40. Chapter 40

Billy knows the underbelly of LA. He knows where to buy drugs and what corner to stand on to find a willing client and where drug addicts go when they’ve got nothing else to sell. So when he checks the last known address of Mark Mayfield and finds it empty, he falls back on that knowledge and starts making the rounds.

“We could always call Jane, you know,” Steve points out after they pick their way through their third crackhouse. “I’m sure Max has a picture of her dad.”

“That’s plan B,” Billy says, holding out a hand for Kali to take when the rotting steps start to rock under their weight.

“Why? It would be easier,” Kali points out.

Billy makes a face.

“You really want Jane seeing a place like this?” He asks, gesturing to the filthy, crumbling building around them and the men and women too incoherent to notice their intruders.

Steve winces.

“Good point,” he says. “But it should be taken into consideration that she also could just be spying on us anyway.”

That… probably true, actually. But it’s different.

“I didn’t tell her to do it, so it’s not my fault.”

“That sounds like a loophole,” Kali remarks.

“I’ll yell at her when I get home, then,” Billy says. “C’mon. Next stop.”

He sees the prissy look on Steve’s face and the grim tightening of Kali’s jaw at the words. Both reactions, he knows, are for different reasons. Steve’s just grossed out, but Kali… Kali has a look like she knows these kinds of places. Which makes sense, considering where they found her.

“There aren’t many places left,” Billy promises, throwing an easy arm around Steve’s shoulders as they step back onto the humid, sunny street. “Don’t worry, Stevie— I’ve got some penicillin in the car, y’know— just in case.”

Steve scowls at him and pulls away, heading towards the car. Kali takes the opportunity to fall into step beside Billy instead.

“You are well acquainted with such places,” she says. “Were you once one of them?”

Billy shakes his head.

“No,” he says. “I used to run away from the foster homes I was placed in. Usually ended up sleeping in places like this, ‘cause no one would say anything.”

Kali hums.

“Axel was,” she admits after a moment. “Until he found me. He decided the little girl with magic powers and a healthy fear of the government was worth more than his drugs.”

“Axel’s a good guy.”

“He is,” Kali agrees. “With a will of iron, when it matters. He’s taken quite a shine to Lucas, have you noticed?”

Billy hadn’t, but he supposes he doesn’t pay that much attention to the group dynamics of his sisters’ friends. He just pays attention to Max. And Jane. And Will. And technically Dustin sometimes because he’s always hanging around Steve. And, well, yeah, he supposes Lucas has been hanging out at the apartment a lot when Axel was around…

“Maybe.” He just hadn’t quite put it together.

Kali hums.

“Axel is very good with children,” she says. “Perhaps you can help me convince him to finish school and work as a teacher, or something.”

Billy snorts.

“I’m trying to picture him in a sweater vest,” he tells her. “But everything else is the same.”

Kali smacks him, but she’s smiling, too.

“I’m serious,” she says. “One of us has to make a living, and I’m a classified government experiment without any kind of formal education at all.”

Billy sighs.

“School might be a good idea,” he admits. “But not right now. Right now, I’ve got to find Max’s dad.”

“We’ll talk about it later, then?”

Billy’s not going to get out of this.

“Yeah. Sure.”

*.*

It’s slow work, slow enough that they stop for lunch, and are thinking about dinner when Billy’s entire world comes crashing around his ears. Why? Well, because they just so happen to pass by his old apartment building— the one his mother used to live in.

It’s condemned, graffitied and rundown with broken windows and what used to be a chain and a Masterlock hanging from the knob of the busted door.

“Billy? Are we checking this place out?” Steve asks a little nervously. He should be nervous, honestly— the old apartment building looks even scarier than any of the crackhouses they’ve been in so far.

“... Yeah,” Billy says, throwing his car into park without bothering to actually pull into a spot. Nobody’s gonna drive down this little street at this time of the day— after all, the sun’s setting.

He pushes open the door that’s barely hanging on by its rusted hinges and doesn’t look back to see if Kali and Steve are following him. He takes the steps two at a time, barely noticing the used condoms, the leftover needles and bottle caps, the twisted remnants of fast food containers, the straight up trash that litters the hallways. He goes up one, two, three, four floors, then makes a right, all the way down the hall.

He stops in front of the door when he finds it. He stops, and suddenly, he’s afraid. He’s so fucking afraid.

“Billy?”

That’s Steve. Steve, whose hand has found Billy’s shoulder and is squeezing like maybe Billy’s freaking him out just a little bit right now.

“This is my mom’s old apartment,” Billy says faintly, gazing up at the crooked outline of the number six. “I grew up here.”

“... Oh.”

Billy keeps staring, frozen in the wake of so many memories— so many happy memories. Maybe it’s just because he was a kid, one who didn’t really understand that this was a bad part of town with a lot of problems, but when he thinks back to his time behind that ugly brown door, he can’t think of a single thing that doesn’t make him wish his mother was still here.

“Billy, are you okay?” Steve again. He sounds a little worried.

Billy clears his throat.

“Just fine,” he croaks, trying to pretend he’s not wiping his eyes and probably failing miserably. “Sorry. Where’s Kali?”

“She went looking for a phone book,” Steve says, shrugging. “Is there anywhere good to eat around—”

“Ulliam? Is that you?”

Billy startles, badly enough to scare Steve when he jerks around to find the source of the new voice. His eyes widen slightly, mouth falling open in surprise.

“Miss Tiffany?”

The woman— who looks worse for wear since the last time he saw her, if Billy’s totally honest— gives him a wide, yellowed smile, revealing that the gap between her two front teeth had now become a little bit more than that. After seven years, it seems she doesn’t have those two front teeth at all.

“I thought that was you, Ulliam,” she says, sweeping down the hall with all the elegance of the drag queen she is to pull him up into a warm, slightly smelly hug. “You grew up beautiful, baby.”

He pats her on the back, frowning at the delicate bones that slide under her light brown skin.

“It’s nice to see you again, Miss Tiffany,” he says. “How’ve you been?”

“Well, you know how it goes in this business. There’s ups and downs, just like anywhere else.” She pulls back, sighing happily as she holds him in place to get a better look. “You look just like your momma, Ooly, I swear. Oh, and is this your boyfriend? He’s cute.”

Steve goes pink under Tiffany’s gaze, and Billy likes him enough to save him.

“Nah, nothing like that,” Billy says, smirking at Steve’s obvious discomfort. “This is Steve, one of my friends from Indiana. Neil moved us there last year.”

Tiffany clicks her tongue.

“So that’s why I haven’t seen you on the circuit,” she says, frowning. “Are you okay? I mean, you got away from him, right?”

Billy cringes.

“Not exactly,” he says. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, I’ve got the time to hear it, if you want to talk,” Tiffany says. “It’s about time for breakfast, anyway.”

“It’s not worth talking about, honestly,” Billy says, shrugging. “But I’ll get you something to eat, if you want.”

“Baby, you know I never say no to a free meal— especially when it’s with a pair of the prettiest boys I’ve ever laid eyes on.” She gives Steve an exaggerated wink, and grins delightedly when he squirms before turning back to Billy. “I just need to get my purse— this place might be closed down, but it’s still good enough to stash a few things.”

Billy nods.

“We’ll wait for you outside,” he says. “Steve here’s not used to roughing it.”

Tiffany rolls her eyes.

“He ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” she says. “Go. I’ll be out in a minute.”

And with that, she spins on her heel and disappears into one of the other apartments, the same one she’d lived in when Billy was ten and still needed the occasional babysitter.

“That’s a man, isn’t it?” Steve mutters as Billy leads him back towards the steps.

“At one point, yeah,” Billy agrees. “But that was before I was born. I’ve only ever known her as Tiffany.”

“Oh.” Steve pauses. “Why did... she think I was your boyfriend?”

“Because that’s how Tiffany works.” Billy says, shrugging, because it's easier to brush off comments like that than to explain that Tiffany's known him since he was in diapers and knows a fag when she sees one. “And terrible taste runs in the McCloud family.”

Steve elbows him.

“I’ll have you know I’m a great boyfriend,” Steve says. “You’d be lucky to have me.”

Billy, weirdly enough, thinks he might agree.