golden boy : stozier

three

stanley opened his locker sloppily, knowing no one was really watching. he was one in a system of hundreds of students, rushing to get home after that final bell. the kid next to him, for example, was shoving all of his textbooks in his locker, bending the spines and ripping some pages in the process. he slammed the locker shut and slipped the lock in, running off to catch up with his friends. stanley, a little concerned at the fact that the boy hadn't actually locked his locker, closed and locked it for him, turning back to his own locker.

he put down his bag, and tried to grab a jacket to put on. he heard someone calling his name, but didn't look over, assuming it was someone else. finally, he turned his head.

"stanley! glad i found you, i was wondering if you wanted to hang out today?" ben had squeezed his way through several groups of people and was now standing next to stanley. stanley put a smile on his face and stretched his hands through the sleeves of his jacket.

"hey ben," stanley was exhausted. he didn't really want to do anything except collapse once he got home. naturally, that wasn't what he would do, but a boy could dream. he considered ben's offer, a little confused on why ben had suddenly taken an interest in him. "i'm so sorry, i have to spend today studying for a chemistry test." it wasn't a lie, honest! yeah, maybe stanley already knew everything on the test, and maybe he knew that ben specifically didn't happen to take chemistry, but he was simply too tired to match ben's energy for the entire day.

"oh, that's okay. maybe some other time?" ben offered, stanley nodding. it was then that he noticed ben's friends sitting on a bench across the hallway, hidden through hoards of students. hanging out with an entire friend group? oh, thank god he had said no. too much pressure.

"yeah, absolutely," stanley started, ben grinning, "i'll call you tonight and set it up, alright?" stanley asked, ben agreeing right away.

"cool," ben said, looking excited at the prospect of them hanging out.

"benjamin! go or no go?" one of his friends yelled to him, stanley snickering a little at ben being called "benjamin" by his friends. ben shook his head and wandered back over to them.

stanley, now with a jacket on, picked up his backpack and put it on. he closed his locker and locked it correctly, returning the dial to 0. the moment ben was out of view, he felt himself breathe a sigh of relief. he relaxed his tensed shoulders, and began to walk to the bus stop. he took note of how he stepped, making sure to make as little sound as he could.

he ended up sitting on the bench by the school bus stop, taking one of the later buses. that was okay, it meant less people. he turned, subtly inspecting his surroundings. 5 teenagers were standing together, talking amongst each other. there was a girl with headphones on, clutching onto a laptop case in her hands. there were two boys passing what stanley figured was a cigarette back and forth to each other. stanley turned back around, staring out at the street. he felt bad for telling ben no, maybe he should have just pushed through it.

the bus drove up, and stanley stood up promptly. getting in the short line behind the group of 5, he walked on, tapping his card, smiling at the bus driver, and heading to the back of the bus. the 5 teenagers sat down before the back of the bus, huddling closer and talking in hushed tones. stanley immediately felt nervous. were they talking about him? had he done something weird and not noticed? oh god, he definitely did something weird. stanley felt his face warm up and he sat down calmly, looking around at his appearance for anything strange. he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, feeling weirdly hot. it was an extremely cold day, but he thought he actually might be sweating. stanley listened intently, seeing if he could understand anything from their whispers.

he couldn't make out much, and so he sat back, much more exhausted than before. he let out a sigh, and wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his jacket. guess he had been sweating. he sat there, forcing himself to sit straight and still, until his stop came along. he pulled the string to the left of him. the bus dinged, and he stood up. walking towards the door, he was now standing in front of the group of kids. they went quiet, and stanley subtly shook his head at himself. he had fucked up, again. he pressed the bars on the door and stepped off, telling the bus driver, "thank you!"