mint gum | stanley uris

two ~ stanley

It's 8th period, which means gym class, which means sitting on the bleachers listening to Richie ramble on about whatever he lost sleep over last night. Today he's talking about this girl Addison Allen, and the fact that he stayed up till 2am "thinking about her." I barely know who she is, but Eddie and Bill seem to know her from calculus. Richie says she's hot, but Richie thinks that anything with boobs is hot, and that includes the CPR dummy that took all of our first kisses in 6th grade.

"Holy shit, there she is!" Richie interrupts his rantish tone and shouts loud enough that the whole gym could hear it. Bill, Eddie, and I turn to our left and see two girls walking across the gym to where appears to be right at us. "Ladies!" Richie stands up on the bleachers and throws his hands in the air, talking in a fake frat-boy voice, something he perfected over the summer by watching Revenge Of The Nerds 20 times.

One of the girls starts to laugh, the other just looks up at Richie with a straight face. Looks like I'm no longer the only one who doesn't care for Richie's impressions. I turn to Bill, who is sitting beside me, also staring at the girls. "Which one is she?" I whisper in Bill's ear.

"What?" He doesn't break his focus on the girls.

"Which one is Richie dating?"

Bill finally looks at me, only for a split second though, then he turns back and thinks about a way to describe Richie's new girlfriend. "Uh, the tall one. Blonde." I then let my eyes drift back to the two girls who have almost reached the bleachers. The blonde is the one in the mini dress, the one that laughed at Richie. Her friend is wearing a floral skirt that goes down to her knees and a white tank top. I should've been able to tell which is Richie's just by their outfits, Richie would never go for a long skirt.

"Hey Rich, hey boys." The blonde, Addison, waves as she steps onto the bleachers. As she walks up to Richie she hugs him and he kisses her forehead, and her friend seems to be put off by this. "Oh, this is Lissy." Addison says after she notices her friend's uncomfortable expression.

"Hi Lissy!" Eddie smiles up at the girl from his seat. She kind of smiles at him, then proceeds to walk up the steps and sit in the empty row in front of Bill and me. Her arms are crossed, it's obvious she rather be anywhere else than in the gym with her friend's boyfriend and his friends. And I don't blame her, I'd rather be anywhere else too.

Addison and Richie start talking it up, Eddie and Bill somehow get involved by things they're interested being brought up. I don't join in though, I'm too busy watching Lissy. Though I can't see her face, I can tell when she cringes at something someone says due to her shoulders tensing. After seeing this tension occur three times, I decide to save her from listening to their babbling.

"Hey, I'm Stanley." I say as I hop down a row so I'm sitting next to her. She jumps a little, as if she forgot someone else was here.

"I know, you're the kid that always got 100 in chemistry last year." Holy shit, she knows who I am.

"Yeah. And you're the kid who always got called on because when you did your hair it looked like you were raising your hand." I smile, hoping she will too.

"Yeah." She doesn't smile.

A moment of silence falls between us, and at first I think it will stay like that for the rest of the period. But when Eddie's volume increases due to the mention of asthma, Lissy opens her mouth. "Did you just find out they're dating?" I nod, not thinking saying yeah again would be a good idea. "Me too." She says as a response to my nod.

I think of all the things I could say, and after thinking every option seems too weird, I settle. "It's kinda nice, you and Addison being here I mean. Sometimes I think we need to presence of a girl to make Richie a little less inappropriate."

She seems to like hearing this, because for the first time all day I get to see her smile, even though it was just for a second. "What about that Beverly girl?"

"Oh, Bev. Yeah she comes and goes. Depends on if her and Bill are on or off."

"They're one of those couples, huh?" She pauses, so I nod. "I've always been kind of confused by that. Like either be together or don't. No need to over complicate."

"I feel the same way." I turn to face her fully, my eyes widening due to the realization that this girl and I are really similar. She's still facing front, but I can tell by the way she shifts that she knows I'm looking at her.

"If Addison and Richie start pulling that bullshit I say we call them out. I don't want her dealing with that."

"Yeah, we'll call out the bullshit." As the final word leaves my mouth she turns to me, cracking a small grin. I don't know what it was that I said that made her smile, but I know that I want to do it again.