𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙣𝙤𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙗𝙞𝙖 ➹ 𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙯𝙞𝙚𝙧

13.

THIRTEEN.

❝NO NEXT TIME, BILL.❞

ONCE WE ATTEMPTED TO FIX Eddie's arm, all the Losers sprinted out the door. Richie and I stood at both sides of Eddie. One of his arms were draped around each of our shoulders as we tugged him outside the house.

The others helped us to place him into Mike's basket while he clutched his broken arm. As fast as we could, we all cycled away from Neibolt Street and rode back to Bill's driveway.

Again, we helped Eddie out of the basket and steadied him on his feet at the drive. We all panted from going as hastily as possible.

A cream-ish colored car started to pull up by the sidewalk and out stepped Mrs. K. She was here to collect Eddie as he needed to go pick up some medicine from the pharmacy. Her mouth lay agape as she gawked at his limp hand. Eddie's hand lay loosely down his wrist and he gripped onto it as his mother stepped forward.

The bigger woman snatched Eddie and flung him behind her while pointing at all of us. "You. You did this." She blamed us for Eddie's broken arm. "You know how delicate he is," she glowered, dragging the poor boy into the car. "We were attacked Mih-M—Mrs. K," Bill trembled while speaking to the older woman. "No, don't. Don't try and blame it on anyone else," she scowled.

Mrs. K opened the passenger door and pushed Eddie gently into his seat. She shut the door and fumbled with her keys, accidentally dropping them. "Let me help." Beverly went to pick them up for her but she was told off by Mrs. K.

"Get back!" She picked up her car keys and got back up, glaring daggers at Beverly. She leaned  closely into her face and sneered, "Oh, I've heard of you, Miss Marsh. And I don't want a dirty girl like you touching my son." Her voice was laced with disgust while she eyed down the young girl standing before her.

Once again, she turned back to her car as Bill tried to apologise. "Mrs. K, I s—"
"No! You are all monsters." She turned back and spat, "And Eddie is done with you. Do you hear? Done!"

She sped-walked back to the drivers side and the car rocked as she hopped in. Eddie sulked in his seat and it broke my heart to see a close friend having to leave. The car turned and sped off down the street. We followed it out onto the road and all stood, watching our last moment of friendship with Eddie.

Bill turned back at us all before stating, "I saw the well. Whu-W-We know where it is, and next time we'll be better prepared." Next time? What does he mean by 'next time'. He really thinks we're going to go fight that thing again after it just broke Eddie's arm and nearly killed him, Richie and I?

"No!" Stanley yelled. I could hear how upset he was through his voice. "No next time, Bill. You're insane." Beverly was quick to defend Bill. "Why? We all know no one else is going to do anything."
"Eddie was nearly killed!" Richie held his arm up, pointing to the direction Eddie's car left in. "And look at this motherfucker, he's leaking Hamburger Helper," he referred to Ben. "Y/n was basically drowned in spiders, they were crawling all over her!"
"We can't pretend it's gonna go away. Ben, you said it yourself, It comes back every 27 years."
"Fine," replied Ben. "I'll be 40 and far away from here. I thought you said you wanted to get out of this town too."
"Because I want to run towards something, not away," the red-haired girl said. "Well, I'm content in running away from a literal killer clown," I commented.

"I'm sorry, who invited Molly Ringwald into the group?" Richie turned to Stan. "Richie."
"I'm just saying, let's face facts." The volume in his voice rose the more he spoke. "Real world. Georgie is dead. Stop trying to get us killed, too." That may have gone too far. But we were all thinking it.

Richie went to walk away, past Bill but the boy stopped him, standing in front of him. "Georgie's not dead."
"You couldn't save him, but you can save yourself." I'm on his side but, he needs to know when to stop. "Richie, that's enough."

Bill's eyes grew dark and once again, he blocked Richie from leaving. He stood taller than Richie, angrily talking in his face. "No, take it back. You're scared, we all are, but take it back!"

The two boys were face to face, then suddenly Bill shoved Richie back. The shorter boy ran to Bill and shoved him back but earned a harsh punch to the face from it. "Richie! Bill, stop it! I yelled when he fell to the ground from the impact.

Stanley and I hauled Richie from the road and held him back. We prevented him from hitting Bill as he spat, "You're just a bunch of losers! You're just a bunch of losers and you'll get yourselves killed trying to catch a stupid fucking clown."

Mike and Ben both held back Bill from attacking Richie. "Stop!" Beverly shouted in the middle of everyone pulling the two boys away. Richie pushed Stanley away from him and gripped my wrist tightly.

"This is what It wants. It wants to divide us." The fighting calmed as Beverly pleaded for us to listen. "We were all together when we hurt It. That's why we're still alive."
"Yeah? Well I plan to keep it that way." Richie pulled me along with him, shoving Bill as we walked past.

I glanced back to the others, they were all starting to split as well. "Are you okay, Rich?" I asked him while we picked up our bikes.

He ignored my question, probably still mad that Bill whacked him in the face, and continued cycling away. I pedalled after him down the street until we reached his house.

It was a nice two-story home. It matched some of the other houses in the neighbourhood. He swerved into the driveway and lifted the garage door, parking his bike inside. I stayed out on the street, ready to cycle back home. I figured that he wasn't in the mood to be talking to anyone at the moment.

"Bye Rich," I waved to him but he turned back to look at me. "You're not staying?" The boy asked, his voice was soft and small. "You-You want me to?" I walked my bike into his garage and parked it beside his.

He gently grabbed onto my hand and led me through a door in his garage. His hand was soft, warm and comforting in mine; it also fit perfectly, like a jigsaw. The pinecone-brown door led into his kitchen and he walked over to his fridge-freezer, still holding onto my hand. He pulled out a bag of frozen vegetables before shutting the freezer door and heading upstairs.

I followed him, the whole time we were both silent. Not a word passed to each other but it wasn't weird. In fact, I felt safe in this moment, like the wicked clown would never be able to reach me as long as I was with this boy.