New Romantics | Chris Chambers

009-leeches

The train had woken me up. I slowly sat up stretching my arms.  Gordie was already awake and starting to hand out breakfast. We gathered our stuff and started to continue on our journey.

"Jeeze, Gordie why couldn't you get some breakfast stuff like Twinkies and root beer?" Vern complained.

"Sorry Vern. I guess some more experienced shopper could have gotten more for your seven cents" he replied in a sarcastic tone.

I was still hungry but I trudged on despite the heat that was starting to beam down. As we were getting closer to seeing the kid's dead body I started becoming more nervous. We had walked a little while longer until we came to the Royal river.

"Guys, the Royal" Chris stated stopping his hands on his hips.

"God the tracks go way out of the way" I said sighing.

"If we cut across this field right here, we'll be there in an hour" Chris replied shrugging.

"I think we should stick to the tracks" Vern told us.

"I say we go across the field" Teddy said with certainty.

"I agree with Teddy" I said nodding.

"Gordie?" Chris asked.

"Yeah" Gordie answered.

"Let's go!" I yelled.

Teddy started running across the field yelling "Take no prisoners!" and making gun noises. Vern had stayed put, calling to us about how it would be safer to take the tracks. Across the field we went into the wooded area, Teddy and Vern teasing each other along the way. We had come up upon a swampy pond and we stood at the edge.

"How are we supposed to get across this?" Vern asked.

"We use you as a raft" Teddy said continuing his bickering.

"Very funny" Vern said rolling his eyes. Chris looked around and grabbed a broken tree branch from behind and stuck it into the water.

"Hey, it's not that deep, we can walk across" Chris realised. The boys started walking into the water and a couple steps in the depth drastically dropped resulting in them being submerged in water. I stood at the edge laughing at them.

"I told you we should've stuck to the tracks." Vern complained in dismay.

"Is it me or are you the world's biggest pussy?" Teddy said turning to look at Vern, hands over his chest.

"I suppose this is fun for you." Vern replied sarcastically.

"No, but this is!" he dunked Vern under the water which started a water fight. I still was on the edge laughing. I did have a problem though. I didn't want to get wet so I needed to find another way around. But there wasn't.

"Come on Teddy, act your age!" Chris said sternly.

"This is my age! I'm in the prime of my youth and I'll only be young once!" He cried.

"Yeah, but you're gonna be stupid for the rest of your life."

"Oh, Chambers you just signed your own death-warrant! You die, Chambers!" Teddy started dunking Chris while Gordie had continued making his way to the other side. Chris had turned to me in between dunking and started towards me.

"No, no, no leave me be"

"Come on Nancy. We do have to eventually cross" he said while grabbing my wrists and pulling me into the dirty, cold water. I started trudging to the other side keeping my stuff above the water. But I didn't make it without getting dunked by Teddy.

"You fucker" I dunked Teddy for payback and starting making my way across the water again with Gordie beside me.

"Hey, where do you think you guys are going?" Chris called. Teddy and Vern had stopped as well and they all started coming towards us. I quickly ran out of the water placing my stuff beside a tree while Gordie was stuck in a sleeper hold. As I was watching them I noticed a black blob on my leg. I quickly started panicking getting every black blob that was visible off myself. Meanwhile the boys had just noticed.

"Vern, there's something on your neck!" Gordie stated slightly confused.

"Gee, right. I'm not falling for that one Lachance" he replied continuing to goof around.

"No Vern, there is something on your neck!" Chris said starting to get scared.

"It's a leech. Leeches! Jesus Christ!" Teddy cried. They all got off each other, making there way fully onto land undressing down to their underwear. I decided I should probably do the same and started to undress as well. I was very self conscious but the leeches were seriously grossing me out and I needed them off. We had gotten them all off and I noticed three out of the four boys staring at me.

"Seriously guys stop" I said quickly getting my clothes and attempting to but them back on. Gordie meanwhile was panicking and going pale.

"Oh Chris. Oh shit, Chris. Oh shit, man" Gordie had a leech stuck to his privates and fainted before us. We ran over and hovered over top of him staring.

"Gordie, man, are you okay? Can you hear me? Gordie, are you there?" Chris asked concern taking over his face.

"Maybe he's dead" Vern stated.

"He's not dead, he's still breathing, you idiot" I replied still slightly in shock about the whole leeches thing.

"Well I don't know" he said defensively.

"Hey, hey. Just cool it you guys, he just fainted" Chris told us while shaking Gordie a bit.

"God, I never met anybody who fainted before" Vern added.

"Maybe he made a bad mistake and looked at your face" Teddy teased. I held in my laugh because Chris had given us all a death stare.

"Shut up, Teddy." Gordie's eyes had fluttered open just then and we were all relieved.

"Gordie?" I said softly.

"Yeah" he replied still slightly out of it.

"Let's go" Chris instructed. We had made it a little farther into the woods so the boys could get dressed. Once dressed we started questioning our trip while Gordie stood leaning on a tree.

"Maybe we should take Gordie back." I suggested.

"Oh, great Merrill, now you're turning pussy too!" Teddy stated annoyed.

"What's your problem Duchamp? he had a leech hanging from his balls, he fainted!" Chris said.

"What are you, his mother?" Teddy retorted.

"Eat shit!" Chris said angrily.

"Both of you stop!" I intervened.

"You eat shit! Let him fight his own battles Nancy!" Teddy continued.

"Teddy stop being an asshole!" Chris said.

"What your little girlfriend can't take it?" Teddy teased.

"She is not my girlfriend!"

"Hey, hey! I think Chris is right. Let's go back." Vern spoke.

"Oh haha! What a surprise, the king of the pussies wants to go back too!"

"Stop calling me that!" Vern replied.

"Pussy"

"Stop it" Vern pleaded.

"Pussy, pussy, pussy"

"You four eyed psycho!" Vern had tackled Teddy and they were now fighting on the ground. Idiots. I started gathering my stuff while Chris began to break up Teddy and Vern. Gordie on the other hand was getting more and more agitated.

"Stop it." Nobody heard him. "STOP IT!! I'm not going back" We all stopped and turned. Gordie began walking on so Chris and I grabbed our stuff quickly to catch up.

"Idiot" Teddy muttered.

"Shut up. Asshole" Vern muttered back.

Words: 1209
A/n: so sorry for not posting i was grounded and then school was just really stressful for a while and i didn't have time to write a lot.