timing : stozier

64

april 24/25

stanley woke up at, he approximated, 7 am to a loud knocking on his door. this wasn't unusual, a lot of salesmen went through his apartment building, and sometimes eddie would come and scream at him about something in the morning ("a phone call just.. you can't see my face! my anger!"). all in all, he wasn't that concerned.

that being said, when the knocking got increasingly louder, and less time between breaks of knocks, he figured he should probably get up. he shuffled out of bed and put on a cardigan, thinking about making a pot of tea. he walked to the door, the knocking incessant, and he looked through the peephole and froze. 

slowly, he unlocked the door, coming face to face with axel.

"good morn-" stanley started, interrupted by axel pushing the door and entering his apartment. 

"where is he?" axel asked, as if stanley was a mind-reader. truth be told, though, stanley figured he could guess who axel was talking about. stanley's mind was racing, and he did not like the tone of axel's voice nor the implications of richie having disappeared.

"who? richie? i have no clue." stanley responded calmly. axel did not like this response, clearly.

"where is he? i know he's here" axel demanded, walking into the other rooms of stanley's apartment. stanley, half asleep and very groggy, walked over to his counter, putting an electric kettle on.

"he's not here, axel, i'm sorry. i don't know where he is, honestly." stanley said loudly.

"look, i'm not a fucking idiot. i know you have a thing for him, okay? and i know that if he'd go anywhere, he'd come here. so just fucking tell me where he is, alright? he..." axel trailed off, thinking for a moment, "he relapsed again, and i just need to take him home." axel's entire tone changed, and while stanley was not, as previously mentioned, a mind reader, he could tell axel might be lying. stanley was also coming to grips with the fact that axel had caught on to stanley's feelings, but he supposed that wasn't that strange.

stanley didn't let himself panic outwardly at the idea of richie relapsing. "he's not here. get out." 

"what did you say to me?" axel growled, stanley withholding a roll of his eyes. 

stanley, honestly, isn't scared by much these days. not in terms of people, anyway. axel was clearly a dick, and stan had had his fair share of henry bowers and tristans as a kid. and maybe he was giving axel more credit than he deserved, but he really didn't think axel would beat up stanley right now.

"i don't know where he is. now get out of my apartment." stanley restated, just as calmly.

axel narrowed his eyes at stanley, but he stormed out of the apartment. after stanley closed the door, he basked in the silence for a moment, his ears ringing violently. sighing through his nose, he wandered back to the kettle, which had boiled, and made himself a cup of green tea.

afterwards, he went back to his bedroom, and his phone rang before he ever hit the desk. he glanced at it briefly. how many people were awake at 7 am on a saturday? 

bill is calling...

"hello," stanley decided to answer, figuring it was probably something important if bill was calling him so early. as far as he knew, bill didn't wake up before 8 if he didn't have to.

"hi, stan." you could say stanley was a little confused. rather than bill's voice coming through the receiver, he heard richie's. 

"richie...?" stanley slowly asked, tapping his hand as he sat down at his desk. 

"yeah. um, can you come to bill and eddie's today? also, sorry for calling from bill's phone. i left my phone at home and i know bill's password. it's 3333, incase you cared. anyway, uh, yeah." richie continued, and stanley settled into his seat. he snickered a little, everyone seemed to know bill's password because eddie cussed him out for it ("you're going to get hacked and i'm not going to save you" "okay but theoretically you could save me from a h-hacker?" "maybe") quite a bit.

"um, yeah, for sure. are you okay?" stanley hesitated asking the question, because it was rather vague, and stanley could guess the answer, anyway. there was silence from the other end for a moment.

"not really. i... i'll tell you when you get here, okay?" richie replied meekly.

"sounds good. see you soon, rich." stanley said, taking a sip of his tea (which he would have to speed-drink, he decided). richie made a small noise that stan couldn't discern.

"see ya, stan."