Lover| IT

Ending 2, part 3

R.T

I glance over at Eddie as we all clean ourselves in the quarry. He's looking at the water with disgust and rambling about how many infections we can get. Even if we are fully clothed. I chuckle and continue to clean my glasses. I slide them back onto my face and glance at Eddie again, who throws something and it hits the water with a small splash.

"What was that?" I ask curiously and he looks at me with a small smile.

"My wedding ring." He replies.

"Holy shit, are you insane? How much did that cost?!" I say and he splashes me with water. I raise an eyebrow and splash him back. He swims over to me and pushes me with a laugh so I push him back." I fucked your mo-

He pushes me so hard, I fall into the water. But, I manage to grab his wrist and drag him in with me. I smile at him and he swims over to me, kissing my gently, his hands in my hair. I pull him closer, wrapping my arms around his waist and deepening the kiss. This is all I've ever wanted. Just us allowed to be us.

E.K

Our scars are gone. We noticed on our way back to the townhouse. I instantly had a shower to get rid of the dirty quarry water. God knows how many diseases we could've got. Especially as Richie and I made out underwater. I don't regret that. It was kind of romantic.

Now, we're all in Beverlys room. We took all of our bedsheets and made a den on the floor. Stanley, Bill, Ben and Mike are all fast asleep. Richie is leaning his head against my chest and I have an arm around him, playing with his hair. He's half asleep and watching the movie Beverly and I are watching. She looks at us and smiles. Her and Ben seem happy together. He has his arms around her waist as he sleeps and she looks relaxed and happy.

I'm glad I'm not the only one going through a divorce. Beverly is too. Turns out, we both married people that resembled our parents. But now we're back with people who make us happy. Who bring us joy and make us feel loved and Richie really does make me feel loved. I love him. So much.

"Eddie, you're tugging." Richie mumbles and I look at him. I must've tensed my hand in thought. I relax and kiss him gently on the temple, which makes him let out a sigh." What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." I whisper." I'm absolutely fine. I am happy...for once."

"I'm glad." Richie mumbles and then his eyes begin to flutter closed. I smile as I watch his chest rise and fall in sleepy breaths. Beverly smiles at me tiredly and I grin as I lean my head ontop of Richie's gently.

R.T

I kneel down at the kissing bridge, pulling out a pocket knife. I remember when I carved this. How scared I felt incase someone was going to see me. Scared I'd be beaten up. But I needed to do my own little 'fuck you' to Derry. I recarve the R and half of the + and smile. I glance up at Eddie and hand the pocket knife to him. He smiles and kneels down beside me and I watch as he recarves the other half of the + and then the E. We stand up and admire our handiwork. Eddie shoves the pocket knife into his hoodie. I'm wearing one of his hoodies, my leather jacket needed a wash.

"I'm proud of you for doing this." Eddie says and I glance at him. He looks at me and smiles." It took a lot of courage."

"Well. This place is still pretty homophobic." I say. Eddie nods." So it'll take more courage to do this."

He smiles as I kiss him gently. In the perfect place. In the perfect moment. My thirteen year old self would be freaking out. My forty year old self is freaking out but I'm remaining calm on the outside. We pull apart and Eddie smiles as he moves a loose strand of hair out of my eyes.

"I love you." He says softly and I grin.

"I love you too." I say and he smiles even wider before interlocking our fingers." Should we go?"

"Let's go." I confirm with a nod. We walk back to my car and get in. He's staying with me whilst he figures out things with Myra and tries to get his divorce done as quickly as possible. He'll move in and never move out. I'm happy about that.

I pull away from the kissing bridge and soon we're heading out of Derry. I glance at Eddie and he's looking out of the window at the trees blurring past, a smile set on his face. I chuckle and Africa by Toto begins to play as we cross the line out of Derry. Our memories stay in tact. All of them and I hope they remain. They weren't all bad. Some of my favourites were of Eddie and I, both repressing our feelings for the other, sharing the hammock in the clubhouse. We could spend hours just lying together and reading comics. We could spend hours just in eachothers company and be happy and content.

I want to marry this man beside me. It's all I've ever wanted and it will be a reality soon. If he agrees. He's had a pretty shut marriage so I wouldn't blame him for saying no. But I pray he says yes, so I can introduce him to people as my husband and call him my husband.

"What're you smiling about?" Eddie asks, glancing at me. I look at him and chuckle.

"Not much. Just happy you're with me, Eddie spaghetti." I say. He rolls his eyes with a smirk and then Common People by Pulp starts playing. Eddie sings along gently.

I could listen to him singing for hours and hours on end. His voice is perfect. He says otherwise but it's perfect to me. Everything about him is perfect to me. I smile even wider as he sings and then I join in aswell, even if I don't have the greatest singing voice.