Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 20: Get Mad and Even

Richie pedals as fast as he can away from the school, trying to avoid seeing his friends, especially Eddie... the big fat blabbermouth. Could he have uttered anything more humiliating than the size of his member? Yeah sure he'd provoked the outburst, but he was only dicking around. Besides, Ed knew better than anyone that Richie was a trash mouth and if he gave you shit, it meant that he liked you... plus he never actually meant what he said... except for now. He'd meant what he said that morning and he was going to follow through until Wheezy apologized.

After running away from Bill and Bev, Richie had run to the far end of the school and hid in the boy's bathroom. He locked himself in a stall and took off his glasses. He attempted to wipe the tears from his eyes. Some of it was from physical pain, but most from losing his best friend. He did his best to keep his crying quiet, using toilet paper to muffle the sounds of his nose running, but whenever the door swung open, he lifted his feet up to make the place seem empty.

He ignored the first bell signalling first period and he continued to sulk for a long time, knowing that he'd have the peace and quiet to do so. Even after the second bell rang, and the third, he stayed scarce for as long as possible.

Eventually, his stomach started growling and decided to go for lunch... besides, his legs and butt were falling asleep from sitting so long.

When he was sure he would not be seen, he exited the stall and went to the bathroom mirror.

He stared at himself; he was covered in dirt with several scratches on his cheek that had bled and then dried up. He also had a lousy shiner coming in his left eye. There were other marks on his arms and legs from fighting, plus a bad tear in his shirt and one of the screws in his glasses was loose. Richie continued to stare, unable to recognize himself. Why that was he didn't know, nor did he care, but he set about cleaning up his face and arms. If the teachers had heard about the fight by then, he wanted to get rid of the evidence. While the shiner was going to take a little longer to heal, he could always make up the excuse that he walked into a door.

He knew that he would have to have some sort of excuse ready for when he got home to tell his parents. If his mom heard that he'd gotten in a fight, she'd freak out and his dad would chew him out for being so stupid. It was the last thing he needed, especially because of how shitty he felt.

Richie spent the rest of the day avoiding his friends because of the risk of encountering Eddie again. He even hid in the library during lunch, which felt wrong to him and the minute school let out, he was gone. He'd seen a few glances from other kids, no doubt the story of the fight had spread, but since he was a new kid, most people just shrugged it off and ignored him. Either that or they were afraid that he'd attack them first.

The trash mouth begins pedalling away, having no direction or destination in mind. He begins riding through town, just taking everything in, stalling to avoid going home.

He's on the outer edges of town when the revving of a car engine takes him off guard. It sounds like someone is trying to burn the rubber off their tires. If there was a street race going on, he's all in, but only if he's watching from the sidelines. He cycles to the side to let the guy pass, but out of the corner of his eye, he can see a flurry of blue racing towards him, the engine getting louder and louder.

He barely has time to react before having to steer his bike into a ditch to avoid being hit. He skids to a halt at a weird angle, cursing under his breath as he receives more scratches from the gravel and surrounding brambles. He ditches his bike and goes up a small slope to see a blue Camaro coming to a stop on the opposite side of the road. The trash mouth knows that this was not an accident and that this guy was trying to run him over if he hadn't gotten out of the way. It was like it was a f***king game to him, playing chicken with cyclists and the motorist had stopped to revel in his deed.