Streddie: All I Need Is To Fix This Thing

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

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Once Richie caught his breath he took a moment of surprise. It was a miracle his body could function with how he was living. Even once he calmed down he could hear his heart pumping in his ears. He noticed all the loser's bikes parked out front, and he saw Stan's that was standing up because he could never let it lay on its side, and Richie felt a pang that resonated deep in his heart, remembering when they would ride around town after Richie had to leave his house. See, Richie had lost his bike days ago when Henry Bowers threw it off the kissing bridge and Richie lay splayed on the ground, too beaten, weak, and tired to even consider trying to get it. He had been even more tired when he arrived at his house and got beat for returning without his bike. "That bike was too expensive for your clumsy ass to just lose it."

Bev looked through the window to see a very nervous and wrecked looking Richie, immediately sprinting out the door and hugging him, nearly barreling him down. It wouldn't take much to do that these days though. And Richie had looked at her and gave her such a fake, weak smile that Bev had almost broken down into tears then and there. That was when she noticed something wrong. Richie hadn't opened his mouth, and when she looked down she saw that his mouth held exactly nine stitches, just resting there. Richie saw her staring and he showed her the note that he had hurriedly grabbed off of his nightstand moments before he hightailed it out of his house. Her mouth hung open as she read the note and the moment she finished reading it she was pushing him along, urging him to come with her into the house. If the Losers were to be one hundred percent honest, they were mad with their friend for never returning to see them without saying a word. Richie had allowed himself to hold a little bit of hope, some sense of longing in his chest, as his heart thought maybe they don't hate me. When he walked through the front door, though, his chest felt compacted as his hope was crushed, and his head started spinning as he backed away because that was how his parents looked at him before they hit him. Bev grabbed his arm to stop him from running away as she held up scissors and cut al nine stitches off his mouth, and blood started leaking from the holes as his lips moved for the first time in weeks. Bev hugged him to her as he started shaking and knew she shouldn't have been so surprised when Richie started to whimper and whisper. "Please don't hit me, please don't hit me, I've been doing my best, I swear, I haven't talked, oh shit, no, no no no, I'm sorry, please." She pulled him closer, as close as she could to his chest as he continued to whisper and beg, she turned her eyes up to meet the other Losers and they all seemed sad. Sad that they could have ever thought Richie would ditch them with no rhyme or reason.

Richie slowly leaned back from Bev's chest so that just her arms were wrapped around him, and he pulled each thread from his lips, breathing heavily as he felt the blood trickle down, then closing his eyes and resting his palm shakily on his thigh resting folded beneath him. He started to tap a beat into his thigh, one, two, three, four. Another bout of whispers dragged from his lips, something unintelligible to the group of friends around him. He tapped again, just a little bit harder, and this time he was tapping with his other hand too, one on his thigh, one over his heart, one, two, three, four, five. His lips moved again as the Losers could make out some of what Richie was whispering. "Come on don't cry in front of them, this is why nobody will ever love you. You're weak, this is why they can never love you, will never love you, you can't even handle yourself." They could hear him whisper over and over again, his voice sounding so hoarse, sounding like he hadn't spoken in weeks, and they realized that he probably hadn't. He began to sob as Bev cupped his face, forcing him to look her in the eyes. Looking at another human seemed to break the spell Richie was under as he sobbed while looking at Bev's wonderful ocean colored eyes. She spoke to Richie urging him to breathe, telling him that as long as she was here nothing would happen to him again and that she was sorry for never calling sooner. She told him she should have known. As she whispered to him she began to cry as well, which made Richie sad, as he didn't think someone like Bev should ever need to cry because she was the most amazing best friend he could have asked for. He realized that he had spoken out loud when Bev shook her head. She held onto his cheeks and made him look her in the eyes. "This is not your fault, I should have been there. I can't be the most amazing best friend if I can't even keep you safe." She cried harder at her last words and Richie hugged her harder. "It's okay Bev, I love you."

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Chapter three done and posted. Hope you like it so far.