WOUNDS ♚ henry bowers [it]

s i x

"Oh my god, that was terrible. I win."

"That's so fucking disgusting." I retorted to the guys, watching in revulsion as they tried to see who spat the farthest. Unlike the guys, I had all my clothes still on. I never was a big fan of the quarry, or swimming in general. Well, it wasn't the fact that I didn't like swimming, I just didn't like showing skin. Insecurities has always been a thing that I struggle with. It's been especially hard since my mom.

Thoughts of all the things she's ever called me came to mind. That led to thinking about this morning, and that led to me thinking about what had happened between me and Henry this morning.

Why did he want to know what my type in guys is? And why was he getting so close to me? I've never been that up close and personal with him. Never.

"Alright. Who's first?" Richie asked, and I looked up from my sitting place on the ground to see them looking from each other to the water. They stood at the edge of the ledge that fell down into the quarry.

"I'll go." A voice from behind us says. We all turn around to see Beverly. She was undressing, leaving only her bra and underwear on. She smiled then ran towards the guys, wedging in between them before jumping off the ledge.

"What the fuck?"

"Holy shit, we just got shown off by a girl!"

I blushed and looked down in envy. Why couldn't I be that confident in my body? In anything?

I watched and heard the splashes as the boys all followed behind her. Stan was the last one left. "Aren't you gonna swim, Taylor?"

I shook my head, "Nah, I think I'm gonna go take a quick walk. I'll be back."

Stan looked at me with uncertainty written in his eyes, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I forced a smile upon my face. Stan didn't look too convinced, but he nodded his head and proceeded with jumping. Once I heard the loud splash and the yelling voices of my friends, I picked myself up from off the large rock I was sitting on and began to walk into the forest.

As I passed by trees, the sun began to fade away above the leaves and branches. I was left in a shadowy amidst of the pines. Although it was almost ninety-degrees (Fahrenheit), I got the cold chills all of a sudden. Hugging my arms around my waist, I shivered. I had stopped walking by this point, and now I was just standing there looking around me. The whole atmosphere around me felt weird. A reminder of the other night with that thing came to mind and fear seemed to consume my body. I was being watched, I could feel someone's eyes or something's eyes on me.

Calm down, Taylor, you're just being paranoid. I tried to reassure myself, but it wasn't working.

SNAP!

Before I could've even turned around to see what had snapped the twig, a set of hands came from behind me. One of the hands covered my mouth while the other grabbed my waist. I got pulled back into a hard chest, but the person didn't feel like they were huge. Their chest felt kind of scrawny, as if the person was only about my height, maybe an inch over or so.

"Scream, and I'll cut your fucking tongue out." A voice whispered in my ear, and I faintly recognized it. I knew it was a guy, but I couldn't exactly put a face to that voice. I nodded, and after a few seconds the hand over my mouth fell, but the one around my waist never left; it actually tightened in fact. He kept me flushed against his body. By the way he held on tightly to me, I'm guessing it's to make sure I didn't try to run away.

"I'm not here to hurt you. I just wanna talk... okay?" He says.

I nod one more time, "Sure, but can I at least see the person that I'm talking to?"

"Uh..." He thinks for a minute. "As long as you promise not to run."

"I promise."

His hand loosens around my waist and before anything else I push away from his body. When I turn around, I see the face of one of Henry's friends staring back at me; Victor Criss. Victor is the least noticeable of the Bowers Gang, partially because of his small and fragile figure compared to the others, but also because he doesn't talk a lot, and when he did it came out quietly and quickly.

But, that didn't mean his demeanor wasn't terrifying.

Victor's bleach-blonde hair was slicked to the side in it's usual greasy way, and he wore the usual camo-pants with a black top and black work boots. His dark eyes complimented his pale skin tone well.

"What do wanna talk about?" I asked warily. Why did Victor Criss wanna talk to me?

He looked at me with steady eyes. "You and Henry."

Wait, what? "Uh... excuse me?"

He rolled his eyes, "Is there something going on between the two of you?"

I almost chocked on thin air. "Why would you think that?"

"Last night, we saw you riding your bike on the side of the road." Well fuck, they did see me. "Belch said something about following you, but then Henry said no and told us to drop it." He crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at me with a demanding look.

I was so confused about this whole Henry situation. First the other night when I bumped into him, then this morning, and now this? I mean I always caught Henry staring at me, but I've never thought nothing of it. He couldn't possibly... like me back? Could he? "No, there's nothing going on between us. Besides all the times he called me a whore," has never happened, "and pushed me around," maybe twice, "there's nothing going on." I said those last words in a spiteful way and gave Victor a hateful glance. I turned around, intending to walk away, but Victor grabbed my upper arm harshly.

"There better not be. Henry doesn't need to be dating someone like fucking you." Before I could ask him what he meant by that, he let go of my arm and started walking away. "Oh, this never happened." He called out before he disappeared between the trees, the only evidence of him ever being there was the slight bruise on my upper arm from where he grabbed me, and my memory.