Changes | Bichie

| e l e v e n ; answers |

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• C l e a r l y, - R i c h i e - d i d n' t - l o v e - h i m t h e - w a y - B i l l - h a d •
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Bill turned to his parents and gave them a reassuring smile, "C-Could you give us a few m-m-minutes?" Zack clenched his teeth, the urge to slap bill for stuttering was strong, but Sharon grabbed his hand and shook her head.

Zack sighed and nodded, turning to the door as his mother planted a kiss upon Bill's head, "Not long, okay boys? He needs rest." They nodded and returned a smile.

Sharon reached for Georgie's hand and walked out with Zack shutting the door behind them. Bill sighed and sat up, looking at the door his parents and baby brother just walked out of and wondered if Richie would even bother to show up.

He shook himself out of his thoughts and turned to the three losers who did show up. "Is everything oh-okay?" Bill asked, the concern in his tone made the three losers chuckle and smile at their best friend.

"Bill you're in a hospital bed." Mike chuckled and smiled as Bill started to join in on the laughter, it felt like forever since he laughed with the losers.

Ben cut the laughter with a serious question that they were all wondering, thinking, and most concerned about, "Why are you here, Bill? What happened?" Ben asked, bitting on the inside of his cheek as Bill's eye's met his.

Bill sighed and decided now was a good of a time to tell them the truth, there was really no way around it this time and he owed it to them to tell them the whole truth.

"Henry—"

"He did this to you?!" Eddie's face was scrunched up in anger and confusion as he stood up and glanced at Bill's body that laid in a hospital gown.

Bill shook his head and grabbed Eddie's hand, pulling him back down to where he was now sitting on the bed beside Bill once again. Ben and Mike exchanged looks and turned back to Bill, waiting for an explanation.

Bill sighed, "Heh-Henry didn't do t-this. I d-did." They furrowed their eyebrows in confusion and tried their best to understand, but nothing came to mind. How could he have done this to himself? Most importantly, why?

"I ha-haven't been e-eating for.. awhile. And b-because of that I'm h-here." Their faces softened, now being able to see the hurt in Bill's face that they couldn't see before.

Now that he's said it out loud, he did look rather skinny. But that couldn't have been true, could it? No, there was no way their Bill would starve himself.

"But you'd eat when you went out with us—" Ben stated, each one of them was trying to find an excuse for this to not be true. Because if it was, if he had been in fact starving himself, they were too blind to see it.

His friends were to blind to notice and that was the worst feeling in the world. To know their best friend, their leader, was hurting right in front of them and they didn't even notice.

"I th-threw it up." Bill said bluntly, shocked at himself at the way he said it. He couldn't believe what he was doing to please his father had brought him here.

Eddie nearly had tears in his eyes, shaking his head as he tried to understand, "Why, Bill? Why would you do that to yourself?" A tear slipped from his downcast eyes, furrowing his brows in confusion.

Bill looked at Mike and Ben who wanted the same answer as Eddie, almost in tears with their smaller friend. "My fuh-father." Their eye's all immediately met Bill's once he had said it. Bill hadn't told anyone that, not even Henry knew the exact reason as to why he needed the help.

"He's always on my ah-ass for being w-weak, my muh-mother doesn't exactly h-help." Bill looked down at his hand, playing with his hospital band, wondering what they saw in him now that they knew they truth as to why he was here.

Mike shook his head, "I don't understand, Bill. How would making yourself starve be a solution?" Mike asked, wondering how that would work well in his case with his dad. Eddie and Ben looked at Mike, nodding in agreement, "That would make you actually physically weak." Mike studied Bill's face seeing that he was at war with himself and it made him grow sad.

Bill glanced between all of their eyes, "I-It wasn't just b-because of my f-father. I'm nuh-not exactly the buh-biggest fan of myself either." Those words struck them all just as hard as it struck Bill when he said them. He had said it, which made it true.

He didn't want it to be true.

"And henry?" Ben asked, breaking them out of their thoughts.

"He was tr-trying to help me get s-stronger.. he'd teach me how to duh-defend myself and I-I'd help h-him become a beh-better person." It felt pretty good getting this off his chest, he just wished all of the losers came and gave him a chance to explain himself.

Eddie turned back to Bill, "Did he know? About—"

"No. He f-found out today l-like you guys. He really is truh-trying." And deep down all the losers knew that Henry deserved a chance. He may be an asshole, but every person deserves a chance to be a better version of themselves.

Mike, Ben, and Eddie exchanged looks, smiling. Bill believed in people, it was one of the things that made him so amazing. How be could see things in people that no one else could. "We know, Bill. And we're willing to give him a chance." Mike stated, a nod from Eddie and Ben.

Bill's eyes widened in shock, "Y-You w-would?!"

Ben smiled, "He's still an asshole, but yes. If you really think he's changed, we'll give him a chance." Eddie and Mike nodded in agreement, a smile on Bill's face as he stared at three of his best friends.

Bill shook his head, "Thank you."

"But you have to promise us something, Bill." Eddie turned to the other losers who had no clue what he was about to say.

Bill nodded, "Anything."

Eddie stood up, standing beside the two losers, "You have to promise us you'll stop starving yourself. And if you feel bad you'll come to us." Bill hesitated to nod, he had grown quite used to it, was giving it up gonna he as hard as he thought?

He knew it wasn't healthy. Screw it. Bill nodded his head and carried a genuine smile as he faced the three losers.

They all smiled, it felt good to finally have answers.

|<•>|

It had been three days since Bill got out of the hospital. It had also been three days of Bill stuck in his room since it was a punishment by his father for 'embarrassing' them at the hospital.

And as Bill laid in his bed, tears began to fill his eyes as he thought of his curly haired, brown eyed, freckled skin, beautiful best friend, Richie. His presence still with Bill like a ghost, chilling and lonely. It would never fill his place.

But he found out Richie had left town, without even saying goodbye. Clearly, Richie didn't love him the way Bill had.

Eddie and the others tried to get bill out of bed for days, but he didn't have the energy. He was so tired, he just wanted this summer vacation to be over.

> Author's Note. <

I know what you're thinking, actually that's not possible, but I'm guessing you're thinking, Where the hell have you been and why the hell haven't you updated in awhile?!

And to that I say, I've been dealing with a lot lately. I'm sorry, I meant to post, but it took me awhile and I wanted to make sure this chapter was good before I posted it up.

So, yeah. I hope you all are loving this book and for more chapters to come! ❤️