.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

SHE'S TALKING AGAIN

CHAPTER EIGHT

viii. meeting mike

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THE NEXT DAY'S ADVENTURES BEGAN with the group braking her bike in front of the outdoor staircase of Beverly's apartment. Beverly noticing her friends unmounting their bikes begin bounding down the stairs, putting out a cigarette and dropping it to the ground.

"You made it! I-I need to show you something," She says, breathlessly after jumping the last step. Observing the group,

"What is it?" Eddie asks, tilting his head curiously.

"More than we saw at the quarry?" Richie asks, squinting his eyes. Only to be met with a punch to his arm from Veronica as she looks at him with disapproval.

"Beep beep, Richie!" She mutters out while rolling her eyes before turning her attention back to Beverly and gives her a look of concern.

"Shut up! Just shut up, Richie!" Eddie snaps, snapping his hands across the air.

"My dad will kill me if he finds out I had boys in the apartment," Beverly disregards the question while looking at the boys one by one.

"Good thing I'm a girl then!" Veronica laughs out while walking away from her spot beside Richie and to Beverly. "We could keep a lookout, if it'd help," She would add afterward.

"Richie, s-stay here!" Bill agrees with Veronica on the lookout suggestion.

Eyes turn to Richie who raises his arms in retaliation as the group begins to walk away.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! What if her dad comes back!?" Richie asks in a slight panic, watching as Veronica giggles at his dismay.

"Distract him, dumbass!" Veronica answers, turning away and climbing the stairs behind Beverly.

"Do what you always do! Start talking!" Stan adds to Veronica's statement before running up the stairs after the rest.

"It is a gift!" Richie shouts to the group who began to ignore him and already, ran into the apartment.

♧

They enter the apartment and Beverly leads them down the hall to a doorway. Standing uneasy at the end of the hall, burning stares into the door, Beverly speaks.

"In there..." She mumbles as the rest crowd closer to her.

"What is it?" Stan asks while taking a breath.

"You'll see," Beverly responds with a pause at the beginning as Bill begins walking towards the door. The rest follow.

"Are you taking us to your bathroom? Just want you to know that 89% of worse accidents at homes are caused in bathrooms and-and-and-and... That's where all the bacteria and fungi are. It's not really a sanitary place, " Eddie rambles as they inch closer and closer towards the door. Bill pushes the door open on his last word. Earning a whimper from Eddie.

"I knew it!" He gags, leaning into Veronica for support. Hiding his face in the smaller girl's t-shirt.

It's filled, ceiling to floor in blood.

"What the actual fuck happened in here?" Veronica asks, taking in a shaky breath and snapping her scrunchie on her wrist multiple times in discomfort. Now, wishing that Richie had come up as well so she could grab onto him for comfort. A habit she had whenever she was uneasy. She craved his presence to keep her safe.

"You see it?" Beverly asks, relieved.

"No shit, we see it!" Veronica answers, continuing to snap her scrunchie on her wrist. Then, resorting to pinch at her skin in hopes to find that this horrendous scene was all a dream.

"What happened in here?" Stan repeats Veronica's earlier question with a frown on his face.

"My dad couldn't see it, I thought I might be crazy," Beverly says, not wanting to speak of the experience just yet.

"Well if you're crazy, we're all crazy..." Ben adds, edge in his voice.

"W-we c-can't leave it like this" Bill says, entering the bathroom as Eddie looks at Veronica in shock and fear while shaking his head, no.

♧

And, so, they set to work on a warm, sunny, July, summer day. Cleaning a blood infested bathroom with buckets of water and rags found in the kitchen.

Each worked on a specific task, Beverly scrubbed at the mirror and walls while Stan cleaned the window over and over again in equal strokes.

Bill worked with a mop, cleaning the floor which only seemed to spread the blood around more.

Eddie had used a clothespin to pin his nose closed, groaning and moaning to himself as he drained the rags they used.

Ben cleaned the floor with a rag, more efficiently than Bill's mop.

Veronica stood over the sink, craning her neck to clean the inside of it. The group made close to none conversation while they cleaned and by the end of it, they were only lucky enough to escape the scene with unstained clothes.

♧

"No, I love being your personal doorman! Really! Could you idiots have taken longer?" Richie starts, as he begins biking circles around the group who walked their bikes down the street.

"Alright Richie, shut up!" Eddie yells agitated with his complaints, walking at a steady pace beside Veronica and shaking his head at her whenever Richie makes a comment.

"Yeah! Shut up, Richie!" Stan agrees, rolling his eyes at the boy's constant comments.

"Oh, okay! Trash the trashmouth, I get it!" Richie says while zooming past Veronica, causing her to stumble back in shock and whisper-shout "Fuck off, Tozier!" out.

"Hey, I wasn't the one scrubbing her bathroom floor imagining her sink went all Eddie's mom's vagina on Halloween!" Richie continues, going behind the group and looping back to the front.

"She didn't imagine" Bill mumble as the rest stop walking and stare at him, in a way to ask him to tell more.

" I s-saw something too.." He adds quickly while focusing his eyes to the ground.

"You saw blood too?" Stan asks.

"Not blood. I s-saw G-G-Georgie" Bill answers, biting his lip down. He looked almost ashamed. He was saddened, ashamed, guilty. He felt as if Geogie's disappearance was his fault, after all.

The group turns to him in interest and shock as Bill continues with his explanation.

"It seemed so real. I mean, it seemed like him but there was, this..." He trails off on the last part.

Eddie looking down and beginning with a waver in his voice, "A clown..." Veronica looks up from the ground and nods in agreement about the odd happenings.

"Yeah, I saw him too" Eddie whispers looking away. Bill looks at Ben. he nods. Then, stan. He nods too.

"V?" Bill asks with a curious look on his face. She breathes in and nods.

"Wait, can only virgins see this stuff? Is that why I'm not seeing this shit?" Richie blurts out, pointing to himself while looking between his friends with his eyes squinted in confusion.

"Shut up and suck a strap-on, Rich. You're a virgin and we all know it!" Veronica snaps while grimacing at Richie's idiocy.

Just then, they begin hearing shouts and yells coming from the trees beside the road.

"Oh shit, that's Belch Huggins car. We should probably get out of here," Eddie starts to mount his bike, staring at the shrubs and trees in fear.

"Wait, isn't that the homeschooled kids bike?" Bill points at a bike that's overturned to its side on the grass.

"Yeah, that's Mike's," Veronica responds, biting the inside of her cheek and snapping her scrunchie on her wrist.

"We have to help him," Beverly says, looking to the group with urgency in both eyes and voice.

"We should?" Richie asks, reluctantly.

"Yes!" Beverly answers as if it's obvious before dropping her bike and running off to the bushes. Followed by the rest.

Stan staying back to put up his stand and Veronica getting caught on the pedal and tripping over. As Stan runs way, she kicks his bike down and runs to Richie who laughs out, "Loser!" only to be met with an "Asshole!" back.

Running to a clearing they find homeschooled farmboy, Mike Hanlon on the ground with his head being pushed into meat which lay on the ground. Racist remarks being yelled and multiple cusses shouted through the air by the Bowers Gang.

Mike begins to get up, to be met by a kick to the jaw causing him to fall back again. Henry then climbs atop of him, screaming and attempting to pin him down. Then, raising a rock.

Veronica, just realizing what was about to happen begins to panic and shouts out to the other side while Beverly picks up a rock.

"Hey! Leave him the fuck alone! You group of motherfucking assholes!" She watches as Beverly sends a large rock hurtling towards Henry, hitting him at the side of his face.

"Nice throw!" Stan smiles, looking to Beverly in awe.

"Thanks," She nods as the group bends down to grab their own rocks. Mike begins to crawl across the stream towards them. Veronica walks to the edge, grabbing his hands with her's and pulling him up to the clearing with them. He sits at the edge, catching his breath.

"You losers are trying too hard! She'll do you, you just gotta ask nicely. Like I did," Henry says standing up and groping at his area. Veronica inhales and tightens her grip around her rock. Who was he to utter lies about her friends? Ben screams out in anger.

"Oh! And Veronica, looking fine as always. I'd love to hit that! Can't wait till' you come to your senses and stop hanging out with these losers. Come with us, you'll have fun" Henry adds with a smirk, looking the small girl up and down, licking his lips.

Richie's breath hitches at that comment. Who was he to be staring at his Ronnie like that? To speak of her like that? To even think of her like that?

He chucks a rock. Straight at Henry's forehead. "Don't talk about her like that, asshole!" He shouts. Followed by Beverly tossing a rock too, and soon, followed by the rest of the group.

"ROCK WAR!" Richie shouts. Then getting hit in the head with a rock, causing him to fall down.

"Watch out!" Bill yells seeing a rock hurtling towards Ben. They continue to toss rocks across the stream, Eddie jumping into it and angrily tossing more at a closer distance.

"Suck a strap-on! Where's your lover, Henry? What was his name? Patrick Cocksucker?" Veronica shouts, bringing up a conversation she overheard Patrick and Henry speaking about while picking up a rock and throwing it across the stream.

ASoon, Belch and Victor run off into the woods. Leaving Henry alone, on the ground. The Club begins to leave now. Satisfied with the damage done.

"Go blow your dad! You mullet wearing asshole!" Richie shouts out, flipping them off before Veronica grabs his hand and runs off laughing with him.