"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter Twenty-Seven: Alley Brawl
(The Monster, Pt. 5)
***
Nancy's shocked, hurt gasp alerted Rowan and Jonathan to what was wrong before they saw it.
"Nancy!" Jonathan shouted, at the same time Rowan yelled, "Nance, you okay? What's going on..."
Her words trailed off as she saw what Nancy is seeing, her own eyes widening as she read the words scrawled on the place listing the new movies showing.
"Oh my God."
"Jesus."
There, in angry red paint, underneath All The Right Moves, are the words STARRING NANCY THE SLUT WHEELER, for the entirety of Hawkins to see. Rowan gaped at it, but the longer she looked, the longer she saw the hurt and pain and betrayal on Nancy's face, her shock morphed into anger, sharp and hot and seconds from exploding.
She whirled around, seeing the crowd, staring at the words, then at Nancy, and saw red.
"Hey!" she shouted, fists balled, veins stinging and crackling, eyes burning, glowing, electric. "Hey assholes! Look somewhere else and don't fucking whisper about stuff you know shit about, okay? Go! Move your asses! Stick your nose in somebody else's fucking business or I'll fucking punch you! Go!"
Most of the crowd left, eyeing her, frowning, muttering—about her clothes, her attitude, about how being raised by a criminal made her such a disrespectful, foul-mouthed delinquent, whatever. She's heard it all before. She doesn't fucking care.
What she does care about is comforting Nancy, and destroying the assholes who did this.
"Hey, hey Nance. Nance," Rowan said, biting back her anger, looking to the other girl as she held her shoulders.
Nancy turned, eyes glossy, that hurt and betrayal still on clear display.
"Whoever did this, they have no idea what they're talking about, okay? They're just assholes who have no better time than to humiliate and degrade someone, especially a woman, and call it entertaining. I won't deny this is horrible, and I wish it wasn't happening, especially to you, but I'm here for you, okay? And even if that is true, I don't care. I don't fucking care if you're a slut or not, because you're my friend. And I don't abandon my friends," Rowan said, her eyes hard, but showing that she was here for Nancy, that she was going to stick by her side. "And when I find the douchebags who did this, I'm not just gonna punch them. I'm going to make them disappear and ensure they're never found."
Nancy stared at her, and a different emotion crossed her face—relief. Relief that Rowan was sticking by her side, that she was so obviously angry and willing to beat up anyone that dared believe it was true, especially the ones who did it, and that she wouldn't care if she was.
