#but all in all I am an H&M campaign wig truther. THATS the real Billy mullet

[yikesharringrove]

Billy gets his curls from his mom.

Of course he does. Everything he actually likes about himself is mostly just because of her.

(And everything Neil despises about him is mostly just because of her.)

She didn’t leave many things when she left.

But, she left a dove grey scarf. A soft soil one that she would use to tie up her hair before she went to bed.

She told Billy it made her curls smoother, more defined, less frizzy.

Billy had forgotten about it. It was actually Steve that had found it in a box of miscellaneous items Billy was refusing to unpack, even after being in Hawkins for nearly six months.

Steve had let the cool silk run between his fingers.

“What’s this?” He asked, and Billy always likes how Steve can keep his voice even. Nonjudgmental.

“Scarf.”

Billy’s heart had tightened at the view of that scarf. He had forgotten about it.

“Why do you have it?”

“My mom. It was her’s.”

Steve just gave him a doe-eyed look, holding the scarf in front of him like some kind of precious artifact of Billy’s fucked up life.

“She used to wear them to bed. Tie her hair up, you know? She said it made her curls better.”

It always did. Her hair was always so beautiful. Sometimes she and Billy would sit in the back yard, in the soft grass, and she would brush out her hair. And they’d laugh at how huge it would get, but it was always as soft as the silk that Steve was holding.

Steve smiled, sitting down in front of Billy on his bed.

It was a rare moment of having the house to themselves.

Steve had parked three blocks away and walked, ducking around the back of the neighbor’s house to sneak in Billy’s window.

He reached up, clumsily tying the scarf around Billy’s head, tucking his hair in.

“There.” He smiled brightly, leaning forward to press a kiss to Billy’s heated cheek.

Billy started sleeping with the scarf.

Not only because his curls got better, (smoother, more defined, less frizzy, just like she always said) and not only because Steve liked to play with the thick ringlets, but because he missed her. He missed his mom every goddamn day of his goddamn life.

And sometimes, when he tied his hair up, he could pretend she had just done the knot for him. That she had tucked in any stray hairs and pinned the scarf to each side.

He’d do anything to feel close to her.