How I Became a Loser

Chapter 2

It's the last day of school.

As I'm washing my hands in the girls bathroom sink, for last time thankfully,Greta kicks a stall door.

She's yelling at Beverly, calling her a slut and trash. As if the rumors and degrading aren't enough, they now have to dump trash on her. I leave without drying my hands.

I walk through the boring grey school halls
and exit the school by being greeted by the police and Betty's mom. I know the polite thing is to ask if they know anything new, which they never do, and give Mrs. Ripson a hug. She'll dig her nails into my skin and wish it was me instead of her daughter, but it's the polite thing to do.

But by doing this, I see Stanley. I successfully get his and all his friends attention. Perfect.

As I say my goodbye and smile, I can't help a glance behind me to see Stanley one last time before summer. But he's on the ground by Henry Bowers.

I walk home.

Home. Should I even call that place home? My dad, never home, always with his secretary. My mom, greeting me at the door, pestering, nestling, suffocating me, is always home.

I hate her. I came to that conclusion 3 days ago.

"Please mom, don't make me go back to that school. All I hear is Betty, all I see is Betty." I pleaded, soaking her skirt in my tears.

She leans in closer to me, whispers in my ear, "Well maybe if you hadn't insisted on having that damn birthday party, Betty wouldn't be dead."

She still locks the door and windows and puts bells over the place in case I ever leave. Seriously psycho, I know.

"Hi mom."

She blows smoke in my direction as her hello.

"School was really tiring today, so i'm going to take a nap and then get started on laundry." I tell her.

When she doesn't answer, I take that as a yes.

I throw my backpack in the trash as soon as I get in my room.

I unlock my window lock, I know for a fact I'll have to buy food for tonight, that mainly lists snacks with the little money I have. We never have food anymore.

Before I go, I look into my mirror. Dark circles mark my eyes, my dark curls don't have bounce anymore, and people used to compliment my brown eyes but now they look lifeless. I don't recognize myself anymore.

I'll have to walk to the convenience store.

Derry is not the town I'd call a girl like me to grow up in. You hardly see skin like mine, besides Mike but he's homeschooled.

As i'm walking through the town, I decide to cut through the alley way by the pharmacist but then I see them.

I'm about to leave until I see there they're hovered over some kid who looks like they're bleeding to death. Curiously I walk towards them.

"Holy shit." They all turn to look at me, even Beverly Marsh.

"Are you okay? Do you need a hospital." I ask, moving closer.

"No I just fell." The kid said sheepishly.

I look at Eddie who looks down, I know he was no idea what he's doing.

"Here let me help." I say grabbing the supplies from Eddie's hand.

Richie starts to protest until Stan says "It's okay, she knows what she's doing."

I bite my cheek hard to hide my smile, good thing I'm too dark to blush.

He remembers.

He walked me home with a cut lip.

"Stan what happened?" I asked him, coming closer to examine his face.

"Just got hit in the face my a locker by-" He stops, but I already know.

He got a lot of shit for talking to me, but he didn't care, and that's why I loved him.

"I can fix you up. It could get infected and I know what to do to." He looked confused, "my mom was gonna be a nurse but she never finished, so I was her student." I explained.

I squat down to help, Ben I think is his name. Bill is saying goodbye to Beverly and invites her to the quarry as I'm cleaning the wound. It looks like an "H" is carved into his stomach. I grimace. There's an awkward silence for a minute while I'm cleaning, until Stanley speaks up.

"Nice job bringing up Bowers in front of her." He scolded Richie.

"Yeah dude you heard what she did."

"What'd she do?" Ben asked looking up.

While Richie speaks, sadly, I start to wrap the wound in the gauze. I'm done when he tries to do the british accent.

"There." I say standing up. "Just clean it once a day and change the gauze, your lucky it wasn't deep enough to need stitches." I say to Ben.

"Thank you." He mutters.

I turn to leave quickly, avoiding all eyes.

The losers start to whisper, probably for Stan to follow me, maybe invite me to the quarry, but he never comes.