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problematicbyler · 3 months

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an incomplete history of byler sexuality discourse

and how widespread fandom purity culture and homophobia created a flourishing nsfw sub-fandom

some may call me chronically online, but i call myself a fandom historian. i've been a member of some fandom or another since i was about thirteen, and i've always been interested in the rise and fall of fandom discourse. though it's annoying in the moment it's happening, i think it's very interesting and telling to look back at the overall arcs and trends.

so, let's talk about the many times the fandom has cancelled people over byler sexuality, and how each level of "hornygate" has contributed to the growth of the proship/byler smut community.

(i use the term proship in its intended definition, which is to say, not "problematic shipping," but rather being pro-fiction, anti-censorship, and anti-harassment; it is a position of believing the fiction one creates or consumes doesn't reflect a person's real life beliefs or morals.)

i have been a stranger things lover since season 1, a byler shipper since season 2, and an active part of the byler community on tumblr since season 4. i'll mostly be focusing on post-season 4 discourse because that's what i've really been most present for and that was the period that really marked a turning point in the fandom.

seasons 1-3

i wasn't as plugged into fandom discourse back in the day, but the broad strokes of early discourse was mostly thinly veiled homophobia. claiming that it was sexualization to assume will or mike could be queer despite blatant queer coding, implying that analysts were no better than will's bullies to assume his sexuality, etc etc. people were criticized for shipping byler at all because they were so young (but these people naturally had no issue with mileven, so, again, homophobia).

season 4 (may-july 2022)

now, season 4. this is where byler was brought to the attention of a lot more fans, and stranger things' viewership reached wider than ever. the byler fandom on tumblr booms from 4k to 100k over the course of season 4's release.

this brought a lot of new people who have never been in fandoms before, people who never learned don't like don't read or your kink is not my kink and that's okay or ship and let ship.

or, a lot of times, people who had only been in fandoms for celebrities and bands, which tend to have different rules when it comes to shipping and sex, because they're real people. hence a lot of young antis' conflation of character with their actors, but that's a different rant.

so with a rapidly growing fandom, a show ripe for analysis, and the art of media literacy bleeding out on the ground in front of us, the hellscape of the fandom post-season 4 in 2022 followed as such:

august 2022

jo/kendra gate where two extremely popular analysts were called out for "sexualizing" byler while being adults (early to mid 20s). they were dogpiled and harassed because one of them said that will was giving mike "bedroom eyes" (he was) and one of them said mike was checking will out (he was):

pyshiie and moogate. the proship side of byler twitter rose up and started to divide itself. i'll credit my own joining-the-dark-side to pyshiie and moo, formerly barbjeanisms, who were two popular artists called out respectively for sexualizing byler and generally being proship. similarly, people were called out and criticized for even following or interacting with those accounts after this discourse.

september 2022

hosegate is the most famous across the byler fandom, and it's when some users proposed that the scene in the pizzeria uses phallic imagery to imply mike turns will on (or vice versa) and a lot of people thought that was too sexualized, it caused a divide, and more fanpolicing, etc.

october 2022

the artist noodlesandtea was harassed for having liked arguably nsfw bakudeku art (they were shirtless, it wasn't explicit) on the same account where they draw characters who are minors. they also drew byler kissing, which was a problem for some? anyone who defended them was also called a pedo, naturally. noodles also got called out for having drawn fanart of the popular e-rated fanfiction....

the unmarked mixtape. a massively popular sequel to a massively popular fic, the red envelope. for a long time, those were the most widely recommended byler fics, but it very soon became taboo to even admit to reading them because the sequel has explicit sex and the first has them making out.

sonnet116 gate is another fic that was beloved and then rapidly turned on by byler twitter because it had implied, fade to black sex scenes. it was about them hooking up but had no smut. and even the non explicit idea of that was offensive and pedophilic of anyone who dared read it. around this time, another fic was called out for having will moaning into a kiss, because writing a teenager moaning was also offensive and pedophilic.

i'm told i (jana / troublebyler gate?) may have influenced a lot of people joining twitter for byler smut after writing illicit affairs and some other smutty oneshots in rapid succession, seeing a lot of byler shippers moving to the proship side of the fandom just to discuss and write byler smut. i also hosted a little fandom gossip column on my curiouscat where a lot of folks confessed to reading or writing smut while pretending to be "normal" in the "main" fandom. it basically revealed/implied that a large amount of popular authors, artists, and accounts were secretly pro byler smut, and that many proshippers were "undercover" in the "main" fandom.

the blocklist era. around this time the "main" fandom also created a "st twt safety" account on twitter which was basically targeted harassment and mass reporting of proshippers. the account does warn of some genuine bad actors sending gore images via dms, being racist, etc. but by far, the majority of it was simply calling out proshippers for sexualizing byler, sharing screenshots they thought were "gross," which only resulted in spreading nsfw content to unintended audiences of minors that likely never would have seen the nsfw accounts otherwise.

november 2022

practice kissing gate is where a handful of popular fic writers were criticized for writing practice kissing fics (such as undertow), and in fact, any amount of byler making out, because adults "fantasizing" about teenagers kissing was "gross."

the proship corner of st twitter continued to grow a lot thanks to so many lovely fan creators, all of whom i couldn't possibly list but who have done a lot for the community! but we continued to get bombarded with endless callout posts and block lists and witch hunting. people were unabashedly policing people's following lists and likes on twitter to call people out for engaging with any questionable users or content. (if you search byler twitter now you can still see the wreckage of so many witch hunts.)

onward through 2023

over time things have mostly calmed down, or at least enough of the folks on "opposing sides" of the fandom have mutually blocked each other to survive. this is likely also influenced by the hiatus leaving the fandom to quiet down, the collapse of twitter-turned-x having many users migrate their fandom content elsewhere, and the mass exodus of many people from the fandom for political reasons. if i had to guess, the ramp-up to season 5 will see all new conflict as more "casual" fans return to the fandom. but who's to say.

which brings us to now:

spicybylerpolls gate, wherein the byler tag on tumblr collectively had to reckon with the fact that people want byler to have sex and it doesn't make them creeps to vote in silly polls about it. people criticized the blog for being overly sexualized and pure fantasy versus more "acceptable" analysis, with many making sweeping moralizing statements about anyone who dared interact with the blog.

this has kicked off tumblr's own sort of horny revolution in encouraging folks to be more open on here, whereas previously we were confined to our corner of twitter.

so in summary:

people over and over again put fan creators on a pedestal just to turn on them when they're "betrayed" when a person's views did not one-to-one line up to theirs.

teens in the fandom especially were "betrayed" by adults in the fandom they thought were "safe" (and i would argue that self proclaimed "safe" adults in fandom are far more dangerous to real life minors than the proship fans who sexualize fictional characters but dont interact with real teens)

most everything has been fueled by widespread ageism at any fan over the age of 18, widespread homophobia and puritanism in regards to exploring queer sexuality or discussing sex at all

so much hate has been over what are essentially "thought crimes", with people watering down serious accusations like pedophilia into a petty insult over disagreements on fiction

and the cycle repeats itself endlessly until things devolve back into witch hunting and policing peoples following and likes etc

the best part to me is that every single cancellation just resulted in more people flooding to the horny side of the fandom to post more freely and without shame. every time a person on twitter posted screenshots of my account to say how "gross" it was (while simultaneously exposing my 18+ nsfw content to their audience of minors) i had a surge in followers. the more the fandom squeezes, the more people slip from its hold.

but that doesn't make the harassment campaigns okay, and it doesn't mean the fandom didn't do massive amounts of harm to real people in an attempt to protect fictional characters.

my hope going forward is that the fandom can coexist as a community where people don't have to like or agree with certain content to treat the people who create it with respect and dignity. and i hope that, while this side of the fandom might grow more on tumblr, we don't have to relive the same old discourses and go through the same cycles we went through on twitter.

and remember kids, the block button is both free and fun.

#byler #spicy byler #fandom discourse #fandom history #stranger things #proship #profiction #proshipping #anti censorship #purity culture #fandom politics

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wakeupthemembersofbylernation · 11 months

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It is not even that Mlvns are homophobic. I mean, many of the toxic ones are. We’ve all seen them and interacted with them and received hate anons from them. When Noah’s article officially confirming Will’s sexuality dropped during the summer, people were literally tweeting slurs and fantasizing about him being hate-crimed or dying from AIDS. (It’s probably unfair to group Mlvns in with these people, as lots of them weren’t even Mlvns, just bigoted GA members and trolls). But still. It was bleak. There’s a deep darkness within the ST fandom undeniably.

But I’m sure many Mlvns/Byler-antis are the types of people who genuinely have no problem with queer people in real life. When we call them out on their bigotry and homophobia, they get confused and say, “But I have gay friends! How am I homophobic for not liking Byler?” And they mean it 100%. They really do have gay friends. They probably consider themselves allies and yada yada.

The issue is that A) they are deeply heteronormative without realizing it, and B) they simply aren’t the target audience for the show, and as such, they don’t really understand or connect to the themes of the show. The thing is, lots of people, many Milkvans included, are simply normies. Now I love Steve as a character, so this is literally no hate to Steve, but lots of people are Steves. And people who are like Steve: popular, straight, attractive, used to dating the types of people they want, into ‘normal’ interests like sports (not that Steve is hyper into sports, but you know what I mean), likely to go down ‘normal’ paths and live fairly conventional lives like their parents, etc. are simply not the target audience for the show.

Obviously, the show centers on outcasts, nerds, queer characters, characters with disabilities, black characters, etc. Most people recognize this on some level, but they recognize it in more of a general sense like, “Of course the protagonists are nerds/outcasts, just like all the classic 80s teen protagonists. I just love how nostalgic ST is!” And they leave it at that. Because they are normies, they don’t really connect to the themes of the show other than a surface-level, power of friendship sense. They don’t see how Byler is more aligned with the show’s message than Milkvan at this point. They don’t see that the outcast status of most of the characters is more than just a throwaway personality trait… its deeply integral to the point of the show itself and closely connected to the supernatural storyline.

This is because nerd culture is somewhat mainstream now, and lots of “normies” like it too. Star Wars, Marvel, LOTR, Harry Potter, etc. These are all major parts of society and billion dollar franchises, even more so than they were in the 80s. Because of this, people don’t realize that in the context of the world of the show, they wouldn’t have been friends with the Party most likely. It is far more statistically likely that they would’ve rolled with Angela’s friend group or joined Jason’s human hunting squad. Or even if they weren’t outright bullies, it’s far more likely that they would’ve been one of the nameless background characters in Hawkins High, just kind of floating by in a conventionally comfortable existence, entirely oblivious to government lab conspiracies and alternate dimensions. The characters in ST are outcasts in a deeper, existential sense. Society is against them.

And so many people can’t relate, especially to the queer themes. They can’t even see the queer themes. Because the show is not for them. That’s why you see so many baffling takes on the show:

“Will is so whiny all the time, and I don’t like him!”

“Mike was right in the rain fight! S3 is about growing up, and Will was acting like a baby.”

“Tbh I don’t care that much about the Party dynamics. My favorite part of the show is Steve and Dustin being funny together. And my second favorite part is Hopper being a cool action hero.”

“B*lly is overhated! I mean, he’s so hot and misunderstood! He could’ve redeemed himself.”

“I don’t get Byler. It barely seems like Mike and Will are even friends.”

To be clear, it doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy the genre of the show. Being horror/sci-fi, its core fans are a smaller pool of people than, say, fans of The Office or Friends or other popular sitcoms. So the Mlvns who watched it since the beginning probably do have some avant-garde tastes in terms of genre-preferences, since lots of people wouldn’t touch horror with a ten-foot pole. But it does mean they don’t pick up on the themes of the show and the arc of the characters.

(Of course, many newer fans now are just watching it cause it’s popular, regardless of which genres they typically prefer. This opens the show up to lots of people who don’t connect to anything about the show, not just its themes but also its darker content. A lot of newer fans sound like this: “Like, I just love that Mike was in love with El from the day he found her in the woods, and it’s so cute that El is Mike’s superhero, and Eddie is so cool and badass; I wish he could’ve told Chrissy how he felt, and I’m anxiously awaiting S5 to see who Nancy chooses but I hope she chooses Steve… Stancy 4ever!” This is because Stancy is like every other conventionally attractive couple in media).

I’m rambling, but a lot of people are into Milkvan because of their expectations that “pretty boy and pretty girl go together,” and that’s all there is to it. Finn is attractive and Millie is attractive, and they play the protagonists, so of course Mike and El are endgame. Why wouldn’t they be? This is true for the girls who project themselves onto Millie and see Finn/Mike as a dream boyfriend, and it’s true for the guys who project themselves onto Finn and who would want nothing more than to have a cool, superpowered girlfriend.

This is the way of nature. In a normie worldview, there’s no deviation from this path. A lot of fans basically take The Kissing Booth/To All the Boys I Loved Before and slap a sci-fi/horror filter on it, and they think that’s what Stranger Things is. It’s a cool show where kids fight monsters, and there are normal, heterosexual romances like Mlvn to root for, and there’s a badass superhero main character at the center.

Oh, there’s a gay character too? Well, that’s weird. I mean, y’all already have Robin, but whatever. I’m not homophobic! I’m cool with Will being gay… as long as he stays over there. Oh, he’s in love with Mike? Well, that’s even weirder. Why would the writers do that? I suppose that’s fine, as long as it’s just a little crush, and as long as it doesn’t get in the way of “the main storyline” and my OTP. I’m not homophobic, I swear! I have gay friends!

And they do. And they might not actively be against LGBTQ+ people in real life. They may really be telling the truth. But because they are Steves, this is where heteronormativity comes into play and blinds them. Main couples in shows are always straight, so the cool sci-fi, monster show they love must also be. They’re fine with Kevin Kellers, but queer Mike doesn’t fit the box that they allot to gay characters. So Mike must be the straightest character of all time to fight back against “weird delusional Byler theories” that would “come out of nowhere.” It’s not that they’re actively anti-gay; it’s that they are profoundly closed-minded and have a very myopic view of sexuality/storytelling/their favorite characters/their favorite shows. This is very similar to the XO, Kitty situation and people who were upset that Kitty was ‘suddenly’ bi and had a crush on Yuri.

WHAT?! Where did this come from? I thought I was watching a normal rom-com! I was fine with the gay characters on it who were clearly televised from the beginning! But Kitty? No! Kitty’s my self-insert. How can she like girls too? It must be a phase and be “less real” than her male love interests. This isn’t Heartstopper. The same weird energy is present in the ST fandom.

Byler being semi-canon isn’t seen as confirmation of a love triangle; it’s seen as a disruption to the norm and the foregone conclusion that Mike and El will be together forever and get married and have telekinetic children because the show owes that to them for all they’ve been through. “But why is Will inserted into their scenes?” we ask them, begging them to see reason. “Idk, but he should know his place and stop being a homewrecker and go find a new boy to like. Just leave the soulmates alone. Mike has already made clear he’s straight and that Will is nothing more than a friend. He said it in the roller rink!” This is how heteronormativity works.

That’s why Byler endgame will be so important because it will shatter preconceived notions and open people’s eyes to the beautiful tapestry of humanity. And they will see that this powerful, queer, coming-of-age, love story was right there, under their noses, in their “fun sci-fi monster show” this whole time. *Mind Blown*

#byler #mike wheeler #will byers #mike wheeler i know what you are #byler endgame #stranger things 5 #anti milkvan #ST fandom analysis

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willthezombieboy · 4 months

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If Byler isn’t canon at least I need that Mike and el break up so that we could have independent el

(also Byler needs to be canon I’m beggin)

#pls #stranger things #byler #stranger things fandom #byler tumblr #anti mileven #el hopper #independent eleven #eleven stranger things #jane hopper #gay mike wheeler #mike wheeler

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alinasheretic · 1 year

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One of the funniest things in fandom discourses is always seeing people do mental gymnastics to try to convince everyone that the character that is really fucking evil has been an innocent child all along! “Look guys this is the REAL VICTIM” and then it’s just the nastiest son of a bitch on the planet lol.

Like, just admit you like a character that isn’t a good person& move on!

#the darkling #henry creel #anti greens #shadow and bone #stranger things #vecna #anti hotd #anti alicent hightower #anti aegon ii targaryen #anti aemond stans #already tagging this bc I CAN SEE THIS COMING FROM A MILE AWAY #coriolanus snow #fandom fuckery

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q-u-a-rantine-high-school · 10 months

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Here's the second one from my last two posts, enjoy :)

#billy hargrove #billy hargrove fandom #billy hargrove cosplay #billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove x male reader #billy antis dni #stranger things

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every-dayiwakeup · 1 year

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At the end of day, it all comes down to this:

the Stranger Things fandom lists all the "reasons" (most of which are false or overexaggerated) why they believe Billy deserved everything that happened to him. Okay there are three things wrong with that. One, he's fictional, calm the fuck down. Two, he didn't do anything. Three , even if he did something it does not mean what happened to him is justified or okay in any way! That goes for everyone. Whatever you did, doesn't make what happened to you/what is happening to you okay.

I do have a bone to pick with this mentality. Especially because victim blaming exists, and it not only shouldn't, people would rather go after the victim for not reacting the way they would have than ever turn the same amount of heat on the offenders. Even if you didn't do anything (again it doesn't matter), someone will find a way to shame and blame you. It is not your fault. Any of it. I don't care what people may tell you, it's not your fault.

Performance activism solves absolutely nothing. It's become so much of a problem that it overshadows actual problems. Ya know, because their outrage is not about those who ARE impacted by said issues.

Again as always, victims know you aren't fighting for them. The whole "I'll create my perfect victim because real ones aren't good enough 😔" undermines your claims of giving a shit.

#anti stranger things fandom #anti stranger things #anti duffers #cw csa mention #billy hargrove #billy hargrove was a victim #whether you like it or not #victims first thing on their minds should not be how others may accept or reject #it happens anyway #lots of things happen even if they shouldnt #things i wish someone told me sooner #stranger things critical #fandom critical #December 23 2022 #this is who they really are and what they believe in #which can change overtime and i hope it does

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nellievances · 2 years

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the worst part of all this drama is that. i’m so sad for grace van dien. i want to shield her from this toxicity but she’s already mentioned how unsafe she feels and how they’ve made her cry and. my heart just breaks. i hope that they can find something better to do with their time soon so that grace can heal and know how much we love her.

#she doesn’t deserve this and it’s so disgusting that it’s bc she’s friends with twitter’s white boy of the month #they think they own joe quinn so they’re tearing down her in retaliation to realizing they in fact don’t!!!#god HELP us if joe ever gets a romantic partner jesus christ #grace van dien #chrissy cunningham #anti stranger things fandom #shut up allie

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hogwartsandhawkins · 6 months

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Prove Me Wrong

Chapter 13: The 13th

If you need to catchup, here's the masterlist.

Summary: Watching a horror movie with Billy goes better than expected

Warnings: Cursing, Slight angst for a millisecond, Mentions of blood and gore (from the movie they watch), mentions of death (again from the movie). As always let me know if I missed something.

Word Count:4k

Author's note: Sorry this post came late loves! My son got sick so that was fun to take care of. But good news, because I slacked you guys get two chapters this weekend 🤗

Also, as someone who also isn't a big horror fan, I watched this movie as homework and surprisingly, completely straight-faced this entire movie. Guess Billy's right, it was kind of cheesy 😂

Billy climbed his way to Jess’s bedroom with ease this time. With the knowledge that Jess’s parents were not directly below her, he took less care about whether or not he was silent and instead jumped quickly from the trash can to the last quoins, lifting himself over the gutters where he found himself once again in front of her draped covered window. He tapped the glass lightly and was immediately met by a still annoyed Jess opening the pane and quickly walking away. She was now wearing a faded cheer sweatshirt and a pair of cloth shorts. He looked over at the sickly green atrocity that held her TV just above her bed level, the VHS sitting on top of it. Her bed was littered with snacks, some from the store and some that she seemed to have provided herself, Billy taking note of the stack of brownies, which he hoped were as good as last time he snuck into her room.

She seemed to be pacing before he got there and was continuing to do so as he arrived. “Please tell me you’re not serious about wanting to be here for Christmas.”

“Doesn’t really look like that’s up to me. What? You don’t want me over? Where’s your holiday spirit, princess?” Before he knew it, a Charleston Chew bar hit him in the chest.

“For once, be serious. Steve is gonna be there. And I don’t want to deal with the two of you bickering like an old married couple.”

Billy picked up the candy bar and tossed it back on the bed, grinning to himself. “I’ll behave if he does.”

Jess stopped pacing and turned to him. “Right, because he’s the one I should be worried about.” Jess recalled earlier today how Billy purposefully blew smoke in Steve’s face right before successfully irritating Steve with the thought of him spending all winter break with her.

Billy walked over to the side of the bed he usually sat on and pushed the assortment of food to the other side and sat down, kicking off his shoes as he did so. He sucked in his cheek and bit down, contorting his mouth in a downward smirk. “Don’t gotta worry about me, sweetheart. I’ll be an absolute angel. Call it an early Christmas gift.”

Jess considered his promise for a moment, her eyes traveling from his smile to his eyes, which gave off a hint of playfulness but no level of insincerity. “I always have to worry about you,” she huffed before settling down on the opposite side of the bed, pushing snacks closer to Billy.

“That’s cute of you,” Billy teased before eyeing the cans of beer that were at the foot of her bed. He leaned forward and grabbed the pack, twisting a can out of the plastic ring that held it secure to the other five. He swiftly cracked it open and took a swig from it, earning him another annoyed glance from Jess. “What? You want one, Logan?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why? You’re cute when you’re drunk.”

The mention of her being intoxicated began to stir the memories from that last weekend, how she spent the majority of her night with Billy, and how that night ended. She began to feel light-headed from the memory of how close she stood to him towards the end of that song, how she was practically leaning against him for support. She was brought back to reality by the bed shifting, Billy placing the remaining five cans underneath her bed. “Let’s get this show on the road, princess. Not tryna keep you up all night…”

Jess shoved him, making his beer slosh.

“Aye watch it…”

She made her way toward her TV, taking her time to put the VHS in, not in a hurry to start hiding under her covers the whole time. She looked over the cover, “Friday the 13th, The Final Chapter…” Jess scoffed, placing the tape in the player. “Billy, I swear if this is as bad as the first one-“ She was quickly cut off by the tape being played where it was last on, causing Jess to jump at the sight of Jason killing the hitchhiker on the side of the road.

“Oohhh shit!” Billy laughed out, taking another sip of his beer before swinging his legs off the bed and quickly making his way to where Jess was standing. He watched her close her eyes, turning away from the TV as the ominous music played. “Go back to the bed, princess, I got it.” He squatted down, pressing the rewind button on the VCR as he stared down the TV, waiting til he heard a click, indicating it was done.

He turned back around to find Jess already underneath her blanket, the top of it bunched up by her mouth with her hands. He smirked down at her, able to see her eyes squint up at him in irritation. “Don’t worry, it’s honestly not that bad. I chose the cheesiest one of the two. Promise.” He chuckled as he made his way to her light switch, flipping it off, and began to sit back down on his side of the bed, deciding to take a brownie as adjusted himself back against the headboard.

Jess’s glare softened as he joined her on the bed. “You’ve seen this before?” Billy only nodded, turning his head to the side to look over at her, smiling for a moment before looking back over at the screen.

They stayed that way as the movie started, Jess bunching the blanket over her face, Billy smiling to himself as he continued to look over at her, sipping his beer contently. Billy felt the blanket shift suddenly, suggesting to him that the sight of Jason’s hand falling free from the stretcher startled her. He bit down into his brownie and smirked to himself, swallowed, and then turned to look back at her once more. “If it makes you feel better, Logan, we’re not out camping right now so it can’t happen to us.”

“Yeah. Great. Thanks.”

Billy chuckled out loud, looking down at the load of snacks that separated the two of them, silently cursing the barrier as he sat up straighter. He picked up the Charleston Chew that was thrown at him and tossed it on her lap.

“Eat a candy bar, you’ll feel better.”

Jess smiled lightly, grabbing the bar from her lap and slowly unwrapping it, not taking her eyes off the screen, lifting her knees to her chest. Billy continued to look from the snacks to her, watching the way the shifting lights from the screen illuminated her features, the way she cautiously bit into her snack, pausing with it still in her mouth when she was preparing for something that could possibly scare her. He continued to smile to himself as he noticed the way she squinted her left eye more than her right when she braced for oncoming jump scares and the way she slowly began to relax more throughout the movie. When they watched the hitchhiker get stabbed for the second time that night, Billy finally summoned the courage to start moving the snacks.

The rustling of the wrappers being moved made Jess finally remove her eyes from the screen and look over at the cause of the noise. He moved the bags of chips to the nightstand closest to him, along with the baked goods, seeing as he was the only one eating those, leaving the assorted candy bars where they were for Jess.

“What’re you doin’?”

“Making more room.” Billy shrugged as he coolly answered. He then playfully tossed the rest of the candy onto her lap when she didn’t make a move to remove them from the middle of the bed. “Think those belong to you.”

“Yeah, so did those-” She was now pointing at the Doritos that Billy had already moved, but then quickly shifted back her attention toward the TV when she heard a twig snap. “Oh, don’t walk alone…”

“Don’t worry, she doesn’t die. Yet.”

“Billy…” He only laughed in response but stopped immediately when she looked more annoyed than scared.

“Hey, I’m just kidding.” He scooted inches closer to her, the snacks no longer blocking his way. When she didn’t say anything in response, he offered, “You want me to turn it off?” He continued to look down at her, his tone was serious and softer than it had been tonight, which caused Jess to look up at him.

She furrowed her eyebrows at the sight of him and then began to shake her head. “No…” She then looked back at the TV for only a moment, “I guess you’re right, it’s not as bad as I thought it was gonna be.” When she turned to face him again, she noticed the smirk he was now giving her and rolled her eyes.

“See what happens when you try new things, Logan?”

“It’s still bad,” she rebutted. “And by the way. I do watch horror movies. I just don’t like them.”

“Whatever you say, gorgeous.” He then reached for the Dorito bag that he placed on top of the nightstand and moved it to the opposite side of Jess, where it wasn’t separating the two of them, making it a point to reach behind her as he did so. When the chips were secured next to her, he allowed his hand to linger longer than needed before resting his arm above the pillow she was leaning against. He cracked his knuckles nervously, his arm tensing up every time Jess shifted.

Get it together, Hargrove. He cursed himself, attempting to look down at her without her noticing, but she was too busy noticing the way her body burned at the close proximity to his, attempting to free herself from the blanket without making it too obvious it was now causing her to overheat. When she could have sworn she was beginning to sweat, she jumped up suddenly.

“Bathroom…” was all she said, assuming the word would explain itself.

Billy sucked in before clearing his throat. “You want me to pause it?”

“God no,” she laughed out, exiting the room before the TV became too bright and he was able to see the strong blush that she knew currently covered her entire face. Billy chugged what remained of his now warm beer once Jess was clear of the room, hoping maybe it would loosen him up slightly. But unfortunately, he knew it would take a lot more than one beer to do that, and he would definitely like to stay sober while he was with her, at least in her bedroom.

When he heard footsteps reappear in the hallway, a mischievous grin appeared on his face as he got up from the bed and walked to the door just as she opened it, grabbing her hips as he scared her, believing all she would do was jump. When she let out a loud, short scream, however, he quickly widened his eyes and placed his hand over her mouth, chuckling quietly.

“Shit, Logan.”

Jess smacked his chest, causing Billy slowly to take his hand off of her face.

“Dammit, Billy, if my parents heard me…” She was answered by the sound of a door creaking open and the shuffle of footsteps. She pushed Billy further into her room as she stepped back into the hallway and found Stan at the bottom of the stairs.

“You okay, kid?”

“Uh. Yeah. Just watching some stupid scary movie. Sorry.” She looked back into her bedroom for only a moment, but enough to see Billy’s smirk growing on his face.

Stan Logan gave her a strained look, but then shrugged his shoulders and turned away from the stairs, “Keep it down next time kid, it’s the middle of the night.”

“Sorry,” she then turned to look back at Billy before she continued, “It won’t happen again.”

She made it back into her room and shut the door behind her, refusing to break eye contact. “You absolute asshole!” she hissed, picking up another uneaten candy bar and chucking it at him, which he easily swatted away as he laughed, attempting to be quieter.

“How was I supposed to know you’d scream like that?”

“It’s like you want to get me into trouble.” She shook her head in exasperation, but when Billy could only laugh at the incident, it caused her to break into a smile as well, which she attempted to hold back once it appeared. “It’s not funny!” Her giggling, however, said otherwise, and she rolled her eyes once more, plopping down on her bed as Billy sprawled out on his side, now taking the candy that was thrown at him and opening it for himself.

The sound of glass breaking made both of them turn their heads back to the screen as they watched some poor girl get thrown from the top story onto a car by Jason, making Jess cringe.

“So they’re just all dying at once now, huh?”

“Typically how it goes,” Billy answered, biting into the candy bar and quickly swallowing, “Surprised she didn’t survive that.”

“She was thrown out of a window!”

Billy just shrugged nonchalantly, “Eh, the car cushioned her fall.” Billy then turned back and smiled at her, taking another bite.

“The car cushioned-“ Instead of finishing this sentence, she shook her head in disbelief and began laughing even harder. “You’re insane.”

“I’d survive that fall.”

“Sure you would, tough guy.”

Billy scooted his way closer as they continued watching the movie, making the excuse that Jess was ‘hogging the chips’. Jess stopped feeling the need to shield herself from the jump scares and gory scenes as Billy continued to make jokes and ridicule how each character handled the situation, making her laugh as if she were watching a comedy. By the end of the movie, Billy was practically leaning against Jess as he continued to eat more chips than he wanted.

“So what did you think, princess? Not that bad huh?”

Jess shook her head slowly. “No, not that bad.”

Billy beamed at her then tapped her leg with his hand before climbing over her, swinging his legs off her side of the bed, and heading to the door.

“Bathroom’s this way, right?” He asked as he pointed in the right direction.

“Yes, just please be quiet.”

“You got it, Princess.”

While he was gone, Jess took the time to remove the wrappers and crumbs from her bed, getting back under the covers as Billy was reentering the room.

“Alright, Logan.” He climbed over her again to make it to his side of the bed and then sprawled out, laying his head on one of the pillows, “Goodnight.”

“You think so, huh?”

“What?” He then looked at her with feigning surprise. “You wanna sleep all by yourself tonight? I guess you’re a big girl after all.”

“Shut up.”

Billy relaxed against the pillow he was lying on and moved his gaze to the ceiling and quickly changed the subject. “So have you seen the other ones?”

“Just the first one. Like I said, I’m not into scaring myself for fun.”

“You know what that means…” Billy nudged her side as he continued staring up, the solid blue light from the screen softly illuminating the room. “We gotta go on a marathon.”

“That is not what that means,” Jess responded, also settling into bed, lifting the covers so that it barely covered her chin.

“I thought you said it wasn’t that bad,” he teased, shifting his head so he could look at her. Her eyes met his, rolling to the side before looking back at him, peering at him through her eyelashes, making Billy feel as if his chest would explode if he didn’t look away. Despite his whole body pleading with him to turn away, he kept his eyes fixed on hers as he continued. “I’ll tell you what,” he smiled deviously at her, “we switch off. You show me one of your lame chick flicks, and then we’ll watch the first Friday movie, yeah?”

“First of all,” Jess pulled the covers back down to her chest so she could prop herself up with her elbow, “they’re not lame, and second, I’ve already seen the first one.”

“Then it shouldn’t be a problem to see it again.” Billy continued to stare at her, challenging her to accept. He also moved to incline himself, taking his pillow and folding it in half.

“Fine. But after Friday the 13th, we’re done with horror movies.”

“Unless I make you like them.” Billy widened his smile, opening his mouth a bit to allow his tongue to run along the bottom row of his teeth.

“Yeah right,” Jess scoffed, scrunching her eyebrows in disbelief.

“You seemed to like this one just fine.

“That’s only because you’re-“ She stopped abruptly, not allowing herself to finish that sentence, but when she looked over the expression Billy was making, the way his smile dropped and his eyes squinted, she knew she had to say something. “It’s only because you were making fun of it.”

Billy’s smile returned, but not as wide as it was earlier. “Then I’ll make sure to do the same thing next time.” He winked at her, settling into his folded pillow as he listened to her complain about how much she was going to hate this upcoming movie marathon, and how scared she was to watch the other two she hadn’t seen yet. But he knew better. He had watched how comfortable she had gotten after the first 30 minutes, watched how her shoulders stopped tensing. He liked to think he maybe had something to do with it, or maybe it was just the fact that he did pick the corniest movie out of the two.

He wondered what would have happened if he had picked a different movie, a more frightening one. Would she have cowered under her blanket the whole time? Would she have cowered behind him? He quickly shook the ‘what ifs’ away. He knew that’s not how he wanted this night to go. He didn’t want to be the default guy she cuddled next to, didn’t want her to feel like she had to get close to him. This was the same reason he didn’t fight Steve about taking her home so early into the party. And he knew this was why he chose this franchise of horror movies to introduce her to.

He continued to listen to her talk about all the movies she would make him watch. She figured she might show him the Star Wars movies since he was so adamant about making her watch a franchise as well, which he just scoffed at, but he knew watching some weird sci/fi films wouldn’t be the worst thing ever if it were with her.

They continued changing topics for hours, whether it be about movies, school, and again about California until the conversation moved to the party that was being thrown on New Year’s Eve.

“You’re going right?”

“If Steve goes, yeah.”

“Why does it matter if Steve goes? You didn’t even hang out with him last time.”

“Steve happens to be my ride. And plus, I normally hang out with him. He was just busy last time.”

“Yeah, I saw,” Billy replied bitterly, “You forget I have a car or something?”

Jess looked at him interrogatively, “You’d want to take me?”

“If you need a ride, I can give you a ride.”

“That’s not what I was asking.”

“Sounds like what you were asking.”

Jess sucked in and sighed, folding her pillow in half as well now and laying into it as her eyes started to get heavy. “I mean,” she paused for a moment, knowing exactly what she meant, just not how to say it, “I mean… everyone’s gonna be there. And everyone’s gonna see you taking me to this party. It’s not just you taking me to school anymore.”

“And?”

“You want people to see me in your car?”

Billy shook his head and chuckled sarcastically, “Seems like you’re the one who’s worried about it, not me.”

“No that’s not…” Jess began to backtrack but paused. He was right, she was worried about it, but not in the way that he thought. It was when Billy began to get up that she started to speak again. “What’re you doing?”

“It’s hella late, and I’m falling asleep.” He began to grab for his jacket that was on the floor next to his side of the bed, holding it at his side as he turned to face Jess again. “Look, if you don’t want me to give you a ride, then I won’t, that’s all you had to say. You don’t need to go into some lame excuse about how I don’t want to-“

“That’s not what I meant...” Billy stood there, continuing to look at her, finally shrugging his shoulders, exaggerating the movement as to tell her to keep going. “It’s just. Your friends don’t like me, okay? And I already had trouble when you first started taking me to school and-“

“Who gave you trouble?” Billy quickly interrupted, seemingly unamused by this bit of information.

“That’s not the point nor does it matter…” She sighed one last time, “The point is, I don’t want to be the talk of the school again, especially if your friends are the ones doing the talking.”

Billy took this into consideration, nodding as she finished, he then looked down at the ground, pondering what to say next, and looked back at her. “You know, Carol’s just bitter you don’t talk to her anymore. She doesn’t hate you.”

“That’s not really the vibe I get.”

“So who’s giving you trouble then, because I know it’s not Carol, she talks but she wouldn’t come at you directly. And Tommy really couldn’t give a shit.” Billy tossed his jacket down again and sat back on the bed, folding his left leg under him as his right hung off the edge.

“Who do you think?” When Billy continued to stare at her, just about ordering her to give him an answer with the raise of his eyebrows, she scoffed, “Your girlfriend, that’s who.”

Billy began to shake his head, laughing coldly at the news. “Which one?” he teased before releasing his downturned smirk, “Next time just tell her to fuck off.”

“I did.”

Billy nudged her lightly, conveying his approval. “That’s my girl.”

“It doesn’t make it any more fun though.”

“Getting to tell Jane to fuck off isn’t fun?”

Jess laughed at this, nodding her head in agreeance. “I meant the being talked about part.”

“Yeah, well, fuck ‘em.”

“Is that what you tell yourself? ‘Fuck ‘em’?”

“I’m starting to.” Billy drew a short, loud breath threw his nose, nodding slowly as he turned away from her for a moment. “It took me a while to get there but… yeah. Fuck ‘em all.”

Jess giggled at this statement, relaxing her shoulders at the thought of not having a care in the world of what others thought. “So is that why you’re such an asshole?” Jess teased, earning a snort from Billy.

“Nah,” Billy paused, staring at the foot of her bed, “No that’s not why…” He then tilted his head to look over at her, the light from the screen casting still shadows on her face. He smiled more to himself than at her before lying back down on the pillow that was now partially unfolded.

“I thought you were tired?”

“I am,” he said flatly.

“I thought you were leaving?”

“That’s because I was irritated, and now I’m not.” When she didn’t respond he tilted his head and asked, “Do you want me to leave?”

“No…” she whispered suddenly.

“Good. Because I don’t want to either.”

Taglist: @nix-rose @fandom-princess-forevermore @ooo---hazelgrimm---ooo @axionn @defenslessheart-main @the-lost-are-ignored

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