Follow Your Passion: A Seamless Tumblr Journey
no but I think that if Billy Hargrove ever got the chance to meet Wayne Munson he’d short circuit? like, here is a man that, for all intents and purposes, comes from his walk of life, who is a little bit gruff and sort of rough around the edges, who is raising a boy not too unlike Billy and who shows that boy genuine love and affection the likes of which Billy has never truly known. Wayne would never think of raising his voice to Eddie, let alone his fist. not just that, but he actively defends his nephew against a town that has written him off as a freak. Billy has never had an adult come to bat for him the way that Wayne does for Eddie and I truly don’t think that Billy would know how to wrap his head around that.
and and and if he ever hung around Wayne??? picture it: Billy going to Eddie’s for the first time, maybe for some stupid school project they got paired up for, maybe just to listen to some music, and Wayne comes home from work. Billy’s instincts kick in, because father figures coming home sets off alarm bells, but Wayne is nothing like Neil. he comes in happy to see Eddie, asks about Eddie’s day, cracks jokes with him. and when Wayne sees Billy side-eyeing him, looking confused, he puts a hand on Billy’s shoulder and he asks, “You okay, son?” and there’s no sarcasm in it, no animosity, it’s a genuine question and Billy doesn’t know what to do so he makes up some excuse to leave.
of course, I love to think of all this ending with Wayne becoming the father that Billy deserved but never got to have, a man who can be a role model to him, that can smooth out his edges and teach him to quell his anger. that Billy and Eddie get close, that Billy hangs around the Munsons, is wrapped up in this warm little family. that sometimes Billy gets to Eddie’s place a little early, when he knows that Eddie isn’t home, just to talk to Wayne, to get the fatherly advice that Neil would never give. that one day, when Wayne is out drinking, Neil Hargrove stumbles into the bar and Wayne notices the bruised knuckles, thinks back on the black eye Billy had tried to hide from him and puts two and two together. that when Wayne comes home a little worse for wear and finds the boys watching MTV on the couch, when they ask him what happened, he looks Billy dead in the eye and says, “Let’s just say you’re not fighting your battles alone anymore.”