I close the book I was reading, sighing. I place it on my nightstand, noticing a colorful paper next to it.
I pick it up, reading the red bubble letters, 'I am sorie'.
I rip the paper in half, tossing it to the floor and stomping on it, my eyes filled with tears.
They lied. She lied.
|
I sat on Lucas' couch as we made a plan to find the gate and save Will.
"Are you sure we can do this on our own? I mean, the girls have awesome powers, that could really help us. Maybe we should call Dustin and M-"
"Don't even say it, Lizzie. We got this, okay? We don't need them to save Will. It doesn't matter anyways, all Mike really cares about is his psycho girlfriend." Lucas rolls his eyes.
"Why don't you just apologize? We can make up and then we can all go find the gate and save Will. Together." I try.
"He has to apologize first, it's the rules of the party. And like I already said, he's too obsessed with the freak to help us. Now let's just go on our way." Lucas sighs.
Just then, the door bell rings. We both get up, and Lucas opens the door to see both Mike and Dustin.
"What do you want?" Lucas asks.
Mike's eyes trail to me, and when they see me, they whip back to Lucas, Mike giving him a scowl.
After a moment of silence, Dustin smacks Mike, and he sighs, "I drew first blood, so..." He holds out his hand to Lucas, but he only stares at it.
We all trail into Lucas' living room, and Lucas lets out a huff, contemplating his decision, "Okay, I'll shake," Mike holds out his hand, "On one condition. We forget the weirdo's and go straight to the gate."
Mike takes back his hand, "Then the deal's off."
"Fine!" Lucas raises his hands in the air.
"Fine!" Mike yells back.
"No, no, not fine! Guys, seriously?" Dustin intervenes, turning to Mike, "Do you even remember what happened on the Bloodstone Path?" The boys shrug, and Dustin's eyes widen, "We couldn't agree on what path to take, so we split up the party and those trolls took us out one by one. And it all went to shit, we were all disabled!"
"Uh, what?" I ask, crossing my arms.
"Dungeons and Dragons," Dustin sighs, shaking his head and waving me off, "So we stick together, no matter what!"
"Yeah, I agree. But this is the party, excluding Lizzie, right here in this room." Lucas states, pointing down to the floor.
"Elizabeth's one of us now, so is El, and Ten." Mike asserts.
"Lizzie, yeah maybe, if she wants. But those girls? Um, no, they're not. Not even close! Never will be," He points to his fingers, listing off reasons, "They're liars, traitors-"
"They were just trying to keep us safe!" Mike retorts, "El didn't mean to hurt you. It was an accident!"
"An accident?" Lucas scoffs.
"Alright, accident or not...admit it, it was a little awesome." Dustin shrugs.
"Awesome?" Lucas and I repeat.
"Yeah, she threw you in the air with her mind!" Dustin exclaims, a smile pulling at his lips.
"I could have been killed!" Lucas shouts.
"Which is exactly why we need them. They're weapons!" Mike bellows, "Do you seriously wanna fight the Demogorgon with a wrist rocket? That's like R2-D2 going to fight Darth Vader. We're no use to Will if we're dead."
"He has a point." I agree.
"So you're siding with him now?!" Lucas barks.
"What? No. I'm on nobody's side, Lucas. But if we want to find Will, we need the girls." I claim.
Lucas rolls his eyes, "Yeah, well, if you three wanna waste your time looking for traitors, go ahead, 'cause I'm not spending my time on them anymore. No way! I'm going to the gate. I'm gonna find Will."
He pushes past Dustin and Mike, and I spin around, "Hey! Lucas, wait."
He storms away, muttering, "Thanks so much for being there for me."
|
"This is weird without Lucas." Dustin expresses as we bike down the street.
"He should've shaken my hand." Mike declares.
"He's just jealous." Dustin shakes his head.
"What are you talking about?" Mike asks.
"Sometimes your total obliviousness just blows my mind," Dustin groans, "He's your best friend, right?"
"Yeah...I mean, I don't know." Mike shrugs.
"Its fine. I get it. I didn't get here until fourth grade. He had the advantage of living next door. But none of that matters. What matters is that he is your best friend. And then this girl shows up and starts living in your basement, and all you wanna do is pay attention to her." Dustin reasons.
"That's not true." Mike denies.
"Yes, it is. And you know it. And he knows it. But no one ever says anything until you both start punching and yelling at each other like goblins with intelligence scores of zero. Now everything's weird." Dustin explains.
"He's not my best friend." Mike states.
"Yeah, right." Dustin chuckles sarcastically.
"I mean, he is, but so are you. And so is Will." Mike sighs.
The boys begin to bicker about having more than one best friend, but I stay quiet, like I have this whole time. I felt bad about what I did to Lucas. I told him that if Mike ever picks El over him, I'd be there, but I'm not.
"Whoa." I gasp, stopping the boys so we could all look at the supermarket. The windows were smashed and there was police officers asking people questions.
"You don't think..." Dustin trails, referring to the girls.
"Uh, definitely." Mike answers, and we turn our bikes, riding down the street that the supermarket was on, and into the woods.
We walked our bikes through the woods, calling Ten and Eleven's names consistently.
"Hey, guys, stop. Do you hear that?" Mike asks.
"What?" I whisper.
"El?" Mike shouts, "Ten!"
Snapping of branches could be heard, and two people came strolling out of the trees. My heart dropped to my stomach when I realized who they were, Troy and James.
"Hey there Frogface." Troy ejects his pocket knife.
"Toothless." James greets.
"Majesty Maggot." Troy grins.
"Shit! Run!" Dustin shrieks.
"What?" Mike calls.
"Run! Come on!" Dustin yells.
We drop our bikes, rushing into the woods as they scream, yelling after us, jumping over branches and roots.
We had made it to a sandy path when Dustin cries out he has a cramp, but Mike and I urge him to keep going.
I glance behind my shoulder, seeing that Troy was gaining on Dustin, "Dustin! Come on!"
I turned my head back around, just when James appeared from the other side of the path, trapping us, "Shit!"
Mike grabs a rock while Dustin grabs a stick, when Mike tries to throw it, he misses by a mile, tossing it straight into the bushes.
"Nice throw, numbnuts." James scoffs.
I spin around to see Dustin yelling, swinging his stick, but Troy dodges it, grabbing him by the shoulder and holding the knife to his face, "Get off! Get off me!"
I get yanked back by my hair, and held there by a strong grip.
"Let them go! Let them go!" Mike demands.
"Stay back, or I cut him!" Troy threatens.
"No!" I scream, thrashing around in James' grip.
"What do you want?" Mike grumbles.
"I want to know how you did it!" Troy states.
"How I did what?" Mike asks.
"I know you did something to me," Troy accuses, "Some nerdy shit to make me do that."
"You mean piss your pants?" Mike asks in exasperation.
"Our friends have superpowers, and one stood you in place while the other squeezed your tiny bladder with her mind." Dustin tells him.
"Shut up!" Troy shouts, moving the knife closer to him, making Dustin let out a whimper, "I think I should save Toothless here a trip to the dentist. Help him loose the rest of his baby teeth."
"Let them go," Mike orders, "Let them go!"
"We'll let them go, sure. But first...it's you and Majesty Maggot's turn." Troy growls.
"Our turn for what?" Mike asks as I continue to struggle.
"Wet yourself." Troy states.
"You want us to piss? We didn't do that to you, Troy. It's natural." I shrug, but Troy only points the knife closer to Dustin.
"Jump..." He juts his head towards the cliff, "Or Toothless here gets an early trip to the dentist."
"No! No!" Dustin cries.
Troy pushes the knife to his face, but Dustin tries holding it back, "I'll cut him right now!"
"All right, just hold on! Hold on!" Mike exclaims
I stomp on James' foot, pushing him off of me and running up next to Mike.
"Mike, don't do it. I don't need my baby teeth, Liz," I gulp as Mike and I slowly walk to the cliff, peering over the edge, "Guys, seriously, don't!"
The bottom was filled with water. Rocks spilled off the end as our feet met the very edge of the cliff.
Dustin was pleading with us not to do it, but I blurred it out, looking down at the rushing water below.
"Dentists office opens in five..." A hand slips into mine, and I look to see Mike, staring nervously back at me. My chest was heaving up and down as I nodded at Mike, "Four! Three! Two! One!"
We step off the ledge, screaming and squeezing each others hands as we plummet down, but then we stop.
Mike's hand was still crushed in mine as we rise, whimpering and wailing as we float upside down, crashing into the dirt. Dustin, Troy, and James watching us, their eyes wide.
Two pairs of foot steps approach and I follow the sound, seeing Eleven and Ten stalking closer.
Ten had water dripping from her arms as she tilts her head forward, and James goes flying back. Eleven jerks her head to the side, and I could hear Troys arm break as he holds it, screaming out in pain, "She broke my arm! My arm!"
Ten's eyes follow James as she lifts him into the air, throwing him into a rock, and I'm sure I heard his shoulder pop.
"Let's get out of here! Let's go!" Troy cries.
"Go!" James rushes, standing up from the ground as they both limp away.
"Yeah, that's right! You better run! Their our friends and their crazy!" Dustin yells after them as I slowly take my hand out of Mike's, both of us standing up, "You come back here and they'll kill you! You hear me? They'll kill you, you sons of bitches! They'll kill you, you hear me?"
I turn to Ten and Eleven, who both looked worn down and tired.
At the same time, they both drop to the floor, and Mike and I flop down with them.
Mike squats down to Eleven as I pat Ten's face gently, "Hey, Ten, you alright?"
Her eyes slowly open, and I pull her up so she was now sitting on the dirt.
"Mike...I'm sorry." Eleven sobs.
"We're sorry." Ten sniffles, struggling to stay up.
"Sorry? What are you sorry for?" Mike smiles gently.
"You both just saved our lives." I chime in.
"The gate..." El starts, pausing for a moment, "We opened it."
"We're the monsters." Ten cries.
"No. No, guys, you're not the monsters," Mike smiles, repeating what I had said, "You saved us. Do you understand? You saved us."
Mike pulls Eleven into a hug, and Dustin gets in on it too. Ten and I soon join, and we sit there for awhile, taking in this normal moment.