sunshine. // it 2017

xiv.

"He's still gone!" Lola span to face the taller boy, eyes puffy and red, "he's still gone and I'm still lonely! Nothing is going to change that!"

Bill wanted to tell her wrong, but knew she would rage more.

"You think you know what it's like, but you have no idea how much it hurts," the tears were travelling down her face. She just wished Richie was there to wipe them away, "you have no idea how much pain I'm going through. Listening to his last words through my head over and over again."

Bill's mouth hung open slightly as tears pricked his water line.

"And nobody wants to talk about how our best friend is dead!" her arms raised into the air for more dramatics, "we just hide away from the fact that a killer clown wants us all dead!"

"I d-do know wh-wh-what it's like L-L! I lost m-my brother t-to it-"

"But you didn't see him die," her words were venom, "you didn't hear his last words like I heard Richie's," she never said his nickname, not even once before that moment, "he told me her loved me Bill. And I watched him die, for me!"

Bill couldn't speak, the words were stuck in his throat.

"Now get out before I throw you out."

Bill wasn't one to give up on a fight, not one to surrender. But this fight was over the moment she spoke those last words. As he exited her house, she laid back onto her bed and wrapped the covers around her like a cacoon. The only way she could possibly feel safe again. She cried at the thought of Richie still down in the sewers, scared and alone. To her, it wasn't possible. To Richie himself, it was the thought of her that kept him going. His eyes continued to dart around the dark sewers for a small sight of daylight. The glasses on the bridge of his nose were dirting and covered with fingerprints covering the lens. The shirt covering his torso and chest was ripped and bloodied after the countless attacks from the clown. It's a surprise that he was even alive, that he was still standing. As he reached yet another corner, his ears heard the sound of splashing water and small voices.

With his hurt throat and little to no voice at all, he little out what sounded like a whisper, the echo carrying it down the tunnel, "Lola?"

The sound stopped, but only flashlight beams spread against the sewer walls.

"Richie? Is t-that you?"

The lights continued to search the tunnels till they landed on the hurt and drained Richie Tozier. Bill looked at his best friend with a jaw dropped open. He slowly walked towards Richie till it turned to a run down to the end of the sewer. Richie collapsed into his friend, whimpering in pain and hunger. They sat in the greywater as Richie cried into Bill as they hugged.

"It's okay Rich, we got you now," another hand surrounded them, looking up to see the face of Eddie as he stood in the piss and shit water he once complained about.

"Come on. We need to get you to Lola," Stanley spoke as he joined in the hug. The loser's club was soon to be together again.

~

The porch of the Duffey household was a safe place for the losers club, shelter from the Derry rain, a small barrier from the Bowers gang, It was a soft knock against the wooden door. Usually, Richie wouldn't knock. Mr Duffey said he didn't have to. But this time, Richie wanted this to be a moment of reunion. He stood at the front of the group, for once Bill wasn't the leader. Bill hadn't had the best encounters with Lola recently. The footsteps carried through the house till the front door opened with a tired and drained looking Lola Duffey. Her eyes automatically watered at the sight of Richie Tozier standing on her front porch, bandages covering his slightly swollen face. His agape mouth turned to a slight smile, the happiest the others had seen him since a few hours ago. Lola still stood in shock, mouth hanging open and trying to blink away the tears. But, she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight embrace. His arms wrapped around her too, pulling her as close as possible. He dropped his head into her neck.

"Welcome home."

Richie couldn't let go. He just couldn't. Tears spilled from his eyes as he smelled in that vanilla scent that hung off her. And in that moment, Richard Tozier felt safe in the arms of the local British girl with love in her heart, Lola Duffey.