𝔼𝕟𝕖𝕞𝕪 𝔸𝕥𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟//ℂ.ℂ 𝕗𝕒𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕔

8

The room stayed silent until he spoke. The one who walked into the room, much to everyone's surprise.

Billy: I knew it. Ace was right, you were hiding something!

Maggie: I'm not hiding anything.

Billy: I heard you! I heard everything. You love Chris. Chris Chambers!

Maggie's face went red and she dragged him out of the room and onto his front porch.

Maggie: Billy please I beg you don't tell anyone. I mean, anyone. Please.

Billy: There's no way we're skipping past the point. You love Chambers! You're supposed to hate him like we all do. You little traitor.

Maggie: I did hate him until I spoke to him. Please just don't tell Ace, Billy. Me and you are friends, right? This doesn't change anything.

She knew it changed everything. Absolutely everything would change now, no matter whether Billy told Ace or not. Billy would never trust her again.

Maggie walked home, her stomach full of anxiety and her cheeks red from anger. She knew what shit she'd gotten herself into now Billy knew. Now that Billy had something over her, and could take advantage of that for as long as he wanted.

Benny: Mag, that you?

Maggie: yeah Benny it's me.

She checked on her father before heading straight up to her bedroom to dump her purse. She carried on debating whether to take her trip, but in truth, there was no debate.
Maggie had every intention of following those tracks, despite the story Chris had told her.

He'd told her all of it. His and Teddy's fight. The junkyard fight with Milo Pressman. Outrunning a train. Gordie's story around the fire. He mentioned talking to Gordie about something close to their hearts, but never mentioned what it was. The leeches. And then the given...finding the body and the Cobras.

It sounded traumatic, and so she understood why they barely ever spoke about it, even amongst themselves.

Benny: Where've you been?

Maggie: oh just walkin'. How about you?

Benny: Here, looking after that trainwreck in there.

Maggie turns to her dad again, passed out with a beer in his hand.

She looked at her dad, and she knew then how much Chris had changed the way she saw her dad. Maggie and Benny's dad sure was a hell of a train wreck, but he'd never laid a hand on them. He still loved them even when he's throwing back drinks. He'd never intended to be the way he is- couchbound and unconscious.
Chris was willing to run away from his father. His whole family, he was happy to leave behind without a thought. And that in itself told Maggie so much.
She couldn't ever leave Benny. Or her dad. She had it good at home, compared to Chris, who deserved a world more than what he had.

It was a friday morning, the diner busy with school kids excited to enjoy their weekends and adults glad to be done with their boring 9-5 for a couple of savoured days.

Maggie stood behind the counter, wiping the counter, Gordie LaChance sat on one of the plush red stools on the other side. The two had previously been talking about Chris, as he was all the two could think about.

As Maggie's eyes were attending the counter she was cleaning, she kept her head undistracted as a car pulled up outside in the parking lot.

Gordie: oh shit.

Maggie shot her head up to examine outside the window. She left her cloth on the counter and practically ran out of the diner, leaving Barb, Owen and Judy confused. But Gordie knew.