Tough Love ~Henry Bowers x Reader~

~Chapter 16~

  Mike, Eddie and Ben ran as fast as their feet could take them.  Even though all 3 of them were terribly out of shape.  They came to a stop and looked around at their surroundings, they had somehow and made it to the park about a mile from the library. Each of them are quite surprised that they had made it that far, again considering that they were awfully out of shape.

" What the hell was the thing?"  Eddie panted. The other two boys shook their head as they struggle to regain their breath.

"You know exactly who that was, let's just wait for the rest of them to get back" Mike said, still hunched over, his hands on his knees.

Bill and Beverly soon came into sight, walking next to each other at a little faster speed than just a walk. As they made their way into the park they saw Mike Eddie in Ben waiting for them, and their pace sped up even more. The three boys made their way to a bench to sit down and somewhat regain what they had lost running that far. Bill and Beverly made their way closer to the boys a concerned look on their faces.

"What happened to you guys?" Beverly asked as she squatted down in front of them. The three of them looked at each other and began explaining what they had learned.

"This, thing has been here longer than we thought..." Ben trailed off, still scared of the knowledge he gained.

Bill gave Bev a very concerned look, proceededing to sit down in front of the bench. "W-what do you mean?" He asked, a lump in his throat.

"Well I found this book at the library and-" Ben was cut off by the sound of screeching tires, a bright red Chevy drifted its way into the park and came to hard stop. The group whipped their heads around to see what the commotion was about.

Richie, Stan, Henry, and (Y/N) all sprinted their way towards the group. "GUYS!" Richie yelled stopping at his seated friends. "The scary ass fucking clown almost got me!" Richie exclaimed, dropping to the pointy grass.

"Guys?" Richie asked as the seated group of friends starting standing. They all pointed their attention to the hot headed bully running alongside (Y/N) and Stan.

"What the hell is he doing here?!" Mike whisper yelled taking a few steps backwards, getting in the position to run. Richie rolled his eyes and stood up.

The other three made their way to the rest of the group, panting a little. "Richie saw IT..." Stan stated through breaths.

(Y/N) and Henry stood a little farther from the group, knowing how awkward the situation was going to get.

"...And Henry saved him" Stan finished, as Henry gave a small nod. The rest of the group gave each other confused looks, except for Eddie.

"I guess you were right (Y/N)." Eddie smiled, as she returned the favor. The group snapped towards Eddie, even more confused.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Beverly asked impatient, and frustrated. She turned to look at (Y/N), an eyebrow raised.

(Y/N) sighed and stepped forward, pulling Henry with her. The uninformed few stepped back instinctively. "Oh stop, he's harmless." (Y/N) said, immediately regretting her words.

"What do you mean harmless?" Bill said stutterless, shocking the rest of the group. "He's tormented us for years, and you have the nerve to call him "harmless?"." Bill continued.

"Hey man it's okay just let her explain." Stan said trying to calm him down, reaching his hand for his shoulder. Bill swatted him off and gave him a nasty look.

"You're okay with this Stan? You're okay with this bastard?" He raised his voice pointing at the bully. (Y/N) stepped forward.

"Bill, you need to calm down" she said sternly. Mike chimmed in. "I have to agree with Bill. Why are you bringing this asshat here?"

The group split in two. Henry, Stan, Eddie, (Y/N), and Richie on one side, Bill, Beverly, Mike and Ben on the other.

Henry, seeming to know his place, stayed quiet. He was smart enough to read the situation and understand it's not his battle to fight. He hated it, but he kept quiet as the the friends fought.

"I should have known, since you two are neighbors." Bill scoffed and croseed his arms. (Y/N)s face dropped and her eyes widened.

"H-How do you know that?" She asked sternly, getting shivers and cowarding back towards Henry.

"We...paid your house a visit trying to find you..." Beverly almost whispered, suddenly feeling really bad. "And we met your dad." Bill smirked.

(Y/N)s heart beat could be heard from a mile away as it raced in her chest. Henry immediately coming to her side and embracing her, caught Beverly off guard, even she could see the compassion.

At this point, even Richie started to get mad. "You should go." He commanded, getting in Bill's face. Bill grunted and stomped in the opposite direction, Mike Ben and Beverly following.

Henry pulled away and gave (Y/N) a concerned look. She sighed and let her head fall. "I uh...im sorry about that." Eddie apologized for his friends, holding his hand out for Henry to shake.

Henry sighed and shook it. "No, I'm sorry. This is my fault." He shook his head, a sudden realization hitting him. The group hung their heads and kicked the dirt.

"We need to let Bill have some space, I've never seen him so mad." Stan said, still in shock at the pure anger that radiated from the situation. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Well...what now?" Richie asked, worriedly, they all shrugged in response. Richie rolled his eyes. "Wow good talk." He said sarcastically.

"You guys said that this "thing" has been terrorizing you, right?" Henry chimed in. "Why don't we beat the living shit out of it?" He asked, an evil glint in his eyes.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Richie asked crossed arms and with a judgemental tone.

"We find it's home." (Y/N)s shakey voice said sternly.

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It's been a while, huh? I want to apologize for taking like 2 years to publish another chapter. A lot has happened and for those of you that were worried I'm doing much much better, other than the writers block. This might not be the best thing I've written but hey, it's more content😂. I also want to say holy shit you guys...127k reads?! Thats actually insane. I cant even wrap my head around that. You guys are amazing. Thank you all for sticking around and reading this book, it really means the world to me. I want to finish this, but who knows how long it will take me, and for that I apologize. But for now, thank all of you for sticking around. I love you guys❤

Till next time my sins~

-Lil Smudge

(Also P.S. i started writing this when I was like idk 12 ish so if some of its cringy im so sorry it makes me cringe too, im just to lazy to fix it 😂💀)