ᴅᴀʏʟɪɢʜᴛ || ʀɪᴄʜɪᴇ ᴛᴏᴢɪᴇʀ

~ Epilogue ~

"Would you fuck off?" Eddie yelled, pushing Richie off of him as he tried to fix his bow tie. "Like fuck, i'm gonna die of strangulation," Eddie whined, urgently ripping the bow off. Richie, Bill, and Stanley snickered at him, Elaine giving them each a look as they continued to walk down the empty hallways of their high-school.

Enjoying their final moments there, Stanley sighed as he eyed their matching blue graduation gowns, "Jesus, time flies," The Losers had stayed friends after all these years. Well, the original Losers did. Y'know the ones who formed the group. On the other hand, Mike, Beverly and Ben had lost all forms of contact with the group.

Beverly had moved away to go live with her aunt in Portland and no one had heard from her since. Bill often found himself in bed thinking about her. He wondered if she was doing well and hoped that she was happier there. Ben then moved away too, his father getting a new job in Illinois. He had been quite the wreck when his parents told him the news.

The boy had finally found his group of people and now he was being ripped away from them. Ben promised to write and keep in touch, but for some reason he never sent a single letter. The Losers simply thought maybe Ben was glad to be done with them, or maybe he just never liked them at all.

Little did they know, once you left the town of Derry, It truly did curse you just like Mike's infamous grandfather had said. While the clown rested below in the sewers, he altered the memories of the town's people. Those who would leave Derry couldn't remember any events to do with it, and those who stayed could remember everything and anything.

This ended up cursing most people, 'cause in Derry, if you have the opportunity to leave, you take it. They also hadn't heard from Mike in a while, but this came as a surprise since he still lived close by. His grandfather had passed away earlier that year and it seemed he was isolating himself from everyone. The group still saw him every so often when he played on the school's football team.

Realistically, it made no sense because Mike was homeschooled, but Bill had let the coach know about him while in gym class. It's safe to say the school recruited him shortly after. However, other then the occasional football game, the connection was hanging by a thread. Mike was like any other stranger in town.

In defence, Richie threw his arms up in the air, "Fine, go out there and embarrass yourself then,"
Eddie groaned as he fixed the string on his graduation cap. He called after the girl behind him, "Laine, can you please tell your boyfriend to be nice to me?" "Rich, be nice to Eddie," She responded distracted, not really listening to the conversation as she fixed her hair.

Richie scoffed, "I'm just saying, if he wants to get a girlfriend before he turns thirty, he needs to start taking this shit seriously!" Stanley and Bill both broke out laughing, Eddie flipping them off as he walked. Elaine finally turned back around to face the boys. She sided with Eddie, feeling bad that he was constantly getting picked on. "Rich, stop being an asshole," Eddie desperately pointed to Elaine, "Listen to her, please!"

Richie only shrugged, "I actually don't think I will," Elaine chuckled at the boy, interlocking their hands. They approached the exit door, walking outside. The three boys walked forward, leaving Richie and Elaine alone to walk alone together. Bill spoke up, his stutter now completely gone, "We'll meet you guys down there," He was quite popular now, had excellent grades and even wrote for the school's paper.

Not to mention, most girls in school where head over heels for him. Eddie on the other hand had the opposite effect on students. He was still quite small and wimpy, resembling a tenth grader. Richie loved to pick fun at him for this. Though, with not many friends to choose from, he tended to stick with Elaine and Richie. Stanley stood in the middle of both stereotypes.

He was stuck between Bill's popular clan and Eddie's nerd groups, though he preferred to be alone. He enjoyed the peace and quiet, something he didn't get much while around the Losers. Every month or so, a new girl would show interest in him. This would only cause him to get his hopes up and create a cycle of pain and rejection that repeated over and over again.

"This is weird," Elaine remarked. Richie sadly smiled, "I never thought I would graduate," The girl smiled proudly at her boyfriend. She nudged him, "Look at you now," He smiled gratefully, "Only because of you," Elaine rolled her eyes at his response, "You need to take some credit too," He shrugged, "For what, getting forty-two detentions in one term?" It was funny to Elaine how the boy had memorized the number.

Elaine snarked, "You really are an asshole," He went on, leaning down to kiss her, "Yeah, but you love this asshole," Elaine pushed him away, pausing and pretending to think. She asked herself sarcastically, "Wait, do I?" He pursed his lips, walking down the steps. "Fuck you." "I love you Richieeee," She sang, kissing his hand several times. "I know you do," He smiled, pulling her towards the crowd of graduating kids.

With the squeak of the microphone, their principal began to speak. He gave a regular planned speech and then explained each special award that had been organized in the yearbook. The kids then began walking across the small stage, accepting their diplomas. Bill had gotten one of the highest GPAs in the school along with Elaine.

The two got several scholarships from different colleges and universities, both for careers in writing of some sort. On the other hand, Eddie and Stanley both graduated with average scores, still proud of their end results. Though Stanley's was much higher than Eddie's. The two just wanted to get out of their twisted town, not caring about their grade as long as it was over fifty.

On the contrary, Richie hardly passed. Elaine had spent weeks dragging him to the library to study. This was not an easy thing to do with Richie, seeing the boy couldn't sit still for more than five minutes. He had to retake his exams twice and cheated to pass the last one by writing a cheat sheet inside his sleeve. He could thank Elaine for that one.

In alphabetical order, the students received their diplomas, their friends clapping and cheering for them in the audience. And just like that, the nightmare of high school was over. After the ceremony, Richie and Elaine said goodbye to their friends, knowing they probably wouldn't be seeing them much after college. "Keep in touch?" Elaine asked, her eyes practically begging. "You know it," Bill smiled, Stanley and Eddie doing the same.

"Well, what the fuck do we do now?" Richie asked, pulling Elaine towards his rusty old car. "I guess we could leave now?" Elaine sighed, not having thought through the question herself. The dark-haired boy hesitated, "Laine, we're leaving together, right?" He worried, scared that maybe she had other plans in store for her future. She nodded, smiling at her sweet boyfriend. "We're leaving together, Rich,"

The end.