how it started || losers club

ch 13

tw!!: mentions of r@p3/abuse

Beverly sat on an abandoned swing in a rusted swing-set. She smoked a cigarette and closed her eyes, leaning against the chain as she barely moved back and forth on the swing.

After fifteen minutes in silence, she heard leaves crunching as the sound got closer to her. She kept her eyes closed and kept her chill, and someone sat on the swing next to her.

"Hey Beverly," a voice spoke, and her eyes opened. She snapped her head to the voice and smiled.

"Hey," she replied.

"What're you doing-?" Richie asked politely.

She shrugged. "Smokin'," she replied with a chuckle, and he tittered.

They sat in comfortable silence for a hot minute, and Richie looked over at Beverly.

"Do you mind?" he asked, holding out his hand. She looked at him with shock, but still pulled a cigarette out for him and handed him the lighter.

Richie took the items he was handed and lit the cigarette and placed it between his lips, Beverly watching as he did so.

"You look like you have experience?" she said, and he smiled with a breathed out chuckled. He nodded and she nodded back. "So," she started mindlessly, "why're you here?"

Richie shrugged. "Just on your daily get-away-from-home walk and happened to find you," he laughed. She nodded understandingly.

"Yeah, I get that," she chuckled. Richie looked at her, knowing she had something on her mind.

"You wanna tell me how?" he asked kindly, and she made eye contact with him.

"Maybe," said Beverly, "as long as you tell me how you feel that way, that way we're even." Richie nodded, and Beverly sighed. "Just to give you a heads up, my mom's dead. She died when I was young." Richie furrowed his eyebrows sympathetically and nodded, as a sign for her to keep speaking. "My dad's sort of abusive yet inappropriate. He sees me as a woman now, basically he's an abusive pedophile. He makes me really uncomfortable and hard to be around. So." Richie's eyes were open wide, and he immediately hugged Beverly.

"I'm so, so sorry," he said, and she hugged him back with a smile. "You don't deserve that."

She nodded into his shoulder. "I know."

"Seriously, if you need someone to come to about it I'll always be free to meet you somewhere, if anything happens just come to me immediately," Richie said, pulling out of the hug. She smiled and nodded.

"Alright." He smiled at her and sat back on the swing, putting the cigarette back in between his lips. She chuckled and looked at him. "Your turn."

Richie glanced at her and tittered, shaking his head. "Ehh."

Beverly slapped his shoulder. "Richie!"

"What?!"

"You said you would tell me if I told you! Don't you trust me?"

"Yeah, I do. I just don't like talking about it," Richie argued.

"But you literally made ME talk about it saying that YOU would!"

Richie sucked in a breath and closed his eyes. "Okay. Fine." Beverly nodded in victory and placed her cigarette between her lips. "My dad's hella abusive and my mom's an alcoholic. I don't like being home for that reason, I guess," Richie laughed it off.

"What?" Beverly asked. "I'm so sorry, Rich!"

Richie chuckled and shook his head, avoiding eye contact with her. "It's fine."