Eclipse ✧ Reddie

VI. to lie

lie - to tell an intentionally false statement 

Stanley Uris did not like the plan that the rest of the loser's club members had settled on, because he knew very well that it would make a certain boy by the name of Eddie Kaspbrak upset. And yet, he kept his mouth shut as they biked to the quarry, the sound of their voices mixing with the clacking of the playing cards attached to the spokes of Bill's bike. The blue eyed boy had not long ago yelled, "Hi-yo Silver, awaayyyy!" and they had all followed. That's how it was. 

"You promise he's not coming?" Eddie's question stuck out to Stan's ears, ringing and causing a lump to emerge in the back of his throat. It almost made him feel sick, the way he got sick when he was younger and joked that there was a frog in his throat. But this was no joke. 

Bev's answer was simple. "Yes, I do." It rolled off her tongue as if it was nothing. Stan didn't understand that. He didn't think he ever would. 

They biked for several more minutes until their wheels met gravel and their eyes met water. The glare of the sun reflected against the pool of blue, nonetheless looking inviting thanks to the heat that wavered in the air. Each of the six set their bikes down in a mess of a pile, except Stan who propped his up neatly, and stripped down. It was different now that the boys didn't have their white pairs of underwear in common, now that Beverly had, well, flowered. But it didn't change much because they didn't notice that they had grown up nearly as much as the eyes of an outsider clearly would. And so it didn't matter if Bill was taller or if Stan's hair had somehow managed to get curlier; They would still jump just the same, awaiting the depths of the water that they had played stupid games of chicken in for so many years now. 

"W-who wants to g-go first?" 

"I can," Bev simply stated. It was a stark contrast to the first time they had visited the quarry and she had jumped without any warning at all. 

"I k-know, but you a-always d-do."

Mike volunteered, raising his hand up like he wanted to answer a question. "I'll go." 

Stan's eyes darted between the three of them.  "Shouldn't we wait?" 

"W-what are you t-talking a-about?

"Shouldn't we wait?" he asked again and paused before he said, "For Richie?" The words were sharper than he intended, but that was no indication for him to take them back. If he was going to say something, he would mean it. 

"S-Stan!" Bill hissed, his voice lowered. It seemed maybe he thought there was still a chance that Eddie hadn't heard anything. Bev was quiet. 

"You know, because we invited him without total group agreement. Oh, and he's late." Stanley turned to Eddie to gauge the shorter boy's reaction. It was not very much different from what he had expected. 

"You fucking lied to me? Oh my god, why am I surprised at this point? Of course you did. No, because it doesn't matter that we had a painfully long discussion about this. No, Eddie will get over it." In some words, he was fuming, ears bright pink and lips pursed. The amount of anger that he so explicitly possessed in such a stout package was almost frightening. He could go from  the innocent one, the fragile baby, handled with care, to a scolding, reckless fire that not even waves of water could put out. Get too close and you would be burned. 

"E-Eddie, we didn't mean any h-harm. We l-like him-"

"Yeah, you like him alright. Well, I hate him!" 

"Nice to know." A voice that that they all weren't quite familiar with yet cut through the end of Eddie's sentence and into the tension of the air that had made it hard to breathe. When the losers club turned to see who said voice belonged to, it was very clear that none of them had initially connected the dots, not to mention that the taller boy in front of them was barely even recognizable. His left eye was painted over shades of black and blue, swollen shut under his broken glasses. His bottom lip roughly split open, so a line of dried blood went down his chin. A visibly defined bruise lined his jaw. He was in such a disastrous state that it may as well have hurt to look at him. But under all of the rubble, they could faintly make out that it was the one and only, Richie Tozier. 

Author's Note-

Hey, so I really wanted to apologize for sucking ass at updating. It's been forever, I know, but I'm out of school so I really want to step up my game and maybe even try to get on a somewhat regular updating schedule for the summer. We'll see how that goes. Oh, and another apology because this chapter is shitty and short. I did not originally plan to end it where I did at all; I seriously just felt like I should put something out there. Despite all my shit, we're at 800+ reads, so I do thank you for that. 

- Sophia <3