"holy fuck just choose a sweater," beverly sighed, but it wasn't really in exasperation. stanley rolled his eyes at her anyway, and chose the black sweater. he pulled the sweater over his head and mumbled something beverly couldn't make out, "what?"
"it's not like you won't be making out with bill the whole time, i can take my sweet time." stanley repeated, and beverly seemed to droop a little. she sat down in his desk chair and sighed through her nose. stanley turned his full attention to her.
"bill and i broke up, actually. four days ago." stanley's mouth dropped. "we want different things. i also didn't tell anyone yet so, it'll probably come out tonight. i don't know about bill." beverly mused, fiddling with her fingernails.
"i'm so sorry, uh," stanley said, "i know you just said you want different things but, what happened?" he was probably pushing his luck asking this of her, but if sober beverly didn't tell him, drunk beverly would. she got rather easy to talk to when drunk.
"uh, i was just thinking about what i said to you, about kissing him feeling really right, and i realized it wasn't like that anymore. there's no real animosity between us, i don't think." beverly rubbed her fingernails together, making a strange noise.
"well. uh, i'm very sorry." stanley truly had no idea what to say. he'd never been the first to get break up news from anyone except richie.
"it's okay. anyway, everyone's waiting in the car. get your damn keys and let's go." beverly stood up again and opened his bedroom door, ushering stanley out.
"hey! hey! i'm going, jesus," stanley hopped out of his room and shut the door.
they ran down the stairs and only stopped at the front door, where stanley's mom stood to the side.
"you two have fun at richie's tonight, okay?" stanley's mom was under the impression the two of them were carpooling to richie's where they'd have a sleepover. except for beverly, of course.
"we will! thank you mrs. uris," beverly and stanley were already out the door when beverly spoke, and then the door was shut. stanley fiddled with the key when he heard richie shout.
"what took you two so long?! i'm dying here!" richie himself was sitting in the car, window down in the backseat. beverly laughed a little, and stanley rolled his eyes.
"you have to sit with him. so sorry 'bout that." beverly told stanley as the two walked to the car. they opened the door and stanley jammed in next to richie, beverly sitting next to ben in the front seat. mike uttered a hello from the back seat, next to bill. eddie sat next to richie on the other side.
"for the record, this is so illegal. i know we do this every time, but it is so illegal for this many passengers to be in here when ben doesn't even have his full license yet," eddie started, nattering on as the other losers exchanged looks. they loved eddie, just sometimes he was a lot to deal with.
stanley looked briefly at richie, who appeared to be napping, even in the absence of silence. as if he hadn't yelled at stanley a minute ago, he laid back with his eyes shut peacefully. stanley decided then that maybe richie was more than handsome. richie was pretty. he'd never seen a guy as particularly pretty, but richie in this moment was really pretty.
the car started and richie's hand tensed, as if he was driving it. stanley put a hand on richie's shoulders and his eyes opened, looking straight forward, shocked. he blinked several times and turned his head to stanley, who took his hand off of richie.
"are you okay?" stanley mouthed, richie nodding and biting his thumb nail.
