oblivion | stenbrough

four

[warnings; brief use of the word 'rape']

The next morning began with Eddie, Mike, and Ben knocking on his bedroom door. He rolled over in bed, shoving his face into his pillow. The knocking continued, accompanied by "Stan! Open up! We're so sorry!" but he continued to ignore the pleas of his friends. He rolled back in the opposite direction, cracking an eye open to reach out for his phone. He caught his reflection in the black screen, freshly washed hair unruly and tangled from a restless night of sleep.

The nightmares occurred on repeat for hours, waking him up almost every hour. He swore that he could feel the man's hands on him, branded into his skin. No amount of showers could wash that feeling away no matter how much he scrubbed. He brought his wrist up to his face, four finger shaped bruises around his wrist. His fingertips brushed over them lightly.

Stan turned the screen on and was met with 4 missed calls from Eddie, 5 texts, and surprisingly he also had 2 from Richie.

Eddie
I am so sorry

Eddie
Please answer your phone

Eddie
We're so worried! Please just let me know you're okay

Eddie
Stan please I'm freaking out here

Eddie
Fine, we're coming over tomorrow morning

Richard
Stan pick up the phone man! We're all worried
sick

Richard
I know we give each other shit but I care about u Stanley are u ok??

Stan knew they were concerned for him and after he completely shut them out, ignoring his phone all night he felt slightly guilty. The knocking and pleas continued on the other side of the door. After setting phone back down on the side-table he finally threw the covers off of his body, climbing out of bed quickly just before he tucked the comforter back under his mattress again and straightened out his pillow, centering it at the head of the bed and running his hand across the surface of the comforter to rid it of the wrinkles. Next to his phone was the unfolded sheet of paper that Bill had slipped into his pocket.

He had texted him late the night before but had yet to hear back. He tried not to worry over it, it was just Bill, but at the same time it wasn't. Nothing happened when Bill touched him and that's exactly what appealed to Stan the most. The only other person that he knew of that had that effect on him was Eddie but Stan had known him ever since the first grade.

He opened the door to his bedroom and they had their backs to the door. Eddie was the first to turn around, relief flushing his features as he threw his arms around Stan's shoulders, pulling back to place one hand on each side of his face, examining.

"Thank God you're okay! Did he hurt you?" Stan shook his head, an obvious lie but Eddie was already staring at his bruised wrist. Eddie partially blamed himself for it happening. He practically forced Stan to go to the party and let him just walk into the house. "I'm going to kill that fucking prick." Eddie swore, rage burning behind his eyes.

"It's not like he raped me." Stan said all nonchalant and Eddie glared at him.

"Don't fucking try to play this off like it was nothing, Stanley! Sexual assault is just as bad! What if no one had been there to stop this? You have to report this to the police." Ben and Mike came to stand next to Eddie in the small doorway. Stan closed his eyes as Eddie yelled. He wasn't telling Stan anything that he didn't already know.

"I know, Eddie. I am more than aware of what happened and what needs to happen. I don't need you telling me what I need to do." The tears were welling up in Stan's eyes again and so he turned his head away from them. "This was out of my control." He tilted his head back trying to keep himself from letting the tears fall and felt Eddie touch his arm.