sugarcoat it | bill denbrough

chapter eighteen: wondering

And for the rest of June, that's us. The Losers club. The eight of us are inseparable. Mike helps us look for Georgie in the sewers and Bill is still staying up all night, researching. Bev and Ben are in a gross, PDA-full relationship and I can't help but be a little happy for them, and maybe a bit jealous of their pure love for each other.

Bill and I also haven't talked about the kiss at all, and it's killing me. It happened! I love him, and he kissed me! I try not to wonder what went wrong with him, I hope he didn't realize he doesn't like me, or what if the kiss was disgusting? We're still very close, best friends like usual, and we tell each other everything, but we haven't spoken about the kiss once. Bill's become much more protective of me, though. I fell when I was riding my bike the other day, and he rushed to my side and helped me up when I was clearly going to be okay. Richie had a few comments about that. He also doesn't let me go first when we explore the sewer tunnels, scared that something bad might happen to me. I don't mind it, but it's new.

I can tell that Georgie's disappearance beats him down more and more every day, but he gets more and more determined to find him. The Losers haven't talked about what happened with clown since the day we became friends with Mike. Bill and I talk about it all the time though, we research what it could mean, and if it means anything, every Tuesday is library research day for him and I. So far we've found basically nothing, other than the fact that something terrible happens in Derry every twenty-seven years, but we know that won't affect us because we'll be adults when the next terrible thing strikes. Kids in Derry haven't stopped going missing. Posters of Patrick Hockstetter, the Bowers gang member, have been hung everywhere around town. Yesterday I went down to the sewers alone, to the place where I met the clown, trying to find something, anything that might lead to answer, with no luck.

Today is another Tuesday. A library day, Bill comes over at 10:00am and we make turkey and cheese sandwiches on baguette to eat while we research Derry.

"Do you want to make a dessert?" I ask him as he wraps the sandwiches in tinfoil.

"I was hoping y-y-you would ask about dessert," Bill says, his green eyes glimmering.

"Oh?" I day as he pulls something out of his backpack. A whole pie!

"Mom and I went blueberry picking y-yesterday, and she made a p-p-pie for us to eat today," he grins.

"Bill! Oh my God that looks amazing!" I smile and throw my arms around his thin frame.

He laughs and hugs me back. "I thought you'd like it, Maine blueberry pies have been our favorite since we were in diapers." I giggle, thinking of the picture of us in high chairs with bright purple faces from the pie.

"I love you, you know that?" I laugh.

"Love you too, Nevie."