SECRET ADMIRER || E.Kaspbrak

"Fuck you, Tozier."

Richie and I finally stole the trumpet from this guy in
the band and he started playing while I took the
guys hat and put it on my own head. The guy finally
ripped the trumpet out of Richie's hand and the hat
off my head.

"What the fuck, dude." We raised our arms as we
walked over to the group as I saw Eddie with three ice
creams and I smiled at him. as handed me mine and I
blushed since I saw that he accidentally licked my ice
cream but I didn't care so I just continued to eat
mine.

"What are you guys talking about?" Eddie stood there
with his ice cream with a blush on his cheeks.

"What they always talk about." Richie said grabbing
his ice cream

"I actually think it will end." Ben looked over at Beverly "For a little while at least."

"What do you mean?" She furrowed her eyebrows
together in confusion

"So I was going over all of my data research and I
charted out all of the big events. The Ironworks
explosion in 1908. The Bradley Gang in '35 and The
Black Spot in '62. And now the kids being..." He
paused and looked at Bill "I realized that this stuff
seems to happen-"

Bill cut him off "every 27 years"

I felt goosebumps go up my arms until I felt the
familiar hand intertwine their fingers with mine. i
smiled because I didn't need to look to know who it was.

•••••••••••••••

Eddie started off the conversation "IT comes out
from wherever to eat kids for like a year and then
what? Does IT go into hibernation?" I stood outside
the group a little bit.

"Maybe it's like.. What do you call it? Cicadas, you
know, the bugs that come out once every 17 years."
Stanley stated and I nodded at him agreeing
completely.

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed." I looked
over at Mike for an explanation.

"He says that all the bad things that happened in
this town are because of one thing. An evil thing
that feeds off the people of Derry."

But Stanley was scared "But it can't be one thing.
We all saw something different."

"Maybe. Or maybe it knows what scares us most
and that's what we see."

"I-| saw a leper. He was like a walking infection." So
that was the thing he was yelling for help about
classic Eddie.

"But you didn't. Because IT isn't real. None of this is.
Not Eddie's leper or Bill seeing Georgie or the woman I keep seeing." But I was infuriated because it
felt real enough to me to not call it fake.

Richie had to lighten up the mood "she hot?"

"No. Richie. She's not hot. Her face is all messed up.
None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad
dreams." He was out of it, he couldn't tell real or
fake anymore it was terrible to watch a friend break
down in front of you.

"I don't think so, I know the difference between a
bad dream and real life, okay?" Mike argued.

"What did you see? you saw something too?" Eddie
elaborated to Mike "Yes. You guys know that burnt
down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it
burned down. Before I rescued.. my mom and dad
were trapped in the next room over from me. They
were pushing and pounding on the door trying to get
to me." He paused for a second or two "But it was
too hot. When firefighters found them the skin on
their hands melted down to the bone." My hand shot
up to my mouth as I felt horrible for him "We're all
afraid of something."