Title//Reddie

Part 11. Monday August 5th

Eddie still refuses to talk to Richie. Bill, Stanley, Beverly and Eddie were hanging out in the clubhouse. Richie came and Eddie left.
"He's still m-m-mad at you?" Bill asked the obvious question.
"No he just left because the chair was too- of course he's still mad at me" Richie snapped. He immediately felt bad. It wasn't Bills fault. It was no one's fault but himself.
"What did you do? No ones actually told me" Stanley asked as Bev and Bill nodded, not knowing either.
"I did a pretty dicky thing" Richie said, pulling a pack of marlboros out of his pocket "I said a gay slur."
Bill seemed pretty taken aback, and Beverly looked rather disappointed. Stanley was looking down at his hands and picking at his nails. He only did that when his anxiety started acting up, he was pretty good at keeping it contaminated inside his head. But his little habits gave it away.
"Rich...." Beverly said, in a tone that made Richie felt indescribably guilty "how could you do that?"
Beverly wondered, how could he do that? He was gay himself, if he wanted to reclaim a slur he could. But he should never have used it in that way against another gay person. It was just such a horrible thing to do. She never thought that Richie would ever, purposely, do something to hurt Eddie. But now she wasn't so sure.
"I don't know!" He exclaimed "We were just talking about how my parents kicked me out because they thought I was gay, then he asked me if I was. I said I wasn't and it just slipped out. And then I said some more bad things and made it worse"
"H-hold on. Your p-p-parents kicked you out b-because of the ch-chance you might be g-g-gay?" Bill asked in disbelief.
"Yeah." Richie confirmed.
Bill looked at Stan(who appeared unbothered) with anger and confusion.
"Can you b-b-believe that Stan?!" Bill said with anger and confusion.
Stan shrugged.
"It's what my parents would do" Stan said.
It didn't seem weird or strange to Stan to say that his parents would kick him out if he was gay. It was something his parents taught him about homosexuals, it wasn't normal. It wasn't permitted in a nice household.
He had tried to be happy for Eddie when he came out, but it just felt wrong to him. Like how it felt wrong when he looked at Bill.
"Your p-p-parents are assholes" Bill ranted "B-being gay is n-n-not a reason to k-kick your child out of y-y-our home!" He paused for a second to take a breath. "B-Beverly. You've been awfully q-q-quiet. What do you th-th-think?"
"I agree with you Bill. And I think Eddie has the right to be mad" Beverly walked over to Richie "Come on Richie. You're better than this" She pulled him into a tight hug and whispered in his ear "Don't use your crush on Eddie as a excuse to be a dick to him. Just confess like a normal person or fucking leave him alone. He doesn't deserve someone who won't be supportive of him"
Richie nodded, he understood.
"Do you guys want to go to the arcade? Being here without Eddie feels weird." Richie said. It did feel weird, it was like a missing puzzle piece. It just looked out place and incomplete.
"I think I'll stay here. I'm reading something really good and I want to get it finished" Stan told them.
"O-o-okay. I'll go R-R-Rich" Bill spoke. "B-Bev?"
"I will in a bit. I just need to talk to Stan for a moment" Beverly said as the other losers, minus Stan, walked out and to the arcade.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" Stan asked, not having the faintest clue of what it could be.
"Stan...." Beverly said in the softest voice "do you need help?"
"With what?"
"Just help in general" She explained.
"No. I'm fine." He said, almost trying to convince himself.
"Stan, I know your parents. Your dads a major rabbi who works at a temple that literally had a fundraiser for conversion camps. And your mom stands beside him in everything. But I also know how you feel about Bill" She told him "If you don't feel safe telling your parents, you can stay with one of the losers. Like Richie does"
"Thanks for trying to help Bev, but I feel perfectly safe at home. And what do you mean 'feel about Bill'?"
  "I see how you look at him Stan. The same way Richie looks at Ed-Edna, in homeroom. You like him Stan, and there's nothing wrong with that" Bev reassured.
There wasn't anything wrong with that.
But that's not what Stan had been taught.
He had been taught, very specifically, that marriage and love was between a man and a woman. Two guys could never have children. It just wasn't right. And no matter what Beverly said, never mind if it's the truth, he would never be that way.
  "Bev I don't like him! I don't like guys. Not everyone is queer, straight people do exist." He snapped.
"Stan it's ok-" Bev started.
   "No it's not! Just- Just leave my sexuality alone okay?" He said.
"Okay fine. But there's nothing wrong with it." She said lastly, deciding that she would drop the subject after Stans response.
  "Oh there's everything wrong with it" Stan muttered to himself.
    "Hmm?"
"Oh nothing" he lied "I just said we should head to the arcade with the other losers"
"Oh okay" Bev said, walking over to hold open the latch for Stan. "After you"
"Thanks" said Stan. Stan walked over without saying a single word while Bev tired to fill the silence with random facts about all the shops they passed.
  "Hey! You guys took forever" Richie complained as Stan entered the arcade, Bev had stopped to get a smoothie.
"Y-yeah" Bill agreed "What d-d-did she need to t-talk to you ab-b-b-bout?" 
  "Oh it was just about the math homework"