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.

He looked at her like she was dumb. "Against that thing? She's gonna need some backup."

Max scoffed and turned around. Lucas and Will looked at Annie. "Take as many as you can," Annie whispered, then turned to follow Max. There was the sound of a high-five behind her causing Annie to smile lightly.

The two girls walked side-by-side around the grocery store, trying to find a bowl to use. At first, they were quiet. But Annie couldn't get Max's words out of her head.

"I'm not... I'm not a badass," Annie said suddenly.

Max turned to look at her. "What do you mean?"

"You said I was a badass, but I'm... I'm not..." Annie continued to walk, but stared at the things around her instead of Max. "I've never been brave. This whole week I've been terrified out of my skin and ready for the moment to run away from everything. For crying out loud, I puked after seeing one of those things last year. Bravery isn't one of my traits."

At first, Max didn't know how to respond. She gaped for a second, still thrown off, before stopping and looking at the brunette, who stopped as well and finally looked Max in the eye. There was another second of silence as she thought of words.

"You're still a badass though," Max finally said. "I know you said that everything is scary, and it is! But that's what's making you so badass- you're still here, still fighting, and you're doing a damn good job."

Annie's head started to tilt down and she left eye contact with Max. The redhead didn't like that, so she used her hands to tilt Annie's head back up. "No, do not be bashful right now. You have survived so much so far. You got this. And when it's all said and done, you've got the comfort of your bed waiting for you."

Max's eyes flickered down to Annie's mouth and for a moment, the briefest second, Annie thought this was it. That Max did like her back. All those times she thought Max was just being extra friendly were signs.

The other's girl's thoughts were racing, too. In all honesty, they had been since Annie confessed to her in the Hopper cabin bathroom that the brunette liked girls. She had been theorizing on why Annie hadn't told her, something they'd talk about one day.

But right now, nothing else seemed to matter.

The rest of the universe didn't seem to see if that way.

"Guys!" The girls bolted apart, as if caught doing something illegal. It was Will, so at least Annie knew they were okay. "Mike somewhat made contact with Dustin, we're gonna find him now."

They nodded and followed after Will. As the others were getting El a good setup, Max treated and bandaged El's wound. As soon as it was nicely wrapped up, El got a blindfold on to find the missing party member.

No one spoke at first, letting El concentrate.

Then Lucas opened a can of Coke, the hissing sound drawing everyone's attention. "Quiet," Max chided.

"Oh, sorry," Lucas said, following it up with a quiet slurp of the drink.

Everyone stared at Lucas as he took the drink. "How do you even drink that?" Mike asked, clearly not a fan of the new Coke.

"Because it's delicious," he answered.

"What?" For once, it seemed Max and Mike could agree on something.

Lucas shrugged. "It's like Carpenter's The Thing. The original is a classic, no question about it. But the remake..." He paused and took another, long sip. "Sweeter, bolder, better."

"You're insane," was Mike's response.

"So, you prefer the original Thing?" Lucas asked.

Mike immediately shook his head. "What? No, I'm not talking about The Thing, I'm talking about New Coke."

"It's the same concept dude."

"Uh, actually, it's not the same concept."

"Yeah, it is."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is!"

"I prefer Dr. Pepper."

"What?"

"Hey." El ripped off her blindfold and Annie got ready to see the boys get scolded. They both apologized quickly. Annie muttered an apology as well, since she sort of egged them on with her comment.

"Did you... find him?" Mike asked, hoping to move on.

El nodded. "Yeah, the movies."

"The movies?" Everyone seemed to ask it simultaneously.

Johnathan stood up. "Well, at least we know. Let's get going." The group did so, Lucas pushing a shopping cart full of fireworks and some backup first aid supplies. El was bleeding through her bandages quickly, so they would probably have to change them out soon.

"The movies? Dustin's so freaked out about the gate, he decides to go watch a movie?" Lucas asked. "Yeah, makes total sense."

"You're positive he said 'gate' and not 'great?'" Max asked, walking right beside Annie.

Neither girl knew how to act now that they had a... moment of sorts. Annie wanted to confess her feelings so bad, thinking Max felt the same after they almost kissed. But she just lost her left and right hands, her best friends. And they didn't go out all that quietly. The things they said hurt her heart, tore down her confidence. There was no coming back from that so easily.

Right now, she wanted to make sure she still had allies, and that's what Max was right now. An ally. So until this mess was a few miles behind them, Annie needed to keep her ally and figure things out later.

They went out to the station wagon and loaded it up while making sure all the people could still get in. It was a tight fit, but they managed. Now, it was time to go see a movie. Hopefully it wasn't a scary one.

A/n: This was a short chapter, but that's because there's so much happening in the next few! Gah, I can't wait!!