flayedintheusa

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Billy: Mom, dad, I’m gay

Jim: *clenches fists*

Joyce: Jim…

Jim: *inhales*

Joyce: Jim, don’t—

Jim: Hi gay I’m dad

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Sure using the word suck a lot there, Stevie.

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color study

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Dynamic of all time.

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anyway can’t stop thinking again about how nothing about billy hargrove is stereotypical, not even his “bullying”. Like, we don’t know if he was the classical “steal-your-lunch-money” kind of high school bully, and we probably never will.

What we know, though, is that on the show, in canon, we have only seen billy react violently and rudely towards people who represented a potential danger to him.

Max: well, that’s easy. Unstable homelife. Adopted little sister. He has to pay for every single one of her mistakes. Her potentially dating lucas might represent a real danger for his safety because of their father’s beliefs, most likely. (“Something you learn” means that he had experimented that ‘lesson’ in first person. Maybe he had a black friend/lover growing up, and that cost him.)

Steve: we don’t see billy being actively cruel to him before the Byers, do we? ‘Oh and what about that time he shoved Steve to the ground instead of helping him up?’ Compensating. He had just given him advice, good advice, but Steve still couldn’t think they were on the same side. And also, that’s a competitive sport. While they are under the shower he is much more amiable, considering that he could have easily found a good reason to instigate a fight in steve (such as taking part in Tommy’s charade). Which he didn’t do. The only time we see billy being incredibly violent towards Steve is when he thought he represented a threat to him and max, after having found her alone with him in a stranger’s house. Also they are equals. Rivals, which is very different from one-sided bullying.

Lucas: yeah, same reason described in Max’s paragraph. He feels threatened by this poor kid whose only “fault” is being in love with his sister. But that’s a problem for billy. So he had to resort to threats (again, this is not excusing, but describing.)

That kid at the pool; yeah, he yelled at him. Rudely, too. But also, whose fault would have been if the kid had fallen while running and broken something while billy was on duty? Exactly. Once again, that innocent kid was indirectly threatening him and his job.

El/Mike/Dustin/etc.: he was possessed. Next.

That time he “was about to” run over the kids? Actually yes, that might me be only time we see him doing something reckless and dangerous for others just for the sake of it. But to think that he would have actually run them over is laughable, considering the way he acted during his possession.

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"am i dreaming or is that you, harrington?" oh so you think hes dreamy? you dream about him? what are you? some kind of queer? i fucking thought so

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Imagine in season 3 that Billy wasn’t the one to be possessed by the Mind Flayer (his dad is because fuck Neil). He goes to Scoops Ahoy just so he can annoy Steve while he’s working. Think about how great it would have been if Robin said, “Hey dingus, your boyfriend is here!”

The scowl and blush combination on Harrington’s face would have been priceless. Billy seductively licks the sample spoon clean as soon as Steve comes out. Robin rolls her eyes and decides to take her break early.

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Caution sign rising.

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Eddie is observant the way that only an outcast can be. He’s always existed on the periphery of the student body and when no one wants to even make eye contact with you half the time, it’s easy to be invisible. It’s easy to watch.

Because of this, he knows too much about people. And because of his great big crush, he knows wayyyy too much about Steve.

It’s a problem.

He’s bad about dropping lore that no one else knows because Steve has never mentioned it before. He’s getting increasingly weird looks that all comes to a head at Family Videos one evening.

Eddie there, listening to Robin and Dustin debate what they think Steve’s favorite movie is when he casually says, “It’s Romancing the Stone.”

Steve raises an eyebrow, “…I’ve never told anybody that. How do you know that?”

Eddie’s not going to say that he saw Steve buy tickets for the movie on four separate occasions when he was sneaking into The Hawk. No. He’s going to say something worse like, “My friend, Gareth. He told me. He likes to… watch you.”

That is, you know, weird and Steve says that. He also lets it go because it doesn’t even crack the top 10 weirdest things to happen this year. He’s actually impressed by how much Gareth knows because, “I don’t even think my parents know that, wow.”

Eddie and Steve become better friends, get closer, and it’s smooth sailing. Steve doesn’t even mentioned Gareth’s ‘stalker’ habits when Eddie invites him to watch the band practice.

And the Gareth brings out cookies with cinnamon in them and didn’t mention it even though he “knows” that Steve is allergic so now Steve thinks Gareth wants him to die.

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Match made in heaven.

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Steve's got game. It just works best on Billy.

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And he won't.

I plan on continuing my Rockstar Au in 2025 until then accept this humble meme.

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Billy: After I get these Russian fucks for hurting you.

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Tick tock, Mr. Creel.

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Finished the Twitter meme of Steve! ~

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Billy: My Pretty Boy's got layers.