Lollipop // Richie Tozier x OC ( IT 2017 )

Who's Calling? (Chapter 4)

The summer sun sat on top of the clouds, and Lolly sat in a wooden chair across from her mother at the dinner table. Lolly's exchange with Richie, Stan, and Bill was now a few hours old, but she couldn't help being giddy of the upcoming movie not-date.  Lolly's father Michael Gellar sat at the head of the table. Mr.Gellar stayed dressed in his work clothes long after the workday was done; his goal was to elongate the control he felt in his work as an executive. He could never quite understand his daughter, and sometimes cursed himself for wanting a young boy instead; a boy who was loud, a boy who liked firecrackers and who he could reprimand and mold into an exceptional young man. He really couldn't understand his daughter who sat in her room most days with a book. His daughter who didn't seem to do much of anything since her only friend had moved away from Derry. 

"What did you do today Louise?" Her father asked

Lolly cringed a little hearing her full name. Her parents were the only ones who used her full name, and it almost felt a bit like a punishment every time they spoke to her. 

"I hung out with some friends, we're going to go to the movies later this week." She beamed

"It better not be that Bowers boy, Lousie Elizabeth," Her mother interjected. The sternness in her mother's voice showed that it was not to be challenged, however, Lolly had no interest in going anywhere with Henry anyhow.

Lolly had mentioned Henry to her mother once, she told her that Henry had plucked her bra strap in History class; He had pulled it back and launched it into her skin. Her mother laughed and placed a bet that Henry had a crush on her because that's what boys do when they have crushes on girls. Lolly didn't understand that much, if you like someone why would you hurt them? For the next week, her mother tormented her about her 'boyfriend' Henry. Henry's reputation usually preceded him in the small town, but Lolly's mother had never heard of him. After some snooping of her own (asking the other nurses in the hospital where she worked), Lolly's mother had concluded that Henry was bad news; something Lolly could've said herself if she'd listened. 

"Butch Bowers son? Butch is always getting in trouble, I remember when he poisoned that poor black man's chickens. Hanlon something I think his name was, I can't remember now." Her father spoke to the table, but Lolly knew he was just talking to her mother. 

Like the other parents in the small town, Lolly's parents weren't attentive past the surface of Lolly's life.

"It's not that Bowers boy, is it?" Lolly's mother spoke directly to her now.
"No, it's not."  Lolly sighed, "I'm going with Bill Denborough, Richie Tozier and Stanley Uris."

Lolly's father whispered something under his breath about 'those Jews',  and Lolly nearly gagged. It was almost  funny that her father had no problem with her seeing a movie with three boys, but was caught on the fact that one of them was Jewish. It was almost  funny, but it put a thick lump in Lolly's throat that she couldn't swallow. Michael Gellar liked to brag about being a devoted Christian, however, it had been more than two Sunday's since he had seen the inside of a church. 

"Are you going steady with one of those boys?" Her mother asked with a wink

Her father narrowed his eyes into slits at his wife in disapproval. 

Lolly shook her head, "Can I be excused?"

Lolly was on her way to her bedroom after being excused, about halfway up the wooden staircase when she heard the phone ring in the kitchen. She paused with one foot on the fourth step and one foot on the fifth step; it was like she'd known it would be for her despite the fact that nobody had called for her in months.

"Louise! The phone is for you," Her mother called.

A few thoughts flew around Lolly's brain:

Who's calling?
What if it's Richie?
I wonder how they got my number.
It could be Richie.
I guess anyone could've gotten looked me up in the phonebook.
Richie.
Richie.
Richie.

Lolly did her best to keep the eagerness from her steps; she swallowed the knot in her throat and counted her breaths in an attempt to ignore the heartbeat in her ears. As she closed the distance between the stairs and the kitchen her mother covered the mouthpiece of the cordless phone, 
"It's a boy," She winked at Lolly as she had at dinner, and handed her the phone.

"Hello?" 
Lolly spoke into the phone, and she found herself back on the staircase on her way to her bedroom. If it was Richie, she didn't need her mother eavesdropping.

"Huh-hi Lolly, it's Bill"
"Oh," She tried to hide the disappointment from her voice, "How's it going?"
"Everyth-tuh-thing's good, I was juh-just wondering if yuh-you wanted to go to the movies to-muh-morrow? Richie got his allowance and it's kinda bur-burning a huh-hole in his puh-pocket----- I duh-don't know why the guh-guys got the guy with the stutter to cuh-call you." 

Lolly laughed. It was a sweet hearty laugh that was unrestrained in nature; it was not the polite laugh a girl laughs when a nice boy makes a joke. It was a real, and a sound she missed hearing.

"I'm not doing anything tomorrow, did you want me to meet you there?"
"Muh-might just be easier to walk together, I could come by your huh-house,"

Lolly and Bill lived fairly close together, closer together than Bill lived to any of the other members of the Losers' Club anyways. Lolly agreed to walk with Bill and exchanged the details of the movies playing the next day. Bill had told her (between stutters) that the other boys were indifferent of the movies playing, and said that she and Bill were responsible for choosing. The pair had agreed to see the classic Dracula, the movie theatre was hosting a horror movie classic special tomorrow at noon. It would play the classic for a discounted price compared to the viewings of the newly released movies. They clicked off their phones after a quick goodbye. Lolly held the phone to her chest with a large smile plastered to her face. She really liked Bill, not in the same way she liked Richie of course, but the kind of way that for the first time since her best friend moved away Lolly felt a little less alone.