I have invented a whole maternal family for billy, and I’ve been thinking a lot about an cousin I invented lately.
I firmly believe his mother came from a small but close knit family back in California, with a jackass younger brother, and overbearing but well meaning older sister.
Her brother never married but her sister has a little four year old girl when billy is born.
Billy’s cousin is enamoured with him the moment she sees him. They’re practically identical as children, curly blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and chubby golden cheeks.
They are inseparable from the moment billy is born, fighting to be tossed around by their uncle, and hiding from Billy’s aunt when she starts scolding them for getting under foot.
Little Lisette Adler barely lets her mother hold billy as a baby, immediately claiming him. Billy is equally as obsessed with his “sissy” (he gets lissy and sissy confused a lot, but they’re mostly siblings anyway so it doesn’t really matter)
Lisette’s mother and stepfather are very busy and barely have time for her, and her dad ran off shortly before Billy’s birth. She spends most of her time at her aunt or grandmothers house with her favourite person.
She quickly becomes the only person who can soothe baby billy, and is the first person he runs to when he gets older and skins a knee, or he gets teased at school.
He gets made fun of for running and crying to his cousin so much, but she’s the only person he truly feels comfortable with other than his mother.
Lisette hugs him constantly, and sings and reads to him. Neil hates this as billy gets past the toddler stage. Says Lisette needs to “stop playing mother” and that billy needs to “learn to be a man” even though they’re both under the age of ten.
When billy is 6 and Lisette is ten, her mother has two children a year apart. Her mother shows the babies more love than she ever did Lisette, and her and billy become ever closer. She loves her siblings just as much as she loves billy of course, but there’s a sting there she can’t ignore.
When Lisette is 13, her aunt goes missing. No one tells her anything more, but one evening after kissing her siblings goodnight, she sits on the stairs and listens to her parents and grandparents argue.
Her aunt’s car was found off the highway. The cops found hair and blood on the trunk and her aunts shoe a few hundred yards into the brush on the side of the road. They’re considering foul play, and they’re looking right at Neil.
Her grandmother is sobbing for the first time Lisette has ever seen, her uncle is ghost white and silent. Her grandfather is drinking a beer with a shaking hand as he reads through the police report. Her mother is livid, pacing the living room as her stepfather fails to get her to sit.
Her mother is trying to think of a way to get billy away from Neil before he can skip town. Lisette has never felt colder in her life.
Neil, of course, skips town before charges can be laid on him. He leaves boxes of her aunts belongings on her grandparents drive, a note telling them all to go to hell and forget they ever knew him. Lisette’s uncle hands the note over to police, as her mother cries into her sisters things right there on the drive.
Lisette pours all her love and fear into her siblings, embracing and kissing them every chance she can get. Tells them she loves them every time she leaves the room, the house, hangs up the phone. Just in case. They grumble about her hovering, too young to remember the blonde haired boy who used to wheel her brother around in his baby walker, who used to make silly faces at her sister till she threw up her baby food.
Her grandmother withdraws into herself, quiet and paranoid. She stockpiles non-perishables under her bed. Her funny, dumbass uncle becomes reclusive and mean. Her mother tries her best to pay more attention to Lisette, but the years of neglect have ruined any real chance of connection.
Their entire family lives on eggshells with each other, unable to bridge the gap left by billy and his mother.
Lisette’s siblings grow up. Sometimes she has to leave the room, hand pressed against her open mouth with tears streaming down her face, as her sister rolls her eyes the same way billy used to, or her brother finds an old shirt of Billy’s, hand embroidered by their aunt and wears it without realising that seeing him stops lisette’s heart for a second. It’s like seeing a ghost.
When Lisette is 23, she turns on the news. She watches absentmindedly, texting her friends about an open mic night at the local bar she thinks they should go to. They’re running a story about a mall fire somewhere in Indiana. It’s a strange choice for California news, she thinks, but is stopped in her tracks when they start reading out the thankfully short casualty list. There is one casualty, the police chief, and several injured, whos faces they flash up on the screen.
Lisette’s world spins as blonde curls and blue eyes fill the screen. Her phone drops to the floor and her blood freezes. “Billy Hargrove, 18, critical condition” is all she hears. The news moves on. But she is frozen in place, hands still up like they’re gripping her phone. After a few minutes she comes back online, and scrambles for her phone.
Her mother doesn’t believe her, tells her not to even think about getting her grandmothers hopes up with this, hangs up. Lisette’s hands shake as she finds an online article from the Hawkins Gazette. Her cousins face is there in black and white. Older, handsome, and clearly miserable in what she assumes is a school picture.
She sends the link to her family group chat, and is immediately called by her brother, who, always sensitive just like billy, is in tears. She hangs up to take her grandmothers call, phone in the crux of her shoulder as she runs around packing a bag.
Her grandparents can’t go to Indiana, her grandfathers health failing, and her uncle’s disability preventing him coming alone. Her siblings have school, and her parents can’t get time off work on such short notice.
She calls her boss, explains the situation, and thankfully is given two weeks from her annual leave. She jumps in her car and is barely able to stop herself breaking multiple traffic laws driving cross country.
She gets to hawkins in a blur of scenery and gas stations. She doesn’t even bother booking s motel room, just leaves her bags in the trunk and speeds to the hospital. She shows the nurse her identification, pictures of her and billy as children, tears hitting the cheap plastic coating on the counter as the nurse shakes her head sadly, unable to verify her identity.
She sits in a shitty plastic chair, lays her head in her hands and cries. A hand lands on her shoulder. A young girl with red hair stares at her strangely, asks if she’s really billy hargrove’s cousin. Explains that she’s his stepsister.
Lisette is shaking. The girl, max, takes her over to a group of kids her age and a few people closer to lisette’s. Max tells her friends who Lisette is, and they all react with shock. Apparently no one, not even max, had considered that billy might still have family out there.
Lisette shows them the photos. Her holding billy in the hospital. Her holding his hand at the beach, when billy is 2 and she is 6. Her holding Billy’s hand at a park on a random day, always her holding billy. Always together.
The kids are struck silent. One of the older boys, a guy with a sharp jaw and floppy hair, runs a thumb over Billy’s face in a picture of him holding lisette’s sister as a tiny baby. Remarks to himself that he never really thought of billy as having family.
Lisette’s sharp glare makes him wince, as does a slap to the arm from a girl with blonde bangs and red lipstick. He scrambles to explain himself. Says that he just never really saw billy as someone who let people in, that would let himself be held. Guesses that his hard double denim shell was probably more learned behaviour than anything.
Lisette explains about her aunt, about Neil, and the bruises she used to see on her aunt. Max goes pale, swears she just thought billy got into fights a lot. Lisette, running on fumes and older sister instinct, pulls her in. Assures her it’s not her fault. The other kids are wide eyed. A kid with a tragic bowl cut looks to one of the older boys, clearly his brother, with fearful understanding.
Lisette’s shaking gets worse. She releases max, asks if billy is okay, if he’s awake, if she can see him. The kids are silent, clearly unable to process lisette’s billy with whatever billy they know. An older girl with curly dark hair coughs awkwardly, explains that billy is awake, has been for a couple days, but has refused to speak to anyone after verifying that max and another girl (Ellie, Lisette thinks she called her) were okay.
Lisette insists, and is taken by the hand by a girl she assumes is Ellie, given the gesture the older girl (Nancy) had made in her direction when mentioning her. Ellie pats her hand, says something cryptic about her being a good memory, and leads her through the hospital, the others trailing behind.
Before they reach the room, the boy with floppy hair grabs lisette’s shoulder, warns her billy doesn’t look good, that she should prepare herself for him to not recognise her.
She hadn’t even considered that, but of course he’s right. The last time billy had seen her, she had been 13, with long blonde hair, curls weighed down into tight waves. Now she was 23, her hair was shoulder length and bright pink, she has several piercings, and her tattoos are poking out of her rolled up sweatshirt sleeves.
She decides to go in anyway. She can start from square one if she needs too, just needs to see him, to know it’s really him, that he’s alive.
She rounds the corner into a normal hospital room. It doesn’t look like the kind of place that could change her life. She locks eyes with the boy in the bed.
He is covered in dressings and bandages, and looks livid at being bothered. She recognises he expression from her mothers face. It’s him. He’s older, sure, face more defined, with a stupid little moustache, but it’s her billy.
She presses a hand to her mouth, and holds herself up against the door frame. There is no spark of recognition in his eyes, but he’s squinting at her like she’s a puzzle to be solved.
She makes an executive decision. Brings out the big guns. Calls him by his old nickname. The one she had given him the first time she held him, 18 years ago in a San Diego hospital room, whispering to her mothers new boyfriend that the baby looked “like a tiny angel”.
She calls him angel. Says hello. His eyes widen, fill with tears. He calls her sissy. Unsure, like he think this might be a joke. She sobs a laugh, drops her bag, and as carefully as she can, throws herself at her cousin.
His arms come up to hold her. They’re strong, she thinks, a mans arms, not the little noodle arms she used to tease him about. His voice is deep too, but his eyes are the same.
She pulls back, smoothes his hair away from his face, kisses him on the forehead and whispers how much she loves him. How much she missed him. How she never stopped looking.
His tears are spilling over onto his cheeks now, she wipes them away without a second thought. He presses his cheek into her hand as she kisses his face again. They’re crying and laughing and holding each other.
The hole in Lisette heals. She looks at Billy’s dressings and decides she’s staying. As long as he needs, she says. Then she’ll take him home. He seems to drop at those words, like his strings have been cut. She gathers him in her arms again, letting him cry.
When they part, she moves to get him some water, and sees the group standing in the doorway, looking utterly gobsmacked. Max is crying. She ignores them. It’s not her problem they didn’t consider that billy was an actual person with family and feelings.
She settles on the edge of his bed, and helps him drink his water. She’ll call her family soon. Will make sure to hold the phone away from her ear as her mother screams. For now, she holds billy. In a hospital room, just like that day 18 years ago, her life has changed for the better once more.
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