fire. richie tozier angst. (DISCONTINUED)

II

warning: every chapter in this book was written in my notes and copied onto wattpad, so sorry abt any grammar mistakes

"earth to richie? hello?" stan waved in front of his face, tilting his head and looking at him with a curious expression.

richie snapped out of his thoughts and looked from stan to the flame, until the flame went out. he looked at stan almost angrily. "what'd you do?"

"uhh, the lab? we're the first group to finish." richie groaned and got out a pencil, writing the report as stan told him what to write.

"ughhh, why are lab reports so boring..." richie whined, dragging out the "ing." stan ignored the complaint and continued to tell richie what he needed to write for the report.

coach hondra looked down at the report richie wrote and looked up at richie, raising an eyebrow. "you wrote this?"

stan nudged richie, who had zoned out immediately, and richie nodded proudly. "yessir i did sir."

coach h hummed in surprise and wrote a small red 100 at the top of the page, putting it in a pile on his desk. "i assume he wrote all this himself, stanley?" coach h asked, looking at stan. stan nodded gently, a small but proud smile displayed on his lips. coach h nodded his head in approval. "nicely done, tozier." he looked back at stan. "the lab went quite well. you've got a good strategy." stan faked another smile and took richie to go sit down.

richie looked up at stan as they walked. "he's annoying. i can't believe he would put it so low for me to do work on my own." he mocked surprise and stan flicked the back of his head.

"'cause you didn't, dipshit." stan laughed as richie slid his finger down his face to imitate a tear. they sat down at their table and richie fiddled with a pencil while stan did homework for another class.

richie couldn't help but think about the fire before. the way he would've described it could have made someone think he had a crush on it. a crush on a flame. he wouldn't put it past himself. he had a crush on ms k before he actually saw her. he also had a crush on bill's dad for a while, but he thankfully got over it. thank god he'd never told bill.

richie mindlessly thought on until the bell rang, signaling the end of class. richie grabbed his bag and walked with stan to his (stan's) seventh hour, which was history. he waved as he walked past the room and made his way towards beverly, who luckily had the same class as him.

throughout the entire period richie was zoned out, his thoughts always landing back on the flame. the fire. he couldn't get his mind off it. he wanted to see more of it. a lot more of it. he suddenly got a brief, frightening image in his head. the school, on fire, kids screaming and running out, some on fire, some carrying others, others covered in second and third degree burns.

richie quickly snapped back into reality at the thought of that. he focused in on his teacher, trying to understand what she was saying.

soon enough, the bell rang, and everyone grabbed their stuff and darted out of the school. richie grabbed his bag and flung it over his shoulder. he walked over to bev, who was waiting for richie by the door. she held out her hand, and richie took it gracefully.

"after you, m'lady," she said in a sweet, mature voice. richie sighed peacefully and stepped through the door, holding beverly's hand and she made her way out of the classroom. "why thank you, madam."

richie smiled politely. "but of course, m'lord." the two broke out in giggles as they walked towards the exit, looking for the losers in the process.

"guys, wait up!" they heard someone call from behind them. they turned around to see bill and mike running towards them. bev smiled at bill, and richie took it upon himself to cause a scene for his greeting.

"billiam billard denbrough and michael mikey mouse hanlon? what an honor it is to finally meet thee!" richie yelled throughout the hallway, earning several judgmental and annoyed glances, a long with a string of whispers. bill chuckled, rolling his eyes and mike smiled, clearly embarrassed.

the four walked through the halls in search for stan, ben, and eddie, who all three had their seventh period in a different hallway.

they ended up meeting them outside where they were getting onto their bikes. richie hopped onto his bike and waited beside eddie, who was impatiently waiting on the others.

"come on!" eddie groaned, earning a slap on the back of the head from stan.

"quit being so impatient."

eddie rolled his eyes and rode off, probably had to get home to ms k or something. richie sighed and waited for everyone to get situated, and off they went. richie had zoned out during most of the conversation, again, thinking about fire. they reached the area where some of them would split off, and he turned to the right, saying his goodbyes to everyone.

as he rode his bike down the road, he looked around his street. he'd had another disturbing image of a fire massacre, this time with his street, while riding home from school. he arrived at his house and dropped his bike around the driveway. he walked up to the door, opening it and gagging at the smell of alcohol and sweat.

he saw maggie sitting on the couch, chugging down some kind of alcohol, straight from the bottle. he rolled his eyes and a question popped into his head. "do we have any candles?" it seemed to take maggie five minutes for the question to actually register, but once it did she shrugged and continued to down the bottle.

richie sighed and went into the kitchen, searching for some candles and matches. better yet a lighter. he had his own cigarette lighter, of course, but he didn't want to risk his drunken mother spotting it. he already knew for a fact the moment went stepped in the house he was getting beat if maggie saw him bring a candle to hit room.

though, he could just go. she hardly pays attention to him. and she's drunk as hell. but he chose not to risk it. he was already getting too many questions asked about showing less skin and various noticeable bruises around his body. didn't want to make it worse.

he looked around for a while until he opened a drawer to the right of the stove and found a small scented candle and a black candle lighter. he carefully grabbed the two and snuck around to the dining table, hoping he wasn't seen by maggie. he sat down quietly and lit the candle, holding back a wince as it snapped loudly. nothing. richie bit back a curse. he snapped the lighter again, begging it to light, and there was a small, bright flame. he carefully lit the candle and hurried to put the lighter back, hastily going back to the dining table.

he laid his head on his arms and watched the flame. he must have zoned out because, next thing he knew, there was a firm hand grasped tightly around his arm, and he was pulled out of the chair.

tw on next chapter yesyes