Saturday August 29, 1998 (A Year Later)
Eighteen-year-old Winter sat on the dock and watched the sunrise at Robert's parent's cottage just outside of Maine. Robert's family had let Henry, Winter and their friends have the cottage for the last week of summer break so her and Henry could spend one last week with their friends before the two of them moved to Pittsburgh.
Winter had been accepted into a two-year Veterinarian Program at Carlow College. It was Robert's idea that Henry and Winter could live close to him so he could finally get to spend time and really start a brotherly bond with Henry.
In a week and a half, Henry and Winter were scheduled to move into an apartment that they were going to start renting close to Winter's college. Since Robert's adoptive parents had a very good rapport in Pittsburgh, they had already advised Henry about job openings at mechanic shops around the area. Henry had about ten interviews he was scheduled for in the next month. He also decided that he was going to take night school and get his diploma in business, so he could figure out how to run a mechanics shop of his own one day. They planned that they would eventually move back closer to home and Henry would take over his dad's shop when he retires.
As the year went on since last summer, Henry and Robert had spent more time together whenever Robert would come down to Derry to visit. They would even talk on the phone almost every weekend and talk for hours. As Winter had been working as a waitress at a restaurant called The Duchess of Maine and only worked on weekends, Henry thought it would be a good time to learn more about his long-lost brother.
Winter still spent her lunches while she was in senior year with Eddie and Richie. The year's lunch schedule was even better than the previous year, because Bill and Stan had the same lunch with the three of them, so it was like the band was getting together every lunch time.
This school year was different, though, as their band never got to rehearse, because Mr. Hopper was trying to achieve his life-long dream of directing and producing a broadway musical. The set-up was that he needed to take a famous broadway song, create a dance routine, and a dialogue that was similar, yet different, from the original musical it was from. He had asked Winter to be in his cast for his audition as he called her his "Lucky Star". She accepted, even though her voice was never the same since she had Pneumonia, but with a lot of practice, she did achieve the soprano voice range that she needed to help Mr. Hopper get the role of director for the next upcoming broadway musical.
As Winter sat alone, soaking up the rising sun, she reflected back to some of her last months at Derry High School with her friends.
Mr. Hopper and Winter would practice in the music room. She was the only unprofessional teenager who was apart of the musical dance that Mr. Hopper had created. Since her lunch was right after her spare class for the day, Mr. Hopper would get the professionals he hired, who were all in their twenties and thirties, to meet every other day during her lunch and her spare so they had a lot of time to practice.
As Winter sang the solo at the beginning of the song 'You Can't Stop The Beat' from Hairspray, she stared at Bill, Eddie, Stan and Richie who sat on the floor in the corner of the music room.
The version of Mr. Hopper's "You Can't Stop The Beat" started with Winter's strong soprano voice accompanied by a piano to begin the song off slowly.
"You can can't stop an avalanche as it races down the hill,
You can try to stop the seasons, girl, but you know you never will,
And you can try to stop my dancin' feet, but I cannot stand still,
'Cause the world keeps spinning round and round,
And my heart's keeping time to the speed of the sound,
I was lost 'til I heard the drums then I found my way...
'Cause you can't stop the beat...
Five-Six-Seven-Eight!"
The drums began and the backup dancers appeared. One of the male dancers, who was Winter's dance partner, twirled Winter towards him as her and another man began to sing the upbeat chorus as he danced with another woman.
"Ever since this whole world began..."
Her dance partner put his hand on her butt so her leg would lift up to his hip. He stared at her face like he wanted more than just to dance with her with the sly smile growing on his face.
"A woman found out if she shook it, she could shake up a man..."
As his hand slide from her butt to her thigh and he continued to make suggestive expressions at her, she could feel the scars on her stomach left by the clown burn. It happened every time and she could barely get through the verse without stopping.
Winter tore his hand from her thigh and stopped singing. As she backed away, her scars on her stomach stopped hurting. This was the tenth time they needed to stop and it happened on more days than this particular day.
"Mr. Hopper, I can't do this dance! I don't like strangers touching me, especially grabbing my ass!" Winter said as the professional singers and backup singers walked frustrated to their water bottles.
Eddie, Richie, Stan and Bill continued to watch as Winter was obviously uncomfortable with her dance partner.
"Winter, you're so tense when you're dancing. You're fine with the solo dancing, but once you have a partner, you get very tense," Mr. Hopper said, observing her interactions with the people he hired. "His hand has to grab your butt so he can lift your leg to his hip."
Winter shook her head and sighed, "I don't know, Mr. Hopper. Ever since I got out of the sewers, my scars on my stomach burn sometimes and it happens when I feel uncomfortable around certain people. I don't know why it happens. All I know is that it happens whenever that dancer dude grabs me."
Eddie, being her dance partner in the Developing Partnerships with Dance class they had been taking for two semesters left Bill, Richie and Stan to go talk to his friend.
"Winter, come here..." he grabbed her hand so she could face him, "It's easy, okay?" he smiled at her and took both of her hands. "You just do a twirl..." he twirled her to his lead, "And you lift your leg up to his hip..." Eddie didn't grab her butt, he grabbed her inner thigh to help her bring it up.
Mr. Hopper was observing, "You're not uncomfortable at all when Eddie's helping you out..."
Winter looked at Mr. Hopper, "We've been taking a dance class for a while now. Other than Henry, I think he's the only person I don't mind touching me. Of course, Henry would find all this dancing lame, but Edz and I have a pretty fun time. We've memorized Dirty Dancing, Footloose and created some dances from Top Hits."
Mr. Hopper stroked his chin in thought, "I'll make a deal with you, Winter. If you think you will be okay if Eddie touched your butt to your thigh like in the routine, and Eddie was okay with it, he can be your dance partner for my directors audition."
Winter smiled at Eddie, "Edz, please? I can't do this with strangers!"
Eddie smiled at her excitement, "Sure, I guess that would be fun."
"Okay!" Winter said excitedly, "Now just touch my butt."
Eddie's eyes went wide at the request, "What? Huh?"
Winter rolled her eyes and smiled at her friend, "I need to know if I'm okay with you touching my butt. I was fine when you slid your fingers down the side of my boob during Dirty Dancing, so I think it will be okay. I just want to be sure. So, just grab it!"
Richie, Bill and Stan laughed loudly after she said,"Just grab it" , as Eddie's face was shocked yet intrigued.
Winter looked towards another direction as she waited for Eddie to grab her butt. She thought it would be even more weird if she looked at his face.
Eddie went up closer to her and did what her previous dance partner did by taking his hand and putting it on her butt, then sliding it to her inner thigh as it went up to his hip.
As he did so, Winter tried to pay extra attention to her scars on her stomach. They didn't start to burn once Eddie put his hand on her behind.
She looked at him and smiled, "I was fine! Please be my dance partner? I'm only comfortable dancing with you!"
Eddie was blushing from the experience he just had with her, "Sure!" he said sweetly and smiled.
Winter hugged him tightly, "You saved my ass! Literally!" She added a giggle to the end.
As Eddie went over to talk to Mr. Hopper about the dance part he would be doing, Henry had walked over to the music room to say hi to his girlfriend. Once Winter saw him, she ran up to the love of her life and jumped in his arms. They kissed each other sweetly.
"So, Eddie, the part you'll be playing is a man who is dancing with the woman he loves, but she's distracted by one of the other dancers because she's in love with him. So, she, unfortunately, never knows how he feels and he can't tell her how he loves her because she's in love with another man..." Mr. Hopper explained to him, "Do you think you can play a part like that?"
"Seriously?" Eddie asked shocked and kind of annoyed by the part. He looked over to Winter and Henry hugging and talking as he had her in his arms, "Believe me, Mr. Hopper, I can play that role very well."
Winter continued to enjoy the suns morning beams on her body as she laid in her bikini. She enjoyed getting up before the rest of her friends did for some peace and quiet.
She got up to her feet and stretched her body out. She went into some yoga poses on the dock, enjoying the stretch of Warrior One and Warrior Two, Goddess Pose, Half Moon, and just stretching out her arm muscles.
Winter turned around quickly as she heard footsteps coming up from behind her. She saw Henry as he quickly picked her up bridal style.
"OH, MY GOD!" she said surprised and began to laugh as Henry walked up closer to the edge of the dock. "BABE! NO! I'LL KILL YOU!" She laughed as he kept pretending he was going to throw her in the lake.
He began asking her questions, "What's my favourite color?"
Winter laughed even more, "It's green!"
"That was my favourite color yesterday! I want to know what color I like today!" he laughed as his arms reached more towards the lake.
Winter began to laugh hysterically as she was nervous to feel the cold water on her body, "How am I supposed to know what your favourite color is today if you literally just woke up?"
"It all depends on what color your bathing suit is. Yesterday it was green, and now today it's purple! That makes purple my favourite color today!" he smiled at her.
"I didn't know that!" she said defensively as she laughed.
"This is the life or death question!"
Winter began to scream as she laughed as Henry began to toss her up and down in his arms above the water.
"What's your name going to be after we save some more money?" he asked her as he smiled at her panicked laughter.
"WINTER BOWERS! Please let me live! It'll be Winter Bowers!"
"Is that your final answer? Are you sure you don't need to call a life line?" he continued to walk closer to the edge.
"FINAL ANSWER!" she laughed hysterically.
He continued to laugh as he put her down to her feet. He grabbed her waist and pulled her into him for a kiss. He kissed her sweetly as the morning sun was becoming stronger.
"See? I'm a nice boyfriend. I wouldn't throw you in the water!" he smiled at her.
"Oh yeah?" she asked playfully as she began to walk closer to the edge of the dock with him still embraced in her arms. "I guess one of us has to be the evil one!" she said before pushing him in the water.
Winter jumped in right after and they both popped their heads up to the surface at the same time.
Henry laughed as he swam up to her and put his arms around her body, "You're terrible!" he joked.
Winter shrugged with a smile, "I might look like an angel, but every angel has a fire inside of them!" she stuck her tongue out at him.
Henry laughed, "I will bite that tongue off!" He tried to put his face closer to hers. She put her tongue back in her mouth and looked away as she laughed, "Come on! Be that badass fire angel thing you were talking about two seconds ago!"
Winter continued to laugh as he tried to put his mouth to hers to bite her tongue.
Henry had won that battle and touched her lips with his. To her surprise, he kissed her passionately and sweetly, using his lips to part hers and massage his tongue with hers.
Winter continued to hold onto his shoulders to keep herself up above the waters surface and wrapped her legs around his waist. She could feel his boner right on her pussy, sliding between the fabric of his swim trunks and her bikini bottom. She continued to thrust herself against it, rubbing it against her lips as she could feel herself getting wetter and wetter.
Henry stood on the shallow part of the lake, close to the dock. He walked her over to the dock and pressed her body against it as he took his cock out from his swim trunks and pulled her bikini bottoms off one leg at a time and put the bottoms on the dock.
He pushed his cock and entered into her pussy, both of them making a moan as he pushed his length inside of her juicy hole.
As Henry pushed and pulled in and out of her, he stared into her eyes. One arm was supporting her body while the other was against her front as he moved hair from out of her face and stroked the side of her face with his thumb.
He got turned on during sex by looking deep into her eyes and watching her face as she was being pleasured. He kissed her lips over and over as he would continue to watch her expressions.
"You're so beautiful. I love you so much," he whispered as he watched her moan.
"I love you too," she said as she looked at his turned on expression.
He brought both arms to her waist to support her as he started to thrust deeper and faster. She wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders and clawed at his upper back as she could feel her body reaching orgasm. She clenched her pussy as he would go in deeper and moaned louder when she felt herself orgasm.
He began to breathe heavier as he could feel himself about to orgasm.
He continued to go the speed he was going until he orgasmed into her pussy, moaning as he did so.
Henry pressed his face against the side of her neck and he tried to catch his breath. They remained quiet as they stayed in each other's arms to catch their breath. Winter could feel Henry's heart beating fast.
Winter kissed his shoulder sweetly repeatedly.
"I made breakfast. That's what I came out here to tell you, but I got distracted," he smiled lovingly at her.
"No shit you got distracted!" she laughed; He laughed too before pressing his lips to hers and kissing her deeply.
That evening, the group were sitting by the fire as they roasted marshmallows and made s'mores as they drank beer that they had managed to bring with them on the trip.
Eddie, Richie, Ben, Bev, Stan, Bill and Winter all sat at the campfire as Henry and Mike sat together just a few feet away from the rest of them. As Mike and Henry talked about basketball and other subjects together, the rest of them were joking around and laughing. The night in the sewers from over a year ago was something they never talked about, and it was something that was still in their memories but wasn't triggered a lot of the time.
Richie put two marshmallows with one chocolate chip on each marshmallow on his eyes and made a goofy smile. He made an evil voice and tried to do his best Hannibal Lector impression, "'Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?'"
Everyone at the fire laughed.
"Why does your impression of Hannial Lector have eyes like that?" Winter laughed.
He continued on with his impression, "Winter, 'I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner.'"
"Jesus Christ!" Bev laughed.
"Winter, do you want a s'more?" Eddie asked as he roasted another marshmallow.
Winter shook her head, "My stomach is full of beer. Thanks, though!"
"Milk is for babies. When you grow up, you have to drink beer!" Richie said in his Arnold Schwarzenegger voice.
"Oh, my God, Richie! Just stop and be normal!" Stan laughed.
"I think I'm drunk, guys!" Richie said.
"No shit!" Winter, Bev, Ben, Eddie, Bill and Ben all exclaimed.
"Hey, Henry?" Stan turned to look at Henry, "Can I use your fishing supplies tomorrow? Some of us are going in the boat to go fish!"
Henry smiled and nodded, "Of course, man! Just make sure to take good care of it all!"
Stan smiled, "I will, man!"
"I can't believe you and Henry will be gone in, like, a week..." Bev pouted, "I'm going to miss seeing you guys at school... Senior year is going to suck! I'll have no girlfriends, just boys!"
Winter laughed, "You are officially the Elaine of the Seinfeld group!"
Eddie heard Bev and quickly glanced at Winter, realizing that senior year was going to suck without her there.
"W-Winter, ar-are you going to vi-visit?" Bill asked as he roasted a Weiner.
"Probably during Christmas break," Winter pouted, "I'm going to miss you guys so much! I don't think I'll ever find friends like you all again!"
"We'll never forget you, Winter," Eddie said solemnly. "I won't dance with anyone else ever again."
"Oh, my God, Edz! Don't say that!" Winter said.
"Who else will I be creating random dance routines with? It's not like I wanted to do it as a hobby for myself. Dancing was our thing!" Eddie weakly smiled at her. "It was what we did to forget about our stressful lives and just turn our brains off and laugh."
Winter sadly smiled at him realizing how true it was. "You're right... I'll miss it, too."
"Who's going to fix us when we're hurt or cut our hair?" Ben asked. "I always pocketed the money my mom would give me to get a haircut and just go see you."
"You've been withholding money from me, eh, Benny?" Winter joked. "All those hairs I cut from your head and never did I receive a tip!"
Ben smiled, "I gave you hugs..."
Winter laughed.
Mike and Henry continued to chat a few feet away on some lawn chairs as they enjoyed their beers.
Henry kept looking over at Winter and thinking about how much he loved and adored that woman socializing with her friends. He knew she was the only woman he would ever want in his life, and as long as he was living on earth, she was his soul mate.
Henry's attention on Winter was disturbed as he heard footsteps in the woods behind him.
"Henry..."
Henry quickly turned around and saw the trees moving from the wind, but couldn't see anything or anyone on the other side of the trees.
He turned back and looked at Winter, still thinking about how he thought he heard his name being called from the forest.
"Henry!"
Henry quickly turned his head back towards the trees and got up to his feet. He stared at the trees.
"We're still inside of you, Henry."
"You okay, man?" Mike asked him as he flipped through a car magazine.
Henry looked at Mike sitting there, not hearing the same thing that he did.
The voices had disappeared.
Henry cracked open another beer and nodded at Mike, "I'm fine! Just an animal or something..."
Or something.
Henry gulped down his beer quickly, hoping it would make him relax. He continued to look out to the forest as he had a couple more beers to relax his nerves.
As the night continued to go on and it was getting late, Henry walked up to Winter who had just finished a drunk dance routine with Eddie to Footloose playing from the boombox that Richie brought. The two of them barely got through the dance without cracking up with laughter from bumping into each other and making funny facial expressions at each other, and they just couldn't stay serious.
"Hey, baby..." Henry grabbed a hold of her hand.
Winter grabbed both of his hand and stood in front of him, "Hi, baby. Are you having fun?" she kissed his cheek and hugged him.
"Yeah! Mike and I just chilled and talked about cars. Do you want to go in now and curl up in bed and watch a movie?" He kissed her lips, "And other things..." he smiled.
Thankfully the two of them occupied the master bedroom as the others had separate bedrooms in the enormous cottage.
Winter smiled back at him, "I would love to."
Winter kept her hand in his as they began to walk to the cottage. She quickly turned to her friends, "Don't get too drunk, guys! Be safe!"
"Thanks, mom!" Ben said to her.
"DON'T CALL HER MOM!" Bill, Richie, Stan and Eddie all shouted at him drunkenly, still unable to get that day in the Barrens out of their memories. It was a day they could never forget in their teenage-hoods, and they never wanted to forget about it, especially Eddie.
Henry and Winter went up to their bedroom and laid under the covers. They turned on The Wedding Singer and watched it as they cuddled. They enjoyed the last weekend of their youth before they had to go out into the world and be adults.
Saturday September 5, 1998
Winter walked up to Henry's driveway with her backpack on that sunny afternoon. The rest of her stuff was already loaded into Henry's pick-up truck and the movers truck.
Henry was outside, making sure all the belongings were securely tied down.
Henry looked over to Winter as she walked up in her pink and black tank-top and blue shorts with her brown hair down to her armpits. He jumped off the back of the truck and ran over to her.
"There's my girl!" he said as he hugged her tightly and lifted her off of her feet.
She laughed as he twirled her once and then put her back down onto her feet.
She kissed his lips and then admired his face, "So, we said bye to my parents and yours... I haven't seen the group since a couple of days ago, though. I didn't think that would be the last time we saw them."
"Think again!" Richie said as him, Bill, Eddie, Stan, Bev, Mike and Ben rode up to the driveway on their bikes.
"W-We came to s-see you guys off," Bill said as he put his bike to the ground.
Winter smiled at her friends, holding back her tears as they were the best friends anyone could ever ask for, and she had no idea when their paths would cross again.
Henry and Winter walked up to them at the bottom of the driveway.
"I guess this is bye... It feels weird..." Henry said, "I've known most of you since I was six, and I didn't really get to know all of you until last year."
"Yeah, it's like everything just feels unfinished... Like this friendship..." Mike said.
"I'm sure we'll all see each other again soon," Bev smiled softly.
Eddie stared at Winter, not knowing what to say to her. He didn't want her to go, but the shitty thing about having a best friend who's a year older is that they wouldn't be able to spend their last year of high school with you, and that sucked to him.
"We won't keep you guys for long. We just wanted to say bye," Stan said to them.
It was such an odd feeling. It felt like the friendships were ending, but it didn't feel right for them to end. How do you say bye to seven of the greatest people you've ever met?
Winter went over to Eddie first who wasn't saying anything but looked the saddest. She hugged him tight and he hugged her back.
When they parted, she said to him, "Remember what Mr. Hopper always said to you during band? 'Make decisions based off of what you want, not what your mom or your friends want'.Remember that when you become an adult, okay?"
He softly smiled, "I will... But to be honest, what I really want doesn't really matter right now."
Winter rubbed his shoulder. It was the first time she did realize that he was her best friend as she thought back to all the memories and the conversations. "You're cooler than Johnny Castle."
Eddie let out a laugh, "Just less muscular and not that great at dancing. I could see myself as a sex icon one day, though!" he joked
Winter smiled, "Stay cool, Edz."
Henry and Winter hugged all of their friends individually. It was harder for Winter to say goodbye as they had all grown so close over the past two years.
As Henry and Winter got into his truck and they drove out of the driveway, the seven friends, Henry and Winter waved one last time. It was only a few seconds that passed but it felt like so much longer. Time just stood still.
As Henry and Winter continued to drive out of Derry, passing by the sign on the side of the street that read: 'Thank you for visiting Derry! Come back soon!', Winter kept thinking of a quote she had read in a book as she thought about Bill, Stan, Eddie, Richie, Mike, Bev and Ben:
"Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart."
– Washington Irving