following you through your escape route to get away from him. It’s the class you have that is closest to your dorm, literally less than a five minute walk from door to door, but you aren’t going to lead him to where you live. 

You might have gotten comfortable in the silence of the weeks that have passed without his interference, but you haven’t gone stupid. 

“Had a really fun chat this morning,” Billy's voice sounds anything but enthused as he walks behind you, his hand pushing open the door at the end of the hall at the same time you do.

You tuck your hands into the pockets of your jacket, not even bothering to put your hood up as the rain droplets pour down on the top of your head. If you can’t go home with him following you, you’ll go to the place that never seems to lull in capacity: the cafeteria. 

“Good for you.”

He chuckles at your disinterest, not deterred by the rain in the slightest as he continues on after you. 

“Apparently someone went to the NCAA,” He continues to press, feet falling in step with yours with practiced ease,  “Had enough to say that somehow landed me and my contract under review. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“No.”

The answer is immediate, your face pinching together slightly as you continue moving. You’re not lying, you haven’t spoken to anybody about Billy. In your experience, trying to go over his head just usually ends up with a headache in yours and you don’t want to further connect yourself with him.

He’s in your past, and you have tried incredibly hard to keep it that way.

“I find that a little hard to believe,” He says, fingers reaching out and spinning you around by the elbow. Your feet stumble a bit at the force, but you don’t put your hands out to catch yourself. “Sounds a little too close to junior year, don’t you think?”

You’d rather have a face full of soaked concrete than to have your hands anywhere on Billy. 

“Contrary to whatever you think, Hargrove,” You spit out through clenched teeth, water dropping on your forehead as you tug your elbow out of his hold. “I don’t spend my free time talking about you. Thinking about you. Hell, I hate that I’m even spending this time looking at you.”

He smiles then, gold tooth gleaming even in the murky early afternoon air. It’s not a friendly smile, despite what it may look like to the people passing you on the sidewalk. His curls are spilling all over the place and his jacket is completely soaked, but his eyes tell you everything you need to know.

He’s pissed.

“Really? Cause that seems to be all I spend my time doing,” He retorts. “I’m sure you’d love to hear what everyone else has been hearing.”

There it is again, the irritation in your chest battling with the craving to just go crawl in a hole somewhere and wait for the storm that is Billy Hargrove to blow over. Even now, he can’t help himself but to try to ruin any chance you have of ever having a life without him somehow in it. 

You aren’t a kid anymore. 

He’s not some monster hiding in your closet, waiting for your mom to shut the door and turn out the light. He’s the person responsible for you not having anything worth missing back home. The person who singlehandedly managed to get you to go to college across the country from everyone you know just for a chance to get away from him.

He’s not going anywhere.

You’ve decided you aren’t either.

“I genuinely don’t care,” You say, turning on your heel to resume the final stretch before you are in the doors of the cafeteria and can have Robin come find you.

His hand connects with your elbow again, pulling you closer this time to face him. You shove at his chest, fingers finally making their way out of your pockets and meeting with the soaked denim of his jacket. 

You know it’s the wrong move the second you do it, his grin widening at you making contact with him as if it was all part of some elaborate plan that you had fallen victim to. As if your fingers simply touching him would be enough to erase just how crazy he is and you to fall madly in love with him. 

“Got yourself a boyfriend now and all of a sudden you think you get to try to ruin my life?”

The eye roll you give him definitely doesn’t have the effect you were looking for as you take another step further back from him. He just cocks his head to the side, waiting for your inevitable rebuttal of the term because once you do, he will know that whatever game he is playing is still on.

“You’re doing a pretty good job yourself, Billy,” You respond, motioning around your eye in a circle at the spot where the bruise Steve had given him had finally faded away. “Don’t think you need my help.”

His laugh is hollow as you try to ignore the dread forming in your stomach at how completely unaffected he is by anything you have to say. Subtlety is clearly lost on him, but even being straight forward hasn’t proven to be productive either. 

It’s the same song and dance, just in a new state, and it’s the saddest thing you’ve ever seen.

“And what is it you think I need, sweetheart?”

His voice is silk, charm dialled all the way up to a ten as he looks at you with the same blue eyes that seem to haunt you no matter where you go. He is enjoying this, having your attention in any way he can, way more than he should. You’re sure if you stabbed him right on this sidewalk, he would take it as a profession of love.

“To mind your own business.”

He lights up at that, smile sickeningly wide as his eyes scan over your face like he is trying to commit it to memory. You’d throw up on his shoes, but you’re not entirely sure he would take it in the way that you are meaning it. 

“The sooner you realize everything you do is my business, the easier it will be for the both of us.”

You shake your head at his statement, disbelief settling in your features at just how ridiculous he sounds. He’s never going to leave you alone, you realized that when he stumbled his way out of that party, but why would you further insert yourself into his life?

The lesson has been learned in your book far too long ago that trying to involve anyone else in an attempt to keep Billy away only backfires on you.

Your feet move faster than you remember them being able to, practically flinging yourself in the direction of the building you had been heading to to seek solace. Rain is pounding on your face, or maybe it’s a stray tear at the realization that you have found yourself in the lion’s den once again despite your best efforts. 

“You don’t have to go to the NCAA to get my attention,” Billy calls after you as he storms in the building right behind you, door slamming closed with a thud. “There’s only ever been you for me.”

The phone in your hand is heavy as you send out a quick SOS message to your roommate, dropping your location with a swift click before you are shoving it back in your pocket again. Billy steps into your space again, his hand pushing his wet curls away from the sides of his face. 

The building is practically empty, too many people deterred by the storm outside to risk running out of their rooms. Hardly anyone had showed up to your class, but your professor had offered extra credit for coming in and you’ve never been one to turn that down.

Obviously that came back to bite you in the ass as you stare up at the boy in front of you.

“As cute as this little Miss Independent act is,” Billy says, waving his hand over in front of you. “It’s starting to get on my nerves, Princess. The sooner you stop living in this little fantasy-”

“The only one of us living in a fantasy is you,” You respond, crossing your arms over your chest. “How many other ways are there for me to say I’m not interested?”

He smiles at that, nose scrunching like you are some cute animal he’s spotted on the side of the road. The more uninterested you try to come off as, he still persists in trying to lay some kind of claim on you. 

“Maybe you should try again,” He quips, crossing his arms over his chest and giving his shoulders a shrug. “Try it with a little more feeling this time. Maybe I’ll believe it.”

“You’re pathetic.”

“You’re-”

A loud bang from the front door of the building grabs your attention away from the blonde blocking your path, head snapping to see a soaking wet Eddie Munson charging his way across and beelining right towards you.

“My my,” Billy ticks, sucking his teeth as he steps away from you, a smirk still stamped on his face. “Don’t we have ourselves a nice little roster? Who’s next? I’m sure Mr. Cameraman’s girlfriend doesn’t mind sharing either.”

“Shut up, Billy.”

He doesn’t look shocked at your tone- part of you would even wager that he thinks you are funny- nor does he look put out when Eddie comes to a halt right next to you, a far too nice smile on his face already.

“How’s it going over here, ladies?” Eddie’s voice cuts off the beginning of what you’re sure was about to be some kind of foreplay-esque comment from the blonde in front of you, shoulder bumping yours lightly to silently question if you were alright. 

For what little it’s worth, Billy doesn’t react to the slight dig at all. Instead, he just reaches out and drops his hand on Eddie’s shoulder with a tight smile on his face. 

“Eddie, right? Millner or-”

“Munson.”

You chime in before he has a chance to correct him, the intrusion bringing that same smirk to Billy’s face as his eyes dance from yours back over to Eddie’s. 

“Right,” He corrects himself, squeezing Eddie’s shoulder before dropping his hand back to his side. “You the same one that plays at Q’s? The Saturday night crowd?”

There’s no missing the tone as he says it. He’s doing what he does best, playing some kind of game that nobody else knows they are playing and you don’t like it one bit. As far as you’re concerned, he should stay as far away from Eddie as possible. 

A fact that with one quick glance at you out of the side of his eye, you know Billy is more than aware of. 

“Every Saturday for almost two years,” Eddie replies simply. 

Billy reaches into his back pocket at that, holding up a finger to tell the two of you to wait a moment. 

Like either of you was willing to make the first move of retreat. 

He flicks his wallet open, rummaging through one of the slots before his fingers pull out a small white card, bent a little around the edges and probably just as old as the wallet is judging by the creases. 

“My uncle’s a radio exec out in Tennessee,” Billy starts, charm creeping into his tone the same way it always does when he knows he’s going to get his way.

That’s been his game all along. Even if you’d like to pretend to be surprised, you should’ve known that the second Billy realized he couldn’t beat you out of your friend group or drag you back to California, the very next step would be to get them to join him.

Eddie, who has entered his band in countless contests and sat outside of radio stations all night long to try to get someone to pick up his band. It’s his dream, you know that without a shadow of a doubt, and it’s being offered up to him on a little cardstock platter.

“You should give him a call. He’s always looking for talent.”

It’s a gamble, both you and Billy are aware that this will only work if someone is willing to take the bait. And if you knew for a fact that he was lying, you would tell Eddie.

The smirk directed your way when he catches Eddie glancing over at you tells you everything you need to know.

You’ve heard enough from Max about Billy’s hotshot uncle who is capable of the million dollar dream every artist is looking for. This is everything Eddie has been looking for, and you can’t find it in yourself to tell him to not take it. 

As his fingers reach out and pluck the card out of Billy’s hand, you know he’s not stupid enough to turn down a chance like this either. Your silence means that Billy is telling the truth and that with one phone call, he could be on his way to doing what he loves without any worry of having to give up his practical life for it. 

“I’d rather get slowly ripped to shreds by piranhas, but thanks.”

The card is promptly ripped in half and flicked into Billy’s face before your brain can even process the words leaving Eddie’s mouth, your stomach dropping at the realization that he just threw a shot at his dreams away.

If the reaction was shocking, Billy doesn’t show it at all. Instead, he just brushes a torn piece of card off of his jacket, offering a smile to Eddie like he hadn’t just tossed trash in his face.

“Your choice, Munson,” Billy says with a curt nod before turning his blue eyes back to you. You hate the way his lips pull up even higher once he makes eye contact with you. “See you around, Princess.”

He’s on his heels and heading towards the door before you even have a chance to roll your eyes at him, instead opting for spinning to the boy next to you.

Eddie’s bent over, picking up the pieces he had tossed at Billy. You don’t miss the way he mumbles under his breath about trash and how some people should be taken out with it, his eyes glaring at the retreating figure before he dumps the scraps in the nearest trash can.

“What the hell did you just do?” You ask him, stepping into his line of sight and pulling his attention away from the front of the building. 

“I’m not just going to leave litter-”

“The card, Eddie,” You cut him off, motioning towards the can he dumped the remnants in. “He’s a dick, but his uncle really is a-”

He lets out a sigh, shaking his head at you with an amused look on his face before his fingertips are curling into your shoulders and he’s standing eye level with you now, knees bent so awkwardly you almost want to laugh at how strange the two of you must look.

“Sweetheart, I don’t give a rat’s ass if his uncle is Ozzy himself,” Eddie’s voice is steady as his brown eyes stare right at you. “If the best it ever gets for us is the Q’s crowd, then so be it. I don’t want anything to do with him or his freaky spawns.”

“Eddie, you can’t-”

“Oh, but I did. I don’t just sprint across campus because some jackass is following you to turn around and use his name to get myself somewhere.” 

“I sent that text to Robin.”

Eddie shakes his head, letting go of your shoulders and running a hand over his now drying hair, which seems to anger it somehow. Not that his hair isn’t always all over the place, but the rain has made it take a shape of its own.

Which is why going out in the rain would break his biggest personal rule.

Something he would only break if-

You unlock your phone without another word, fingers swiping to open your messages. Sure enough, you had opened the closest message on your screen, thinking that your last message had been to Robin.

Because it was. 

You had typed a quick reply to Robin asking if anyone had seen her white Converse, telling her you were pretty sure the last place you saw them was in the common room of the dorms. 

The message itself had been in the group chat, which you had sent not only your SOS message to, but also your location. 

“I wasn’t trying to tell everyone,” You mutter, rubbing a hand over your face. “I was-”

“You were in trouble,” Eddie interrupts, knowing that you are trying to play everything off like it wasn’t a big deal. Involving everyone isn’t something you are enthusiastic about and they know it. “We got the message.”

We.

You don’t miss the way his eyes flicker over your shoulder, grabbing your attention as your stomach drops at the realization that all of your friends had received the same message. The second you turn around, you know two things.

One, Eddie had just chosen you over a guaranteed record deal in a move of friendship you are struggling to comprehend.

And two, even through the pouring rain, you and everyone else in the building have a perfect view of Steve Harrington body checking Billy and sending him sprawling back on the sidewalk. 

Perfect.

Taglist:

he wasn’t really like that though until post s3…. when for the first time in his life he truly thought he was going to die down there in that bunker and that he’d never get to see you again. and that begins his obsession with needing to worship you… to tell you just how much he loves you… how much he needs you.

s4 he nearly dies again and his psyche is holding on by a thread at this point with max clinically dying, eddie dying, and himself getting his flesh shredded by the demobats. he’s in pain…not just physically but mentally too…. but even with his torso wrapped and his neck killing him he needs to feel you. needs to feel you wrapped around him…. feel your tight wet heat around his cock…. feel your warm skin under his hands as he holds your hips while you ride him slowly…. needs to have you so close to him that no one could tell where you end and he begins.