" LIPSTICK " + STENBROUGH

[8]

aged 16

the long, thing fingers of bill denbrough delicately tie the laces of his tattered sneakers. they're no longer white, rather a gross grey-brown color, thanks to all the dirt he's trudged through. they barely fit, too, now that his feet have grown so much.

bill denbrough thought he had gotten his growth spurt in middle school, but it actually happened the year prior—specifically, the summer before freshmen year. he's now nearing 6'1. he's lean, with long legs and auburn hair that turns even redder in the sunlight. ruby woo red, he thinks, quite often. his eyes are blue, bright and happier than they had been when he was in middle school.

george denbrough follows his brother in appearance. his hair is a little more brown and a little less red, but at ten-years-old, he's taller than most boys in his class. he's also quite lanky, just like his brother, and just like his father.

bill's jeans are still cuffed. mom and her damn habits, he thinks, chuckling. his smile has grown lopsided, and he smiles often. he's happy. and it feels great. but he isn't as happy as he had been when he was five and put on his mother's lipstick. he doesn't know if he can ever find that feeling without putting on that fucking lipstick.

since he last applied it at twelve years of age, bill has put it on five times. well, four, but he put on eyeliner a few weeks ago when georgie had been at a friends and his parents were at work. and eyeliner is makeup, so it counts.

now, he is searching his bedroom for a t-shirt to wear, running a hand through his hair. there's a knock on his door.

"c-come in!" he says. he's shirtless, but he doesn't care because his mother literally gave birth to him, so it doesn't matter, right?

wrong, because his mother is not the one who knocked. beverly marsh is.

she gotten much prettier. not that she wasn't before. anyway, her hair is shorter now, cut near her ears, and she's grown into the figure of a gorgeous teenage girl. her hips are curvier, her waist thin and legs toned. her lips are fuller, her eyes brighter, and face covered in even more freckles. today, she wears a dark burgundy dress, with small white flowers decorating it. with it she wears boots. bill's eyes are shamefully drawn to her breasts. they're pretty, and he's a fifteen-year-old boy, so what do you expect? he is proud enough to say he's touched those breasts, just months earlier in july while he had been hanging out at beverly's aunt's house, where she lived.

bill's mouth goes dry.

"u-uh, b-b-b-beverly!" he squeaks. now he's embarrassed.

his stutter is still pretty bad, still driven by nerves and crippling anxiety. it hasn't gotten much better, despite georgie coming back.

honestly, georgie coming back hasn't changed much. his parents spent less time paying attention to him, still. they're "making up for lost time", they claim, when they choose the movies with georgie over a track meet bill's running in. they've been using that excuse for four years now and it's getting old. even georgie doesn't understand why they don't talk to bill much.

"billiam," beverly says, laughing. "you have no need to be so red," she jokes, pointing to his cheek. "i've seen you shirtless before."

bill turns even more red, as he fumbles through a drawer and pulls on a dark green t-shirt. it's baggy, but nearly cropped because he's so tall.

"ready for the party?" bill nods, and takes bev's offering hand as she skips downstairs.

"where do you two think you're going?" bill's mom asks from where she is folding laundry and watching a soap opera on the couch.

"we're just going to mine to watch movies with the other guys, mrs. denbrough," beverly says. the lie is convincing; beverly is very good at lying when she wants to be.

"well, okay. have fun, and don't be out too late, william."

another thing: he's william now. he's not bill to his parents anymore.

no one calls him william. well, only his parents, when they're really mad.

it's like they're always mad, mad that he was supposed to go out with georgie that day and protect him and he didn't.

"i-i won't, mom," bill assures.

the two walk out the door, hand-in-hand.

——

some parts of this chapter and the next make me so uncomfortable and embarrassed to have written and be publishing so im sorry !

i promise that bill and beverly together is important to the plot !! just bear with me while stuff gets set up!

also, someone pls let me know if i describe well? i feel like sometimes it's good but other times it makes no sense ah

((also ! ik it says aged 16, but bill is 15 rn bc he turns 16 in this age chunk. i couldn't find bill's bday anywhere online, so i made one up and it's somewhere in october in this fic))

- m