"You're fine, it's okay, it'll be okay." I cooed at Mike, he had his head on my chest and s arms wrapped around my torso. We were on my front porch, the porch light was the closest source of light. Mike was in a frantic crying fit, he was just beginning to calm down.

"You don't have to do this, it's not your fault, you shouldn't have to deal with me." He murmured hoarsely as he lifted his head up.

"You know what," his head snapped over to look at me, "You're absolutely right." I got up and went into the house, when I walked out again I saw him with his head down in his hands. I slowly draped the blanket I retrieved over his shoulders and rubbed them.

"Why has god blessed us losers with an angel like you?" He asked, it made me smile. I guess I've always felt like I had to protect someone in life, if I didn't what was the point of me being here?

"I don't think of myself as all that or anything, but I know that I understand." I said to him resting my head on his shoulder. He moved his arm so that I was under the blanket with him, his body was warm.

"What do you mean?" He asked looking ahead, I looked at the same place as him, straight ahead then to my lap.

"I haven't been completely honest with you, the Losers, not even Simon." I said, looking closing my eyes, trying to suppress the dreadful memories.

"What do you mean?" He asked, his voice a little less hoarse, he still cleared his throat after he spoke. Getting over tears like that is hard.

"I was only really little when my parents went missing, died, left? I don't really know what happened to them, no one really does. But I remember that there was this time that my grandma told me bits and pieces of what happened to them before she died." I went quiet, trailing off and furrowing my brows at the story.

"You don't have to, Moxie, it's okay." He comforted me, pulling me closer.

"No, I'm just, I'm new to the whole honesty thing," I paused and choked back some tears, "she told me that my mother was a schizophrenic so she kept hearing these voices and seeing these things that told her to eat rid of me. Then one night, she heard it too, except it said to save me. This was egregious Simon was born so he wasn't even thought about, but the voice told my mother that she needed to go, leave before the second one came..."

"Simon?"

"Yeah, then a year later she gave birth to my brother then disappeared. My grandma took care of us for awhile, but then she had a slight heart attack and was hospitalized, if you ask me I think those people didn't really care for her."

He pulled my in for a hug, a much needed one. I gasped for air as if I had been holding my breath. I pushed my head so that it rested in the crook of his neck, she rubbed my back for what felt like hours, but soon had to leave. He had to get home and make up for all of the chores he didn't do today. I waited in my living room, not wanting to go into my bedroom. It's why he came over in the first place.

I had saw something in my closet and when I got up from my bed to leave my vanity broke and shards of glass flew towards me. Simon came in and saved me, the first person he called was Mike. I don't know why he did, but I was grateful. I felt the couch dip in by my feet. I looked down to see Simon there with his hands on his knees, rubbing his legs. I opened my arms, waiting, he was quick to jump into them. We laid there, me holding him and reminiscing on old memories until I spoke.

"Did you hear, Si?"

"Yup."

"Sorry."

"No...I'm sorry."

It was now the next day, the Losers, Simon, and I were all biking through town, well, Simon was skateboarding. He won it from a bet with this kid he met on the street. Don't know how or why, but I wasn't gonna ask questions. We stopped in the middle of town, at the park. We all decided that maybe we should be somewhere out in the open for once, maybe if something happened we there would be more likely weapons. It was Bill's idea after I told him about last night.

"Is it hot out here or have I been looking at Moxie a bit too long?" Richie asked, winking at me as we made our way to a bench.

"A bit of both." I said, playing in on his games. I was wearing a white and blue outfit, it looked more like a sweat outfit. It was hot, I'll give him that, but I appreciate the fact that he attempted to lift our moods.

"What do you guys think next year will be like?" Stan asked, propping his leg up on a bench to tie his shoe.

"I dunno, the same as last year but harder." Bev said shrugging, before she was falling into light conversation with Ben, we all put our input into the question. Except for my brother and I. Bill had noticed our uneasy glances at one another and decided to bring it up, bringing the others' attention to us.

"What a-about you t-two?" He asked, gesturing to me and my brother. The shade from the tree we were under was providing us a cold breeze. We stayed quiet, and silently argued with our eyes on who could tell them.

"Fine," I said aloud to end our ridiculous quiet war, "we...we might not be here come next year." I spoke softly right before loud exclaims oh 'what', 'why', and 'no' was heard.     

      "Reya, she's- it's- yeah..." Simon said quietly, not knowing exactly what to say in this moment, but then again how could you.

      "B-but, it's summer, it's our time to have fun and relax. Not for our friends to up and leave." Eddie said, the rest of the group agrees.

      "I know —we know— but... the only way that that we'll ever be able to stay is if John mans up and adopts us... and somehow forces Reya to sign the papers as well." I said sadly looking down.

      "Yeah, or divorces her, but I highly doubt that." Simon leaned back so that his back hit the ground. Then it was me, Richie, Eddie, Stan, Bev, Mike, Ben, and finally Bill. It was quiet as we all tried to enjoy each other's company.

      We all looked up at the tree above us, the leaves, the bark, the height of it. I wanted someone to say something, anything, we could talk about the process of paint drying and I would be happy with that. Not this, though, I didn't like how I just made one of the loudest, coolest, most unique people I'd ever meet go silent.

      "You Guys bet I could climb this tree?"

      "Richie, knowing you, you'd probably fall and crack open your scull — you know what never mind go ahead." Eddie argued back and forth.

      We laughed, it felt as if we just laughed into oblivion. Or some type of time warp, because that same night Bill and I were on my bed. He had turned my vanity over and barricaded my closet door. He ran his fingers through my curls and looked up at my ceiling. We were quiet, well almost, I felt the vibrations in his chest when he began hiccuping.

      At first we tried to act like it wasn't happening, then he tried holding his breath but soon gave up. I found it cute, he looked so sweet and innocent, he was that kind of person you know? Truth be told he can be touchy if you let him and if things get to that point.

      "F-fuck" he stuttered between hiccups, we sat up. He wore an angry expression while a happy one spread across my face.

      "Aww, my baby boy Billy." I cooed and hugged him. He just rolled his eyes and inhaled really hard. That didn't even work, nor did water.

      "I h-hate *hiccup* this." He was so mad at himself, it made no sense, everyone gets the hiccups.

      "Here, let me." I said leaning forward and placing a kiss upon his lips. It started off small and cute but soon got a little heated. I was now straddling his waist and he had his hands on my sides, where my crop too hadn't met my shorts. And I don't know when but somewhere in the mixed of this Billy boy done slipped his tongue in my mouth. I separated the two of us, the both of us breathing heavily.

      I had one hand on his shoulder and the other braces myself on his neck. I waited for a moment, he hadn't even noticed that he stopped hiccuping he just pressed short and heated pecks onto my lips. I had to push him away for him to snap back into reality. He looked at me with a questionable look.

      "Whats up?" He asked, not wanting to stop our moment. I rolled my eyes and shushed him. It was quiet, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

     "Don't act like you can't hear that," he really didn't realize, "Bill, baby, you stopped hiccuping." I said drawing shapes on the back of his neck and brought myself closer.

      He listened as well and couldn't hear or feel them. He looked at me with surprise and hugged me so tight I thought he punctured my lung. He pulled us back so that we were laying on my bed. He was on top of me, showering my face with kisses as I laughed at his enthusiasm.

      "H-How'd you...Huh?" He asked as I stopped him from kissing me by wrapping my legs around his waist. We were really close, I didn't mind. It did seem like we were moving really fast, but hey, we're stupid kids who were raise by stupid parents in a stupid town.

      "I kissed you, you held your breath for a really long time — plus you get scared every time I kiss you. Touchy but scared."

     He furrowed his brows and smiled, "no I d-don't."

      "Babes, you do, you can be as touchy and as perverted as Richie but you'll still be scared." I told him, with a small smirk.

      He rolled his eyes, damn, when he'd turn into Stan, "Shut up and kiss me." He said bringing his face down to mine. It never occurred to me until now, but what if he's falling in love with with because I'm pretty and he's grieving over the loss of his brother. I mean, he thought it'd be gone for what, 27 years, and now it's back?

      Maybe he does like me...at least a little, but what if he's trying to cram in all of this lovebird stuff and these couple moments before...it's too late.

     He dragged his lips down my neck and began to kiss and nibble. Maybe I'm his new Georgie, his second chance to love someone...we all deserve one right?

      His hands began to roam my body and his teeth grazed my skin. His hands snuck up my shorts and rested on my hips. Do I want him to love me just because he was sad and I was here? Maybe that's what I'm doing?

      "W-whats this?" He asked leaning back and examining my neck. He turned my head and tugged at the skin on my neck as he rubbed a spot there. He frowned and soon got mad again.

      He stood up quickly and dragged me up towards the light so he could see, "what is it, Bill?" I asked not knowing what he was seeing.

     "M-mike said he w-was over l-last night, w-what did you two d-do?" He stuttered, his stutter always got worse if he was overwhelmed.

     "Talked, that's it, we just talked." I said trying to get me to calm down. He just stepped away and got one of the shards of glass that was in my bin.

      "What's this?" He asked, I looked on my neck to see 2 dark blue and purple hickeys on my neck.

I just started to laugh my ass off like there was no tomorrow, that's when bill began to get more flustered and frustrated with a dark blush spread across his nose and cheeks.

"Whats so funny?"

"Bill, you gave those to me the other night, remember?"

"...oh..."

"Get over here and take a nap."