**Say What You Mean Out Loud**

~ T H I R T E E N ~

Bill vs Richie

Greyson Elliot was getting really dizzy, and the sun beating down on them didn't help much. Her head was spinning and she was starting to get nauseous.

"You. You did this!" Ms. K exclaimed, gesturing to all the kids.
She didn't even take the time to notice the lacerated Ben or the sickly bleeding Greyson.

She pulled Eddie along by the neck to their car.
"You know how delicate he is."

She claimed he was delicate.
Everything he had did today was anything but delicate.

"We were attacked-" "No." "M-M-Mrs. K."
"No, don't try to blame anyone else." She spat at Bill.

Grey leaned her head against Stan's shoulder, careful not to get any blood on him but also she felt like she was going to throw up or pass out.

Ms.K dropped her keys on the ground and Beverly bent down to pick them up.
"Let me-" "No, back!" She yelled, like she was yelling at a stray dog.

She grabbed her keys off the ground and stood mere inches away from Beverly, smirking evilly.
Greyson didn't like it one bit.

"Oh I've heard of you Ms. Marsh. And I don't want a dirty girl like you touching my son." She whispered it like it was a secret... a secret she was in on.

She turned back around, fumbling with her keys and Bill tried to reason with her again.
"Mrs. K, I s-s-s-sw..."
"No! You are all, monsters! All of you."

She nodded, "And Eddie's done with you. Do you hear? Done!"
She speedwalked around to the other side of her car, and jumped in.

Eddie feigned tears in the front seat, keeping his head low and avoiding eye contact with any of his friends.

'Monsters' she called them.
Like they hadn't heard that one before.

The walked out into the street as the rusty yellow car pulled off the street.
Grey looped her arm through Stan's and stumbled after them, her head throbbing.

While they stood there she closed her eyes and leaned against Stanley, keeping herself from falling over. Her stomach was spinning like a blender.

"I saw the well." Bill said to the group.
"W-w-w-we know where it is, and next time we'll be better prepared."

"No!" Stan shouted, startling Grey enough to crack her eyes open for a second.
"No next time Bill. You're insane."

Bev shrugged, "Why? We all know no one else is going to do anything."
"Eddie was nearly killed!" Richie yelled back.

"Grey's about to die of blood loss." He pointed to the bloody girl, clinging onto Stanley for fear of passing out and face planting.

"And look at this motherfucker! He's leaking hamburger helper!" Ben was bleeding immensely too, with Grey's bloody black jacket tied around his wound.

"We can't pretend it's gonna go away. Ben you said it yourself it comes back every 27 years."
"Fine! I'll be 40 and far away from here!" He sighed, holding his stomach still.

"I thought you said you wanted to get out of this town too?"
"Because I want to run towards something, not away."

Richie scoffed and pointed at Bev. "I'm sorry, who invited Molly Ringwald into the group?"

She flipped him off and Mike shook his head. "Richie..."
"I'm just saying, let's face facts! Real world: Georgie is dead, stop trying to get us killed too!"

Richie tried storming away but Bill stopped him.
"Georgie's not dead!"

Grey was starting to feel dizzier and sicker.
"Stan..." she mumbled, pulling on his arm slightly.

"You couldn't save him, but you can still save yourself."
Bill stopped Richie again.
"No, t...t-take it back!"

"Stanley..." she tried pulling her arm away from him.
"What? What's wrong?"

"You're scared and, we all are but take it back!"
He shoved Richie across the small circle that had accumulated.

"I don't feel so good." Grey whispered, the nauseous feeling churning in her stomach.
Her head spun even faster and less comfortably.

Richie shoved Bill harder, and he punched Rich in the face.
He hit the ground just as Grey ripped her arm away from Stanley and turning around.

She hunched over and vomited up whatever she ate that morning, and all the blood that spent the day running down the back of her throat.
Needless to say, it was mostly blood.

She backed up and wobbled, nearly collapsing before Stan and Mike caught her.
"You're just a bunch of losers!" Richie shouted.

"You're just a bunch of losers and you're going to get yourself killed!"
"Just stop!" Beverly shouted.

Grey tried to stand up on her feet to intervene, but immediately collapsed again, back into Stan's arms.
She felt so light headed, she wasn't sure if her head was still there anymore.

"This is what it wants. It wants to divide us!" She pleaded.
"We were all together when we hurt it. That's, why we're still alive."

"B-barely." Grey giggled, wiping the blood from her mouth.
She wasn't entirely sure what was going on, she had lost too much blood and was too delusional.

Stan nonchalantly shushed her, holding her up by her shoulder and watching the dramatic scene unfold.

"Yah?" Richie yelled at Bev. "Well I plan on staying alive."
They watched their friends walk off towards their bikes.

"Mike." Bev called.
"Guys."He turned around and shrugged guiltily. "I can't do this. My grandad was right."

He went and grabbed his bike. "I'm an outsider, I gotta stay that way."

Bev sighed and looked at the girl being helped away by Stanley.
"Grey?" She hollered.

Stanley looked at her with the loopy girl hanging from his shoulder.
"No! You are not dragging her back into this, she's barely conscious right now!"

"Stan, she can make her own d-de-decisions."
They looked at her, waiting for her to say something.

"Grey?" Beverly asked again.
She lazily closed her eyes and cracked them open again.
"B... My head hurts." She sighed, her words slurring out like a broken cassette.

Stan nodded.
"She's not doing anything insane like that."

Her pulled himself and her up onto his bike, writhing at all the blood that was getting on his shirt but easily ignored it.
That was probably the most passionately he'd ever spoken to his friends.

There was no fear, it was all strength.
And Grey did that.
Grey made him passionate.

The only ever time he's talked like that was about his birds.
"Stanley you have such nice hair." Grey mumble into his back, lazily holding onto his waist.

Normally he got uncomfortable about just how tight he held her.
He liked it but he just got embarrassed.

Now though, he wrapped her arms tighter around him, to make sure she didn't fall.
He cared about her too much.

Today made him realize that.