✓ | BETTER WITH YOU → richie tozier ³

fourteen

2 and a half years earlier

"RICHIE, JESUS you skipped another class today?"

Richie looked up from his cigarette, over at Stanley Uris.

He shrugged, and Stan put his head in his hands.

"You're gonna flunk out, Richie."

"I don't give a damn." Richie said, and Stan said, "Well, I do! She's fucking gone, Richie, and you need to fucking deal with it."

Richie slowly turned to look at him, the cigarette smoking ever so slightly. "What?"

Stan looked at him, his eyes narrowed. "Get over it. Get the hell over it!"

"Say that again!" Richie was on his feet, his face twisted. "Say it one more fucking time, I dare you."

They glared at each other, and then Stan turned away from him, throwing his keys onto the counter with a clatter.

It was silent for a couple of seconds, before Richie said snidely, "What, you're mad cause I live here now and fuck up all the little time you have with your gay ass boyfriend?"

Stan ground his teeth together so hard he could hear them scrape against each other. "Don't talk about him like that."

Richie flicked the cigarette onto the counter and said, "I won't talk about him like that if you don't fucking disrespect her around me."

Then, he had shoved past Stan, opened the apartment door, and shut it behind him with a bang.

~

"Come on."

Stan looked up to see Bill standing there, his fists clenched tightly.

"Bill?" He stood, and Bill said, "We h-have to go."

Stan stared at him. "What? Go where?"

Bill sighed and leaned against the counter, picking up a package of Richie's cigarettes and glared at them.

"Bill?" Stan asked again, and Bill threw them back into the counter and turned to him.

"R-Richie got suspended. Again."

Stan did a double take. "What!? What the fuck– I swear to God, if he beat up another kid–"

"He d-didn't. He vandalized the school."

Stan gaped at him, and Bill continued, "And it gets worse."

"No. Fucking no. I don't want–"

"He broke into Mr. K-Keene's store to get drugs. B-but Mr. Keene caught him b-before he m-made it out the door."

Stan shot up from his chair, and grabbed his coat off the hook, yanking it over himself.

"Alright, that's it. Let's go."

"E-Eds bailed him out." Bill said softly. "I don't th-think–"

"I don't give a fuck. I'm going to talk to him. He can't keep doing this." Stan growled, and Bill hesitated before wrapping his arms around him, resting his head on Stan's shoulder.