" LIPSTICK " + STENBROUGH

[35]

finally an update!! sorry for the wait

"stop that, someone's going to catch us!"

"there's no one in here, we'll be fine."

"now really is not the time, richie." there's a sigh.

"fine, but i'm still holding your hand."

bill's eyelids feel heavy as he tries to open them, his surroundings too blurry and too bright. he squints, attempting to sit up, groaning as pain shoots to his temples.

"he's awake!" bill blinks a few more times, noticing a concerned eddie and richie standing over him. his eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"w-where am i?" he asks, voice hoarse.

"nurse's office. got beat pretty bad," richie says. "i'm gonna beat the living shit out of henry bowers next time i see him."

"he's a shit head if he thinks he can get away with this," a third voice says. bill can't see who, because if he lifts his head the room starts spinning, but he recognizes the voice as beverly's. soon, she pops into view, hovering over him with a worried look across her soft features. "how are you doing, big bill?"

"i-i'm okay."

"can you guys excuse us for a minute?" beverly asks richie and eddie, who glance at one another before leaving the nurse hand in hand. normally, bill would expect them to be much more touchy. but today doesn't seem like a day appropriate for that, for some reason.

"wha-what's up?" bill asks. he slowly tries to sit himself up. beverly grabs a glass of water and aspirin from a table next to the cot and hands them to bill. he swallows the pill and then the water graciously, allowing his headache to begin to subside.

"i wanted to know how you've been doing with all the rumors?" she says, and her voice is kept low. the nurse's office is empty—the nurse isn't present even, leaving beverly and bill the only two beings in the office—yet it's like it's a secret. even the clock that ticks on the wall is louder than beverly. it feels like it's counting down for some big explosion, bill thinks, as it ticks, and ticks, and ticks.

"i don't k-know," he admits.

in honesty, this whole situation terrifies bill. he shouldn't be afraid, but he is. he knows that they aren't true, that only he and stan know what is real and that's all that matters. but the judgement, the whispers, the questions all make bill worried beyond belief. he wishes he had learned from his lesson with georgie and locked the fucking door.

"why did you lie to me?" beverly asks quietly, looking down at her hands. bill is brought back to reality by her soft voice, suddenly reminding of days spent lying together when he thought he would marry that girl, whispering sweet nothings to one another. before his heart beat became faster when he touched stanley uris than it ever did with beverly.

"what d-do you mean?"

"you told me you and stanny broke up..."

"we were d-druh-drunk. it muh-meant nothing," bill says. he's lying, and he thinks beverly is suspicious of that, based on the way her eyebrows raise. she makes no comment, however. "he's in luh-luh-love with patricia."

the frown that crosses beverly's face breaks bill's heart. it is kissed with pity and sympathy that bill doesn't want. he hates himself for telling beverly. this could have been played off as a drunken mistake in stan's bedroom at a party where neither of them had been thinking about the consequences of their actions. but beverly knows that stan and bill at one point were more than just two friends half naked and kissing. they were in love, so in love that bill's heart aches to think of what it once was.

"can i be honest with you?" bill nods. "maybe-maybe you should give stan a bit of a break." bill's jaw can't help but unhinge, eyes wide with surprise.

"excuse me?"

"i mean, you're sitting here sulking, while he has to address all the rumors. you've left all of this up to him because you've been absent. i get that this breakup has been hard for you, but think of it from stan's perspective. he–"

"n-no, i am not duh-duh-doing that," bill interrupts. "i-i have been through huh-hell these p-p-past few days. i am not guh-giving stan uh-any pity or sympa-pathy. at least h-he wasn't com-completed outed—i-i know patricia i-is tell-telling people he was juh-juh-just dru-drunk. my puh-parents hate me, i-i can't see juh-juh-georgie, and know m-my best friend is tuh-telling me to give stuh-stan a break? that's ri-ridiculous."

"bill, i'm so sorry i had no idea." the pity is back, dripping off her tongue. it makes bill's eyes water with tears, but they are angry. he is so angry at everyone. "but you can't let them tear you down over something you can't change about yourself. everything will work itself out, i promise. we've all been through shit, you just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and know that it isn't the end."

"you-you know, for as long a-as we've know each other, i-i-i don't really thuh-think you know me all that wuh-well." beverly's eyebrows knit together at bill's words. he laughs bitterly. "i just got be-beat up in-in-into uncon-consciousness a-and you-you think it's suh-suh-something we all huh-have to deal with? it's just the suh-same old sh-shit we a-all go through? it isn't bev. if you really cared a-about me you would know t-that."

beverly doesn't answer for what feels like forever. she's staring at bill with disbelief and anger swarming in the oceans of her irises. she licks her lips, then captures it between her teeth as she thinks of what to say.  she finally grabs her backpack, swinging one strap on her shoulder and standing up.

"you're a dick, bill denbrough. i was trying to be a supportive friend, but obviously you've taken this breakup pretty hard and think the whole fucking world is against you or something," she says. "i hope you have a nice life."

and with that, beverly marsh leaves bill alone in the nurses office, with nothing but a ticking clock on the wall, a busted face, and a broken heart.

——

tonight i'm going to try and work on all of my stories, hopefully i can update some more??

- m