City Girl | IT Fanfiction

Untitled Part 9

 A few days later came the Fourth of July festival that was held at Derry almost every year. The group decided to meet up at the festival. They made a stop at the ice cream parlor, Derry Scoops, which Chris joked to Stan about the unintentionally punny title. As they started to walk in to the ice cream parlor, Richie and Eddie walked behind them.

"Do you like Chris?", Eddie asked him. Richie turned to his close friend, alerted by the question. "No. What makes you think that?", Richie asked, lying nonchalantly. "I've seen the way you look at her", Eddie pointed out. "Not to mention, what you did a couple of days ago when I gave her a band-aid"

"Look, me and Chris are just friends, and besides, I already have a girlfriend"

"And who's that?"

"Her name is Sonia Kaspbrak"

"Jesus fucking Christ! You're disgusting, you know that?"

"I know you love me", he wrapped his arm around him.

Eddie couldn't help, but grin, "Yeah, I do".

After they left, Bill noticed a missing poster of "Eddie Corcoran", a boy around their age. Chris heard gossip around town that Eddie Corcoran was being abused by his stepfather, but from the amount of missing kids going missing in recent years, it was too obvious at that point to frame his stepfather. "They found his hand bitten near a standpipe", Bill said. Yeah, definitely not something that could've been done by another human. 

 "He asked to borrow a pencil once", Ben spoke up. 

 Richie was busy trying to play one of the marching band members' trombone before he took it back. "It's like they've b-b-been forgotten because Corcoran's gone", said Bill. Richie and Eddie, who was still eating his ice cream, later joined the group. "When will this end?", asked Eddie.

"I think it will end. At least for a little while", Ben explained. "I reviewed my research on Derry and listed the big events. The explosion of the blacksmith shop in 1908, the Gang in the Bradley in 35, and the Black Spot in 62. Now, I realized that this happens every 27 years."

Later, they all sat on in of the benches in the main park, with Chris sitting next to Beverly.  "Maybe it's like cicadas", said Stanley. "The critters that come out every 17 years". 

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed", Mike spoke up. He said all the bad things happen from one thing. An evil thing that feeds on the people in Derry. We all fear something different or maybe he knows what scares us most and that's all we see". 

Chris felt chills up her spine, thinking back to Greta and her friends' deformed versions of themselves trying to devour her. "I saw a leper", said Eddie. "It was like a walking infection".

"But you didn't because it isn't real", Stanley said. "None of this is real. Not Eddie leper, or Bill seeing Georgie or the woman I keep seeing"

"Is she hot?", Richie asked.

Stanley furrowed his brows as he turned to him. "No, Richie! She's not hot!", he snapped. 

"I don't think so. I know the difference between a bad dream and real life, ok?", Mike explained.

"What did you see? Did you see something too?", Eddie asked.

"Yes. You guys know that burnt down house on Harris Avenue?", Mike asked and everyone nodded. He gulped and sat back in his seat, "I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued, my parents were trapped in the room next to me. They were trying to get to me, but it was too hot. When the firemen finally found them, their skin was burnt to bone. We're all afraid of something".

"You got that right", Richie commented  as he turned to look at the circus clown standing on a stage, giving a child a balloon animal. 

"What about you, Rich?", asked Eddie. "What are you scared of?"

He looked at the ground and adjusted his glasses. "Clowns", he nervously said. 

~~~~~~~

After dispersing, Chris and Richie once again rode their bikes home together. 

"Remember when I asked if I was the only one that hasn't seen anything?", Richie asked her. "Yeah", replied Chris.

"Well, I lied", he said. "I did see something"

He nervously adjusted his glasses before he began. To Chris, Richie adjusting his glasses became a noticeable nervous tick about him. "Earlier yesterday, I was at the park and I was attacked by that giant lumberjack statue", he explained. 

"Why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because I didn't want to admit it, ok?", he said. "None of this shit makes sense. How come we can see it and the adults can't?"

"I don't know. My aunt didn't even notice the bruise on my wrist"

Richie sighed. After hearing that Richie also encountered Pennywise, it made Chris even more worried. She worried if this time, the clown would kill them one by one before her eyes until it could get to her, or she would be the first to die before the others. She'd moved to some seedy places before, but not one where she had to deal with a child-eating clown. "um, Rich?", she asked and turned to her. "Do you want to stay over for a little while? Maybe we can watch the fireworks?"

"Sure"

The smell of barbeque and firework smoke filled the air as Chris and Richie sat on the steps of her backyard deck, watching the fireworks. Lizzie and Gwen cooked on the grill. While watching the bright colored fireworks explode in to the air, Richie slowly moved his hand closer to Chris' and held it. Chris felt herself blush at the four-eyed boy suddenly holding her hand in his. She intertwined her fingers with his. As much as she hated doing so, that was the moment when she finally admitted to herself that she was in love with Richie Tozier.