Toziette (Henry Bowers)(English version)

Chapter 19.5.5 Vic

Chapter 19.5.5 Vic

Vic was late, he had already missed the first two hours of class and if he didn't hurry he would miss the start of the third.
If his mother found out, she would kill him.
His friends often made fun of his school attendance, but he couldn't afford to see his grades drop. His mother had already predicted a great future for him and threatened to send him to a reputable boarding school in another state if he had the audacity to drop a point in his average. He had the right to get in as much trouble as he wanted, there were three rules: You don't end up in jail, You don't end up in the hospital and Your average doesn't go down.
He heard his mother in his head with every assessment, every time Henry wanted to miss a class or every time he pulled out his knife.

The first time he had cracked under his mother's pressure was in sixth grade. He had stupidly lost a point on a test, and a kid in his class had made fun of him.
Said kid ended up with his head shoved in the toilet, and Vic ended up with Henry glued to his sneakers.

Vic knew Henry Bowers by name. The boy was known in middle school for regularly getting into fights with older students, and for picking on weaker students.
Vic was the perfect victim for Henry, a good student shorter than the others, and he had braces. But Henry had never attacked him, he had integrated him into his band of thugs, as his mother called them, composed at the time of Moose Sadler, Peter Gordon, both older than the rest of the band, Reginald Huggins and self-proclaimed band leader Henry.

In 8th grade, there were only three left, Reginald now known by the nickname of Belch, Henry and Vic. It was during this period that Patrick started sticking Henry, like chewing gum under a sole. It was also during this period that Henry began to sink.

Shortly after meeting Patrick over summer, Henry had stolen one of his dad's army knives, marked with a B for Bowers, and started taking it out to scare the kids in town. Vic hadn't seen any downsides, all these kids deserved a scare once in a while, it wasn't going to kill them. Until the day Henry actually used the knife.
He had taken it out to scare Ben Hanscom, a fat kid who hadn't let him copy on his test during the end-of-year exams. Because of him, Henry had been forced to attend summer school, angering his father. Vic had been genuinely shocked to see him begin carving his name into his victim's stomach, and he had been so relieved to see him run away, that his legs gave out.

He had seriously considered cutting all ties he had with the gang at the time, he didn't want to be associated with such serious assaults - on second thought, he later realized he had been a hypocrite, he had already burned kids with his cigarettes, on some of his bad days he had done it with a lighter, he had his faults too, he liked the influence he had on people, he liked the confidence he inspired and he liked to use it to get what he wanted, before betraying everyone. He liked to watch the realization in their looks when he cast them. But he didn't want to go to jail for following the wrong people, his mother would kill him.

If he hadn't, it was because that very evening Henry had come to his house, in tears, asking him what was wrong with him. If seeing Henry maim Ben was a shock to Vic, it was nothing compared to seeing him cry. Henry was the toughest and bravest looking boy he had met in his life. A boy who had been forced to grow up too fast. Seeing him cry was like seeing him regain his place as a child.

They had gone out, Vic must have done it behind his mother's back, and they had spent the night together, in the streets of Derry. They had started by destroying the mailboxes of the upscale neighborhoods of the city with baseball bats, exploding Greta's with a firecracker that Henry had kept.
Then they had spoken.

Henry had explained many things. He also cried a lot. He said he was afraid to go too far, to go beyond simple bullying and commit a real crime, that he was guilty for the people of the town anyway, that everyone wanted to see him go, that since the departure of his mother everything was going badly.
Vic had listened, rediscovering his friend through his confidence.