timing : stozier

66

april 24/25

a/n: hello..... very short chapter...... goodbye.......

richie had been staying at stanley's for about two weeks, and stanley had been relearning richie's habits. richie started drinking coffee, and he became more talkative.

getting used to richie's habits were a little strange (and a lot nostalgic) for stanley. he felt like he was 16 again. which is why it was even stranger when richie came home from work late and something had changed. he didn't kick his shoes off and sit on the corner of the couch. instead, he walked right past stanley and shut his door.

maybe he was just having a bad day. 

for some reason, stanley knew something was wrong. 

he gave him around fifteen minutes, and then got up and walked over to richie's door. he knocked softly and waited. he got no response, so he knocked one more time, which elicited richie making a noise that may or may not have been a "what?"

"can i come in?" stanley asked, standing close to the door, his hand on the doorknob.

"yeah" richie grumbled. 

stanley opened the door and slowly stepped inside.

richie was lying in bed, underneath the covers, his shoes and jeans kicked off to the side of the room. stanley would've thought richie was asleep if he hadn't already heard him talking. 

"sleeping early?" stanley asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"i went to axel's." 

stanley went silent, richie keeping his eyes closed.

after a moment of silence, stanley looked at richie, "why?"

"to break up with him. i know that, like, i punched him in the fucking face and clearly didn't want to be with him anymore, but he still had some of my shit and i wanted it back." richie sighed, rolling his face further into the pillow. 

"what happened?" stan was assuming something had happened, because he hadn't remembered richie walking through the door with anything in his arms. 

richie finally opened his eyes, "he got me back" one of richie's eyes was red, entirely bloodshot on one side. it was lightly bruised.

"richie, i'm gonna fucking kill him" stanley said, still talking surprisingly softly. he placed his fingertips on the edge of richie's face, pushing his head further upwards so stanley could see all of richie's face. richie exhaled through his nose.

"go ahead." richie deadpanned. he leaned into the touch of stanley's fingers, so much so that the cold palm of stanley's made contact with his cheek. 

"what... what can i do for you?" stanley asked, letting go of richie's face. 

"i don't know. nothing. it's fine. i'm just gonna.... i don't know. i'm gonna spend the rest of the day sleeping, or something." richie mumbled, stanley putting his hands in his lap. there was a moment of silence.

"i'll get you an ice pack, rich," stanley said, standing up. he walked to the door and he heard richie mumble something else. he turned, raising an eyebrow, "hmm?" 

"thanks, staniel. for, uh, for everything." richie repeated. stanley smiled. richie smiled back.