[REWRITING] When He Sees Me, Steve Harrington

024 Connect the Dots

CHAPTER 024. CONNECT THE DOTS

"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA-"

"El! El, what's wrong?" One of the boys frantically asks as the group all run to aid the girl that's collapsed onto the floor. Laurie feels bad for not recalling his name, and although there's a feeling of recognition that forms in her chest when she looks at him - he looks a lot like Nancy - she isn't sure that asking Steve for in-depth introductions is appropriate right about now.

"My leg, my leg," The brunette girl pants out, voice hoarse as her eyes squeeze shut and she uncomfortably squirms against the tiled flooring. Almost immediately, Jonathan crouches down beside Nancy as she carefully starts unwrapping the blood-soaked bandage that's wrapped around El's lower leg.

The group all erupt in mutual discomfort at the sight. There, underneath the ACE wrap is revealed to be a large lump accompanied by an even larger gash cascading over it. The skin around it is bruised, El's veins protruding from the edges of the wound like a crack in a glass-stained window. It's infected, almost like a spider bite that was left untreated for far too long, a faint discolouration blooming at the centre of it.

Maybe the drugs are still in Laurie's system because she swears on her life and her grandmother's grave that she sees something move underneath the wound. She feels faint again when a mixture of blood and pus faintly starts leaking from El's leg. It's only then that Laurie abruptly grabs onto Steve's arm - for comfort or stability, she isn't sure - and it catches the boy off guard from the way her dull nails dig into the muscle of his bicep.

As much as she wants to, Laurie can't seem to pull her eyes away from the gory sight, even though it's making her feel undeniably queasy. Sure, she could stomach looking at Steve's injuries in the moments before they were interrogated, but this? This is ungodly and downright horrific.