▌Chapter 8 ─ A Bunch of Losers ▌

      ━━━━━ HOLLY HELD ONTO her arm, the blood was still falling down her arm but it had slowed down since tying a piece of her shirt to it. Before she knew it Eddie was being pulled away by his mother, a spiteful look resting on her face.

"You. You did this. You know how delicate he is." Mrs. Kaspbrak said, pulling him towards the car.

"We were attacked, M-M-Mrs. K." Bill went on to tell her.

"No. Don't." She opened the car door and placed Eddie in the passenger seat. "Don't try and blame anyone else." She fumbled the keys around dropping them to the ground.

"How could we blame anyone else?" Holly asked, earning a dirty look from the woman.

"Let me help." Beverly said, leaning down to get her keys.

"Get back!" She leaned down and picked her keys up then moved closer to Beverly. "Oh, I've heard of you, Miss Marsh. And I don't want a dirty girl like you touching my son." She turned back around reaching her hand into her purse.

"Mrs. K, I..."

"No! You are all monsters. All of you. And Eddie is done with you. Do you hear? Done!"

She walked around her car, climbing in. Once she was in the car turned on and she pulled away. They all followed behind the car, Holly had a sadden look resting on her face as she watched her friend be taken away from her.

Bill turned back around to look at those that remained. "I saw the well. W-w-w-we know where it is and-and next time we'll be better prepared." Bill informed them.

"No!" Stanley shouted, throwing his hands down. "No next time, Bill. You're insane."

"Why?" Beverly asked him. "We all know no one else is going to do anything."

"Eddie was nearly killed! Holly's gonna have to go to get stitches. And look at this motherfucker. He's leaking Hamburger Helper!" Richie said.

"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. I thought you said you wanted to get out of this town, too."

"Because I wanna run towards something. Not away."

"I'm sorry, who invited Molly Ringwald into the group?"

"Richie." Holly spoke, looking at him. Beverly of course flipped him off.

"Richie." Stanley went on to speak.

"I'm just saying, let's face facts. Real world. Georgie is dead. Stop trying to get us killed, too."

"And there it is." Prudence said looking at her friend.

Richie went to walk forward however Bill moved over getting in his way and stopping him from leaving. "Georgie's not dead." Bill said.

"You couldn't save him, but you can still save yourself."

"No, t-t-take it back. You're scared and we all are, but take it back!"

Bill proceeded to shove Richie back towards Mike, instigating a fight. Richie moved back towards him, shoving him back. Then Bill proceeded to punch Richie causing him to fall to the ground.

"Bill!" Beverly and Holly said at the same time.

Mike and Stanley proceeded to help Richie up from the ground. "You're just a bunch of losers!" He went to move towards Bill however Mike and Stanley held him back. "Fuck off!" Ben held Bill back.

"Richie, stop."

"You're just a bunch of losers and you'll get yourselves killed trying to catch a fucking stupid clown."

"Stop!" Beverly shouted, Richie pushed Mike and Stanley off. "This is what It wants. It wants to divide us. We were all together when we hurt It. That's why we're still alive."

"Yeah? Well, I plan to keep it that way."

Richie walked forward, shoving into Bill in the process. Holly turned around watching Stanley, following behind Richie.

"Guy, come on. We have to stop It." Holly said, but it wasn't enough to change any of their minds. Holly stood next to Prudence but Violet had walked away with Mike, leaving them, Beverly and Bill.

"Mike..."

"Guys... I can't do this. My granddad was right. I'm an outsider. Gotta stay that way." Mike turned away grabbing his bike.

Holly turned slightly looking to see her father waiting at the end of the street. Holly then looked back at Prudence who nodded her head.

"My dad is here. Prudence and I have to go." Holly told Bill and Beverly. She went to walk away but stopped, turning to look back at them. "We'll find a way to stop It."

With those words she walked towards her bike, picked it up and climbed on riding over to her father with Prudence next to her. She knew she was going to be in a small amount of trouble but she didn't mind.

"Let's go." Her father spoke walking back towards his car. The two followed behind him, eventually putting their bikes into the car and getting in. Holly looked out the window as they left the scene.

"Do I need to take you to the hospital?" Nicholas asked her daughter.

Prudence and Holly sat next to each other in the back while Holly's dad looked back at her through the mirror.

"No, it's not that deep. I can take care of it." Holly replied, looking down at her arm.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, dad."

"Do you want to tell me what you were doing at the house on Neibolt?"

"No, not really. Probably won't be going back there anyway."

Prudence looked over at her friend, understanding why she had said what she had said. Holly looked back out the window as they came upon their house. Prudence would be spending the night at her house, so she didn't have to go home.

"Good."

Nicholas pulled into the driveway and turned off the car. He exited out and walked towards the garage grabbing bandages for his daughter. Both Holly and Prudence exited out of the car, Holly walked over to the grass and sat down.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital Holly?" Prudence asked her.

"No, remember I know how to clean up a cut." Holly answered.

"I know, your mom taught me too."

"Yeah, she did. I just wish we could have cleaned hers up."

"You know what happened to your mother was not your fault. Nor was it yours Prudence." Nicholas said joining the conversation.

"Yeah, we know Mr. Stark."

He nodded his head and handed the bandages and peroxide over to Prudence. The brunette took them and proceeded to hand the peroxide over to her friend. Holly grabbed it, and placed it in the grass.

Nicholas turned away from them and walked into the house getting ready to cook dinner for the three. Holly removed her piece of shirt that was now covered in blood. She threw it to the side and grabbed the peroxide.

From there she dumped some down onto the cut, she gritted her teeth through the pain. Once she was finished she took the bandage from Prudence and proceeded to wrap her arm. After wrapping it she put tape on it so it wouldn't come undone.

"I'm hungry." Holly said, picking the stuff up from the ground.

"Me too." Prudence replied.

The two placed the leftover bandages and peroxide in the garage. Then they turned back towards the house and walked in smelling what had already been cooked for dinner.