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“Oh,” Beverly says, tipping her head back. Bill watches her, his mouth twitching as he tries to keep himself from smiling. He’s never seen her look so happy, so relieved. Audra, next to him, starts giggling as well when Bev says, “Bill was my first kiss.”
“I was?” he says, sitting up with his back stiff. Across from them with Eddie teetering on his lap in a long pool chair, Richie howls a laugh.
“You were,” Bev says, tucking her hair behind her ears and adjusting her wide-framed sunglasses on her face. “In the third grade, don’t you remember?”
“That - that was for a play, it barely counts,” Bill says, the memory coming back to him, though it’s fuzzy.
“Bill was my first kiss,” Eddie says, his voice almost a chirp. Richie’s arm wraps more tightly around him, and Bill’s face starts to prickle.
“I was?” he says again, feeling like a parrot. Audra gently tugs at his ponytail.
“You playboy,” she says, pursing her lips.
“We were playing house,” Eddie says, turning his head to smile at Richie. He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose with the heel of his palm, and Richie catches his hand and presses kisses to each of his fingers until Eddie starts to laugh. “Richie,” he says, shoving at Richie with a playful smile. “Bill, we were maybe six? It was before we met Stan or Richie. You wanted to be the husband!”
“I did - I did not,” Bill stammers, but it’s clearly not convincing anyone - Richie throws his head back and laughs again and Eddie leans forward, Richie’s hand splayed on his stomach. “I didn’t - I didn’t remember that. I was a kid.”
Audra giggles again, and so do Eddie and Bev, like they’re all in on some little joke.
“Well,” Mike says, breaking his quiet. Ben shifts from his spot next to him, leaning in closer to Bev and twining an arm around her shoulders. “I think there might be a pattern here. Bill,” Mike says, and then, very seriously, leaning forward with his chin resting on his folded hands, “you were my first kiss as well.”
Ben and Bev both start clapping and beside Bev, Stanley starts to chuckle.
“This is ridiculous,” Bill says. “We were kids. What - I mean.”
“Hm, we weren’t kids, Billy-goat,” Richie says with a sly grin. Eddie gasps so loudly Bill could swear it pierces his ears, and then Eddie is shoving at Richie’s shoulders and they’re both falling over each other, landing in the grass.
“Are you serious?” Eddie yells, his glasses nearly falling onto Richie’s scrunched face. “When we were older?”
Richie wraps his arms around Eddie’s bare waist and they roll over again, Eddie laughing as he goes. Audra covers her mouth with her hand as she laughs.
“I would never joke about something so dire,” Richie says, looking down at Eddie and then winking at Bill from over his shoulder. “We were, well, fourteen? It was a few years after the first time…” He trails off, looking down at Eddie, who blinks at him, before Richie adjusts Eddie’s glasses. “Let’s just say he’s not as good a kisser as you are.”
Audra and Bev burst into a simultaneous fit of giggles as Bill hides his face in his hands.
“Well, might as well get out with it, then,” says Stanley. He has a beer in his hands and is smiling warmly at them, hasn’t laughed once. “Bill was my first kiss, too.”
“Oh, my,” Eddie and Bev say at the same time, and then they both break into giggles together. Bev rolls off her chair to wrap her arms around Eddie in the grass, Richie straddling his waist.
“Okay, final one - Ben! Benja-mino. Was Big Bill also your first kiss?”
Ben is the only one to look as appropriately embarrassed as Bill is - he shrugs his shoulders a bit and peers at Bill and Bill peers back and really sees Ben again, sees Ben when he was younger, and awkward, and so different than he is now; the shy boy that Bill now sees as just desperately in love with Bev and Bill looks at Beverly, her head on Eddie’s shoulder, just as Richie reaches down and grabs a handful of Eddie’s hair and shakes his head.
“Ow!” Eddie shouts.
“Richie!” Beverly says.
Ben smiles at Bill and Bill smiles back, and the only person noticing them is Audra, who coos and leans into Bill’s arm. “You really were their best friend,” she says, stroking his bicep with her perfectly manicured nails. “So.” She clears her throat, and then, a little louder so they can all hear her, “Mr. Denbrough, which of the Losers was the absolute best kisser?”
Bill glares at Audra and starts to sputter, which just makes her grin at him. Eddie clamors out of Richie’s grip to sit up, and Beverly does too, tipping her glasses up on her head, pushing her thick hair back. She stretches out one perfectly smooth leg outstretched on the grass, her toenails a brilliant pink-red, shining in the bright California sun.
“Do tell, Bill,” Richie says. Eddie grins.
“No cheating,” Mike says. “Be completely honest.”
“Well, I,” Bill says, then runs a hand over his face. “You people are impossible. I barely remember kissing any of you! And Eddie, we were kids, if it happened it was hardly a peck.”
Eddie pouts. “A very meaningful peck, William Denbrough,” he says, and then Richie smacks a kiss against his cheek and sends Eddie reeling.
“Yes, Bill, don’t be unfair. You were these lovely people’s very first kiss. Now,” Audra says, eyeing him. “Who was yours?”
He shrugs. “As if I can recall,” he says, looking across the group in front of him. If he had to guess, he wants to say Eddie - Eddie was his first real friend when his parents moved them after Georgie was born. His heartstrings tug a bit, thinking about a new town with a new baby. He was barely five when he met Eddie. Eddie smiles at him, eyes crinkling.
“Well, was it at least one of the Losers?” Stan says, nursing his beer.
“It must have been,” Eddie says. “We were barely seven.”
“I dunno, sounds like Bill’s quite the playboy,” Bev teases.
“It’s true,” Richie says. “He didn’t even complain about your cooties for the play, Bev.”
Bev laughs, copying Audra with her hand over her mouth.
“I might have had a bit of a hopeless crush,” Bill admits. He smiles at Audra, who nudges him in the side.
“It sounds like you had hopeless crushes on us all,” Mike says, and his voice is warm, sweet.
Bill melts under their attention, his shy grin hurting his face.
-
Audra is the one to suggest it. He wants to scold her, assumes she must be tipsy, but she’s been nursing the same gin and tonic all night, and she has this coy smile as she rests her bare feet against his thigh.
Bev perks up. “That would be fun,” she says, like they’ve just suggested pulling out The Game of Life or Monopoly.
“Oh, yes,” Eddie says, and Ben starts to laugh, his tone honey sweet. “We can finally determine who’s the best kisser.”
“Oh, baby,” Richie says, because Richie is unmanageable after nine o’clock, “I can answer that inquiry.” He wraps his arms around Eddie’s stomach from their spot on the couch and Eddie shrieks with laughter. Audra smiles at them, and Mike does too - Bill wants to roll his eyes. And he got teased for ‘playing house’ with Eddie.
“We’ve certainly done stranger as a group,” Mike says, and he’s the first to hoist himself up onto the couch. Audra nudges his thighs with her toes from over Bill’s lap. Mike reaches out and squeezes her ankle, and then, before Bill can argue, he cups Bill’s face in his hands - warm hands, soft palm, sweetness that Bill can taste before it even touches his tongue - and kisses him.
“Oh,” Bill says against Mike’s mouth, and then his eyes drift shut. Stan murmurs something soft, Bill thinks it’s to Bev or Ben. Then Mike - the bastard - slips a coy tongue into Bill’s mouth and Bill goes soft, leaning back into the sofa, moaning quietly into Mike’s friendly laugh.
“Oh, Mikey,” Bev murmurs. “How attentive.”
Mike pulls back, and it leaves Bill wanting. Mike looks over his shoulder, still cradling Bill’s face in his hands. “You’re next, Bev,” Mike says, and Bev giggles like she’s been made.
“With you, or with Bill?” she teases, and Mike dips back in to press kisses along Bill’s jaw, up to his temple and hairline, and then presses a dry one to his mouth and pulls back.
Bill slumps again. Audra says, “Bill, don’t be rude,” and kicks him in the side. He sits up and clears his throat.
“Go on, then,” Ben says, and Stan gestures at Bill as well, a grin on his face, his glass of wine almost empty now.
Bev gets up from her spot curled up in a blanket on the floor and settles into the spot Mike’s left empty on the couch.
“Hi, Aud,” she says, and Audra smiles at Bev like they’ve been best friends all their lives.
Then Bev kisses him.
Her fingers are thinner than Mike’s, her hands a little colder. Her hair tickles his face as she leans in, and then she takes away one hand to tuck the stray strands behind her ear. She kisses sweet, sweeter than even Mike, warm against Bill’s lips. He moves under her, tucks a hand around her waist. She doesn’t kiss the way Audra does either - when Audra kisses him it’s to wake him up, to jolt Bill into his senses, or to simply tell him she loves him. Bev’s kisses are loving too, but soft and languid, slow, honey smooth, sticky on the ends.
Richie whistles. “My turn, Bev,” he says, and Eddie gives a little huff - which could mean he’s jealous of Richie or Bill, Bill thinks, with a bit of excitement, because he thought about kissing Eddie a lot when they were kids and never thought he’d have the chance - as Richie hoists himself off the floor.
“I wanted to take my time,” Bev whines.
Audra says, “As long as you don’t kiss his lips raw, I don’t know what’s stopping you all from taking second turns.”
Evil genius, that woman is.
“Alright, Bill,” Richie says, flopping onto the couch. He’s heavier than Bev and taller than Mike, but not quite as broad. And he’s rough and tumble, which shouldn’t surprise Bill but still does, somehow - Richie takes Bill’s chin in his hand and holds tight, and he presses into Bill’s mouth with an unexpected urgency, tongue prying Bill’s lips open, pressed against his gums and his teeth. Richie tastes a bit like cigarettes and bourbon and his cologne is sharper, tangier than Mike’s.
“Oh, fuck,” Bill murmurs, dropping his hand to Richie’s hip. Richie tucks in closer and presses his nose sharply into Bill’s cheek. Bill laughs and Richie bites his lip.
“Okay, no fair,” Eddie says from the floor, and then scrambles up to pull Richie out of Bill’s lap. “You two are unbearable.”
“Well, I was enjoying the show,” Bev says, and Audra hums.
“Let him breathe,” Stan says.
“I’ll show him breathing,” Eddie says, nonsense, and climbs into Bill’s lap.
Eddie isn’t small, necessarily - he’s about the same height as Bill - but his frame is narrower and compared to Richie he’s tiny. He kind of fits into Bill’s lap like Audra does, his hips pressing down on Bill’s, his lips pressed warm, open, on Bill’s mouth. Eddie groans and tightens his arms around Bill’s neck and Stan scoffs.
“So much for letting the man breathe,” Stan says.
“You’re all insane,” Ben says, soft and happy.
Eddie slips in tongue, and Bill thinks that’s something he learned from Richie, the force, the assertiveness. It’s sweet though, from Eddie - something about the flop of blond curls on his face, the press of his wired glasses on Bill’s nose, just seems too soft to be true.
“Okay, okay,” Richie says. “I’ve seen enough! Billy-boy, get offa my man!”
Eddie pulls back with his teeth caught in Bill’s bottom lip, mimicking Richie’s pushiness. Bill rubs his hands up Eddie’s waist and then drops them down to his thighs, and Eddie rolls off of the couch with an oof under his breath.
Stan’s the next to take his turn, and he gently rolls his eyes as he does it. He gives Bill more friction than Richie had with that mustache, but he kisses like he cares about it, like he values giving Bill something new and interesting. He’s not putting on a show like Richie or Eddie, and he’s not shy like Bev, but it’s also not the same type of love Mike had shown him. It’s love, sure, but it’s the kind that’s unrushed, careless - Bill thinks it might be his favorite of the kisses so far, and Stan lingers, then drops little presses of his mouth over Bill’s face, finally settling on his forehead for the final smack of lips.
“Who’s left?” Bev says, glancing around the group. She meets Ben’s eye and grins, wicked. “Oh, Ben! Ben, take Bill for a ride.”
“For a ride,” Ben says, voice strained.
“Like I’m a motorcycle.”
“You’re the group bicycle,” Bev chirps, and that makes Audra laugh. Bill shifts to try to protect his crotch, glad he’s wearing a thick pair of dark jeans. “Everyone gets a ride.”
The group all groan in unison, which just makes Bev grin and laugh harder, pleased with herself. Bill is glad for her.
“Fine, fine,” Ben says. “But I have to say,” he says, then pauses as he sits next to Bill, tucks his hand against Bill’s neck, warm and broad, calloused from his work. Bill thinks of how they both work with their hands, how Ben might even be considered skillful because he’s an artist too, sketches incredible works, even if most of them are of unimaginable buildings he’ll bring to life. Bill tilts his head. “I have to say,” Ben repeats, as if steeling himself, “I think Big Bill is a bit overrated.”
And the crowd goes wild.
Bill opens his mouth to protest, though he’s not sure what he’s going to say, and Ben takes the invitation to swoop in and devour him. It’s messy and unhinged and there’s something wildly sexy about the whole thing, but it’s over almost before it started. He thinks he tastes Ben’s beer at some point, feels the curve of a tongue and the nip of teeth, but then it’s gone, and Ben’s hands gripping the collar of his button-up the only memory.
“Oh, my,” Audra says, and Bev claps Ben on the back as he sits down, her mouth pulled into such a wide grin he thinks her face might start to split.
They settle, and settle down. Richie gets another drink from the kitchen and curls around Bev and Ben on the floor. Eddie settles with Mike on the couch, and Stan joins Bill and Audra, sitting behind Audra to rub absently at her shoulders.
“So,” Mike finally says. “Final vote, Billy. Which Loser is the best kisser?”
Bill groans, and they all start laughing again, the cheerful warmth overwhelming the living room.