adjectives | reddie

thirty&five - enamored

stan's fingers wrapped around the handle between the microphone and the speaker while bill played with the curly wire that connected it to the wall. the rolling of his eyes and impatient tapping of his feet made it obvious that he didn't want to listen to the woman on the other line. he had to call his mom from richie's house to ensure that he would still be show up for worship the next day.

"yes mom," he said; his voice was bored, monotone: "yes, bill will be joining us again... i know it's the third time this month!... okay mom, i know... love you too.. bye." he slammed the phone on the wall and sighed deeply. he stomped over to the couch and landed on the end of it carelessly. bill followed suit and sat beside him, leaning on his boyfriend's shoulder with a smile.

"your dad doesn't luh-luhl-like me," bill smiled, not seeming to mind the statement he made.

bill had always been somewhat of a menace in the eyes of the uris'. however, they also recognized that stuttering bill was one of the only people that looked past their son's religion. all they wanted was a nice jewish girl to somehow appear and be the girl stanley would marry, but, unfortunately or fortunately, bill was all that would be on stanley's mind.

no one could tell if stanley's parents knew. it seemed like a 'don't ask don't tell' kind of situation from an outside perspective; there was no need to wonder, but there was no need to know, for either of those would end horribly.

stanley had laughed sourly at bill's remark, looking down at their hands that slowly intertwined. "we need to find the book," he looked up at me, "he's not getting a low mark just because i lost the textbook." stanley had lost bill's biology textbook while at the library. he had gone to the library to scan the new variety of books that had been stocked. however, while clearing out all of the library books in his backpack, he had taken out bill's biology book, supposedly. bill had given stanley his book in order for stanley to read the section on birds.

"don't feel bad stan," richie reassured from a chair, "i'm sure the librarian still has it."

"i hope."

—

the four of us stood awkwardly in front of the librarian, who was sorting through expired or lost library cards. none of us wanted to speak up, but someone had to. stanley and i both looked at richie, deciding that he, with his loud personality, was the best candidate to speak up. however, he shook his head violently, not wanting to be the one to bother the lady. it was no shock that the librarian never liked richie. richie had told us the story of when he was kicked out of the library during a third grade field trip to the old place. he had yelled and played around instead of quietly finding a book to read.

"yes boys?" the lady looked between all of us, no ounce of patience in her voice, "how can i help you?"

"um," richie began, finally giving in to stanley and i, "we were wondering if there was a missing biology textbook left here in the past week."

she thought for a moment, looking over at the disorganized stacks of books. when she turned around, she spoke again, "unfortunately, i had put away any educational books." stanley sighed sadly.

guilty

i looked back at the librarian with a pleading look, "do you know where we could find one?" there was a long pause as she thought again. the library, for a small town, was pretty large. however, it was not large enough for one person who worked there to be totally confused by it. the lady clicked her tongue, as if she was thinking deeply enough to not hear the annoying sound she was making. or, perhaps, maybe the repeated clicking would finally make something click in her brain.