atelophobia ↠ e. kaspbrak | ✓

Chapter Seven

My feet pounded against the rutty dirt trail leading into the quarry as sweat rolled down my back.

I was nearly panting by the time the rows of pines and oaks fell away, revealing a large rock ledge hanging high over a deep incline into murky green water. The area was wide and surrounded by rocky terrain.

"Woah." I muttered, glancing around. I hardly noticed the group of boys in their underwear who were standing in front of me with puzzled expressions.

I recognized three of them which were Bill, Richie, and Eddie, of course. There were two others I weren't familiar with. One was extremely skinny and pale with a mop of light brown curls and the other was a heavyset boy with a slight bowl cut and a starch white bandage attached to his lower stomach.

"Uh- I mean, hi." I corrected myself, while awkwardly smiling and waving.

A chorus of "hey's" rang up, but Eddie was the only one who seemed to begin awkwardly waving back.

I shyly looked down at my feet and when I looked back up, Eddie was standing in front of me with a happy grin plastered to his face. "I'm glad you could come. That's Stan and Ben over the-" he was cut off by the sound of bike brakes stopping abruptly with a pitchy squeal.

I turned around confusedly to see the girl from the school bathroom yesterday, Beverly. It took a moment for me to register because her long, red hair looked to have been suddenly chopped off, curling up at the ends and framing her face prettily.

"Hi?" I spoke up, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Hi! So, are you guys gonna get in or just stand their like scaredy-cats?" She questioned, beginning to unbutton her dress.

My eyes went wide at her actions before I spun back around to face Eddie, "is that why you guys are in your underwear? Eddie, I hate to break it to you, but I'm not stripping in front of you and your friends."

He started blushing like crazy and I could tell he was flustered as he seemed to be wrestling with what he wanted to say. He finally looked up at me and shot me a weak smile. I searched his eyes, a somewhat desperate look on my face. When he didn't say anything, I groaned.

"I can't do this, E. It's weird." I said, sighing.

"Not really? C'mon, it's not that bad. No one's gonna judge if you feel too self conscious-" he was interrupted once again as Beverley suddenly ran past me and jumped over the edge.

I shot upright before darting over to the side, forgetting completely about mine and Eddie's conversation. My jaw dropped as I watched the red-head plummeting into the water carelessly. Holy-

"Is she serious? She's crazy!" Richie exclaimed.

"Guys? We have to do that now, don't we?" Eddie asked weakly, not sparing a glance up from the murky water below.

Everyone spoke up in agreement, except for me.

"Rose?" Eddie questioned, looking over at me.

"Oh, heck no-"

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I ended up jumping in the water.

Eddie was just as scared himself, so we held hands going down. I already knew Richie would relentlessly tease the poor boy for it for a long time, but neither of us cared. I wouldn't trade the way his hand gently enveloped mine for Richie's loudmouth comments in a million years.

The others began splashing water at each other which soon escalated into a chicken fight. I took their distraction as a moment to slip away. Effortlessly lifting myself up on one of the dry rocks, I breathed out a sigh of relief and peered up at the cloudless sky.

     "What're you doing?"

     I glanced downwards to see a soaked Eddie standing up, ripples in the water coming up and splashing against his waist lightly.

     "Just admiring. I've always found the sky pretty." I responded, looking upwards once more.

     "Oh... " he trailed off, "why?"

     I shrugged carelessly as I placed my hands flat on the sun-bathed rock and bit my lip, a small smile forming its way on my face as I took in the boy in front of me. I had known him for a little more than a day and he had shown more kindness to me than any of my past friends ever had. To be fair, I never had too many friends, but the ones that I did have, never failed to take advantage of my demeanor. I was always the shy and socially awkward friend with random quirks and the kind of loyalty that could turn me into a follower real quick. It was part of the reason why I finally woke up and realized that I couldn't make friends with just anybody anymore.

     "You okay?" Eddie asked, shooting me a quizzical look.

     "Yeah, I just got a lot on my mind."

     "Like what?" He questioned, coming and sitting up onto the rock beside me.
  
     A light scoff escaped my lips at his question, "everything. That's the problem."

     His eyebrows knitted together in confusion, but he didn't say a word as he slowly moved his hand and gently placed it on top of mine. He looked down at the sight and I followed right after before glancing back up at him.

     "I-If you need to talk, we can." He announced softly, shooting me a weak smile.

     "I'd rather not..."

     The content expression in his chocolate-brown eyes seemed to fall and he slowly began nodding his head, not meeting my gaze.

     "That's fine." He muttered, sliding off the side of the rock and back into the water over to the others. He gave one last somber glance my way before turning and swimming off.

I've been so fricking busy, so it was extremely difficult getting this chapter out. I hope you guys enjoyed! See you in chapter eight :)