SAT IN BETWEEN BEVERLY AND RICHIE, Veronica holds the tiny shot glass between her fingers, all of them except Richie going in for a toast. He has his glass in between his lips, bending his head back and downing the liquid as all of them do the same. He spits the glass onto the table and looks around hazily.
"Wait, so, Eddie, you got married?" He asks, an impresses smile on his face, attempting to hold in a laugh as Veronica reaches for the bottle of whatever alcohol they were drinking and downing another shot.
Eddie stares back at Richie, replying in a fast voice. "Yeah, why's it so fucking funny, dickwad?" He responds.
Raising a brow, Richie smirks, nudging Veronica who placed her shot glass down and was babbling off to Beverly about something. "What, to like a woman?" He goes on, Veronica nudging him back.
"Richie!" She attempts to defend Eddie, ending up bursting into a fit of giggles — Perhaps it was from the amount she had already drunk, but she thought that this was the most she had laughed in a very long time.
Eddie looks between them, pointing up a chopstick and pointing it at each of them. "Fuck you, bro," He shakes his head.
Laughing out, Richie beams. "Fuck you!" He yells back before Bill interjects, leaning into the table and looking to the glasses-clad man.
"Alright, what about you, Trashmouth. You married?" He asks, Veronica's interest piquing, looking up from her plate as she tilts her head curiously.
She attempts to play it off, acting casually despite the fact that at the question her heart began to race and her palms began to sweat and her knees began to shake. "There's no way Richie's married!" Beverly cuts in, shaking her head before feeling someone's leg bump into hers and realizing that Veronica was shaking.
Looking to her, Beverly realizes what was going on. Smiling softly as she attempts to coax her friend's nerves. "No, I got married," Richie speaks up seriously, looking to Beverly and Bill, not noticing the way Veronica's face dropped.
"What?" Veronica looks to him, her eyes wide before she quickly recovers, replacing it with a teasing smile. "W-Who'd wanna marry you?" She stumbles over her words. Her heart dropping to the pit of her stomach.
Beverly shakes her head, placing a comforting hand on Veronica's knee. "Richie, I don't believe it," She says as a small smile forms on her face, thinking about the way Veronica panicked. 'It's nice to know that some things never change,'.
"My wife would wanna marry me, Ronnie!" Richie responds, a flash of fake-hurt on his face as he softly kicks her foot from under the table.
Eddie rolls his eyes. "Yeah, right. When?" He butts in, taking a sip of his drink as he looks to Richie curiously.
Veronica kicks his foot back. "I'm with Ed's, Rich. When did you get married to this said wife, huh?" She questions, squinting her eyes and pretending to interrogate in order to hold back her worry. Everyone could feel it. Even Richie. They've always been too proud to admit their feelings for one another, even when they got together when they were younger. You'd think that maybe twenty-five years of separation would help them lower it.
Mike couldn't help but get Bill and Ben's attention, pointing to Veronica and Richie exchanging looks, circling a heart around them with his hands. They all laugh, looking at the way the two best friends stared at each other. It was like they were kids again, having another one of those stupid stare-offs they'd have.
"You didn't know I got married?" Richie tilts his head curiously, looking from Veronica's drooping ghost of a smile to the rest of the Losers, faking disappointment.
His eyes searching her for any sight of disappointment and he could see it written all over. Twenty-five years later and he still could read her like an open book. If she was disappointed that meant she cared, he thought as he watched her shake her head.
Veronica quickly responds. "Kind of hard when I haven't even remember your guys' existence until last night," She retorts, taking a small sip of her drink.
The Losers laugh at the response, scoffing before Richie answers. "Yeah, me and Ed's mom. We're very, very happy, right now," He explains.
Bill choking on his drink, spitting it back into his cup as the room in filled with laughter once again. Veronica's heart filling up once again as a smile forms on her face, laughing along with her friends at Richie's answer. It was just so him.
Grimacing, Eddie jumps in. "Fuck you," He cusses, rolling his eyes.
"You guys totally fell for it," Richie bursts into a fit of laughter as he slaps Veronica's arm, practically begging for her to look at him. "You should've saw your face, R. It went all sad and droopy! Are you jealous? Is my Ronnie jealous?" He asks, unknowingly using the exact same words he had uttered that day at the pharmacy. That day she got jealous of Beverly. It was so long ago.
Kicking his foot with her leg, Veronica rolls her eyes as she looks to Mike and Bill. "I don't think his mind has fully developed since we were younger," She comments, shaking her head as Richie begins to babble again.
"She's very sweet. Sometimes, she'll put her arm around me and she'll whisper to me," He imitates a Wookie, putting an arm around an unimpressed Veronica who stared at Ben with dead, pleading eyes. 'Help me,' She mouths.
Eddie shakes his head. "We all get it! My mom's a great, big fat person," He says, eyes wide as the group all begins to laugh. "Hilarious! Hysterical!" He takes a shot.
"Hey! What about you, V? You get hitched or whatever?" Ben looks to Veronica, despite already knowing the answer — anyone who knew Veronica could tell she was single, just by the way she looked at Richie.
Scoffing, she takes the glass of water next to her plate and guzzles it down. "That's my drink!" Beverly laughs as Veronica drinks most of it.
"Oh, sorry, here!" She responds, reaching for the other glass on her other side and passing it to her. "I think, I'm drinking too much but," She goes on, leaning her elbow on the table and resting her chin on it. "No, I do not believe that I have 'gotten hitched or whatever'," She finishes, her eyes smiling droopily at her friends.
Mike tosses a napkin at her. "What? You too cool to be dating?" He teases as she rolls her eyes once again, lifting her head up as she shakes her head.
"Ha, work makes me busy like a motherfucker," Veronica responds, taking another sip of water to sober herself up a bit.
Beverly looks to her. "Where do you do work?" She asks curiously.
She places the water down onto the table and moves her hair to her back. "I'm in social work," She responds, taking a glance around the table — Noticing the looks of surprise of her friends faces.
Richie puts his lips into line before snickering. "You work with kids, Ronnie?" He asks, scrunching up his nose. "You're good with them?" He goes on, the others beginning to laugh while Veronica tosses a chopstick at him.
"Fuck off, fuckface," She laughs, shaking her head with a smile. "Yes, I'm actually rather good with them. Why're you so surprised?" She asks with an edge in her voice as pout comes across her face.
Shrugging softly, Bill responds with a low laugh. "I don't know, maybe because when we were younger and you babysat for your neighbours, you were never called back to babysit cause you made the kids cry!" His laugh getting progressively louder at the end causing the entire group to howl with laughter.
"I'm the best with kids! I swear," Veronica defends, laughing along with them.
Poking her arm, Richie rolls his eyes. "I'll only believe it when I see it," He teases before slamming his hands onto the table exasperated, looking to Ben. "Wait, so, let's talk about the elephant not in the room, Ben. What the fuck, man?" He goes on.
Ben smiles sheepishly into his drink, putting it down and holding it in his hand. "Okay, okay. Obviously, I lost a few pounds," He explains.
Murmurs of agreement crowd the room as the Losers nod. "You're like... Uh, you're hot!" Richie points.
Eddie nods. "That's true," He says.
"You're like every Brazilian soccer player wrapped up into one person," Richie comments as Bill begins to laugh, Beverly shaking her head.
Veronica nods eagerly, looking to Ben with wide eyes. "Why's that so true?" She laughs, nodding her head continuously. "I can see a bit of Becker in him,".
"Leave him alone," Beverly says. "You're embarrassing him," A smile on her face as she looks at Ben.
Shaking his head, Ben waves his hand at them. "Okay, okay, alright, please. Come on, is Stanley coming or what?" He points to the empty spot between Eddie and Richie.
The laughter dying down. "Stannie?" Veronica speaks up, her smile fading slowly.
Eddie leans back into his chair, rubbing his eyebrows with the back of his hand. "Stan," He mumbles.
"Stan the..." Richie begins, looking to the empty seat. "Stan Uris," He corrects.
Bill cuts in. "Stan Urine," He adds, Richie joining in half way through.
"Stanley Urine, no! No, no. He's a fucking pussy, he's not gonna show!" Richie says, rubbing his hands together with a smile.
Smacking his arm, Veronica rolls her eyes. "Cut him some slack, he's probably just running late. I bet he's got a job that's busy,".
Eddie laughs, looking to the seat. "Why would Stanley save you, anyway? Was I not the one who basically performed surgery on you?" He grabs Ben's arm. "After Bowers cut you up,".
"Yes," Ben laughs, nodding.
Smiling, smacking Ben's arm, Eddie leans back. "Holy shit, that's right!" He nods.
Leaning her chin on her beer bottle, Beverly stares at him with a tilted head. "Please tell me you ended up becoming a doctor, Ed's," She ponders.
Shaking his head, he responds. "No, I, Uh. I ended up becoming a risk analyst," He picks up his drink as Veronica scoffs lightly.
"Ed's is too scared he'd catch whatever the patients got," She teases sticking her tongue out at him from across the table.
Richie laughs lightly at her, looking to Eddie afterward. "Oh, that sounds really interesting. What does that entail?" He asks, leaning into the table.
Nodding, Eddie places the cup down. "Yes, so I like work for a big insurance firm... And," He stops himself, hearing a groan and looking up.
The entire group looking at Richie with his head thrown back, mouth agape with a breathy laugh escaping him. Everyone beginning to laugh at the reaction, except Eddie. "Fuck you, dude," Eddie looks at him seriously as Veronica begins giggling into the water she has previously given to Beverly but has since taken back. "Fuck you," He repeats.
"Was this job invented before fun?" Richie presses, the group beginning to hold in their laughter. Veronica's head falling onto Richie's forearm as she attempts to stifle herself.
Raising his glass at him and pointing, "Oh, that's so not funny!" Eddie rolls his eyes.
Richie shakes his head. "It is funny, isn't it funny, Ronnie? Look! They're all laughing, Ed's!" He continues to press as Veronica still laughs into his forearm.
He couldn't help the smile that formed at the touch of the girl who had taken his first kiss away. She meant the world to him, he couldn't believe that he had forgotten her. The way her head rested on his arm just brought him back to their teen years, young and free to be whoever they wanted to be as long was they had each other.
Ben begins to laugh, shaking his head as Eddie looks between the group angrily. "What the fuck are you laughing at?" He shouts, eyes wide at Ben who just snickered.
Raising her beer bottle, Beverly smiles — looking between her childhood friends. "I propose a toast, to the Losers," She sends her bottle towards the middle of the table, the group following with their glasses and bottles before clinking their glasses and taking a sip.
And, right then and there, that's when Veronica felt it most. Felt the feeling she hadn't felt in years. Something she had completely forgotten about. She felt truly at home. These people were her family.