golden boy : stozier

four

"richie, are you ready? i told you to get ready an hour ago." richie's mother knocked on his door, interrupting him from his trance of of scrolling on his phone, completely zoned out. he looked up and stumbled, his mouth open.

"oh-fuck-i-" richie stuttered, clamouring to grab a shirt. he buttoned it up sloppily whilst balancing pulling a sock on his foot. in the end, the attempt at multitasking fails and takes more time than it would have to do separately, and he has to sit down on his bed to put his other sock on. he listened to his mother walk down the stairs, and thanking the pants being the one thing he did remember to put on, followed after her quickly. he grabbed his phone on his way out of the room.

on the drive there, it was quiet, though richie's knee bounced silently. when the car came to a stop, he sorta felt like he was moving the entire car with his leg. his mother wasn't exactly a fan of the radio, so richie settled for staring out the window, pretending the view of the suburbs was cinematic. 

truthfully, it reminded him of something out of vivarium rather than a studio ghibli movie. 

"you've gotten all happy faces this week, i saw," his mother commented, and he scratched at his hand. he nodded, but she couldn't see it, so he muttered a yes out of compliance. "i'm proud of you, sweetie," but it felt fake, so richie continued staring out the window.

when they finally pulled into the driveway, one that looked the exact same as the twenty others richie could see down the street, richie was itching to get out of the car. both physically, as he scratched his hand aimlessly, and mentally. the moment the door was unlocked, he clamboured out and waited for his mother at the doorstep.

he reprimanded himself in his head, reminding himself of a stupid dog. 

there was a second car in the driveway, and richie knew it was pj's. it was shining, like it'd just been through the car wash, and the inside looked perfectly vacuumed. suck up, richie thought bitterly, though he knew (even if he wouldn't admit it) that he'd do shit like that too if he was given the chance.

his mother's arm reached passed him to knock on the dark wooden door, and the door swung open almost instantly, like they'd heard richie pad to the front door and was waiting for his mother to show up. 

his mother and father greeted each other professionally, like they were colleagues. in a weird way, richie guessed, they were. richie hadn't been old enough to remember what they'd been like before they'd gotten divorced, but it wouldn't surprise him if one day his mother had been like, "business proposition: divorce" and his dad was like "i accept." or something like that. 

next, his dad turned to him, and reached his arms out to hug richie. it was well-intentioned, but there was an awkward pause as richie was hugged, his arms stuck at his side. "pj will be so excited to see you!" he exclaimed, though richie knew it was a lie for the whole family. pj was never excited to see him. was she at the door? richie didn't think so.

richie sat down on a seat by the door, wrestling to get his shoes off. his mother glanced to him with a look of dissatisfaction, as her shoes came off with ease. richie nearly rolled his eyes. 

at the dinner table, richie's eyes fell on pj, who sat with perfect stature. she had her hair tied neatly and placed in a clip, with two strands hanging out. richie hated it, the idea of two neatly pulled out strands of hair, meant to make her look imperfect. the two strands curled much nicer than any of richie's hair. 

she glanced over at him, and her eyes seemed to register all of richie's appearance in a second, before turning back to their parents.

their relationship hadn't ever really been good, even when they'd lived in the same house. they were the kind of kids to argue constantly, and the moment pj had gotten old enough to see richie as a little kid (which didn't take very long) she'd ignored him. she was better than him. richie hated her. he sat down at the seat across from her anyway, like they had since they were little kids.