Summer of '93 - Stozier

33

The next day at around 12:30pm, the losers had gathered at Richies house, confused as to why Richie wouldn't tell them why they had to come over.

His parents were out today, so they all made themselves comfortable in the small livingroom, Jenny and Bev on the loveseat, and the other four boys (Bill, Eddie, Mike, and Ben) all squished on the sofa.

Richie ran back down the hall for the fourth time, moving to stand in front of the coffee table. "Okay, good. You're all here." He nodded, speaking more to himself.

"You wanna tell us why we're here, Tozier?" Bev asked, moving forward a little to nudge his leg with her foot.

"Uhh.." Richie thought for a moment, biting his lip. He leaned down a little and grabbed both Mike and Bills hands, crossing them over Eddies chest and ignoring all of their confused expressions. "Use force if you have to." He only half joked. "Okay.. before you guys freak out-" He glanced down at Eddie. "Just- let 'em explain?" Richie gave no time for questions, sticking to fingers in his mouth and whistling loudly, almost as if he was calling a dog over.

They heard the floorboards creaking from the hall, unable to see the cause of the sound from where they were sitting but looking over nonetheless.

After a few impatient seconds, Richie sighed. "Oh for goodness sake, hurry up!"

They heard another loud sigh from down the hall, most of them furrowed their eyebrows in confusion. A second later, Stan emerged from the hallway, his head bowed, taking a single glance up at his (used-to-be) friends before moving to stand next to Richie.

"What. The fuck. Is he doing here?" Eddie growled, fists clenching, he went to stand up, Mike too confusing/shocked to remember what Richie had said, but Bill grabbed onto his shirt and pulled his struggling body down onto his lap, and restraining his arms by holding him in sort of a hug.

"Its f-fine, Eds. Let-let him explain." Bill spoke gently, despite the fact he looked almost as mad as Eddie.

All of the losers- except Bev- looked either angry or confused, before Richie cleared his throat, gathering their attention.

"Staniel," He began, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder. "The floor is yours." He nodded, backing away almost ominously.

Stan cleared his throat, keeping his head down, not daring to look anyone in the eyes. "Well.." He trailed off. He had gone over what he was going to say while he hid in the bathroom down the hall, but now his mind was blank.

"Get on with it." Bev broke the silence, resisting the urge to laugh.

Stan glanced up at Bev and was surprised to see that she looked almost amused. Then he glanced back at Richie, who gave a nod, as of to say either 'You can do this.' or 'Hurry the fuck up!'.. or both?

•*•*•*•*•*•*•

In the span of fifteen minutes, Stan had explained the whole situation to them, leaving out the part of what was actually on the photo, and giving suspicions looks to Bev who kept knowingly smirking at both him and Richie.

Bill had loosened his grip on Eddie, who took the chance to bounce up onto his feet, slowly walking up to Stan as everyone held their breath.