Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four: Sweet Nothing

The glass door shattered once the rock made impact and Annie was somewhat impressed with Nancy Wheeler. She led the group inside and Annie made sure Mike and Max could get El through the doors okay.

El was in a lot of pain, her leg gushing blood constantly. Since she wasn't a huge fan of blood, Annie made sure to keep her focus up and looked away when Nancy decided to get to work on El's wound.

She had grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and gauze to get started. When Nancy went to put the gauze on, Max stopped her. "Whoa- what- hey, what are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm cleaning the wound," Nancy answered, as if it were obvious. She tried to go back to doing what she was doing, but Max stopped her once more.

"No, first, we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage," she said. After a pause where no one knew how to respond, she shook her head. "I skateboard, trust me."

And they did. Max put some gauze on El's leg. "Mike, hold this," she said, putting the boy's hand over the gauze. "Keep the pressure on it, nice and firm, okay?" El gripped Mike's hand.

"We're gonna need water and soap," Max told Nancy and Johnathan. They got up and went off to find the goods.

Annie and Max turned around when they heard what sounded like things falling to the ground. "Does any of this help?" Lucas asked, gesturing to the things that were in his backpack, now on the floor.

After a pause, Max shook her head. "No. Go get me a washcloth and a bowl."

"A bowl?"

"Lucas." Will had to smack Lucas before they finally walked off to find what they had been tasked with.

Annie kneeled down beside El. "How're you feeling?" she asked, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. El groaned in response, shaking her head. "We're gonna help you, okay? I promise."

El nodded to the best of her ability. Max tapped Annie on the shoulder and made a wave motion with her hand. "We're going go see what's taking them so long to find a damn bowl and washcloth," Max said.

The girls got up and went in the direction the other two went in. "That was badass, by the way," Max said after a silence.

Annie turned to her. "What was?"

"When you shot at the Mind Flayer. It was cool. Especially only using your knowledge from movies and stuff." It was hard to, but Annie did her best to keep her cool and push away the blush wanting to rise to her cheeks.

She pushed a stray piece of hair that had fall from her ponytail behind her ear. "Thanks," she muttered. At this point, there was no way Annie could make eye contact with the redhead.

"That doesn't look like a bowl," Max said as they turned a corner. Annie looked up and saw the boys looking at a display of fireworks instead.

They stopped in front of the other two. "Nah, it's way better," Lucas started. "There's a reason this warning label says 'eighteen or older'. This sucker is filled with 150 grains of black powder. AKA, gunpowder."

He tossed the box at the girls, Max catching it. Annie looked it over as Lucas went on. "Strap two of these together, and it's bigger than an M-80. Five of them, we've got ourselves a stick of dynamite."

"You wanna kill that thing... with fireworks?" Max asked.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Uh, yeah, Eleven," Max said. She tossed the box right back to Lucas.