Mesmerizing Mute ~ Richie Tozier

II ~ Sniffing in the Sewers

Tate woke up from the night around 10 AM. Plenty of time, she thought before changing into her outfit for the day. She wore her, well Richie's, Guns N' Roses tee underneath her short overalls.

Tate grabbed for her skateboard before leaving the house and started pushing away.

At Eddie's house, Tate was the last person there, besides Richie.

"Hey, where's Richie?" Eddie asked as Tate approached the group. She shrugged in response, and after a few minutes all of the Losers were together, except for Stan who was meeting them later.

"Hey bitches, beautiful," Richie winked as he pedaled up to the familiar house of his best friends.

"Come on let's go," Eddie rolled his eyes with his response.

As the four went into the Kaspbrak's house, Richie and Bill started to dig through Eddie's cabinets.

"Take everything but the delicious deals guys. My mom loves them," he spoke as the two continued to push past boxes. "Hey, first you say the barons, and now you say the sewer, I mean what if we get caught?" Eddie continued asking Bill.

"We won't. The sewers are p- public works. We're the public, aren't we?" he responded confidently as Richie opened another cabinet behind Eddie and Tate.

"Hey Eddie, these your birth control pills? Mind if Tate and I use some?" Richie teased as he gave a smirk to the hypochondriac.

"Can't, I'm saving them for your sister. This is private stuff. Besides, Tate probably doesn't know what they're for anyway," he claimed. Tate gave them both an estranged look, but Richie pretended like he wasn't paying attention. Eddie just rolled his eyes at the two and started for the door.

"Eddie bear," his mom stopped the four, "where are you off to in such a rush?" Mrs. Kaspbrak questioned.

"J- j- just my backyard Mrs. K. I got a new..." Bill trailed unknowing what to say.

"A new croquet set. Geez, spit it out B- b- Bill," Richie was quick to come in and save the lie.

"Okay. Oh, and sweetie, don't go rolling around on the grass, especially if it's just been cut. You know how bad your allergies can get," the woman reminded.

"Yes mom," Eddie returned as he tried to get out of the house.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Mrs. K asked before he could escape. Eddie walked over to give his mother a kiss on the cheek, and Richie couldn't help himself. He started to laugh.

"Do you want one from me too Mrs. K?" Richie joked before getting a slap from Tate, and a push out the door from Eddie.

"Sorry mommy," he said as Tate, Bill, Richie and he all went for their wheels.

"T- tate your going so slow," Bill complained as she pushed as fast as she could.

'I'm trying,' Tate told them.

"Wanna ride with me babe? I promise you won't fall off, if you hold on tight," Richie winked. Bill and Eddie were annoyed, but satisfied when Tate agreed to speed up their trip.

•••••

Eventually, they met up with Stan and they all got to the barons.

"That's poison ivy, and that's poison ivy, and that's poison ivy," the so-called boy scout claimed.

"Where's the poison ivy?" Eddie asked frantically.

"Nowhere. Not every fucking plant is poison ivy Stanley," Richie told the two. Eddie looked at Tate for reassurance but she nodded her head in agreement with Richie.

"Okay. Well, I'm starting to get itchy, and I'm pretty sure," Eddie started but was cut off.

"Do you use the same bathroom as your mother?" Richie questioned.

"Sometimes, yeah," he answered.

"Then you probably have crabs," Richie joked to the health freak.

"That's do not funny," Eddie protested as Richie and Bill got into the sewers. Tate stood behind Stan and Eddie who hesitated to get in.

"Aren't you guys coming in?" Richie questioned, but they didn't have to answer after seeing Eddie's face.

"Uh uh, that's grey water," he explained.

"What the hell is grey water?" the Trashmouth cockily returned.

"It's basically, piss and shit! So I'm just telling you," Eddie warns before Richie grabbed a nearby object, a stick. He lifted the tip to his nose to smell it. "What are you? That's disgusting," he went on. They cringed at Richie's stupidity.

"Doesn't smell like caca to me senõr," Richie jested in his awful Pancho Villa impression, but it always made Tate laugh anyway.

"I can smell that from here," Eddie claimed.

"It probably just your breath wafting back into your face."

"Have you ever heard of a staff infection?"

"Oh, I'll show you a staff infection," they both continued to bicker before being cut off by Bill.

"Guys!" he shouted after he grabbed a shoe from the dirty water.

"Shit. Don't tell me that's..." Stan trailed not truly wanting to know the answer.

"No. Georgie wore galoshes," Bill answered.

"Who's shoe is it?" Eddie asked before Richie looked in the shoe to see B. Ripsom written inside.

"It's Betty Ripsom's" he told everyone. Tate's face immediately dropped. She knew the girl from English.

"Oh shit! Oh fuck! Oh- I don't like this," Eddie started in a hushed voice.

"How do you think Betty feels, running around these tunnels with only one fricken shoe?" Richie joked, but nobody found it amusing.

"What if she's still here?" Stan questioned. Richie and Bill made their way further into the sewers. Tate pushed her way between Stan and Eddie to get to Richie, now feeling extremely frightened by the situation.

"Eddie come on."

"My mom will have an aneurysm if she finds out we've been playing down here, okay? I'm serious. Bill?" Ed protested.

"If I was Betty Ripsom, I would want us to find her. G- g- g- Georgie too," he explained. Tate, now completely freaked out squeezed Richie's hand in fear.

"What if I don't wanna find them? I mean, no offense Bill but I don't wanna end up like G- I don't wanna go missing either," Eddie spoke. He had a right to be scared, but not to hurt Bill.

"He has a point," Stan agreed.

"Y- you too?" Bill questioned the sudden betrayal.

"It's summer. We're supposed to be having fun. This isn't fun. This is scary and disgusting," Stan responded before they all heard a splash in the water behind them. The five turned to see the newest kid of the school, Ben Hanscom. Tate gasped, along with Stanley.

"Holy shit! What happened to you?" Richie asked the completely bloodied boy, and that's what everyone else thought.

Word Count = 1098