sweets// patrick hockstetter

5

Victor and Lavender saw the five boys all standing in front of the jump but Victor smiled, ripping off his shoes and socks and quickly sliding his shirt off and unbuckling his jeans and he was in the air with a quick whoaaaa.

Beverly unbuttoned her dress beside me and sent me a small wink as she jumped into the warm water below.

"Did we just get shown up by a girl and a bower's gang member?" Richie says in disbelief.

"So?" Lavender says as she strips out of her jean shorts and her tank top which only left her with black lace-trimmed underwear and a double d black bra.

"You're about to get shown up by a bower's gang member, a girl, and your best friend all in one." As I jumped off I flipped them off and I landed in the water. Bill, Ben, and Stanley were bickering about who was going to go first but that's when Eddie was thrown off but not before dragging Richie with him.

The rest of the boys all came down one by one, Ben came over to me, "Did you seriously bring one of the boys who held me down?"

"Ben." Lavender says, "He's my best friend. If you're going to hang out with us, you're gonna need to get used to us being here."

"I think you both should apologize to me," Ben says.

"HA, good luck with that, Benny Boy." Lavender slapped his shoulder playfully, "The boys don't apologize to me, and I'm the only reason you don't have his whole name on you so I think I deserve a thank you and now if you don't mind." Lavender left Ben alone and went up to the rest of the group splashing.

She splashes Sta who splashes her harder and Victor suddenly comes up behind her and dunks her in the water again.

"Asshole!" Lavender said to him when she finally got up from the water.

"That's my name," Victor tells her and that's when something hits her heart. Patrick.

He would have loved this. Not hanging with the losers' but being at the Quarry. Most specifically, he would love to spend time with Lavender. He didn't really care where they were together but there was something about Lavender that Patrick liked.

Lavender frowned as his fingers went to the necklace, rubbing the chain, "you okay, Lav?" Victor was concerned, the normal smile gracing Lavender was gone and instead, she was looking in the water. Like she was stuck in a moment.

"Yeah," She whispers softly. She looks up at him, the smile not coming back but her face plain as she got her on her back, just swimming. Until her eyes caught Beverly and her new haircut.

"I like your hair, Bev." Beverly grins and goes to smooth down a part of it.

"Thanks, Lavvie." Lavender mustered up a small smile and went back to swimming.

Swimming was one of her favorite things ever.

A memory came to Lavender's mind as she just kept swimming, it was Patrick and her at her house.

The pool was freshly opened and Patrick and her with their feet in it. Patrick played loud music on his boombox. Lavender got into the pool first and basically pulled Patrick inside of it and he glared at her before going to grab her and pull her under the water.

After everyone got done swimming they got out of the water. All of the boys were staring at Beverly, all of her perfection stretching out letting the sun dry the water from her skin. Lavender got her shirt before laying down next to Beverly.

She saw them all scanning Beverly which was fair. Beverly was gorgeous.

Lavender sat back on her hands, just soaking in the sun. She didn't notice how all the boys were now split between her and Beverly.

They all watched the bigger girl in awe as she let her wet long curls move ever so lightly in the wind, the freckles on her cheeks coming loud on her skin due to the exposure to the sun, and the low cut shirt was showing off her cleavage.

Ben and Bill's attention was still mostly on Beverly who they both were desperately in love with but Eddie, Richie, and Stanley couldn't decide who they wanted to stare at more.

Victor bites back a laugh at the starstruck boys, Victor has seen Lavender like this more times than he could count.

Lavender sang to the song on the radio, and she knew every single word to Bust a Move.

Lavender opened her eyes to see the boys all awkwardly look in the other directions besides Richie who playfully winked at her which caused her to giggle.

Beverly turned over and Lavender sat up straight and sat crisscross with her elbows on her knees.

"Newsflash, Ben." Richie says, taking his eyes off Lavender, "Schools out for the summer." He says in a horrible accent while talking into a fake microphone.

"That's not for school," Ben says, and Richie pulls out a postcard Richie reads the writing while pulling his glasses up but Ben immediately went red and yanked the card from Richie's hands.

"Rich. Stop, being so nosy." Lavender tells him and Richie scoffs.

"If I'm not nosy, how will I find out anything, hot stuff?" Lavender shook her head at him

"The same way you got to know me by being your charming self." She said and that made the whole group erupt into a laugh beside Richie who just went into Ben's bag even more.

Lavender let out a few snorts before Richie pulled out a large file full of papers, "What's with all the history stuff, Ben?" Eddie asks. His hand accidentally brushed Richie and Lavender noticed the way Richie's eyes went wide.

Lavender smiled at the small interaction between the two boys.

"Well, when I first moved here. I didn't have anything to hang out with so I spent a lot of my time in the library." Ben tells Richie and Richie scrunches his face.

"You went to the library on purpose?"

"Yeah, Derry has some weird-ass history." Lavender agreed.

"What's so weird about it?" Stanley asks. Richie is annoyed now that everyone ignored his comment, he just read the file on Eddie's lap.

"People die and go missing here six times the national average." Lavender shares with them.

"Maybe, it's all because of that clown you saw," Richie snorts and Eddie hits his arm. Lavender frowns a little.

"Oh, sorry Lav," Richie says. He gets up almost immediately and goes to sit with her, "You know, I'm just fucking around." He puts his arm around her and pulls her into him and Lavender pinches his arm.

"Those are just the adults. Kids are worse." Ben says.

"It seems like every few years or something, a bunch of kids all go missing. Like what's happening now? And It can't all be just one guy, that would be impossible. He would be immortal." Stanley tells us.

"Yes. It's been going on since the start of the town. He would have to be a vampire." Beverly adds.

"I don't know. I saw a demonic clown, so could it be a demonic clown vampire?" Lav asks, her usual joking tone was gone and instead placed a sad one.

Richie didn't understand Lavender and Patrick's relationships. He was an asshole and Lavender was the sweetest person he ever met but he knew that she was hurting and he would do anything for her so he squeezer her shoulders.

"I've some stuff at my house if you want to come to look at it," Ben says with hope. They all agreed but Victor had to go home so Lavender gave him a hug before he left and when everyone left, Richie came up beside her,

"Hey, Lav. Are you okay? I mean, you know you don't have to act like you're okay around us?" Richie didn't exactly know what to say, he wasn't really good at comforting people he was better at cheering people up.

Lavender had a problem with expressing emotions and she didn't want to be a burden on anyone. She was very upset about the disappearance of Patrick and she missed him but she just couldn't show anyone else.

It was frustrating, she wished Richie could understand, "I know, Rich." She says, "And I'm okay." Lavender walked beside Richie and Stanley on their way to Ben's house.