𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐫𝐞𝐝 (𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝟐)

chapter three

{clara}

3:45 pm

As my session ended with my therapist, my uncle walked in. He looked at Therapist Alexandra and I could tell he felt total heartache, "Alexandra! It's nice to see you," "It's good to see you as well, Mr. Winston," "Please, call me Jack," "Alright, Jack. I'm heading out, it was a pleasure seeing you," "To you as well." She blushed at him, and turned to me, "I will see you Friday, try to write some of your feelings down in your journal," "I will try." She ruffled my hair and exited the house, as soon as she left I looked at my uncle with knowing eyes. "You like her!" "What! Are you crazy?!?" "Oh don't give me that!, you were totally making heart eyes at her," "Alright silly girl, why don't we change the subject? How was your day at school?" "Drastic," "Did you see any of your friends?" "Yup, it's hard to avoid them when you go to the same school."

{richie}

4:00 pm

After school, we all went over and hung out at Bill's house. Bill lived on Mango lane, in this beautiful 2 story house. You could say Bill could be classified as a soc, but his stutter is what keeps him from being a soc. We all sat in his living room in silence, until Eddie broke it, "You guys gotta stop pouting over Clara's disappearance, we just gotta give her time," Bev slammed her tiny fist down on the coffee table, "We've given her time! It's been 2 months, I can't just keep acting like everything is the same because it's not. Dally is dead and we lost Clara." She stormed out of the room, Eddie chased after her leaving Bill, Ben, and me. Ben tried to lighten the mood, "How was everyone's day?" Bill glumly looked at him, "Atrocious."

{eddie}

I followed Bev into the kitchen, she sat down at the table and put her head down. I sat down next to her, "I'm sorry, I know how hard it's been for you," "I just miss her, I wish she would talk to me," "I know," "No you don't Eddie, all of your friends are here..the one person I need to survive isn't here," "We all lost her too, you think I don't miss her? God, I miss her everyday. She's not just your friend," "She's my best friend! The girl I've had sleepovers with, baked cookies with, listened to music with, played truth or dare with. She's gone! She doesn't give a fuck about how we feel, she just expected that we would be fine...but I'm not fine." I looked at her shocked as tears glazed over her eyes, "Beverly, I'm here for you. But you need to understand that your not the only one in pain, we all are...but some of us are trying to make the good out of everything, so that we aren't miserable."

{ponyboy}

7:00 pm

Steve, Sodapop, Two-Bit, Darry, Johnny, and I all sat at dinner quietly. Darry looked at me and Johnny, "How was school boys?" "It was okay," "Did you see Clara?." I swear, the only thing ever on Darry's mind was the relationship between me and Clara. He wanted us to be friends again, how am I supposed to be friends with her..she won't even look at me. I quickly answered, "Yeah, we saw her. She didn't say much," "Did she say how she doing?" "Like I said, she didn't say much," "Alright, relax. I was just asking," "Cant we ever talk about something else? All you do is ask me about Clara," "I'm worried about her, we all are," "Instead of asking me shit, why don't you man up and go talk to her yourself."

{clara}

10:00 pm

I laid in my bed, as the darkness of my room fulfilled me. The only person on my mind was, Dally. Nothing could or would ever feel the same ever again, his passing really made life difficult...I had no idea how I was ever gonna make it through anything without him. I drifted off to sleep, as the moonlight came into my room through the curtains.

Thursday September 7th, 1965

2:00 am

I woke up in a cold sweat, I had just had one of many nightmares about Dally. I started to cry, I must have been loud because Uncle Jack came rushing into my room. He flicked on the light, "Clara?!? What's wrong?" "It's..nothing, just go back to bed Uncle Jack," "It was another night mare..wasn't it?" "....yeah." He sat down next to me on my bed, "Have you told Alexandra about any of this?" "Totally," "Liar," "Look I don't want her to know, makes me sound like I'm a total freak," "You are not a freak Clara Cunningham, you need to tell her what's going on. That's what she's there for, she's here to help you," "What's wrong with me?" "Your just going through a lot right now, everything will get better eventually. Now let's get you back to bed." I laid back down and he pulled my sheets on top of me, "Good night, come get me if you need anything."

7:35 am

I walked into home room avoiding eye contact from anyone, I plopped down and put my head down. Instantaneously, he sat down in front of me. I lifted my head and saw my Bill Denbrough, he turned around and looked at me. He bit his lip, "I-I know you don't w-wanna talk, but I w-want you to k-know...I m-miss you," "I." Before I could say anything the bell rang and the teacher walked in, Bill turned back around. The most popular boy in my school was in my home room, Bob Sheldon. He and his friends were sitting in the row next to me, they looked over and started snickering. After a few seconds, Bob turned to me, "So..what happened to your cousin again? He died over a drug overdose, right? I heard he was a big stoner, most greasers are,right?." I could not believe they were making jokes about Dally's death, I was appalled. Bill glared at him, "S-shut up Bob," "Oh be quiet stutter boy." The teacher hushed us and began role call, I turned away from Bob and put my head down on my desk again. When will life get easy?
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😶‍🌫️
~kass