The boy with pink hair

Chapter 3 - (part 1)

Time skip of three weeks 

Seven teenagers wadded their way through the tall grass of the hill they were climbing. Each kid had a pack on their backs and arms full of firewood. 

"The sooner we get the tents up the sooner we can get out of this cloud of bugs. Why the hell did we choose to do this anyway?" the brown haired boy wheezed, his chest falling and rising rapidly as he wiped sweat from his forehead. 

"We always do this you dumbass. I told you didn't I?" Richie tousled the boy's hair affectionately; conveniently missing  the flash of blue that popped out between his fingers. 

"You didn't have to invite me," Eddie whined.

"Girls, girls, stop fighting! You're both gorgeous!" Beverly laughed, her voice like soothing wind chimes. She heaved her bag onto the ground with a huff.

Ben had his headphones on as usual, drowning out the useless arguing with some dumb boy band he'd just gotten obsessed with. Stan, Bill, and Mike were in their own world talking about something Eddie couldn't be bothered to pay attention to; not with this boy next to him.

"You realize that if any of us get hurt out here we're too far from any hospital to walk and I'm the only one with first aid knowledge. If I get hurt we're all fucked." Eddie carefully unhooked the backpack from his arms, placing it gently on the ground. He began to fumble in his pockets and pulled out his inhaler.

"We smokin' up mahn?" Richie pulled out a really bad Rasta accent, "Gimmie some 'oh dat mahn," he plucked the inhaler from the small boy's hand and took a puff.

"You asshole I fucking need that!" Eddie jumped up, trying to tackle Richie.

"Are you sure?" Richie called behind him, running from the small angry boy, "you're running just fine!" 

"Richie you fucking asshole! What the hell am I supposed to do if I start having an asthma attack? This isn't something to joke about! Seriously man come back I need that!" The boys chased each other around the hill while the others unpacked. 

What surprised the group most was that by the end of their little chase, when Eddie did get his inhaler back, the first thing he did was put it back in his bag as if their running hadn't affected his lungs in the slightest. 

... 

"Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut last night!" as the group sat around their makeshift fire Beverly took the initiative to  begin a round of camp songs. 

"Last night I found a peanut" Richie held a wooden stick that had been carved to a point. He reached behind him a slid a marshmallow onto the stick, positioning it over the fire. 

Eddie watched the group sing, his heart fluttering at the excitement of being part of something. He hadn't had many friends apart from Mike and this group felt so connected. It  was as if there was an electric wire going between all of them, holding them together and transmitting information and love. The way they were almost able to communicate without words baffled Eddie. 

"Hey kid, you wanna come for a walk?" Eddie jumped and looked up at the face of Bev leaning over him. She extended her hand and the boy reluctantly took it. 

"Hey assholes!" Bev shouted at the crowd and the group all turned to them, "Me and shortstuff here are gonna go for a walk, try not to kill each other or burn down the woods while I'm gone." 

"Aye Aye Captain!" The losers shouted in unison. 

"Good men." Bev smiled and began to walk away, not looking back at Eddie, just expecting that he would follow her. 

The hypochondriac ran to catch up, falling into step with the red head. 

"So how are you liking being part of the losers club?" Bev smiled at him, her teeth shining through her glossy lips. 

"Um... It's been fun. You guys are... fun." Eddie was wheezing, holding his chest. Beverly gently reached down and unzipped his back, grabbing the inhaler and placing it between his lips. 

"Breath easy there, don't want you keeling over, how on earth would we explain that to your mom?" She chuckled at the boy as he took a few puffs and put it back. 

"Now blue, sit down for a minute I need to talk to you." 

"Bl... um... what do you mean?" Eddie stammered. His hands began to sweat from nerves as the reached for his hair, desperately attempting to cover up any spots. 

"Dude, I already saw it, and so has most of the group probably." she grabbed his hands, wrapping her own around them. "Look, I don't know your story, or why you cover up such a beautiful colour, but I respect you if you don't want me to say anything, and I can help you cover it up, I now a thing or two about styling hair." she smiled almost sadly and ran a hand through her own. 

"I... uh..." 

"It's fine, you don't have to tell me, I'm not gonna pry any of the information out of you, I just wanted to let you know in case you really were trying to hide it." she let go of Eddie's hands and dug around in her jacket, producing a pack of smokes and a lighter. the girl delicately pulled one of them out and lit it. "You want one kid?" she held the pack out to Eddie. 

"Um..." he looked at them. To him, these smokes represented everything his mother was against. They were bad for your health, could trigger asthma, and his father had died of cancer because of them. He took a deep breath and grabbed one. Maybe if he could do this small act of rebellion he might be able to say something to Richie. 

"Wow, the asthmatic actually said yes! Here let me light it for you." she held out the lighter and Eddie cautiously dipped the end of the smoke into the flame and sucked. Immediately he began to cough and Bev began to laugh. 

"If you can't breathe it right into your lungs right away just try sucking it into your mouth like a straw." 

Eddie did that and he could taste the smoke, but he didn't cough so he counted it as a win. Bev reached out and began to push his hair around, effectively hiding the roots with the rest of the hair. 

"Alright blue, you ready to go back?" 

...

When they got back to the fire Ben was holding up a little bag and what looking like a shorter version of a tobacco pipe. 

"You guys ready to get stoned again?" 

...

Hey I just wanted to say that coming back to the app and seeing all the comments you guys left really helped motivate me. My mental health has been on the decline and I spent a lot of time in bed avoiding anything. If I'm being honest I haven't even opened the app in a while, too scared to feel the pressure to write. I really wanna keep updating but I hope you guys can be patient. I have to do school as well as deal with my general tasks around the house, and since I lost my job back in the fall I've been job hunting to no avail so I'm kind of broke right now. But i love all of you guys who take the time to read this story that I came up with while high at like two in the morning. It means a lot to me to see this support and I hope you guys continue to read even if my upload schedule is insanely chaotic. Lots of love! 

-The author