𝐢 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟

iv. THIRD-WHEELING

   

AT SCHOOL, Icarus sat in front of the two cops, Officer Powell and Officer Callahan with his mother. "Do you know Barbara Holland personally?" Powell said and Icarus looks up. "No. Never even spoke to her. Tried to but the girl just looked away. If you ask me, she's too much of a goody goody. I'm surprised she was even there." He says and his mom lightly taps her arm. "Icarus.." She whispers. "So.. Did you have anything against her?" Callahan asked as he looked up at the sixteen year old.

He scoffed, "huh? No. I didn't kill her or anything if that's—" "Icarus." Mary says again and Icarus glanced at her before looking back at the two cops. "Listen, I'm just like any other teen, okay? I went out, drank a bit, maybe smoked and made out with someone. Swam in freezing water. Changed into other clothes. Then I went home. That's it." Icarus says and Powell looks at Callahan. "Made out with someone? Who?" Powell asked him.

He sighs, "some girl that was there. Why does that matter? Is it gonna help find Barbara? Don't think so." He says and Callahan snorts. He did have a point. "Alright.. Well, you can go now." Powell says and Icarus gets up. As he leaves with his mom, she looks at him. "Made out with someone?" She asked as they approached her car.

"No one. Forget it, please." He says and she looks down. "Icarus—" "Fine, I made out with Nancy Wheeler. Okay? I like her and she was there and I was drunk." He says, playing with the zipper of his leather jacket. "Okay.." She mumbled then gets into her car. "Mama, do you even believe me?" He asked but then she drove off. He sighs, rolling his eyes before lighting a cigarette and walking off.

As he walked down the streets in town, he saw Jonathan getting out of a car. He throws away the cigarette and runs over, "Jonathan. Hey." He says breathlessly as he stops in front of the blue car. "Hey." The Byers boy said as he looked up. "Um.. Sorry to hear about Will.. He was a good kid." Icarus said as he nods and looks down. "Yeah.." Jonathan said while he looks away from Icarus.

There was a history between the two, Jonathan was slowly becoming Icarus' friend but then Icarus became the way he was, shutting other people off so Jonathan stopped trying. He stopped trying to be Icarus' friend and Icarus stopped as well. Icarus looks at the place in front of them, "oh.." He says when he saw it was the funeral home. "Wanna come with me?" Jonathan says as he looks at Icarus. The taller teen looks at him instantly, "with you? In there?" He points and Jonathan nods.

Inside, the man showed Jonathan many of the options for the coffins and he would look back at Icarus who would look all around. "It's made of soft wood with a crepe interior. Uh, now, I..I don't know what your budget is, but over here, we have copper and bronze." The man gestured and the two follow him but Icarus stops when he saw Nancy.

"Can you just give us a second?" Jonathan asked, grabbing Icarus' forearm, "of course." The worker said then he leads Icarus over to Nancy at the doorway. "Hey." Jonathan says and Nancy glances between the two. "Hey." She says and Icarus smiles. "Hiya." He says and Nancy smiles at him. "Your mom, um.. She said you'd be here. Didn't know you'd be here though, Icarus." She says as she looks at the long haired boy. "Oh, I'm everywhere, baby." He says then winks at her. Jonathan looked at him, trying hard not to smile, it was impressive even in situations like this, Icarus still acted the same.

"I just.." Nancy then inhales deeply, "can we talk for a second?" She says then looks at Icarus as well. In the hall, the three sat on the chairs, Nancy between the two boys. "It looks like it could be some kind of perspective distortion," Jonathan said as he looks at the photo that Nancy taped together. It was a photo of Barb, the one Millicent ripped up. "But I wasn't using the wide angle. I don't know." Jonathan explains before looking at Nancy.

"That's really weird." Icarus said as Nancy holds the photo in her hands. "And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there?" Nancy asked before looking at Jonathan then Icarus. "No. And she was there one second, and then, um.. Gone." He says and Icarus looks down. "Maybe she bolted." Icarus says and Jonathan looks at him.