How We Stop It ✔️ Reddie Stenbrough Benverly

Rock War

'Shut up,' Bev snorted, feeling the orange juice bubble in her nose as she did so.

'It's true!' Ben cried. 'When they reunited, I bought the new album, I got tickets for the concert tour and I saw their tour with the Backstreet Boys a few years later.'

She laughed, 'I cannot believe you are still such a New Kids fan after all this time.'

'Are you saying you've grown out of them?' he pouted sadly.

Bev thought, 'Maybe. Although I did name my dog Donnie. Could be a coincidence?'

'There is no way that's coincidence,' Ben insisted.

'There's Mike,' Bev waved him inside the café to join her and Ben at a large round table they had managed to occupy.

'Good morning,' Mike said, sitting himself down. 'Where are the others?'

'Joining soon.' Ben said, and no sooner as he had, the rest of the Losers descended.

'Morning, all,' Richie greeted, scooting out his chair and sitting down, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

'You're chipper,' Mike commented, remembering Richie's deeply sombre mood the previous evening.

Everyone else, bar Ben, shot glances at one another and couldn't help but laugh, even though they knew that Mike was alienated from the joke. As he complained, demanding to know what was quite so funny, Richie laced his fingers with Eddie's on the table-top, gently caressing with his thumb. Then, briefly, Eddie kissed his cheek.

Ben's eyes immediately searched for Eddie's wedding ring, and he audibly gasped when he realised that Eddie had removed it. In less than twenty-four hours, Eddie had discounted the entire life that he had built outside of Derry for the sake of Richie Tozier. Bev just smiled at them both, so happy for them that it threatened to burst out of her in tears or a piercing scream.

Below the height of the table, Stan let his own hand find Bill's, his own private declaration of a similar sentiment. Bill exhaled carefully, trying not to betray any emotion on his face. He didn't feel contentment in the same way that Richie and Eddie so clearly did and questioned if that meant anything.

Mike was stunned, overjoyed and petrified. 'Oh,' he said, swallowing, staring at their joined hands. 'Wow.'

Once more instilled with a fear he knew all too well, Richie's face dropped. 'What?'

Only Mike didn't know what to say, how to say it. All he could think about was the carnage he had witnessed at the kissing bridge following the Derry carnival killings, when he'd realised that It had returned, when It killed Adrian Mellon and his boyfriend Don Hagerty was half-beaten to death.

He thought about himself too, about the prejudice that he and Angela had received when they were together, unable to walk hand-in-hand down the streets without being stared at. He knew how it felt to not have your relationship understood or recognised.

'Oh, man,' Mike sighed, pinching the end of his nose, hating that he, of all people, had to be the one to shatter a brief moment of joy. He lowered his voice, 'For the record, I am so happy for you both, and I love you, and I love the idea of your chaotic, hysterical friendship becoming a chaotic, hysterical relationship, but,' he darted glances over his shoulders, as though he was afraid they were being watched.

Richie and Eddie let each other go. Under the table, as did Bill and Stan.

'But?' Richie pressed, his face wan, his voice cold.

The café owner came over with an expression like steel. He said no words, only held up a rectangular sign which read: We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.