𝗖𝗥𝗨𝗘𝗟 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥

⁀➷ CHAPTER SEVEN

ICE CREAM BREAK

"HE THRUSTS HIS fists against the post and still insists he...s-sees the ghosts" 

The two sighed as Bill stuttered the last part, almost having gotten through the whole phrase without. But Elaine grinned, ruffling Bill's hair "you almost got it, that's great!"

"Keyword, a-almost." he slapped away her hand, moving to fix his hair. "S-stupid stutter, and stupid g-ghosts."

She bit her lip, placing the book down on his bed before standing up and in front of him. Bill looked up, the slight tilt of his head and sorrowful eyes making him look like a kicked puppy.

Elaine held out her hand and pulled him up, beginning to walk out of his room "I think this calls for celebratory ice cream, I got some on the way here from Annabeth's house."

Bill licked his lips, craving the desert. But he pulled her to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and quirked an eyebrow "which f-flavors did you get?"

"Mint Choc Chip, duh." she laughed "what else did you expect, Denbrough?"

He shrugged, letting her begin to pull him towards the kitchen again, watching as she pulled open his freezer. He went to sit at the kitchen's island, resting his head on his hand as Elaine danced to the music playing in her head.

She pulled out two small tubs, closing the door with her hip, and sauntered back to the boy. She opened a drawer and grabbed two stainless steel spoons and handed him his tub.

"S-so, how's Cherry?" he stuffed a mouthful of ice cream, humming in happiness at the taste.

She looked up from her tub, biting her lip to conceal her smile "Cherry...as in my bike or my dog?"

"Obviously the l-latter" he rolled his eyes making her laugh. Oh, how he loved her laugh and the barely noticeable dimples that only appeared when she truly smiled. But he noticed, and they were one of his favorite things about her.

"Well, both are doing just fine." she hopped onto the counter, now being taller than him so he had to look up "but dog Cherry found a way into the pantry, found her eating all the dog biscuits last night."

"The horror!" he gasped jokingly "But then a-again, those b-biscuits are pretty g-good." 

Elaine shook her head "one day, you're going to eat too many and turn into one. My guess is a pomeranian."

"Nah, I-I'm more of a St. B-Bernard-Australian Shepherd" he narrowed his eyes before nodding in agreement to his statement.

"Then what does that make me?"

"Maybe a C-Corgi or a chihuahua" he laughed out the last part, taking another bite of his ice cream.

Elaine gasped, narrowing her eyes at the laughing boy "the disrespect!"

She jumped off of the island, beginning to walk out the door and into the living room. But Bill rushed out behind her, face still red from laughing "where are y-you going?"

"I will not sit here and be called a chihuahua by someone who wears flannels even on the hottest day of the year!" she whipped back around and reached for the door handle, but Bill moved to lean against it.

He slapped away her wrist and she glared jokingly, both being amused by the scene "Fine, you're a-a beagle, h-happy now?"

"Very." Elaine nodded, but a telephone ringing made them snap their heads to the sound.

They shared a curious look before walking over to where it sat on the couch's side table, Bill being the one to pick it up as he pressed it to his ear "hello? Bill Denbrough speaking."

She silently mocked his formal tone under her breath, finding the way his joking tone from earlier had quickly vanished.

"Mhmm...y-yep...shit." 

The last word made Elaine perk up, sharing an uneasy look with Bill as he placed the phone back down.

"What is it?"

"Bev's in trouble."

🍄🌿

"NO, WE GOTTA go through the alleyway." 

"The alley takes way too long."

"No, the alley is so much faster."

"The alley is more dangerous and it's disgusting."

"How is it more dangerous?"

"It smells like piss and it's gross. Just take the side streets for once."

"Oh, my god. The side streets are the same. They smell like piss and shi-"

"Jesus guys, can you shut the hell up!" Elaine yelled out, cutting off Stanley as he and Eddie argued back and forth.

Eddie shut his mouth closed, but opened it to say "Okay, okay. Can you just tell me what she said exactly?"

"She didn't really say much, except for 'you guys need to hurry over.' But she did sound stressed." Bill answered, thinking back to the abrupt phone call that had interrupted him and Elaine's "tutoring session".

Just as they arrived at the girl's apartment,  Annabeth and her came bounding down the fire escape, clearly out of breath from running "You made it. I...I need to show you something."

"That's not good" Elaine breathed out, sharing a quick smile with Annabeth as she carefully let her bike drop onto the grass.

"What is it?" Ben scrunched up his nose, obviously worried.

Richie let out a snort "More than we saw at the quarry?"

"Shut up! Just shut up, Richie." Eddie snapped making Elaine stare at him in slight surprise.

"My dad will kill me if he finds out I had boys in the apartment, I already struggled with getting him to allow Anna and Elaine to come over" Beverly rushed out and Bill turned to look over at the trash mouth standing behind him.

"Then we'll l-leave a lookout." he coughed out a quick "Richie, stay here." and followed after Beverly up the metal stairs.

But Richie threw his hands up, bug-eyed behind his glasses "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What if her dad comes back?"

Elaine shrugged "that won't be a problem for you."

Stan nodded, moving to follow behind her as he yelled over his shoulder "Do what you always do. Start talking."

"It is a gift!"

🍄🌿

"ARE YOU TAKING US to your bathroom?" 

The group sighed, preparing themselves for another one of Eddies meaningless rants. 

"You know that 89% of accidents occur in the bathroom and kitchen. And that's where all the bacteria and fungi are...and it is not a hygienic place..."

Elaine rolled her eyes, turning to look back at him "oh reall-shit."

The girl's eyes had widened to the size of saucers, scanning the blood-coated walls and floor as well as the sink, toilet, and bathtub. It looked like a fucking massacre had taken place.

"Do you see it?" Beverly nervously chewed at her nails and at any other time, Elaine would've slapped her hand out of her mouth.

"Uh-huh" Elaine nodded mindlessly, her eyes still attached to the red dripping walls, not bothering to spare her a glance.

"What h-happened  in here?" Bill asked, sending a quick worried glance over to the frozen brunette.

Beverly let out a sigh, smiling in relief "my dad couldn't see it, I thought I'd gone crazy."

Finally tearing her eyes from the bathtub, Elaine blinked "if you're crazy, then we're all crazy."

🍄🌿

ELAINE THREW OPEN THE bathroom curtains, groaning when she saw the windows were also tainted in the same red blood. So with a sponge in her hand, she begrudgingly ran it across the pane, allowing for clear sunlight to rain through.

"My mom would kill me if she saw me in here!" Eddie mopped at the floors, the clip over his nose making his voice come out nasally. "goodbye vaccine-free summer, I'm gonna be stuck at the hospital with Viremias"

"Eddie" he looked up at Annabeth who grinned down at him "catch."

He squeaked as she threw her blood-soaked rag at him, running out of the room as if it would chase after him. Elaine let out a laugh, her nerves dimming down at the boy's expense.

"Geez Anne, you trying to scare him into next week?" Elaine laughed, stepping out of the bathtub as she wiped away the last pint of blood. Just as her feet touched the ground, Bill poured a bucket of red water down the bath's drain, making the girl jump.

Annabeth held up her hand for a high-five from the boy, but he stared at it and filled up the bucket again. Her hand fell limp, turning back around to face a glaring Elaine "what?"

"Remind me why we're friends again" she quirked a brow, picking up Annabeth's discarded rag from the floor and running it under the water in the sink.

She tapped her chin before pointing over at her like she'd won the lottery "because Greta's a bitch!"

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner."

Beverly laughed at the girl's clear sarcasm, tying up a bag filled to the brim with the cloth's they had used to wipe the blood off with. Annabeth gasped, holding a hand to her heart "who's side are you on, carrot top?"

"Elaine's" she shrugged, throwing the bag over her shoulder and rushing out the room before she could get smacked by Annabeth. But the girl chased after her, yelling out a loud 'we need to talk!'

Ben had just walked by the door, watching after them with curious eyes. But before he could ask the girl what had happened, she waved him off "I have no idea."

He nodded slowly and hiked the bag higher on his shoulder before walking after the two girls outside. 

"A-Annabeth's delightful" Bill sarcastically spoke, kneeling down by the bathtub, cleaning up the side of it. Elaine laughed, deciding to help him as she got down on both knees.

"Yeah, her and Richie would make a great duo" she scrubbed at a stubborn spot, her tongue slightly sticking out the side of her mouth in concentration "too bad she hates his guts."

Bill stopped what he was doing, looking at her confusedly "can I-I ask why?"

"In 3rd grade, a small second-grader pulled down her pants while she was on the monkey bars. Let's just say, she has a fear of heights now." 

Elaine remembered that day clearly as she was sitting on top of the monkey bars, getting a birds-eye view of the whole thing. Greta's gang, who they had been friends with at the time, had chased after Richie and thrown a couple of punches in before they were all sent to the principal's office.

That day, Elaine had been given her first detention.

"Oh, yeah. I r-remember that" Bill pulled her out of her thoughts, recalling Richie sitting down at their lunch table with a nice shiner on his right cheek "he wouldn't tell us what had happened till w-we got it out of him during a game of truth or d-dare."

"It was also the first time I ever spoke to you" she reminisced "Mr. Lopez had practically forced me to come over and apologize to Richie. I remember you saying that I should control my friends. I was pretty surprised that a second grader had said that to me."

"I might've h-had a little bit too m-much confidence back t-then." he stuttered a laugh, shaking his head when Elaine nudged him in the shoulder.

She reached over to squeeze the rag into the bathtub, speaking over her shoulder "I thought it was cute, y'know. You were shorter than me then, so you tried to stand up straighter...but I could still see your hand shaking."

"What? You w-were in the grade a-above. Of course I-I found you i-intimidating." his eyes widened jokingly "plus, y-you were friends w-with Greta."

Elaine's smile dropped from her face, sighing sadly "yeah, I was."

"Why w-were you?" he didn't take notice of her sullen face, still slightly laughing. But then he looked over to her and his own dropped "y-you don't have to answer t-that."

But she shook her head, taking in a deep breath "uh, I was a bit of a loner back in pre-k up to second grade, so when Greta started talking to me during English, I was excited to have my first actual friend, not someone who wanted to copy off my homework. I wasn't dumb, I knew about how she treated everyone, but I was so desperate that I ignored it, choosing to be the 'innocent' bystander as I watched her tease the other kids. But it wasn't all bad, I met Annabeth because of her and we became really good friends, and then as soon as 8th-grade hit and I had hit puberty, people actually started talking to me, and eventually...I stopped talking to Greta."

Bill stared at her as she finished her long rant, not really knowing how to respond to it "wow."

"I tend to talk too much...sorry." Elaine laughed dryly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Greta used to tell her that, how no one liked a girl who ran her mouth everywhere and housewives should know their place. Her fucked up family was very old-fashioned. Then her mom died in 6th grade and they dropped from comfortable to lower middle class.

The hair fell from behind her ear and Bill couldn't help but reach over to tuck it behind again. Elaine blushed lightly, thanking her tan skin for making it less noticeable. But his hand didn't move and Elaine looked over to catch him staring. A slight smile tugged at the corner of her lips, hoping she didn't have any excess blood splattered on her cheek.

Elaine watched as his face grew closer, a plethora of thoughts fighting over each other as she had a mental battle. What happens if he kisses you? Dude, don't leave him hanging! Did I brush my teeth this morning? What if Bill's your first kiss, that means you have to pay Annabeth and Beverly 5 bucks, I'm broke! I did not sign up for this. Shut the fuck up!

"I gotta ask, how long is it gonna take to kiss her." the two snapped their heads towards where Annabeth stood, leaning against the clean bathroom wall "what? I'm an impatient bitch."

She pushed herself off, coming to stand in front of the two as Elaine subtly widened her eyes at the smirking girl. You think you're an impatient bitch? What about me!

"Come on, shortcake, you can kiss Bill later or whatever." she reached down, pulling Elaine up as she trailed behind her. The girl sent one last look behind her at Bill, wide eyes pleading for him to help her.

Damnit Annabeth!

authors note!

Annabeth is currently my favorite character, I think we can all agree that she needs her own book with just her bullying the group.

Also, the story about Richie pulling down Annabeth's pants while she was on the monkey bars actually happened to my sister by this boy that had a crush on me (but I liked his brother). It was hilarious, but she actually has a fear of monkey bars now.