𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐭

xix. NEW COKE

   

     The group all soon arrive to the store, Nancy completely drifting the car. She throws a rock into the glass door and they all make their way through it, Max and Mike helping El through the door. They quickly go to the aisle with the medical supplies. "Okay, get her down." Nancy tells them.

     They let El down onto the floor, "lemme see." Nancy said before pulling Eleven's pants up to see her open wound. "Oh, shit." Is all Max said and Charles decided to keep his distance, standing with Will and Lucas a few feet away from them.

     "Woah, woah, hey, what are you doing?" Max asked Nancy who looks at her for a second. "I'm cleaning the wound." She says and Max shook her head. "No, first, we need to stop the bleeding, then clean, then disinfect, then bandage." She says.

     They all gave her looks, "I skateboard. Trust me." She simply said before gesturing, "Mike, hold this." She says then presses Mike's hand down onto the bandage over El's wound, the girl groaning. "Keep the pressure on it, nice and firm, okay?" Max asked and then looked at Nancy next.

     "We're gonna need water, soap."

     "Yeah, okay." Nancy said as she and Jonathan got up. Will and Charles watch as Lucas took his backpack off, opening it and dumping out all of his things onto the floor in front of him. Charles sends Will a look who just smiled faintly. They look back at Lucas who caught his girlfriend's attention, "does any of this help?" He asked her.

     "No. Go get me a washcloth and a bowl." She says and he gets confused. "A bowl?" He asked. "Lucas." She gave him a stern look, "let's go." Charles nudged Lucas who was quick to follow him along with Will following closely behind Lucas.

     Will finds a washcloth, holding it up before throwing it over his shoulder. Charles smiled and looked at Lucas who now walks down a cereal aisle. "Bowl," he kept repeating to himself. "Bowl... Why wouldn't it be with the cereal?" Lucas asked them and Charles simply rolls his eyes.

     "I don't know." Will says. "What else do you use a bowl for?" Lucas says. "Oh, let me think.. Hmm. Soup. Oatmeal. Yogurt. Ice cream." Charles started listing with his fingers before nearly bumping into Lucas who stopped, he looks up quickly.

    "Oh, shit." Lucas said and Charles looks over to see fireworks. Of course. He rolls his eyes, the three walking over right away and Lucas picking up a box. "Satan's Baby," he says, turning to them. "You ever shot one of these suckers?" Lucas asked and Charles shook his head. He wasn't really a fan of fireworks, loud noises tend to scare him.

    "No. Is it sweet?" Will asked and Charles smiled softly. "That's an understatement." Lucas simply says. "That doesn't look like a bowl." They all look over to see Max walking up to the three of them. "Nah. It's way better." Lucas tells her.

    He holds up the box of fireworks, "there is a reason this warning label says 18 or older." He says, pointing to the bottom of the box. "This sucker is filled with 150 grains of black powder. AKA gunpowder." He says before throwing it towards Max quickly catched it in her arms, looking down at it.

    "Strap two of these together, and it's bigger than an M-80." He says and Charles raised his eyebrows. "Five of them," He starts and Charles looks at him. "A stick of dynamite?" He asked and Lucas looked back at him, nodding his head.

    "You got that right, Charleston."

    Max looks up, "you wanna kill that thing with fireworks?" She asked her boyfriend and Charles looks at her. "Do you have a better idea?" Lucas asked with a small smile on his face. "Uh, yeah.. Eleven." Max says before throwing it back at Lucas who was also quick to catch it as she was.

     "Against that thing? She's gonna need some backup." Lucas said and Max rolls her eyes before turning around and walking away. "Oh, my God." She had said faintly to herself and Lucas scoffs softly before turning to Will and Charles. "You guys go ahead and look for the bowl." He says and Charles nods, grabbing Will's hand.

      Will and Charles now walk together down the aisles, looking for the bowl. "Hmm.." Charles suddenly hums and Will looked at him right away. "What?" He asked softly and Charles just slowly comes to a stop, turning to him.

     "I just.. It's weird how much we go through. It's kind of.. bullshit." He says with a slightly scrunched up face and Will smiled, looking away. "Will." He says and Will looks up at him right away. "I love you." He says and Will just smiled more.

     "I love you too.." He whispered and then leaned in, kissing Charles' cheek. He leans back, still smiling, "come on.. We have to find that bowl." He says as he tugs gently onto Charles' arm.

    The group now all watched El, she was sitting in front of the eggos in the frozen aisle, all of the refrigerator doors were open as she had a blindfold over her eyes. Blood trickled down from her node as she tried to find Dustin.

Lucas opens a can of Coca-Cola, the pull-tab clicking loudly. "Quiet." Max whispers to him. "Sorry." He whispers back to her before raising the can and taking a sip from it. "How do you even drink that?" Mike asked him with a disgusted look on his face and Charles sighs softly.

"Because it's delicious." Lucas says. "What?" Mike and Max all say at the same time as Nancy gave a confused look and Jonathan looked at them in disbelief they were actually having this conversation right now with crossed arms.

"It's like Carpenter's The Thing. The original is a classic, no question about it. But the remake.." Lucas says before taking another sip, not forgetting to hold his pinkie up. "Ah.." He let out a satisfied sigh, smacking his lips together.

"Sweeter," he says before looking at Max, "bolder." He looks at Mike, Charles and Will. "Better." He says and Charles simply rolls his eyes as Mike just looked more disgusted. "You're insane."

"So, you prefer the original Thing?"

"What? No, I'm not talking about The Thing, I'm talking about New Coke." Mike says and Charles looks at Will who just glanced between Mike and Lucas. "It's the same concept, dude." Lucas said. "Uh, actually, it's not the same concept." Mike immediately argued back. Of course.

"It is the same concept."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is." Lucas said loudly and El took off her blindfold right away, "hey!" She says and they all turn their attention back to her. "Sorry." Mike apologized right away. "Sorry." Lucas adds.

"Did you find him?"

authors note charles & will: *annoyed in gay*