Burning Love ~ Billy Hargrove ( +18)

Chapter 5

The previous afternoon, after class, I decided to take a walk around town to get away from Billy for a few hours because I was sure we would argue again as always, and although sometimes I liked to tease him, I was not in the mood to fight with him. I took Max to the arcade with Neil's car, since obviously Billy wouldn't even dream of letting me use his precious blue Camaro to get around; and Neil, as long as I took care of Max and kept her out of the house for a few hours, was happy to lend me his car.

I dropped Max off at the arcade and saw that the same boys who stared at her at school were also there. It was a good thing I took her instead of Billy, otherwise the three of us would be in another fight. I arranged with Max to pick her up at 7:30 PM to go home for dinner. In the meantime, I wandered through a few small shops looking for a costume for tomorrow's party.

I usually enjoyed looking for costumes or shopping for clothes, but this shitty little town doesn't even have a mall, so searching for a costume was more of a tedious chore than a pleasure. Finally, after wandering around endlessly, I got the costume I wanted and went to pick up Max to go back home.

***

The next day at school wasn't much different from the previous one; it was just as boring as always. Some guy approached me with less-than-decent intentions, but I preferred to save myself for the night—I wanted to have a good time. Regarding Billy, I tried to talk to him as little as possible, only when necessary.

The only good thing about Tina and the others being his lapdogs was that I could get rid of him for quite some time since he enjoyed seeing how they fawned over him. Nothing boosted his ego more than that, even though he never did anything with any of them, he simply enjoyed feeding his ego a bit more each day with the girls drooling over him.

We had the last hour free, so I decided to make a small effort and go to the library to try to catch up. I found it terribly tedious, but I had to get through the course no matter what—it was for a greater good. First, I'd get myself out of there, and then I'd try to get Max and my mom out of the hole with Neil, although with my mom, it would be more difficult because, for some reason, she was still blind and unwilling to divorce Neil.

After about 15 minutes in the library, I noticed Nancy and Steve talking. Nancy had a somewhat distressed look on her face, a mix of worry and anger, and Steve seemed to be trying to calm her down. At one point, my gaze met Steve's. He sighed, looked away, and took Nancy to a separate room. My curiosity was piqued, and I wondered what could be so serious that they had to talk in such secrecy.

"Since when do you pay attention to losers?" Billy's voice snapped me back to reality. "I thought you had higher standards."he said mockingly.

"Since when do you care who I pay attention to and who I don't?" I replied irritably, turning my gaze to my notes. "Are you so bored that you have nothing better to do than watch who I look at or don't look at?"

"I told you not to go near him, Madeleine." he said, sitting down in front of me, dropping his hand onto my papers to get my attention.

"What do you want, Billy?" I sighed, looking up to meet his eyes. "Don't you have your entourage of girls to entertain you, that you have to come and bother me?" I tapped my pencil on the table repeatedly, annoyed.

"I'm already bored of them for today, and besides, I'll have to deal with them tonight." he said, squinting as he leaned back in the chair and draped an arm over the backrest.

"As if it's such a burden having all the girls at your feet." I shook my head. "If that's all, can you leave me alone now?"

"Since when do you care so much about studying?"