golden boy : stozier

nineteen

"oh, richie. i was talking to the girls and apparently cathy has a crush on you." beverly was curling one of her hairs, richie focused on the gap between her and bill at the table.

"what?" richie hadn't really heard her very well, and his eyebrows furrowed as his brain registered the words. he pushed his glasses back up his face.

bill cleared his throat awkwardly, "you sh-shuh-should ask her out." for the first time, richie actually registered the fact that bill and beverly were not hip to hip, in fact, beverly was sitting closer to stanley than bill. he had the forethought not to say anything, but he decided to ask mike about it later.

"uh--"

"i'm sure she'd say yes. god knows why, but she thinks you're the funniest person ever. won't shut up about it." beverly rolled her eyes, putting her head in her one hand. bill looked at her briefly, then back, like he was afraid to get caught.

"i mean, she's right about that. i am the funniest person on this planet, let alone this table, but, i don't know if—" richie went on, trying not to sound as awful as he felt that day. he puffed his chest out, mike laughing.

"on the other hand, d-duh-don't ask her out. it'll buh-buh-boost your ego too much," bill waved him away with his hand, eating a fry as always. he offered some to mike, who took them.

"fuck you bill, now i will." richie flipped bill off, across the table. bill flipped him off too, smiling.

"you and cathy could be cute. the whole short girl, tall boy thing going on." beverly continued, and richie thought about considering it.

"didn't cathy and jordan date? i didn't realize they broke up at any point," mike said, richie lost thinking about how nobody at this school mattered. almost nobody, anyway. he glanced up to stanley, who was hunched over. he hadn't seemed to have heard any of them. what a peaceful existence.

"oh, jordan broke up with her for a ninth grader. it was gross." beverly replied, and the way she adjusted, it looked like she was going to lean against bill's shoulder, only to decide against it. she glanced at stanley. after a moment's hesitation, she put her weight on stanley, instead. he hardly seemed to notice.

"mm," richie hummed, though he wasn't really listening. he could smell beverly's perfume from across the table.

"so? you g-guh-gonna make a move?" bill asked, looking over, pissed off, at beverly and stanley.

"big bill, give me a minute to think about it." richie wasn't thinking about it, instead drumming his nails to the music playing in his earbuds. he'd discovered that if he just kept his music in his ears all the time, talking to people was a lot more bearable.

stanley had been quiet the whole lunch, sitting next to beverly and bill instead of richie, doing homework instead of eating. richie looked over to his papers, barely making out chemistry of some kind.

"do you guys wanna study together sometime soon?" mike asked suddenly, and richie noticed he was also looking at stanley's papers. it was impressive stanley could focus at all in the cafeteria.

"yeah, i've got some unit t-tuh-tuh-tests coming up," bill replied, and mike nodded. beverly shifted to look at stanley's work while still leaning her head on him.

"god, it's like a different language," she muttered, stanley finally acknowledging her with a nod. he was scribbling down some formula about the delta of heat, or something. richie wasn't very good at chemistry.

"it really is." stanley murmured. he was rubbing his pencil's eraser into the table, like he always did. richie looked over to mike, who was mouthing something across the table to bill. bill caught richie's eye contact and looked away, and mike glanced back at richie.

richie decided to look back at stanley.

"do you think you could help me with my pre-calc sometime?" beverly asked, her sweetest voice. bill now looked like he was gritting his teeth. richie, truthfully, was very confused.

"of course," stanley replied, and richie realized he hadn't looked at him the whole lunch. it was like stanley had been avoiding his existence. he had to stop himself from also gritting his teeth, not wanting to look like bill. for gods sakes, stanley wasn't his boyfriend, there was no reason to be this upset.

"thanks, stanley. we should study in the library after school today," she said, now talking to mike, who nodded. she looked to richie, "are you coming?"

"um... yeah, sure. i've got some spanish assignments to do," richie scratched at his thighs. he'd been getting better at staying on track in school. he wasn't sure it really meant much, because he'd already fucked up his grades so badly, but stanley had told him it was worth a shot to try and do better. university only really looked at grade eleven and twelve anyway, so if he could get them looking better before the end of junior year, he had a chance.

"cool." she said, and richie wondered why he wasn't finding her so annoying. she was definitely being annoying, he just didn't mind as much. he wondered if it had to do with her not being connected physically to bill.

"do you do spanish in ib, stanley?" mike asked, and stanley either gave up or finished his chemistry, tucking the papers together. beverly lifted her head back up as he put his things into his backpack.

"i could, but i do hebrew instead. it's like, a self taught thing for people who already know languages, it's too complicated to explain," stanley answered, seemingly unsure what to do with his hands now that he was done work.

"you know hebrew?" richie asked, and stanley finally looked to him. he gulped.

"yeah. i'm not great, but my parents tried to teach me hebrew and english at the same time growing up." stanley broke the eye contact immediately, like it was burning him to look at richie.

fine, richie thought. be that way.

"that's cool. mike speaks a different language, don't you?" beverly turned to him, and mike looked at her in surprise.

"yeah, my family speaks swahili at home." he answered simply, and richie looked at him confused. he'd never known mike spoke more than english, but he guessed he'd never met mike's family, either.

he'd never met any of their families except bill's cold father and stanley's professional parents. they'd never met his family either.

stanley was an exception, as per usual.