Memories

The Past

(A/N) Sorry this took forever school started and got hectic soooo fast 😭 I know I said I had a specific way I wanted to start this chapter but I don't remember what it was... sooooo I'm just gonna roll with it

[Bill POV]

What's taking so long? I'm anxiously sitting on Stanford's bed waiting for him to return. Frankly it probably hasn't even been that long, but it's felt like an eternity. I'm not sure why, but my head is racing and I can't stop thinking about what they're saying down there. I can barely see straight. Suddenly my hand hurt, and I looked down to see my right hand bleeding slightly. I hadn't noticed, but in my 'daze', I had been scratching my hand the entire time. There wasn't a lot of blood, but it was enough to drip onto the floor.

I then heard someone coming up the stairs. I panicked and rushed to the bathroom, tripping over the rug about halfway there. I somehow caught myself with my hands, but it kind of hurt. I heard his pace quicken so I quickly got up, rushed to the bathroom, and shut the door.

[Ford POV]

What was that? I just finished saying goodbye to Wendy and Pacifica and was going to check on Bill, but a loud thud came from up the stairs that made me quicken my pace. I made it to my door and quickly opened the door to see Bill nowhere, but the bathroom door was closed, and the water was running. I sighed and walked over and knocked on the door.

"Bill?" Are you in there? What happened?" I heard Bill swear under his breath when I asked.

"YEP. Everything's great! Nothing's wrong at all!" His very panicked voice responded.

"Bill, open the door." Silence followed for a while. "I'm not mad, I just want to make sure you're ok." I then heard the click of the unlocking door. I slowly opened it to see Bill awkwardly standing there holding his right hand. I could barely see from how tightly he was holding it, but it was definitely shaking. "Are you ok?"

"No..." He shook his head and looked away. I held out my hand to examine his, and he hesitated, but he ended up giving it to me. I was shocked to see it very irritated and bleeding.

"What happened? How are you bleeding? Did you cut yourself on something? Is that what that sound was?" I let go of his hand and checked the temperature of the water.

"I uh..." Bill started fumbling over his words trying to explain. "I don't know... I was waiting for you and then I looked down at it and it was just like this."

I turned the water temperature down slightly and grabbed a cloth to run under the water. "Were you anxious?"

"What?"

"Anxious." I pulled the cloth from the water and reached for his hand. "Do you know what that means?" He gave me his hand and shook his head.

"No... sorry."

"That's ok." I responded lightly trying to calm him down. "Not everyone knows what that means." I gently set the cloth down on his hand. "I can try to explain it to you."

I let the cloth rest on his hand and started looking around for disinfectant and bandages. While looking I struggled to explain anxiety to Bill, which was very awkward as he asked very reasonable questions, but ones I don't think anyone has the answers to yet. I found what I was looking for and disinfected his wound then lightly wrapped it in bandages.

"Ok, I think you're all good." I said draining the cloth of its water. "Does it hurt still?"

"Kind of, but a lot less. Thank you."

"You can make your way to the bed and get comfortable, I'm gonna clean up in here." Bill nodded and made his way to the bed and sat on edge, this time calmly waiting for me. I finished cleaning up and sat down next to Bill waiting for one of us to break the silence.