70. Chapter 70

Chapter Seventy

The next morning found Steve, Jessica, and Billy in the principal's office along with one parent for each of them. Jessica had explained what had happened when she'd gotten home the day before, but she hadn't said who had been involved other than Steve. The school hadn't been forthcoming with the details either, as they would go over what had happened at the meeting that morning.

Jessica hadn't gone to work the day before because she'd barely made it to the school parking lot before feeling the need to be sick. She'd thrown up all over the asphalt and had shakily made her way to her car, where she'd gotten in the front seat and started sobbing.

That was where Steve had found her a few minutes later when he'd finally been able to leave. He sat there with her for a good ten minutes, holding her until she felt well enough and calm enough to drive home. He promised to come over as soon as he could, but he did need to check in with his parents.

She'd called the theater to let her boss know that she was sick, because she had been, and then she'd gone upstairs to lay down and wait for Steve.

Now she and her mom were on one side of the principal's office while Steve and his mom was on the other side. She was glad his mom had decided to come; Steve was more comfortable in situations like this when his dad wasn't around.

Billy and his dad were seated in front of the principal's desk, and Jessica couldn't help but notice how silent and tense Billy was. Neil was also tense, but there was a coldness about him that Billy usually didn't exude even in his tensest moment. Billy's anger usually ran hot, which was why they were there in the first place.

Jessica's mom had been surprised to see Billy there when they'd first arrived. She obviously hadn't expected it to be him that had caused this particular problem. She'd sent Jessica a questioning glance and Jessica had nodded. Her mom's jaw had clenched for a moment before she and Jessica seated themselves against the far-right wall.

Steve and his mom had come in not long after that and the principal filled the parents in on what had happened.

"Now, what are we going to do about this?" the principal said. "I don't like this type of behavior in my school."

"May I ask what caused the fight to happen?" Neil asked, looking at his son.

"Harrington didn't like that I was talking to his girlfriend," Billy muttered.

"That's not what caused the fight, and you know it," Jessica said.

"Okay, fine. He shoved me so I shoved him back."

"Regardless of who shoved who first," the principal said, "Mr. Harrington wasn't the one who was terrorizing a girl against the lockers. You're lucky we didn't call the police."

Billy crossed his arms over his chest and slumped down in his seat. Jessica noticed that it looked more like he was hugging himself as he tightened his arms even closer. He was probably worried about what his dad's reaction was going to be to all this.

"Miss Henderson? You are an adult. If you want to press charges, you can call Chief Hopper and have that arranged."

She nodded but had no intention of pressing charges. She didn't know if anything would happen even if she did because Billy hadn't actually hurt her.

"Mr. Harrington, you have the same option." Steve nodded. "As it is, it is my decision that Billy will be out of school for the rest of the week, and Mr. Harrington will have detention for the rest of the week."

"What?" Steve exclaimed.

"You did shove him first, Mr. Harrington."

Steve sighed but made no further complaint.

"Miss Henderson, I believe your interference stopped a fight that could have gotten a lot worse, and I'm grateful. I just hope you don't have to get in between these two again."

"Yeah. Me too."

After all was said and done, Jessica and Steve were given leave to go to second period as their meeting had run through all of the first one, and Billy and Neil were given leave to go home.

Jessica watched Neil grab Billy's arm and basically drag him out of the office, not that Billy really put up much of a fight.

Jessica's mom followed after them and actually called out to Billy. It made Jessica stop and watch what might happen.

Both Neil and Billy had stopped to turn to her and even though Jessica's mom was small compared to Billy she still stood up proud when she spoke to him.

"I have to say I'm surprised that this happened." Billy didn't respond. "My daughter has been nothing but kind to you. We opened up our home to you when you needed it, and then you did this? I don't know why and I don't care why. You stay away from her from now on. Understand?"

When Billy still didn't respond Neil shook his arm and said, "She's talking to you, son."

"I – yes. I understand."

"Good."

By the time lunch time came around Jessica was so very tired of all the looks she'd been receiving in her classes. A few people had asked if she was okay, which was nice, but most of her peers just watched her out of the corner of their eyes. She assumed Steve was receiving the same treatment.

It was as she was on the way to the cafeteria to meet Steve that someone basically skipped up to her side and began talking.

"Jessica Henderson, right?"

"Uh . . . yeah?"

The speaker was a girl with brown hair, lighter shades running through it. She was wearing a back t-shirt, blue jeans with a studded belt, and a knock-off brand of converse shoes. Her hair was up in a messy bun.

"Hi. I'm Robin. Robin Buckley." The girl offered her hand and Jessica hesitantly shook it. The girl had a hyper energy about her. Jessica wasn't sure how she felt about it. "You probably don't know me because I'm a junior, but –"

"I've seen you around. You're in band. Right?"

Jessica hadn't known the girl's name, of course, but she had noticed her before.

"Right."

A few seconds passed as they continued walking.

"Did you . . . want something?"

"No. I mean, yes. I just – I saw what you did yesterday and wanted you to know that I thought it was really cool."

"Oh, yeah. Very cool to be terrified."

"No, I mean, it was cool that you stood up to Billy Hargrove. It doesn't matter what happened after."

"Right." They reached the entrance of the cafeteria, where Steve was leaning against the wall waiting for her. "Thanks, I guess."

"Sure. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say," Robin said and turned to walk away.

"Uh . . . where are you going?" Jessica called after her.

"The band room."

"But it's lunch time."

"Yeah, the band geeks gather in the band room to eat."

"Oh . . . Uh, okay . . ."

Jessica would have invited her to have lunch with her, but Robin seemed intent on not going into the cafeteria. She shook her head and finally made her way to Steve.

She kissed his cheek and then he wrapped an arm around her shoulders as he led her into the cafeteria.

"Who was that girl?"

"Uh, someone from the band named Robin. She was telling me how cool it was that I hit Billy yesterday."

"Ah."

They went to their normal table to drop off their stuff before heading to the line. The school was serving hamburgers and French fries. When they got their food and made it back to their table Steve and Jessica traded food. She took his fries and he took her burger.

"Hey, so . . . I want to go over to the middle school before I leave so I can talk to Max," Jessica said. "Make sure she knows she has a place she can go if Billy gets too bad since he's gonna be home all week."

"Sure. You want me to go with you? Before I have to go to detention."

"As long as it doesn't make you late."

Neither Nancy nor Jonathan brought up the fight other than to make sure they were both okay, which they were, but they seemed surprised that Steve had detention.

"Hey," Jonathan said, "so, you know the new Friday the 13th movie comes out this Friday, right?"

"Uh . . ." Jessica grinned. "I work at the theater, so yeah. Don't you work there, too?"

"Very funny." He smiled his closed, thin-lipped smile. "It's Will's birthday this Friday. He kind of wants to go see the new movie."

"We're working Friday. Dustin wants to see it too."

"Yeah, so Will was thinking that instead of celebrating Friday, we could all get together and go see the movie Saturday night. Mike and Lucas already know and they're in."

"I think that's a great idea," Nancy said, even though Jessica knew that she wasn't a fan of horror movies.

"Jeeze, we're gonna take up a whole row," Steve said.

Jessica smiled, glad that Steve was counting himself in even though he didn't like horror movies either.

"I'm sure Dustin would like that." And then, "Is this gonna be just the boys? Or should I ask Max and El? I know Max likes horror movies and El didn't seem freaked out when we watched one during our movie night."

"If you can get Hopper to let El out in public, she's more than welcome to come. And Max too, obviously."

"Cool. I'll talk to her today when I see her."

Max wasn't expecting to see Jessica waiting for her when she walked out of school that day. Steve was there too, obviously, but Jessica wanted to talk to her specifically. And she wanted to talk to Max alone - or as alone as they could get considering they were in a public place – so Jessica took her off to the side before speaking.

"What's up?"

"Uh . . . do you know about what happened yesterday?"

"Kind of. I mean, I know something happened because Billy came home yesterday and pretty much stayed in his room, didn't even come out for dinner. Neil yelled at him when he got home from work. Something about a fight."

Jessica nodded. "Yeah, he and Steve got into it again."

"Would explain the busted lip." She'd noticed when she'd realized they were waiting for her.

"Yeah. Look . . . it wasn't as bad as the one in November, obviously, but . . . it happened at school, so Billy got suspended for the rest of the week."

"Oh, great. He'll be so fun to deal with."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Okay . . ."

Max watched Jessica pivot from one foot to the other as if she were nervous about saying something, but she ended up saying it anyway.

"Okay, so . . . don't let Billy know that you know that I know because I told him I wouldn't say anything, but . . . I know about his dad."

Max's eyes widened as that fact settled in. "How? I mean . . ."

"I figured it out when he stayed over that one night. He tried to play it off as him just getting into an argument but I saw the bruises on his side."

"Oh."

"Yeah, look, I just – I wanted you to know that if it gets like that while Billy's at home this week that you don't have to stay there. You can come over and stay with me."

Max tried not to let it show, but she really was touched by the fact that Jessica wanted to look out for her. She should have been used to it. Jessica and Steve had been the ones to stay with her and the others and had risked their lives when the whole Upside Down business happened. In fact, Steve and Jessica were probably the only adult people who had ever actually looked out for her.

Neil couldn't care less as long as she was doing what she was told, and her mom basically let her do whatever she wanted. Her dad was in California, but even when she'd been able to stay with him on the weekends she'd been left unsupervised sometimes. He gambled a lot, so he wouldn't be home the whole time she was supposed to be with him.

So no, she wasn't used to adults caring about her well-being.

"Thanks," she said, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah, no problem."

Jessica then told her about the plan for all of them to get together on Saturday so they could see the new Friday the 13th movie, and Max told her she'd ask her mom. Neil didn't particularly like that she was into horror movies, but it wasn't something he really complained about. It wasn't abnormal for teenagers to like horror movies, and it didn't affect her behavior at all.

"Will El be there? I haven't seen her since our last movie night."

"I'm gonna try and get Hopper to let her go. We'll all be there and it would be good to get her out of the cabin."

"Plus, she could just use her super powers to escape if something did happen."

"True. I think Hopper just doesn't want to risk having anyone recognize her."

Max hoped El could come. She didn't want to be the only girl in the group of younger teens. Too much testosterone for her liking, and she dealt with that enough at home.

Billy had been waiting for almost twenty minutes when Max finally reached the car and got in. He'd seen her talking to Jessica so he hadn't blown the horn even though he'd wanted to.

He didn't say anything when Max got in the passenger seat, just started the car and took off, the back tires throwing dirt and gravel behind him as they went.

"You got in a fight with Steve," Max said as an opener, but all Billy responded with was a grunt. "Why?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"I mean . . . no, but you got suspended for the rest of the week, so I hope you had a reason."

"He was being an asshole."

"You're an asshole." Max sighed. "What did he do?"

"Nothing, okay? Just . . . words were said, and he made it sound like Jessica only talks to me because she feels sorry for me." Billy's grip tightened on the steering wheel. "I overreacted like I always do."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Anyway, I still have to take you to school and pick you up, so just . . . don't be late in the morning."

Max was silent for the rest of the ride, but she spoke to him again once they reached the house.

"For what it's worth, I don't think Jessica only talks to you because she feels sorry for you. I think . . . I think you should give it the rest of the week and then apologize for whatever you did, and then just give her space. Let her come to you."

Billy nodded, but he wasn't sure apologizing would work this time. Jessica's mom had told him to stay away from her, and maybe the woman was right. If he was going to react like that to Jessica – to someone he actually cared about – maybe it was best if he just stayed away. He didn't want to end up reacting without thinking and actually hurting her.

He still felt he should apologize, if only he could figure out what to say.