december 11th, 1990; 3 am

i was about to say something, but then mike came over to the window

he whispered to me, still kind of half asleep,'what the hell is he doing here?'

'i could ask the exact same thing' i answered him, our voices still low

richie noticed i wasn't alone fast,'who's in there, vic?'

'shit! giggles, he's going to kill you if he knows you're here; and i don't want you getting hurt.. what should we do?'

mike thought for a second, and then answered,'he has to go, whether he wants to or not'

we both thought about what would get him away for a few seconds before richie interrupted again,

but this time, i didn't pay attention

i wasn't even looking at that little asshole

i was on my way out of my room, and into steve's

as i arrived at the front of his entrance to his bedroom, i paused for a moment

do i really want to do this?

is this what it's come to?

i sighed, and knocked on his door, waking him up and allowing myself in his room

'steve?'

he rubbed his eyes and turned on his lamp,'what time is it? what do you want?' he asked, obviously a little annoyed that I had woken him up

'um, do you want to beat up richie? because now's your chance..' i told him sheepishly, hoping he'd say yes

'what are you talking about, victoria?'

i sighed, preparing to explain the situation to steve,'richie's outside my window yelling about how he wants me back and he won't leave us alone. knowing richie, he probably is lying about where he is so you can beat him up so he'll leave us alone and he won't snitch on you because then he basically just told the whole world why he was at my house at three am on a saturday'

steve thought for a moment..

'let's do this; vic, you and mike close the window and go back to bed. and close the blinds. i'll take care of the problem'

minutes after i went back to my room and closed the window and blinds, me and mike were back in my bed, cuddling

the only sound that echoed through the streets of derry were the owl howling,

and richie's screams