crazy kid | r. buckley

33. two days later

TWO DAYS LATER

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ The next two days were filled with anxiety and restlessness.

Gina's days consisted of switching back and forth between Stephanie and Eddie's rooms, doing the best she can at comforting Dustin and Steve, as well as Max.

Max and Gina made sure that there were fresh flowers beside their beds for when they woke up, and always somebody in their rooms.

But on the second day, Steve and Gina were sitting in Stephanie's room, looking at the ground, Steve had told Gina that it was hard to look at Stephanie like that. As the two sit in silence, a small voice cuts through the silence.

"Steve?"

Gina looks up, a small smile covering her face, but slightly dropping when she sees Stephanie looking so...sick. There's bags under her eyes, she looks super pale, and it's hard to not notice the cannula in her nose when you look at her.

"Hey, Stephie."

Stephanie looks around the room, then down at her lap, seeing the cannula in her hand for the first time, too. "What happened?"

"Uh, two days ago you lost consciousness from blood loss because of a concussion and you were...uh, stabbed three times," he says, pausing before he continues, "Max and Erica called someone and an ambulance brought you here. But you're okay now."

Stephanie looks down at her lap. "Where's Max?"

"She should be here soon," Gina says, seeing Stephanie smile when she notices Gina's there.

The door bursts open, and the whole gang comes in, Max, Dustin on crutches, Lucas, Nancy, Robin, and even El, Mike, and Will.

"What!" Stephanie exclaims, Max running towards her, throwing the fresh bouquet of flowers on the side table as she hugs Stephanie as tight as she can, careful around her stomach.

"I missed you!" Max says, sounding muffled because of Stephanie's shoulder.

When Max pulls away from Stephanie and she finally gets a good look at everyone in the room, Stephanie asks, "where's Eddie?"

Dustin gives a sad smile. "He's in another room. Still hasn't woken up yet."

"Well, what happened to him? What happened to you?" Stephanie asks, her gaze trailing down to Dustin's leg.

Lucas steps forward, clearing his throat. "He wanted to buy us more time so he went back out to fight the bats himself, Dustin tried to go back through the gate, but he fell through."

Stephanie starts to lean forward, but then suddenly stops, although trying to hide the pain on her face, Gina could tell she's hurting. "Is he okay?"

"The doctors say he'll be fine," Dustin nods and smiles weakly.

"What do the doctors say about me?" Stephanie asks in a somewhat cheerful tone, like she wasn't just stabbed three times.

"They say you might not remember everything at first, and to give it time," Robin answers, taking a seat at the edge of the hospital bed. "They said that the drugs they gave you will wear off soon and the pain will be pretty bad considering you were stabbed three times."

"Three?" Stephanie repeats, looking confused. "I only remember it happening once."

"Concussion," Robin says in a sing song voice while tapping her temple with her finger and sitting down next to Gina.

                                        —

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ Stephanie had told the whole story about what happened in the attic and how she told it was that Max was in the trance, everything was going good, then Jason Carver showed up. He started accusing her of being apart of the Hellfire 'cult' and pulled a gun on her. When Stephanie told that part, Robin and Gina had to convince Steve not to find Jason right then and there and Stephanie continued the story.

He ended up dropping the gun, and the two started getting into a fist fight. That was when Jason stabbed Stephanie three times and through the pain, she threatened Jason with the gun, but when she tried to drop it, she accidentally shot Jason in the shoulder. Gina tried to hide her proud smile at that part.

Max got out of the trance, but Stephanie wasn't doing good, this is where Max took over the story because Stephanie had said she couldn't remember that much after she shot Jason.

Somehow, Erica and Max got Stephanie out of the Creel house and to someone's house so they could call the ambulance, and the person's house ended up being Mr. Clarke. He was quick to help, obviously.

After the story, Gina tried to comprehend it. Jason had really lost his mind. Pulling a gun on a fourteen year old? That's just way too far.

Since the visiting hours were over now, and Gina is Robin's ride, they walk out of the hospital together and to Gina's car, one of the only cars left in the visiting parking lot.

As they get into the car, Robin immediately flicks on the radio, rapidly flicking through the channels until Queen starts to play.

"Wow, switching it up, yeah?" Gina jokes, giving Robin a sarcastic smile.

Robin scoffs, playing along. "I like to live on the edge."

As they continue down the road, Robin speaks up, sounding unsure, "do you wanna...come to my house and, like, hang out?"

Gina smiles at the offer. "Yeah, sure."

Robin lets out a quiet sigh of relief. "Okay."

They pull into the driveway, Gina parking in the grass, noticing her parent's cars aren't there, but deciding not to bring it up.

Walking through the front door, Robin offers out her hand, to which Gina takes. They swing their connected arms as they walk into Robin's room.

Gina can't help but notice how uncertain Robin looks as she sits down on her bed. "What?" Gina asks, an uncomfortable smile growing on her face.

"Can we talk?" Robin suddenly asks, pressing her lips together and looking at Gina through her lashes.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇
one more chapter :(

i might write a season two bc i have some capital ideas for that 😏

3/26/24