stozier

Chapter Seventeen

 By the time we ate breakfast the morning after the sleepover, pretty much everyone knew that Stanley and I had gotten together.

It was really hard to hide things, especially with five other people around us the whole time, but we almost made it all night until Beverly started teasing Stanley, trying to get the truth out of him, and he cracked under pressure. I wasn't mad at him, though. I could never be mad at him.

We sat at the dining room table, everyone eating waffles normally with a plate and knives and forks. I folded my waffle up in my hand, though, and added syrup as I went. No point in wasting perfectly clean dishes. I wasn't listening to whatever Eddie, Mike, Beverly and Bill were saying, instead caught up in staring at Stanley's face, but I could tell they weren't talking about anything too serious. Stanley's mom was thankfully out of the kitchen, after telling us earlier to just throw the frozen waffles in the toaster, as if we didn't know any better. I guessed that was my fault, but I really wasn't as stupid as I pretended to be in her class.

"Okay! That's it, we take a vote." Beverly looked across the dining room table at the rest of us, those who weren't involved in the discussion- me, Stanley, and Ben. "Raise your hand if you agree," she said, without much other context.

Mike read the confusion on my face and added, "Our group name is the Losers' Club. If you don't like it, don't raise your hand."

It didn't sound too dumb, and I wasn't in the right headspace to think of anything else, so I rose my hand and finished my third waffle in a row, my right hand remaining sticky and waffleless. Stanley shrugged, raised his hand and looked at me. Everyone had their hands up.

"Okay. We're the Losers' Club," Beverly smiled.

They broke into conversation once again as I stood up to throw another waffle in the toaster. I put one in and pulled the slider down, putting the timer on four. I wasn't sure if that was actually a timer, or why there were options up to seven and eight if the waffle burned at 5, but that wasn't my problem. As I waited, I leaned against the counter and stared at them quietly, a smile on my face.

That was when I finally realized I loved them. Every single one of them, including Bill.

Stanley was right to bring us all together.