The Only Exception •Richie Tozier•

III

Last nights events I had tried to wash out from my brain. It was so real. But all I feel I could do right now is to just keep it to myself until I feel confident enough to explain.

So right now, I'm sat on the back of Beverly's bike and she cycled down to the Quarry. We didn't know if the boys were there yet but we might as well get a head start.

Beverly had all of her hair cut off. I had a feeling it might be something to do with her dad. But her hair really suited her. It defined her face a lot more.

Once we got closer we could hear the sound of the boys trying to pull saliva up from their throat. They were playing that spitting game from the sounds of it. So in sight we saw all 5 boys standing in their white underwear.

Me and Beverly giggled but they didn't seem to hear us. As they spat off one by one and Richie claiming he won of Eddie, Bill interrupted.

"So, who's going first?" He said. I watch them all look down and gulp.

"We will" Beverly cuts in and they all quickly turn their heads to us. I quickly rip off my clothes only standing in my bra and underwear and grabbed Beverly's hand. I see Richie widen his eyes at my current state.

"See ya down their sissy's" I say while me and Bev, hand in hand, jumped right off the Quarry and landed into the water.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" I hear Richie shout above me and I giggled at his reaction. Me and Bev splashed at each other as each boy jumped into the water.

It was moments like these that I felt so alive. That maybe Derry, Maine wasn't such a bad place to live and that I had people who cared for me. No people were missing and everyone was happy. I treasured moments like these.

We all continued to have a water fight, splashing water violently at one another while laughing. I soon ended up on the shoulders of Richie as Beverly ended up on Bill's shoulders. We continued to try and push each other off and soon me and Richie won.

He fell backwards making me laugh as I pushed him under water. It felt like this was a lifetime. And all I could do was stare at Richie. What was this feeling I get ever time I see him? It can't be love, love is not real.

Maybe someday soon I'll figure out what this feeling was but that glasses wearing loser tended to make my heart stop.

After hearing a bunch of squealing about something touching our feet and learning it was a turtle, we all decided to sit up at the rocks. Bill had brought a stereo and 'Bust a move' by Mc smarty soon blared through the speakers.

With a pair of sunglasses on my eyes and my hands behind me holding my body up I relaxed a little more. It wasn't until I felt a pair of eyes burning a hole in my body did I turn to look at the boys.

They all quickly went back to what they were doing and me and Bev smirked at each other knowing they were caught staring.

"Newsflash Ben! Schools out for the summah!" Richie said pretending to hold a microphone while putting on an accent.

"Oh that, that's not school stuff" Ben says while Richie rummages through his school bag.

"Who sent you this?" Richie says laughing as he pulls out a postcard with a picture of Derry on the back of it.

"No one" Ben says quickly snatching it out of Richie's hand before he could read the back of it. Richie pulls out a blue folder that looks like it was filled with newspapers.

"What's with the history project?" Eddie asks looking at the folder.

"Oh, well when I first moved here I didn't really have anyone to hang around with. I spent all my time at the library" Ben explains.

"You went to the library? On purpose" Richie says looking confused. I roll my eyes before running over to sit next to Richie. I could see him staring at me but I ignored it.

I took the glasses off his face and put it on my own before reading through Ben's files. The black spot, the Easter massacre and all these other events.

"You know I can't see your beautiful face without those" Richie jokes and I chuckle as I lay them on his face. When I turned back to Ben I felt an arm snake around my shoulders.

I slowly turned back to Richie to see him smirking. I just shake my head smiling and let him keep his arm there.

"Derry is not like any town I've been in before. People die or go missing 6 times the national average, and that's just adults. Kids are worse, way worse" He explains. I had already knew all that before from hearing it from my step dad. He is a cop for a reason.

"I've got more stuff if you want to see it" Ben says. We all look at each other to say yeah but I can see Eddie shaking his head out of the corner my eye.

We all quickly got dressed and I hopped on the back of Richie's bike. We all followed Ben to his house as none of us knew the way. Once we arrived we dropped our bikes in the garden.

As everyone walked in I seen a women place a poster on the street lamppost. I run over quickly to see it and what I seen was not what I guessed.

Patrick Hocksetter was missing.

He was one of Henry's friends. Also my ex boyfriend. Me and Patrick tried to make something work when he told me he liked me one summer but Henry got in the way of it. He was my first kiss. We drifted apart soon after and I lost feelings for him because of how much a dick he was. I don't think he ever lost feelings for me though.

I quickly run back up to Ben's house and walk into his bedroom. The walls were covered in old newspaper articles or posters or some of Ben's own writing.

"Derry started as a beaver trapping camp" Ben said to Stan, Eddie and Richie. Beverly was near the door and Bill was looking at slideshow pictures of a Derry map.

"Still is am I right boys?" Richie said with his hand to get a high five but he was once again ignored.

"91 people signed that charter in Derry. But the next week all 91 went missing" Ben said. I began to block him out and walked over to Beverly.

"This is a little strange don't ya think?" She said. I nodded my head as I pulled back the door to see the articles behind it. But that was not what I found. A giant poster of the "New kids on the block" hung on the back of the bedroom door.

I seen Beverly smirk and I look back to see Ben shaking his head at me pleading that I pull the door back over. I smiled before pushing it back so no one could see.

Once we were done we all had to go home as it was getting late. Problem was that Beverly needed to be home quickly.

"Fuck" I muttered thinking I'm going to have to walk the whole way home. Why couldn't my fucking lousy ass mother buy me one thing. All I wanted was a bike.

"Need a ride home?" I heard behind me. I see Richie sitting on his bike smiling at me. I nod my head before running over and hopping on. I held on tightly as we made our way down to the house.

"Did you think Ben's stuff was cool?" I ask out of the blue. The wind was pulling my hair back and I could see my house up ahead.

"No, not cool. Nothing cool" Richie laughs and I laugh with him. It was strange but I guess that's what Ben's hobby is.

"Thank you for the lift home" I say as I hop off the bike and turn to Richie. "It means a lot"

"Anytime, really. I'd do anything for you" Richie says. I smile at him and he smiles back. Without thinking, or maybe it was the spur of the moment. Or maybe because the last year I've been feeling something for the guy that I never believed in.

I kissed him.

I could tell he was taken aback when I quickly pulled back. He was wide eyed and his glasses made that bigger.

"See ya tomorrow, Richie" I say as I quickly turn down my garden path to my front door. I looked back to see Richie still standing there staring at the same spot.

Even though I didn't believe in all this. I was willing to make an exception for him.