Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Annie groaned as the voice wouldn't shut up. "Go away," she mumbled in her sleep, pulling the blanket over her head to drown it out.

She wasn't the only one to wake up. El and Max had woken up to the voice as well. Max finally had enough and picked the discard walkie off the floor- where the voice had apparently been coming from.

"Shut up." There was a couple clicking like noises before the walkie was dropped back to the floor. Annie finally felt peace and she snuggled back into the blankets, hearing Max and El lay back down, too.

It was short lived, however. The phone in Max's room started to ring causing Annie to groan in protest and put a pillow over her head. Max sat up and sighed at the ringing phone.

She got out of bed with a, "You've got to be kidding me." El just stayed, only turning her head to watch Max answer the phone.

"We're sleeping. Go away."

She was about to slam the phone down until Mike started talking, saying something bad had happened. They needed to get over to his house fast so they could talk about it.

El sat up, hearing that it was Mike on the other end. "What did he say?" she asked. At this point, Annie was sitting up, too, having given up on going back to sleep.

There was a moment of hesitation, then she turned and faced the two other girls. "He said it was bad, that we have to get to his house as soon as possible. It definitely sounded bad," she explained.

El sat up all the way, nodding and starting to get out of bed. "Then we should go," she said. Max nodded, and Annie reluctantly got off of the floor. Like last night, El took the bathroom first and was getting dressed in another one of her new outfits.

"Hey, do you mind if I borrow something to wear? I don't wanna wear the same outfit two days in a row," Annie asked, picking up her hairbrush and getting started on that.

Max shook her head. "Not at all. I'll find something just for you, Barbie," she said, and both girls laughed.

"I'd be shocked if you had anything like that in your closet," Annie joked back.

The redhead smiled and looked around her clothes for two outfits. Max pulled out a denim skirt with buttons all the way down and a brightly striped t-shirt.

"Hey, does this work?" Max asked, turning around and showing off the two pieces to Annie.

Annie nodded, catching the clothes as they were tossed to her. The white converse she'd been wearing the past few days would work well. When Max turned back to the closet, Annie went ahead and got dressed. She tied her hair up in a pink scrunchie, coordinating with the others.

When they were all done, Annie shoved most of their stuff into their bags and they were off. She figured she and El would pick up their stuff from Max's later, after dealing with the code red.

The girls hopped onto their bikes, El riding with Max this time, and made their way to Mike's house. Annie led the group, knowing the path better out of the three of them.

When they got there, Mike ushered them into his basement where Lucas and Will were waiting.

"What's going on?" Annie asked, sitting on the ground. El sat in the chair next to her and Max sat on the ground to the other side of Annie. "Where's Dustin?" She noticed the boy was missing.

Mike sat back down on the couch, in between Will and Lucas. "We don't know. He hasn't answered our code red," Mike answered.

Annie thought it was weird, but shook her head and moved on to why they were there. Will took in a deep breath and looked around at everyone before settling his gaze on the table in the middle of the group.