Wait For It || Reddie ✔️

- 41 -

June 1991

The Loser's stood outside Bill's house, a SOLD sign creaking in the summer breeze. The Denbrough's pushed the last of the cardboard boxes into the moving van as Bill hugged each of his friends.

"Don't you cry on me," Beverly said, teasingly punching Bill in the arm. "I should be suh-saying that t-to you, Bev." She quickly pushed a stray tear away and shook her head. "I'm not sure what you mean," she said jokingly, making the two chuckle sadly. She stepped back into the group and Ben placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Stan stood in front of Bill, the last to get his goodbye hug.

Stanley swallowed past the ball in his throat, trying his absolute best to keep the tears down. The two boys stared at each other, both fighting back tears before falling into the other's arms. "I'm going to miss you, Bill," Stan choked out. Bill nodded and hugged Stanley harder. "Me too."

"Bill!" His father yelled out from the front of the truck, "We better get going if we want to beat the traffic." The two reluctantly pulled away, their hands lingering on each other's arms for a second longer before Stanley stepped back into the group. Bill's eyes slid over each of his friends faces as he breathed in shakily. "I guess th-this is goodbye," he said softly.

The depressed haze lingered around the group and Bill forced himself to turn his back on his friends, opening the car door and slipping inside.

He rolled down the window as the car started up. "I-I'll call!" He said out the window as the group crowded at the curb. "You better! Or I'll be forced to walk to North Carolina myself!" Richie warned and a small smile crossed Bill's face.

The car pulled away from the curb and he suddenly found himself desperately wanting to jump out the car and run back to his friends. He shifted in his seat to lean out the window, frantically waving goodbye to his friends. They broke past the invisible barrier holding them back and ran into the street, watching as Bill drove away from them forever.

~~~

Bill promised to write to them the second he got to his new house. The Loser's patently waited for the letters to arrive, but none ever came. Weeks of waiting turned to months which, ultimately, passed into years. The group waited for Bill, never forgetting him even if it seemed like he had forgotten them.

At first Richie felt deeply betrayed, thinking Bill never liked them in the first place at took his moving away a chance to forget about them. Beverly and Stan never once believed that. "There has to be a reason," Beverly had said, "Maybe he forgot our addresses." Richie shook his head and stopped his pacing. "I've known him for over 10 fucking years! There's no way he just forgot my address."

Ben was the first to give up with the waiting. Then Eddie, Mike, and the others finally found themselves thinking of Bill as a distant memory.

They kept his middle school picture up inside the hideout. As everyone else's aged with the years up until graduation, his 14 year old smile stayed unchanged.

~~~

August 1994

High school passed in a blur. The adults were right, those four years seem like a blink in a lifetime. So much happened after the summer Bill left. Richie's father stayed out more and more, going on spontaneous 'business trips' until one day, he never returned.

Richie held his head high and shook it off with a smile, pretending like it didn't affect him. "Less noise in the house, besides Eddie and I upstairs fu-"

"That's fucking disgusting, Chee," Eddie said, quickly cutting him off.

Maggie took Wentworth leaving as a sign. She signed herself up for AA at the local hospital and by the time Sophomore year ended for the teenagers, she was fully sobered up. Richie cried when he and Eddie came home one day to the house completely cleaned, fresh dinner on the table.

That wasn't the only good thing that happened after the summer of 90'. Beverly signed up for a summer fashion class at the high school after a teacher recommended it to her. She first signed up to keep herself busy during the summer and to keep the time at home short. But that was before a spark inside her ignited.

Beverly fell in love with the class and soon started making all types of clothing. One Halloween, she persuaded the Loser's to dress up so she could make their costumes.

That same Halloween is when the Losers finally got to meet the infamous Leona they learned about years ago. It took some pestering from Beverly and Richie, but Mike finally obliged. Leona never became apart of the Loser's Club, the six agreeing that they like it the way it is, even if one of the members wasn't there physically, but that never stopped them from hanging out with Leona. Beverly found it a bit strange to hang out with another girl after years of being surrounded by boys, but she quickly got used to it.

Anyway - August, 1994. Mike was accepted into a university out of Derry. His goodbye was just as tearful as Bill's, maybe even a bit more as they knew the outcome of the last goodbye. He wrote down their numbers and addresses in the black journal he's carried around for the past few months, promising them a call or a letter as soon as possible.

A week later, the first letter arrived.

Dear Losers,

I'm sorry to start my letter off so sudden but I can barely believe it. I ran into Bill! Bill Denbrough! He goes to the same college as me and his dorm room is only a few doors down. When I first saw him I would've walked straight past if it wasn't for his friend screaming his last name. How many Bill Denbrough's could there be?

When I first walked up to him he didn't recognize me, I had to repeat my name and the word Derry twice for him to remember. We met up later at the campus Starbucks and it's like the guy has amnesia, he doesn't remember much from Derry. I've used our photo booth picture as a bookmark in my journal so I showed him that. He was able to name you all, but never remembered how he met you.

I'm going to try and convince him to come with me when I come back to Derry before Richie and Bev leave for college. Hopefully he agrees.

I miss you all!

Love,
Mike

Beverly brought a hand to her mouth as she stared off in the distance. "Amnesia?" Stanley asked and grabbed the letter from Richie. Ben looked over his shoulder and read it over with Stan. "Guys! I don't think this is getting through your heads!" Richie said, looking around at his friends, "Mike found Bill! B-B-Bill!"

Eddie smiled lightly at the playful mocking of Bill's stutter. "And he's coming back," Ben added excitedly as he moved away from Stan's shoulder. Beverly blinked and tore her gaze away from the wall. "Holy shit," she whispered, a smile tugging on her lips, "Someone call Mike! I need answers!"