Chapter Nine:
Happy Fucking Fourth Of July
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

"Do I care that Eddie will never love me?" Jack squeezed his eyes shut as Beverly ran her hands through his blond hair. "Absolutely not!"

"Jack, you're crying." Beverly said slowly, her eyes trailing down his face.

"Pfft, am I?" Jack looked up at her, waiting for a nod in confirmation.

"Yes."

"Well, shit." Jack laughed bitterly as br wiped his face, "Bro, it hurts so bad!"

Beverly stayed silent as she watched her friend cover his face with his hands. "Fuck me!"

"I feel like you're saying that to the wrong person." Beverly laughed, scratching his head.

"Shut up, Bev.. You know what I meant." Jack scoffed, rubbing his eyes to keep himself awake. "Whatever, don't we have to go hang out with the losers?"

Beverly nodded, "Yeah, we do. Bill said somethin' about meeting in an alleyway."

"Great! He's gonna kill us."

~~

"Th-They say that found p-p-p-pa-part of his hand all chewed up by the s-s-sa-sand pipes." Bill explained, pointing at the missing person's poster.

"He asked to borrow a pencil once." Ben spoke sadly, intensifing the gloomy atmosphere despite the bright sun nearly blinding Jack.

Ed Corcoran.

He was in the nurse's office at the same time as him. Blood was pouring out of his nose, probably from Henry Bowers or one of his crazy followers.

"I-It's like she was f-fo-f-forgotten ever since C-Cor-Corcoran went missing." Bill continued, lifting up the piece of paper to reveal Betty's.

Jack frowned, his eyebrows furrowing as he reached up and brushed his hair out of his eyes.

"Is it ever gonna end?"

"Really fuckin' hope so." Jack tried to joke to lighten the mood. "Cause I don't wanna die."

"I actually think it will." Ben spoke up,  gaining the attention of the group. "For a while, at least."

"What're you guys talkin' about?" Eddie's voice caused Jack's heart to skip a beat.

"What they always talk about." Richie replied, taking the ice cream from Eddie's hands.

"Yeah, you know. Dead kids, normal shit." Jack said sarcastically, shrugging his shoulders.

Eddie scoffed and rolled his eyes. He jokingly nudged Jack with his elbow, "Whatever."

"Whatever." Richie mimicked, snickering as he licked his ice cream.

"I got you this." Eddie said, ignoring Richie's comments. Jack grinned taking the popsicle from his hand.

"Thanks, dude." Jack grinned, licking his teeth as he took the popsicle from his hands.

"So, I was going over my Derry research-" Ben cut off Jack and Eddie's conversation, "And I realized something."

"What'd you realize?" Jack said, glancing over at Eddie and forcing down his smile.

"I charted all of the big events, the ironworks explosion in 1908, the Bradley gang in '35, the '62, and now.. all these kids going missing. I realized that all this stuff seemed to happen every-"

"Ev-Every t-tw-twenty-seven y-years."

~~

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Eddie started, clapping his hands together. "It comes out from wherever to eat kids for like, a year, then what? It just goes back into hibernation?"

"Maybe it's like.. what do you call it? Cicadas!" Stan said, clapping his hands together. "Yeah.."

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed.. That every bad thing that happens in this town happens because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off of the people that live here." Mike explained slowly, looking around at each of his friends' faces.

"But it can't just be one thing!" Stan scoffed, becoming increasingly and obviously worried. "Because we all saw something different!"

"Maybe." Mike agreed, nodding his head, "Or maybe It knows what scares us most and that's what we see."

"I-I saw a leper! It-It was like a walking infection." Eddie stammered out, wringing his hands together.

"But you didn't!" Stan said, "Because none of this is real! Not Eddie's leper, or Georgie, or-or the woman I keep seeing-"

"Is she hot?"

Jack scoffed, rolling his eyes as he leaned back against the bench.

"No, Richie! She's not hot! Her face is all messed up, and-and.. This all feels like one big bad dream."

"I don't think so. I know the difference between reality and a dream."

"Jack probably doesn't."

"Fuck you, Richie."

"Mike, did you see something?" Eddie asked, changing the subject to avoid a fight.

"Yeah.. You guys know that burtn down house on Harris Avenue? Well, I  was inside when it burnt down." Mike spoke sadly. "And before the firefighters got to us, my mom and dad were in the next room over from me. They were banging on the doors, trying to get to me.. But it was too hot, and when the firefighters finally got to them, there skin had gotten burned down to there hands. So, yeah, we're all afraid of something."

"You got that right."

"Why, rich? What are you afraid of?"

The boy turned around and shuddered as he saw the man in the clown suit, "Clowns."

Jack nodded, "I saw a clown, too."

"Great, I have to relate to you."

"Shut up man!"

"Can you guys not?" Ben said slowly, "Now that we have this straight-"

"Jack's not?" Richie smirked, watching as Jack's smile dropped.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jack glared, crossing his arms. "Seriously. What's your problem with me? Hm? Why can't you just let me fucking live? I'm tired of your shit, okay? So shut the fuck up for once, okay? Seriously!"

Richie rolled his eyes, "You didn't deny it, did you?"

Jack inhaled shaking his head. "You know what? You're a dick, Richie. The biggest asshole I've ever met in my entire fucking life. And if you say one more fucking thing to me about me being gay? I'm gonna beat the fucking shit out of you, you son of a bitch."

Richie scoffed, crossing his arms, "Whatever. You think I'm scared of a druggie?"

"That's it-" Jack stood up from the bench. "Square the fuck up, you fucking piece of shit!"

"Jack, don't." Eddie's voice brought him out of his rage. Jack looked down at his wrist and sighed when he saw Eddie's hand clasped around it.

"Why not? Why do I have to take his shit? Take how he treats me?" Jack scoffed, slowly sitting back down on the bench. "Not fuckin' fair!"

Eddie frowned, tightenting his grip on Jack's wrist. "I'm sorry, J."

Jack rolled his eyes, but sat down anyway. "Whatever."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

{ Word Count: 1116 }

{ A/n: fuck this was kind of bad. I was big time considering having Jack absolutely put the waste to Richie too }

{ Edited: No