Two Birds [S.Uris]

VI. Lie or Die

••••

"Hey, guys! We got the supplies." Eddie calls out, quickly making his way over to the injured boy. "Thank god, he looked like he was about to pass out. Ben, are you okay?" Fleur asks, earning a simple nod from the boy.

"Here.." Fleur runs over to her bag, unzipping it and taking out a water bottle. "Have some." She offers, holding the bottle in front of the boy's face, who's eyes cross as he looks towards the dangling bracelets on her wrist. A girl has never cared so much about helping him before.

"Thanks." The chubby boy smiles, taking the bottle from her hand. "Just suck the wound!" Richie shouts to Eddie, who was lifting up Ben's shirt. As Eddie and Richie bicker back and forth as they always do, Stanley approaches the blonde, tapping her shoulder.

"How long did you make it without wanting to kill yourself?" He asks, smiling widely. Fleur chuckles, her eyes sparkling with glee in the summer sun. "Not long."

"Go get my bifocals. I hid 'em in my second fanny pack." Eddie says, causing Stanley's attention to move to Eddie, who was squinting his eyes as he cleans the wound.

"Why do you have two fanny packs?" He asks. "Well, I need to focus right now and it's a long story. I don't want to get into it." Eddie replies.

"You sure you wanna hang with us this summer?" Stanley asks once again, raising his eyebrows. "I'm su-" Fleur smiles, yet her smile fades away as she notices a familiar red car parked at the coffee shop ahead. "Shit. That's my brother's." She says, backing away and hiding herself behind Stanley. "What's so bad about your brother?" He asks in confusion.

"He doesn't want me hanging around losers." Fleur replies, causing Stanley to turn around, crossing his arms. "Losers. Thanks." He replies sarcastically. "Oh! No, no, no, no. I don't think you guys are losers, I mean- um- well, that's what he called you guys. And that's what- that's what-" Fleur finds herself speechless, not quite sure what to add. She didn't mean to offend anyone.

"Everyone calls us? Yeah, I know. Don't sweat it." Stanley replies, pursing his lips and looking away to Ben, trying to block out the awkwardness. "Oh, God, he's bleeding. Oh, my God!" Stanley begins panicking as he looks in disgust towards Ben's stomach.

"You have to suck the wound before you apply the Band-Aids. This is 101!" Richie argues. "You don't know what you're talking about." Eddie replies nonchalantly, trying his best to focus. "Are you okay? That looks like it hurts." A familiar voice says from behind them, causing them all to spin around.

"Beverly?" Fleur asks. "Fleur! Hey." Beverly smiles, then returns her gaze to Ben. "Oh. No, I'm good. I just fell." Ben replies, clearly lying. "Yeah, right into Henry Bowers." Richie shouts. "Shut it, R-R-Richie." Bill warns as Beverly shows Richie an angry expression.

"Why? It's the truth." He argues, putting his hands up in defense. "You sure they got the right stuff to fix you up?" Beverly winks, confusing the others, who simply view it as flirting.

Ben blushes, licking his chapped lips and looking off to the road beneath him. "You know, w-w-we'll take care of him." Bill says, trying to pull her attention off of the chubby boy. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he was jealous.

"Uh, thanks again, Beverly." He smiles, looking into her ocean eyes. "Sure. Maybe I'll see you around." She replies. "Yeah. We were thinking about going to the q-q-quarry tomorrow, if you wanna come." Bill asks, turning around to look for the others' approval.

"Good to know. Thanks." Beverly smiles, walking off. "See ya, Beverly!" Fleur calls out. "Bye, Fleur!"

"Nice going brining you Bowers in front of her." Stanley says, glaring at Richie. "Yeah, dude, you heard what she did." Eddie adds. "What'd she do?" Ben asks, being the new kid made him pretty oblivious to what was going around.

The entire town knew of 'Beverly marsh, the town slut'. In the small town of Derry, news gets around pretty fast. But in reality, she was the opposite of that, and Fleur knew it.

"More like 'Who'd She do?' From what I hear, the list is longer than my wang." Richie grabs his crotch, slightly pulling it up. "That's not saying much." Stanley says, causing the blonde to snicker, attempting to hold back her laughs, but failing miserably. "They're j-j-j-just rumors." Bill says, defending the red head.

"Anyway, Bill had her back in third grade." Richie begins, causing Ben's expression to drop. Stanley simply looks over to his friend, smiling as he remembers what had happened on the night of the play. It was a Romeo and Juliette. Bill and Beverly played Romeo and Juliette, of course.

"They kissed in the school play. The reviews say you can't fake that sort of passion." Richie finishes, then loudly claps his hands together.

"Now, Pip-pip and tally-ho, my good fellows. I do believe this chap requires our utmost attention. Get in there Dr.K. Come on, fix him up." Richie shoves Eddie back down onto his knees.

"Why don't you shut the fuck up, Einstein, because I know what I'm doing and I don't want you doing the British guy with me right now." Eddie snaps at him, continuing to patch up the wound. "Suck the wound! Get in there!"

"Fleur?" The blonde hears someone call out to her. Her heart begins to pound. As she turns around and finds her brother heading towards her, she looks to Stanley for a moment, widening her eyes. "Thanks for fixing my bike, Stanley. I was really lucky to run into you today. Well, thanks for your time, guys. Gotta go!" She signals for Stanley to play along, so he simply nods.

"No problem! Maybe I'll see you around?" He calls out to her as she follows her brother to his car, rolling her bike along the alleyway. "Probably not!" She turns around, winking and getting into the red car.

"Hey, thanks for giving me a ride back. My bike-uh- my bike broke down on the way back home from Addy's and I ran into Stanley." She lies, hoping her brother would believe her. "Alright, just don't start hanging with them for real, okay? Look, I love you with all my heart, Fleur. But those guys are the laughing stocks of town, and I don't want you to be one too." He replies calmly, making a turn.

"I promise."