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iii. the barrens
TRUE TO HER WORD,Verity went to the bridge the next day and waited for the others. She was glad to have people to hang out with too- her parents were getting worried that she spent so much time alone with her camera.
She had talked to Bill a few times, and Eddie was in her English class, but apart from that she hadn't properly hung out with them before. Still though, she knew they weren't assholes like some of the other kids in school, and that was enough.
She did know Stan, however. They lived next door to each other and had been really good friends growing up, playing on the street or going to the park. When they had gotten to middle school, the dynamic had changed. They gradually stopped hanging out, but each one still gave the other a smile if they passed in the corridor; a small sign that something still remained after all those years.
Verity heard them coming down the street before she saw them, as Richie and Eddie seemed to be locked in a heated debate.
"-told you, my mom does nothave crabs!" Eddie said loudly, much to the other's amusement.
"Are you really sure though?" Richie smirked.
Stan gave her a long-suffering look, making her giggle.
"How long have they been at it?" Verity asked with a smirk, moving to stand beside him.
"Too long,"
"Oh, my heart bleeds for you."
"You'd understand if you had to spend all your time with them. They're constantly arguing." He said, nodding in the pair's direction.
Richie had somehow managed to get hold of Eddie's fanny-pack and had thrown it up a tree, while Bill looked as though he wanted nothing more than to leave them and never come back.
"I'd better sort this," Stan said warily. "Or else there'll be an incident."
Verity watched Stan as he made Richie retrieve the pack, and managed to calm Eddie down, impressed at how he handled it. She realised that he was a mediator of sorts - able to make even a kid like Richie Tozier apologise - and was impressed.
As Stan turned around, their eyes met, and he flashed her a quick grin. Verity was instantly reminded of her childhood; the time they had broken their neighbour's window playing catch, and he had given her that same smile.
