I unwrap my burger in the front seat of Reginald's car. Or Belch, as they call him. We'd parked in the trees that surrounded this cliff over a body of water. The Quarry, they called it.
Patrick, Belch, and Victor sit on a smaller rock, just within eyeshot of the car, eating and messing around. Next to Henry, though, I try to make myself small. Greta's house sounds like heaven right now. I chew my food slowly, wondering if it's too loud. Henry's got a cigarette in his hand, every so often blowing smoke out the window.
"How's your arm?" He asks suddenly. My attention turns to him again, it's the first he's spoken to me the entire time we've been parked. "It's fine," I say, crumpling up my burger wrapper and tossing it through my open window. "I bandaged it at Greta's."
"The hell were you doing at Keene's house anyway?"
"She invited me. I couldn't get out of it." I crossed my legs on the leather seat, turning to him. Henry gives me a confused look.
"What?"
"You wanna tell me what exactly you brought me out here for?" He scoffs. "Maybe to air out that horrible nest of yours," He jokes and I know he means my hair. "God, I can't believe I'm out here with you." He tosses his cigarette out the window before facing me. "You think you're better than me or something?"
"My attitude's better than yours," I mutter. He grabs my wrist, pulling me so we're only inches apart. "Remember who you're talking to, assface." My blood boils. Who does he think he is, talking to me like that? "Why are we out here, Bowers?" I demand again. "'Cause I wanted to hang out with you. You seemed like a cool person," He releases his grip on me. "My mistake." This makes me so mad, I can feel smoke from my ears.
"Maybe if you weren't an asshole, I'd be a lot cooler." I kick myself for being afraid of him. He's not dangerous, he's just jerk who gets off on making others' lives miserable. "I'm not about to become a fucking pushover just to please you," Henry reaches over and opens my door. Warm air hits my body. "And if you have a problem with that, you can walk back to that loser's house." I turn to the door in disbelief and slam it as hard as I can earning looks from his friends. He looks forward with a scowl, almost annoyed I didn't leave. My mind races, wondering what could possibly be going on in this boy's head.
I sit forward again and he sighs, seeming more sad than angry now. I close my eyes and sigh. Maybe I could give him one more chance. It wouldn't hurt. We got off on the wrong foot. I debate in my mind before deciding.
God, I better not regret this.
"Let's start over," I say, not looking at him. He turns to me and scoffs again. "I don't need any favors from you."
"I'm not doing you a favor. But I don't need another enemy in this town." I mumbled that last part, thinking of Greta's harsh nature. Henry waits before questioning, "Alright. So what?" I approach my next words carefully. If he suspects any patronizing tones, he'll no doubt get angry again.
"Let's hang out again," This piques his interest, and he looks at me. "But this time, there's gonna be some rules." Henry throws a hand up in disdain.
"Like that. You have to at least try to be decent. No calling me assface or making fun of my hair and definitely no pulling a knife on me again!"
"Yeah, alright." He mutters, mockingly. "I mean it, Henry," I say. "Do girls really get off on you treating them like garbage?" He shrugs with a proud smirk. "Some do." Let it go, Lorraine.
"Whatever. So do you get it?" I ask. He throws his head back against the seat and huffs. "Yeah, I guess." We've got a lot of work to do, but, what's the worst that could happen?
-
I close Greta's window as softly as I can. Maybe she doesn't know I left. She's still asleep. I brush my hair behind my ears and look at the time.
Four a.m.
Shock runs through my body for a split second. I wasn't really out with Henry that long, was I? Well once we got talking, I guess we lost track of time. Despite the constant complaining from most of Derry High School, Henry and his friends weren't so bad. Possibly due to the fact they had no one to terrorize. Belch is actually really funny, Victor doesn't say much but he was very nice to me, and though I still have my doubts about Patrick, he isn't very hard to get along with. Henry and I are supposed to see a movie next weekend at the Aladdin Theater. He didn't tell his friends about this, though, and I suspect he won't.
Wouldn't want anyone to think he's gone soft.
I kick off my shoes and walk as quietly as I can back to my sleeping bag, slipping inside. Greta stirs slightly and I freeze. As she falls back to sleep, I lay back and look at the glow in the dark stars on her ceiling. What kind of mess have I gotten myself involved in?
I know I did this to myself, but what kind of friendship can I really see myself having with Henry Bowers? He's definitely not about to change his ways for me and I doubt I'm cool enough for him to see me as an equal. Hell, he wouldn't even tell his friends he'd be seeing me again.
I decide not to let these thoughts bother me and quickly turn on my side with a huff.
-
The next afternoon, I walk into my house behind Charlie, who resentfully picked me up from Greta's since my dad, "had a friend over" she said.
I knew the only thing that could've meant, he had a woman over. I knew about his casual escapades, I was well aware of the women he had over in the past. I was expecting exactly that. So imagine my surprise when I see a police officer, drinking, laughing it up with my dad.
"Jesus, Butch, you're a riot," My dad slaps his knee and notices me. "Oh, hey Lorraine. Come here, there's someone I want you to meet."
I walk over to him and the police officer. "This is Oscar Bowers, he's an officer here in Derry."
Bowers?
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Bowers," I say politely, sticking out my hand. He laughs. "My father was Mr. Bowers, call me Butch." Butch. With an alias like that, it's no secret Henry got his brute nature from his father. "And you're an officer?" I ask cautiously, my eyes flash to the bottle of Budweiser in his left hand. Butch looks at his beer as if he forgot it was there.
"Oh, this? Don't worry, I'm off duty," He lets go of my hand and points to me, jokingly stating to my father, "She misses nothing, this one."
My dad nods. "Yep," He looks back at me. "How was the sleepover, kid?" I smile at the irony that my father will never know the boy I spent my time with is the son of his new friend.
"It was fine," I say simply. "It was nice to meet you," I tell Butch before walking to my room.
I set my stuff down on my bed, and begin to prepare for a shower when I hear my sister sound slightly shocked.
"That's a good look for you," I walk to the bathroom and look in the mirror. "You think so?"
"Yeah, it's almost like you actually tried this time." I roll my eyes and close the door.
