stozier

Chapter Seven

 The pattern continued.

By the next day, I pretty much assumed Richie and the biracial guy were over. It wasn't through rumors that I came to this conclusion.

It was Wednesday. Richie went through three different people in less than seven days. But now, there was a new person flirting with him in geometry. And I had to sit there and watch it happen, because I wasn't capable of talking to him myself. Why?

Another guy, and they were very openly flirting with each other, not bothering to hide it at all. Except this guy seemed more feminine. Maybe Richie didn't have a type at all. Maybe he took anyone he could get, and that was understandable.

Vivian started talking to me in biology. At first I thought she was using me for answers, which was perfectly fine by me, because that meant I got to listen to her trash-talk Richie.

"He's got, like, a new girl."

I blinked, because I was a little unaware of whatever girl he was flirting with this time. Maybe she was in a class I didn't share with him. But if he did have a girl, that meant he was cheating... right? Or was Richie just jokingly flirting with the guy in geometry and I didn't catch onto that? Richie's sense of humor was all over the place, and so were his relationships. He was a hard one to figure out, and the fact that he was flirting with a girl that I didn't even know about made me feel left out. There was way more to Richie than what I was seeing of him. He had so much more going on, five whole classes that I couldn't keep track of him in. We only shared two classes, plus lunch. There were millions of things I could've been unaware of, or just plain ignoring. How would I deal with this?

"Oh?" I asked, not wanting to give away the fact Richie was gay, or bi, or whatever. Maybe he was using girls to suppress it. I had no clue, and was at a loss at this point. Would anything become clear to me?

"Yup. She cut her hair short, I think... she's trying to be a guy or something. Honestly, what a downgrade from me. Dating a fucking tranny."

I nodded along, deciding not to call her out on all of the shitty things she just said. A trans guy. How shallow could Vivian be? Clearly Richie did have bad taste for dating this bitch, and that went to show how much better he was than her.

"Yeah. I don't even know why I dated him, at this point... like, he was way too clingy." She looked away from me and down at her paper, filling out a couple questions. I knew what she was doing. Making Richie look like a mistake, trying to get me to like her, to understand why she would date him and why that was a bad decision. I saw right through it.

I started working on my paper too, when she started to talk again. "I only cheated because, like, I didn't know how to break up with him. And I think I only started dating him because... I felt bad, maybe. Like this guy, complete stoner, just tries to strangle him, and then Richie asks me out the next school day? How do you say no without... feeling bad?"

There were a lot of things about Richie I had to piece together. Where was he going at lunch? Why was he dating such terrible people? But there was one thing I knew for sure.

Even though I knew I could find ways to use her, this bitch made my blood boil.

-

By lunch, it was official. Richie and the guy from geometry were dating, and he had taken Vivian's seat by the time I got out of the lunch line. Richie was late as usual, and again, I wondered where he went every day. I also felt bad for the new guy, considering all of his past relationships ended badly- or at least the ones I knew about. I wasn't sure how his thing with the soccer player ended, or if it ended at all. I couldn't imagine Richie cheating, though.

I heard someone say the new guy's name. Brandon. Theatre kid, trans. Gay. Again, what did Richie see in him? Or Vivian? Or Frank? As far as I knew, the only person that hadn't wronged him yet was the guy he was making out with, and I still wasn't sure they were split up yet. I didn't want to jump to conclusions, because Richie could be cheating after all.

"Y-You got a crush on him? Is that wh-what's h-happening here?" Bill asked, catching me off guard. I looked at him, visibly horrified, and he only laughed. "Don't worry. I c-cuh-could tell since yesterday, and I w-wuh-won't tell anyone."

I nodded, shifting uncomfortably in my seat. Was I that easy to read? I knew I would need to start making efforts to hide that I liked him, or I would be found out soon. By others, or Richie himself. I wasn't sure which would be worse.

Or maybe, since he was going through people so quickly, I needed to find a way to talk to him and show him that I wasn't as shitty as everyone else he dated. Or start talking to Beverly and Mike, which seemed like an easier task, because I wouldn't screw up much around the two of them as I would with Richie. Then maybe they would introduce me to him, assuming they weren't embarrassed of him. They weren't, they were good friends to him. Good people. I decided I would talk to Richie tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

But how?