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Sadie stared at me with daggers in her eyes when I approached.
I swallowed the lump, found my voice, and told Billy, "Thank you for sticking up for me. No one has ever done that."
"Nothing to thank me for," Billy replied as he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his black hoodie jacket. "I've wanted to kick that dipshit's ass all year."
He offered me a cigarette. "No, thank you."
"What happened?" Sadie asked.
"Jason-jock-strap-Young was giving her a hard time, so I invited him to come out here so I can kick his ass." Billy turned to me. "What's your name?"
"My name is Eleanor Hensley. I like to be called Elle."
"I'm Billy." I knew who he was since my first day of high school. "This is my girlfriend, Sadie, and that dude there is my best friend, Hendrix."
And that was the day I met Billy Cooper.
It was our first year as freshmen, and I never dreamed that Billy would even talk to me, let alone know I existed!
But ever since that day, I would sit outside with Billy and Hendrix during lunchtime and talk about things like the music we liked. Billy and Hendrix were into the hard rock bands and liked Marilyn Manson, but I liked Katy Perry.
One day, I brought my friends Sarah and Hailey outside to the courtyard and introduced them to Billy and Hendrix. We weren't popular and didn't wear the latest styles like all the other girls. We were the geeks, the loners, not fitting into any cliques. But Billy and Hendrix didn't care. They were the outcasts, too, and hung out with the emos and goth kids.
I lived in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Billy lived only half a mile away in a newly constructed trailer park.
He didn't say much about his parents, only that they constantly fought until his mother left one day. He was the only child and missed his mother. Sometimes, when I looked into his eyes, I saw the loneliness. The only people he could talk to were Hendrix and me.
I was also an only child, but my parents cared and doted on me. I never saw them argue about anything other than where they wanted me to go to college after graduating high school.
Billy and Sadie only lasted two months, and then Billy had another girlfriend named Avery, who lasted only a few weeks. Sometimes, I became jealous when I saw him kissing his girlfriend-of-the-month or watching them walk hand-in-hand down the school hallways.
It was late one night in my junior year when I sat in my bedroom studying for a history exam when Billy texted me on my Blackberry. He asked if he could come over and hang out. I knew he was between girlfriends then, so he was probably bored or lonely.
My heart skipped a beat, and my nipples hardened when I read his text. Some nights, I fantasized about Billy kissing me instead of his girlfriends. I imagined what he would taste like with his tongue in my mouth.
There was no way I could sneak out of the house without my parents finding out and grounding me for the rest of my life. I was the perfect daughter with straight A's who planned to attend college with several scholarships.
I turned up the volume on my TV and replied to Billy's text to come to my house. That year, Billy had a driver's license, drove a used, beat-up old Ford Ranger, and worked at the local auto parts store. He would park his truck at the end of my street, walk to my house, and climb into my bedroom window.
We sat on my bed until two a.m. and talked, laughed, and shared Billy's earbuds while listening to music.
From then on, we would sit in my bedroom together every few months when Billy was in between girlfriends or when he had a night off from work.
Billy and I were friends, and he never tried to kiss me, even though I wished he would. But even though that kiss never happened, I was grateful for our friendship.
CHAPTER 2
ELLE
By the end of my senior year, I came out of my shell and looked forward to graduation. I was accepted to attend Towson University in Maryland to further my education, become a teacher, and enjoy my independence and freedom away from my parents.
Like most of the females on my father's side of the family, I was a late bloomer, which made me insecure around other girls in high school who had a good fashion sense, wearing what was in style and wearing make-up. It wasn't until I was a senior that I finally started my period, and my body had curves. I ditched the glasses for contacts, and my sandy brown hair was long with some wave.
I stayed close friends with Sarah and Hailey, plus my friendship with Billy had grown stronger since our freshman year. He had to repeat eighth grade, so he was a year older than me, and his grades went from Cs to almost failing during his junior year. Like most boys, Billy had good grades in history and liked shop class to learn a trade like carpentry, masonry, electrical, and making things. Billy needed help with English and Math, so I started to help him with his homework.
We would always do our homework at my house, and I guessed it was because he didn't like being at his house. My parents thought he was a friendly kid because he was polite and didn't cuss or smoke around them. I would glance at Billy from across my dining room table, and my heart would thump in my chest to see his furrowed brow while reading Shakespeare's tragic play, Romeo and Juliet. Or he would tap his pencil on a notebook because he was frustrated with his algebra homework.
By then, Billy's heart belonged to Tori Sutherland. They were together the whole school year, so I wasn't surprised that helping with homework was less fun than being with Tori every day and night.
