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Steve hadn’t been expecting much when he’d first met his roommates a few months ago. Hell, he hadn’t even been expecting to get into college at the way his grades looked at the end of high school. It wasn’t that Steve wasn’t smart, he was, but he wasn’t smart in the way that he could flawlessly explain the plot and meaning of The Picture of Dorian Gray or look at a circle and remember exactly what to do to find its area. No, he was smart in the way that he could read people, he could figure out exactly what was wrong in a situation and how to fix it, even if the person insisted they didn’t need his help. Of course, that’s not the kind of smart that universities look for, but his grades were good enough that he at least managed to get his diploma, and the fact that he was a Harrington actually came in handy when the admissions committee looked over his application. His father was an alumni, and that coupled with the very generous donation to help fund the school’s new library had ensured Steve a place in the student body the following semester.
It also landed him a place in one of the biggest and best student dorm buildings, which was typically reserved for the smartest students and the upperclassmen, as sort of a way of saying ‘congratulations, you’re making us look good, which earns us money, so take this as a prize’. Apparently, it was also reserved for the students whose parents paid top dollar to get them in in the first place.
Steve had expected his two roommates to be among that group. After all, he knew before he met them that they were his age, so they couldn’t be upperclassmen, and he didn’t think they’d put him with kids who could get an A on every test or paper, especially since he’d probably only dumb them down or distract them from their studies by asking them stupid questions. So, rich assholes like himself were what Steve was expecting when he popped his key into the lock on moving day.
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
The first thing he saw when he’d pushed the door open that day was a mop of dark brown curls racing around the room, taking a bunch of mugs from a big cardboard box and rushing over to place them in one of the wooden cabinets next to the stove. The guy didn’t look rich, in fact, he looked quite the opposite. He was wearing an old faded t-shirt, sweatpants with stains splattered all over them, and socks with holes worn into them to expose a few of his toes. He was the same height as Steve was, but much thinner, his only real muscles showing in his arms. Other than that, the guy was practically a stick figure, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t handsome. His face was very attractive, with big brown doe eyes and plush pink lips that held a killer smile. Steve had sworn to himself that he wasn’t going to get a crush on either of his roommates, but that promise was already being broken as the guy finally looked up from his mugs and saw Steve in the doorway.
“Oh, hi! Sorry, I didn’t see you there. I assume you're one of my roomies?” The guy said, walking over and holding out a hand as he smiled at Steve.
“Yeah, Steve Harrington,” he replied, taking the guy’s hand and grinning back, turning on the charm as he shook it. It was big and warm and covered in calluses, but it still felt soft in Steve’s firm grip.
“Rad, I’m Eddie. Actually, I’m Edward Patrick George Munson the Fourth, but everyone calls me Eddie for some reason,” the guy said, sarcasm slipping into his words and making Steve laugh. This guy was actually kind of funny.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Edward Patrick George Munson the Fourth,” Steve said, definitely not trying to flirt. It just so happened that when he turned on his charm, he couldn’t turn it off.
“Likewise, Steve Harrington,” Eddie said and dropped his hand, placing it on his hip instead. “So, I think I only have one more box to unpack, but it’s just clothes and stuff, so I can help you bring your stuff in, if you want.”
“Sure, man, thanks,” Steve said, picking up the duffel bag he’d brought in with him. The rest of his stuff was in his car, he hadn’t brought much, but it would be enough to fill the small rooms of the suite.
“Yeah, of course,” Eddie said, shrugging as he pulled on his shoes, a pair of Vans that looked one wrong step away from falling apart. “So, I took the bedroom on this side of the suite, it’s closest to the kitchen and farthest from the other two rooms. I figured that it’d be easier on you and our other roommate since I’m a bit of a night owl and I tend to get restless and walk around at night. But it’s first come, first serve, so you can have whichever room you want over there.”
Eddie pointed over to the left of the suite, where there were three more doors. The one in the middle led to the bathroom, Steve figured, so he walked over and looked into the other two rooms. The one to the right of the bathroom was a little bit smaller, but it had a window with a decent view, and it was more than enough room for Steve to be happy in it.
He set his duffel on the bed and hung his jacket over the back of the desk chair, going out to meet Eddie in the living area again before they went down to Steve’s car to get as many boxes as they could and bring them back upstairs. They managed to get them all in one trip, which is how Steve found out two things that made his entire upper body feel like a furnace. One, Eddie looked amazing with his hair pulled back, and two, he was a lot stronger than he looked. He shook the thoughts out of his head as he shut the trunk again, picking up the boxes he had to carry and followed Eddie upstairs, not looking at his ass as they went. Not at all.
When they got back into their suite, they were greeted with quite a sight. There was another person in there, a guy with no shirt on, tight, black cargo shorts clinging to his muscular legs, and white socks just barely peeking over his black, high-top Converse sneakers. He looked a little less homeless than Eddie did, but he still didn’t look like he was as rich as Steve was. He was a little bit shorter than them, but he had the most muscle mass out of the three of them, which made him look absolutely huge to the other two, and his skin was tinted with a golden tan that matched his curly blond hair. The ringlets fell down his neck in a mullet cut, which, despite being about twenty years out of style, looked absolutely fantastic on him. But probably the most noticeable thing about him was the little details that dotted his skin, the skull-with-a-cigarette tattoo on his large bicep, the little black dagger dangling from his earlobe, the turquoise pendant hanging around his neck, and the little silver bars that pierced the guy’s pretty pink nipples.
“Uh, h-hi,” Steve said, cringing a little as the guy’s attention snapped to them. Smooth, Harrington, he thought, feeling his cheeks get even hotter when the guy smirked at him. He glanced at Eddie for help, and he could’ve sworn he saw his cheeks going a little pink, but he couldn’t be sure.
“Hi yourself,” the guy in the middle of the room said, smiling brightly at them, and that’s when Steve finally took a second to look at his face. The guy before him was absolutely gorgeous . He had a slit in one of his eyebrows, which were too perfectly shaped to be natural, he must get them threaded or something. They sat above sparkly blue eyes, the same color as the icy arctic ocean, and framed by long, dark lashes. His smile was warm, but it held a bit of mischief in it, and his teeth were so straight and white that he looked like he should be in one of those annoying toothpaste ads on TV, the kind with the stupid jingles that gets stuck in your head. He had a thin little mustache beneath his strong nose, which was pierced with a stud on the right side of it, opposite his earring and the eyebrow slit, which were both on the left side. His jaw looked sharp enough to cut through diamonds, and it flexed just like his arms as he crossed them over his broad chest and he opened his mouth to speak.
“I assume you two are my roommates, right?” He asked, and despite being the shortest of the three of them, the other two felt a little small under his gaze, especially when his tongue darted out to wet his lips, and they saw the silver stud in the middle of it.
“Uh, yeah, I’m Eddie,” the dark-haired man said, shaking his head to bring himself out of a trance before jerking it in Steve’s direction. “This is Steve. And I guess that means you’re-”
“Billy. Billy Hargrove,” the man said, grinning like the damn cheshire cat as he cut Eddie off.
“Well it’s, um, it’s nice to meet you, Billy,” Steve said, trying not to blush the color of the shirt he assumed was Billy’s that was hanging off the arm of the couch. He mustn't have done too good a job, though, from the way Billy beamed at him as his cheeks burned hotter.
“Same to you,” he said, before turning from the two of them and going back to what he was doing as they scurried away into Steve’s room, shutting the door behind them.
“Holy fuck ,” Eddie said as soon as the latch clicked on the door.
“That’s the understatement of the year,” Steve said, putting the boxes he was carrying on the floor and slumping down to sit on the bed, his legs dangling off the side.
“Okay, good, so you saw what I saw, right? The most handsome man I’ve ever laid eyes on was just standing in our living room and he’s going to be living with us? I’m not having a wet dream right now?” Eddie asked, sounding a little frantic as he sat opposite Steve on the bed, criss-crossing his legs and leaning forward a little.
“Nope, definitely not dreaming, I saw him, too,” Steve replied, nervously drumming his fingers on his knee. If he were asked before today how he thought he might die, he would’ve said something like old age or some kind of illness, but now he was sure it was going to be the fault of the two beautiful men he shared a living space with. What a way to go.
“Alright, so you get it? I’m not a freak for thinking he was the embodiment of sex on two legs, right?” Eddie asked, his big eyes glowing in the overhead lights.
“No, you’re absolutely correct. If you looked up the word ‘lust’ in the dictionary, his picture would be there, 100%,” Steve said, looking over at Eddie and swallowing before adding, “Which, uh, side note: this conversation gives me the perfect opportunity to tell you something. I wasn’t planning on saying anything, but I feel like you’re not gonna, like, toss me out my own window if I tell you, so there’s that. Um…” He paused and took another breath. Other than his best friend Robin, he’d never told anyone about his orientation. He never felt ashamed about it, it was just a part of who he was, but he’d never really felt the need to tell anyone else. But now he felt like if he didn’t tell Eddie he would burst, just combust and paint the room in goop that used to make up his body. So he bit his lip and breathed deeply again, and looked Eddie in the eyes as he said, “I’m bisexual. Just, uh, just so you know. It would’ve felt weird to talk like this without you knowing, so, uh, I hope you’re, like, okay with that.”
“Shit, dude, I don’t care,” Eddie said, but it wasn’t mean at all. “No, really, I’d be a hypocrite if I had something against you for that. I’m as gay as a picnic basket, myself. We’re cool, dude.”
Eddie smiled kindly and gave him a fist bump to seal the deal, and before they knew it, they were back to their regularly scheduled programming, both of them freaking out like school girls as they talked about the other boy they were going to have to live with for at least the next year. They were deep into their conversation of just exactly what they thought of all those piercings he had when a sharp knock came to the door, Billy opening it up before Steve could even say to come in.
“Jesus, you two were in here so long, I thought I might catch you suckin’ each other off or something,” he said with a bright smile. He was wearing a shirt now, the same maroon button down that had been hanging on the couch earlier, but it was open except for maybe the bottom three buttons and his shorts were switched out for a pair of tight black skinny jeans complete with a studded belt and a shiny wallet chain.
“And so you, naturally, decided to waltz right in like you own the place, huh?” Steve said, trying his best to make it seem like he had not just been telling Eddie exactly what he wanted to do with Billy’s nipple piercings.
“Hey, I knocked first,” Billy replied, putting his hands up and shrugging in a show of innocence. “Besides, I’m just fuckin’ with you. Actually, I just wanted to ask you guys something.”
“Shoot,” Eddie said, ignoring the way his heartbeat ticked up a notch.
“What kind of food do you guys like? Italian, Chinese, Greek, Mexican, American, pick your poison,” Billy said, counting them off on his fingers.
“Uh, Chinese, I guess?” Eddie answered, glancing at Steve in confusion.
“I’m more inclined to Greek, myself. Why?” Steve asked, looking up at Billy.
“Well, I figured we’re gonna be living together for the next year, I might as well take you to dinner and get to know you a bit better. Might as well at least act like a decently polite person before I show you my bad side,” Billy shrugged, casual as ever. “Besides, I checked the fridge. I thought between the three of us I’d at least be able to make myself a sandwich, but it looks like all any of us bought was ramen cups and energy drinks.”
“I guess I’ll go change then. Uh, thanks, man,” Eddie said, standing from the bed and stretching.
“No biggie,” Billy shrugged, turning to leave, but adding with a smile, “But if you aren’t ready in five minutes, I’m leaving without you.”
Steve and Eddie both shook their heads, but they still smiled as they got ready to leave. Billy drove them all in his vintage 1983 blue Camaro, blasting classic rock and singing along to it with Eddie. They finally agreed on getting Chinese food that night, and they’d gotten to know each other more, just like Billy had been hoping for. They all had things in common, and they found themselves forming something like friendship as they bonded over different things. Billy and Eddie had the same taste in music and clothes, Steve and Eddie liked the same movies and comic books, and Billy and Steve enjoyed playing and watching the same sports. It felt good to become friends so easily, especially since they were all a bit worried that their roommates would be assholes. They were glad to find out that they were wrong.
“So, Harrington,” Billy asked on the way home from the restaurant, “What are you majoring in?”
“Early Childhood Education,” Steve replied, “My best friend Robin is going to Purdue when she graduates for Business Management and a minor in Entrepreneurial Skills, and when we both graduate, we’re gonna move back to our hometown and open a daycare center. The only half-decent one in our shitty little town ended up closing last year after the owner died, and since Robbie and I both used to babysit when we were in high school, we figured, why not?”
“Huh. From what I’ve heard about the Harrington legacy, I figured it would’ve been, like, Criminal Law or something like that,” Billy said, but his eyes were soft. “What about you, Munson?”
“Music Theory and Production. I play in a band, but just in case we never hit it big, I’ll have my degree as a backup plan. And if we do hit it big, then I’ll be able to produce all our albums myself and we won’t have to pay some schmuck who wants to change everything to sell more copies,” Eddie said, leaning over the center console so his head was between the other two. “And, pray tell, what are you studying, Billy-boy?”
“Well, for now I’m just trying to get my gen eds out of the way, but then,” Billy paused, making eye contact with Eddie for a moment in the rearview mirror and looking at Steve a moment later before turning back to the road and saying, “Then I’m starting the pre-med program. I’m gonna be a GTS.”
“A what now?” Steve asked, trying not to gape at Billy.
“A General Thoracic Surgeon. Basically, a doctor who focuses on diseases or injuries in the chest area. They operate on the heart, lungs, trachea, major arteries, esophagus, diaphragm, and anything else in or around the ribcage. In Layman’s terms, I’ll be cutting open people’s chests and fixing their broken organs,” Billy explained, smiling brightly at the other two’s faces. They were both looking at him like he’d just swallowed the steering wheel, their eyes as big as dinner plates and their mouths open wide. It was honestly kind of endearing, and Billy was about to tell them not to fast-track his studies by having heart attacks on him, but Eddie finally recovered from the shock, his face melting into a giant smile.
“Dr. William Hargrove, huh? I suppose that does have a nice ring to it,” he said, flicking one of Billy’s golden curls.
“Well, so does Rock and Roll Legend Eddie Munson,” Billy said, glad that it was getting dark so that they couldn’t see his blush, “And Mr. Stephen Harrington, Best Daycare Teacher in Indiana, that ain’t too bad, either.”
And that was the moment that it clicked for all of them. No matter what happened, they were going to be friends for life.
Which is why, after the first week of classes, it was so surprising when Billy seemed to drop off the face of the Earth without so much as a single word. Steve and Eddie never seemed to see him anymore. Well, maybe that’s a bit of a dramatization. They did see him from time to time when he came home to sleep or eat, and they went out to a bar once to party after they got settled in the new apartment. And they had nights where they would study until the words would swim together on the page or where Billy’s little step-sister would come over and they’d have a movie night, but they were few and far between. And if Eddie and Steve ever tried to ask where Billy went all the time, he’d get cagey and pick at his hangnails and give them some bullshit answer before running off to his room or to class or to the bathroom, just to get away from them and avoid the question.
At first they just figured he was busy with school. Pre-med was not an easy program, and they figured he was either constantly at the library or one of the study groups the med students liked to hold so they could compare notes and cram for tests. But Eddie had a friend in the med program, and she said that as soon as class was over, on most days, Billy would duck out and hop into his car, and no one would see him until class the next day.
That led them to assume Billy had someone off campus he liked to go spend his time with. They knew he didn’t get along well with his dad and step-mom, and his little sister’s weekly check-up calls were still coming in on their answering machine, so it wasn’t a family thing. They were just about to assume that Billy had a girlfriend or something, but the rainbow flag that appeared in his room the day after a package was delivered for him quickly had them scrapping that idea. And they knew it couldn’t be a boyfriend either, because from the way the sorority girls giggled about him being a constant flirt, they realized that they were probably the only people he was actually out to, even if he hadn’t told them directly. So it probably wasn’t that, either.
It wasn’t until about three weeks into the semester that Steve realized what must be up with Billy. He didn’t know why the idea of his roommate having a job didn’t dawn on him before, but once he saw the paper Billy had left out on the counter with a big A+ on the top in red pen, it clicked. Steve had gotten in with his dad’s money and his friends on the admissions board, and Eddie had told them that he’d gotten a full ride scholarship because of how smart he was. He had a job, just a day or two a week at the local book store to be able to afford groceries and things like that, so it would make sense if Billy had a job, too. After all, he’d gotten a pretty decent scholarship as well, but it wasn’t a full ride, so he still had some tuition to pay, as well as the other expenses all the kids their age had to pay. So the idea of Billy having a job made sense.
Until about three weeks later, the day they found out what his job actually was.
Steve and Eddie didn’t have any classes together except one, English 101. Every day from one to two thirty in the afternoon, they were sitting in a lecture hall, listening to Professor Zellars drone on and on about symbolism or metaphors or sentence structure in a particular novel, but today, just before they started having to get ready for class, they’d gotten an email that class was canceled, Zellars was sick. Steve was relieved, he didn’t know if he could stomach another round of discussing George Orwell’s 1984 after the awful night’s sleep he got, and was perfectly content on the couch with his peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich and Golden Girls reruns. That is, until he heard a shriek come from Eddie’s room, immediately followed by the other boy yelling, “Stephen, I swear to God, get your fucking ass in here NOW!”
Steve walked into the room and saw Eddie on his bed, his legs spread out across the covers and leaning on the wall with a pillow propped behind him. He had his laptop in his lap and open, and he was staring wide-eyed at the screen with nothing but shock. His mouth was hanging open like a dead fish, and he didn’t even look up at Steve when he came into the room. His fingers were stilled over the keyboard and mouse-pad, his index finger twitching slightly.
“From the very bottom of my heart, Edward. What. The. Fuck. Why were you screaming bloody murder at me from across the apartment?” Steve asked, looking at him with his hands on his hips, pulling what his friends liked to call his ‘DDP’, or ‘Disappointed Dad Pose’.
“Look at the screen and you’ll know why,” Eddie mumbled, voice so tiny with shock that Steve could barely hear him.
“Eddie, what are you going on about?” Steve asked, rolling his eyes but finally looking at the website Eddie was browsing, his mouth going dry as he read the site’s name at the top of the page.
“Eddie,” he swallowed, “What in the absolute fuck?! Why are you on a porn website at one in the afternoon with your door open and no goddamn headphones?!”
“Irrelevant. Look. At the fucking. Screen. Stephen,” Eddie said, sounding breathless still, but a little more confident.
Steve wanted to protest again, but he just rolled his eyes and did as Eddie said, looking at the screen and feeling like his breath had just been punched out of him. There was a profile for one of the porn stars on the display, the username ‘Dr. Feelgood’ written next to the picture icon, which showed a person with the top of their face cut off, a stethoscope hanging around the muscular neck and a couple of shiny, blood red stilettos on their feet, raising the person up by another six inches. A pair of bright green lace panties, tight black fishnet stockings and an open lab coat clung to the otherwise completely naked body. Steve knew that body. The one with the golden tan and strong muscles and shiny silver piercings. He knew that tongue with the metal rod pushed through it that was sticking out of that pretty red mouth, and the ridiculously cute hint of a mustache just above the top lip. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? It just couldn’t be.
“Ed, how the fuck did you find this?” Steve asked, his heart hammering a mile a minute in his chest. He couldn’t tell if it was from lust or anxiety.
“I don’t know! I was just perusing, looking for something to fill the slow afternoon, but then I fucking found this and I needed to make sure I wasn’t having some sort of fucked up head trip that was making me see things! I’m not, right? Like this is a real fuckin’ thing and I’m not just imagining that this is, in fact, our roommate on my fucking screen right now, right?” Eddie said, gesturing wildly with his hands and, thanks to that twitchy index finger, accidently starting one of the videos.
“Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!” He muttered, his shaky hands fumbling for the pause button. Steve just stared in disbelief at the situation before him, one of his roommates locked inside a screen and starting to get railed roughly, and the other one panicking, trying to figure out how to turn it off with his hands shaking worse than if they’d been put inside a blender. And then, just as he was about to get everything under control and shut the laptop off himself, he found he couldn’t move, the sound of the front door slamming shut halting any action he’d been planning on taking as Billy strolled in, right up to Eddie’s bedroom door.
“You two better not be fuckin’ in there,” he said, fiddling with his cell phone, and freezing as soon as he looked up into the room. Both of his roommates stood there, fully clothed and faces matching the shirt Eddie was wearing, the bright red one that said ‘I’m a bad influence, but fuck, I’m fun’, both just as frozen as he was. And then came the cherry on the fucking cake, which had Billy’s entire body drowning in the worst terror he’d ever felt, as he heard his own voice moaning out from the incredibly loud laptop with a cry of ‘ Harder, Daddy, please!’ , until Eddie finally got the video to stop, and they were stuck in the thickest, most tense silence any of them had ever felt.
And in the blink of an eye, Billy was gone, bolting like lightning back out the front door, not even bothering to acknowledge Steve and Eddie begging him to wait. He was fumbling for his keys as he got back out to the Camaro, fat, hot tears streaming down his face as he frantically searched his pockets before realizing he’d left them on the hook next to the door. He noticed he’d also forgotten to grab his shoes on the way out as well, and his tears came out faster as he grasped how really and truly fucked he was. He was spiraling, gripping onto his hair and trying to take a breath that didn’t make him feel like he was choking and trying to think of what the fuck to do. Only, he didn’t think fast enough, and by the time he was able to talk himself into just running into the woods behind their building and jumping into the quarry just beyond them, Eddie and Steve were by his side, and he switched to praying that he’d just get hit by a plane or something.
“Whoa, hey, Billy,” Steve said, gently taking his hands and trying to remove them from his hair before he tore out the strands, “Billy, just breathe. Look at me, just breathe.”
Billy felt like he couldn’t do either thing, but he did let Steve take his hands from his hair. He moved them to cover his face, doing whatever he could to try and hide himself from the other two. He knew that it was stupid, that it wasn’t how things worked, but he prayed that just this once, the universe could throw him a fucking bone and make it so that when he couldn’t see them, they would stop being able to see him. Of course, he had no such luck.
“Fuck, Bill, we’re so sorry, man,” Eddie said, sounding just as frantic and panicked as Billy felt. “We just happened to find that, and I get twitchy when I get nervous and I accidentally started the video and I couldn’t figure out how to stop it until you came in and it’s not like we wanted to see that, or- wait, no, that came out wrong. I mean, it’s not like you’re ugly or like we didn’t want to see it because we don’t think you’re attractive or anything, it’s just-”
“Edward! You are not helping!” Steve hissed at him, shooting daggers as Billy chanced a look between his fingers.
“Fuck, shit! Fuck, I’m sorry, I also ramble when I get nervous and-” he continued, his hand gestures getting wider and wilder, and Steve felt Billy flinch violently, like he was about to be slapped.
“Eds, stop!” Steve said, using one of his hands to grab at both of Eddie’s, making him stop moving, and keeping the other on Billy, trying to calm him down. “Now, look, I can’t deal with both of you freaking out on me right now, and I think we really all just need to take a breath for a minute and relax.” Steve paused, taking a deep breath and making sure Eddie and Billy both at least tried to do the same. They did, so he continued, “Good, alright. Now, it’s fucking cold out here and it looks like it’s about to rain, so why don’t we all go inside and have a nice cup of tea and just chill out for a minute, okay? Then maybe we can talk it out once we all calm down a little bit. Is that alright with you both?”
Eddie nodded quickly, his hair shaking as he ran ahead to unlock the door. Billy kept his hands over his face, but he sniffed loudly and gave a tiny nod of his head, allowing Steve to guide him up the stairs, back to their room, and to the couch, just in front of the center cushion. The TV was still playing, Three’s Company replacing the Golden Girls on the screen, but Steve clicked the remote and shut it off, and the only sound remaining in the tiny apartment was the sound of the shitty Keurig machine on the counter spitting hot water into mugs one at a time.
“Why don’t you go change into something more comfy while I get the tea ready, yeah?” Steve asked Billy, keeping his voice quiet and calm so as not to freak him out even more. Billy didn’t answer, just stood on wobbly legs and stalked into his room, shutting the door behind him. He tossed around the idea of never opening it back up again as he pulled on some sweatpants and a comfy t-shirt, but he knew that Eddie knew how to pick a lock, and Steve’s stubborn ass would be prepared to have this entire conversation through the closed door whether he liked it or not, so he decided to save them all a bit of trouble and trudged out of his room and back to his spot on the couch, tying his hair back as he went. It began to rain as he sat, and he stared out the window until the other two came back into the living room.
He still couldn’t look at either of them as they worked to make him as comfortable as possible for the most uncomfortable conversation he was probably ever going to have. Eddie draped one of his blankets over Billy’s shoulders, the soft Winnie the Pooh one that his friend Chrissy had gotten him last Christmas, and Steve set down a box of tissues in front of him on the coffee table next to a steaming mug of cranberry tea, Billy’s favorite. He took a sip of it, not even caring that it was burning his tongue, the pain at least making him feel a little less stupid for still crying as hard as he was, little hiccups and sobs floating away with the steam. He didn’t even notice Eddie and Steve sitting on either side of him, wrapped in a Spider-man and Golden Girls blanket respectively, and taking their own tentative sips from steaming mugs.
“So,” Steve said, setting his mug on the end table, “First of all, I know you’re probably really fucking far from okay right now, but are you gonna be okay if we talk about what just happened?”
Billy should’ve just said no. He should’ve gotten angry and stormed off to his room and moved out while the other two were in class the next day. He should’ve grabbed his car keys and left again and not stopped driving until he slammed into a brick wall. Or, at least, that’s what his brain was telling him he should do. But he didn’t want to do any of that, not when they were being so kind and considerate of him, so he nodded. He owed it to them to at least try to talk about it.
“Okay, good. I guess I’m just gonna go with one of the hard questions first, then. Get it over and done with, just rip the band aid off,” Steve continued, “Why did you run away? I mean, you know that Eddie and I would both be fucking hypocrites if we had a problem with your sexuality, and it wouldn’t be our place to tell you who you could and couldn’t sleep with. So what made you so scared?”
Billy swallowed around the lump in his throat, feeling yet another fat tear stream down his cheek, and he watched as it fell into the mug in his hands, disappearing in the hot red liquid already inside it. He began to mumble his response, but he stopped when he felt a warm hand come to land on his forearm.
“Bill, we can’t hear you. Could you please speak up just a little?” Eddie asked, his voice softer and more controlled now. Billy swallowed again and nodded, then tried again.
“I ran because I know how people are. I know how they judge others based on this type of thing. And I know you guys aren’t just anybody, but come on, you can’t tell me that you didn’t form at least some kind of opinion when you realized it was me in those videos. And I didn’t think anyone would ever find out, you know? Like it would just be my own little secret, something I did every now and again to make some extra cash, but no one was supposed to find out, especially not you guys,” he sighed, sounding a little defeated, “I just panicked when I realized that it was me you were watching, and I saw your faces. You looked at me different, and I just wanted it to stop. I don’t want to ever make either of you feel uncomfortable around me, and I don’t want you to think I’m this whole other person just because this is how I make my money, because I’m not. I’m still me, I’m still Billy Hargrove. But I thought you wouldn’t think of me like that anymore, so I ran.”
“Oh, Billy, we know you’re not a different person, we know you’re still you, and we’d never do anything to hurt you,” Steve said, reaching over and putting a hand on his shoulder, squeezing. “But that brings me to my next question. Earlier, while Eds was flailing his hands around, you flinched really badly, and I’ve never seen you do that before. What made you have that reaction? Did you think he was going to hit you?”
“Yeah,” Billy said, his voice quieter and quaky, “Yeah, I did think he was gonna hit me. I thought… I thought you were going to react the same way my dad would. If he knew what I was doing, he’d knock me around and berate me until I either fought back or left or he bashed my brain in. Either way, I’d probably end up getting hurt, or be the cause of someone else getting hurt. So when Eddie was moving his hands around earlier, I guess I just kinda expected the worst.”
“Oh, Bill,” Eddie sighed, rubbing his arm still, “I’m so fucking sorry. I promise, I would never, ever, in a million fucking years hurt you like that, or at all, not if I can help it. You know that, right? Please, tell me that you know that, I need you to know that.”
“I do, I know that, Ed,” Billy said, sniffling and wiping his eyes, “Still, it took more than a few weeks for Murashka to unlearn what Pavlov trained him to do. I didn’t mean to flinch that bad, but I couldn’t help it.”
“So, and please don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not judging you, I’m just genuinely curious,” Eddie continued, “If you knew that there were gonna be people that reacted like that, why did you start doing it instead of getting a different job?”
“Because with all the work I have to do for the med program, I don’t have a lot of time to spare, and definitely not enough to commit to a regular job where the hours are less than flexible. But I still need the money, I have to pay bills and save for after school and whatever else, and since I didn’t get a full ride like Ed or have the money to pay for it already like Steve, I still had tuition to pay, too. And I had a regular job, I was a lifeguard at the community pool, and I taught swimming lessons to kids to make a few extra bucks, but I was still struggling to make ends meet, especially after the pool closed after Labor Day. It was actually the day that we went to that bar that was my last at the pool, and that was why I was so eager to go, I just wanted to get shitfaced and forget about everything for once, and I could figure out what to do the day after.
“But then, while I was in the bathroom at the bar, this guy came up to me. He was older, maybe forties, but he said his name was Christopher and that he knew that look on my face. He said he knew when someone was down on their luck and was trying to drink their problems away, and he laughed and said ‘It’s a shame that such a handsome young man like you should be going through something so tough’. And I was going to tell him to fuck off, but he said he might be able to help me. And I guess I was tipsy enough to at least hear him out, so I let him talk and he said that he was a director, and that he’d be willing to pay me a couple hundred for just an hour of my time to check out his studio and help him make a movie. And I was so fucking desperate that I just said yes and he gave me his card and told me to come by his studio whenever I was free the next day.
“I know I shouldn’t have gone. I know I should’ve thrown the card out as soon as I sobered up and I shouldn’t have even thought twice about it, but I didn’t. I went to his studio, and as soon as I pulled up, I knew what I was getting into, but I figured he was gonna give me something for at least hearing him out, so I went inside anyway. And he grinned when he saw me come in, and he showed me around the studio and introduced me to some of the other stars and they were all really nice, so I thought, if he paid me enough, this gig might not be too bad. And he took me into his office and he started asking me all these questions, like if I liked what I saw and if I were to accept his offer, how much did I think was a good pay rate and if he should schedule me for an appointment to get tested for anything I might have, just in case. And I felt kinda weird about it, but we talked for a while and he said that he’d pay me $500 as a flat fee for each video I do, plus an additional $300 for every hour I spend filming.
“And I couldn’t just pass that up! It wasn’t like it was going to be too hard of work, and I was gonna be getting paid enough to cover everything I needed to and then some. So I said I’d think about it, because I was going to just say yes, but I didn’t want to get suckered into a contract or something that I couldn’t get out of if I wanted to, and he said he’d make me a deal. He said that he’d pay me the same rate to do three videos for him, and if I didn’t like it, I didn’t have to come back, we’d cut ties there, but he said if I did like it, he’d work with me to write up a contract that would work for both of us. And I figured, hey, what the hell? It was a good deal and even if I didn’t go back after those first three videos, I’d have gotten paid enough to keep me covered until I could find something else.
“So I agreed, and he told me he was happy about that, and then he launched into a whole new set of questions, like what I was going to school for and what kind of experience I’d had and what my preferences were and how old I actually was and all that, and he helped me to build up this persona that he said was ‘my new identity’. He said that as soon as I walked on set, I was no longer Billy Hargrove, I was Dr. Feelgood, and he said he’d just call me The Doc. It was a little weird, but I just went with it, and he told me to come back the next day so we could build up the profile and talk more in depth about the things I was and wasn’t okay with, and he took a bunch of pictures after we talked, saying he needed them for the profile and whatnot. And I let him. He was actually a really nice guy at first, considerate of my boundaries and not asking me to do anything I wasn’t okay with. So, by the time the first three videos were done, and we drew up the contract, I thought that was just gonna be how it worked all the time. But the next time I went in for a shoot, Christopher had… changed.”
Billy took in a shaking breath as he let the other two absorb all that he’d just told them. He had finished his tea by now, but he didn’t put down the mug. It was one of the ones Eddie had brought, a logo for some tourist attraction in Muncie printed on it, and Billy studied it as if it were the most interesting thing he’d ever seen, just so he wouldn’t have to look them in the eye.
“You said this guy, Christopher, he… changed. What do you mean by that?” Steve asked gently, encouraging Billy to keep going. He knew he probably hated every second of this, but he also knew how much it was eating away at him, and he needed to talk about it, to let it out so he could let go.
“I mean he… he just… stopped being so nice. As soon as I scribbled my signature on the contract, he must’ve figured he owned me or something, because he just stopped being so considerate. If I went in for a shoot and my partner couldn’t find a condom or something, he wasn’t going out of his way to find one anymore. He would just tell them to pull out before they shot their load or something. Or, if I was with someone doing a scene and he told me to hit them or something, I would stop and tell him I wasn’t going to do that, I’m not into that shit, and he’d just yell at me that that’s what the shot called for and if I didn’t like it, I could just swap places with my partner and take the hit instead of dishing it out. And I told him at the beginning that I was alright with multiple partners at one time, but no more that like two or three at once. And he just totally ignored me, and he had me do a shoot with five other guys at once, and I wanted to complain, but I was scared that if I pissed him off, he wouldn’t pay me the extra cash he said he’d give me for each partner back when we established the contract.
“After that shoot, I was sore for almost three days, and I had to go and get tested again because the one guy I was with was new, and I didn’t know if he’d been tested or not yet, and I didn’t want to risk it. And the same receptionist was working at the clinic that day, and when she saw that I’d been in only a few weeks before for an STD test, she gave me this look , like she knew exactly what was going on and I couldn’t have cared less if she approved or not, but it wasn’t just a look of disapproval. She looked at me like I was some kind of disgusting, otherworldly creature that had come to, like, eat her and everyone she cared about. And honestly, I kind of felt like I deserved it, because I was just as disgusted with myself at that point.” Billy swallowed thickly, trying to will the tears away as he continued, feeling undeserving of the soft, sweet touches of his friends as they tried to soothe him.
“I had to wait what felt like an eternity for the doctor to come in and do the test, and my mind was racing with just all these horrible thoughts as I waited. What if something really terrible happened on the set, and when I begged for them to stop, they would just ignore me? What if one day, Maxie or one of her friends would stumble upon one of the videos, and the rest of my family found out? What if I really did have an STD? What if the university found out and I lost my scholarship, or worse, they kicked me out of school? All these things were just circling around in my mind, and I was honestly about to have a breakdown right there in the exam room, but the doctor came in then and told me that the test had come back negative, that I was clean and that I was good to go home. And as I was leaving, the doctor gave me a look, too. It wasn’t as bad as the receptionist’s look, but she looked at me with pity, almost, and that almost hurt more than the disgusted look from earlier had.
“So I decided then that I was gonna get out of it. I figured, if I just did a few more shoots, then I’d have enough saved to keep myself going until I could find a new job, a real one, and I’d never have to think about Christopher or being ‘The Doc’ ever again. But then I came home, and I was expecting to just get some time to myself to relax and figure out a plan, but then I heard you guys in Eddie’s room, and, well, you know what happened after that,” Billy finally finished his explanation, and he felt some of the fresh tears spilling out over his lower eyelids. He could feel Steve and Eddie’s eyes on him, burning into the sides of his face like lasers, and he began to squirm.
“Billy,” Steve said, his voice so soft, he could barely hear it over the rain pouring down on the windows, “Billy, how many videos have you done for this guy so far?”
“Including the first three without the contract, I’ve done 27,” he mumbled, his stomach flip-flopping as he thought of the number. He wanted to hurl, but he held back the urge.
“Why didn’t you come to one of us for help? We would’ve been more than happy to help you out,” Eddie asked, dipping his head lower to try and look Billy in the eyes, but he still avoided it.
“Because, I’m not a goddamn charity case, Munson,” Billy said, aiming for annoyance and missing it by a mile. He just sounded tired. “Besides, I know you don’t have any money to spare, even with your scholarship.”
“Then why didn’t you come to me? You know I’ve got more than enough to have helped you out for a while. All you had to do was ask,” Steve said, squeezing Billy’s shoulder again.
“You just don’t get it,” Billy shook his head, “For as bad as I feel when I’m in that fucking studio, I’d feel ten times worse having to ask someone I care about to support me because I can’t do it myself. I know better than to ask my dad or step-mom, I can’t ask Max, she doesn't make enough at her own little after school job, and besides, she’s trying to save for a car now that she’s got her license. And I’m not going to ask my only two friends in the world for money, that’s just downright rude and pitiful. Like I said, I’m not a fucking charity case.”
“And we know that, Bill, but seriously, there’s no shame in asking for a little help sometimes. Everyone needs it now and again, and it’s nothing to be self-conscious about. We care about you, and we don’t see it as an obligation, or charity, or any of that shit. We see it as helping a friend, someone we care about, through a tough time, and we’re trying to make it just a little bit easier on you,” Eddie said.
“And it’s not just the money we would’ve helped with. It’s the finding a job part, too, and getting this Christopher guy off your back. We would’ve helped you with it a long time ago, but we just didn’t know what was happening. And I’m not saying this because I pity you or because I think you need charity, because I know you don’t. I’m saying this because I think it’s the right thing to do to help my friend out, and because I care about you too much to see you suffer through something that you really don’t have to,” Steve added, brushing some of Billy’s gold curls away from his face, tucking them behind his ear.
“You don’t have to, either,” Billy said, his voice hoarse like he was straining not to cry again, “To try so hard to help me, I mean. You don’t have to… But, uh, thanks, y’know, for, uh… for saying that.”
Billy closed his eyes then, squeezing them up tight in hopes of making the whole situation go away. Now that he’d told them everything, all he wanted was to disappear, just turn into smoke or water vapor or something of that nature and just evaporate out of the room, out of the atmosphere. Anything to get away from the tension he’d created in the room just by existing. But he couldn’t do that, as much as he wanted to, and he tried instead to just close in on himself, get lost in the dangerous landscape that was his mind and maybe he could ignore the two men on either side of him.
But his headspace was more dangerous than he thought, and he found himself close to hysterics again as visions of his father, his sister, his old friends, his mother, all flashed through his mind, shouting a cacophony of words at him. Words like pathetic, worthless, disgusting, faggot, man-whore, disgrace. He didn’t want to open his eyes, but he didn’t want to keep seeing the faces of his loved ones painted with anger and disappointment, either. A war raged within him, tossing up the options only to shoot them back down, over and over again, as his body was wracked with sobs and liquid fell from his eyes in oceans.
Steve couldn’t stand the sight of it. He hated that Billy was so upset, and that he couldn’t do a goddamn thing about it. He just wanted to make every bad thing that had happened to him go away, wanted to tear the bad thoughts from his head and beat them until they were nothing, wanted to tell Billy that everything was going to be okay and have the other boy believe him. But he felt powerless, he didn’t know what Billy needed or if he could even provide it if he did, and he was just so damn tired of seeing the strong, beautiful, confident man that he’d met nearly two months ago reduced to such a broken, desolate shell. And so he did the only thing he could think to do, not even caring if he’d never done it before. He leaned forward, grabbed Billy by his shoulders, and gently but firmly turned him so that they were facing each other. Then, he wrapped his arms around Billy’s shoulders in a vice-like grip, rubbing smooth circles into his shoulder blades until they relaxed, and let Billy bury his face in his neck and cry for as long as he needed.
Billy felt like he was poisonous, like he was going to infect Steve with some kind of wretched ickiness that was oozing out of his skin in invisible waves, but Steve wasn’t letting go of him, only gripping him closer and tighter when Billy stiffened up at the initial contact. He held him like he was something precious, something worth protecting, and eventually, he melted into it. He buried his face into Steve’s neck and just cried, getting out all the ugly, terrible feelings through rivers of tears, and the current of them only got stronger as he felt Eddie clinging onto him from behind, wrapping his arms around his middle and pressing his warm cheek to the top of Billy’s spine.
Steve didn’t know how long they stayed like that before Billy’s sobs calmed down, but they eventually did, and his body went slack as he fell asleep against him. It was enough time for the rain to pick up into a full on downpour, and the living room grew darker just like the clouds in the sky did as he and Eddie shared a look over Billy’s shoulder. The two of them worked together to shift them all into a comfortable enough position on their tiny couch, and Steve reached behind his head to turn off the light on the end table, allowing the two of them to join Billy in dreamland as the rain hammered down on the window panes.
They woke up to the sound of Billy’s cell phone hitting the floor in his room, clattering loudly as it rang. It had fallen off of his desk from the vibrations, and even though it rang itself out while the three of them rubbed their eyes, it immediately started back up again as they worked on untangling their limbs. They were all a little sore from sleeping in such an odd position, and they were a little sweaty from all the excess body heat and the three blankets, but they were strangely content as they came back to themselves on their tiny living room couch.
Billy yawned as he stood up, stretching a little before he went into his bedroom to answer his phone, mumbling something about it probably being Max or his friend Heather from class. The rain outside had become even heavier, and a flash of lightning lit the room, quickly followed by a deafening crack of thunder, so loud that they almost didn’t hear the phone clattering to the floor for a second time just after Billy answered it.
“Bill? You okay?” Eddie called from the couch, but Billy didn’t reply. He just stood there, stiff in the doorway of his room, eyes wide and scared and his face as white as a sheet. His eyebrows were knit together and his mouth was twitching, like he was trying to say something but no words were coming out. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost.
“Billy, what’s wrong?” Steve asked, but again, Billy didn’t answer. The other two moved closer to him, slowly, as if he were a frightened animal, and as they got close enough to reach out to him, they could vaguely hear an angry voice screaming at him through the phone. As they finally reached out to Billy, it seemed like a switch was flipped, and he began to speak back into the small device, though his attempts at getting a word in were proving fruitless. He looked like he was about to start crying again, and that fact alone was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Well, that and the voice on the other end shouting that Billy was a ‘worthless, pathetic waste of oxygen’.
“Give me the phone,” Eddie said, a look of anger that the other two had never seen settling over his face. They were shocked, kind of, at how pissed off Eddie was. They’d never seen him get like this over anything before, but Billy just swallowed thickly and handed Eddie his phone, partly because he didn’t want to hear that voice anymore, and partly because he was curious as to what Eddie would do.
“Alright, shut the fuck up, you bastard,” Eddie began, cutting off the voice with a growl that sent a shiver through the other two. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
The voice on the other side answers, and Eddie let out a wry chuckle, lips curling up with nothing but contempt for the person on the other end.
“Ah, okay, so you’re that Christopher, hm? And you’re pissed off because Billy missed one of his shoots earlier, I assume?” Eddie asked, then he laughed maniacally. “Well, I hate to burst your pretty little bubble, hon, but he ain’t coming back to you, so why don’t you just fuck off and leave him alone, ‘kay? And if you don’t,” Eddie paused, and in the most chilling voice he could manage finished with, “I’ll find you, and after I cut your tongue out with a rusty grapefruit spoon and shove it up your ass, I’ll take that contract that you made him sign, and you’ll get the privilege of finding out what it feels like to get a papercut on your retinas. We clear on that, pal?”
The voice on the other end mumbled something incredulous, and Eddie’s steely, stone cold voice returned as he said, “Oh yeah? Fuckin’ try me, you prick. But no, let’s assume you’re right, and I won’t do all that shit to you. But you know what I will do? Call my good friend, Indiana Police Chief, Jim Hopper, and slap a lawsuit on your ass to get that little operation of yours shut down for good. And before you ask, yes, I do have enough for a lawsuit. Didn’t you know that it’s illegal to withhold someone’s medical records if they have a sexually transmittable disease? And since one of the guys you had in a video with five others had not yet received results of his STD test, you could’ve endangered not only my good friend Billy here, but those other four in the video, and anyone else they might sleep with or even come into contact with. And since you were the one who set the whole thing up and ignored that his test results weren’t back, then if anyone had gotten infected, that would’ve all been on you . Loopholes are fun, aren’t they? So, here’s what’s gonna happen,” Eddie paused. “You’re gonna lose this number, and you’re gonna get your story straight, because you can expect a knock on your door within the next few weeks from the cops to inspect that little operation of yours. Oh, and while you’re at it, tear up that fuckin’ contract, too. It’s harder to give papercuts with ripped paper, y’know. In fact, it’s damn near impossible. So if you still want to be able to see after the next couple of hours, I don’t want to hear anything but paper being shredded within the next fifteen seconds, comprende?”
And Eddie must’ve scared that guy to his core, because he smiled again a few seconds later and hung up on the guy, handing the phone back to Billy and taking a breath to calm himself down. He was still very fucking pissed off, but it wasn’t at either of them, so he did his best to reign it in and just relax.
“He’s not gonna bother you again. And he shredded that contract, I heard it happen. And I am gonna call Hopper, just to make sure that the contract really is what he shredded and to hopefully be a pain in that guy’s ass for a little while, he deserves it. And if he does bother you again, I’ll make good on all those threats I made, alright?” He said, smiling nicely now as he looked at the expression on Billy’s face, a mixture of confusion and gratitude and disbelief. His grin only broadened when he saw Steve behind him, smirking fondly and shaking his head as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Eds, I… I don’t even know what to say, fuck,” Billy said, shaking his own head as he stared off to the side, but finally he turned back, and he looked Eddie in the eye for the first time all day. “Jesus, just… Thank you.”
Eddie didn’t reply, just grinned and pulled Billy in for another tight hug, and reached behind him to pull Steve in, too. He went willingly, and Eddie felt a tiny surge of satisfaction as they both seemed to relax against him. He felt even more satisfied as he felt Billy nearly melt when he and Steve had the same idea at once, both of them pressing soft kisses to his temples and reaching down to take his hands in theirs.
And if they spent the rest of the evening lounging on the couch, watching stupid game shows, holding hands, and occasionally leaning over to pepper the other’s faces in kisses, well, then that was no one’s business but theirs.
Two months had gone by since that fateful day in October. The weather was getting colder by the day, even when it felt it couldn’t possibly get any cooler, and snow had been falling steadily and coating the ground for the past week and a half. Winter break was only a few days away, and since none of them had any plans, they decided to put up a small tree in the corner of their apartment and just spend Christmas with each other. Each of them had gift boxes hidden in their closets for the other two, even though they’d all agreed to forgo a gift exchange, and even though Eddie and Billy had teased him relentlessly for it, they both secretly loved the matching pajama sets Steve had gotten them to wear on Christmas Eve, which was now only a day away.
Billy hadn’t been disappearing anymore, either. He’d gotten a job with his friend Heather at a club, she was a bartender and he was a bouncer. They were allowed to study on their shifts, which was a big plus, and the hours were actually pretty decent, as was the pay. All in all, everything was beginning to look up for all of them, especially once they actually talked and quit dancing around each other after that night. They were just Eddie, Billy and Steve, three guys who shared an apartment and happened to all be dating each other. And they were all perfectly happy with that.
Which is why, the day of Christmas Eve, Eddie and Steve got so worried when they woke up and Billy wasn’t in the apartment. The snow was still flurrying outside, and even though the roads were plowed, it still looked kind of dangerous to drive, so their anxiety only spiked when they saw that the Camaro was gone from its usual parking spot.
At first, they tried to reason it out. He didn’t have work, the bar was closed on Christmas Eve and even if it wasn’t, it didn’t open until one in the afternoon, and it was eleven in the morning right now.
Then they thought he might just be at the store, picking up a few little things they’d missed for their little Christmas party tonight. Eddie’s uncle and his friend Chrissy were coming over, and so was Robin and her girlfriend, Vickie, and even though they were sure they’d gotten everything already, it was possible they’d forgotten something.
Then they thought he’d just gone early to pick up Max, since she was going to come over, too. He’d been so excited to see her ever since she’d agreed to come a few days ago, and he’d been working non-stop to make sure they’d gotten all her favorite snacks and treats and Christmas movies for when she was here. He’d been trying to pick out her gift since the beginning of November, and had only decided on it a few days ago, so him leaving early to go get her made sense.
But him being gone for nearly three hours by now sure didn’t. After all, Max and the rest of his family only lived forty-five minutes away, so he should’ve been home in half that time if that’s where he was.
“Ed, you don’t think he’d… Y’know, go back, do you?” Steve asked, swallowing around the lump forming in his throat.
“No! No, there’s no way he’d go back after that breakdown two months ago. There’s just no way, he’s probably just going for a drive, y’know? Maybe he’s nervous about having to tell Max about us or something,” Eddie tried to reason, but even he could hear the tiny kernel of doubt in his own voice. Luckily, by the time they actually got around to worrying themselves sick over it, the door to the apartment opened, and Billy walked in, smiling brighter than the sun on the snow, and nearly bouncing around with giddiness.
“Where have you been? We were worried sick!” Steve asked, though he wasn’t angry.
“Oh, I had an appointment to go to, that’s all,” Billy said, aiming for casualty but smiling too huge to be able to hit the mark.
“An appointment that takes more than three hours? What did you get a cavity filled in every single one of your teeth?” Eddie asked, rolling his eyes.
“No, but it hurts almost as much as that would, if it’s any consolation,” Billy shrugged, standing on his tiptoes to kiss the questioning frowns off of their faces.
“So, what kind of appointment was it then? And please don’t tell me it was a doctor appointment, it would be concerning if you left a doctor appointment and it hurt like that,” Steve asked, tweaking Billy’s nose in the way that he always said he hated, but he really loved.
“Fine, fine, fine! You twisted my arm!” Billy said, rolling his eyes and sighing dramatically as he turned his head, wincing just a little as he pulled his ear forward. Behind it, covered in plastic wrap, was a small tattoo of three flowers, their stems braided together and their blooms bright and vibrant next to each other. The one on the left was a rose, canary yellow and fully blossomed with one bright green leaf sticking out below the petals. The one in the center was a soft blue daffodil, its trumpet a bright cerulean, and its outer petals a gentle sky blue. The one on the right was a poppy, fiery tomato-red on the outer parts of the petals, and it grew to a deep, almost black as it reached the center, which was fully black. Another little leaf was peeking out from beneath the poppy, and the three different greens of the stems became more obvious the longer they studied the braid they made.
“You know, you’re the last person I expected to get a tattoo of something as simple and cutesy as a bouquet of flowers,” Eddie said, a knowing smirk on his face, “So I’m curious, is there some kind of meaning to it?”
“Actually, there is,” Billy said back, turning to face them again.
“And just what is it?” Steve asked, watching as Billy lit up even more. At this point, he seemed to be glowing brighter than the tree in the corner.
“Look behind my other ear and you’ll find out,” he said, turning to the other side and holding his ear forward again. Behind this ear was something much simpler. In plain black ink, ten letters were written, in three different types of letters. It didn’t take long for Eddie and Steve to figure out what it was, nor did it take long for them to recognize their own handwriting. Starting at the top with S. P. H. , W. F. H. in the center, and on the bottom was E. P. G. M. , and just below that was a date, 10/25/08 . The numbers and all of the letters were encased in a heart outline in red ink, but they could barely see it, what with the way Billy was blushing.
“So, the flowers are supposed to represent all of us?” Steve asked, feeling his own face get just a touch warmer as well.
“Yeah. I know it’s kinda corny, but the flowers represent the months we were born in, and I asked the guy to make the petals our favorite colors,” Billy shrugged, then continued, “The yellow rose is obviously for Stevie since his birthday is in June, the blue daffodil is me for March, and the red and black poppy is for Eds in August. And the initials on my other ear is obviously ours in our own handwriting, but the date is probably the most important part. That was the day that I realized just how fucking in love with you I am.”
“Isn’t that the day of that huge thunderstorm and you had a mental breakdown on the couch?” Steve asked.
“And your point is?” Billy replied, “Doesn’t change the fact that I fell in love that day.”
“And you realize that if ever we break up or something, that’s gonna hurt like a bitch to get removed, right?” Eddie asked, but his tone was light, joking.
“I guess I’ll just have to make sure I never break up with you, then. You’re stuck with me forever, now. No exceptions. You’re mine now,” Billy said, laughing as he pulled both of them in closer, managing to pick them up and spin them around as they giggled. He kissed them both as he set them back down, then turned towards the door again, twirling his keys.
“I gotta go pick up Maxie, now. She gets pissy if I’m not there on time,” he said, blowing kisses to them as he stepped out the door, calling back as he left, “Merry fuckin’ Christmas!”
“Merry fuckin’ Christmas,” the other two grinned as they watched the door fall closed.