Summer of '93 - Stozier

9

"You feelin' okay, Rich?"

Richie was vaguely aware of Bevs voice in his ears.  It was Friday, a few days after the worst nightmare he'd ever had. The time was currently 3:27pm and Richie had gotten detention for not doing his homework.

He turned his head to look at her- immediately regretting it because the action made him a bit nauseous. He flashed her the best smile he could muster and nodded. "Yeah, i'm great, why?"

"Its just.. you look a bit.." Beverly paused to think of the right word.

"Ugly?" Richie joked, laughing a little.

"Dead." A student spoke from behind him.

Bev turned and glared at the boy before turning back to Richie. "Tired." She corrected both of them. "You look tired. You been sleeping okay?" She asked, concern in her voice. Richie didn't know she knew about his nightmares.

" 'm fine, Bevvie! Don't- Don't worry about me, its fine!" Richie nodded, again, making himself feel nauseous. "Just gotta get over with this detention."

Bev nodded, not believing him, but she knew if Richie didn't want to talk about it, there was no use pestering him.

He scanned his eyes over the textbook he was supposed to be studying from, reading a sentence he was sure he'd read a million times before, but his brain wouldn't- for the life of him- process the words.

To tell you the truth, Richie hadn't been sleeping okay at all. He couldn't. Every time he shut his eyes for more than two minutes, his nightmares would replay in his mind. It was like a VHS tape stuck in VCR player.

He'd slept, at most, a total of thirty minutes in the past four days, each time he fell asleep, he'd wake up nearly ten minutes later in the middle and of the night, in a cold sweat and panting, unable to fall back asleep for the rest of the night. He'd been barely surviving on a few cups of coffee a day. The lack of sleep made it hard to concentrate on any in any of his classes, his brain just a pile of mush in his head, unable to process anything he was to read or listen to.

No one had really noticed, though, and if they did, they never gave it a second thought. Not even Stan had realised that Richie hadn't been his usually vibrant self. He was paler than usual too, spending most of his time inside because moving too much made him dizzy and too much noise hurt his head.

Richie hadn't realised how long he'd been zoned out for, but the next thing he knew, Bev was tapping his shoulder and telling him that detention was over.

Bev had also been in detention for not doing her homework, but she hadn't done it just because she didn't want to. Richie didn't do his homework because- well- he honestly couldn't. He barely had the energy to lift his pencil, not to mention the effort it took just to fill in his name.

Bev had pulled Richie along with her out to the front of the school. Mike and Ben were casually conversing, leaning against Mikes pale blue pickup truck.

"Hey Bev!" Ben had smiled as both Richie and Beverly walked over to the truck.

"Micycle, Bennifer." Richie greeted them both, willing away a yawn.

"You okay, Rich?" Mike asked, the concern in his voice making Richie cringe a little (you're worrying them, idiot).

"Uh- 'm fine, Mikey." Richie put on a forced grin. "Nothin' to worry about."

Ben, Mike and Bev shared concerned glances.

"C'mon! Are we leaving this hell hole or what?" Richie sort of yelled, the volume hurting his head a little.

The other three shrugged and got into the car, Mike in the driver seat, Bev in the passenger seat and Richie and Ben in the back.

Richie had zoned out for a while again and they were now driving down Main St. past Richies house.

"Uh, Mike? We- uh- We past my house.." Richie began to drum his fingers against his jeans as he spoke. "But its fine! You can just let me out here and i'll walk.."

"No, Rich, we're hanging at Mikes house today, remember? We talked about it at lunch?" Ben informed him.

To be fair, Richie was too focused on staying awake rather than the actual conversation. "Fuck.. yeah, totally slipped my mind." He laughed a little awkwardly. "Just us?"

"Yeah," Mike nodded, looking at Richie from the rear view mirror. "Eddie has a doctors appointment, Bill has speech therapy, and Stans with his girlfriend."

"Again." Beverly whispered, annoyed.

"Aw, c'mon, Bev! Its his first girlfriend! Let him spend time with her!" Ben chuckled.

"Okay, but he doesn't have to spend all his time with her-"

Richie sat back against his seat and stared out of the window, ignoring the conversation.

•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•

"Okay! What are we gonna watch?" Bev asked, sitting herself down in the pillow fort they had made in Mikes living-room, next to Ben.

Richie squirmed around from his spot at the other side of Ben, trying to keep himself awake.

"Lets watch a Disney movie!" Ben clapped his hands together in excitement.

"We're not nine years old, Ben!" Bev giggled.

"I wanna watch a Disney movie!" Mike cheered, sitting down beside Richie in the fort, holding a bag of popcorn, some skittles and sour patch kids.

"Nooo lets watch Scream!" Bev whined.

"Okay, lets vote." Mike shrugged. "Raise your hand if you wanna watch Scream."

Only Beverly raised her hand.

Bev gasped dramatically. "Richard Tozier!"

"Hm?" Richie hummed, half zoned out.

"You don't wanna watch Scream?" She sort of laughed.

"Hm." Richie hummed again, shrugging.

"We're watching Bambi!" Mike declared, putting the Bambi VHS into the VCR.

•*•*•*•*•*•*•

They were already half way through the movie when Richie realised he had no idea what was going on, Because- well- he hadn't been paying attention. He'd been too focused on staying awake.

His eyelids felt heavy and so did most of his body. He was exhausted. Richie didn't really know when but at some point during the movie he had let his head drop onto Mikes shoulder.

A few moments later, Richie had allowed his eyes to flutter closed for just a little too long.

•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•

The movie was almost over now.

"Rich, pass me the popcorn." Beverly whispered, eyes focused on the screen.

No reply.

"Richie? Pass me-" Bev turned her head to look at him, but closed her mouth when she realised he was asleep. She smiled a little. He looked so peaceful for the first time in weeks. "Mikey." She whispered.

"Yeah?" Mike asked, turning his head to look at her.

"Sh!" Bev shushed him. "Take of his glasses, they're gonna hurt him." She whispered, nodding towards Richie.

Mike looked down at Richie- well- as best as he could with the boys head on his shoulder. "Oh." He whispered and gently removed Richies coke bottle framed glasses. He folded them and placed them on the floor.

"Sleep well, Trashmouth." Ben whispered, chuckling a little, before directing his attention back to the TV.

•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•
hMMmMm
its chosen jacobs birthday omg hes so OLD-
19!!!!2!3!!:!:'&:&:'fnns
h e h . . . o l d m a n 😏
I CANNOT BELIEVE DIS MAN IS 19!!!!!!!
they grow up so fast 🤧🥺