I just saw one of your previous anons’ questions, and I was wondering, why do you think chapter 1 ended on a Billverly note rather than a Benverly note? cuz didn’t Beverly find out that Ben wrote the poem in the first one?
Before they do the blood oath, she does mention that she only remembers bits and pieces of what happened, and mostly it was her vision from the deadlights. So by September their memories of what happened had already begun to decay - I really, genuinely think that Ben’s kiss and the knowledge that he wrote the poem was one of the first things to go, for Bev.
Because Bev and Eddie experience the deepest trauma and the most complete regression, I think it’s safe to say the memories of the things that kept them strong faded pretty fast, like Derry was specifically targeting those things. Ben and the poem would fade first because he represents what love should be and ‘fate’ wanted to make sure she lost that feeling.
So Ch.1 ends on a Billverly note because he kisses her, and that reignites the crush she had on him when the summer began. She goes on thinking that he was the one who was ‘almost her boyfriend’ until he eventually fades away too. When she gets the phone call, she latches onto his name, but when they eventually kiss... there’s nothing there.
The feeling she got from Ben is buried so deep that it takes the longest time to return - she needs to essentially complete her personal journey first, and then use her newfound strength to save his life, before that vault opens up and everything about him comes flooding back. Achievement unlocked: true love’s kiss!
gummygunk
kaledo-art
theartofmadeline
baratheonpilled
ellievsbear
