MY BOY | URIS

2 | stan and his bush.

"Peyton! Lizzie! Joe! Where are you guys at?"

I YELLED as I walked through my front door.  I see Peyton and Joe racing around the corner in my peripherals, and then suddenly I'm on the floor. 

"Hey guys", I chuckled, as I pulled my siblings into a hug. 

I looked up to notice Lizzie waddle her way towards me as she tried not to fall.  I scoop her up and spin her around giving her a soft kiss on her forehead.  She beams up and me and wraps her small arms around my neck. 

I put her down, and made my way into the living room.  My dad was sat in his usual spot, the living room chair, as he read his book.  He didn't normally read books due to lack of time and interest, but he seemed genuinely interested in the story, as he hardly noticed I had walked into the room. 

"Oh, hey kid", he mumbled, not looking up from the book. 

"Hey dad", I replied quickly, and dropped onto the couch on the other side of the room. 

Our house wasn't very big, but it also wasn't the smallest house I had ever seen.  The decor was slightly outdated, as the house was decorated by my mom when my parents first moved in.  I was two at the time, and could care less about how the house looked.  I just knew I had to have one thing.  Pink walls.  It wasn't a big request, but, to this day I still have the same bright pink walls.  Sometimes I did regret the choice, but other times I saw the room as a memory of when my mom would tuck me in at night, or had tea parties with me and my dolls.  The whole house was a physical embodiment of my mom, and I didn't mind one bit. 

I pulled out my sketch pad, and thumbed through the pages.  Art was my one of my greatest passions, and after I lost my mom it became an outlet for all of my pent up emotions, and anxiety.  My sketchbook was my most sacred possession, and it was to be touched by no one.  All of my siblings knew it, even Liz, even though she was only three.  I wasn't worried about my dad touching it as he was usually busy with work or staring out the front window into the yard, but he knew not to touch it either.

I began to sketch, not knowing what was going to come out of the drawing, but just knowing that whatever it was, it would mean something to me.  I began to get in my zone, unaware of what was happening around me, just seeing what marks my pencil was making on the paper.

I finished in an hour, and noticed my dad had fallen asleep in his chair.  I rose from the couch and made my way over to him with a blanket.  I covered him up, trying my best not to wake him, and made my way back over to actually look at what I had drawn.  Picking up the sketchpad, I looked down at my art that I had produced in the hour and noticed I had drawn a person.  Peyton to be exact.  She was holding a red balloon, and grinning from ear to ear.  She looked genuinely happy, and I couldn't help but smile.

I heard a soft knock on the door, and opened it to find Stanley Uris on my front porch.  He smiled awkwardly, and looked down at his feet almost immediately.

"Hey Violet", he said softly, still avoiding eye contact. 

He looked so nervous, it was so adorable.  I had never really seen him this on edge, and I wondered why he was acting like this all of the sudden. 

"Hey Stan, what's up?" I replied, trying not to sound amused by the fact that he was currently staring intently at the bush.

He took a deep breath, and looked at me for the second time since he had gotten here. 

He finally blurted out, "Richie, Eddie, Bill and I were just wondering if you might want to go to the Barrens?" 

I chuckled, and suddenly my dad was at the end of the hall behind me. 

He yelled, "Vi, who's at the door?", not having looked up from his book to see that it was Stan. 

"It's just Stan, Dad", I answered, wondering why he hadn't just looked up from what he was reading to see for himself. 

"Oh, okay" he replied distractedly, "what does he want?"

I glance at Stanley, who is still looking at the bush, but appears to want to jump in it and hide at this point.

Trying not to laugh, I reply "he wants to see if I can hang out with him and his friends", which was true, but if my father knew where, the answer would automatically be no.

The Barrens, one of Derry's main access points to the sewers was in a highly secluded area.  The land was covered in woods, stretching miles in all directions.  My dad didn't like me going places where I couldn't be seen by an adult, just in case someone tried to attack me, so even mentioning the name would draw up and immediate red flag. 

I send Stanley a pleading look, asking him not to mention the location, and he seems to get the message. 

"Well, I think you should go, you don't leave the house very often, and you definitely never hang out with friends", my dad answers, only looking up from his book for a second to wave to Stan. 

"Thanks dad", I answer sarcastically, and head to the closet to grab my shoes.

I slip out the door, yelling "bye" behind me as I leave, hoping he wouldn't ask where I was headed before I left.

Making it out the door, I turn to Stan and smile.  He still seems on edge, but he's not trying to jump into my bush anymore, and he's making eye contact.  We're making progress.

"Okay, let's go" he says, hopping onto his bike and motioning for me to get on behind.

I smile, and reply "Let's go", hopping on the bike.

•••••
yayyyy another chapter ! !
i'm still loving the characters in this story and i'm super excited to write more now oml