𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬

xvii. GOODBYE

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
GOODBYE

    THE GROUP of now nine, no longer ten, teens all sat in a circle, listening to Beverly tell them what she saw when she was in that unconscious state back down in the sewers. "I can only remember parts. I thought I was dead. That's what it felt like. I saw us, all of us together back in the cistern, but we were older, like, our parents' ages." Beverly said and Timothy looks at her.

"W-What were we all doing there?" Bill asked as he gave one glance to Timothy beside him who looks back at him. "I just remember how we felt. How scared we were. I don't think I can ever forget that." Beverly says and Bill looks away, looking at the ground and spotting a shard of glass, which he picks up, standing up. He held up the shard, "swear it." He says and Timothy looks up at him right away. "Swear if It isn't dead, if It ever comes back, we'll come back, too." He says and Timothy stood up right away, nodding his head.

Beverly stood up next, then Richie and Eddie, then David and Mike, before Stan and Ben stood up as well. Bill cut his hand first before he turns to Timothy who held out his hand, willingly. Bill cuts his hand, almost like he's trying to be gentle but then looks up when Timothy winced softly. "Sorry," he whispered but Timothy shook his head. Bill carried on, cutting Richie's hand then Eddie's.

He continued all the way to Beverly before he takes his spot back next to Timothy who's hand he reached for, Timothy slipped his hand into Bill's before Bill looks at Beverly, who grabbed his hand, then she looked at Ben, grabbing his hand. Ben grabs Stan's hand who grabbed Mike's hand then connected hands with David who grabbed Eddie's hand, the boy grimacing at the contact.

Eddie looks at Richie, then grabbed his hand. Richie looks at Timothy with a small smirk that made Timothy roll his eyes before they connected hands next. All of them looked at each other and that's when Timothy realized how safe he felt with them all, like he could be most himself with them when he can't with other people.

All of them start to let go except for Timothy and Bill who kept their hands together. "I gotta go." Stan says then all of them look at him. "I hate you." He then said to Bill only to smile widely when he looked at Richie, Eddie and Timothy who all gave him looks. All of them laugh at the fact he couldn't even keep a straight face saying that.

"I'll see you later." Stan said and Timothy waves. "Bye, Stan." Bill said as Timothy smiled. "Bye Stanny boy." He says and then one by one they started to leave, Eddie being the next one to leave as he gives Richie a quick hug before he is walking away, leaving the group of teens.

"Bye Mike," Beverly said after the boy announced he was leaving. "When Mike goes, I go." David said making Timothy chuckle. "See you later, losers." Mike said as he left, holding David's hand. Richie was next to leave, "see you around, Bill." He said. "See you, Rich." Bill replied.

Beverly walked over, giving a hug to Timothy, since she was gonna be staying with her aunt now in Portland, he gave her a long and tight hug before letting go, "bye," she whispers then she is walking away from the last three. "See you guys later." Ben said and Timothy waves. "Bye, Ben.." He says and Bill sat down, patting the log beside him so Timothy takes a seat right next to him.

"Is there an actual us or was that because of It?" Bill asked and Timothy looks at him. "Bill, I love you and.. I know it's real." He says and Bill looks down, blushing slightly before looking back up. "But.. with everything that's happened, I'm not sure if we can be together.." He says and Bill looked down again, a sad look on his face.

At the beginning of this summer, he never could tell what was going on through Bill's mind but right now, he could read him like an open book. He can tell Bill was hurt and didn't like being left, he didn't like people leaving him but now the one guy that liked him back, was leaving him? Timothy felt horrible, he wanted to cry, he wanted to just hold Bill in his arms forever and never let go. He also just really wanted to stay in Derry and be with him, just stay with Bill but he had to leave. What his mom says is final, so now they were gonna leave.

"It doesn't change my feelings for you," he says right away, grabbing his hand and he sighs. "It's just.. my mom is making me get homeschooled instead, thinks it's better after everything." He says, sighing and shkaing his head. Bill looks up, nodding, "I get it.. But still, I can come and see you anyway, you live right across." He says and Timothy looks down. "My mom actually found a place outside of Derry.. We're moving this month." He said and Bill's jaw dropped at that. "You're leaving me? Just like that?" He says right away and Timothy stood up, wiping his tears. "I just.. I have to. I'm sorry, it's happening and I can't fix it." He says as Bill stood up as well, grabbing his arm gently. "Come here.." He whispered and Timothy turns to face him.

He wraps his arms around Timothy and the older teen hugged back right away with his arms around Bill's waist. "I won't ever forget you.." Bill said before he pulled away to look at him the eyes. "I l-l-love you too.." He whispers and Timothy sighed, leaning in and kissing him before pullint away. "Goodbye, Bill.." He said and Bill sighs.

"Bye, Timmy.."

THE END

authors note did i rush this? maybe, i kinda only wanted to complete this book lmao