Love me •|Billy Hargrove|•

•|17|•

"Erica, do you copy?" I ask through the walky talky. My fingers pick at the hem of my black tee shirt.

"Yeah. You nerds in position or what?" She says through the walky talky.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, we're in position." I look around from the roof top that we're on. We're on this roof all too much these days.

"It's all quiet here, so you've got the green light," I tell her.

"Green light, roger that," she says back. "Commence Operation Child Endangerment."

"Can we maybe not call it that?" Robin asks, taking the walky from me. I gladly give it to her.

"See you on the other side," Erica sasses. "Nerds."

I scoff and sit down with my back against the concrete ledge.

I tighten my half up ponytail before pulling my knees to my chest.

We sit in almost silence for about 10 minutes. The only talking there is is the bickering between the three boys.

"Alright nerds. I'm here," Erica says. I situate myself to where I'm crouching beside Robin and Billy, looking down at the doors.

"Do you see anything?" Robin asks.

"Yeah, I see those boring boxes you're so excited about," Erica replies.

"Any guards?" Robin asks eagerly.

"Negative," Erica replies again. "I'm in."

"Oh god," Billy sighs out. I can't tell if it's in relief or annoyance.

Suddenly, the doors open wide, revealing a neon covered Erica.

"Free ice cream for life!" Erica yells up to us.

We all stand up and rush down to the room. My converse hit the ground hard as I exceed the group. When we get into the room, Erica shuts the doors.

"Jesus, Cass. You should be on the track team," Steve gasps out, bent over with his hands on his knees.

"Quit being dramatic, Harrington. We have Russians to stop," Billy says, tearing open a box with a panda on it.

We crowd around him as he pulls the lid off of a metal container in the box. It reveals four smaller lids that look the same as the big one.

"That's definitely not Chinese food," Steve states, staring down into the box. Steve then starts to take charge. "Maybe you guys should, you know, stand back."

I roll my eyes, not moving. Erica and Robin step back. Erica so she can sit on a box, and Robin just because she seems so over our situation.

Steve and Dustin begin to argue about Dustin stepping away.

"If you die, I die," Dustin tells the boy.

I smile at them. "Just open the box, Steve." Billy and I stand across from the other two boys.

Steve unlocks the lid and brings it up. Along with it, comes a foot long vile of glowing green ooze.

"What the fuck?" Billy asks, stepping away from it.

"What is that?" Robin asks.

All of a sudden, the ground begins to shake.

"Was that just me or did the room move?" Dustin asks, looking at the ceiling.

"It wasn't just you," I say back, widening my stance a little.

"You know what? Let's just grab that and go," Robin says, taking the green liquid.

Billy moves to the buttons. "Which one do I press, Erica?" His finger repeatedly hits the blue button that says open door. Nothing happens.

"Just press the damn button, Nerd," Erica sasses him.

"Which one?" His voice sounds panicked. "I'm pressing the button, okay?"

"Press 'open door.'" Erica yells.

"I'm pressing 'open door'," Billy argues.

Steve moves over to Billy and they begin arguing. They both are pressing buttons as their voices rise in anger and fear.

A second door closes over the already closed doors. Billy moves away from the buttons, slamming his palms on the covering. I move towards him, then the room jerks.

We all let out screams. We're falling down.

I grab a hold of Billy, who is holding onto the wall screaming 'oh fuck' over and over. My arms squeeze his waist as I hold in a scream.

"We're going down!" Steve yells out.

"Yeah no shit, Harrington!" Robin screams at him.

Dustin is by the buttons, slamming his fingers onto each one. "Why don't these buttons work!" He screeches.

Erica runs next to him, arguing and also pressing buttons.

Everyone is screaming at each other now.

Then we come to a stop. Billy falls over which, in turn, pulls me down too.

I land on top of him with a scream.

Steve is whining about a box falling on him, then he switches it up to yell at Dustin to get the box off him.

I cling to Billy, not sure if I can move yet.

I roll off of him, jumping to my feet. Billy stands up too.

Robin grips the back of her head. "Is everyone okay?"

Steve begins to scream at her. "Yeah, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" He shoves Dustin to the side to mess with the buttons.

I help Robin up from the floor and she continues to talk. "I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work."

"They're buttons!" Steve says manically. "They have to do something!"

"Yeah, if we had a keycard," Robin yells back. "It's an electronic lock."

"We're stuck in here," I say quietly. Everyone still hears me.

"Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Nina's and Nina always covers for me but if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow and my mom finds out you 5 are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throats.

Steve loses it. "I don't care about Nina or Uncle Jack's party!" Steve screams. "Your mom is not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"

"Hey," Dustin interrupts. "What if we climbed out?" He points to the hatch above.

Billy and Steve begin boosting Dustin up there. I then try to help Billy boost Steve up there.

After a few seconds, they drop back down, shaking their heads.

"We're too far down," Dustin says.

I sit down on the floor in defeat. I can't think straight. I lower my forehead onto my knees, trying my best not to cry.

"Cass, it's okay. We'll get out of here somehow," Billy says. He kneels down and rubs my back.

I don't reply. A sniffle leaves my body. It slowly increases to a sob.

"Don't start crying!" Steve screams.

I hear Billy huff. "Shut the hell up Harrington!"

"Both of you quit!" Robin yells out.

I raise my head to see her walking over.

"Cassie," Robin starts. She kneels down beside me. "I know this is very hard and I want to cry too, but we need to all be strong for each other. Can you do that for me? For us?"

I nod my head, leaning on her shoulder with a sniffle. "I can do that."

Robin rubs my back before standing. "This is going to be a long night."