"MATERIAL GIRL" // Will Byers x Reader

The Bite // CHAPTER 20

TW: blood 

CRIMINAL ACTION IS ACCEPTABLE WHEN YOU'RE BEING CHASED BY A MONSTER

Nancy smashes a rock through the glass door of Bradley's Big Buy, reaching a hand in and unlocking it quickly. 

'Quick,' She urges, opening the door. 

Eleven grimaces, limping. Blood trails from her pant leg and stains her shoes. We stop in the first aisle, and I half collapse onto the ground, wiping the dried blood from underneath my nose. 

'Let me see,' Nancy commands, kneeling down beside El and I. El rolls up her pant leg, revealing a deep slash. It's extremely swollen, and red around the edges. Scratch that, it's completely red. 

'Oh, shit,' Lucas gasps, automatically leaning back. El groans, her face scrunching up in pain. 

'You too,' Will says to me. I hold my arm out. An almost identical injury to El's is located just above my elbow. 

Nancy doesn't say a word, grabbing a bottle of rubbing alcohol off the shelf. 

'What... What... Hey, what are you doing?' Max asks. 

'I'm cleaning the wound,' Nancy explains, frowning slightly. 

'No, first, we need to stop the bleeding,' Max says. 'Then clean, then disinfect, then bandage.' Nancy looks flabbergasted. 'I skateboard. Trust me.' She hands Mike a long piece of gauze. 'Mike, hold this. Keep the pressure on it, nice and firm, okay?' She turns to Will, giving him one as well. 'You do the same for Y/N. We're gonna need water, soap.' 

'Yeah, okay.' Nancy and Jonathan run off in the opposite direction. 

'All right.' 

A sound behind me momentarily distracts me from my pain as Lucas dumps out the entire contents of his bag. 'Does any of this help?

'No.' Max says. 'Go get me a washcloth and a bowl.' 

'A bowl?' 

'Lucas. Go.' 

'Okay.' 

I wince as Will presses the gauze tighter. 

'Sorry,' He mutters. 'Does it hurt?' 

'It's...okay,' I say, swallowing hard. 

'You're gonna have an awesome scar,' Mike says to Eleven. 'You'll look even more badass.' 

'Bitchin'.' El agrees. 

'Yeah, bitchin'.' Mike inhales. 'El...' 

'Yeah?' 

'I've been meaning to tell you something...' 

Will and I glance at each other. 

'You wanna like...' He trails off. 

'Go and find the candy aisle?' I ask. 

'Yeah,' Will raises an eyebrow. 'You good to walk?' 

'I'm good,' I say. 

He helps me to my feet anyway, and we wander down the back of the aisle. The cut, or large gaping wound, has mostly stopped bleeding, but it still feels like someone stabbed me with a machete or something. 

'You like (favourite candy), right?' Will grins, taking one of the shelf. I unwrap it quickly, popping one into my mouth. I offer him the bag. 'You know...all of this is uh, kinda good in a way.' 

I force myself not to roll my eyes. 'How so?' 

'Well,' Will scratches his head. 'It's uh, made me realize that, I uh...really like you. Like a lot.' 

This time I do roll my eyes. 'We had to be in mortal danger for you to realize that?' 

Will backtracks. 'No, that's not what I mean. What I'm trying to say is that...so what Mike said in the cabin the other day.. I just wanted you to know that-' 

'Guys, we have an emergency.'