golden boy : stozier

thirty three

"you talked to your sister?" stanley furrowed his eyebrows, taken aback. richie scratched the back of his neck, his hand stuck between the locker he was leaning on and his head. he nodded slightly. "wow."

"yeah. she was an ass, like usual, but she said she'd come by." richie gulped. stanley could tell richie was nervous, and it made him want to blush a little. richie tozier was nervous to tell stanley he'd done something hard for him. for him. how sweet.

"jesus, thanks. i... i don't know if it'll really help, i feel like it'll be awkward, but i appreciate it." stanley resisted the urge to pull at his shirt collar, as if he was choking. he could tell richie was trying. it was more than anyone had ever done for him, and he was afraid if he told richie that that he might start sprinting in the other direction.

"well, you know. she can drive you home, too, so that's nice," richie pushed his glasses up off the edge of his nose onto the bridge. richie was always blunt with stanley, but he'd never really talked about his sister enough for stanley to understand their relationship.

when he'd been little, stanley had wished for a sibling. he'd grown out of the dream as he accepted his role as the only child. the dream child. still, a part of him ached for someone to share the tension in his house with, and he didn't really understand how richie seemed to hate his sister so much.

-

"percy," richie rapped on the backdoor of her car, the doors unlocking as stanley stood unsure, in front of the passenger door. richie pulled his door open and looked to stanley, "c'mon."

nervously, stanley opened the passenger door and got in, glancing to pj. "hi," he muttered, having never felt so shy in his life. pj nodded to him, and he watched as she put her seatbelt on, turning back to richie.

"you first?" she said, her voice unenthused. richie nodded, and she shuffled back around to the front, "nice to meet you, stanley, richie talks a lot about you."

it was a lie, stanley thought, considering he didn't think richie and pj ever talked. still, he smiled politely, and put his own seatbelt on as she started the car. it smelt like lavender rather than pine—the scent of the refresher that hung around the mirror.

stanley looked to pj in strange awe. here was an adult who'd supposedly gone through all that he had, and she seemed perfectly put together. as she started driving, the awkward silence left time for stanley to demean himself internally for letting himself get this bad. seriously, like reunite the toziers bad.

"so how was school?" pj offered into the silence, richie laughing. it was mocking, but pj pursed her lips as he did so, like she too could appreciate the stupidity in the small talk.

"fuck off," richie said, still laughing more than he perhaps intended to, "didn't get detention today." richie's tone here was nicer than it had been when talking about her before, and stanley wondered how richie could ever be as mean as he claimed to be.

richie could be a bit of an asshole, sure, stanley knew that. but he was never really as evil as he made himself out to be. not in front of stanley, anyway, and he figured that was worth something.

"well, might as well have won the nobel peace prize, haven't you?" pj bit back, turning out of the parking lot. stanley glanced nervously between her and the road.

"people have said my iq is about that of einstein's, so... i think i deserve it," richie replied, shuffling with his bag some. stanley still hadn't said a word, his voice caught in his throat from the awkwardness he felt in the passenger seat. surely richie should have shotgun, but then richie was getting out quicker, so, maybe it was saving them more tension of stanley having to move seats.