bill denbrough definitely wasn't suicidal. he was too happy to be suicidal, but wasn't always the happiest ones? was it?

stan couldn't keep his thoughts straight until he felt a pat on his back; richie. "hey dude." he said as normal as possible.

"hey, where's billy?" richie asked, and stan looked the boy up and down, hawaiian shirt, jean shorts, sandals, it was so... richie.

"why do you always assume he's with me?" stan scoffed, but couldn't help but feel dread from the inside. he should have checked in with bill this morning before heading to school.

"because he's always with you, genius." richie rolled his eyes, and watched as eddie walked over to them, stan leaning against his locker. eddie wore his usual, red shirt and khaki shorts, along with sneakers that were pearly white.

stan raised an eyebrow as richie looked down at his shoes nervously, as if they were anything but generic. but stan knew the feeling of liking your best friend, so he quickly but his eyebrow down seconds later. "hey eddie." stan smiled, holding his books tightly across his chest. "have you seen bill? i haven't seen him yet...." stan worried, biting his bottom lip.

"he texted me this morning, said he was sick." eddie answered, taking out his phone and waving it in the air. but that wasn't good enough for stan. stanley took eddie's phone and opened it up with his fingerprint, and opened eddie's and bill's conversation.

stan looked at eddie for a second, his face slightly going red, scratching the back of his neck. he was hiding something. but he couldn't make out what. stan looked down at the text. 'i'm sick today with a fever, can you get me notes from chem?' stanley almost laughed out loud.

he wasn't sure why he missed bill so much, but he did, and seeing his small text that really meant nothing meant everything to him. and that's why he did next what he did.

"hey eddie, get me the chem notes too, and richie, can you get me AP LIT and algebra? thanks." he said, tossed the phone to eddie, who had a fight with the phone to catch it, and he ran out of the school without really realizing what he was doing.

it didn't take long for stan to reach the denbrough household, but when he got there he looked down at his hands and they were pearly white, shaking a bit. so it took another ten minutes for stan to calm down before going to the front door and ringing the doorbell.

he had played so many scenarios when bill would answer the door— "georgie?" stan asked in a confused glance to find georgie standing across from him with his pajamas on and messy hair on his head.

"hey stanley!" he wrapped stan in a hug. "i'm so glad you're here! now you can make billy feel better." georgie finally latched away from stan and stan merely nodded, not wanting to tell georgie anything that had happened two nights before.

"he's in his room." georgie said and walked into the small living room, and stan could see he was sitting in a tent watching some science channel. what the hell. but georgie seemed happy, so stan closed the door and stopped silently judging the kid.

stan knocked a few times on bill's door, finding it shut. it was never shut. but seconds later, bill slowly opened the door, and stan could clearly see his red, puffy eyes and he could clearly hear his small, hidden sniffles.

"...bill...?" stan had planned on exactly what he was going to say the night before and this morning, but seeing bill, his mind was blank and he couldn't remember one word.

wow thank you guys so much

for 13k!! and #1 in #jyatt!! i swear it's a new number every day!!! your guys' support is amazing

and i love you all💘💘

double update??

~ penny