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“It’s almost time!” Georgie shrieks, gleefully running around the living room and almost tripping over the rug. Bill grins at him from his place on the stairs.
“Th-Think the p-p-place is d-decorated enough, G-Georgie?” he asks, standing up to join his brother. He catches him mid-run in a hug and Georgie giggles wildly, hugging him back only to then smack his shoulder until Bill drops him back to the floor. “Or sh-should we p-p-put up mmm-more b-balloons?” He tugs on the closest bunch of balloons near him that rests on the coffee table, weighed down by a little party weight. There’s at least seven tied together here and six more weights with about seven or eight balloons each are all scattered around the room. The sun coming in from outside shines on and through the balloons, splashing the room with the muted colors of the rainbow.
Georgie taps his chin like he’s actually considering adding more balloons. “No balloons, but… streamers! Or–” And he gasps like he’s just had a brilliant idea. “Confetti! I should cover the whole room with it!”
Oh, god, Bill thinks, wincing. He loves his brother, but there’s no fucking way he’s giving in to this. Their parents would absolutely kill them. Probably.
“Uh–”
“No, George,” their mom cuts in, but she sounds amused, and Bill sighs with relief.
Georgie pouts up at her, but then sighs, “Fine, okay, no confetti. But can we put up streamers? Like the sparkly ones?” He gives her those huge, sort of puppy dog eyes of his that always make Bill give in to whatever he wants, and he watches as their mom laughs and gives in as well.
“Yeah, that’s fine. Bill, can you get them from the closet?”
Bill grins and does so.
The clock hits four as they’re tossing streamers onto the furniture and each other. Georgie gasps when he notices the time and bounds to the front door, abandoning his attempt at tying a streamer around Bill’s arm. “They should be getting here soon!” he calls, the excitement in his voice clear. Bill laughs under his breath and finishes laying the streamers out before joining his brother.
“W-What are y-you g-guys g-gonna do?” he asks Georgie’s back. He’s standing at the front window, face pressed against the glass as he waits for his friends to arrive. “Should I g-get a-any games out?”
“Liam’s supposed to bring his water guns so we can fight in the yard!” Georgie says, grinning over his shoulder at Bill. “And maybe we’ll play Mario Kart. I’m gonna be Peach!”
“D-Daisy is c-clearly the b-b-better pr-princess,” Bill argues playfully, ruffling Georgie’s hair until he squeals and pushes his hand away, laughing. “B-But alright, I’ll g-get it s-set up.”
Georgie pauses in his window watching to hug him quickly, smiling up at him. “Thanks, Billy.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says, grinning.
It takes him a few minutes to hunt the video game down and he’s turning the Wii system on when he hears Georgie call, “Billy, what time is it?”
“Uh…” He glances at the clock and raises an eyebrow. “It’s f-four t-twenty-five. A-are they n-n-not here yet?”
“No.” Georgie’s voice is soft, disappointed, and Bill frowns when he sees Georgie walk into the living room, pouting. “Nobody’s here yet.”
“M-Maybe they’re j-just late?” Bill tries, desperate to get that horribly sad look off his brother’s face.
“I dunno,” Georgie mumbles. “The invitation said exactly four. Are people usually this late?” He turns his pout on Bill, and Bill’s alarmed to see tears welling there.
Shitshitshit, he thinks wildly, and he says quickly, “Uh, w-well, R-Richie is a-a-almost a-always late t-to th-things, a-and B-Beverly c-can b-be, too, s-so I mean…”
He trails off after a few moments. Georgie still just looks sad, but then he looks at Bill and forces a small, wavering smile. “Yeah, they’re probably just late. I’ll go keep waiting.” And he trudges his way back to the front door, head hanging down, and Bill is suddenly furious at these kids who Georgie trusted to show up and then fucking didn’t. Who did they think they were, treating his little brother like this?
After a minute of thinking it over, he nods to himself. He’ll fix this. Georgie deserves the best eighth birthday ever.
He tugs his phone out and pulls up the Loser’s Club group chat.
-
BigBill: guys are any of you busy
queenbev: no whats up bill??
Trashmouth™: im free but y
haystack: im not busy!
BigBill: nobody showed up for georgies party
queenbev: >:o excuse me!!
dontcallmeeds: wHAT
Trashmouth™: thats a fucking crime what the fuck
StanTheMan: Fuck them kids.
mikeymike: nooo what oh my god :( my poor boy
BigBill: yeah
BigBill: can you guys come over? ik he loves you all so
dontcallmeeds: we love him too :’) yeah ill come!!
Trashmouth™: anything for my fave child
queenbev: already omw
haystack: of course!!
mikeymike: hell yeah ill see yall soon!
StanTheMan: Mike, can I catch a ride with you?
mikeymike: omg ofc ill see u in a few
BigBill: thanks guys :)
BigBill: also rich can you bring your water guns
Trashmouth™: YEET
dontcallmeeds: oh god
-
“Thank fuck,” he sighs to himself, smiling down at his phone. Logically, he knows that the Losers would show up at his call for literally anything, but it’s nice to be reminded like this. “Georgie!” he calls, and his brother reappears a few seconds later, still forcing a smile. “C-come p-play Mario K-Kart with m-me.”
Georgie’s eyes light up at his words. “Okay,” he says, grabbing a controller and hopping onto the couch. “I’m gonna win!”
They manage to race through a few tracks before the first set of knocks comes, and Bill jumps up, ignoring Georgie’s curious gaze. It’s nearing five by now, so he’s completely given up on his friends coming. Bill’s still angry about it, but at least Georgie’s not suspecting anything. “P-Probably a p-package,” he says absently, forcing himself to walk to the door instead of run so he doesn’t give himself away.
He’s greeted by Beverly and Ben holding hands on the porch, and he can see Richie and Eddie crossing the street behind them. All four of them have some sort of hastily-wrapped gifts in their hands and Bill feels himself grin hugely. “Th-Thank you,” he says, pulling Ben and Bev into a quick little group hug. “H-He’ll be o-overj-joyed.”
“It’s what he deserves,” Bev says, mock-grave, and they all giggle. “And, also, we got him gifts? Hopefully that isn’t weird. I’m hoping we didn’t get him duplicates of anything.”
“He f-forgets a-about half th-the stuff h-he owns, a-anyway,” Bill says, grinning. Then he calls out, “H-Hey, guys,” to Richie and Eddie as they finally reach the porch.
“Where’s the birthday boy?” Richie yells, laughing when Eddie shushes him. “Sorry, Eds, didn’t mean to scare ya.”
“No, dipshit, I think it’s supposed to be a surprise,” Eddie says, rolling his eyes. “Sorry about him, he’s been annoying all day.”
Richie gasps dramatically, slapping his hands over his chest and widening his eyes to complete the look of total shock. “I can’t believe you’re admitting to spending the day with me, Eds! You must truly love me.” And then he mimes wiping tears away, only breaking the act to grin when Beverly and Bill start losing it. Ben just grins sympathetically at Eddie’s flushed face.
“You’re fucking lucky I do,” he mutters, hiding his face in Richie’s shoulder.
A moment later, Mike pulls up into the driveway, Stan waving at them from the passenger seat. Once they’re parked, they climb out, Stan clutching a bag in his hand. “We got him something from the both of us,” he explains, smiling slightly. “Hopefully that’s cool.”
“Couple goals,” Richie sighs, and then yelps when Stan swings a fist at him.
Bill grins. “C-Come on,” he says, waving them inside just as Georgie starts yelling at him from the living room.
“Billy, what’re you doin’? I wanna play Mario Kart!”
“Shit, Mario Kart? Fuck yeah,” Richie says, dropping his bag of water guns unceremoniously on the floor. “Set up a controller for me, Georgie!”
Bill hears his brother gasp and then run out to greet them, staring in shock at Bill’s friends. “Richie!” he cries, throwing himself into his arms. Richie hugs him close, grinning smugly at everyone else. I’m his favorite, he mouths. Then Georgie wiggles free and takes turns crushing everyone with his surprisingly strong hugs. Bill thinks he sees Eddie wheeze just a bit once he’s released, and Richie hands him his aspirator in response.
Finally, Georgie reaches Bill and just presses his face into his stomach, sniffling. Bill waves his friends away and they oblige, shuffling into the living room. Once they’re out of sight, Bill picks Georgie up and hugs him tightly. “Happy b-birthday, loser,” he whispers. “H-Hopefully it’s o-okay they c-came.”
“It’s perfect,” Georgie mumbles into his shoulder, pulling back to grin. “Thank you, Billy!”
Bill chuckles and sets him down. “L-Let’s go k-kick their asses, G-Georgie.”
They end up playing Mario Kart for the better part of an hour before Richie slyly mentions his water guns, and then Georgie is yelling and running outside before the rest of them even get up. Richie and Mike haul the bag outside and everyone pitches in on filling up the guns to the brim before letting loose on each other. Bev hides behind a lawn chair and sprays anyone that gets within five feet of her. Eddie hides behind Richie the entire time and uses him as the world’s most annoying human shield, he says, though he seems fairly content just hugging his boyfriend and letting him protect him from everyone else. Stan sits on the porch and yells random shit to try and throw everyone off, and Mike and Ben end up teaming up to take down Bill.
In the end, despite being arguably the most soaked out of all of them, Georgie is declared the official winner in their water fight.
Their parents come out to watch the tail end of the war, laughing when Bill gets stabbed (sprayed, really) in the back by Georgie, and he collapses, wheezing, “M-My own b-brother… I c-can’t b-b-believe this…” Georgie collapses on top of him, howling.
“Tragic,” Stan says flatly, and they all lose it, effectively ending the game.
They’re called back inside to clean up (luckily everyone had remembered to bring at least an extra shirt at the mention of the water guns), and then Bill’s parents serve the birthday cake. It’s blue, with a paper boat perched in the middle and Happy Birthday, Georgie! written in black cursive. Georgie’s had a permanent grin on the entire time, and it only grows when he sees the cake.
He blows out the candles, eyes screwed shut, and then insists on cutting it up for everyone. It’s done pretty poorly, but nobody says anything except some form of thank you.
As they shove their mouths with cake and make their earlier clean-up seemingly meaningless, they all pass their gifts to Georgie, who tears them open with blue hands. He finds some Superman comics from Ben and giggles happily. “Superman’s my favorite! Thanks, Ben!”
“No problem,” Ben says, smiling.
There’s a Lego set from Beverly that he just about starts assembling right then and there until Bill reminds him that he’s got other gifts. Eddie got him a board game, Mike and Stan teamed up to buy him a Superman action figure that he gasps at and hugs tightly, and Georgie opens up the final gift from Richie that’s revealed to be a joke book.
“I figure he’s at that age where it’s time for him to step up and be the funny brother,” Richie explains, pushing his glasses up his nose and winking at him, “since we know Big Bill could never.”
“F-Fight me, T-Trashmouth,” he says, laughing along with their friends.
Georgie’s already flipping through the book, giggling to himself over some of the jokes he reads. “Hey, hey!” he exclaims, peering over the book at them mischievously. “What do you call a duck that gets really good grades?”
Bill looks around at his friends, who all exchange dumbfounded looks. Even Richie looks confused, despite the joke coming from his gift. “Dunno, man, what is it?” Mike finally asks.
Already giggling, Georgie manages to say, “A wise quacker!”
Richie’s the only one who openly laughs at that; everyone else groans good-naturedly, grinning at the boy. “That was… a good one, Georgie,” Ben says, chuckling a little.
“Awful,” Beverly mutters, but she ends up snickering a second later.
Bill’s dad comes into the room then to let them know that it’s getting late, and Mike offers to drive all of them home. Richie and Eddie are the only ones to decline, saying that they’ll walk home together, it’s no big deal, and then they’re all leaving, pausing at the door to hug Bill and Georgie good-bye.
“Bye, little man,” Mike says, giving Georgie a fist bump, who accepts it cheerfully. Stan crouches down to hug him more easily, and then he and Mike are gone, slipping into the car to wait for Ben and Bev to join.
Richie picks him up and swings him around before passing him off to Bev, who pretends to struggle under his weight. “My god, you’re like a boulder,” she gasps, then laughs and sets him down. Ben hugs him next and then Eddie, who also ruffles his hair the same way Bill did hours ago. “Happy birthday, Georgie,” he says, smiling. She and Ben leave and join Mike and Stan, and then Richie and Eddie head out, holding hands and waving over their shoulders at Georgie and Bill until they’re out of sight.
Bill tugs Georgie inside and shuts the front door, smiling at him. “So? H-How was i-it?”
His brother just grins up at him hugely. “The best birthday ever, Billy. I love you!”
“L-Love you too, Georgie,” he says, laughing. “G-Go p-play with y-your p-presents.”
Georgie skips off into the living room and Bill follows after him, and they fall asleep that night on the floor together, reading comics and assembling Legos.
Bill thinks, right as he falls asleep, that maybe it was the best birthday Georgie could have.