princess [rt]

ix. cleaning up

Later that week...

Mallory's POV

Stan and I made up the next morning after our "argument".  The group hadn't hung out in a while, so I started a new book series. It was about monarchy and castles. It was really fascinating. 

"Stanley" Our mom calls from the front door, "Bill, Richie, and Eddie are at the door!" Stan looks at me and I nod. We both races down the stairs as our mom gives me a weird look,

"Mallory? Where do you think you're going?"

"With Stan and his friends?" I respond, giving her a look.

"Since when do you hang out with them?"

"I don't know mom, you tell me." I sass as I close the front door behind me, ending the conversation. 

"What's up?" I ask the group as I grab my bike.

"Beverly wants us to go to her house."

"Why?"

"I don't know, she probably just wants to fuck all of us," Richie snorts. I walk over to him and sock him in the stomach, causing him to fall onto his knees.

"Who dropped you as a child to make you think that that was an okay thing for you to say?"

"I don't know who dropped me but I know who could pick you up, princess."

I cringe and let out a chuckle. "Says the one with no upper body strength" I walk away and hop on my bike. 

"She just said that we ne-need to hurry over." Bill chimes in.

Richie crawls back onto his bike and we take off. As we ride downtown, Richie rides next to me. 

"Thanks for the punch, but next time, I'll take a soda."

"Oh yeah Richie, I'll get right on that. Once you learn to tie your shoes." I speed up and take off until we reach Bev's house.

The rest of the group pulls up to Beverly's house and she runs down to meet us. Eddie pushes his bike onto the ground as she stops.

"I-" She pants, "I need to show you something" She looks towards me, and then to Bill.

"What is it?" Ben asks.

"More than what they saw at the quarry?" Richie snorts. Does he ever learn to keep his mouth shut?

"Shut up!" Eddie shouts at him, "Just shut up!"

"My dad will kill me if he finds out I had boys in the apartment" Bev notes, looking to the ground.

"W-we'll have a lookout," Bill quickly responds, turning to Richie. "Richie, just stay here"

Everyone else but me hops off their bikes, dropping them on to the ground (besides Stanley of course, who propped it up) and started to follow Beverly up to her apartment. Richie flicks his arms up.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, what if her dad comes back?"

"Do what you always do," Stan sasses, "Start talking. Mallory, let's go" 

"It is a gift" Richie mutters. 

I look at Richie and then to Stan. Do we really trust Richie to be the lookout? Not really.

"I'll sit this one out," I tell my twin. 

"Okay? See you soon." Stan disappears with the group. I kick out my kickstand and take a seat by Bev's building, resting my back on the cool wall. 

  🎈  

"Hey... Mal?"

"Yeah Tozier?" I look up to see Richie taking a seat next to me.

"Can I ask you something?"

"If it's my bra size, then no. Otherwise, nothing's stopping you." I crack a smile.

"Well, nevermind then." Richie adjusts his glasses and takes a deep breath.

"Are you serious Richie?"

"What?"

"Was that seriously your question?" 

"Of course not. We save that for the second date."

I gag. "Are you calling this a date? Because it's not."

"It could be, you just won't admit you like me."

"And why would I like you, the boy who always has his foot up his mouth and never learns to shut up?"

"If I had a foot in my mouth, don't you think it would be a little hard to talk?" Richie questions, running his fingers through his hair.

"You would think..." I sigh and play with the laces on my shoes.

A couple of minutes went by and Richie and I just sat there in silence. I have no idea what was taking everyone else so long but they needed to hurry up.

The silence was started to kill me so I tried to restart the conversation with Richie. 

"Hey, did you actually have a question... or?"

Richie snaps his head toward me and smiles. "Yeah, I did."

"Well.... the floor is yours."

"Stan's been trying to get you to hang out with us for... since we all started hanging out. Why the sudden change of heart?"

I sigh. I didn't really know why I started hanging out with the Losers. Maybe it's because I don't have Betty and I don't want to be alone? Maybe it's because I'm not to only one to recently join? 

I only shrug and look towards the grass by my feet. I watch as it sways with the wind, avoiding Richie's eyes. I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up and Richie's face was now closer to mine. 

"It's because of me isn't it?"

"What?" 

"You're in love with me, aren't you?"

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"Saying what?"

I roll my eyes. "That I'm in love with you."

"So you are?"

"NO!" I yell, sitting up for the ground. "Stop saying that!"

"Okay okay, miss defensive. No need to freak out on me!"

"Whatever." I leave Richie and head up the stairs to find the Losers. As I stomp up the stairs, I bump into someone.

"Oh, sorr-" I look up to see Bill's face close to mine. 

"Oh, Mal. We were just about to go down. Is e-e-everything a-alright?" Bill asks me, sounding worried.

"Ye- yeah, everything's fine." I look behind Bill to see the rest of the group behind him. Bev looked at me, her cheeks bright pink.

"What took you guys so long?" I look at Stan, who was holding a red rag. "What is that?"

"Blood. A whole lot of blood." Eddie mutters. 

"I'll explain when we get home, let's go before Beverly's dad comes back."