bitchin'

Chapter 21

"Stop being a baby and do it already," Mike orders. Lucas looks at the dumpster with regret. It was his idea to draw straws and he ended up getting the short one.

"This so disgusting. Is this really necessary?" Max asks.

"Yeah, how do you even know he's in the trash and not in the school still?" Lindsay questions. Lucas disappears into the tall dumpster, sifting through the trash bags.

"Dustin said he found him in his trash, looking for food. He's gotta be hungry by now," Mike reasons. Dustin comes from around the corner.

"What the hell's going on?" he asks.

"What do you think? We're looking for Dart," the boy answers. Lucas throws a garbage bag over the side of the dumpster, almost hitting Dustin.

"Jesus!" he exclaims.

"Oh!" Max jumps back. Lindsay turns away, immediately smelling the stench of rotting school food. Lucas jumps out from the dumpster.

"Well, well, well," he huffs, "Look who finally decided to show up! After I drew the short straw. Real convenient."

"I bet you still would've picked the short straw even if he was here," Lindsay teases. He gives the girl a glare.

"Ugh, you stink!" Max groans, moving away from the boy. She walks over and stands next to Dustin, who gawks at her.

"Hi Max," he woos .

"Hi?" she answers hesitantly. Lindsay gives the curly-haired boy a glare.

"Where's Will?" he asks.

"He'll be here," Mike answers. Lindsay begins to poke the bags with the long stick he gave her. Max does the same.

"Now, are you just gonna stand there or are you going to help?" Lucas asks, throwing another stick to Dustin. He joins Mike and prods the trash bags.

"I really don't think he's in here guys," Lindsay comments. The bell rings. The group of kids look at Lucas.

"What?" he asks. It takes him a second to realize he has to throw the bags back into the dumpster, "aw, man!"

"I'll help," the brunette offers. She picks up a bag, now slightly torn, swings it up and over into the dumpster. The others gather their bags and head inside for first period.

***

"All living things, from complex mammals to single-celled organisms, instinctively respond to danger. Expose a bacterium to a toxic chemical and it will flee," Mr. Clarke lectures, "Or deploy some other defense mechanism. We're very much the same. When we encounter danger, our hearts start pounding. Our palms start to sweat. These are the signs of the physical and emotional state we call... fear."

Lindsay thinks about herself, how she responds to danger. She fought it. Or at least she used to. She looks at the scabs on her hands, the physical evidence of her own defense mechanism.

***

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Home," a younger Lindsay answers to three high schoolers. With cigarettes hanging from their mouths, they snicker at the young girl.

"Well, to get past you have to pay a tax," one boy remarks, holding his hand out. Lindsay furrows her brow.

"No you don't," she answers.

"Uh, yeah you do," a girl tells her, blowing out a line of smoke in her face. The young brunette coughs, swatting the smoke away in the Indiana heat.