Chapter 14: Size You Up
"Dustin you can't take what she said seriously," Lucas says skeptically.
The curly-haired member of the Party had ridden his bicycle up to Starcourt to meet his friends and also to say hi to Steve and Robin. Will, Mike, and Lucas were all standing at the entrance when Dustin pulled up; the girls had already disappeared inside to look at some clothes. He parked his bike and it was Will who noticed immediately that the usually most upbeat member of their team was quiet and even a bit pale.
"What's wrong?" Will had asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
Dustin had hesitated to tell his friends what Suzie had told him; whether it was real or not, it had spooked him. It boggled his mind to think that places other than Hawkins had weird shit going on too. An embodiment of all evil or the devil himself, as his girlfriend had put it.
He pulls his friends into a quiet section of the mall and told them what Suzie had said.
None of them believed him; an embodiment of Satan's shadow sounded like a bunch of religious superstition to scare kids into being good or to keep people from moving there.
"Yeah," Mike agreed. "Don't you guys talk about fantasy stuff all the time? What if she just took something from one of those books?"
"Because she sounded deadly serious about. I've never heard Suzie talk like that. She sounded scared shitless guys... I know when she's scared; the only time that's ever happened was when someone at the camp told us the story of a man dressed in a suit who had no face and long tentacles coming out of his back who would grab children in the dark. Then we had to walk back to our cabins in the dark. That's the only time she was really scared then, and it was the first time we held hands. I heard it in her voice, and she was terrified to even be telling me this."
They begin walking through the mall towards the food court.
"She was probably just messing with you," Mike says shrugging it off. He glances around the mall, having lost interest in the story and wanted to look for where Eleven and Max had gone, but so far, he'd had no luck.
"She wasn't messing with me!" Dustin says firmly.
"Chill out Dustin," Lucas says. "Let's go to Scoops, provided that my worm of a sister isn't there."
However, the curly-haired Party member couldn't shake the dread that was still in his stomach. He decides against telling them about the weird transmission he'd gotten before turning off Cerebro. The creepy laugh and that one sentence about floating. What the hell could it mean? Maybe another code to crack, even though this time it was in English and didn't require Robin to translate and continually insult them for their lack of language skills. But again, Dustin is hesitant to tell Steve or Robin about it; it had taken them a hell of a long time for him to convince them the first time.
The group of boys reach the food court. Before entering the ice cream store, Lucas does a quick scan to ensure that his sister and her obnoxious friends weren't around. When the coast was clear, they enter.
Steve is working the counter when he sees the familiar group of faces approach.
Once they come to the front of the line, he smiles.
"What's up, Henderson?" Steve says a smile on his face when the boys enter Scoops. He holds his hand up, to which Dustin eagerly high fives.
"Nothing much. Talked to Suzie."
"Nice, how's she doing?"
"Good, overall, she misses me a lot."
"I can imagine," Steve nods. "Long distant relationships are hard."
"You speak as if from experience," Robin says, coming in from the back. "When have you ever dated anyone, who lived anywhere but here?"
Steve rolls his eyes and bites his lip in frustration. Despite them being friends, surviving Russian torture, and her sharing a very private secret with him back in July, Robin still had the urge to give him a hard time. Apparently, that's what friends do to one another, according to her.
"What up Afro?" Robin smiles at Dustin, considering what they'd gone through in the summer, and she did consider him a friend, but the other kids in the group were still pretty well strangers to her.
"Not much," he says smiling.
"He talked to his girlfriend about Derry and she spooked him with a scary story," Lucas informs the older teenagers.
Dustin whacks Lucas in the shoulder for blurting it out.
"Wait she knows about Derry?" Steve asks.
"Yeah, she knows a lot apparently," Dustin says. "Says it's an evil place."
Steve makes a weird face.
"What?" Dustin asks.
"A couple of Derry kids were in here earlier and a girl told me that she'd rather be anywhere but there."
"Feeling must be mutual," Robin says. "Although I don't know why any self-respecting woman would want to be friends with the little dweeb in glasses. Dude's got a dirty mind and mouth."
"Wait... glasses?" Will asks, piecing something together in his mind. "Does he kind of look like Mike but with Coke-bottle specs?"
"Yeah, spitting image," Steve says.
Mike rolls his eyes. "I seriously don't see it."
"Those kids are in our grade," Will says. "The red-haired girl punched one of the bullies on the first day."
"Tough gal," Robin says.
"Anyways, I feel like those kids have seen some shit," Steve says. "They also looked pretty spooked when I told them about small towns having secrets."
"I bet what we've seen is nothing compared to them," Dustin says in a low voice.
"Are we seriously going to compare traumatic experiences?" Robin asks. "Because Dingus and I were nearly operated on by a psycho Russian doctor."
"Beats being nearly eaten by a Demogorgon," Lucas fires back.
"I spent a week in an ashy alternate universe and nearly had my soul destroyed by a giant dark being from that world," Will says.
Everyone goes quiet.
"You win," the female of the group says.
"Excuse me!" a voice calls from behind. Everyone turns to realize that there's a line behind the boys. "I'd like to order some ice cream before the next century."
Both of the Scoops employees roll their eyes, going back to their day jobs.
"You better cut out of here, we'll catch you guys later," Steve says. He and Dustin high-five again before the four boys trudge out of the ice cream parlour. It was a good thing too because Lucas spotted Erica coming with a few of her friends. Quickly, they all disappear into the crowd before the obnoxious annoyance could spot them and call them nerds. Although, Dustin knew that Erica was as much of a nerd as they were, having revealed her impressive mathematics skills down in the Russian bunker.
The group decides to try and find Eleven and Max. They walk around the mall, looking for them, that is until Will trips on his untied shoelace and ends up crashing into someone. They both end up on the floor of the mall.
"Will, you okay?" Mike asks.
Meanwhile, someone else asks.
"Bill, are you okay?"
Both groups of kids help their friends up, only to finally make eye-contact with one another. None of them can really speak, just staring, unsure of what to say. None of them had spoken to each other, even after Mike had helped the group stand up to the bullies. It felt as though they were just total strangers, despite having helped in the past.
Bill is the first to speak. He looks at Will.
"Y-You okay?" he asks.
"Fine," Will says. "It's my fault for not tying my shoes."
Mike and Richie lock eyes. The trash-mouth appears to size up to Mike, looking him up and down; wondering who was taller, who had more muscle, who had bigger equipment, and above all, who was the better-looking one.
"You seriously don't see it?" Lucas questions.
Mike shrugs.
"See what?" Ben asks.
"How much your friend looks like our friend," Dustin clarifies, pointing at Richie.
"Yeah, I mean how are you guys not twins," Stan asks.
Again, Mike and Richie look at one another.
Mike shrugs. "I just don't see it."
"Me neither," Richie says. "And if it was true, I'm obviously the better-looking one."
Mike bites his lip before snorting in derision. "In your dreams four-eyes,"
"Want to go hippie boy?" Richie says, rolling up his sleeves. "Want to measure dicks, see who is bigger?"
Fortunately, Eddie, Stan, and Bill hold the trash-mouth back before he can go forward. They know this was just part of Richie's tough-guy act, but their classmates don't.
"D-Don't mind Richie, h-half the things he says is b-bullshit."
"Actually, everything he says is bullshit," Eddie smirks.
"Watch your mouth Spaghetti, want to go too?" Richie snaps.
"Beep beep, Richie," a voice says. Beverly comes up to the group, just in time it seemed. "Sorry about him, he's got no filter at all."
"And no respect for women either," Lucas states. "We heard that you hit on the girl at Scoops Ahoy."
"How do you know that?" Eddie asks, raising his eyebrow.
"They're friends of ours," Will says, looking almost shyly at Beverly. She gives him a small sympathetic smile.
"Even the guy with the hair that could catch fire?" Richie asks.
"It's not that much hairspray," Dustin blurts out and then claps a hand over his mouth. At least he didn't reveal what brand it was. "And yeah, he's our friend too."
"Gives us discounts on ice cream too," Lucas lies, trying to sound more impressive to these Derry kids.
"Yipee for you," Richie says sarcastically. "I still think I'm better looking than him."
"Give it a rest Richie," Bev says rolling her eyes. "Why is this even an issue with you?"
Just then, Max and Eleven walk up. El goes right over and pulls Mike into a hug. The leader of the party smirks and decides to kiss his girlfriend's head to emphasize the connection. He smirks at Richie's shocked expression.
Max goes to stand next to Lucas, but her expression changes when she notices the pretty redheaded Derry girl is also there. Her nostrils flare in slight annoyance, but keeps her mouth shut, trying to avoid eye-contact.
"You're kidding me?!" Richie says, almost yelling.
Eleven looks at the kid and the Loser's Club goes silent. They all recognize the girl from the schoolyard; the one who made everything weird happen. The telekinetic girl curls into Mike's arms, trying to hide a little bit, confused by the kid's anger.
Eddie reaches up and pats his best friend on the shoulder. "Hard to beat that eh Rich?"
The rest of the Loser's Club, and even some of the Party grin in amusement.
"How can he have a girlfriend?" the kid with glasses says. "I'm ten times better looking."
"T-Tell that to her," Bill says.
"It's probably because he can control what he says," Stan says. "And doesn't make dumb innuendos all the time."
"I don't think it's a contest anymore," Beverly smiles.
Eleven looks over at Beverly still lost about what was talked about but manages to smile at the nice girl from Derry.
"Mike wins by a mile," Dustin says.
"That's completely unfair," Richie protests.
"Sorry Rich," Ben shrugs. "But I think having a pretty girl who chooses to be with you through free will is a pretty good indicator of who's better looking." He shyly looks over at Bev and she smiles in agreement.
The Loser's Club continues to smile at the comedian's disappointment, but Max nudges Lucas, signalling to him that she wants to leave.
"We should do this again," Dustin says, humouring the group. "Next time it should be the battle of the afros." He nods at Stan, who had thick curly hair like his own. "We need to determine who would win."
"S-Sure," Bill says. He's unsure if the curly-haired kid is serious or not.
"I still think dick size should be important," Richie says.
"Beep beep Richie," Eddie moans.
On that disgusting note, the Party turns to leave.
"See you guys at school," Will says politely, waving.
Several members of the club wave back and the groups go their separate ways once again
A/N: Sorry for the delay. Here's a new chapter. Thanks again to a very supportive Guest. I'd love to have some suggestions for some of the coming chapters.