TAG, YOU’RE IT!

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"THANKS, GUYS, BUT you really shouldn't have done that." Mike sighed as they all trailed in a huge wheat field. "Now Bowers will be after you, too."

"Oh, Bowers? Yeah, he's always after us." Eddie waved him off, trying to wipe the grin on his lips. He couldn't believe that they had finally taken down the Henry Bowers.

"Guess that's o - o - one thing we all have in common." Bill smiled.

"Yeah, homeschooled." Richie piped up, tearing his eyes away from Arianna's butt. "Welcome to the Losers Club."

Arianna turned around, now walking backwards as she faced Richie. "What about me?" She joked, pouting her lip. "I believe me and Syd haven't gotten a proper welcoming." She playfully spoke in a British accent.

"Gorgeous, you've always been in the club." Richie smiled his dorky smile and winked.

"Hey, hey, hey, what about me?" Sydney shouted from the front of the line, not bothering to turn around to look at Richie.

"Yeah, you too." Richie said in a sarcastic manner, and chuckled as Sydney lifted her fist in the air and flipped him off.

Arianna smiled before jogging to catch up with Richie, walking side-by-side with him.

"Dude, that was awesome."

"What was awesome?"

"My wife can kick ass." Richie joked.

"One, I'm not your wife. Two, heck, Henry deserved that. He shouldn't be doing what he does." Arianna shook her head. "It's wrong."

"One, yes you are. Two, giving his dad a bj?" Richie joked, earning a rough shove from Arianna, causing him to wince and grab his left side.

"Woah, Rich. You okay?" Arianna asked, and concern laced her voice as she immediately felt bad for shoving the boy.

"Oh, uhm, yeah, yeah, it's just - I got hit with a rock, that's all." Richie quickly made an excuse. "It sure knocked me good." He let out a nervous laugh, but his smile dropped as Arianna didn't laugh. The boy silently prayed that Arianna would drop the topic.

Arianna furrowed her eyebrows at his words and studied his facial expression. He was obviously lying. "Okay." She slowly spoke, but she was determined to find out the truth.

The teenagers both looked up to see that they reached the street where they left their bikes thrown on the ground - well, everyone's except for Stanley's.

"See you guys tomorrow?" Ben asked as he placed his hands on his bike handles, and they all nodded.

"I'm getting a ride from Bill." Sydney told Arianna, and Arianna smirked and nodded, wiggling her eyebrows. "Oh, shut it!"

"Okay. Have fun, but don't have too much fun." Arianna mocked Sydney and Beverly from earlier, making Sydney roll her dark brown eyes and walk up to Bill and his bike.

"Want a ride, gorgeous?" Richie called out, already scooting up to leave some room on the bike.

"Sure, why not?" Arianna sarcastically  replied, starting to walk toward the boy. He smiled and got off of his bike, holding his hand out in a playish manner.

"M'lady." He giggled in a British accent, before bowing. Arianna laughed and ruffled his hair before doing a playful curtsie.

"Oh, what a kind lad you are." Arianna went along with the British accent, giggles escaping her pink lips. Richie giggled and grabbed her hand, helping her onto his bike, then got on himself and started to pedal away.

Arianna happily wrapped her arms around his torso, leaning her head on his shoulder and quickly relaxing. She  let out a long sigh through her nostrils before slightly nuzzling her nose into the boy's back.

They immediately went into a comfortable silence, both of them enjoying it. Richie listened to the crickets they passed by, and Arianna felt the breeze whip past her as they rode down the street.

The teenagers both felt happy, and they never wanted the day to end. Though they felt it was too early to think, they felt as two star-crossed lovers who had finally found each other in life. They both smiled to each other as the love butterflies fluttered around in their tummies.

Arianna smiled, her hair flowing behind her as she nuzzled her cheek on Richie's shirt. Can this day get any better?

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It couldn't get better. It only got worse. That was the only ray of sunshine left for the girl before dark clouds would float above her after she waved goodbye to the bright star in her life that had glasses and watched him pedal away on his bike into the darkness.

She sighed happily, knowing that she had strong feelings for Richie, and that there was a good chance that he had the same feelings about her. She opened the front door of her house, the smile disappearing off of her lips as she saw her dad standing next to Sydney as she shamefully looked down to the ground.

His eyes quickly found their way to Arianna. "What took you so long to get home?"

Arianna tried her best to avoid eye contact with the man. "I was out with my friends." She spoke in a quiet voice.

"You mean those boys you and your sister keep hanging out with?" He asked, anger growing in his voice with every word.

Arianna froze, but quickly decided that she wasn't going to be so scared anymore. "Yes. What's the problem with that?" Arianna asked, sick and tired of her dad worrying about her being around boys.

"What the hell are you doing spending your summer with those boys?" He growled, quickly walking over to her.

She watched him with fear laced in her glossy eyes. "They're only friends, dad." She tried to reason with him, but fearfully looked at the man.

"Friends or not, I thought I told you two to stay away from those boys!" He raised his voice and slammed his fist on the nearby desk, making Sydney jump from behind him.

Arianna shook at the startling noise, tears welling in her eyes. "Those boys are our friends, dad!" Arianna raised her voice, wishing that he would stop.

"They are nothing but dirty boys who want nothing more than to get into your-"

"They're not like that!" Sydney piped up, angry that her dad was talking about her friends that way. She was tired of him trying to control who they could talk to.

The man turned around to face his oldest daughter. "Believe it if you want. Boys only want one thing from little women like you, and that's-"

"Bill's not like that." Sydney spoke, making her dad freeze as his anger filled his face. "You're wrong."

The man gritted his teeth, slowly walking over to her. Sydney tried to walk away but was grabbed by the wrist and yanked back.

The man leaned inches away from her face. "Who's this, uh," he trailed off, face full of anger. "Bill?"

Arianna watched with fear. She needed to distract him.

When Sydney didn't answer the man, he slammed both of his hands on both sides of her, leaving her no escape. "Who is Bill?!"

"Richie isn't like that, either." Arianna spoke, making her dad turn around.

His anger seemed to be going through the roof. Arianna didn't know how to get out of the situation, but she knew it would probably end badly. "Who is Richie?" He slowly spoke.

"You don't know who Richie is?" Arianna spoke, trying her best to seem as if she wasn't afraid of the man. "You don't even know who Bill is? Perhaps you know Ben, or Stanley, or Mike, Eddie and Beverly?"

The amount of boy's names made the man angry. His eyes darkened, his nostrils flared and his fists were tightened into balls. "Shut up!" He shouted before quickly grabbing onto his youngest daughter's shoulders and harshly shoving her. Arianna winced as she felt her rib hit the corner of the desk, and she fell to the ground.

As she fell to the ground, she grabbed her rib out of pain, wincing as pain started coursing from her rib to her chest, like ocean waves crashing into shore on a stormy day. She winced as tears quickly brimmed her eyes and began flowing down her pale cheeks, and Sydney rushed to her sister, crouching down next to her and trying to lift up her shirt so she could see her sister's injury, but Ari quickly shook her head as she sobbed, holding the spot where the corner of the desk stabbed into her left rib.

"You son of a bitch!" Sydney looked up at her father with anger, the image of her dad roughly shoving her little sister to the ground replaying over and over in her mind.

Their dad chuckled, walking up to them and leaning down on one knee in front of his daughters, and what he said next made Arianna and Sydney's stars fall down from the sky, and crash down to the ground.

"I forbid you girls to ever seeing those boys again." Their dad slowly said, before getting up and laughing uncontrollably, walking to the living room to smoke.

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authors note-

have you guys ever gotten so upset you
say things that aren't even true?

well, i did just that, and im sorry. i really am, and i looked back at what i wrote right here and realize how

stupid it was of me.

i'm sorry.