𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐏𝐋𝐄 *.☽ .* 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐀𝐔

1

Neibolt Street, Derry, Maine
Wednesday 13th July 1992
8:10 am

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Finally the day had come. The day all the Losers Club were awaiting. Stanley Uris' 16th Birthday. The most important birthday of them all.

Your 16th birthday meant that the first words your soulmate said to you would appear on your left wrist.

This concept seemed extremely confusing to already-16-year-old Eddie Kaspbrak. It scared him, going to bed with clean and bare wrists and waking up with a massive illustration planted on one, like a tattoo you got the night before while on a drunk night out. You probably didn't even want it, but it's there forever permanently embedded in your skin.

As Eddie wheeled his bike to the end of his road, Neibolt Street, to meet his best friend Richie, he thought about how he hadn't looked at his left wrist for 10 months now.

As soon as he woke up on his 16th birthday, unlike most kids, he trudged downstairs and asked his mother to cover up the words on it with a bandage. All the Losers did this, or something similar.

The Losers made a promise beforehand that they would all reveal their words to each other at lunch time on Stan's birthday, since he was the youngest, so that they could share this magical and wonderful experience together, as a team like they were.

10 months full of wonder. 10 months full of anticipation. 10 months full of anxiety. Even more anxiety than Eddie's usual, which was an astronomical amount.

What if the words are super inappropriate?! He thought to himself. No, obviously it's not inappropriate because my mom saw it when she covered it up for me and if it was inappropriate, she probably would have never let me leave the house in case of meeting my equally inappropriate soulmate. Or she would have tried to find a way to scrub it off me. Wait, what if i don't have anything on my wrist? What if I don't have a soulmate. Fuck. I know I tend to go off on a tangent sometimes and talk too much, but i'm not completely unlovable right? Oh god what if-

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted.

"Ohhhhh Eddie Bear!" The voice of a boy his age chimed out in a fake British mom voice.
Eddie of course knew it was Richie straight away. He was his only friend strange enough to talk with other accents out of the blue.

Eddie rolled his eyes, not even meeting Richie's gaze. He knew how much Eddie hated that nickname given to him by his overprotective mother.

"Shut the fuck up wise guy." Eddie bit playfully back at Richie, trying not to smile.

"Aww you're so cute when you're pretending to be annoyed at me."

Eddie once again rolled his eyes and the two began to walk to meet Bill and Stan outside Bill's house, wheeling their bikes at their side.

Richie could sense Eddie was nervous. After all, he was his best friend. "Hey Eddie, I know you're probably nervous about what your wrist says. But don't think about it too much. Like, don't let it control your life or anything you know?"

"Yeah I know. It's just a weird feeling I guess. 10 months of waiting, and I can finally see what it says today, but I'm not even sure I want to," Eddie muttered, staring at his feet as he walked, his Adidas trainers making a soft scuffing noise on the concrete below him.

"I get what you mean, it's like a fucking tattoo thing chooses who we're gonna spend the rest of our life with and not us." Richie looked at Eddie and for the first time that morning, Eddie looked back at him, staring straight into his deep chocolate eyes. His eyes made Eddie feel safe and less nervous about the big reveal later on that day. His eyes were like home.

"Precisely," He uttered in response, his eyes still fixated with the taller boy's. Even though Eddie was older than Richie by a few months, Richie has always been the taller one. It was a trait Eddie always cursed his parents for, being so small.

Richie on the other hand thought Eddie's height was adorable, although he would never say that to him, only if it were meant to be taken as a joke.

Soon enough, the pair arrived at Bill's house where Stan and Bill stood outside. Bill was hooking a '16 Today' badge onto Stan's blue and white striped polo shirt while Stan complained and tried to fidget out of Bill's grip.

Eddie and Richie were not surprised in the least that Bill was doing something like this. It was painfully obvious that Bill had a massive crush on Stan.

"Hey birthday boy!" Eddie called out to Stan, making him and Bill snap their heads towards them.

"Come here so we can give you some birthday smooches!" Richie said, making slurping sounds afterwards, earning a well deserved, in Bill's opinion, irritated look. "Ahahah just kidding. We'll give you 16 birthday punches instead!" And with that, Richie abandoned his bike on the pavement and sprinted towards Stan, beginning to punch him lightly on the arm. "One, two, three-"

"Richie man stop," said Stanley through giggles.

"Four, five, six, seven"

"O-okay Rich, leave the p-poor guy alone." Bill said, trying to pull Richie away.

"Eight, nine, ten. Okay my arm is tired now."

"Your arm is tired? Excuse me, mine was just used as a human punching bag." Stan frowned.

"Sike!" Richie bellowed at Stan and began to punch him six more times, bringing his total to Stan's age.

"Come on guys, let's get going. I don't wanna be late," Eddie shouted towards the three boys.

"Pussy," Richie shouted back.