GIRLS LIKE GIRLS

chapter sixteen.

june 16, 1989. wednesday.

[italics are flashbacks]

"CASS! CASS WAKE UP!" THE SHOUTS were distant in cassandras ears, her head pounding. a soft groan escaped from her lips as she stirred, and the voices surrounding her became louder. although they were loud, the words were blurred together.

"how the hell...this happen?" she heard who she thought was richie ask. "one minute she was fine, then...was screaming about a...!"

"it's already been... i think we should call..." stan croaked, his voice sounding scared.

cassandra came to her senses finally, the image of the clown standing in the doorway coming to her mind. she sat up, gasping loudly.

"t-the the clown! th-the c-c-clown wuh-was right th-there! where did he go! w-we're not suh-safe!" she felt tears streaming down her face and she was thrashing her legs wildly. she felt arms wrap around her from behind and she grabbed the persons arm, trying to rip them off of her. "no! no we have to go! it's here! it's guh-going to k-kill me puh-please let me go!"

finally, she gave into the persons embrace and sobbed, her voice raw from screaming.

"you're going to be okay." she heard stan whisper in her ear, and she nodded softly, realizing he was the one holding her.

"b-bev?" she rasped, and stan let go of her slowly, letting the redhead take over.

"i'm right here babe. i'm right here." beverly muttered, cradling cassandra in her arms now. "want to go home?"

"yuh-yes." bev and stan helped cass up slowly, her legs shaky. "i'm sorry guys, i- i don't-"

"d-don't you dare ap-p-ologize. th-that wasn't yuh-your fault. we'll
f-f-figure this out." bill spoke, and the others nodded.

"i love you guys." cass whispered, a smile forming on her tear-stained face.

"we love you too." richie answered.

"yeah." ben spoke, cheeks red. cass smiled at the boys, thankful for her best friends.

"see you guys later." bev smiled, and led cass out of the room, grabbing her hand as soon as they were out of sight. they walked out of bens house, and bev let go of the brunettes hand to grab cassandras bike.

as bev began walking it towards cassandras house, cass inspected a missing poster, reading over the words in disbelief. ben had said he'd attacked him along with henry and his other goons.

patrick hockstetter.

relief flushed over her as bev joined her in staring at the poster, and cass shook her head, sighing.

"he had it coming cass."

"i know." she answered, and beverly intertwined their pinkies.

IT WAS SPRING BREAK, AND BEV had stayed the night at cassandras house for almost four days now, and the girls couldn't get enough of eachother. they watched movies and danced to music and talked until three a.m. every night.

"cass, tell me about your first girlfriend." bev spoke suddenly while they were watching 'the goonies' late one night, cuddled up in blankets bundled on cassandras bed. cass froze up momentarily, but relaxed as she began her story.