Chapter Four:
Boys Are Pretty
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

From a young age Jack had always known something about himself, something that no one else knew about.

He liked boys.

He wasn't ashamed anymore, not one bit. He is who he is and there's no changing that. Of course, that had taken some time to accept. A few years, if you asked him.

He used to spend his days in fear of who he was and who he liked. He so desperately wanted to like girls, to stop liking boys.

But he never stopped.

He wasn't afraid of his sexuality now. He knew he was gay and he knew there was no changing that.

Sure, he'd occasionally fake crushes on girls. Just to keep suspicions low. He'd still flirt with them, like Beverly, but what's the harm in that?

But he definitely wasn't going to flaunt it for the world to see. Especially not with that psychotic son of a bitch Henry Bowers and his gang of lunatics running around the town, ready to kill anyone that even looked gay.

Jack had known he liked boys since the ripe age of seven years old.

He didn't understand himself when he was that young. He didn't understand that while his friends talked about how pretty the girls were, he couldn't help but think about how pretty they were.

He had also known, based off of his surroundings, that boys liking boys wasn't exactly.. the standard. Or accepted.

He wasn't sure why at first, and he still didn't understand why if he were being honest.

Why were people hated for love?

Jack didn't understand one bit why how a love so pure and kind could be considered so wrong.

In Jack's opinion, it was fucking stupid. So fucking stupid.

Still, some days, when he was alone in his room staring at the minutes passing agonizingly slow, he couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong with him.

That maybe.. just maybe he was alone in the world, in his feelings, and that he was destined to die crazy and alone.

He didn't wanna die like that. Not alone and crazy.

Jack realized maybe only one of those things were possible.. he may have a chance of finding a man who loved him. But he was already crazy.

He laughed bitterly to himself at that thought.. the lack of sleep had finally driven him to the brink of insanity.

He'd begun seeing a clown. It would just.. stand there, in the corner.. watching him with a sinister grin on it's face.

Sometimes Jack would hear that thing calling his name, taunting him about his dad's death and asking him to come float with him.

Jack was sure he had gone completely off the rocker. That scared the fuck out of him.

After all.. that's all he had left.. his sanity.. or so he thought. He guessed he didn't even have that anymore.

"Woah, woah, woah.. what the fuck?" Richie's voice rang out through the room, disturbing Jack from his thoughts.

"Cool, huh?" Ben asked, seemingly out of breath from how fast he ran up the stairs.

Jack figured it was to do some last minute cleaning to impress Beverly.

"No, no.. nothing cool. There's nothing cool." Richie pushed up his glasses as he spoke.

"Asshole." Jack muttered under his breath, laughing with Beverly.

"The fuck did you just call me?" Richie turned his head, taking a step closer to him.

Jack looked up at him, as Richie was just a bit taller than Jack was.

"I called you an asshole. Because you are." Jack said, crossing his arms and raising a brow, as if daring him to continue.

"Fuck you!" Richie stomped his foot.

"That's still fucking gay, dumbass." Jack rose his eyebrows, tilting his head to the side.

Jack laughed to himself as Richie rolled his eyes and turned to Ben's wall.

Eddie watched the exchange in silence, unaware of the smile that had grown on his face. This, of course, didn't go unnoticed by Beverly.

Beverly pursed her lips, briefly glancing Jack up and down and humming to herself.

She thought it was painfully obvious that there was some kind of tension going on there. But hell, what does she know?

Jack noticed was covered in newspaper articles and notecards. "What the hell is all of that?"

"Oh, this is cool, actually! Oh, wait.. no. No, it's not cool."

"What's that?" Stan asked, stepping up beside Jack and pointing to an article on the wall.

"Oh! That's the charter for Derry's township." Ben explained breifly.

"Nerd alret."

Jack rolled his eyes, exasperated by the glasses wearing boy

"No, it's really cool, actually." Ben defended, crossing his arms. "You see, Derrt started off as a beaver trapping town-"

"Still is, am I right boys?" Richie raised his hand for a highfive.

"Have some respect, dipshit." Jack scoffed, pushing his hand down. "Honestly."

"Well, ninety-one people signed the charter to make Derry.. but later that winter, they all disappeared. Without a trace."

"All of them?" Jack tilted his head as Eddie stopped to stand beside him.

"Yeah, that's what he said. All those drugs getting to your brain? Or maybe that overdose of yours fried it."

Jack's smile dropped as he turned to Richie, "Why do you always have to be such a jerk?"

Richie scoffed. "Just stating facts."

"You know what? You know fucking what? I-"

Ben, sensing an oncoming fight, interrupted. "Everyone just thought it was the plague or something.. but that was debunked pretty quickly."

Jack glared one final time at Richie before turning his attentions to Ben.

"But it's like.. one day, everyone just got up and left. The only clue was a trail of bloody clothes leading to the wellhouse."

"That's comforting."

"You know what else is comforting? Eddie's mom's vagina is."

Eddie rolled his eyes, groaning loudly. "Do you ever just.. stop?"

"Yeah, honestly, Richie. You have no sense of decency and it's kind of super fucking annoying."

"You're super fucking annoying."

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"How clever!" Richie clapped sarcastically.

"Fuck you!"

"You still wish you could."

"And that's still fucking gay!"

Eddie huffed from beside Jack, "Richie. Leave him alone."

"What? But, I- He started it!"

"No, he didn't." Stan deadpanned, rolling his eyes. "You start it every time."

"Wha- No- But.."

Jack rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.  

Beverly walked up, standing behind Jack.

"So what was it then? Do you think someone just.. snapped and killed them all, dragged their bodies to the well and then killed themselves?"

Beverly let out a loud laugh from behind him.

"Pretty laugh, pretty lady."  Jack winked, causing Eddie to furrow his eyebrows in confusion.

Beverly rolled her eyes, "Such a flirt."

"Only for you."

Eddie didn't like it. He didn't like Jack flirting with Beverly.

He didn't like it one bit.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

{ Word Count: 1157 }

{ A/n: jeddie content coming up :) }

{ Edited: No }