bitchin'

Chapter 13

"Byers!" Lucas shouts. He, Dustin, Mike, and Lindsay run into his hospital room. They crowd his bed, hugging him.

"Be careful! Be careful with him!" Joyce instructs. Dustin forces Mike and Lucas out of the way.

"Move!" he pushes past them to hug Will.

"Guys, guys!" Jonathan laughs, "go easy on him."

Will raises his eyes at Lindsay, not expecting her to be there.

"Lindsay?" he questions.

"Yeah, it's me. I, uh, missed you," she says nervously. He smiles at her.

"I missed you too," he says. Silence fills the air and the kids just enjoy having Will's presence back.

"You won't believe what happened when you were gone!" Lucas says to Will.

"It was mental!" Dustin exclaims.

"You had a funeral!" Lucas says.

"Jennifer Hayes was crying!" the curly-haired boy adds.

"And Troy peed himself!" Lindsay blurts out.

"What?" Will questions.

"In front of the whole school!" Dustin adds. Will starts coughing. The smiles fade away seeing the boy weak from the Upside Down.

"You okay?" Mike asks.

"It got me. The demogorgon," Will says softly.

"We know," he replies, "it's okay. It's dead. We made a new friend. She stopped it. She saved us. But she's gone now."

"Her name's Eleven," Dustin says.

"Like the number?" Will asks.

"That's what I said!" Lindsay smiles.

"Well, we call her 'El' for short," Lucas adds.

"She's basically a wizard," Dustin states.

"She has superpowers," the Sinclair boy whispers.

"More like a Yoda," Mike disagrees.

"She flipped a van with her mind!" Lindsay exclaims.

"Yeah and these agents were trying to ——-" Dustin starts.

"It flipped over us and ———" Mike talks over Dustin.

"Then she squeezed the brains out ———" Lucas adds.

"And blood was pouring out of their faces!" Lindsay exclaims over all the boys.

"Woah!" Will exclaims. The boys continue to talk over each other. That night the group went home knowing their friend was safe and alive.

***

"Surprised you're actually here, Harrington," Daniel spits. Lindsay walks up to the table where he sits, smoking a cigarette with her 'friends', "thought you would pussy out since you're hanging out with the nerds again."

"At least they're better than you guys. They don't talk shit about my parents," Lindsay fires back. The other members of the Hit List recognize her voice and come to watch the fight go down.

"Whatever, Harrington. Let's just get going. Ready to get your ass beat?" he taunts, jumping down from the table.

"I'm still champion, you know?" Lindsay taunts, "you're talking a real big game and I'd hate to prove you wrong... actually I wouldn't."

She runs at him and trips the boy.

"Ooooh!" the crowd gawks. She turns to face him as he gets up, wiping his nose that drips with blood. He looks at his hand, wiping the blood on his pants before running at Lindsay. He punches her in the stomach which makes her double over.

He grabs the back of her head and goes to smack her in the face with his knee. Instead, she catches his knee with her hands and kicks his other foot out from underneath him.

"Ah!" he gasps getting his breath knocked out of him. She uses her foot and kicks him hard in the stomach. He curls up in a ball and she kneels down to give him a right hook to the mouth.

His head whips to the side, lip busted and bleeding. She punches him again with her left, his left eye bruising instantly. Her fists begin to fly, left and right against the boy's face.

"Okay, okay," Tommy, the ref for the Hit List says, "that's enough, Lindsay."

She doesn't hear him. She keeps hitting him.

"That's enough!" he yells, "get her off him!"

Two members of the Hit List grab the girl and pull her off him. She kicks in their arms as someone checks on Daniel.

"Danny, Danny, you good man?" the boy asks. He shakes Daniel.

"Mmmm," the boy groans. The other kids sigh knowing Lindsay hadn't killed him. The two kids let go of her and she shoves them hard.

"We have a clear winner," Tommy announces grabbing Lindsay's wrist, "Still reigning champion of the Hawkins Middle Hit List: Lindsay Harrington!"

The kids cheer as Lindsay's wrist is raised into the air. Her knuckles are covered in blood, partly her own and part of it Daniel's.

"Nice job, kid," Tommy says to Lindsay, patting her on the back. She smiles shyly and begins to walk away. She doesn't even go up to her old friends to shove her win in their faces.

She leaves the West End park and heads for home. Halfway to her house, she changes her mind and turns around.

***

"Lindsay? Lindsay Harrington?"

"Hey, Flo, it's me," Lindsay greets nervously.

"What are you doing here? Do I need to get the chief?" she asks sitting at her desk in the lobby of the station.

"No, no, I just...... I need some help," she breathes nervously.

"Help with what, sweetheart?" Flo questions. Lindsay holds up her bloodied hands, Flo wincing at the sight.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Lindsay, who did you fight today?" Flo asks getting up from her desk.

"No one," she lies, "I fell off my bike."

Flo turns to her and gives her a glare, "you don't have a bike."

"Daniel, kid from the Hit List," Lindsay sighs. She follows Flo to the back like usual. Lindsay sits down at one of the officers desk as Flo opens the first aid kit.

"It's my last fight," Lindsay says after a moment of silence. Flo looks up at her.

"You're leaving the Hit List?" she asks.

"Yeah," the Harrington girl answers nervously.

"Lindsay," she starts, "I've seen you do dumb things. Make dumb decisions. This one is the worst of them all."

"Well, what am I supposed to do? Stay on and keep getting in trouble?" Lindsay asks sarcastically.

"I didn't say it was a dumb decision. I said it is the worst. You're braver than anyone to decide to leave," Flo explains.

"What are you saying?" she asks.

"I'm saying that leaving is going to be hard. But I will help you through it," Flo says as she finishes cleaning her knuckles. The woman reaches in her pocket and takes out a business card. She grabs a pen and writes on the back of the card before handing it to Lindsay, "my home phone is on the back, call either one if you are in trouble and I'll be there."

Lindsay's eyes widen at the gesture, "Thank you. Why, why are you doing this?"

"I lost my younger brother, Brian, to the Hit List," Flo explains while bandaging her hands, "he didn't try to leave, but he lost every fight... eventually he lost permanently."

Lindsay listens to the woman talk quietly, fidgeting with the business card.

"I'm so sorry, Flo," Lindsay says. Flo doesn't cry, she just nods.

"I want you to live, Lindsay," she says, "I want you to live."