sunshine. // it 2017

iii.

Lola held herself against the graffitied brick wall as the others went into the pharmacy for products to help Ben. Now she was stuck in the alley way, with her best friend and a kid she had never seen before.

"Glad I got to meet you before you died," Richie spoke awkwardly.

Nobody knew what to say. And they all stayed silent for a few minutes.

"I'm Ben by the way. Ben Hanscom," Ben reached his hand out to shake Lola's. Lola clasped her hand in his and shock it firmly.

"Lola. Lola Duffery. But my friends call me L."

"But this one calls her sunshine," Richie pointed to himself and smiled at the girl. For once, she smiled back.

"Are you two like, dating?" Ben asked.

"No no no," Lola said as she sat on the ground in front of Ben and held Richie's hand, who stood.

"Not yet anyways."

"On a different subject," she looked from Richie to Ben's cut open stomach, "who did that to you?"

Ben held onto his stomach and looked from the cut to the blonde girl in front of him. He couldn't deny that she was very beautiful, and the soft and sweet tone of her British accent made her very cute, "oh it was Henry. Henry Bowers."

Lola's breath hitched in her throat and her hand tightened on Richie's hand. Richie knelt down next to her and gently rubbed her back.

"Hey sunshine, it's okay. It's gonna be okay," he gently whispered into her ear.

She seemed to fall into his arms and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to her feet.

"Is she okay? If I said anything, I didn't mean-" Ben was cut off by a over protective Richie.

"No! No it's just like a PTSD thing. She'll be fine. Ain't that right sunshine?" he raised his head to look at her own.

She slightly nodded and buried her head into the Hawaiian shirt that hung loss on Richie's shoulders. Richie gently ran his fingers through her blonde hair till the others ran back down the alley, Eddie's arms full of medical supplies. They started to patch up the open wound on Ben's stomach while Richie still held Lola tightly in his arms. Stan's eyes held onto the broken girl in his friend's arms and cleared his throat, grabbing hold of Richie's attention.

"Richie can I talk to you for a moment?"

Hesitantly, Richie pulled away from Lola.

"You gonna be okay sunshine?" he asked the still crying girl.

She only nodded, Richie quickly walking with Stanley to the corner of the alleyway.

"What is so important Stan?" Richie crossed his arms over his chest. He did really want to be speaking to Stanley when his best friend was crying.

"There's something I need to tell you, about Lola, something I wasn't allowed to tell anyone," he couldn't hold it in anymore. He had to tell someone.

"Stan, want the fuck are you talking about? We don't have time for this shit!" Richie hissed through gritted teeth.

"But you need to know this. It's really important," Stan's eyes seemed to plead.

"Okay, spill it then."

"Did I ever tell you guys how I met Lola?"

Richie remembers walking with the girl's hand in his and walked to the swimming spot of the losers club.

"Yeah. I introduced her to you guys at the quarry. Everybody was there Stanley!"

Stanley seemed as if he was going to burst. Tears slightly filled his vision.

"I met her before that, at school."
"What?" Richie was confused. This is what she was hiding.

"I found her in the school hall, her clothes were torn and she looked like she had been beaten."

"By who?!" RIchie's fists were strongly closed. He wanted to kill whoever hurt her. Sunshine.

"There's more Richie. When i tired to put my hand on her shoulder, she flinched away, like she was scared," he remember the bruises over the girl's face, and the tears mixing with blood.

"Obviously. If she was beaten, then she would've been scared."

"She was raped Richie! By Bowers! She was raped by Henry Bowers!!" Stanley spat, through a whisper shout.

Richie's eyes grew wider than they were under his glasses. And his heart sank. His sunshine, raped by a monster.
"...I'm gonna kill that motherfucker!!! He's fucking dead!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

The losers ears pricked up at the sound of Richie's yelling. Lola slowly stood from her crate and wiped away a few remaining tears.

"Richard?" she whispered.

"Richie calm down. You're gonna get hurt!" Stanley grabbed hold of Richie's arms to stop him running off to find Bowers. And not for him to tell Lola he knows.

"I can put a bullet between his fucking eyes!" his yelling became louder.

Stan couldn't take it anymore. He spun Richie around to face him again, seeing the murderess look in the brown eyes that were covered by his glasses. He wanted to kill Bowers, so badly.

"You can't tell her. I made a promise and if she knows I broke it," his grip on Richie's arms seemed to drop, "I don't know what she would do. I'm just scared she would break."

Richie got into Stan's face, Stan's breath fastened in fear. He knew what Richie was capable of.

"My sunshine, breaks very easily...

...I know this by now."

Miss Rabbit <3