quiet | stenbrough ✔️

terribly bland vanilla

CH. 35 | TERRIBLY BLAND VANILLA
"when I close my eyes,
all the stars align.
and you are by my side."
— once in a lifetime

so your dad knows?, bill wrote in his current notebook, bill's writing messily scribbled on, but stan didn't care much.

they were both seated in stan's car outside of the best ice cream shop in town. derry scoops, the shop was called. very inventive.

the two seventeen year olds were supposed to be meeting some of the losers club here after school, but stan and bill's statistics class was canceled, so they got out of school early. hence getting to derry scoops before everyone else.

it gave bill memories of coming to the same place with beverly only a few months before. how she kissed him and told him she was trying to figure herself out. identity crisis, bill had informed stanley.

"yeah, he knows. i think he's cool with it. but i'm just waiting for the breaking point, y'know? he's got the worst temper sometimes." stan scuffed, turning in the driver seat to face bill, who had been turned as well in his seat.

"i want to ask you a few questions," stan said after a moment of comfortable silence, and bill furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "no, this isn't an interrogation," stan laughed, answering bill's question in his head.

"oh, c'mon. we got to this ice cream place like twenty minutes before anyone else is gonna show up, we might as well waste our time away."

"so... what was your first kiss like?" stan asked in a laugh, wiggling his eyebrows, and bill rolled his eyes before pulling out his notebook and setting it on his lap.

5th grade. levi jones. it sucked. he tried to eat my face in the school bathroom 'cuz he found out i was gay. why are you asking? we aren't 12-year-old girls, bill wrote and showed it to stan, who laughed and placed it back on bill's lap.

"well, that was boring," stan said.

bill put on an offended expression.

stan sighed. "i guess i should've asked a more exciting question. have you ever been in love? before yours truly," stan huffed out, making bill flush red a bit.

bill shook my head.

"my god. who gets to seventeen without falling in or making love? you didn't have a middle school crush who you thought you were in love with? i thought everyone went through that stage."

the mute boy shrugged. what was there to say?

"well, this romantic angle is proving entirely fruitless. family, then. what's with your mom?"

that's kinda hard for me to talk about.

"well, i've told you all my secrets. it's only fair you give me something of yours. besides, if you're going to be a writer, you have to be able to talk about the deep stuff. you said you wanted to be a writer, right?"

fine. i'll try.

"take your time."

bill decided not to overthink it. he'd just set down the facts as he remembered them. to let too much emotional stuff in would result in an awkward afternoon ice cream hang out, which bill was not keen on making a reality.

my mom and dad loved each other. i know that much. but that's probably the best you could say for them. they loved each other like the ocean loves the shoreline-eating away at it, little by little, day after day. they loved each other like the sunlight that makes the plants grow, then scorches the leaves and bakes the moisture from the earth. they loved each other like the seagulls love the bronze statue they're always shitting all over.