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4.

FOUR.

❝RICHIE. WHAT?
IM CONDOLING HIM.❞

A LOUD SPLASH FROM THE RIVER connected to the sewer caught all our attentions. A kid stood up, fully drenched from falling in the flowing water. We all ran out of the sewer as he fell again. I ran over to help him up and slightly glared at the others for not helping.

The kid was Ben Hanscom. He was new to the school, recently moved. His white t-shirt was littered in blood and dirt. His nose was running with blood and he looked like he got beat up. "Are you alright—"
"Holy shit. What happened to you?" Richie interrupted. They then ran over to help him as well.

"I'm fine, thanks." He replied as he finally stood by himself. "Fuck, you're bleeding," I noticed. "What the hell did you get into?" Eddie asked.

BEN EXPLAINED TO US THAT Henry Bowers and his friends attacked him and tried to carve Henry's name into his stomach. How sick is that?

"Come on, we can't let him bleed here all day," I demanded. We all ran over to where we dumped our bikes and started to cycle. Ben had no bike so he rode on the back of Bill's.

The path that led us to the main road only took a couple minutes till we were turning our bikes and cycling to the alleyway beside a small drugstore.

Of course, Eddie wouldn't stop nagging how we all might get AIDS from Ben's bleeding waist. He was telling some story about his mother's friend who got it. "Shut up Eddie," the entire group yelled.

We threw our bikes down once again and Bill sat Ben down on a bunch of crates. "Richie, Y/n, Stay here."
"Alright."

The three other boys sprinted down the alley and headed into the store. I sat down beside Ben before Richie spoke up. "Glad I got to meet you before you died." Are you joking me? I genuinely can't tell if he was being serious or not. "Richie."
"What? I'm condoling him."
Ben just looked at him and squinted his eyes. Both boys decided not to say anything after.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose as we waited for the other boys. "Why does he have to be such a bitch? I mean-can't he pick on people his own size? Or not pick on anyone at all?"

Yet again, the two others stayed silent while I ranted about how much of a bully Bowers was. I looked up to Richie and caught him staring but he quickly glanced away and coughed into his elbow, cowering his face.

"Aren't you gonna say anything? I mean he just beat you up and he's constantly picking on us." I said to the boys. Ben just let out a sigh shrugged. "Yeah, sorry, Y/n. I think he's just jealous he has a small dick." I groaned at Richie not being able to say anything without making a joke out of it. "Hey, you guys want to go swimming at the quarry with us tomorrow?" He asked, particularly towards me. "Yeah, sure," I smiled and Ben accepted the offer too.

Finally, Bill, Stanley and Eddie returned with over a handful of medical supplies. "How did you guys afford all that?" I questioned. "Uhm, we used Eddie's account."

I stood up from the crates and watched from beside Richie. Eddie was now kneeling in front of Ben, bandaging his wound. Everyone stood around and watched with Richie butting in to make jokes every now and then. "Just suck the wound."
"I need to focus right now."
"You need to focus?"
"Yeah, can you go get me something?"

I zoned out as I watched Bill walk back into the direction of the store before stopping and facing one way of the side path. He stood there weirdly for a couple seconds before Beverly Marsh came up in front of him. He handed her a dollar but she declined it and held up something instead. I watched as her ginger waves flipped as she looked in our direction

She started walking over to us and took a look at Ben's poor state. "Are you okay? That looks like it hurts."
"Oh, no. I'm good. I just fell." Ben replied.
"Yeah, right into Henry Bowers," Richie said.
I nudged his arm with my elbow and Bill quickly shut him up. He rubbed his arm where I elbowed it and I felt a tinge of regret from doing that but it quickly passed.

"You sure they got the . . right stuff, to fix you up?" Asked Beverly with a slight smirk on her face. "You know w—w-w-we'll take care of him," Bill dismissed her concerns. "Uh, thanks again, Beverly."
"Sure, maybe I'll see you around," she smiled brightly at him.
"Yeah, we were thinking about going to the q-q—quarry tomorrow. If you wanna come." He seemed nervous in asking her. She took one last look at Ben and the rest of us before responding with: "Good to know. Thanks." She smiled at me and waved, then walked back down the alley.

"Nice going bringing up Bowers in front of her," Stanley scolded Richie. "Yeah dude, you heard what she did," Eddie assented. I looked to my damp shoes and dirtied socks as they spoke about the rumours surrounding Beverly.

Ben looked up to the boys cluelessly. He must not have heard. "What'd she do?"
"More like 'who'd she do?' From what I hear, the list is longer than my wang." He gossiped.
"That's not saying much," Stanley sighed, obviously ready to go home. "They're j-just rumours."
"Yeah, not all rumours are true, you know," I defended. An ache in my heart could be felt when I thought about Beverly's situation. Henry made up rumours about me once and that amount of shit I got from it was dreadful. Luckily they didn't last long.

"Anyway, Bill had her in third grade. They kissed in the school play. The reviews say they can't fake that sort of passion." I noticed Bill and Ben both looked away or at the ground after Richie's words. That's strange, I thought. Ben seemed to be slightly upset.

"Now pip-pip and tally-ho, my good fellows. I do believe this chap requires our utmost attention." Richie put on another one of his impressions, this time a posh British man, as Eddie began to fix Ben up again. "Get in their Dr.K. Come on, fix him up."
I let out a laugh at Richie's playfulness and he looked at me and beamed, continuing to torture poor Eddie with the impression.

"Why don't you shut the fuck up, Einstein, because I know what I'm doing and I don't want you doing British guy with me right now." He yelled.
"Suck the wound. Get in there."