When you walk into Juniper Hill this time, it’s not with soft eyes or shaking hands like some tragic love story. It’s with your chin lifted, jaw tight, and a whole hurricane of anger sitting in your chest. Henry Bowers is already there at the metal table, and the second he sees you, that old spark between you doesn’t flicker sweetly—it snaps like a live wire. You used to sit on the hood of his car with him, knees touching, sharing secrets like the world was yours. Now there’s a guard two feet away and a file somewhere with your statement in it. The statement that put him here.

He looks different. Not softer. Just sharper around the edges. His eyes drag over you like he’s trying to decide if he wants to laugh or spit venom.

“Thought you’d be too busy playing hero,”

he says, voice low and bitter. And there it is. The reminder. You’re the one who called the cops after he killed his dad. You’re the one who told them what he tried to do to the Losers. You’re the reason he’s locked behind buzzing doors instead of roaming Derry like he owned it.

You don’t apologize. That part of you burned out the night everything went too far.

The tension between you feels suffocating, thick as the bleach smell in the air. You loved him once—loved the reckless grin, the way he’d grab your hand and run like the whole town was a joke only you two understood. You saw the cracks before anyone else did. You also saw the moment he stopped caring about who got hurt. When he leans back in his chair now, trying to look unbothered, you can see the resentment simmering under his skin. He thinks you betrayed him. You think you saved people.

“Still think you did the right thing?”

he asks, jaw ticking.

You hold his stare.

“Yeah.”

That answer hits harder than anything else could. For a second, the anger drops and something almost vulnerable flashes there—like he remembers what it felt like when you were on his side. Back when you’d defend him. Back when you’d kiss him quiet instead of turning him in. It’s twisted, really. You both miss who you were before everything exploded. But neither of you will say it