IMPULSE {Richie Tozier}

22

For an hour, Ivy clung to Mike while crying her heart out. The losers took it upon themselves to bury the dog, and create a memorable landmark for the grave.

Mike held her the entire time she cried and watch them bury her best friend.

Novocane was her whole world. Her entirety. She was basically incapable of living without Novocane, in her mind. Mentally speaking, she's disabled. She needs a service dog, and she needs a friend.

Finally, Bill places the last flower on the landmark, still quietly crying along with everyone else.

Ivy leaves Mike's arms to step around the grave with everyone else. They all link hands, staring down at the burial sight with sadness. Guilt runs through their minds. Ivy lost Richie and Novocane, there was no way to be sure that she'd be alright.

"Y-You should t-tell y-your parents w-when you get home..." Bill quietly mumbles, letting go of the others hands to wipe his tears.

Ivy stares at the ground blankly.

"They left."

"What?" Eddie nervously questions. "What do you mean they left?"

"They left to Acuña, Mexico for a month. I'm home alone. I'm gonna fucking kill my—"

"Don't say that!" Stan interrupts, cautiously looking at his friend. Ivy continues to stare blankly ahead of her. To make matters worse, the sound of Henry Bowers and his goons dance their way into the losers' ears. Mike panics a little at this.

"I think that's Henry Bowers...we should—"

"No, Mike. I'm not going anywhere." Ivy growls, standing her ground. The losers nervously stay by her, not about to leave their friend behind.

And sure enough, out of the bushes comes a laugh Henry and Belch. Victor follows soon after. Henry pauses when he sees the losers, then smirks.

"Well, would you look what we got here?"
The bully coos. Ivy glares directly at him.

"Not now, Henry."

Everyone stares at the girl in shock, not expecting her to stand up for herself.

"Excuse me?" He snarls.

"You heard me." She spits, looking him in the eye. "It's Novocane. She's dead."

Henry's glare drops, and his eyes shift to the grave. Suddenly, he looks back up to the girl with a bit of a delicate expression.

Henry and Ivy knew each other through gang affiliation.

Her parents were in a gang that he frequents and might as well be apart of. So, he pretends to be all Mr. Badass, but really never actually does her any harm. To him it's all just a game, but even he knows the seriousness of the current situation.

"Fuck—" he mutters, causing the losers to widen their eyes at his sympathy. "Sorry...let's get out of here, guys."

He guides his goons away, and even they stare at him surprised. They follow anyway.

"What...what j-just happened?" Bill utters, staring shocked.

"It's a long story." Ivy sighs, clutching Novocane's collar in her hand. "Guys, do you think you can stay with me tonight? I don't think I can do it...I don't think I'll make it by myself."

"Sure." Stan answers for everyone. "We'll stay."

Eddie fidgets a little.

"But what about my mom—"

"J-Just say you're s-stay over at mine..." Bill states. Eddie nods slowly, glancing towards the extremely fragile Ivy. "Lets go home.." Ben finally says, indicating to take Ivy home. Everyone follows his lead back to Ivy's house.

Ivy feels so much that she's literally numb to emotion.

Meanwhile, Richie had been completely fooled. Turns out, Janice wants nothing to do with him. She just wanted to hurt Ivy, and even admitted to only even associating with him for that purpose.

Richie feels like such an idiot. At the same time though, it's not entirely his fault. He's spent such a long time with this crappy life, is it so wrong for him to want more? He doesn't expect anyone to understand that, and he knows damn well that what he did was wrong. He doesn't even know the first thing to say to Ivy. He doesn't even know the first thing to say to his friends.

Frustration flows through his veins as he thinks more and more into the situation.

He figures they're probably comforting Ivy, so her house is the first place he goes. Once he's stood in front of the door however, he can't bring himself to knock.

"People make mistakes, but I like to go big and completely fuck it all up."

He remembers saying that to Ivy. Now he wishes he were a different person. He wishes he wouldn't be Richie Tozier anymore.

Shakily, he brings his hands to knock on the door. A few minutes pass where no one answers. Finally though, it's thrown open. Eddie is stood there.

There's a thick tension in the air before he attempts to slam the door back closed.

"Wait!" Richie begs, holding the door open. Eddie glares harshly at the boy, opening the door once more. "What do you want?" Eddie spits.

"Eds, please, listen to me– I know I fucked up, but please– I'm sorry!" Richie swears, throwing Eddie a pleading look. Eddie frowns deeply, feeling betrayal course through him. "FIRST OF ALL– don't call me, Eds. Second, why did you do that back there?..."

Richie sighs in relief, he knew he could count on Eddie to hear him out.

"Honestly, I've just been obsessed with this idea– idea that makes no sense now. I figured that if I dated Janice, I could finally have a normal life...I thought maybe–" He swallows the lump in his throat, "–maybe...I could taste the finer things in life, but what I didn't realize is...Ivy is the finer things in life. Trust me, I've taste her plenty of times."

Eddie cringes at how crude he could be in even this situation.

"Gross. Okay okay, I get it. So do the rest of the losers, who all heard what you just said." Eddie chuckles softly, opening the door further to reveal the others. Except Ivy and Novocane. "Listen though Richie, now isn't a good time to—"

"I need to apologize. Now."

He insists, pushing his way into the house. Eddie stumbles back in surprise, immediately latching his arm onto Richie's to pull him to a stop. "Richie, NO."

"Why not?" Richie sighs, "I know she's mad
but—"

"Novocane got run over. She's dead." Stan blankly says, causing the losers to look down in shame. Richie freezes, staring at them wide-eyed. Suddenly, he lets out a small laugh causing everyone to look up disgusted. "I get
it—" he laughs, "this is a joke right?"

They suddenly realize his denial and begin to feel even worse of the situation, Bev leaves the room entirely. Ben follows after her.

"Sh-She's really dead, Richie..." Bill mutters, his voice cracking a little as he exits the room and rushes towards Ivy's room. Richie stands dumbfounded, his heart breaking more than it already was. Guilt rushes through him and his face crinkles into sadness. He lets out a sob, taking Eddie and Stan by surprise. But they understood. They all loved Novocane. Without hesitation, Mike pulls Richie into a small hug. Eddie takes a huff off his inhaler, trying not to cry again.

Stan sighs deeply, trying to force his tears down too.

"Th-This is all my fault, holy shit. I-I killed Novocane! If I would've just—"

"You didn't kill Novocane, Richie." Stan mutters sadly. "It's okay. Just, apologize to Ivy and fix things instead of fucking them up for once."

Richie nods through tears, pulling away from Mike's hug and wiping his cheeks.

With a deep breath, he makes his way to Ivy's room, where Ivy is being embraced by Bill and sobbing quietly in her sleep.