cliché || reddie ✔️

fifteen

"Who cares about your mom?" Stanley asks, a hand cutting through the air. "Either way, she's not going to let you go. Just make up some lie and be done with it."

Bill and Eddie share a glance, the former giving him a look that tells him he should follow Stanley's advice. Eddie lets out a defeated sigh and reaches around to pull out his phone. "Fine," he snaps and opens his phone. A beat of hesitation passes as Eddie's thumbs dance over the keyboard and he quietly adds, "What she doesn't know doesn't hurt her, I guess." Bill smiles, visibly pleased.

As they reach the entry hallway that leads to the main doors, Beverly comes to a slow stop, her eyes looking at something across the way. Stanley notices their missing group member as Bill's opening one of the glass doors. "What's wrong?" He asks.

She looks over at him, then glances back to where her eyes were before. "Oh.. it's nothing." She says first with a small shake of her head. Stanley waits for her to catch up with him, but as they're walking through the first set of doors, she stops again.

"Guys... guys." One by one the boys feet stutter to a stop and they all turn their heads to face Beverly.

"What? I'm starving," Richie complains as he leans against the last set of doors, eyes briefly glancing out the frosted windows.

Beverly looks away from him, ignoring his comment as she says, "Ben's over there alone. What if we invited him out to lunch with us?"

Bill instantly jumps onto the idea without any questions. He's always open to making new friends and Beverly inviting one more person seems like a good start. "Suh-Ss.. sounds good, Beverly." She looks over at the nervous boy fondly, feeling nothing but happiness.

"Well?" She asks the others, but her mind seems close to being set as she opens the door a little wider.

Stanley comments that he couldn't care less, he just wants food and Richie is quick to second it. "I don't mind," Eddie says with a little shrug, his eyes curiously searching over Beverly's shoulder for Ben. She breaks out into a smile and spins around, walking through the door and across the large entry hallway.

The other four boys wait in the break between the two sets of doors, watching as Beverly approches Ben. He lifts his head as she draws closer and once realization crosses his face, he drops whatever he was doing on his phone and shyly smiles up at her. The two go back and forth for a moment, Beverly talking with cocks of her head and Ben shifting his weight uncertainly from foot to foot. Then, she takes a side step and Ben picks up his backpack from the floor and the two are making their way back to the others.

"Guess he's coming with," Richie says, his voice unreadable before humming shortly and pushing open the door for Beverly and Ben to walk through. Ben waves at the group, and Bill and Eddie are the only ones to give him a vocal reply.

Richie and Stanley are the only two in the group with cars. The six split up, Eddie and Stan taking his car while Beverly, Ben, and Bill are with Richie in his. With each upperclassman trying to drive out and each parent trying to pick up, traffic around the school was especially bad. But, once free and onto the main roads, the car rides were quick.

The two groups arrived at the same time, pulling into the parking lot with Richie in the lead. They met up at the front doors, Bill being nice enough to hold the door open for them all to walk through. The heat blasted the teens in the face, instantly warming their freezing cheeks and pushing their hair back.

As expected, the diner was fairly crowded. Workers rush and scurry around behind the counter, filling drinks and serving food. Familiar faces fill the window booths. It seems like they weren't the only ones with the idea to go out to eat after finals. Beverly lead the group to a corner booth, taking a second to look over the cracked and ripped leather before sliding in. Their usual lunch sitting arrangements got mixed up, leaving Beverly in the middle and the boys of the group to fill in around her.