12 Years Young

Chapter 15

Gordie and I walked side by side down the sidewalk of the town. It had stores like ours and diners and some houses on the Main Street as well.

"We should cause some trouble." Said Teddy turning and walking backwards. He was right in front of me and Gordie while Chris and Ben were behind.

"You want us to get caught? This ain't a big town either, Teddy. People would know in an instant that we don't belong." I said watching him.

"Especially with school started now." Gordie added on.

"You guys are a bunch of pussies you know that?" Teddy said turning around again.

Gordie and I exchanged smirks them continued looking up and down the street.

Up ahead was a group of bigger kids picking on a smaller one.

"Hey we gotta go help him." I said starting to walk faster.

"Hey Jo, what happened to blending in?" Chris asked matching pace with me.

"I'm not letting this kid get beat up when I can do something about it." I said clenching my fists and strolling up to the group.

There was four bigger kids probably in Chris's grade and a little one that looked about my age just pretty small.

"Hey what the hell are you doing!" I yelled at the guys getting them to look up at me.

"What does it look like? Beating up the wimpy kid." Said one of the boys while laughing.

"Well I heard there was free ice cream down at that parlor back there." I said pointing a thumb backwards.

"Holy shit you guys lets go!" Said another boy grabbing one of his friends. One of them bumped into me as they passed almost making me fall.

I turned to the boy in the ground. He had shaggy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Broken glasses hung off one of his ears.

"Hey kid, I'm gonna help you but we gotta move fast. Those assholes ain't gonna be gone for long." I said reaching out a hand.

The kid took his glasses in one hand and my hand in the other. Those kids roughed him up pretty good. He had a black eye, a bloody nose, and bruises covering his face.

He was only a little shorter than me when he stood up. I guess everyone looks smaller when they're scared.

"Where do you live?" I asked him.

The boy just shook his head and ran off down the street away from everything.

"So much for helping him." Teddy said bumping into me as he passed.

"I did more than you did, so don't be a dick." I said annoyed.

"Hey!" Yelled a voice down the street.

I turned along with the other guys to see the four boys walking towards us, and they looked angry.

"Oh shit, let's get outta here." I said laughing a little.

We all took off in the direction the boy went. We turned left at the end of the street and continued running. I was laughing until I ran smack into someone that ran out of the alleyway.

"Damnit." I heard Chris whisper from behind me.

The guys had taken the alleyway to cut us off. Gordie grabbed my arm and slowly started leading me backwards.

The rest of the guys were backing up as well.

"Now now friends, let's not run off so fast." Said the kid at the front of the pack.

"Yeah, we wanna beat the living shit outta you before you go." Said another from behind making them all laugh.

"Listen, let's just all be friends okay, we won't be here much longer anyways and you can go back to picking on that kid again. Okay?" Said Ben pushing in front of me.

The guys all looked at each other and shrugged.

"We aren't animals." Said a quieter one.

"That's great and all. So we'll see you guys later!" Said Ben waving and spinning around to me.

Gordie squeezed my arm then spun me around and started walking with me.

"That was smart Ben." I said to him smiling.

He just nodded and slowed to the back of the pack.

"What's gotten into him?" Asked Gordie moving his hand down to mine and interlocking them.

"What do you mean?" I asked looking back at Ben who was staring at the ground as he walked.

"He doesn't seem himself, I don't know." Gordie said shaking his head and shrugging.

"He's fine. He's probably just tired." I said noticing myself getting a little weary as well.

"Speaking of tired, when are we gonna sleep?" Teddy asked looking back at us.

"We could make our way back to those woods and camp out, then explore a little bit. I think there is an ice cream shop back there we can stop at before we head home." Said Chris reaching down and picking up a penny, for Vern I assumed.

"This town may be even more boring than Castle Rock." Said Teddy with a sleepy grin.

We all agreed and made our way back towards the forest. Once we got there we went into a little clearing deeper in the forest. We set up a little campfire for light and started to eat some of the food we had brought.

"So Jo, if you had the chance to jump off a cliff and not die or get hurt at all, would you?" Ben asked after taking a bite of an apple.

"Of course! It would be like flying without all the work and you aren't risking you life." I said watching the fire.

"I wouldn't do it." Teddy said after me.

"Really? That surprises me." Said Chris raising an eyebrow.

"Why do it if you aren't risking anything? Where's he fun? The danger? I would do it if I was given a million dollars, plus a parachute." Teddy said smiling and staring off into space.

"That sounds more like Teddy." Gordie said with a chuckle.

That's how the night went until we went to sleep. It was fun not having to feel like worrying about anything. I could just feel like a kid again.

That's when it hit me. I'm not really a kid anymore. This past year a lot of things happened, and it took me until now to realize I wasn't a kid anymore. I couldn't act all innocent of be care free. I'm growing up, and my responsibilities are growing longer each day.

This thought made me extremely exhausted and as soon as I laid down my head, I fell fast asleep.

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Sorry I haven't written in a while! I only have a week left of school and teachers have decided to sign us essays and loads of homework! Nobody probably cares but just in case anyone does:) also sorry that this chapter is really sloppy. Not one of my favorites writing wise anyways. Oh well! Thanks for reading and voting!❤️