Dear Anonymous |Stozier|

19

A/N: Huge thanks to the person who commented yesterday cause it reminded me I have a character I forgot about lol

Stan knew he had to act natural. Perhaps not had too, but he should. Pretend as if he didn't know it would only make things worse if Richie knew as well. The curly haired teen would them have to deal with Richie's questioning.

Examples would be why had Stan blocked Richie. How could Stan ever answer when he didn't know himself. He believed his heart knew, but his brain has yet to catch on. Stan's feelings took over in the moment and in the aftermath Richie had been hurt.

Fuck he was starting to care about Richie. How had he gone from hating him to caring about Richie's feelings. And when did Tozier turn into Richie, maybe it was when he started not dreading seeing the dark haired teen. Strange to see how you can start caring about someone without even realizing it. Strange how you aways tend to hurt the people you care about as well.

Stan found it easy to push people away. He liked to take a step back from the problem that had arisen and look at the bigger picture. At least Stan liked to think that, though they knew that it was really because they hated conflict or approaching people.

Richie had noticed Stan was different the next morning. The short was awkward, even more so then he usually was. When the dark haired teen had asked though he just received a glare that clearly told him to fuck off or not mention it again. Richie couldn't decipher which, but both were close enough in the situation he knew it honestly didn't matter. Richie just wanted something to think about instead of the small amount of worry he held for Stan.

Normally Richie wouldn't worry. It could be an off day, everyone had them. Richie was guilty of having them too. Then it progressed to two days. Three, one week, 9 days, 17 days total. Off month? Seemed unlikely. Did Richie do something wrong at the sleepover? He couldn't remember anything bad. Bill, Stan, and Richie were having a great time joking around. They had gotten a great grade on their project as well so Richie ruled 'worries about grades' off the list of possible reasons Stan was acting strange.

He analyzed every event at the sleepover. Nothing had stood out though. Everything that could have made him start avoiding Richie was ruled off within the first 5 days. A little voice in the back of his mind, quietly whispering negatives that Richie's loud and booming personality normally shouted over had started peaking through.

Finding cracks of self doubt and firmly held onto them trying to make them bigger. Saying things like it was his fault. Stan had only pretended to be his friend and get closer to him. It was his fault he drove anonymous away and now he had driven Stan away as well.

He was determined though. Stan had fascinated him from the moment they bumped into each other. When he gave Stan the nickname marshmallow. Richie wanted Stan in his life. So he did what any good friend would do. Find a classmate Stan still talked too and get his number from them.

Brandon seemed nice enough. The bleached haired male complemented their project and said it was one of the most organized so Richie couldn't bring it in himself to hate the teenager. Even if Stan was spending all his time with Brandon again.

The teenager had gladly given Richie Stan's number, he had seemed shocked when Richie didn't have it already. The brunet didn't care though, now he could communicate with Stan again. Richie could be patient when he wanted to be. The teenager waited all day until he got home when he opened up the new contact saying "Stan Marshmallow Uris" and clicked on the message button.

He had it all figured out. He would text a quick "hey it's Richie," wait for a reply then ask to hang out. Simple but effective, it would get the job done.

He hadn't planned for a conversation to have been started already. One with the number who had blocked them. Something was different though. Richie checked every night to see if the failed to deliver messages had sent yet, that by some miracle anonymous had unblocked him. Now the failed the deliver messages were gone, deleted. Someone had been on his phone. Richie had to stay calm or he wouldn't figure this out.

Think, he told himself. When was the last time he checked the messages? Before the sleepover. Had anyone touched his phone besides him after the sleepover? The answer was no so it had to have been Bill or Stan. Richie remembered seeing Bill asleep first. Which meant the last one up was Stan.

It also meant Stan knew. The time line made sense. Stan avoiding him all of a sudden. Stan knew and he didn't tell Richie. The person Richie was in love with was staring him in the face for the past however long and he didn't notice.

What the fuck was he going to do now...