Mrs Trashmouth // Richie Tozier

Thirteen (Finale)

Fast forward, I don't know, say, twenty-seven years. I'm sitting backstage, waiting for my good "friend", Rich Tozier to come from the stage. He turned into the room, a grin slathered onto his kind face.

Everyone hollers cheers, and I envelop my sober arms around him. Our colleagues had been drunken out of their minds, and Rich and I were the only ones not intoxicated.

I wrap my shoulder around my co-star of our comedy show, as our boss trips over his feet whilst wielding a filled-to-the-brim glass of champagne.

"Great!" He slurs, looking at us. Rich smiles charmingly, and I nod my head. Suddenly, Rich's phone buzzed in his back pocket and Rich turned to pick it up.

As he held the phone and shouted into the receiver, I chatted with my boss about the finale of our hit television show.

"Congratulations, Mrs Tozier!" He grins, slightly cheers-ing his glass towards me.

"Thank you, sir." I chuckle. I turned my head to Rich, who's shouting over the phone. "One minute, please."

He nods his head and I turn to my husband, who's yelling profusely. "What're you screaming at, 'Bitch'?"

Rich and I stayed friends our entire lives, but Ben didn't really chat with me unless it was to congratulate me on a funny bit I had pulled off. We broke off our relationship at age 18 because we both were going off to college.

We ended up going to the same college, CSU, which lead us to be based in LA. Then, once accepted the same school, we got back together, and it's been smooth sailing from there.

"I can hardly hear this guy over these assholes!" He continues to yell, so I snatch the iPhone out of his grip and press it onto my cool ears.

"Hello?" I say, waiting for a response.

"Is this Jacqueline Bowers?" They ask, and I nod my head, not realizing that they couldn't see me.

"Uh- yes," I mutter. "It's Jackie Tozier."

"It's Mike Hanlon." They say. Mike?

I almost drop the phone in shock. "Mike? Holy shit. How are you, man?"

"That- that isn't important." He says, a gloom tracing his words. "I hate to burden you on this great night for you, as you know, but... It's back. Back in Derry."

I widen my eyes. I tap Richie on the shoulder, who's talking to an executive. I pull him out of the room, still on the phone with Mike.

"We'll be over as soon as possible," I say. "see you soon." I tap the red button at the bottom of Rich's phone and slide the metal electronic into Richie's soft hand.

"What the hell, Jack?" Rich said, pushing me.

"Richie," I say, making him shiver at his old nickname. "It-It's back in Derry."

"You mean..." He trails off in shock. I nod my head rapidly, and he paces around the room.

I sigh. "We have to go back to Derry."

"No. No fucking chance in Hell." He says, angrily.

"Rich!" I shout. "You... you promised. You told me that one day, we'd go and visit my brother back in Derry. Reminisce all the memories we had- our first kiss, our first date, and I am not even gonna mention our first 'something else'. We have to. We swore, Richie."

Rich sighs in defeat. "Pack our bags, I've gotta explain to Callaghan." He says, in mention of our boss. I nod my head and he leaves as I begin to stuff a suitcase full of clothing.