Behind the Clouds ✔️

008

When Violet came to again, she could feel Ben poking her shoulder, trying to wake her.

"I'm glad I got to meet your friend before she died," Ben gives Richie a stern look. Richie rubbed the back of his neck feeling the tension. Violet blinked, trying to get used to the sunlight and tried to sit up. Richie ran behind her and caught her as she squealed in pain.

"Don't do that. Just stay there," Violet obeyed, the feeling in her gut being extremely weak. She surveyed her surroundings and saw Ben sitting on a box, trying to stop the bleeding from his nose.

"Ben! Are you okay?" she spoke up. Richie stepped away and marveled at her voice. Derry's Princess really was princess like when she spoke. Breaking his concentration on the poor girl, his friends all came running into the alley with a bunch of supplies.

"Oh good, she's awake. Do you know how difficult this is to do on a unconscious person?" Eddie rambled, as he got his supplies ready. As he turned to Violet, he began to blush. "I-I'm going to need you to lift your shirt." Richie started laughing, as Eddie turned beat red at the thought of asking a girl anything.

"Don't be embarrassed," Violet said, reaching up and toying with some of his neat hair. Eddie's heart nearly stopped as she did so and Richie stopped, hearing her gorgeous voice again. She pulled up her blood stained shirt as best as she could, wincing in pain. Eddie nearly fainted, seeing how much blood he had to clean.

Stanley came up on the other side of her and held out his hand. Eddie placed some cleaning wipes in his hand, before starting to clean on his side.

"Augh," Violet groaned, "What even happened?" Everyone turned toward Bill, including Ben, who was in tears again.

"B-bowers slashed you p-pretty good," Bill stated simply, as Violet flinched just hearing Henry's name. Richie came over to inspect Eddie's handiwork.

"Just suck the wound," he said, clearly trying to infuriate Eddie.

"I need to focus right now," Stanley coughed on Violet's other side, "We need to focus," Eddie corrected himself.

"You need to focus?" Richie asked, clearly not getting the message to go away.

"Hey, can you go get me something?" Eddie asked to any of them. Nearly all of the blood was gone, leaving HENRY carved all over her stomach to be clearly visible. Violet lay there and listened to everything around her. Mostly, she thought about Ashton. She was supposed to be home by now. What if Patrick got home first? Would he harm him?

"Go get my bifocals. I hid 'em in my second fanny pack," Richie grabs it.

"Why do you have two fanny packs?" Stanley asked, as Eddie helped him.

"I need to focus right now and it's a long story. I don't want to get into it," Eddie stated, simply. At that moment, Violet looked through her peripheral vision to see Bill and a redhead walking toward them. She yelped in pain and felt something drip down her side.

"Oh, God, she's bleeding again! Oh, my God!" Eddie freaked, trying to clear it up again.

"Ben from Soc? Vi?" Violet would recognize that voice instantly. It was Beverly Marsh. As much as Violet tried to avoid her, she could sense that they were too similar to actually not hang out.

"You have to suck the wound before you apply the band-aids. Well, lots of band-aids. This is 101," Richie told Eddie, who was now gently applying bandages to Violet's stomach. Violet could feel his fingertips slightly caressing her skin and it made her shiver in fear.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Eddie retorted, as Stanley sat there quietly and helped with the bandages. Violet's skin pricked as she tried to keep her fear from becoming noticeable.

"Are you both okay? That looks like it hurts," Beverly asked, gazing from Ben's nose and knee, to Violet's whole stomach.

"Well, I'm doing a little better than Lettie... She fell," Ben tried to make it not as bad in front of his crush.

"Yeah. Right into Henry Bowers," Richie's mouth spewed out. Violet flinched at the boy's name, something that didn't go unnoticed by Stanley. He held his tongue. He'd talk to her in private about it, later.

"Shut it, R-richie," Bill stated, sensing the way Beverly would react.

"Why? It's the truth," Richie called out, Stanley smacking him on the backside of the head. "Ow!"

"You sure they got The Right Stuff to fix you up?" she smiled at Ben and Violet, who both understood the reference. Violet tried to smile back at her from her position.

"Y-you know, we'll t-take care of 'em. Uh, t-thanks again, B-beverly," Bill told her. She nodded, understanding.

"Sure. Maybe I'll see you around," she began to leave.

"Yeah," she turned back, "We were thinking about going to the quarry tomorrow, if you wanna come," Bill looked over at Violet, who was being helped up by Stanley, "You too, if you want."

"Good to know. Thanks." With that, Beverly left.

"Nice going bringing up Bowers in front of her," Stanley said, aiming it at Richie. Violet flinched yet again out of habit. Stanley gazed at her as he helped her to one of the boxes by Ben. Eddie grabbed more bandages and began to wrap up Ben's knees.

"Yeah, dude, you heard what she did," Eddie mentioned, trying to focus again.

"What'd she do?" Ben asked, confused. Violet sighed and shook her head. Of all the people she thought would believe the rumors, she never expected the Loser's Club to be one of them.

"Nothing," she said, getting everyone's attention, "She did absolutely nothing. Bowers decided she was pretty a few years ago and deemed her worthy enough to date. She turned him down and he decided to create the rumor that she decided to sleep with him. Then in sixth grade, Gretta found it funny to put red paint on her white jeans, as though Beverly had her first period. It's just a bunch of popular kids being stupid and ignorant."

The crew was silent for a few, before Richie's trap opened up to tell the rumors his own way.

"Eh, it's more like, 'Who'd she do?' From what I hear," he glanced at Violet's stone cold eyes and continued, "the list is longer than my wang." He grabbed at his crotch for emphasis. Violet cringed and looked away. She then stood up so fast, she nearly tripped over Eddie, who was still helping Ben.

"I have to go. I should've been home ages ago," she murmured to the group. Bill grabbed her hand, before she left.

"If you w-were still interested, the q-quarry tom-morrow at eleven." She smiled at Bill, before leaving toward home.