i'm just a dirtbag, baby

[dacre montgomery, cis male, he/him] who’s that? oh it’s [billy hargrove]. i hear they’re [22] and are known as [the dirtbag] around [hawkins]. they’re known to be [charming & independent] and [competitive & unpredictable]. some people say they remind them of [the lingering smell of cigarette smoke long after the butt has been put out, bruises covering carved muscular abs, and a white lighter resting in a half empty marlboro pack]. they [do not] believe they died. 

Though it’d been apparently years since he’d been at the most popular make out spot in Hawkins (popularized by his friend, Steve Harrington), Jack found himself heading back there tonight. He needed to clear his head, to sit by the water and crack open a beer by himself without his family worrying about whether he was hungry or tired. His mother had been doting on him for the past few days, trying to squeeze in enough mothering to make up for tears of not having her youngest child around. He felt suffocated, but Jack couldn’t really blame her—it had been apparently his decision to run off to the woods, after all. 

It seemed that someone else had the very same idea, because as Jack approached the rock, he heard a familiar voice. “That you, Hargrove?” he called out, finding exactly who he’d expected to be sitting against the rock. Though he wasn’t very close with Billy in high school, they had apparently had the same idea to join a commune in the woods, and Jack could vaguely remember seeing him there. “Mind if I join you? I’ve got an extra beer,” he offered. “I needed to get the fuck away from my mom, who would make me rich by now if I had a dollar for every time she said she’s missed me since coming home,” Jack said with a laugh. 

.

        “Yeah, it’s me, don’t cream your pants.” Billy responded, a sense of deja vu running through him. With a shrug of his shoulders it was gone. “As long as you aren’t waiting for someone.” The spot was popular for couples who wanted an adventure or didn’t have anywhere else to go. If that was the case for Jack, he didn’t want any part in it. They would have to find somewhere else. This spot was claimed for the night, or at least for the next few hours. Billy was avoiding going back to the Mayfield trailer. His father wasn’t there which was a relief but there was a strong sense of estrangement within the thin walls of the trailer. It was a thick, almost suffocating feeling. 

        “Hand it over.” He beckoned, raising his hand to retrieve the can. There was unidentifiable pang that hit his heart at the mention of Jack’s mother missing him. There had been none of that upon Billy’s arrival back from commune. He father had run away at his first chance back to California and the Mayfield’s, well, they weren’t exactly the most welcoming. In fact, his step-sister, if she could even be called that anymore, was the opposite of welcoming. “Lucky you.” He blew sarcasm out the with smoke as he exhaled another drag from the cigarette. “Too bad she doesn’t miss you enough to actually give you a dollar every time she says it.” 

Peter wasn’t a Hawkins local by any means. In fact, he wanted to get out of Hawkins and back to his research, but here he was, planted in a town he had only heard of in conversations. The trailer park was shit, Melvald’s was shit, surely there had to be some other place to occupy his time that wasn’t an absolute shithole. Hawkins had occasional tourists, there had to be a reason why. 

His head was throbbing, sifting through cases all night. Since his arrival in Hawkins, he had decided to do his proper research. Find out what more was going on other than people rising from the dead. Where did it all come from? How did it start? Peter had been debriefed in Indianapolis, but a few hours wouldn’t cut it to fill him in on Demogorgons, Russians, and Mindflayers (oh my!). Taking a late night walk led him into the forest, then to Skull Rock. A place he was rather unfamiliar about. 

Hearing another voice, he held his hands up as if he had gotten caught stealing candy. “Chill out, I’m not trying to kidnap you,” he said, stomping on another branch for good measure. It was dark and Peter never could see well, but as he walked closer and focused his eyes, he noticed who it was. William Hargrove. AKA Billy. Twenty-Two. Grade-A Asshole. Billy had the most interesting file he had read. “You that mullet kid?”

.

      Billy scoffed, a small exhale of a laugh at the thought of the other man trying to kidnap him. The stranger may have been taller but sizing him up, Billy thought he could take him in a fight if it came down to it. “Nobody said you were.” He replied, waiting for the voice to come into view. The fact that this man’s presumption was that he assumed the stranger was here to kidnap him sat strangely. Billy didn’t linger on it long, deciding it was an offhanded comment that meant nothing. 

      His eyes met those of the once disembodied voice. Now, he understood why the man had said he wasn’t there to kidnap Billy. It wasn’t every day you ran into someone who looked exactly like what you would imagine if someone mentioned the word kidnapper. He was a lanky, looming figure with limbs so long it felt like he could reach out and grab Billy from where he stood. “Depends on who mean by ‘mullet kid’.” 

it had been a busy week in the life of max mayfield. from work, to graduating, and trying to beat down unknown creatures from beyond, most quiet moments were spent reminding herself to breathe. she came home from work that night immediately so she could clean up around the trailer, maybe even make her and her mom a dinner that wasn’t frozen. susan, however, threw a wrench in that plan by missing her shift to get drunk and pass out in her bedroom. max hadn’t even gotten the chance to try and lecture her about how irresponsible that was yet. so instead, she carried on with angrily picking up around the house. she had finished putting her mom’s laundry into her drawers for her when a knock came at the door. max was expecting maybe one of the little kids who lived in the park or a neighbor wanting to borrow some sugar, neither of which she had time for. the moment she cracked the door open she started, “i’m busy can you–” 

at the sight of billy, max froze, a deer in headlights. the onslaught of her thoughts were drowned out by the immediate effort she made to see if she could hear a clock. she was met with nothing but the sound of her music playing faintly from inside the trailer. he couldn’t be here. he just couldn’t. in a panic, max slammed the door in his face, locking it. she grabbed the nearest thing that might work as a weapon, which happened to be her shoe that was sitting on the floor beside the door. if this wasn’t billy, what was it? and even worse, what if it was? standing at the ready, she yelled through the door, “go away! do you hear me? go the fuck away!” desperate for this to end and utterly mortified, she began furiously throwing herself at the door and banging on it in hopes that it would scare him off.

all the commotion brought susan mayfield in a tired and drunken haze from her room. it all happened so quickly, maxine, what? she slurred, walking to the door and opening it. susan looked to max, let your brother, inside. she said, unlocking the door and letting billy in, im going back to sleep. susan then stumbled back to her room like billy had just left for the store and not died. picking up her slacked jaw, max gripped the shoe that was still in her hand tighter and eyed billy who was now inside. “billy.” she greeted him, voice shaking. max’s eyes followed him like he might snap at any moment and demanded he tell her, “what are you doing here?”

.

       The slam of the door caused Billy to exhale a deep sigh of frustration. It wasn’t that he had expected to be welcomed back with open arms after running away to go live in the woods, but he had hoped the separation and the time would have eased up that bitchy attitude Max had always had. Clearly not. Reaching a hand into the front pocket of his jeans, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Sliding an individual one out, he placed it between his lips as the yelling started. 

Go away! Do you hear me? Go the fuck away!

       He would have loved nothing more than to go away again, to leave this shitty little town and move back to California. It was all he had wanted since they had moved away. The only reason they had moved to buck fuck nowhere was because of Max and her inability to be normal. She had to be the sad little girl who ran away from home because she couldn’t accept her parent’s divorce. There was no denying, nowhere to run to in Hawkins, Indiana. It wasn’t like she could skate to her dad’s house and hide from the truth. Here she had to face it, the same way that Billy always had. He didn’t have another parent to run to when things got hard. All he had was the harsh reality of his life. Pulling the unlit cigarette from his mouth, he yelled back to the closed door. “Love to, but I need to talk to Susan first!” If he was going to leave, he had to know where Neil had gone.

      As if on cue, Susan’s voice could be heard from the other side of walls. A smug smile curved along the edge of his jaw. Placing the cigarette back in his mouth, he reached for the white lighter that sat among the other cigarettes, rolling his thumb over the metal starter, a small fire grew to life. It was just enough to light the smoke. Flicking the fire out, he placed the lighter back where it belonged and shoved the Marlboro pack back in his pocket. Taking a long drag, he heard the door unlock, eyes moving to face it once again. “Thank you, Susan.” Billy offered her the closest thing he could muster to a sincere smile as he watched her disappear towards the back of the trailer. Once she was gone, his attention turned back towards Max. Eyeing the shoe in her hand, he quirked a brow, curious to see what she would do with it. She had always been a fighter and if there was one thing he had to say he liked and disliked the most about her it would be that fighting spirit. 

       “Maxine.” He mumbled a greeting through pressed lips. Taking a step into the trailer, he looked around, taking another drag from the cigarette. “Nice place.” The sarcasm dripped from his words like the venom from a snake after it’s bitten. The trailer was a step down from their old house on Cherry Lane. Ignoring her question, he asked one of his own. “Where’s my dad?” 

so maybe going looking for clues on his own wasn’t his smartest idea, but when the compass on his desk started whirring and no one had picked up on the walkie, what else was lucas supposed to do, exactly? wait until morning? no. that was stupid. so, armed with the wrist rocket and a flashlight, he set off into the night. he’d taken his bike because it could get through smaller spaces and it was faster than going on foot. it kind of felt like a blast from the past, creeping through the woods with his dim headlight guiding the way. with all the weird stuff happening in hawkins, it sure felt like he was thirteen again. 

and the person he ran into only supported that feeling. he saw billy before billy noticed lucas. he planned on just creeping away without saying anything. he’d even killed the lights as he hopped off of the bike, but as soon as his feet hit the ground, a stick broke underfoot. his hands clenched on the handles of his bike. maybe he hadn’t seen…?

the words sent a prickle down his spine. he hadn’t seen billy in years and he was perfectly fine with that. they’d never exactly been on the same page, so he wasn’t particularly sad when the guy seemingly disappeared a few years ago. but lucas was no coward. and he wasn’t thirteen anymore. 

“okay, well, i was just…” he scrambled for an excuse that didn’t make him sound insane and came up with “i’m meeting someone.” that was probably not the right thing to say, but lucas pressed onward. “out at that campsite near route 40. so i’ll just…” go. he’ll just go. it was fine. probably.

.

      Billy knew that voice. It was different, deeper than he remembered, but he couldn’t forget that element of squeakiness in it. It was then that he saw the younger man’s figure move against the tree line. “Sinclair? Is that you?” He, just like Max, had changed. Not only was his voice deeper, but he was taller. His age showed in his more defined jaw and lack of acne. Billy wondered if again, just like Max, his attitude had stayed the same. Was he still that same kid who didn’t know how to listen to what he was told, or did someone beat that lesson into him? Curiosity sparked in his eyes. 

       “You were just?” Billy encouraged, rolling his wrist in attempt to keep him talking. “Spit it out, Sinclair. I don’t have all night.” He said before Lucas even had a chance to say anything, always wanting to put unnecessary pressure on Max’s-? That thought lead to another and suddenly Billy had fallen down a rabbit hole. What were Max and Lucas now? Were they former classmates? Were they exes? Were they together? He had always suspected that there was more going on between the two than younger step-sister let on. 

       “Who’re you meeting?” Billy stood, taking another drag from the cigarette, he made his way towards the bicycle. It was funny how much had changed but at the same time so little. Wrapping his palm around one of the handles, he attempted to keep it in place so that Lucas couldn’t run off without providing satisfactory answers. “I really hate repeating myself, but I’ll do it just this once. I said: who’re you meeting?”

a knock on the front door followed by the discovery of a mysterious note slipped partially under the porch doormat that morning had been a surprise. even more so at the realization that the note was addressed to none other than herself. skull rock. 10pm. come alone. karen initially thought nothing of it, balling the note up into a ball and throwing it into the garbage. however, for the remainder of the day her mind was in turmoil. who sent it? and should she… attend? no, she couldn’t possibly. it was probably just a prank, one of mike’s friends. 

and yet, apparently the temptation ended up being just too great. it was foolish to venture out into the woods at this time of night. what was she thinking? and no one knew where exactly she was going  — a quick thinking lie to ted concerning an emergency ladies night with joyce byers had ensured that. karen was already beginning to have regrets.

oh god, was that… billy hargrove? that was impossible, the last karen had seen of him had been the summer of ‘85. where in short, her better judgement had kicked in just before they were about to cross a serious line. and in the following days he’d seemed extremely off, not that karen could blame him, she had stood him up after all. but that was three years ago. peering ahead, she took a few careful steps forward  — just had to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks. on the last step, a stick snapped beneath her feet and she mentally cursed before revealing herself from the shadows. “so it was you? the note?”

.

       Now that he had decided to join normal society again, a place he should have never left, there was only one thing he wanted to revisit from life before the commune. The last thing he could remember before things began to get hazy, was walking out the door of the house on Cherry Lane to his 1979 Chevrolet Camaro z/28, ready to meet Karen at the Motel 6 for private swimming lessons. Then it all goes cloudy and he’s not able to really make out the rest. It was a real bummer considering he couldn’t remember what would have been his best night in Hawkins since arriving in the shithole of a town. 

       Karen awoke a desperation within Billy that he had never experienced until the summer of 1985. Before then, women came to him, not the other way around. The mother of three turned his whole world upside down in the best way possible though. She was unlike anyone else in Hawkins and made his stay much more bearable. That was why she was his first thought. His attraction to her was undeniable and despite having a husband and children, one even the same age as him, he wanted nothing but her in his bed. If he couldn’t remember the first time, he would make up for it with a second, much more memorable time. 

        Upon seeing Karen backdropped by the dark woods that surrounded Skull Rock, Billy’s features seemed to soften, looking less like they were carved from stone. “So it was me.” He confirmed, voice a song across the quiet night. Using his palms to push off from the ground, he stood to approach her. “You came.” Part of him thought that she might not just because so much time had passed, but there she stood. “I didn’t know how else to reach you since I don’t exactly run into you at the pool anymore.”

shit. jo cursed herself as she heard the loud twig break under her shoe - damn those thick, heavy soles of her doc martens - briefly weighed the pro’s and con’s of running away in her mind. but then decided, well, fuck it. to hell with it. she’d already come all this way, escaping the busy foreman house, filled with unlikeable adults her parents were apparently ‘friends’ with. she wasn’t going to go back now.

so, with a sigh, she carefuly stepped out, a cigarette of her own dangling between her lips, unlit. for a moment the dull sounds of the scorpion’s ‘love at first sting’ echoed through her headphones into the dark and quiet night, and she quickly pressed a button on her walkman, the tape whirred to a stop.

“uh. sorry, man. didn’t mean to, like, perv on you.”, jo muttered, pulled the headphones down around her neck. “this is kinda like my spot.” well, skull rock was a popular place, especially with couples during the early hours of the evening. but at night it seemed to be only ever her who came here, for some peace of mind.

“you got a light by any chance?”

.

       Billy’s eyes roamed over the woman’s figure as she appeared in the dim moonlight. The cigarette between her lips was the first thing to catch his attention, a brow shooting up in curiosity before returning to join the other. 

       “This is your spot?” He turned his head to look around at the woods that surrounded them. “Skull Rock or the woods?” Saying this was pretty vague and he wanted to make sure he understood which spot she was talking about, because if it was Skull Rock there was no way he wasn’t going to laugh. Skull Rock belonged to everyone with working genitals in Hawkins. It was the most popular make out spot in the shitty little town. 

        Reaching into his pocket, he slid the beat up Marlboro package from his tight jeans. Flipping the lid open with his thumb, he turned it over, letting the lighter slide out before the cigarettes had a chance. Turning it back over, he closed the box and slid it back into his front pocket before flashing the lighter at her. 

hawkins was tiny, insignificant, and overall really boring. when thad didn’t have nancy to hang around with, it felt like he was perpetually twiddling his thumbs, waiting for something to happen. most of his nights were spent getting tipsy on the hood of his car outside of the motel 6, then crashing in bed for the night. it definitely wasn’t his usual summer in the hamptons to say the least. he didn’t bother trying to be hopeful that it was going to better. there was positively no way. not in this dump.

even the drinking atop his car was getting tedious, especially alone. he had been having a tough time finding his crowd here in hawkins. it was like he was being punished for being better than everyone else. tessa was alright, of course there was nancy, and maybe even that steve kid if he was in a good mood, but other than that, all of his interactions had been utterly exhausting. deciding that maybe it was time for a change of scenery, thad had pulled off the side of the road near the woods, grabbed a six pack from his front seat, and began hiking for any notable spot. 

i can hear you, shithead. 

thad jumped, but he recovered quickly by puffing out his chest and calling back, “i can hear you too, man.” thinking that it was a decent enough comeback, he drew closer to the voice, not exactly eager for an interaction with some random local in the woods, but he couldn’t ignore a conversation he actively continued. thad held up his case of drinks, then looked at the sitting figure, “want a beer, pal?”

.

       The voice that responded wasn’t a familiar, not that many in Hawkins were, but this one was the complete opposite. This was a stranger. The reply was a weak comeback, reminding him of something that Tommy would have come up with to get back at Steve. Billy waited until the figure grew closer, eyes locked onto the stranger, lips curled around the cigarette resting between his teeth. He half expected Tommy to be the one to come into view, but the only person who did was someone who looked just as out of place as Billy felt in Hawkins. 

      Fuck it. There wasn’t an obvious reason not to take a beer from the stranger. “Why not?” Billy stood, using the palms of his hands to press against the ground and push himself up. “Haven’t seen you around before.” He stated the obvious as this was their first meeting, at least to Billy’s knowledge. “Who are you?” The curiosity clear in the tilt of his head, mimicking the stone now behind him. 

      Sitting underneath the tilted rock, Billy leaned his head back, letting the smoke fill his lungs, replacing the oxygen with toxic fumes instead. It made him feel alive, something he hadn’t felt in years. Joining a tree cult hadn’t exactly been an experience he would have picked for himself, or at least he still wasn’t exactly convinced he had picked for himself no matter what anyone said to him. It beat living with his dad, but he was tired of pretending to be a hippie. The ones he had lived with for the past few years hadn’t even been the cool kind from what he could remember. It was all cloudy, misted with a heavy fog he couldn’t quite make it through. The memories he did have felt surreal like something out of a dream though.

       It wasn’t until his lungs began to burn, begging for oxygen, that he released the smoke from them. Using his forefinger and thumb, he pulled the cigarette from between his lips, watching as the smoke dissipated into the cool air around him. A sharp snap broke the silence and Billy’s head turned in the direction it had echoed from, curious to see who was approaching the popular make out spot, he spoke into dark night. “I can hear you, shithead.”

        It hadn’t been too hard to track the Mayfield’s down, to find out that they had been hiding in Forest Hills Trailer Park all this time. In fact, it had taken a couple questions around town and maybe about thirty minutes to find out that they had moved. Something about Neil leaving and abandoning the Mayfield’s. In all honesty, Billy hadn’t been paying much attention. He didn’t care about the circumstances but the fact that his father was supposedly gone had piqued his curiosity. 

        The flimsy door to the trailer swung open and Billy turned his head to meet the eyes of his greeter. He had expected his father or even Susan, but the face that greeted him at the door was none other than his younger step-sister, Maxine. There was something different about her. She looked older, more mature. She had lost some of the baby fat in her cheeks, even growing taller than he remembered her being the last time he had seen her. Brushing it off, he convinced himself it was just his time in the woods playing tricks on his memory. “Hey, Maxine.” Billy’s eyes sparkled in the dim outdoor light, mischief reflected in the smirk that pulled the edge of his lips up. “Where’s Susan?”