Escape ~ S.Harrington

4} Basement Buddies and Broken Promises

The group sat in the Wheeler's basement, circled around the new child they found in the woods. Jenna sat next to her on the couch while the boys sat in front of them, staring in awe. Since they found her, the girl took a slight liking to Jenna due to her giving the cold, wet girl her jacket and offering her a ride on her bike so they could head to the Wheeler's.

"Is there a number we can call?" Jenna asked the girl calmly, "For your parents?"
"Where's your hair?" Dustin asked insensitively, "Do you have cancer?"
"Dustin shut the fuck up, that's rude," Jenna scolded her stupid brother.
"Did you run away?" Lucas questioned.
"Are you in some kind of trouble?" Mike asked with a concerned tone in his voice.
"Is that blood?" Lucas pointed while trying to touch the girl's face.
"Stop it!" Mike exclaimed, "You're freaking her out!"
"She's freaking me out!" Lucas frantically replied.
"I bet she's deaf," Dustin commented as he clapped his hands in front of her face, "Not deaf," He concluded when he saw her flinch back from the noise.

"God, guys! Leave her alone. She looks like she's been through a lot," Jenna tried to get them to back off.
"Jenna's right," Mike said, "She's just scared and cold."
Thunder continued to crackle in the background while it poured outside. The girl flinched at the sound. Jenna tried her best to comfort the girl without scaring her even more.
"Here, these are clean. Okay?" Mike handed her a fresh, clean outfit for her to change into.
She took the clothing hesitantly and examined it slowly. She started to rub it slightly on her cheek, almost as if she hadn't felt fabric that soft in a while; or ever.

She stood up and slipped Jenna's jacket off her shoulders and started to lift her wet shirt off.
"No, no, no!" The group freaked out while shielding their eyes.
"Oh my god! Oh my god!" Dustin started to repeat as he walked away from the scene dramatically.
"See over there?" Mike pointed to the bathroom in the corner of the basement, "That's the bathroom. Privacy. Get it?"
The girl looked at Mike with a confused expression but went along with it. She grabbed her clothes and walked to the bathroom. Mike and Jenna followed closely behind her. As he started to close the door for the girl, she stopped him from closing it all the way.

"You don't want it closed?" He questioned.
"No," She responded, this word being the first she'd spoken to them.
"Oh, so you can speak," Mike commented.
"Here," Jenan interjected, "Would you feel better if I went in with you?"
"Yes," The girl said hesitantly.
Jenna shooed Mike away and closed the door to the bathroom, only leaving a small gap so the child didn't feel uncomfortable. Jenna turned away so the girl could have privacy while she changed, but almost right after she turned around, the girl tapped Jenna on the shoulder. She already took her shirt off and was having trouble with her pants.

"Here," Jenna offered, "Let me help with that."
Jenna helped the girl get out of her soaking wet pants and proceeded to help her change into the clean, dry clothes Mike gave her. Once they finished, Jenna smiled kindly at her,  "There you go. All better, right?"
The girl gave Jenna a bright smile back. The girls walked out of the bathroom and sat back down with the boys. Jenna guided the girl back to the couch as she joined the boys in their discussion.

"All right, here's the plan," Mike announced," She sleeps here tonight."
"You're letting a girl..." Dustin added in.
"Just listen!" Mike snapped, "In the morning, she sneaks around my house, goes to the front door and rings my doorbell. My mom will answer and know exactly what to do. She'll send her back to Pennhurst or wherever she comes from. We'll be totally in the clear! And tomorrow night, we go back out. And this time, we find Will."
The group looked around at everyone and nodded in agreement. Even Jenna agreed to the plan, though she was offended by them thinking the girl was from Pennhurst.

As Lucas, Dustin, and Jenna started to walk up the stairs, they heard Mike offer the girl a sleeping bag and him telling her that she could sleep in his pillow fort.
"You really think she's psycho?" Dustin asked.
"Of course not," Jenna scoffed, "She just seems troubled and looks like she just needs a bit of help."
"Wouldn't want her in my house," Lucas replied.
Lucas and Jenna finished ascending up the stairs while Dustin hung back for a second just to mutter, "Mental."

~

Lucas, Dustin, and Jenna all got to their houses safely. On the bike ride home, Jenna couldn't help but feel like she knew the girl she found in the woods from somewhere, somewhere she couldn't quite put her finger on because it was too far back in her memories. She just seemed... familiar. Those thoughts subsided, though, when she reached her house. Once home, Jenna sprinted inside to her room, hoping she hadn't kept Steve waiting.

To her dismay, he wasn't even there. There was no note left behind either, so he hadn't even shown up and left. She stood there in shock, which quickly morphed into disappointment. She was really counting on him to keep his promise, even though she knew deep down that he was just going to let her down again. With the little hope she had left in him keeping his word, she went to the kitchen to grab some snacks and set them on her bed, alongside their normal, obscene amount of blankets and pillows. Jenna sat waiting on her bed—with only her last shred of hope fueling her—for a half an hour before it truly set in that he completely forgot about her again.

Jenna decided to change into her pajamas and start the movie—which was Cujo and she had been excited to watch since it came out—without her best friend and also wrote him a note just in case he showed up, but her hope was fading rapidly. As she watched, she took big gulps of her vodka and slowly drifted off to sleep; eventually falling into a deep slumber.

Little did she know, Steve remembered just as he was climbing out of Nancy Wheeler's bedroom and raced over to the Henderson's as fast as he could. He was panicking and knew he fucked up bad. He pulled into the Henderson's driveway and haphazardly parked his car before scrambling out of it. He sprinted as fast as he could to Jenna's window to find it unlocked, thankfully. He climbed through and started to profusely apologize.

"Jenna, I'm so, so, sooooo fucking sorry. I know I messed up, but I'm here now and..." Steve faded off at the end of his sentence when he realized that the movie was already partially watched and Jenna was curled up in a ball, covered completely in blankets and pillows, and was fast asleep. He sat there, staring at her in sadness and in awe. He could see the sadness in her beautiful face as she slept and couldn't help but feel terrible and awful for the distress that he caused his best friend. He grabbed his pajamas that he always had stashed in her closet and changed into them. He then went over to her bed, ready to lie down when he noticed the note she'd written him next to the snacks that were laid out for him.

Hey Steve, if you somehow miraculously showed up, fuck you. Also, help yourself to the snacks cuz I got them out for you and I don't want them to go to waste. Sorry I started the movie before you showed up. I figured that you weren't gonna come and I paid $1.25 for that and I wasn't gonna let it go to waste. God , I don't even know why I'm writing this seeing as you're never gonna read it. Goodnight Steve and I hope you at least had a better night than me.
Love,
Jenna <3

As Steve read this letter his heart sunk further down in his chest. He felt so unbelievably bad for what he did to Jenna and he knew he'd probably never be able to fix it. Steve finally climbed into Jenna's bed and laid next to her. He examined her relaxed yet slightly distressed face and stroked the hair away from her forehead. He got under the blankets and pulled her close to him. He'd bounced around and hooked up with so many girls, but Jenna was always the one who stayed because she saw more of him than just his popularity. Holding her was like his one moment every week where he could breathe and remember who he actually was. He just hoped that he could fix whatever he ruined.
I don't want this to go away... I don't want her to go away.

[Edited]