- Chapter Sixteen - "You're not what I thought you'd be like."
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STANLEY HAD GOTTEN CHANGED.
Perhaps it had been too embarrassing for him to be in his pyjamas in the presence of Amanda just like she had been too embarrassed about her wounds. Nevertheless, he stood in front of her in his usual shirt tucked into his jeans, glass of water in hand and eyes wide. He looked a bit like a statue, constructed of clay and required a heavy force to move him.
There was a weighty silence in the room, one that neither of them really wanted to break. Amanda felt that she should say something, thank him for the glass of water but he hadn't actually passed it to her yet or put it down anywhere that she could grab. He just kind of...stood there. Stanley was waiting for her to break it too because he couldn't think of anything to say.
"You..." Amanda trailed off, cracking the thick pane of silence that had separated them as they stood opposite one another in his parent's bedroom. Not a word of conversation available to talk. "You have a very nice house."
"Thanks." Stanley said and stopped talking. Amanda smiled awkwardly, this time it was his fault she thought. But also it could potentially be hers. What was he meant to respond with to a compliment? He didn't strike her as the type who was complimented a lot.
At first glance, Amanda had thought Stanley would be a horrible bully and that his low popularity granted a scapegoat for him, but upon closer inspection she saw that he was just a little bit odd. Like she was. Her reasoning was that her first day in higher maths, Stanley had already been there and was glaring at the board like it had killed both of his parents.
That glare had transferred to Amanda as Mr. Jeffords introduced her to the class. Amanda had thought it had been because of her entrance, maybe it was just because of the exponential functions that had been scrawled on the blackboard.
Another contributing factor was that he was friends with the notorious Richie Tozier who had a big mouth and was a big gossip, especially about passers-by. Amanda had heard her name one too many times in the lunch queue, being judged by the lunch ladies were enough, but by Richie Tozier who was right behind her?
Therefore Stanley, in her mind, had been a big bully. But then again, all of the self-proclaimed losers had been. Now she was jumping into Quarry's with them and cleaning bloody bathrooms. And Stanley Uris was standing in front of her with a glass of water.
"Here's your water." He said, probably noticing Amanda's gaze at the glass that was filled almost to the top. Then the boy shuffled over to the dresser and placed it on the top, leaving it there as though it was bait for an animal.
Amanda picked up all of her clothes she had left in front of the mirror and cradled them in her arm before traipsing back over to the dresser and picking up the glass as Stanley shuffled back to his original position.
