stozier

Chapter Ten

 A month passed, and then I started to question myself.

It was clear that, at this point, I definitely had a crush or some sort of obsession with Richie Tozier. But was it too much? Was I bordering on stalker, like that one show You?

Even after considering this, I couldn't just try to tune him out or stop thinking about him. He was far too loud, and he was everywhere that I was, all the time. Or maybe I was just everywhere he was. I didn't follow him around after school to his house. I didn't sneak in his room and smell his underwear. I didn't steal his phone and go through all of his text messages. But watching him and keeping tabs on everyone he interacted with started to feel a little wrong, especially for such a long amount of time.

Then I found out something else about Richie.

I was walking to the office before lunch, my mind on him again. Luckily my grades weren't slipping, but it was like he was inside my mind all of the time. I was going to turn in a note for missing a day of school, but then I passed the nurses office and saw him.

The nurse was giving him something, and then it all clicked. ADHD medicine.

He wasn't meeting up with someone in secret. He wasn't skipping or doing drugs or sneaking into classrooms during the times he was late for lunch. Richie was just taking ADHD medicine.

I kept walking and turned my note into the basket. So much for that.

-

The day after winter break, when everyone finally returned to school, I was surprised to find that Richie and Kaitlyn were still together. That would make two months, two solid months of Richie actually keeping a relationship with someone. I considered that maybe they were good for each other. I knew they wouldn't stay together, not through high school and definitely not forever, but maybe their relationship was a good thing. She was giving him stability, something none of his past boyfriends or girlfriends had. Maybe he picked a good one.

Richie joined concert band, which wasn't something I ever expected him to do. He switched his schedule halfway through the year to join his girlfriend, even though band wasn't a semester class and it went on for a full year. He picked Trombone, which was good because we didn't have a lot of low brass. but also bad because that meant he was behind me all the time. I couldn't watch him during class or keep an eye on him, but I could hear him, which helped a lot. I played Clarinet, sharing the second row with the Saxophones. I was grateful to hear his conversations, though, because him and Mike talked a lot. Mike played Trombone too, and they goofed off nearly every time they weren't playing. Everyone around the two of them was sick of it, but not me.

I could, however, keep tabs on his girlfriend, who sat right in front of me because she was a Flute. She had a small group of friends that sat around her, and they talked nearly as much as Mike and Richie did, but not as loud. Whenever I listened to them, I never heard anything bad about Richie. All good things.

I feared they would be together until the school year ended. I wanted to be with Richie, and I knew I wouldn't have three classes with him next year like I did this year. With my Clarinet in my lap, I sat back and listened to Richie and Mike's conversation, coming to the conclusion that if I wanted to make a move or become friends with him, I needed to do it fast. Fast, before the school year ended.

It was only January, which meant I had until May to talk to him.

Little did I know, my chance would come sooner than I ever expected.