Chapter 28: Message Received

Richie is gasping frantically like he's being pulled underwater and can't get any air. His heart is going 1000 beats per minute and his mind is a jumble of confusion and fear. He's also shaking to the point where he has to take off his glasses to avoid having them fall off his face with the erratic movements. He curls up into the fetal position to try and do something to calm down.

The moment plays over and over in his head… that creature… that thing… It had no face, just flaps of flesh that opened like a flower, but then it spoke. It said something in the voice Pennywise… the f***ing clown. How was it possible? They'd killed it last summer and there was no way in hell it could be back… or could it? It was impossible! It had to be, they'd watched the thing shatter and crumble like stone… So how did the monster know about the "beep beep Richie?" It didn't make sense and his mind will not go to that place again.

If… it was even real. Everything that happened, maybe it was just a hallucination. The flickering lights, cliché as they were, could have made him see something that wasn't actually there. Maybe he was so nervous and scared that he imagined it. Or there was a toxic gas leak that caused him to create this figment of his imagination. He shouldn't have gone to that laboratory and he'd never go there again.

As his brain begins to rationalize it, the shaking stops and he's breathing a bit better. He slowly uncurls from the fetal position and lays back in the sun, soaking up the heat and bringing himself back to reality.

"You okay?"

Richie sits up and wipes sweat from his face, squinting at who was talking to him. He puts his glasses back on to see his duplicate, Mike Wheeler staring at him from his own bike.

The Wheeler kid was biking through town after leaving the Byer's home and he had to stop at the grocery store before heading back.

He was cutting behind the gas station when he saw the crashed bike and the kid laying on the ground, looking like he was either panicking or having a seizure or was high on something.

"I'm fine," Richie manages to say. Unfortunately, his voice was cracking a little bit betraying what was said.

"Because you look like you were having a seizure or something," he says.

"I said I'm fine," the kid from Derry insists, getting up from the ground and heading towards his bike.

"Okay then, I just thought you might have passed out."

"Well thank you for your concern, less handsome twin," he smirks.

Mike glares at the kid and rolls his eyes.

"This again?"

"You have to admit, I am better looking,"

"Dream on four-eyes," Mike snorts in amusement.

"I'm clearly taller than you." Even when standing next to one another, they were the exact same size.

"And my dick is bigger."

"Why is that so important to you?"

"It shows who's tougher," Richie says, climbing onto his bike and going towards the Hawkins kid.

"No, it doesn't and we're sure as hell not going to compare," Mike snaps. "But also, who has the girlfriend?"

"That's unfair!" Richie fires back. "You were just lucky."

"No, I wasn't, I have a girlfriend because I am a person who actually cares about other people's feelings and I don't go shooting off my mouth at every opportunity."

"That's a very small percentage of what it takes to get a girlfriend," the bespectacled Derry kid continues.

"It's really not. I'll admit that El and I have our differences, but we care and trust each other. A big reason why I have a girlfriend."

Richie makes gagging noises and points to his throat. "That is so sappy and cliché my stomach is turning. That disgusting and sickeningly sweet on many levels."

Mike rolls his eyes. "You're disgusting. It's a real mystery to you huh?"

"In terms of looks, it's no contest."

"We look almost the same but we're complete opposites. Our looks don't mean anything to anyone except you."

This causes Richie to pause for a moment. He had gotten a little carried away with the fact that they look so similar.

"Why is it we look so much alike?" the kid with the glasses asks.

Mike shrugs. "Probably some weird doppelganger thing. I've read stories about people having them."

"Or we could be clones from a secret laboratory… or you're an alien duplicate."

"Are you some kind of science nerd?"

"Nerd? My friend Ben tells me that you're president of the AV Club. Who's the nerd now?"

Mike rolls his eyes again and begins to ride off, but Richie follows.

"Hey I'm not done with you yet!" he calls out.

"Well, I'm done with your shit. You have no control of your mouth at all do you?"

"Hey man, it's just who I am. My nickname is Trash Mouth."

"How have you been able to make friends?"

This causes Richie to pause and swallow a lump in his throat. He ignores the tears that are threatening to prick his eyes and just powers on. He's not going to let the fighting get in the way of taking this geek down a few pegs.

"I have a charm about me, plus the chicks cannot resist."

"Your delusion of thinking that you can get girls is beyond annoying," Mike says, steering his bike along the main street on the way to the grocery store. The kid reminded Mike of Dustin, thinking he was smooth with the ladies when in reality their brash and sometimes overly goofy personalities put off the majority of girls. While Dustin did have Suzie now, she matched him in enthusiasm and energy, especially when it came to fantasy and "nerd" stuff.

"I can get it…"

"Keep telling yourself that and then maybe in 50 years it might start coming true."

"You think you're so fucking cool, but you're just a nerd like the rest of us."

"At least I have someone to actually lock lips with instead of my pillow," Mike retorts.

This shuts Richie up for the first time, much to Mike's relief. He continues riding to the store ahead of this self-proclaimed "Trash Mouth" and goes inside to buy what his mom had asked him to pick up. When he comes out, he slumps in annoyance when he sees that geek from Derry is still there, waiting to talk his ear off anymore.

"Don't you have better things to do than stalk me?"

"We're not finished here."

"Yes, we are," Mike says, getting on his bike and pedalling through the parking lot, with Richie giving chase.

"Just because I wear glasses and like science-fiction doesn't make me a nerd. Being a part of the AV does makes you just that."

"Then we're both nerds. Do you seriously not have like friends from Derry to hang out with?"

Richie ignores the comment and keeps pace with Mike.

"I'm the kind of guy who shoots straight, I want to know all the answers and where we can go from here."

"From here, I'm going home, and you can go back to your own friends or go to your pillow for dating advice."

Trash Mouth shoots daggers and then turns to jam his front wheel into Mike's. This nearly sends him over the handlebars.

"What the hell?" the Hawkins boy barks and grabs the shirt of the Derry kid. "You could have killed me! What the hell is your problem?!"

"My problem is you. You think you're so superior because you have a girl to hug and kiss, but that's not true. Not by a long shot."

"Why does any of this matter?" Mike asks in complete frustration. "The only person who cares about this is you. I couldn't give less of a f*** that you don't have a girlfriend. You don't have to have one if you don't want to, but for the love of God get a life and something else to talk about. What's the matter you? Were you dropped on your head or something? Why can't you go bug your own friends? Maybe a girl would like to date you if you weren't such an asshole all the time. Maybe you'd have better friends if you did rag on them and give them shit like this. Maybe the problem isn't me or girls, it's you!"

This causes Richie to pause and for tears to begin to come to the surface again. It seems that Mike had finally broken through the other arrogant teen and spoken some intense truths, even if the one from Hawkins didn't know it. The things said in anger finally sent a message that made Richie stop and think, force the trash mouth into silence, which was not easy to do.

"Now get lost," Mike demands. He untangles his bike and begins to head home, this time alone.

Richie stands in the middle of the street, frozen and fighting the emotions churning inside himself. Without another word, the kid from Derry turns and bikes home… alone.

A/N: Hard truths