Collision

He Didn't Curse Once

"Great! I'll call Bev later and tell her." Bill grinned to himself.

"It's been what? Almost seven years since we saw Bev?" Stanley asked.

" '85 right?" Mike asked, and Bill nodded.

"That was a... crazy summer." Ben said, his voice growing quieter with every word as he began remembering the events that took place that summer.

"Yeah. Twenty more years." Eddie said, biting his lip.

"Twenty years until what?" Richie piped up, curious.

"You know what, Richie." Stanley rolled his eyes.

"Uh, no I don't?" It came out like a question.

"You know, every twenty-seven years?" Ben asked, tilting his head side to side as he talked.

"What, like a solar eclipse or something? Did that happen that summer?" He asked. He was genuinely confused.

"Richie-No-What? Do you really not remember?" Bill asked. 

"What exactly am I supposed to fucking be remembering?" He asked. Eddie put a hand on his shoulder.

"IT." He almost whispered. "Do you not remember IT?" The confused look on his face turned into one of remembrance. He sank into his chair, all the memories he'd pushed to the back of his mind quickly flooding back. He bit his lip and they looked at each other. He nodded slightly.

"Yeah, I remember. I don't want to, but I remember." No one said anything for a couple of minutes, thinking of the horrifying memories of that summer. Richie sat up, took a couple of huge gulps from his Pepsi, burped, and said, "When and why did this happy reunion get so damn depressing?" 

They rolled their eyes at his lack of manners but nodded in agreement.

"We'll worry about IT when the time comes." Mike said, and they all agreed.

"So, Richie, are we gonna be meeting your band mates tonight?" Stanley asked.

"Probably. We usually go out to the quarry after shows and smoke a couple jo- I'm kidding Eds!" Richie held up his hands, biting his lip to keep from laughing. "I don't smoke, I swear. You know that." Eddie gave him a look and went back to his salad, shaking his head. Richie giggled.

"Whipped." Bill coughed. Richie rolled his eyes but the grin never left his face.

~~~~~

That night, there was a pretty good crowd, a hundred and fifty or more people.

"There's a lot of people out here." Stanley said, looking around. They were right at the front, waiting on Richie and his band to come on stage.

"What's taking so long?" Eddie mumbled, but Mike heard him.

"You know Richie, he's gotta be fashionably late to anything and everything." Mike said. Eddie laughed and nodded in agreement, then Richie jogged on stage, a girl and two other boys following him.

"Sorry! Sorry, I didn't mean to be this late. Had to put a new string on my guitar, because someone decided to pop it." He glared at a curly haired boy sitting at the drums, who gave him a thumbs up. "Anyways, like usual, we're covering songs and not our own, which we'll actually be doing next fall, maybe?" It came out like a question and just about everyone in the crowd cheered. "But this is our last show until then, so I hope you guys enjoy it."

"Wow." Ben almost whispered.

"What?" Bill asked.

"He didn't curse once." He said, which caused the others to laugh.

"Here's Time After Time." Richie said, and the music started, but he didn't sing. The girl in the group did. She sang a couple of songs, which Richie and the two other boys joined in on, and finally, Richie said, "We're gonna do a couple more songs-" There were several unhappy boos from the crowd, "I know, I know. I'm gonna miss us too." He joked. "This is Every Breath You Take." This was the first song he was singing as a solo, and Eddie was rocking back and forth on his heels, excited. He's never actually watched him perform with his band before.

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you

Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you

At the end of the song, Eddie cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed,

"I love you! You're amazing!" Richie looked right at him, a grin on his face. He held up a heart with his hands and winked at him.

"I love you too, Eds." Richie said into the microphone. Eddie smiled at him widely, ignoring the nickname.

"He's fucking..." Bill looked at the others. 

"Talented as fuck." Ben replied. They nodded. They sang a couple more songs and the Losers danced and sang along with the ones they knew. Finally, "This song is I Love Rock and Roll." The crowd cheered.

Just about every single person there sang along, making the last song ten times better. Towards the end, Richie held his microphone out to the Losers and let them sing, which they found hilarious. The other band mates talked to the crowd some and eventually it was just the Losers with a couple of random people standing around talking.

"So, what'd you fuckers think?" Richie asked, sitting on the edge of the stage while the other three went down the steps with the others.

"I don't really know what to say." Stanley said.

"Me neither." Ben agreed. Richie raised an eyebrow.

"You guys were amazing." Eddie said. He walked up to Richie and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him down to whisper in his ear. "But you were the best." He then kissed him right on the lips, in front of everyone. Eddie usually hated PDA so it was a shock to Richie that he was kissing him. He kissed back, but they were interrupted by,

"That is absolutely disgusting! You two are going to he-" Before the lady with no importance could finish her sentence, Richie and Eddie yelled in unison,

"Fuck you!" And kissed again while the rest of the Losers flipped her off. She scoffed and walked off. The two pulled away and burst out laughing. Richie ran a hand through his hair and looked at his band mates.

"Right, I still gotta introduce you ass wipes. This is Ayla, Jack, and Malcolm," He said, pointing at each of them, "And this is Eddie, Ben, Bill, and Stanley." They waved at each other. "You already know Mike."

"It's nice to finally meet you guys!" Ayla said, grinning at them.

"Yeah, Richie never shuts the fuck up about you guys." Richie rolled his eyes and flipped Jack off.

"Anyone up for pizza and movies at my place?" Stanley asked, and everyone agreed. "You three are obviously welcome to join us." They grinned and nodded.

"Just follow my car." Bill told them and they went on their way.