Hear My Words
Chapter 1
Richie sat on the steps of his front porch, head in his hands. A distraught look is plastered upon his face. He stares into the window of the house across the street. He can't see inside but he can see his own reflection in the window.
He keeps staring at himself and his brain starts to point out his own flaws.
Your glasses make you look weak, your posture makes you look like a fool, your hair is an untamed beast.
Richie breaks his stare at the window and gets up. His legs, minutes away from falling asleep.
He turned to his house and sighed. He didn't live on the poor side of town but he wasn't rich either. The house was ordinary. Like any other. He strided into his house and went to the living room. He-Man was playing on the TV and Richie sat down on the couch.
His parents weren't home so he could really do anything, but he just sat, looking at the TV. He wasn't watching the show though. He had this deep concentration on his face. He sat for a minute or two then checked the time, 2:45pm, hours before the town curfew.
He then got up and walked over to the phone. He planned to ask the losers to the struggled to remember Big Bill's number but in the end he got it. On the second dial tone, Bill picked up.
"D-Denbrough ruh-residence." Bill stuttered.
"Hey Bill, it's Richie. Do you want to hang out at the arcade? I have some spare change if you want to go."
There was a moment of silence on the other side of the line and Richie could hear Bill cover the phone and ask his mom if he could go, with only a few stutters.
"Sorry R-Rich. My muh-mom is m-m-making me go duh-downtown to some buh-buh-bookstore."He said and sighed.
"That's fine. Hey, do you know Bev's number? I don't remember it." Richie asked. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen just in case Bill did remember.
"Yeah," Bill said "I-I do." Richie got Beverly's number and thanked Bill then hung up. He didn't call her immediately. He looked at the paper. His handwriting was sloppy. He hated that about himself.
He dialed Beverly and she picked up quickly.
"Hey Beverly it's Richie" he said " I was wondering, if you weren't doing anything, if you would go down to the arcade with me?"
"I can't go for very long Rich-" she said.
"It's fine.. So you can go?" Richie asked hopefully.
"Yeah. I'll meet you there at 3:00" Bev said and hung up the phone.
Richie knew she would be late, Bev was pretty and sweet but never punctual. Richie went do dial the other Losers; Stan, who was busy practicing for his becoming a man thing, Ben, who was going to the library to return some books and take out some new ones, Mike said he was busy as well.
The only person left was Eddie. For some reason Richie got butterflies in his stomach, he always did when he thought about Eds. He tried to push away the feeling but it came up again when he dialed Eddie's number. He knew it by heart. He knew it better than any of the other losers. The dial tone went once and Richie hung up. He felt like throwing up butterflies.
Richie checked the time again, it was almost 3:00. He left his house, actually remembering to lock the door.
Richie arrived at the arcade around the same time as Bev. She smiled at him and said hello.
Richie admired her outfit. She wore faded overalls with a peach shirt underneath that went only a few inches past the shoulders. Her hair was short, as usual but very red today. Richie loved Beverly's hair before and after she cut it.
Beverly admired what Richie was wearing as well. He wore a black tee shirt under a green hawiian shirt that she was pretty sure he had worn the day before. He had cuffed jeans and his normal white high top converse with comic characters drawn on them. Rich wasn't much of an artist but he had done pretty well with the Superman character.
They walked inside and saw that there were a lot of kids for a Saturday. There were some lined up just for street fighter. Beverly looked at Richie and tugged on his hawiian shirt sleeve. Richie turned his head toward her and understood the look she portrayed.
Her face said, Richie let's go somewhere else.. I don't like crowds. Richie nodded, understanding and they started to walk away when a familiar voice pressed Richie's ear, "Ay Tozier!" it called. Richie spun around. The words came from Connor.
Richie turned again. He couldn't be around Connor and act normal. Richie walked out of the arcade with Beverly, not saying anything to Connor and kept walking till they got to the nearest alleyway.
They sat down and were quiet. After a minute Bev tried to strike up a conversation but it ended up short. After an awkward ten minutes Richie spoke.
"Bev, there's something I need to ask you." he said. Beverly looked up.
"Yeah Rich?" she said, her eyes twinkled. She was really pretty. He lost his words in his throat and it came out as a cough. Even he wasn't even ready for what he wanted to ask.
Richie thought about how he felt around Eddie and blushed. Beverly tilted her head. She had no idea why the Trashmouth was smiling and blushing like this. No reason at all to blush.
"Let's go get ice cream." Richie said as he stood up. He grabbed Bev's hand and helped her up. She wasn't heavy at all, she was probably 110 lbs. at least.
"Okay." she said and fixed her overalls. The kids walked beside each other until they got to the Ice Cream shop.
Richie cracked a few jokes along the way and tried out some of his voices. Once they got to the shop they pooled together their money and found they had about two bucks.
They walked inside Richie had their money in his pocket and he and Bev walked to the counter. Richie ordered quickly, he came here often with Stanley and would always order the same thing, Rocky Road with caramel fudge in a waffle cone. Beverly ordered a strawberry scoop in a bowl.
They sat outside with their treats and tried to talk about things to do with the other Losers and both settled that they would try to hang out at the Quarry next.
Once they finished their ice cream, Beverly grabbed Richies wrist to look at his watch. It was 3:30.
"Shit. I have to go Richie," she stood up, "I'll call you tomorrow to see when we should go to the Quarry." Richie stood too.
" But Bev, it's not even curfew." he said and frowned.
"It's my curfew." she uttered and started to walk to Main St. Richie walked with speed to catch her.
"At three thirty?!" he half-shouted. Beverly turned to look at him and nodded. She sped up and disappeared as she turned on Main St. Richie slouched, and walked home.