Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two: Glitch

No one said a word. Annie and Max were sharing wide-eyed looks at Mike's confession. Annie then looked over at Lucas and Will to gauge their reactions, and saw that they both pretty much knew by now.

Lucas was smiling, but Will had a sort of unreadable expression on his face.

The noise of a door opening caused everyone to turn and look at El coming out of her room.

"What's going on?" she asked when no one said anything. Annie was chewing on her bottom lip and tried to suppress the excited squeal she wanted to let out.

Mike loved El, and that's why he was so scared and worried about her. It was cute.

"Nothing. Nothing," Mike said, breaking everyone out of their trance.

"Just family discussion," Lucas said, and Annie could hear the smile on his face with how he talked.

"Oh." Annie tried so hard to keep the laughs in, and had to disguise one as a cough (which hurt). El looked around at each person before adding on, "I found him."

"Found... who?" Nancy asked.

"Billy."

All the good was sucked out of the room in an instant. Everyone froze for a second before Nancy took charge and decided to try and get El's set up moved back out in the living room.

They moved the television set back where it was. Annie decided to help clean up, grabbing a plastic grocery bag and picked up all of El's tissues with a clean one. Just so she wouldn't have to deal with it later.

When it was all set up, everyone took seats around the living room, all surrounding El who was sat on the floor in front of the static filled screen.

"What's he doing now?" Max asked once El took the blindfold off.

"Sitting in his room," she said, then went off to grab a glass of water. Annie went with her, grabbing the glass and filling it for her. "Thank you."

Annie smiled and nodded. "No problem," she whispered. It hurt to speak any louder than that.

El looked down at Annie's neck and asked the question everyone (except for Max) had wanted to ask her. "Who?"

She blinked rapidly, stopping the tears that threatened to spring up. "My friends. The ones I told you about at the pool yesterday?" El nodded. "They were flayed. Found me at the hospital. And now they are part of the monster."

It was an awkward second where Annie stared at her hands and El looked at the girl. El broke it by setting her glass down and pulling Annie into hug. Neither girl needed to say anything, they just sat like that for a moment.

When they pulled apart, El walked over to another part of the kitchen and picked up a box of Lucky Charms. She stared at it for a second, then looked out on the others in the living room. Annie walked over to her and put a careful hand on El's shoulder, but the girl didn't jump.

"You okay?" Annie asked. El looked at her and nodded, setting the box down. She left the kitchen, Annie following, and they overheard Nancy's questions about the source.

"Billy knows it," El said. All eyes went to her. "Billy's been there. To the source."

"Yeah but-"

"It's a trap. I know. We can't go to Billy. But I think there's another way," El said. "A way for me to see where he's been."

Everyone nodded and let El get her set up going again. She turned on the television to the static channel. As she went to sit down, Mike crouched down next to her and whispered something.