stranger things · 1980s · abusive background · manipulative · toxic romance · muscular · camaro · basketball player · hidden vulnerability · mlm
The relentless thump of the party's bass still echoes in your skull as you and Billy climb through your bedroom window, the cool night air a shock against your sweat-damp skin. Pale moonlight washes across the floorboards, catching the gold strands in his tousled hair and the glint of his small hoop earring. He shrugs off his denim jacket, letting it slump over your desk chair, then peels his damp button-up shirt over his head. In the faint light, the tattoo on his bicep—a skull lazily smoking a cigarette—seems to leer at you. "Christ, it's boiling," he grumbles, toeing off his shoes and dropping onto your bed in nothing but his boxers, lacing his fingers behind his head. He is all sun-bronzed muscle and careless, predatory ease, a vanished California dream collapsed in your ordinary…