Strawberries and Cigarettes | Beverly Marsh

chapter eight

08 | Rock War

"COULD YOU idiots take any longer?" Richie complains as he circles around his friends on his bike.

"Shut up, Richie." Eddie says as he flicks off the safety stand on his bike.

"Yeah Richie, shut up." Stan added.

"Yeah okay, trash the trashmouth I get it. And hey I wasn't the one scrubbing the sink thinking her bathroom went all Eddie's mom's vagina on Halloween." The bespectacled boy retorted.

"S-She didn't imagine i-it," Bill stutters out as the group abruptly stopped. Vera stands next to Beverly as she stares at their leader, "I saw something too."

"What did you see? Blood?"

"I didn't see blood I... I saw Georgie. It all seemed so real but there was this—" He paused as he struggles to say the word on the tip of his tongue.

"Clown." Both Vera and Eddie says, which made the group turn to them while they looked at each other.

"You saw it too?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah. Last night that thing attacked me in my house. I thought it was a dream but the scratches it left is very real." Vera explained with a shiver.

On the corner of her eyes, she saw Beverly move closer to her.

"Wait, can only virgins see these stuff?" Richie's obnoxious voice calls out, which made Vera roll her eyes.

Their conversation was forgotten when a scream sounded from the forest near them.

"Oh shit, that's Belch Huggins' car!" Eddie exclaims.

"We should probably get out of here."

"Wait, isn't that the homeschooled kid's bike, Mike Hanlon?" Bill thinks out loud, "Yeah it's his."

"Come on, let's go help him." Beverly calls out before she drops her bike, running towards where the scream sounded.

Vera dropped her bike next and ran towards Beverly as the boys followed.

The seven losers stopped, seeing a dark skinned boy getting beat up by Henry Bowers and his gang.

His screams of pain echoes everywhere which made the brunette girl wince. Beverly and Vera picked up a rock simultaneously, looking at each other before they hurled the rock onto Henry Bowers.

Beverly's rock hit his forehead while Vera's rock hit him on his shoulder.

"Nice throw." Stan commented as both girls smiled at him.

"Pick up the rocks," Richie whispered. The losers all grabbed the nearest rocks and compiled it.

Mike crawls towards the group as Vera extends her hand for him. He took it gratefully as the she pulls him behind her.

"You okay?" Vera questioned, patting him in the shoulder.

Mike nodded, "Yeah, thanks." He smiled.

Henry laughs at his struggle, "You losers are trying too hard. She'll do anything you know, you just got to ask nicely. Though I don't know how you all managed to score Mayfield, but I bet she'll do you all t—" He was cut off by Vera, who hurled a rock at him again, hitting him in the face.

"You talk too much."

"Rock War!" Richie screams on the top of his lungs, only to get knocked down by a rock.

Everyone throws rock at Bowers and his gang's direction.

Eddie jumps down into the small stream below them, flinging multiple rocks at the Bowers gang.

"Watch out!"

"Get them!"

They all continued to throw rocks at each other until Bowers' friends left, leaving their leader on the ground.

Vera threw one last rock at the mullet boy before she left, her hand intertwined with Beverly's.

"Go blow your dad, you mullet wearing asshole!" The trashmouth shouted, which made the redhead laugh.

Vera turned to Beverly, "You should smile more, it suits you." She says.

Beverly automatically smiles at her before her eyes went to their joined hands.

"Oh, sorry." Vera mutters as she tries to pull her arms out, only for Bev to tighten her hold on it.

"I don't mind."

The girls catched up with the boys and they soon found themselves walking through a meadow of green grasses.

"Thanks guys, but you shouldn't have done that. He'll be after you guys now." Mike says with a frown.

"Oh Bowers? He's always after us anyways." Eddie replied.

"Yeah, welcome to the Losers' Club homeschooled."