The Years After (IT Chapter Two fanfic)(Sequel to Summer of '89)

1.

Charlie was casually in the small kitchen, cutting an apple when the phone rang. She was so tired from coming home so late in the night that she didn't even look at who was calling her and from where. She wiped her hand on her sweats and she quickly grabbed the phone.

"I'm tired and I might hang up so talk quickly" she replied. She always answered the phone in some bedazzled way. She stuck the phone between her ear and shoulder as she went back to cutting the apple in her hand.

"Charlie? ... It's Mike, from Derry"

Charlie's heart jolted when she heard his voice and the knife slipped and sliced the palm of her hand. She didn't even feel it, her head was on the phone call. Her head shot up as every muscle in her body froze.

"Mike?"

"Yeah, it's me Charlie" he said, sounding apologetically.

"What umm ... how are you doing?" she said, trying to change the subject. She tried to sound cheery but she knew why he was calling, but she didn't want to hear him say it. He said it anyway.

"It's come back"

The words she dreaded to hear all those years. Her breathing became uneasy as she stared outside her window. The dark thundering clouds boomed as rain dropped on the street. She tried to focus on the rain droplets on her window but she couldn't. She looked on her left hand, the one without the new cut. The scar from the promise they made 27 years ago.

"That's a nice way to say hello Mike" she gave a  nervous laugh.

"We made a promise"

Charlie nodded and she kept nodding as if she didn't know what else to say. That summer was one to never forget but she tried, she tried really hard to forget it, but it always haunted its way back to her.

"Charlie?" Mike asked, checking if she was still there.

She sighed.

"When should I get there?"

"As soon as possible, tomorrow" he said.

Charlie got chills all over her body and it was not from the cold in her apartment.

"M'kay" she was about to hang up when he talked.

"Charlie?"

"Yeah?"

"I uh, I've missed you, it's been a long time" he said.

Charlie took a long breath and closed her eyes. She remembered that summer when she kissed him. She didn't regret it, but she wished she hadn't got so attached to him. She had to leave town because her brother got kicked out from their apartment and they had to move out. She felt terrible leaving the Losers and Mike, she felt it was her fault for hurting him. She didn't call him back because she didn't want to hurt him more.

"I've missed you too Mike" she said with her eyes still closed.

It was true, she did miss the guy. She was never in a serious relationship because she always wondered what would have happened if she stayed in town, if she stayed with Mike.

"Listen I should go pack um, I'll see you tomorrow then" she said.

"Okay"

After she hung up, she sighed and she violently shook her phone in frustration as if she wanted to throw it across the room. She then looked at her sliced hand. It was a big cut and the blood was still pooling out onto her counter and floor.

She ran to the bathroom to clean and bandage her hand, that made her think of Eddie when he stitched her up after the beating she got from Henry. That made her take a second to try and forget. She didn't want more memories. It only hurt her more.

She then went back to the kitchen to clean the blood, so no one thought she was murdered or if someone was killed. As she kneeled cleaning the floor with a sponge, she remembered cleaning the bloodied bathroom in Beverly's apartment. That lost her. She remembered all the Losers, all her friends she left behind. Her head fell onto her lap as the tears slipped from her eyes. But she got back up, she had to leave now.

With tears stained cheeks, she rummaged through her room. She pulled out a hoodie and shirts, jeans, and her sneakers. She still kept the same tomboy style she had when she was younger, not a single pair of high heels stood in her room now. She didn't have any makeup either, she just always found it gross and never thought it was her thing. She packed a small duffle bag and grabbed her jansport backpack as she stuffed it with necessities.

She kept her sweats on but put on an oversized flannel jacket over her big shirt and put on her black high top converse. She tightened her messy ponytail and walked out of her apartment, walking out in the rain to find a cab.

When she was in the car, she told the driver to head to the airport and she looked out the window. She thought of Mike's call, his voice sounded so mature and she wondered what he looked like now. She wondered what everyone looked like, it's been so long.