#I wanna do an anatomy study with a radio shoved in his chest at some point

[celtrist]

I wanted a better grasp on the anatomy for the comm piece I'm doing, doo-daa, doo-daa (not a fan of the muddy shading but wanted to experiment with the shading and colors)

Also once again, thank you for your service Niffty

[dangertronic]

Not A Monster Chapter 18

I am stupidly tired so there are probably a lot of errors, woops.

Ao3 Link

Tag list: @sten-bros @agrimny @areyareddie @creamy-brown-eyes @trippy-alexissss @thetrashvoid @deamontesnothere @jakethezombiehunter @soomar-wine

Eighteen

“So like, should we be concerned that Stan and Bill keep vanishing all the time?” Richie asked one lunchtime, entwining his fingers with Eddie’s under the table in the cafeteria.

“I doubt it.” Ben said, uncapping his bottle of water. “They’re probably just studying.”

Jessica snorted, moving some food around her tray with her fork. “Yeah, if what they’re studying is the human anatomy.”

Mike choked, spilling his soda down the front of his jacket. “What?”

“Gee, don’t die on us Mike.” Jessica said, grinning across the table at him. “It was a joke.”

“I’m so proud of our new sister.” Richie said, wiping a non-existent tear from under his eye before slinging his free arm around Jessica. “They grow up so fast.”

“You’re clearly spending way too much time with Richie.” Ben deadpanned.

“Do you even realise that you just implied we’re brothers even though we’re dating?” Eddie asked, looking up at Richie.

“That’s what you picked up?” Mike asked, wiping a napkin down his shirt.

Richie grinned, squeezing Eddie’s hand. “Incest is all the rage, Eds!”

Eddie grimaced. “Gross, Rich.”

Richie heaved a sigh. “You just can’t please some people. But seriously… Bill and Stan keep vanishing and I can’t help but wonder why.”

“Okay, why don’t you take all that wondering about Bill and Stan and just direct it onto loving on Eddie?” Jessica suggested, scooping some food up onto her fork. “That’s where all your attention is supposed to be going.”

“The lady has a point.” Charlie said, placing his fork down. “Why be so bothered about what Stan and Bill are doing when you could be giving Eddie your complete attention?”

“I do like the sound of that better.” Richie mused. “However, I am unable to do that in here with all these people around, so for now I shall ponder the curious behaviour of our friends.”

“Of course you will.” Jessica said.

“Hey, I have to fill up the time I can’t love on Eddie with something.” Richie grumbled.

“Yes but does it have to be that?”

“Are you really going to ask Richie that?” Eddie asked.

“Good point, Eddie.”

“You know what? I bet they’re doing it!” Richie said, slamming his hand onto the table and startling Jessica who dropped her fork with a clatter onto the floor. “Wait no, Stan is too uptight to fuck someone in a school.”

“Christ, did you have to give me a fucking heart attack?” Jessica hissed.

“Richie has this really bad habit of being startlingly loud.” Mike said, returning to his food. “It can be quite troublesome at times.”

“Apparently.”

Stan was two minutes late to his literature class, looking somewhat ruffled as he took his new seat next to Jessica. The teacher didn’t bother to acknowledge Stan’s presence as he took out his books, placing them neatly onto the desk in front of him.

“You should really cover that up.” Jessica said, idly taking notes with occasional glances to her text book. “Someone might notice.”

“What are you talking about?” Stan asked, opening his book.

Jessica stopped writing, lifting her pen and pointing to his neck. “That hickey on your neck. Like damn, button your shirt up the rest of the way or something before a certain trashmouthed annoyance spots that mark.”

“Shit.” Stan hastily fastened up the top two buttons of his shirt, the collar concealing the bruise that Bill had left on his neck. “Thanks Jess.”

Jessica made a humming sound in the back of the throat, returning to her work.

“Hey Jess?” Stan asked about five minutes later, drawing a sigh from the girl next to him.

“What Stan?”

Stan didn’t say anything for a moment, dipping a hand into his pocket to pull out a small mirror which he opened and slid across the desk to her. Jessica blinked at the sudden appearance of her reflection muttering a low curse when she could see what Stan did.

One of her eyes had gone an irritated angry looking red. Jessica grabbed her bag quickly and pulled it onto her lap, hunting out a small case which she set onto the table. Unscrewing the lid of the bottle quickly, she poured some of the clear liquid into the case.

Stan cringed when Jessica placed a finger onto her eye to remove one of her contact lenses, hastily putting it into the case before removing the other. Once the lid was screwed tightly back onto the case, she carefully shoved it into a side pocket of her backpack and hunted out another case, fumbling to open it to retrieve the grey rimmed glasses from inside.

“So, glasses huh?” Stan asked, idly noting something down in his notebook.

“Yup.” Jessica returned the bottle to her backpack which she dropped back onto the floor. “Thanks, by the way. Should I even ask why you carry a mirror?”

“When you wake up with ‘fuck face’ scribbled on your forehead after a party with Richie, you tend to learn that a compact mirror is required on your person at all times.” Stan said, taking the mirror back and snapping it shut. “You know, just case.”

“Oh no, I get it. It makes total sense.” Jessica said, biting back a laugh. “Let me guess, you had it done to you more than once before you invested in a mirror.”

“Five times.”

“Wow.”

“Gee Staniel, you could just try not falling to sleep fir –” Richie paused in mid-sentence as he turned, staring at Jessica. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Jessica said, waving him off. “She wears glasses, wow, big deal.”

“No it’s not that.” Richie said, his own eyes narrowing behind his glasses. “Your eyes are two different colours!”

“Yep.”

“How come we never –”

“Because I wear contacts usually.”

“You’ve literally had sleepovers at my house!”

“Should learn to pay attention to people other than Eddie for once then.”

Richie snorted. “Yeah because that’s gonna happen.”

“Mr Tozier, turn around and focus on your own work and not Mr Uris’!” The teacher snapped from the front of the class, drawing a snort from Eddie.

Richie huffed and turned around, crossing his arms over his chest. “You should stop wearing those contacts, by the way. The glasses look better.”

“He’s right.” Stan said, not looking up from his work. “Shouldn’t hide who you are. We all learned that once.”

“Says the one hiding his hickey.” Jessica teased, keeping her voice low.

“Oh fuck you Jess.”

“Lose the dick and grow a vagina and I might let you.”

“Oh my fucking god.”

Jessica snorted. “For someone who was raised in religion, you sure say that a lot.”

“Gee, with friends like you and Richie, I wonder fucking why.” Stan hissed.

Jessica let out a laugh but otherwise said nothing as she returned to her work, remaining silent for the rest of the double class much to Stan’s delight. His delight was further intensified by the fact Richie did not bother to turn around and try to talk to them again due to a mixture of the teacher still watching him and Eddie hissing at Richie whenever his attention strayed away from his notebook.

“I’m really enjoying this warmer weather thing we have going on.” Richie said, swinging Eddie’s hand between them as they walked home from school, his other hand gripping the strap of his backpack to keep it positioned on his shoulder. “I get to spend extra time with you before I have to hand you over to a dragon.”

Eddie snorted, tightening his grip on Richie’s hand, the other tucked into his pocket. “Me too, Rich. I hate having limited time because of the car rides in the cold between leaving school and my fake dates.”

Richie bent his arm, nudging Eddie’s arm gently with his elbow. “It’s only for now though. Once we graduate we’ll be free to leave this crappy town and its suffocating nature. We’ll be able to be together all the time openly.”

“Yeah.” Eddie said, closing the space between them to lean against Richie. “Mom’s not happy about me moving to L.A.”

Richie chuckled, releasing Eddie’s hand so he could wrap his arm around his shoulder. “I can imagine. Mine are oddly ecstatic but I think it’s because I’ll be learning to be independent and all that good stuff. They want me to learn to survive on my own.”

There was another snort from Eddie. “Except you won’t be independent and on your own. I’ll be there babysitting you the whole time.”

“Yeah, that does kind of stick a wrench into their plan…” Richie mused, ruffling Eddie’s hair idly. “But I’d rather it that way. I’ll have my own personal doctor!”

“As long as you don’t expect me to dress up every time you’re sick –”

“Not even just once?”

Eddie groaned. “Okay, if you’re so sick you actually have to stay in bed for an extended period of time then I’ll dress up for you to make the experience better.”

“You know I’m going to hold you to that, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s okay.”

Richie grinned, now stroking his hand awkwardly through Eddie’s hair. “So what does my little Eddie Spaghetti have planned for when he’s in L.A? You know, other than taking up most of my bed.”

Eddie laughed, nudging Richie playfully towards the edge of the curb. “I’m not really sure. I thought about going into medicine. Damn, I know you’re gonna need patching up a lot with that motor mouth you have.”

“You’d be a great Doctor, Eds!” Richie said, squeezing his arm around Eddie’s shoulders.

“So what about you? What’d you wanna do?”

Richie shrugged, leaning onto Eddie slightly. “Education-wise I’m not really sure, but I definitely want to become a DJ.”

“We’re gonna get out of this place, Rich. You’re gonna be an awesome radio DJ with annoying voices, but everyone’s gonna love it.”

Richie nodded. “Yeah, and you’re gonna become one of the best doctors out there. And more importantly… we’re gonna be together.”

“Yeah. We are. And we’re not gonna hide. We can really be open out there.”

“Just gotta make it through these last few months first and then we’re free of this stupid town once and for all!”

“We got this, Rich.”

“Yeah. We do. Me and you.” Richie came to a stop as they reached the corner of Eddie’s street, releasing his bag strap to wind his other arm around Eddie. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours on your date.”

Eddie punched him in the shoulder with a grin. “Same to you.”

Richie chuckled, bending down to kiss Eddie quickly before they parted ways to head home.