Idle Town [Stand By Me]

"You guys wanna see a dead body?"

The year was 1959. I was thirteen, going into junior high, which I was completely dreading. So, I had to take in every moment of summer.

The second I arrived to Rosie's Diner I saw Cherry's red head having a smoke. "Hey, babe. What's up?"

She looked up at me, removing the cancer stick from her mouth and blowing smoke. "Smoke break." Cherry DeMarco was known as one of the prettiest girls in Castle Rock. She was also my best friend. She wasn't tough per se, but she was definitely intimidating. When we had first met (years and years ago) I hadn't been intimidated. This must have really shook her up, because later, when she had confronted me, she told me she wanted to be my friend. Years later, here we were. "The girls are in there, waiting for ya." She handed me the cigarette before spinning around to the door. I took a drag before dropping it on the ground and stomping it out. I followed my friend into the diner.

We all sat in our booth and ordered milkshakes, as it was kind of an unspoken tradition. "Where ya been, Eyebrows?" Dolores asked. Eyebrows was a nickname she had given me on account of my "fat" (as she called them) eyebrows. Dolores Forbes was a real hell raiser. She let off a smoke bomb in the boys' bathroom the year before. She was pretty open about it, too, so she got a three day vacation.

"Sorry, Jackie made me do the dishes."

"Aww," she pouted. "Poor baby."

"Shut up," I laughed. She smiled at me.

"Speaking of cute boys," Shelby began.
Shelby Quinn was beautiful, but definitely wasn't the brightest. 

"Nobody said that," Dolores scoffed at the girl sitting to her left.

"I said that!" Shelby pouted. She then turned to Cherry. "How's Tag?" I scoffed at his name.

"You've never liked him, have you, Aspen?" Cherry asked me.

"You guessed it!"

"What did he even do to you?" She whined.

"It's about you. He doesn't even like you! He just wants somebody to call his girlfriend." She turned away from me, crossing her arms and pouting.

"He is kind of a double dicker." Dolores spoke up, boredly.

"Total double dicker!" I agreed.

"While you guys are talking about dicks, I'm gonna go check the papers." Dolores bounced out of her seat, her boyish hair bouncing with her.

"Can we just stop talking about him now?" Cherry asked, facing me again.

"Fine," I muttered, looking down at my hands. "Sorry for talking shit about your boyfriend."

"You didn't have to say that, Aspen." She smiled.

"Yeah," I spoke louder now. "Well, I wanted to."

"Aww," she cooed, giving me a side hug. "I love you." I smiled shyly.

"Guys," we both looked over at Shelby. "I'm sorry, too." Her blue eyes were tearing up. She was a bit over emotional sometimes.

"For what?" I asked.

"If I hadn't brought up Tag, this would've never happened!" She exclaimed, as if she were the reason for World War III.

"It's fine, Shelbs, really." Cherry replied, taking hold of Shelby's hand. "No harm done." Shelbs opened her mouth to speak before we heard a yell throughout the diner.

"Guys!" Dolores. "Guys, guys, this is so boss. Sincerely!" She exclaimed, sitting next to Shelby.

"What? What?" We all asked.

Dolores paused, with her classic smirk. She took a deep breath, looking around the nearly empty diner. "You guys wanna see a dead body?"

We all froze. My wide eyes met Cherry's blue ones. We turned back to Dolores. She plopped a newspaper on the table, pointing to a small article. It read: Ray Brower, 12 year old boy goes out picking for blueberries. No one has seen him since. Awards will be given if anyone can find him here in Castle Rock.

Cherry sighed. "If nobody else can find find him, what makes you think we can?"

"We probably could, actually." I shrugged.

Cherry turned to me, her thin eyebrows furrowed. "How?"

"If he went out to pick berries, there's like a 90% chance his body is in the woods."

Shelby's eyes widened. "What's the other 10%?"

"Dead in a - "

"Okay," Cherry interrupted. "So if he was in the woods, how would we even get there?"

"If we started walking the tracks today, we could probably find him by tomorrow." We were all silent.

"Are we really doin' this?" Dolores asked.

"I think we should," I announced.

"I'll go too," Cherry hesitated.

"I don't know," Shelby whined.

"Oh, come on, Shelbs!" Dolores turned to her. "We could be heros! We'll be in the papers! TV, even!"

"Really?" She smiled.

"Sure!"

"Alright, I'm in."

...

okay y'all, so this is my first story (on here, least). i know it's pretty shit right now but i promise it gets better, just stick around.

~Sara