Tʜᴇ Fʟᴀʀᴇ ꕥ Lɪᴢᴢɪᴇ Jᴏʜɴsᴏɴ

sᴇʀɪᴇs ᴛᴡᴏ ꕥ 1

Oct, 1984

"Lizzie? Are you there? Do you copy?"

Lizzie ran to snatch her supercom that lay on her bed. "Yeah, I copy. Come on, then, Dustin, what's your haul?"

"I've got four quarters," she could hear him smirking but she clenched her fists.

"Damn! I've only got two!"

"Lucas?" Dustin asked. "You copy? What've you got?"

"Take your puny hauls and multiply them by five," came a sarcastic voice as Lucas joined the conversation.

"How?" Lizzie asked incredulously.

"While you two were scrounging around or sucking face or whatever-"

"Ew!"

"Gross!"

"-I mowed Old Man Humphrey's lawn," Lucas finished, ignoring Lizzie and Dustin's fights. It actually wasn't true. Their friendship had grown since Lizzie kissed his cheek on Christmas Eve almost a year ago, but they hadn't got together or anything.

"Old Man Humphrey's got that kinda cash?" Dustin's voice pulled her out of her stupor.

"Whatever, just call Mike," Lizzie put in.

"You call Mike!" Lucas said.

"No! Lucas can call Mike!" Dustin said, but he was laughing.

"No, I gotta go take a shower for doing work like a real man!" Lucas put in. "Over and out."

He turned his supercom off but Lizzie stayed on as Dustin said boredly. "Mike, do you copy? Mike, do you copy?"

"Yeah. Yeah I copy," came Mike's voice.

"What the hell are you doing on this channel?" Dustin asked.

Looking for El, thought Lizzie, biting her lip.

You see, this was the other problem. El had been missing for many months now, but Mike still hadn't given up on her. Lizzie was the only other person to know, but he had been calling her for every night, counting the days. Lizzie had forgotten her jacket one night and had to go back down to the basement where she found Mike, sitting in El's blanket fort, talking into the supercom. She had sworn not to tell anyone. She had said she missed her too.

Her best friend.

"Lucas, Lizzie and I have six bucks total, what's your haul?" Lizzie tuned back in to hear Dustin ask Mike this.

Lizzie heard Mike stammer out. "Shit! I-I don't know yet!"

"Just hold on! I'll call Will! Meet you in ten! Over and out!"

So it was just Lizzie and Dustin left on the line. Then Flora, Lizzie's younger sister, suddenly yelled from her room. "Lizzie! Can I borrow your white denim jacket?"

"Sorry, Dustin, my sister's calling, I'll meet you outside in five!" Lizzie shouted into it.

"Okay!" She heard Dustin call back.

"Right," Lizzie said, heading out of the bedroom. "Where are you going? What are you doing? And why d'you want my jacket?"

The jacket she was referring to was Lizzie's nice one. It was white denim with colourful embroidered flowers on it.

"Jesus, calm down!" Flora laughed. "I'm going to Erica's for a sleepover with her and Tina."

"So?" Lizzie raised her eyebrows.

"So?" Flora shot back at her.

"So, you're with your friends? Why'd you need my fancy jacket?"

"Just shut up and give it to me."