Buttercup | r. tozier

↠ bill denbrough

Apart from the commotion up above, I continued to go downstairs without any disturbance. I looked around to see if the clown was still around in the area. However, I could only see Georgie floating down into what it seemed to be a well.

Seeing that the coast was clear, I quickly ran back down to the entrance as I saw the others exiting the house as well. Eddie was flailing his arms before I turned back, taking a glance at Jasmine, who was holding Beverly's hand as she limped heavily on the ground.

We all went over to the other side and saw Eddie running to his mother, who happened to be outside watering her front yard. I began to feel apprehensive from the look of Eddie's mother.

"You...you did this. It's all your fault!" Mrs. Kaspbrak shouted, pointing at us. "You know how weak Eddie is."

Mrs. Kaspbrak forcefully dragged Eddie along with her to a waiting car. The seven of us gathered around them as I attempted to prove my innocence.

"Mrs. Kaspbrak, we were been attacked by a..."

"Don't try to blame it on anyone," she responded back as she got Eddie in the car before slamming the door hard. Little did she know that she dropped her car keys.

Beverly then bent down to pick up the keys.

"Let me..."

"Get back!" Mrs. Kaspbrak retorted before smiling cruelly at Beverly. "Oh, I've heard of you, Miss Marsh, and I don't want a dirty girl like you touching my Eddie."

While Mrs. Kaspbrak was walking towards the car, Jasmine coughed before she raised up her voice and shot a disapproving look, stopping the woman on her tracks.

"Sorry Mrs. Kaspbrak if I have to offend you, but can't you use your rotten beehive head before you accuse her based on false rumors!? Beverly is nothing like that! She is my best friend!"

Mrs. Kaspbrak's face flared up quickly, incensed by Jasmine's statement.

"Enough of this nonsense, Miss Jeong! For all this time, I thought that I could count on you. I thought I could trust you to take care of my Eddie, but because of you, rich brat, you now gave him hemophilia!"

She then walked towards the car as she had planned.

"But Mrs. K..." I blurted out without knowing how to respond.

"No, you are all monsters, all of you. Now Eddie's done with you. You hear, done!" she shouted at us before she got into the driver's seat and drove the car away from us.

After a moment of silence, I started to speak again about the prior incident.

"I saw the well. W-w-w-w-we know where it is and next time we'll be better prepared."

"No!" Stan shouted. "No next time, you are insane!"

"Eddie was nearly killed, Jaz got a broken leg, and look at this motherfucker, he's a leaking hamburger helper," Richie added, pointing out to Ben.

"We can't pretend it's going to go away Ben. You said yourself that it comes back every 27 years," Beverly said to us.

"Fine, I'll be 40 and far away from here. I thought you said you wanted to get out of this town too," Ben replied.

"Because I wanted to run towards something. Not away," Beverly stated.

The rest of us looked at her in shock.

"I'm sorry, but who invited Molly Ringwald into the group?" Richie asked.

"Uh, Richie..." Jasmine tried to remind Richie.

"I'm just saying, let's face facts, real world. Georgie is dead. Stop trying to get us killed too," Richie said.

From the last sentence, I felt a pang of pain in my heart. I paused for a second to hold back my tears. That must be not true, and Georgie is indeed not dead!

In anger, I argued, "Georgie's not dead!"

"You couldn't save him, but you can still save yourself," Richie responded.

"No! T-t-t-take it back, you're scared and we all are, but take it back," I muttered before I shoved Richie down to the ground and punched him in the face.

"Bill! Stop!" Jasmine gasped as she and Beverly held me back from Richie.

"You're such a loser!" Richie barked as Ben and Mike held him back. "You're a bunch of losers, get us all killed, while trying to catch a clown!"

"At least some of us hasn't lost hope!" I fired back at his words.

Then Beverly intervened between the two of us.

"Stop! This is what IT wants. IT wants to divide us. We're all together when we heard it. That's why we're still alive! That's why we're still alive!"

"Yeah, well I plan to keep it that way," Richie mumbled before he walked away from us and rode away on his bicycle.

Not long, I could see Ben, Stan, and Mike walking towards their bikes.

"Mike, please..." I pleaded.

"Guys, I can't do this," Mike sadly said as he too rode away from the three of us. "My granddad was right, I'm an outsider. Gotta stay that way."

I then looked at Beverly and Jasmine, who began to cry not because of her leg pain, but because of the fight I had with Richie.

"B-Bill,...I-I do not like this..." she said as tears escaped from her eyes.

"J-Jasmine, I also do not like this, b-b-but I'm sure that we will back together soon," I told Jasmine. "Do you need a hug now?"

"More like a group hug, right Bill?" Beverly smiled. Both Jasmine and I nodded our heads. The three of us immediately had a group hug, letting out the sadness that was within her.

After Jasmine stopped crying, she went on to say, "Bill, Beverly, I do not like this. I do not like how you fight against Richie, how Mrs. Kaspbrak snapped at me, and how I broke my leg."

Jasmine stopped for a moment to wipe her last tear before she continued, "Don't get me wrong, I still love you guys and the rest, but Beverly's right. We will not be able to make it out alive if we don't work together as a team."

Team. Beverly and I both agreed, but I then remembered Richie, Eddie, Stan, Ben, and Mike. I sighed, knowing it would be a matter of time before they finally realized that we indeed must work as a team.