sunshine. // it 2017

iv.

She sat with her back against Richie's bedroom wall. The paint had started to peel revealing white. It looked a lot brighter in the dark room. She stared at the wall across the room, a blank look on her face.

"Lola..."

A voice spoke, yet she only heard it in a whisper.

"Sunshine?" The voice was more clear. Richie Tozier, "are you okay sunshine?"

She looked down at the thin sheet on her lap, playing with the hem.

"Yeah..um...fine. I'm fine."

She was lying through her teeth.

"Stanley told me."

Her eyes rose to connect with his own, through dirty glasses of course.

"What?"

"He told me. Everything."

Her heart sank. Stanley Uris. Liar.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Richie placed a hand on her arm, a sort reassurance.

She started to tear up, "everywhere I go...I think that he's there...and he's gonna hurt me...and touch me," she sobbed.

He quickly wrapped his arms tightly around her small figure and pulled her into his lap, running his fingers through her dirty coloured hair and continually kissed the top of her head.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine," he sang the song he always sung when she was upset, the same song he first sang to her when they met, "you make me happy when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you," he could feel her fall asleep in his arms, "please never take my sunshine away."

~~

She had never been so scared to let Richie go. Her grip was tight around his body as they slept. Well, as he slept. Lola couldn't stop thinking of the day Bowers ruined her. She could still remember the things that he said to her as she screamed for some kind of help.
"Nobody's gonna save you bitch."

His hands were tight around her thighs. The bruises are still there.

"Not even your pressace little trashmouth can doing anything for you. Fucking pathetic."

She didn't know why Richie was named trashmouth, he was always so nice to her. A bit of a softy, you might say.

"Nobody will ever love you."

Not true. She knew the losers loved her. She knew she would always be safe with them. Especially her prince charming. Richard Tozier. Her watch beeped at the sign of 9 o'clock. Half an hour to meet the losers at the quarry for their weekly swim. She turned to see Richie's head sitting on the side of the bed, slightly drooling on the sheets. And for once, Lola smiled. A real smile. And even, a little giggle. Richie's eyes slightly opened and he turned onto his back, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Lola's smile immediately vanished.

"Oh I'm sorry to wake you Richard. I wasn't-"

"Sunshine, it's fine. That's the best sound to wake up to," his face held a small smile, trying to see the same on her's, "it could only be bad if it was a fucking psycho clown. Then I wouldn't be smiling."

A laugh. A real laugh escaped her lips. And Richie had never smiled so much before. As her laughter quietened down, he gently tucked a stray hair behind her ear.

"I've missed that smile and laugh. I hadn't seen it in a long time."

She looked down at her hands and fidgeted with the pearl ring on her finger.

"I won't let him near you again Lola," he never said her real name. She hated when he did, "I won't let him hurt my sunshine ever again."

She looked back to him, eyes glossy.

"You're gonna get yourself killed, you know that?"

"Anything for my sunshine."

Who knew it would be come literal.