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Things started to get fucky around midnight, both literally and metaphorically. Being one of the only other sober individuals at the party, Rosemary found herself hanging around Belch and another girl named Isa, whom smelt strongly of perfume and cigarette smoke. Rosemary had avoided Henry like the plague after he arrived back from his little shopping trip with several others, all of whom where off their face drunk.n
Rosemary was listening intently to Isa as they discussed school. Like every other girl there, Isa's brown, mousy hair defied gravity and stood loudly around her head as a statement along with her black eye shadow and huge hoop earrings. Despite her dreary outward appearance however, she was excellent company.
"You thinking of leaving Derry when you finish school?" Belch asked Rosemary, sipping from his Pepsi.
"Maybe? It depends on what happens with Jude. He kind of wants to move after school and take me with him"
"No offence hon but why does everything you do have to involve your big brother?" Isa asked calmly, exhaling a lung full of smoke. "You're what, sixteen? seventeen? You gotta start making your own choices instead of letting Judas or whatever his name is sway your opinions and thoughts"
Rosemary smiled amusedly into her can as she sipped from her creaming soda. If only she knew.
Belch nod in agreement, "Yeah. Rose, I know you're smart enough to notice, your brother is a bit..."
"Protective?"
"I was going to say possessive but protective works to" It was only then that Rosemary realised that Jude wasn't sat between Louis and the other boy she'd left him on the other side of the bonfire, who where also gone.
"Where is Jude?" She stood quickly from her seat beside Belch, scanning the area and finding him nowhere. "Oh dear..."
"He's a big boy, can't he handle himself?" Rosemary looked back at Isa and without skipping a beat responded with a look of slight distress.
"No, he absolutely cannot handle himself" Belch and Isa shared a brief look of concern while Rosemary slipped Jude's shirt off her shoulders and tied it at her waist. "I'm gonna go look in the house, if he walks by or out here, could you please try and get him to stay still? He's very...energetic, when he's tipsy"
"Can do hon" Isa nod whilst Belch drained the last of his Pepsi.
"Sure thing Rose"
Jogging into the house, Rosemary was once again struck by the pulsing music emanating from the wooden stereos around the house. People danced in the darkness while red and green lights danced around the room and she was once again irritated by the lack of alcohol in her body.
If only Jude wasn't around.
Pushing into the lounge area, she searched in slight desperation for her brother, hands and arms bumping and groping her. After ten minutes of unsuccessful searching on the lower floor, she made the quick decision to look upstairs, her feet thumping on the wooden staircase as she stepped around two passed out teenagers she recognised from her Mathematics class.
"Jude?" She called out, reaching the top of the staircase.
"Rosemary?" Mark was more or less surprised to see her in such a hurry up the stairs but hastily stood as quickly as his drunken mind would allow him. " Wha're-" He shook his head, swallowing as he stepped between Rosemary and the closest door to where he sat on the floor. "What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for Jude. Have you seen him?" He shook his head. "Can I look in there?" She moved closer to the door and he slid in front of her, minimizing the distance between them to a few centimeters.
"No. Trust me wh-wh" He cleared his throat, "When I say he's not in there" Deciding to take his word, Rosemary turned and walked further down the hallway to the next door. "So why'd you move to Derry of all places?"
"Fresh start or something like that" Rosemary said with disinterest, peering into the room. It was filled with boxes and a dust covered desk. "My eldest brother got a job here and was very excited to move"
"Where are your parents?" He asked, leaning against the wall as he watched her close the door and walk to the opposite side of the hall and yanked on the door, only to find it locked.
"Probably dead" She walked towards the final door in the hallway as Mark pushed off the wall and followed her. The door budged slightly as she gave it a shove and she grunted slightly as she shook the handle.
"You know-" Mark's lips found the small area of skin behind her ear and she gasped quietly as his arm snaked around her shoulder and loosely around her neck. "-you're really fucking pretty" His breathe stunk of alcohol and with a slight shimmy of her shoulder, he went stumbling away slightly. "Come on" He whined slightly as he slowly lowered himself to the ground, his head spinning intensely, "Don't tease me like that babe" He grinned at her stupidly, "Look at you all wrapped up like a fucking Christmas present"
Rosemary closed her eyes, taking a deep breathe in as she turned to Mark with an untamed fury in her eyes. "Just because I am showing my legs does not necessarily mean I want to fuck you Mark, or any acne-ridden asshole who thinks a girl wants to fuck them purely because they possess a dick" Stepping away from the door, she stepped closer and squat in front of Mark, who stared at her in shock and slight fear induced by his intoxicated state. "Now, if you would like to be helpful and stop being a waste of space-" She grabbed his chin, yanking him closer, "-do me a favour and start looking for my brother" She shoved his chin away. "Now" Still in shock, he scrambled upwards clumsily, glaring intensely at her which she happily returned as he made his way down the stairs.
"Psycho bitch..." He mumbled, angrily sipping from his drink as he disappeared downstairs. Sighing, Rosemary stood and grabbed the remaining handle. Opening the door, she smiled slightly when she found Victor, half slumped over a bed she assumed to be Henry's and the lightest of snores coming from his open mouth which was half pressed into the mattress.
"Damn..." She mumbled in irritation, shutting the door. Thumping up the stairs, Rosemary was seconds away from telling Mark to piss off once again when she turned and realised it wasn't in fact Mark, but a very drunk Henry Bowers.
"Rose?" Hanging his arm around the top newel, Henry stared at Rosemary with an intensity which, less you where his victim, very few where unfortunate enough to see. "What're you doing up here?" She could detect the anger in his voice in a second, it was a trick of the trade which she'd picked up from the very brother she was looking for.
"I uh..." Rosemary smiled slightly, clutching her hands in front of her and tensing her stomach. "I was looking for Jude" He stepped closer, off the staircase as he slowly dragged his feet closer to her. "Have you-" Henry's hand slapped beside her so fast she flinched, hiding her anger behind a veil of fear. "Henry?" The quiet whisper from her voice made Henry ache in want. A want to hold her, drag her into his bedroom or even just fuck her their in the hallway. "Henry you're scaring me..." The words which may have stopped any mature or civilized boy only excited him further. Trapped between the wall and his body, Rosemary was vividly reminded of her previous encounter with Patrick. She had just as much control with Henry as she did Patrick, despite the necessity of maintaining her image around Henry.
It was this assumption that would be the downfall of whatever normality the pair where forming between each other.
Henry grinned lewdly briefly making eye contact with Rosemary's wide frightened eyes before leaning down so his mouth hovered over her neck. Flushes of heat running through her from between her thighs Rosemary pressed against the wall, wanting nothing more then to drop her facade and screw Henry in one of the available bedrooms. She wanted sex as much as the next hormonal teenager. But instead, she let out a quiet whimper of fear as Henry pressed his lips against her collar, sloppily tracing his tongue along the prominent bone leading towards her shoulders and chest. "Henry. STOP" She pressed her hands against his shoulders, his neck, anything which she could push away from herself. Hunched before her body, she admired the muscles running along his arms as his hands slid from the wall to her hands, catching her wrists.
"You really want me to stop?" Before she could respond, his lips where on hers. A pathetic kiss to shut her up before his lips begun to aggressively travel lower. In an instant the pleasure was gone and it was simply Henry trying desperately to make her conform.
"HENRY!" Now she really didn't have control. Off the wall, she shoved at him though Henry only responded by moving his right hand from her wrist to shove her from her neck into the wall. For a moment she was stunned as her head struck the wall. He pulled her body from the wall into his own, his hands slipping to the waistband of her shorts as her mouth was muffled into his shoulder and shirt. "Let-mmph!" His fingers tightened, groping her arse through her clothes in an agonizingly harsh and slow motion.
"Keep it down Ros-" In an instant her let go of her as she sunk her teeth into the muscle of his collar, very nearly breaking skin. "-FUCK!" Rosemary stumbled back, quickly recovering as Henry rubbed his shoulder. Not wasting anytime, she ran past him and hurried down the stairs.
A rage that hadn't surfaced from her in months contaminated her body, making her shake and burn in fury as she shoved angrily past teenager after teenager. What right did Henry believe he had to do that to her? Her? She who was above him in all aspects.
"That fucker" She grit, smacking the wall with her palm. Her flesh tingled at the contact. It felt good. "JUDE!" Teenagers looked at her in confusion as she tugged the flannel shirt back on. The anger was suffocating her, wrapping itself around her lungs and burning her insides to cinders as she furiously and desperately gasped for air, dragging her nails through her hair. The music no longer pulsed with her, it pulsed through her, shaking the energy from her limbs which dragged her around like cement. Stepping outside, she hurriedly walked towards Louis and Mark whom now sat closer to the road. Aware of the hot tears of anger bubbling in her eyes, she instead creased her brows together and walked towards them hurriedly, her lip tucked between her teeth. Mark stopped talking to her in an instant, his face contorting in anger before he noticed her crying.
"Rosemary?" Lucas asked in shock, placing his drink down and approaching her quickly. "Are you okay? W-What's...?" Touching her shoulders, he looked her over for injury. Patrick watched the entire encounter from beside Belch whom was yet to notice that she'd exited the house.
"Henry just..." She shook her head, "I just wanna go home, but I can't find Jude" Mark frowned at her slightly, still angry by what she'd said. "I'm sorry about what I said Mark" Rosemary sniffled, rubbing her cheek with her sleeve, "I thought Jude was upstairs, a-and he gets upset when I'm around boys a-a-and he-"
"Hey-" Pulling Rosemary into his jacket, Louis rubbed soothing circles into her back as he felt her calm heartbeat on his. "It'll be fine, don't worry. Some guys went into the clearing past the tree thicket not to long ago, maybe Jude went with them?"
Looking past the cars, Rosemary's eyes scoured the long grass which encircled the Bowers house, spreading for a few hundred metres before hitting a large thicket not to far away, various trees and foliage doted along the way. In the moonless hours, you could barely see anything less your eyes adjusted.
"I'll go look" Louis caught her shoulder. "What?" She asked, wiping the last tears from her face.
"You can't go without a torch or something, it's too dangerous" Reaching back, he dug into what she believed was his car and from beneath one of the boot coverings, he pulled a large flashlight. "Here"
"Thank you for being so kind Louis" He smiled at her, giving her a mock salute before she stepped around the car and begun walking towards the grass. Glancing back, she made eye contact with Mark whom stared at her with uncertainty.
"What a fuckwit...." She mumbled, smiling before sending him a flirty wink and nodding slightly towards the grass as she stepped forward. Tickling her legs and thighs delicately, the grass swayed around her waist as she continued forward. Behind her, she vaguely heard Mark approach her and she smiled as she saw Louis wave at Mark enthusiastically, encouraging him to follow her into the darkness.
Unfortunately for the brothers, neither knew that would be the last time Louis saw his baby brother alive again.
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