for tightjeans

[cheerleader]

Chrissy's known for a few days that they need to talk. She isn't avoiding him as much as letting their busy lives at school take over, as she gives herself time to think. They still eat lunch together outside so he can smoke, he still drives her to and from school. But there's an edge to her that's anxious, much like she had been in the days leading up to telling him that she was ending things with Jason because she wanted to be with him.

And she thinks he can recognize when she's afraid or nervous, two things that she's very much feeling now. Every time she even thinks about glancing at the pregnancy test hiding in her backpack, she starts to feel terrified. Chrissy feels backed into a corner, like she has no options. And she really doesn't want to force that same kind of pressure on him. He's just gotten his life back together, and they worked so hard together to get him acclimated to being back at school. It wouldn't be right to pull the rug out from under him now.

But she also can't not tell him either. She's not the kind of girl that lies by omission. So she finds her courage on the way to school one day to ask him to go anywhere other than Hawkins High School. They find themselves sitting in his car near the lake, Chrissy anxiously fidgeting.

"There's something that you need to know."

She can barely speak over a whisper, her stomach is in so many knots.

"It's important."

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[tightjeans]

Billy knew something was wrong the day he picked her up for school and she was fidgety but he trusted her to tell him what was going on when she was ready and so he didn’t push it. The second day, he really started to feel the distance she was enforcing but, again, he let it go, trusting her to know when she was up for spilling the beans on whatever had her so anxious.

By day three, he was wracking his brain trying to figure out what he could have done wrong to have her so fucking anxious around him.

And day four, she asked him to take her anywhere but school and a pit of dread opened up in his stomach and he was certain she was about to break up with him, as if she’d decided, actually, Carver was the better option and she was done with his bullshit and PTSD and nightmares and the fact that he usually preferred to fuck guys despite the fact that he also really fucking liked her.

The words leave her lips and Billy’s fingers twitch for a smoke.

“Okay. Yeah. What’s up?”