Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 13: Awkward

"That was weird wasn't it?" Bev asks, licking her ice cream cone as the trio walks away from Scoops Ahoy to try and find their friends.

"Extremely," Eddie agrees.

"Dude has something to hide," Richie nods.

"At least he didn't call the cops on you," Beverly says. "Do you have any form of self-control?"

"Who needs that?" Richie scoffs, as a bunch of the jazzercise girls go by and he begins to stare at them again.

"People who actually want to get somewhere in life," Eddie mutters rolling his eyes.

"So, where do you think the others are?" the redhead asks.

"Ten bucks says that Ben's in the bookstore," the trash-mouth says. "But I want to see this arcade. Hope to god that it's better and has Street Fighter."

"You can go find it yourself, I'm not dragging you out of there if they don't have it," Eddie insists.

"Let security handle your tantrum."

Richie departs from the group to find the arcade while Eddie and Beverly go towards Waldenbooks. Sure enough, Ben, Bill, and Stan are all browsing the shelves within the place. Ben already has his nose in a book and has found a spot to read.

"Anything good?" Bev asks.

"You have no idea," Ben says, his eyes alit with excitement. He's sitting on the floor in the corner of the bookstore with a stack of books next to him. "There's a whole section dedicated to just history!"

Beverly smiles and then finds Bill browsing the Horror section.

"Don't you think we've seen enough horror for one lifetime?" she asks, licking her cone.

Bill's ears turn red as he pulls out a book about a killer dog. "T-There's no limit to th-this genre. With Crime, eventually, every story is w-written, same with F-Fantasy, but with Horror, there's no limit to what people will find horrifying."

"What about Romance?" Beverly smirks, lifting an eyebrow cheekily.

Bill's ears go even redder than before, and the colour spreads to his cheeks. He gazes at her blue eyes as she licks her vanilla cone with a broad smile on her face.

Ben looks up from his book and his stomach turns, watching Beverly flirt with Bill. It broke his heart to watch this interaction occur right within earshot of him. He bit his lip to avoid crying or screaming out in frustration. Yes, she knew that he'd written the poem, but it didn't seem to change that they were just friends. Clearly, she liked Bill more and having to accept this reality was harder than he ever imagined. He keeps thinking that he should focus his affections on someone who appreciates a love of poetry because pining for Bev was getting him nowhere.

He sighs and goes back to reading, pretending not to show that he'd seen everything.

"R-Romance... is a complicated one..." Bill tries to explain, but words were failing him completely. He didn't want to insult her favourite genre, but Romance novels tend to get into generic and cheesy plots a lot quicker than Fantasy books.

"I'm just kidding," she laughs, pleased that she's still able to make the boys stammer. "I'm more Fantasy than Romance, but Horror is always one for a good scare."

"W-Well, Stan's in the Science-Fiction section if y-you want something different."

"Where's Richie by the way?' Stan asks, poking his head from behind a bookshelf.

"Where do you think?" Eddie groans. He's browsing through the Science-Fiction section while nibbling on his cone. "Does anyone know if Dune is any good? What about The Martian Chronicles?"