quiet

fourteen

"i sense something strange in my mind"

☆

the group had swam for hours, playing games and telling folklore. richie and vanessa swam close to each other, richie's arm would occasionally be grabbed by vanessa when something underneath the water touches her. it's around midnight when they all gather their belongings and start to make their way back to their vehicles.

"aren't you glad you came?" richie softly asks vanessa, she nods happily while holding richie's wrist. "maybe we can do it again but just the two of us." richie prompts, earning the attention of ben and bill. "just the t-two of you?" bill questions, his eyebrows pulled together.

"they're probably going to make out or something." ben predicts causing fits of giggle from the group. "that's not a bad idea actually." richie shrugs, earning an eyeshot look from vanessa. richie laughs and throws an arm around her shoulder, "i'm kidding, chatterbox!"

"richie likes to take girls here when-" eddie is cut off by a harsh shove from richie. "don't touch me, your hand is fucking cold!" eddie responds, grimacing at richie who laughs. richie proceeds to shake eddie's shoulders, the coldness of his hands transferring through eddie. "quit it!" eddie slaps his hands away with vigor.

when richie waits for vanessa to catch up, he sees stan talking to her: expressing himself through hand movements and faces. richie comes to the conclusion that stan is trying to tell vanessa a joke.

"great joke, stan! mind sharing?" richie interrupts stan once again. if the look on stan's face could kill, richie is pretty sure he'd be dead by now. "can you back the hell off like seriously." richie's smirk dissolves immediately at the sentence. "well, no!"

chest puffed and eyes squinting, richie moves to get up-close to stan. their eyes are burning into one another, one with annoyance and the other with jealousy. "and why not? why is this an issue?" "never said it was." "really? then explain why you get upset when one of us talk to vanessa for longer than a minute."

richie lets out a belligerent laugh, fake wiping tears from his eyes. he didn't want to slap anyone as hard as stan in that moment, what the hell was he talking about? "if that's the joke then you're making it to the big leagues, player!" richie claps his hands pitifully.

"guys cut it out, c'mon." mike interferes, trying to peel the boys off each other.

"since day one you've been clinging to her like a damn dog. you get so jealous, almost threatened when someone tries to be nice to her. you're not her boyfriend, that's the joke for you." stan steps away from richie who is left speechless.

richie finally comes to terms that he is crushing on vanessa, crushing hard.