City Girl | IT Fanfiction

Chapter three

"So what's on the menu for dinner, ladies?", Lizzie asked her sister and niece who both sat around the kitchen table. "Pizza", Chris replied without hesitation. "You and pizza", commented Gwen. "How about salad and pasta? Eat something more healthy". A few minutes later, Lizzie started to cook pasta and Gwen finally spoke up, "Aunt Lizzie told me that you made a new friend".

"Yeah, but it's not that big of a deal", she shrugged it off.

"How so?"

Chris looked down at her wrist and fiddled with her scrunchie. "we only hung out for a day", she said, not wanting to admit that she was actually liked Richie and the other boys.

"What's his name?"

"Richie"

"Oh, he has a name", Aunt Lizzie turned to Chris and smirked.

"No, It's not like that", she assured them.

"I'm just teasing you", Lizzie ruffled her hair. "But in the future-"

"Oh my god", Chris face palms in annoyance.

"In the future, if you do end up liking someone, you can always come talk to us"

No matter how much Lizzie would embarrass Chris sometimes, she still appreciated the bond that they both share which was that of best friends. Lizzie had been her only friend throughout most of her life. Despite liking their bond, it did concern Gwen that before moving to Derry, Chris was never able to make friends her age no matter how much she encouraged it.

Later that night, after dinner, Chris sat in her room, organizing her scrapbook which she created in 5th grade. It held a collection of photos she captured each place she moved to. Gwen stood by her daughter's doorway. "I see you've added new pictures to your scrapbook", she said. "Yeah", Chris replied, casually. Gwen sat on Chris' bed across from her. "You know, I'm glad to see you make some friends", she said. "Who knows? maybe he might end up in this scrapbook"

"I know", she sighed.

"I have to work a little late tomorrow"

"How come you never told me where you work?"

"You never ask", Gwen remarked before kissing Chris on the forehead. "Goodnight". As her mother left, Chris kept a confused look before shaking her head. And so continues the mystery of my mother's career, she thought. Gwen's job had been a mystery to Chris. Whenever she asked, it would often come out as a vague answer, which started as, what Chris referred to, as the "mystery of Gwen Archer's secret career". When asked about her mother's career, she just responded by saying, "something to do with accounting or something".

~~~~~~~~~~~~

At one point when Chris and Richie were at the arcade, she asked him if Bill always had his stutter. Richie told her yes, but that's was when he told her about the disappearance of Bill's younger brother Georgie. All he told her was that Georgie went outside in the rain to play and was never found again. It was obvious that Georgie was dead, but Bill still wanted to believe that he was alive and missing somewhere.

The next day, Bill decided that they'd search the sewers in search for Georgie, and they willingly let Chris tag along. At Eddie's house, Chris sat on the kitchen counter while they raided the cabinets for snacks. Chris got fruit snacks and a granola bar. She already found his house to be a bit odd from seeing the different medications and hand sanitizer in almost every room. "You know, first you're saying the barrens, now you're saying the sewers. What if someone catches with us?", Eddie asked Bill. "The sewers are p-public w-works", Bill replied. "and we're the p-public, a-aren't we?".

"Check this out", Richie said to her. She hopped off the cabinet and peeked over his shoulder . It was a cabinet full of pills and orange tablets. This place is like a pharmacy, she thought. "Hey, Eddie, are these your birth control pills?", he asked him.