▸ Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears

T H E W E I R D O O N M A P L E S T R E E T P T . 2

An hour later and we were all outside near the pool. Music was softly playing in the background.  Danny was sitting on one of the chairs with Becca on his lap. Everyone else, expect for Steve since he went inside to go grab something, was sitting in their own chair either with a can of beer or a water bottle. Suddenly, Tommy ran towards Carol and scooped her up in his arms. Carol let out a loud scream.

"One, two, three!" Tommy feinted to throw Carol into the cold pool, causing her to let out another scream.

"Stop it, Tommy, no! Don't!" Carol let out before Tommy laughed and set her down. She smacked his chest. "You're such an asshole, Tommy."

"Idiots. They're gonna have the neighbors call the cops on us or something." I muttered to myself, taking a sip of my water. Barbra nodded in agreement, shaking her head at the two.

Steve walked past me with a closed pocket knife in his mouth, sitting next to the open chair next to Nancy. He flicked open a pocket knife and cut a slit into a can of beer. Barbra rolled her eyes. Bringing the can to his lips, he chugged the alcohol until it was empty. Once he was down, he dropped the can onto the ground. Pulling out a cigarette, he placed it in between his lips and collapsed into his chair.

"Is that supposed to impress me?" Nancy smiled at Steve.

"You're not?" Steve looked at her puzzled.

"You are a cliché, you do realize that?" Nancy told him. 

"You're a cliché." Steve rebutted, grabbing his lighter.

"You're both clichés." I stated, rolling my eyes. I'm getting sick and tired of their flirting.  I propped my feet up onto Becca's lap, stuffing my hands into the pocket of the hoodie. She scoffed and pushed my feet off of her. I pouted and stuck my tongue out at her.

"What are you talking about, Dawn?" Steve shook his head. He lit his cigarette and turned to face me. "You're a cliché, too. What with your grades and band practice."

"Nancy is the same too." I argued.

"I'm so not in a band." Nancy quickly denied.

"Okay, party girl. Why don't you just, uh, show us how it's done, then?" Steve handed Nancy his pocket knife.

"Okay." Nancy smiled, taking the pocket knife. I sighed, shaking my head. Why is she trying to act like someone she's not? Nancy stood up, grabbing a can from the chest. She opened the knife, positioning it where she was going to cut it.

"You gotta make a little hole right in-"

"I got it." Nancy turned to face Steve before focusing on her can of beer.

"Yeah, she's smart, you douche!" Tommy chuckled, his arm around Carol. Carol stood closer to her boyfriend for warmth.

"Nancy, you don't have to drink if you don't want too." Danny advised.

"Yeah, we won't judge you for it." Becca added.

"Yeah, we will." Tommy laughed, shaking his head.

"Ignore him, he doesn't know anything. Don't drink if you don't want to." I told Nancy. She ignored us and sliced the can open. Nancy quickly started to drink the beer.

"Chug, chug, chug. Chug. Chug. Chug." Steve, Tommy, and Carol chanted. Once Nancy was finished, she dropped the can with a grin. They all cheered while the rest of us shook our head. Nancy did a small curtsy, before turning around to her best friend.

"Barb, you wanna try?" Nancy offered.

"What? No." Barbra shook her head. "No, I don't want to. Thanks."

"Come on." Nancy grabbed another beer. "Yeah."

"Nance, I don't want to." Barbra voiced. I frowned as it seemed that Nancy was going to continue to pressure her friend into drinking.

"Nancy, she doesn't want to. Don't push her." Becca noticed Barbra's uneasiness towards her friend's pushiness.

"It's fun!" Nancy ignored Becca. "Just give it a –"

"Nance."

"Just, just give it a shot." Nancy continued. Barbra sighed, taking the beer and knife away from Nancy. "Okay."

"Barbra..." I started. She stood up and started to poke the knife at the can.

"So you just..." Barbra struggled to make a cut into the can. The knife slide off of the can and across her thumb. She gasped, dropping the can and knife.  Blood started to rush out.  Barbra immediately cradled her injured hand.

"Gnarly." Tommy let out, staring at the blood in amazement.

"Are you okay?" Nancy walked towards her friend in worry.

"Yeah." Barbra nodded.

"Barb, you're bleeding." Nancy pointed out.

"I'm fine." Barbra firmly told her. "Where's your bathroom?"

"Oh, it's," Steve stood up from his chair, pointing towards his house. "It's uh, down past the kitchen, to the left."

"Okay, thanks." Barbra whispered before stalking back into the house.

"I'm going to go check up on her." I sent a disappointed look towards Nancy before following after Barbra.

"First aid is under the sink!" Steve called out. I jogged into the house, stopping once I saw Barbra in the restroom. "Hey. Do you need help?"

"I'm, uh, I'm fine." Barbra stumbled out. She had some rolled up toilet paper wrapped around her cut. The blood was already seeping through.

"I think you do." I sent her a smile. "Go ahead and rinse off the blood and then wash the wound with soap. I'll go ahead and start looking for some bandages or something."

"Thank you. For, uh, helping me." Barbra said, turning the facet on.

"It no problem." I bent down, and opened the sink cabinet. Scanning the products, I grabbed the kit. I closed the doors and stood up. "Okay, I found the kit. Let's see what they have in here."

"I should be fine." Barbra waved me off, turning off the water. She showed me her wound. The blood was gone. "See?"

"Alright, but just to be on the safe side, let's wrap it up in some gauze." I opened the kit and took out some of the gauze. I gently wrapped it around her thumb. "Now just apply pressure. It should stop the bleeding."

"Okay, thanks again." Barbra wrapped her hand around her thumb tightly. I grabbed some extra gauze just in case and stuffed it into my pocket.

"No problem." I closed the kit and put it back where it belonged.

"You know, for the longest time, I thought Steve had a crush on you." Barbra admitted, leaning against the sink.

"What?" I looked at her in shock. "Steve? Like me? Oh, no. No way."

"Yeah, like, I honestly thought you two had this huge chemistry type of thing going on. But, that got shot down when I saw how protective Danny is over you. Like, when Thomas dumped you in front of the whole school last year."

"Yeah." I winced at the memory of Danny decking Thomas in the face. "Boys have avoided me since then."

"But not Steve or Chad." Barbra rose an eyebrow.

"Chad is one of my best friends and is in the band. Steve only deals with me because he's best friends with Danny." I rebutted.

"So? Name one time where Steve hasn't talked to you without your brother around." I went to open my mouth only to close it when I thought about yesterday and today. Barbra smiled. "Exactly. You should be with Steve, not Nancy."

"I...erm." I stuttered, not knowing how to respond to that.

"Come on, I think they're inside now." Barbra walked past me and into the hallway. Nancy and Steve walked past. Deciding to give them space, I walked into the living room. Danny and Becca were soaking wet and wrapped in towels.

"Hey, there you are! We're going to Becca's to get some dry clothes. We'll be back, okay?" Danny said. "Do you want to come with us or are you okay with waiting here for a bit?"

Barbra stormed past us, walking outside. I frowned.

"Go ahead and check up on her." Becca placed a hand on my shoulder.

"We'll be right back." Danny sent me a smile before the two went out the front door. Biting my lip, I followed Barbra outside. She was sitting on the diving board, kicking her feet in the water. Her shoes and socks were on the cement right beside her.

"Hey, what happened?" I asked standing next to her shoes. Barbra looked up at me and sighed.

"I don't know why Nancy is acting like this. All for some stupid guy." She grumbled out. She froze and turned to face me. "Sorry."

"No, you're right. He's stupid." I chuckled out. I looked down at her hand to see the gauze red instead of white. "I thought it stopped bleeding?"

"What?" Barbra followed my gaze. "Oh, yeah, so did I."

"Maybe we should take you to the hospital. Get it stitched up if it's still bleeding like that." I suggested.

"Yeah, maybe." Barbra lifted her hand up to examine her thumb. Suddenly, the lights started to flicker.

"Here, I have some extra gauze." I took out the gauze and gave it to her. "Do you want me to go get a wet rag or something it clean it up?"

"No, I'm good. Thanks." Barbra grabbed the gauze. The lights turned off and a screech pierced through the night. Something tall, dark anf monstrous  pushed me to the ground, causing me to hit my head on the cement.  I let out a loud cry of pain, clutching my head.

Groaning, I opened my eyes to see darkness before it turned bright. I squinted my eyes, raising my hand to block the bright light away. My head was killing me. Turning to my side, I tried to push myself up. My stomach churned at the movement and I emptied my stomach.

"Dawn? Oh my God, Dawn!" A muffled voice called out through the ringing in my ears. Someone helped sit me up. "Hey, hey, are you okay? Dawn?"

"Where's Barbra?" I hazily asked, rapidly blinking my eyes. The light was still hurting my eyes and the pain in my head won't go away.

"What?" They grabbed my face and blocked the bright light.  Fluttering my eyes, I noticed that it was Danny. "Hey, what happened? Dawn?"

"Barbra? Where'd she go?" I muttered, my head starting to feel heavy. Forcing myself to stand up, I stumbled into my brother. My knees buckled and I started to fall to the ground. Danny quickly caught me, lifting me up again.

"Woah, woah! Easy there. Let's get you home, okay? I think you hit your head a little too hard." Danny steadied me. "Dawn? Hey, are you okay?"

"Not feeling too good." I whimpered out, laying my head against his chest. Danny rubbed my back soothingly. I screwed my eyes shut as another wave of nausea hit me. "Danny, I really don't feel good."

"Okay, do you think you need to go to the hospital?" I nodded only for my head to hurt worse. I let out a gasp from the pain. "Okay, c'mon. Let's take you to the hospital. I'll call our parents once we're there."

Double update yay!

Idk when I will be able to updated another chapter so bare with me plz😂

anyways much love,
Lux