[this gif has me feeling some type of way]
Stanley and Eden pull up to the eerie house just a little after everyone else, where they quickly place the bike on the kick stand, Stanley holding Eden up.
"Bill, you can't go in there! This is crazy." Beverly shouts. "Look, you don't have to come in with me. But what happens when another Georgie goes missing? Or another Betty? Or another Ed Corcoran? Or one of us?" Bill pauses.
"Are you just gonna pretend it isn't happening like everyone else in this town? Because I can't. I go home, and all I see is that Georgie isn't there. His clothes, his toys, his stupid stuffed animals, but..." he sighs.
"He isn't. So walking into this house, for me, it's easier than walking into my own."
He turns back to the house, reaching for the doorknob. "Wow." Richie says. "What?" Ben asks. "He didn't stutter once."
They all follow forward, Eden wanting to, but couldn't since Stanley was holding her back. "Wait!" He calls.
"Um. Shouldn't we have some people keep watch? You know, just in case something bad happens?" Stanley looks over to glance at Eden.
"Wh-Who wants to stay out here?" Bill asks. Suddenly, everyone's hands except for Beverly's shoot up. "Fuck." Richie sighs.
"It's okay. I'll go." Eden says. "No, you're not going." Stanley shakes his head. "S-S-S-Stan's right. You're hurt, Eden." Bill nods.
"Fine. Eddie and I can go." Richie sighs. "What? I didn't agree to this." The short boy speaks up. "Eddie, we're going." Richie pulls him by the arm, forcefully bringing the boy inside.
"Stan, can you set me down? My legs hurt." Eden requests. Stanley nods, helping her down onto the porch stairs, then taking a seat beside her while the others have their own conversations.
"Why'd you kiss me back there?" Stanley asks, looking down at the ground. "Because I like you." Eden responds. "But I thought you liked Stellen."
"What gave you the impression that I liked him?" She curiously looks to the boy. "I mean, you told him. I heard you. It was the day we helped mike." He explains.
"I don't follow.." She trails off. "At Derry's Donuts. You told him all about how you didn't know what to feel and now you do." He responds.
"You.. heard that? Stan, that... that was meant to be a practice on what to say.. to you." She states. "To me?" His lip lightly curves up into a smile.
"Yeah, well, guess we'll scratch the whole talking about feelings part because I guess you already heard me and I skipped to the kissing part." She mumbles.
"Is that supposed to be a bad thing or something?" Stanley chuckles. Eden lightly laughs, leaning her head on the boy's shoulder.
"Sorry I ignored you for a while. I was dumb enough to follow Richie's advice." She apologizes. "I should have known. Richie told me to do that to Mia Thompson in the first grade. That ended in her hating my guts." He says, earning another laugh from the girl.
"Aww I'm sorry it didn't work out with Mia in the first grade." Eden pouts her lip. "Well, I'm glad it worked out with you." Stanley replies, causing her cheeks to glow red.
"Stop." She covers her face in embarrassment, smiling into her knees. "Stop What?"
"Being adorable. It's annoying." She lightly nudges him, then looks up. They smile to each other, before slowly leaning in and softly connecting their lips. Just as they pull out, a loud scream is heard coming from inside the house.
"That sounded like Eddie." Eden says worriedly to the others. "We should go." Beverly states, the others following her inside. "Eden, be careful, alright?" Stanley nods at her.
They make it inside just as the clown charges at Bill and Richie. Luckily, just in time, Beverly stabs it in the eye. It wails in pain.
"Get Eddie!" Richie shouts, Bill following him towards the boy. Eden releases herself from Stanley's grip, running over beside the frightened boy.
"Eds, what happened to your arm?" She asks worriedly. Instead if responding, he looks down at it and begins to whimper.
"Eden, come back out!" Stanley shouts, yet she's too busy making sure Eddie is alright to hear. The clown spins around angrily, then slowly walks to them with his horrifying claws.
He pounces at them, the spins around. Just as he is about to slice Ben's stomach, Eden runs up, pushing the boy out of the way and getting the scratch in return.
She screams, falling back as the confused Ben looks up at the girl. "Eden!" Stanley shouts, running over to her and holding her up.
"Stan, it hurts." She cries. "Stan." She begins to sob as Stanley pulls her into his chest. "I know it hurts, okay? I know." He says as he fearfully watches as Richie attempt to fix Eddie's arm.
As soon as they're done, they all run out, climbing onto their bikes and first riding to Eddie's house, as they knew his mother would find out sooner or later.
Even before they knock on the door, Eddie's worried and angered mother comes busting out.
"You. You did this." She says angrily, grabbing Eddie by the back of his neck and pushing him towards her car. "You know how delicate he is."
"We were attacked, M-M-Mrs. K." Bill tries to reason. "No. Don't. Don't try and blame anyone else." She pushes Eddie in the car and slams the door.
She fumbles with her keys, resulting in her dropping them. Beverly kindly reaches down. "Let me help."
"Get back!" The woman shouts, reaching for herself. "Oh, I've heard of you, Miss Marsh. And I don't want a dirty girl like you touching my son." She sneers.
"Excuse me, Mrs. K, but I think it's pretty obvious that we had nothing to do with this. And for you to be dumb enough to think that we would willingly hurt our friend, is way out of line." Eden calls out to her.
The woman angrily turns around. "I mean, look at me! I have fucking cuts running down my stomach! You think I wanted this to happen? You think any of us wanted this to happen?" She adds tearfully.
"You watch your language. You are no different than your mother. A slut who's only success is being pretty." Mrs. Kaspbrak responds with gritted teeth.
Eden shamefully looks to the ground. "Hey, she's wrong." Stanley whispers to her. "Yeah, I know."
"Mrs. K, I s-s-s-s.."
"No! You are all monsters. All of you. And Eddie is done with you. Do you hear? Done!" She quickly walks to the drivers seat, starting the engine, and driving away.
They slowly follow behind the vehicle, before stopping. "I saw the well. W-W-We know where it is and next time we'll be better prepared." Bill says, turning to face the group.
"No!" Stanley shouts. "No next time, Bill! You're insane!"
"Why? We all know no one else is going to do anything." Beverly defends. "Eddie was nearly killed! And look at Blondie! She's leaking hamburger helper!" Richie motions towards Eden.
"We can't pretend it's gonna go away. Ben, you said it yourself. It comes back every 27 years." Beverly argues. "Fine! I'll be 40 and far away from here. I thought you said you wanted to get out of this town, too." He says.
"Because I wanna run towards something. Not away." She shouts. "I'm sorry, who invited Molly Ringwald into the group?" Richie asks in annoyance.
"Richie—" Stanley warns as Beverly flips him off. "I'm just saying, let's face facts. Real world. Georgie is dead. Stop trying to get us killed, too."
He tries to walk away, but Bill stops him. "Georgie's not dead." He denies. "You couldn't save him, but you can still save yourself." Richie adds.
"No, t-t-t-take it back. You're scared and we all are, but take it back!" He shoves him.
Richie runs back at him, pushing in return. Bill grabs onto Richie's shirt, throwing a punch at his face, causing the boy to fall down. "Bill!" Beverly shouts.
"You're just a bunch of losers!" Richie yells as the others hold the two of them back. "You're just a bunch of losers and you'll get yourself killed trying to catch a fucking stupid clown."
"Stop!" Beverly screams, breaking off the fight. "This is what It wants. It wants to divide us. We were all together when we hurt It. That's why we're still alive!"
"Yeah? Well, I plan to keep it that way." Richie states, walking past bill and shoving him.
"Come on, Eden, I'm gonna take you home." Stanley says. "Wait." Ben looks the blonde. "Thanks for taking the hit."
She nods at him, then follows Stanley out to his bike.
"I'll drop you off here, I guess." Stanley states, stopping a few blocks down from her house. "No. No, it's okay. We can ride up to my house." She nods at him, causing him to smile.
It only took them another five or so minutes until they reached Eden's home. "My mom is gonna freak out." She sighs, looking back at the house.
"If I was Eddie, I'd probably be able to help you, but unfortunately, i'd probably end up making it worse like I always do. You should go to a hospital." Stanley sighs.
"It's not your fault, Stan. You don't have to blame yourself for anything." Eden sends him a sad smile. "Promise I'll get to see you around." Stanley looks into her eyes.
"I promise." She grins, leaning in and pulling him into a kiss.
"Eden Moore, What is the meaning of this?!" Her mother shouts, standing on the porch. The two quickly break off the kiss.
"Mom, I can explain." Eden quickly says. "And trust me, you will! Inside, now!"
Eden looks down at the road as she walks inside, looking to Stanley disappointedly before her mother shuts the door.
Heather pulls the girl upstairs, pushing her into her room. "What were you thinking?!" She screams. "I need an explanation, right now!"
"Mom, we were attacked, I swear! I—" her eyes begin to tear up. "I don't give a fuck about your stomach, Eden. We specifically told you to stay away from the Jewish boy."
"He has a name and it's Stanley." Eden responds, a tear streaming down her cheek. "I do not want to hear another word from you. You are a disgrace of a daughter!"
"Mom, I really like Stanley! Just because he has a different religion than us, doesn't mean he's bad. He has helped me countless times, way more than you could ever help." As soon as she says that, her mother slaps her, only allowing more tears to fall.
"Just wait until your father hears about this." She walks over to Eden's bedside telephone with scissors.
"Mom, What are you doing?" Eden asks. She snips the wire. "You are not leaving this house for a long time. And you are certainly not speaking to that— that horrible boy! That is final." Heather shouts, then marches out, slamming Eden's door shut.
Eden cries, looking down at her deep cut running across her stomach. Eden could bleed out for all her mother cares, and she wouldn't have even done anything.
One thing Eden knows for sure, she can't stay here any longer.
authors note
sorry for this really long
chapter. kiss counter for
Stan and Eden is currently
at five oop. also poor Eden :(