▌Chapter 3 ─ Steal This ▌

━━━━━ HOLLY SAT ON her bike riding through the woods with the rest of the group, Ben sat on Bill's bike. Prudence road next to Holly the two leading the group. Eddie began talking to the group as they exited out of the woods.

"I think it's great we're helping the new kid, but we need to think of our own safety. I mean, he's bleeding all over and you guys know that there's an AID'S epidemic happening right now as we speak, right?" Eddie said, rambling on and on to his friends.

Holly was too busy to even think about what he was talking about, all she wanted to do was to make sure that Ben was okay. They came up to the side of a building that led them down an alleyway, one of many that ran through Derry.

The alleyway would lead them to the pharmacy that rested on the street. Holly jumped off her bike running over to Bill as he stopped his bike. She held her hands out to Ben who accepted them, Prudence came up next to her helping her.

Both Holly and Prudence along with Bill helped Ben over to one of the wooden crates so he could sit down. Eddie came up behind them, with Stanley in tow as he still talked about AIDs. She still didn't understand why it was a necessary conversation.

"Richie, wait here with Prudence." Bill said, looking at his friends. "Come on."

Holly ran with Bill, while Eddie dropped his bike. He and Stanley followed behind them. Their footsteps echoed through the alley as they left Richie, Prudence, and Ben behind. Holly was the first to enter into the store holding the door open for her friends.

Once her friends were in she ran towards the medical supplies grabbing anything they needed to help Ben. She held onto some of the supplies that they had gathered while Bill, and Stanley looked at the money they had.

"Can we afford all that?" Bill asked them.

"It's all we got." Stanley replied, glancing over at Eddie and Holly.

"Are you kidding me." Eddie questioned.

"Wait, you have an account here, don't you?"

Bill hoped that would be the way that they could get the supplies. Holly watched Eddie turn towards Bill staring at him.

"If my mom finds out I bought all this myself... I'm spending the whole rest of the weekend in the emergency room getting x-rayed."

Holly rolled her eyes at the way her mother acted. She knew that half the stuff Eddie had, he didn't actually have. In fact she was pretty sure Eddie knew it too but didn't want to admit it.

"We could just steal this stuff." Holly mentioned, causing the three to look at her in utter shock. "What? It's not the first thing I've stolen. It's one of the few things my mother taught me, before you know..."

Holly proceeded to look at the ground as the last of her words fell out of her lips. Bill couldn't help but smile at her even though she seemed upset about mentioning her mother's passing. They all knew that she still had trouble talking about her mom.

However, Holly was completely oblivious that Bill was even staring at her. She turned and the other's turned back towards the supplies to see if they needed anything else in particular. Holly turned her head, seeing Beverly come to a stop in front of them.

She continued to watch the redhead hide the box of tampons behind her back. Holly heard a thump on the ground indicating that Eddie had dropped something, while Stanley stood up to look at her.

Holly knew Beverly, they had an okay friendship but didn't really seem to hang out that much. Most of the time she was either with her friends or with her dad. They had become friends through the classes they had, which was also how she met Ben.

"Y-You okay?" Bill questioned, starting a conversation with her.

"I'm fine. What's wrong with you?" Beverly asked in return.

"None of your business." Stanley told her.

Suddenly Holly got a bright idea, and a smile popped onto her face. "You know, she could help us." Holly announced, looking back at Stanley.

"There's a kid outside. Looked like someone killed him." Eddie informed the redhead.

"We need some s-s-supplies, but we don't have enough money." Bill added.

"I told them we should just steal it, I mean I have the experience of stealing things but we need a distraction."

She hoped that Beverly would be more than willing to help them with the distraction. Beverly stared at each of them seeming to make a decision in her head without them hearing it. Seconds later Beverly nodded in agreement.

She walked passed them, heading to the back of the building to where Mr. Keene was located. Beverly soon started talking to him, then proceeded to knock something off causing the distraction.

Beverly turned slightly looking back at the four who stared at her. She gave them the signal letting them know it was good. Holly sent her a thank you, turning around she took off running out the door.

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Holly kneeled down next to Eddie holding her hand on Ben's wound as Eddie grabbed the tape. Richie stood right next to Eddie, while Prudence stood on the other side standing next to Holly.

"Just suck the wound." Richie told Eddie, while Holly placed her eyes on Richie giving him a dirty look.

"I need to focus right now." Eddie yelled back, not taking his eyes off of Ben's cut.

"You need to focus?" Holly looked back at Ben.

"Yeah, can you go get me something." Eddie still had his eyes on the bandage that was covering Ben's cuts.

"Jesus! What do you need?"

"Go get my bifocals." Eddie ordered him. "I hid 'em in my second fanny pack."

"Why do you have two fanny packs?" Stanley asked him.

"I need to focus right now and it's a long story." Eddie replied, Holly eyes off Ben watching Bill slowly walk away from them heading out of the alleyway.

"I'll be back." Holly announced.

She picked herself up, leaving the other's behind and catching up to Bill. She eventually came to a stop next to him, looking at Beverly who had been walking towards them with a smile on her face. Beverly eventually came to a stop standing in front of them.

Bill reached into his pocket pulling out the change that they were going to use, but never did. "Um, th-thanks." Bill said, showing her the change.

However, Beverly smiled a little more, showing them the pack of cigarettes. "Even-steven." Beverly replied.

Holly watched Bill shove the change back in his pocket. Beverly turned to look down the alleyway seeing the rest of the Losers surrounding Ben. Holly turned her head following her gaze.

"Ben from sosh?" Beverly questioned, proceeded to walk down the alley. Holly and Bill soon followed behind her. "Are you okay? That looks like it hurts." Beverly said, her eyes on Ben.

"Oh. No, I'm good. I just fell." Ben replied, clearly lying about what had happened to him.

"Yeah, right into Henry Bowers." Richie said soon after, earning a disappointing look from both Holly and Prudence.

"Shut it, Ri-Richie." Bill said.

"Why? It's the truth."

"You sure they got the right stuff to fix you up?"

"You know, we-we'll take care of him. Uh, thanks again, Beverly." Bill said, smiling at her.

"Sure. Maybe I'll see you around." Beverly replied, looking back at Bill.

"Yeah, w-we were thinking about going to the q-q-quarry tomorrow, if you wanna come."

Holly couldn't help but feel jealous that Bill had invited Beverly to come hang out with them. She didn't understand why Bill had taken an interest in Beverly. Of course to be fair even though they were friends she really didn't know much about Beverly Marsh.

"Good to know. Thanks." Beverly replied.

Soon she waved goodbye to them, leaving them alone. Stanley looked over at Richie while Eddie picked himself up from the ground and dusted his hands off.

"Nice going bringing up Bowers in front of her." Stanley said, Bill and Holly walked over to the group listening in on the conversation.

"Yeah, dude, you heard what she did." Holly knew in that moment that they had been talking about Beverly.

"What'd she do?" Ben asked.

"More like 'Who'd she do?' From what I hear, the list is longer than my wang." Richie said, Holly and Prudence proceeded to roll their eyes at his comment.

"That's not saying much."

"They're j-j-just rumors." Bill told them, hoping to make everything clear.

"Anyway, Bill had her back in third grade. They kissed in the school play." Holly looked down at her feet still feeling jealousy running through her. "The reviews said you can't fake that sort of passion."

Everyone, including Holly seemed to be done with Richie's nonsense. Holly honestly just wanted to go home and get some sleep before tomorrow came around.

"Now, pip-pip and tally-ho, my good fellows, I do believe this chap requires our utmost attention. Get in there, Dr. K. Come on, fix him up." Richie said, slapping Eddie's arm; his British accent evident in his voice.

"Why don't you shut the fuck up, Einstein, because I know what I'm doing and I don't want you doing the British guy with me right now." Eddie said, kneeling down to take a better looked at Ben's wound.