What Is This Feeling So Sudden And New?: Chapter 2
Richie and Stan watched as Bill and Eddie carried Richie’s stuff into the dorm. Eddie was talking to Bill about something and it was clearly funny as Bill let out a hearty laugh. Stan sighs wistfully. “Hear that Richie?” Stan asked his friend.
“What?” Richie asked confused.
“His laugh almost as if a choir of angels are singing just for me,” Stan said going into what Richie referred to as ‘heart eyes mode’. Richie’s eyes flicked between Stan and Bill and he raised his eyebrows.
“You’re not going to do anything stupid are you?” Richie asked.
“The M-word” Richie said accusingly.
“No. Of course not” Stan said his voice slightly higher than usual “but it wouldn’t be such a bad idea though would it?”
“If you say so,” Richie said turning around to unpack some of his things.
“You don’t think he’s gorgeous?” Stan asked.
“He’s very nice Stan,” Richie said blandly “I just prefer something a little less…obvious”
“Like what?” Stan asked confused “I mean who?”
“I don’t know,” Richie thought for a moment “him I suppose.” Stan looked to where Richie was gesturing to surprisingly see Eddie.
“Eddie!” Stan said shocked.
“Yeah it’s a purely objective statement,” Richie said, “like saying you prefer a Ferrari to a Porsche.”
“Bit rude isn’t it, comparing men to cars,” Stan said.
“Depends on the car” Richie joked “he’s a very attractive guy, Eddie… Or at least he would be if he wasn’t such a small carnivorous dinosaur with vicious little teeth.” As Richie was saying this Eddie walked past and flipped Richie off.
“Velociraptor” Stan stated.
“Yeah exactly.” Richie made his way over to Eddie eager to annoy him just a little more. It was one of his favourite past times. “Just discussing our favourite dinosaurs” Richie said.
“I’m sure” Eddie replied not looking up from his phone. A pause fell over the two.
“Don’t call me Eds,” Eddie said quickly.
“Can I speak honestly?” Richie asked.
“I don’t know can you?” Eddie quipped still not looking at Richie.
“Why do you hate me so much?” Richie asked.
“I don’t know perhaps it’s the way you care about nobody but yourself, you’re loud obnoxious and you think that you’re better than everyone else despite you very clearly being worse,” Eddie said bitterly.
“Pretty sure it’s just cos I bet you in that fourth-grade spelling bee” Richie teased.
“You’re impossible” Eddie huffed, storming away.
Almost a week had passed of Richie and Eddie living together and the entire dorm complex had had enough. They’d received noise complaint after noise complaint, the police were even called at one stage as someone passing by had heard the fighting and though there was a domestic violence issue afoot. Turns out Richie had just hidden Eddie’s laptop.
To try to avoid any further police intervention Stan and Bill decided to talk to Richie and Eddie the night of Henry’s party to try and get them to calm down a little bit.
Bill and Eddie were getting ready at Eddie’s dorm. Bill was going as Marty Mcfly from Back to the Future and Eddie was going as Harry Potter. As the pair were getting ready Bill was trying to coerce Eddie into getting along with Richie.
“I’m not saying you guys need to become best friends or anything but just try not to fight so much” Bill sighed feeling like what he was saying was landing on deaf ears. Eddie went to object but Bill persisted “And if you must fight do it in hushed tones as to not wake the dead.”
Eddie went to object again but saw the distressed look on Bills face and realised that maybe he should consider his friend’s feelings before his own. With a heavy sigh, Eddie admitted defeat “I suppose I should try to be civil. Like you said it’s only for one year and then I’ll never have to see his ugly face again.”
“Thanks, Eddie,” Bill said with a small smile not allowing himself to get his hopes up quite yet “you know if you actually gave Richie a chance I actually think that you two would get along well.”
“Okay, Bill let’s not get ahead of ourselves” Eddie laughed.
“No, I mean it. I have a feeling that you’d be great friends… Maybe even more” Bill smirked.
Eddie rolled his eyes “Jesus Christ you get one boyfriend and suddenly you think that everyone should be in love.”
“So you’re saying that you don’t want a boyfriend?” Bill asked.
“I’m not saying that… I’m just saying that even the idea of me and Richie ever forming some sort of relationship is absurd.” Bill simply nodded his head, but Eddie saw the smug look on his face. “C’mon let’s get going. I need a fucking drink.”
Down the hall, Richie and Stan were getting ready. They were both going as Spider-man upon Richie’s insistence so that they could recreate the Spider-man meme. Stan was giving Richie a very similar talk to the one Bill gave Eddie.
“Come on Richie can’t you be the bigger person here and just move past whatever differences you have?” Stan asked exasperated.
“But Stan-” Richie tried to plead.
“No buts Richie!” Stan said loudly before softening his voice “I’ve really like living with Bill for these past days it feels so amazing just to wake up every morning and have his beautiful face be the first thing I see. Please don’t ruin this for me.” Richie finally saw who he was hurting, it wasn’t Eddie it was Stan and Richie felt terrible.
“Okay,” Richie said quietly and Stan’s entire face illuminated with joy.
“Thank you, Richie,” Stan said pulling Richie in for a hug “now let’s go get wasted.”
At the party, the group had split up all electing to get wasted in different corners of the very loud and much-crowed frat house. While it was a rare sight to see Bill and Stan not together Stan had something else on his mind that he didn’t want Bill to find out. Stan sat in a corner of the house fiddling with a ring box talking silently to himself “it would be my honour if… no… I humbly ask you to consider… I’d be over the moon if-”
“Nice to see you here,” a voice said making Stan jump. Stan turned to see Henry who had come dressed as the joker now standing next to him, this immediately made Stan tense.
“Henry” Stan acknowledge the man next to him “having fun?”
“Oh you know me,” Henry said “crying on the inside.”
“So Bill eh? Smart move” Henry said taking a puff of his cigarette.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Stan asked defensively.
“Nothing,” Henry said putting his hands up “just that he’s a very pretty boy that’s all… very popular.” Stan followed Henry’s eye line to see Bill and Richie standing too close for Stan’s liking. Stan knew that Richie was a flirt but he wouldn’t go so far as to flirt with Stan’s boyfriend would he? He knew he wouldn’t do it sober but put a bit of alcohol in Richie and there’s no telling what he’ll do.
“I’m going to get another drink. Can I get you anything?” Henry asked Stan, didn’t respond to Henry and kept his eyes trained on Bill and Richie. “Stan?” Henry asked snapping Stan out of his trance.
“No, I’m good thanks,” Stan said walking over to where Bill and Richie were standing. As he approached the pair he heard Bill and Richie giggling like little school girls.
“Bev’s looking for you,” Stan said to Bill.
“Oh” Bill said seeing Stan appear “where?”
“Upstairs,” Stan said with a fake smiling as Bill walked off.
“Bye! Ciao!” Richie waved. Once Bill had left Stan pulled Richie aside.
“Give it a rest will you,” Stan said sternly.
“What? What have I done?” Richie asked.
Across the room, Eddie saw Stan and Richie talking and decided to go say hi as he’d mostly tried to avoid them all night. Well, he tried to avoid Richie and in turn had avoided Stan but Eddie quite enjoyed Stan’s company and wanted to say hi.
As Stan left to follow Bill Richie was left confused as to what he had done to annoy Stan he hadn’t picked any fights with Eddie or done anything particularly tenacious. Richie pulled down his Spider-man mask.
“Stan? Stan?” Richie heard someone shout from behind him. Richie turned to see Eddie.
“It is Stan isn’t it?” Eddie joked smiling. This left Richie confused until he realised that Eddie thought that he was Stan. “Come on, I haven’t seen you all evening let’s chat,” Eddie said grabbing Richie’s hand and pulling him to a nearby sofa. Richie looked around to see if there was a way to escape but found none.
“Where’s your sidekick then Stan?” Eddie asked.
“Sidekick?” Richie asked confused.
“Probably making his way through the buffet” Eddie laughed “seeing how many chicken fingers he can fit into his mouth.”
“What do you mean?” Richie asked offended.
“Well let me put it this way. They say stress is supposed to make you lose weight so Richie’s final year of college must be the breeziest thing ever” Eddie said puffing out his cheeks.
Richie mumbled something that Eddie didn’t quite catch. “Sorry I can’t hear you, Stan. Why don’t you take your mask off?” Eddie offered.
“I said he still seems quite popular with the fellas and ladies,” Richie said defending himself.
“Yeah well, that’s what he likes you to believe,” Eddie said “But that long hair makes him look like someone’s dropped a ton of melted chocolate on his head. And has he started growing a beard because if so someone needs to tell him to stop, he looks like he’s got food smeared around his mouth.”
“Just as well you never have to kiss him then,” Richie said.
“And for that, I thank God every day.”
“I’ll tell Richie what you said,” Richie said threateningly.
“Fine tell him,” Eddie said, “he’ll just fire back with some smart ass remark and it won’t be funny or make sense and nobody will be listening to him anyway-”
Richie had heard enough at this point and got up “would you excuse me for one moment.”
“Stan?” Eddie asked, “Was it something I said?”
Richie saw his friend Mike dancing in the corner and decided he needed someone to vent to. Richie made his way over pulling his mask off his face. “Richie!” Mike said as he saw his friend approaching “just so you have some warning one of the boys have hired a karaoke machine-”
“He is Satan,” Richie said annoyed “he looks normal but he’s Satan in human form.”
“Who?” Mike asked confused.
“Eddie” Richie stated like it was obvious.
“Ah of course,” Mike said knowingly “come on let's get you a drink.”
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
origamiaround
dededos
annaxmalina
blakekathryn
