timing : stozier

33

june 15/16

that is not a typo, one year has passed !!

i know i'm being a bad influence and writing about these teenagers doing 'illegal' things please don't do them i'm sorry !!! stay in school and don't do drugs !! 😩 (and if you do drugs do them responsibly and safely !)

within one year, honestly, not much had changed. ben and mike were still together, although richie believed it was more for ben than for the both of them. bill and eddie had never talked about the kiss again, and it never 'naturally' happened. stanley and richie were 'together' in private, and just flirting friends in public. beverly had had two girlfriends, but neither worked out for very long. bill never asked stanley about richie again. the show had gone incredible, and stanley had repressed all of his jealous feelings about richie kissing max. it was nice when richie came offstage after bows and quickly kissed stan backstage, though.

and yeah, there had been small dramas and moments of uncomfort, but by the end of their sophomore year (tenth grade, year 11) they were back to normal. a couple extra friends had come and gone, but the seven of them had stayed together the entire time.

on the last day of school, richie, stanley, bill, beverly, and ben all decided to skip their first block, socials. it was purely a sitting in day to catch up on work, and none of them had anything overdue. they had ended up in the forest near the school. they had jumped a fence, and found a roof of what appeared to be some sort of building. naturally, they were sitting up there. beverly was smoking a cigarette and was sharing it with bill (which thoroughly surprised ben and stan at first). mike and eddie had had art, and decided not to skip. mike had said he would join them during flex and sneak away, but eddie intended on not skipping at all.

"bill, you smoke?" ben asked, bill exhaling and coughing by accident. he nodded and shrugged.

"don't worry ben, me and rich aren't going to let him get addicted, right richie?" beverly turned to richie, who was intensely staring at the ground. stan, who was next to him, bumped him with his arm, and richie shook his head and looked up, confused. "me and you are not letting bill get addicted?" beverly repeated, richie nodding.

"can't have another teen in this town with a tobacco problem. we'll get him on those herbal cigs. that's the shit." richie joked, beverly snickering.

"it's... it's you and i... and rich and i... it doesn't matter, never mind." stanley quietly corrected beverly's past sentences, but stopped talking when bill and beverly looked at him weirdly.

"my bad, oh great grammar lord." beverly bowed from her sitting position, ben laughing and resetting the tone of the conversation. richie was back to staring at the ground, this time picking at his fingernails as well.

"so, bev, you were talking a-buh-bout something for af-fuh-futuh-ter school?" bill brought up a different conversation, beverly smirking and nodding.

"i got them from a good boot, his dealers are normally trustworthy, but yeah, i got some edibles. they're not a lot, but it should be at least a little fun. and nobody is being forced to take them. if you don't wanna, you don't have to." she was looking at stanley, who nodded along.

richie's eyes flickered up, "yeah, someone else can have my share. i don't want any." he said, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket. beverly furrowed her eyebrows.

"how are yuh-you wearing a jacket? i'm fucking sweating m-my balls off." bill asked, motioning to the jacket. bill's upturned eyebrows and expression made everyone look to richie, who was in fact wearing a zip up jacket.

"sorry, bill, what balls?" richie replied, earning a grimace from bill,

"yeah, i walked into that one. my b-uh-buh-bad." bill sighed, sitting back on his hands.