𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜, richie tozier

viii. ( an urgent call )

MISSING!

MELISSA WAS PLACED onto the couch, watching a random show that was playing on the tv. meanwhile, beverly was on the phone with whoever she found first in the phone book.

she had only stated that it was urgent and to round everyone else up once they answered the call. throwing herself into the spot next to melissa, beverly huffed.

"we should wait outside. i can't even go near that bathroom anymore and i need to know if they can see it."

"i'm sorry that i'm no help." melissa apologizes. beverly's face softened after hearing those words leave her mouth.

"no, it's okay. you don't have to be sorry, it's not like you forced yourself to not be able to see it."

"right." mel lightly whispered. it was directing more to herself than it was to her redheaded friend. the two walked outside, lingering at the top of the stairs.

the girls waited for what seemed like forever until they saw bikes speeding down the road further into the distance.

"come on." bev says to the brunette, zooming down the long flight of stairs. pausing on the last few steps, she had managed to meet the group as they reached their destination.

"where's melissa?" richie asks out of curiosity. from what he had assumed, the two were living with each other.

he would've expected for two to both be there. confusion grew inside of the ginger. looking behind her, she points and says, "right⎯" she froze.

melissa was nowhere to be found. her eyes moved to the door that they had came out of. she wasn't standing there either.

instead there was a small crack visible that seperated the door from it's frame. "she must've gone inside." she dismissed. in a frantic voice, she claimed, "i-i need to show you guys something."

"more than what we saw at the quarry?" richie comments. "shut up, richie. just shut up!" eddie snaps. ignoring the boy, she continued.

"my dad would kill me if he knew that i had boys in the apartment." bill nods. "w-w-we'll leave a lookout. richie, stay out here."

the rest of the group dropped their bikes, excluding syanley who had put his kickstand up. "woah, woah, woah! what if her dad comes back?" he began to protest.

"do what you always do. start talking." stan shrugs. richie paused before saying something else as they began to pile into the apartment.

"it is a gift!" feeling rather defeated, he let out a sigh. the raven-haired sat himself onto the ground and started to pick the grass in order to cure his case of boredom.

figuring that he would be out here for a while, it was the only thing that was really able to do as he waited.

AS THE LOSERS entered bev's apartment, she pointed to a door just down the hall from where they were standing. "in there." she says to them.

melissa was in the bedroom, watching as the few clouds move from one place to another from where she stood in the room.

outside of the window, she sensed something moving. training her eyes toward the suspect, she finds a boy with thick rimmed glasses sitting all alone as he picked the grass from out of the ground.

she smirked to herself as she recognized who the boy was. "what is it?" she heard a voice from outside the bedroom door.

"you'll see." beverly answered. she let the boys lead themselves to the bathroom as she followed closely behind.

"great," eddie began his rant. "you're bringing us to the bathroom. 89% of the worst accidents occur in bathrooms. that's where all of the bacteria and fungi are. it's definitely not a hygenic place."

they were now approaching the bathroom entrance. going in, silence filled the air as they stared wide-eyed at the fully blood coated room.

thick coats were slathered onto every part of the bathroom, leaving a dark red stain on it's trail. "i knew it!" eddie says.

"do you see it?" beverly asked worriedly. she didn't want to be the only one to be able to see any of it. "yes..." stanley answered. his face was filled with disgust, similar to the others. "what happened in here?"

"melissa and my dad couldn't see it. i thought i may be going crazy." beverly tells them. ben says, "if you're crazy then we all must be."

bill, being the kind of leader he is, decided to step up. "we c-can't leave it like this." as beverly left the bathroom to grab supplies from the kitchen, stan stepped away for a moment to venture off by himself.

he poked his head into beverly's room, finding melissa sitting by the window. she had the window up as she enjoyed herself and the summer breeze hitting her face.

"can i come in?" stanley asked, not wanting to intrude. melissa nodded, not taking her eyes off of the lonely boy in the yard.

"you really can't see it?" he asks. she sighed. "no, I think it has something to do with..." she trailed off. she almost just exposed her secret to him.

clearing her throat, she decided to talk about something different. " care to explain why a certain tozier boy is sitting all by himself outside?"

she finally turned to him. "we had to have a lookout. why we chose him is pretty self explanatory." this sentence caused mel to smile. it wasn't much of a big one, but it was there.

looking out the window one last time, she noticed that richie was glaring at them with an envious look engraved onto his face. she chewed on the inside of her cheek before shutting the window completely.

"i'll go check on him. he's been picking grass the entire time." she spoke, causing the curly-haired jew to nod and send a friendly smile. "okay, good luck."

"don't think i'll need it," she playfully winked before exiting the room. stan took this chance to return back to the group so that they could start cleaning.

melissa made her way over to richie. sitting down next to him, she leaned her head on his shoulder. the brunette felt him tense up so she removed her head from his shoulder.

"sorry." she says. richie shook his head. "shouldn't you be doing that with stan?"

the girl rolled her eyes. "no. he isn't much of my type." she managed to contain herself and instead beat her way around the bush. richie thought about what he should reply with for a split second. "sure seems like it."

"well if you must know then i was actually talking to him about you and asking him why you were out here all alone. you're quite lucky considering i came out here to gift you with my presence."

richie seemed relieved and he relaxed his body a lot more. melissa took this as another attempt to rest her head. placing her head on his shoulder for the second time, he didn't tense up as much as before. figuring that this was a good thing, she kept it there.

"do you think they're having like... an orgy or something?" richie sparks up a conversation. "no, there's blood. beverly says that it came out of the sink and covered the entire bathroom. i couldn't see it and her dad couldn't either. everyone else seems to, though."

"gross. now i'm glad that i'm not in there," his face scrunched up. "i still think they're having an orgy. you can't believe that there's blood if you can't even see it."

"go back to picking your grass, tozier."