I DID IT FOR LOVE - B. DENBROUGH

[2] barons

[ Scarlet's POV ]

I walk downstairs to open the door, before I could open it, I hear the boys bickering.

"Watch her have given us the wrong address-," one of the boys laughed. "S-she wo-wou-wouldn't d-do th-that,"

I opened the door and they all looked at me. Bill turned to Richie, and smiled. I guess they were the two bickering.

"You can ride on the back of Bill's bike Scarlet, he's got the biggest one," Stan tells me and Richie chuckles. "Yeah, Scar, he's def got the biggest one if you know what I mean,"

"G-gross r-r-richie," Bill turns a deep red at the joke Richie just made. Bill gets on his bike, and scoots up in the seat so I can get behind him. I wrap my hands around his waist, and I can feel my chest pressed up against his back.

"I'm sorry if I make you uncomfortable," I whispered into his ear. He shakes his head as she started peddling, following the boys. "I-I'm n-not un-unco-uncomfortable,"

The boys turned into a driveway before we were at the Barons.

"Scar, no offense but I don't think my mom will take it very well if she sees I'm hanging out with a girl," Eddie tells me as they stood at his door step. I nodded as I waited outside of the Kaspbrak household.

I felt the wind shift uneasily and I looked around at my surroundings. I felt myself shiver, and my mind immediately went to the night that Sterling died.

"Fine, go, I don't give a fuck about you! Go fuck up your life like you always do, just wait and see how long it last till mom and dad find up your shooting heroin up yourself every single fucking night!" I screamed at Sterling. I regretted it so much since it was the last thing I said to her before she had died.

I had begged her to stay home for one night, to not go out and abuse her body, but she wouldn't listen and I snapped. She had left the house as a mess, and I had just figured we would make up in the morning when she returned, except there was no return.

"Scar, you ready?" I look over to see Bill and the boys as they held onto their bikes. I nodded as I hopped on the back of Bill's.

I focused on how the wind is blowing in my hair as I held tighter on Bill's waist. After a five to ten minute bike ride, we arrived at the Barons, which is another word for the sewers of Derry.

"So, why are we here?" I asks and everyone turns around in shock as if I was supposed to know, or not ask. I looked over at Bill who look saddened.

"M-my b-br-brother, G-Georgie, w-w-went miss-missing," Bill told her, and I already knew what he was talking about. There had been a lot of disappearances in the past month in Derry, and I guessed Georgie was one of them.

We all walked down to the opening of the sewer and Bill was quick to start walking in. I stranded near Stan and Eddie who were fighting over what was poison ivy.

"You coming in?" Richie taunts Eddie. Eddie viciously shakes his head. "Nu-uh, that's grey water,"

"What the hell is grey water?" Yeah, I thought, what the hell is grey water? I looked over at Eddie, who had the look of disgust plastered on his face. "It's basically piss and shit, so I'm just telling ya' splashing around millions of Derry pee,"

I zoned out as I thought back to a time where Sterling was still here.

I watched as Sterling inhaled the smoke of the cigarette she had in her hand. I was thirteen, and school had just let out. It was a hot, California, summer day, and my parents were busy at work.

"I'm surprised mom and dad let you smoke," I giggled, Sterling glares at me as she puts out the cigarette with her converse. "Look, don't mention this to mom or dad, okay?"

"Okay," I mumbled as I looked up at Sterling. I remember she looked tired and worn out. Her pupils were enlarged, and she looked sick.

"Scarlet, promise me one thing, okay?" She spoke to me. I could've sworn tears pricked in her eye. She inhaled, and slowly exhaled.

"Never change, never change from the Scarlet you are today. Never let anything change you," of course, thirteen year old me didn't think much of what she said back then, but now, as I'm sixteen, and she is gone, I know what she meant. She was warning me.

"That's not funny Richie," I snapped back to outside of the Barons where Stan just scolded Richie. Bill was holding up one shoe. At first my best sank as I thought it could've been Georgie's.

"Georgie wore galoshes," Bill says, and they start talking about how it was Betty Ripsoms, another girl who went missing, weeks prior. Chills ran down ym back as I thought of all the missing children. That was when we heard a scream of a boy. Our heads all snapped to see a chubby kid running, and well bleeding.

"Holy shit!" I yelled as we all ran over to him. I recognized him as one of the kids in my math class today. His name was Ben.

"We've got to do something!" I shouted at the boys who were trying to figure out what to do with the bleeding kid.

"We've got to get out of here," Ben coughed, Ben rode into town on Bill's bike, and I rode on the back of Stan's. We arrived in town, and we set up Ben at an alley way next to the drug store.