timing : stozier

46

december 23/24

"stan, where are you going?" patty asked, drowsily reaching out for stanley. stan, fully dressed with sunglasses on in the middle of winter, sighed. 

"i forgot i told i'd meet mike for coffee this morning. i have to go. you can stay here if you want, but you know where the spare keys are. hangover cure in the kitchen. thanks for getting drunk with me yesterday. i'll see ya, patty," stanley explained, making his way to the front door. 

she followed him, raising an eyebrow, "hangover glasses?"

"hangover glasses." he answered, fluffing the collar of his jacket. he pulled a scarf off of the coat-rack and let it land around his shoulders loosely. patty, who was clearly still feeling the effects of the past night, reached her arms out. stan chuckled, and gave her a hug. 

"see you later, stan," she mumbled into his jacket, him smiling and walking out of the apartment. 

he pulled the scarf over his shoulders properly, checking in his pockets for his phone, keys, and wallet. he travelled down the stairs of the apartment, doing the small hop we all do to get down steep stairs. his one hand ghosted over the handrail, the other in his pocket. he inhaled through his mouth and took note of how cold and crisp the air was. 

he stepped into his car, humming a song to himself. the song was eerily familiar to him, but he assumed he had simply heard it on the radio. speaking of, starting the car, the radio blared up, stan wincing and turning the volume down. he took his sunglasses off, checked his appearance in the car mirror, and got going. 

 he parked on the side of the street, parallel parking. he was honestly never good at that, he never really had anyone teach him how to drive as a teenager. instead, he was given something to drive, and a test to go to. he survived, though. he had studied the book intensely, so he felt like he was an adequate, if not good, driver. getting out of the car, he counted his steps to the door, just to have something to focus on. 23. not stanley's favourite number, but that was alright. 

he opened the door and heard the bell ring, looking up to see it attached to the door. his phone buzzed in his pocket, and he took it out. his mood dropped. 

mike: hey man i'm really sorry i can't make it this morning

stanley: no worries, rain check?

mike: rain check. 

stanley sighed, already there, and still pretty tired. he decided he'd get coffee anyway, leave patty to her own devices, and sit by himself. he got in line, already knowing what he'd order. he waited in line patiently, observing the patrons around him. there were several couples in booths and at tables, and stanley felt a little embarrassed that he was going to be sitting alone. he glanced and saw another man alone in a booth though, so maybe it would be alright. stanley felt a weird feeling in his stomach, and a strangle bubble in his throat. 

"good morning, what can i get you?" the employee asked, stan having made it to the front of the line without noticing. stanley shook his head and blinked rapidly. 

"uh, a black coffee with 2 milk and 1 sugar," stanley recited by habit, feeling so nervous. why was he nervous? he swallowed the gut feeling and got out his wallet, fumbling around for cash. 

"you can wait for it over there," the employee mumbled, roughly pointing in some direction. stanley wandered over there and put his back against the counter for just a moment, to calm himself down. 

his eyes followed his thoughts to the man sitting alone. only keeping his eyes on him for 2 seconds, stanley whipped his head around, feeling himself freeze up. the explanation was now upon him, why he felt nervous. no way. no-fucking-way. 

"no, please, axe-alright. i'll... yeah, i'll see you tonight." the man was on the phone, sighing in defeat. a small smile appeared on his face as he mumbled something to the phone, and then put it down. 

"now or never, right?"  stanley thought, "now or never."

i promise, we will find our way back to each other.

"coffee for stanley?" the coffee came right on time, and stanley essentially scooped it out of the barista's hands. gathering his courage, he approached the man sitting alone. 

"can i sit here, richie?" stanley felt his face get warm at just saying his name. richie looked up, and his mouth opened a little in awe. stanley watched his ears redden, and richie pulled his hair in front of his ears as best he could. 

"uh, stanley, wow, hi, yeah," richie replied, all the memories of the past in his head. he... he had forgotten about derry, honestly. moving to canada had been a restart, and it reset his brain, too. 

"hi. i didn't know you lived in syracuse," stanley started, so many things to say, trying to keep his cool. he slid into the other side of the booth and tapped his foot underneath the table nervously. richie nodded.

"i... yeah, uh, i moved into an apartment a couple weeks ago. just a change of scenery from ontario, y'know..." richie trailed off. stanley nodded with understanding. 

"that's... that's cool. i moved here after university." stanley replied, thinking back to what hell university had been for him. honestly, meeting patty had been the only upside. 

"yeah... are you still friends with... y'know, the losers?" richie asked hesitantly, stanley pursing his lips. 

he nodded slowly, "yeah, i mean i talk to bill and mike the most, but we all get together once a year, except for ben, he moved to europe, so... we don't get to talk very often." stanley answered. he scratched the back of his neck. 

"oh," richie mulled over stan's words, "what about, like, selena?" he asked, having honestly forgotten about selena's existence until approximately 10 seconds ago. 

"so, right after you left, ben and mike broke up. it didn't make things too, too weird, but ben was a little heartbroken, so beverly comforted ben a lot. an-and that translated to selena getting jealous of ben, understandably, bev spent a lot of time with him. so anyway, it just spiralled down until selena came crying to bill one night and bill said some "do what's in your heart" bullshit and selena broke up with bev, and kind of stopped being apart of our friend group." stanley explained, hesitating to say losers. it was a cheesy friend group nickname, rather childish, and it had never really been the same after richie left.

"o-oh. christ, that's rough." richie looked down to the coffee he held cupped in both hands. he watched it carefully, steam leaking through the drinking hold of the lid.  "so like, other than that, what changed?" richie asked, tapping his fingers to watch the steam leave quicker. 

"um..." stanley mused over richie's question. everything, richie. everything changed after you left because you fucking abandoned us. "well eddie and bill are dating, if  i haven't mentioned that. they're sickeningly cute. uh, after you... y'know... a lot of people actually asked us where you went. greta was upset, apparently, because she wanted you as valedictorian. very surprising. instead we had mark delionne as valedictorian of our year. his speech sucked ass." stanley realized he was rambling. he stopped himself, afraid of what might slip out. he looked up to richie, "what... what about you?"

stan made eye contact with richie, and remembered every thing they had ever done in richie's bedroom. his breath hitched. and suddenly, he felt like leaning over the table. he didn't, though. he knew better. he always knew better.

"i went to a private boarding school, you know this. it was fine, i was righ--there were lots of gay boys, all boys-school bullshit. um, i kissed a couple boys, did some crime, failed a lot of my classes, typical richie bullshit." richie cause, shrugging.

richie put his cup down, and stanley's eyes glanced down to his hands. he was confused, for a second. although he tried to not let it show on his face, i guess he did, because richie cleared his throat.

"i'm, um, i'm engaged," richie put his hand out for stanley to see, the promise of forever around his left ring finger.