In a world of choice (𝐻𝑒𝓃𝓇𝓎 𝒷𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝓍 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓇)

5-Beverly and Nate

It was 12:30 when I finally stopped writing - my father had gone out to meet another employee of Butch's, so I was home alone.

I closed to journal with a snap and placed it in its new home- Under the floorboard in my closet- along with my cigarettes.

I stretched, suddenly feeling hungry- I had used everything I had basically bought yesterday and the inked words I had wrote on my hand stood out immensely in this moment- 'buy a freaking lighter!'.

I looked in the mirror and had a lengthy conversation with myself that was mostly along the lines of, 'should I go to the store?' 'can I be bothered?' 'I'll go tomorrow.' 'but I should go today....' I finally gave in and ran downstairs, jumping the last three steps. Grabbing a handful of money out of the kitchen and my earphones out of my pocket and plugging them into my phone, the song 'play with fire' by the rolling stones was first to play as I backed out of my house on my bike- at least this time I could ride a lot slower, and actually look around Derry.

The weather was nice today- the sun was shining, not a cloud in sight.

I looked up at the sky, cautiously, making sure I didn't fall of my bike, literally not a cloud in the sky- nothing except the sun and... a balloon? A red balloon floated in the sky about half a mile to the right. I raised one of my eyebrows... strange.

I shook my head in an attempt to clear my thoughts and continued into Derry.

The town came into view not to long after the balloon incident, not that it was a big deal it just felt a bit... creepy.

Paranoid. I was just being paranoid.

I rounded a corner and found myself outside of 'Keene's pharmacy' I propped my bike up on the wall as I went inside.

Not many people were actually inside, the man at the counter, three boys, a red headed girl and me.

I turned my music up a little and looked at the aisles looking for medical supplies to fill up the bathroom cabinets.

I picked up some anti-septic and cotton balls, etc and headed to the counter where the red headed girl was just paying, I turned down my music slightly and took out one of the ear buds to listen.

'I like your glasses Mr Keene; you look just like Clark Kent.' The red headed girl said, "Can I try them?"
There was a small pause, "sure..." the man said in a husky voice.

I watched her put on the glasses, "What do you think?" She asked him.

He leaned over the counter with a creepy smile on his face, "Why you look just like Lois Lane..."
The red headed girl gave a small smile, "really?"
The man hummed a 'yes' as she took them off,

"Well, here." She attempted to give them back but knocked over a display of cigarettes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry..." She said shaking her head.

"It's okay." Mr Keene said before looking at her and proceeding to pick up the fallen cigarette packets.

She looked behind her at the three boys, holding a bundle of medical supplies.

I realised what she was doing and gave a chuckle as one of the boys fell into a rack, nocking over some objects as they rushed out of the store, obviously stealing some supplies.

The red headed girl looked at me and put a finger to her lips in a shush motion, wearing a grin. I replied by shaking my head smiling.

She paused for a second before swiping a cigarette packet that laid on top of the counter.