#au where this is bill by mike’s bedside at the hospital

[derryhawkins]

Growing Fame (3/??)

summary: A modern AU where the losers are semi-famous for different things, and when they all run into each other at a certain event, all of their fans go bat-shit crazy – wanting the seven to spend more time together. What they didn’t expect even more than that, though, was a well-known and mean journalist to write bad reviews on them all. Their growing fame could soon shrink, they quickly realized. warnings: mention of slut shaming and drinking/being drunk; swearing pairings: benverly; bichie; steddie; mike/oc a/n: There’s less Richie and Mike in this part but I make it up with a shitty article made by a shitty person at the end, and a small amount of stan x eddie (steddie) at the beginning.

CH 1 | CH 2 | CH 3 | CH 4 coming soon

Speculations and False Accusations

There weren’t many things about his roommates that surprised Stan. The two were simple to read and pretty much easy going. Even Mike, Ben, and Beverly didn’t surprise him much when he first met them. Who did surprise Stanley, though, was Richie Tozier; the tall male was pretty much seen as a loose canon in Stan’s eyes. He was nice, though. Still made the stupid ‘your mom’ jokes and dick jokes as if he was still a high schooler, but he was nice.

So imagine Stanley’s shock when he saw a few fans commenting on the vlog he posted the night before, that Richie Tozier could be the boy Bill Denbrough dated for a month in high school. Bill had shared that story before, about how he first realized he was bisexual during a high school hang out and drunkenly making out with some guy. He had dated the same guy for about a month before calling it off; but the boy’s name remained anonymous to the fans, and even Stan and Eddie.

The dirty blond male quickly started reading more and more of the comments speculating that Richie and Bill had dated. The fans were just simply backing it up by saying they were extremely close. Stan wanted to brush it off because the two were best friends, of course they were extremely close. But there was just something about them both when they reunited that gave Stan the feeling that the fans weren’t being crazy this time around. He rubbed at his bottom lip as he thought about the situation.

“Eddie, where’s the peanut butter?!” Bill shouted from the kitchen.

“Middle shelf!” Eddie yelled back from his room.

Stan uncrossed his legs as he got into a better sitting position on his bed. His door was wide open, so he could hear the shouts pretty clearly. He locked his phone as he came up with a little thought and moved off of his bed, quickly making his way out of his room and to Eddie’s. He knocked on the doorframe as he stepped into the room. Eddie looked up from a school text book and to Stan. A smile came over his features, cheeks tinting pink the slightest bit.

“What’s up Stan?” Eddie said.

He looked behind him for a moment, and then shut the bedroom door. He walked to Eddie’s bed and sat down. “What do you think about Richie?” Stan asked.

Eddie looked shocked by the question at first but soon gave a shrug. “He’s okay. Not as bad as I thought he would be, actually,” he replied. “Why?” He paused and smirked. “Does someone have a crush?”

“Ew! No, Eddie, jeez,” Stan frowned and shook his head quickly. “He’s not my type.” He hoped that Eddie didn’t notice his cheeks turning pink at saying the last part.

The smaller boy’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh, g- uh, then why are you asking about him?”

“Do you think he could be the guy Bill dated for a month?”

Eddie scoffed. He started to laugh, too, but he slowly stopped as he saw that Stan was completely serious. “Oh… I guess, I mean, it’s possible, maybe. They were a bit touchy the other day.”

Stan slowly nodded. He recalled a moment when they were all standing around at some point at comic con. Richie, with Georgie on his shoulders, and Bill stood side by side with barely any room between them both. Stanley had just brushed it off, pegging it as Bill wanting to be close in case Georgie fell off of Richie. But the dark haired boy had a tight hold on the young kid.

“We should just ask Bill-.”

“Eddie, no, that’s stupid. He would’ve said something by if he wanted to tell us.”

“Well, we can’t ask Richie, he’ll be way too suspicious.”

The two young males sat in silence for a few moments, thinking about the speculation that Richie and Bill dated. Suddenly, Eddie let out an “ah-ha” and picked up his phone from beside the lamp on his bedside table. Stan stared in confusion for a moment before leaning over to watch as Eddie scrolled through his contacts, stopping at a certain redhead’s name.

Beverly Marsh was on yet another date. This time, though, it wasn’t the girl that canceled on her and stood her up but rather a guy who reminded her too much of Richie - a complete turn off because the Tozier boy was basically her brother. But the guy wasn’t as nearly as entertaining as Richie; rather boring and kept on going on and on about his brand new red mustang that she just has to check out later tonight. The guy was more than rich, Beverly could tell just by his clothes, and despite having Richie’s personality, it was masked by a snobbish attitude and boasting about how much money he had at such a young age.

She honestly hoped that Richie would never become a snob. His fame was increasing, after all, and with fame came lots of money.

The twenty one year old took a sip of the wine that her date ordered for them both at the beginning, and glanced around the fancy restaurant. She had used the money she had acquired from being a YouTuber to buy a fancy, expensive dress. Still, though, she felt out of place. Maybe it was because her hair wasn’t as long as other girl’s; it was only at her shoulders right now. Maybe it was because the splotches of freckles littering her skin; all the other girls had smooth, unmarked skin. Maybe it was because she simply didn’t belong in such a fancy place.

Suddenly, a sharp ringing started in her purse and Beverly set her wine glass down and grabbed her purse. She cursed under her breath at forgetting to turn the sound off at the beginning of the date, and grabbed it and pressed a button to turn the sound off. Beverly frowned at seeing Eddie Kaspbrak’s name across the screen. She glanced up at her date.

“So sorry, I usually turn my phone off, but my mother is in the hospital and I need to take this,” Beverly rushed out her on the spot lie.

The man looked sympathetic. He said, “Oh, no, go and answer it, Beverly. I understand.”

Beverly gave a thankful smile before standing up and grabbed her purse and phone as she got up. “I’ll just be in the bathroom,” she said before clicking on the answer button. She waited until she was far enough away to answer, “Hi, Eddie, what’s up?”

“Beverly, thank God, we thought you wouldn’t answer,” came the guy’s reply.

“Hi, Bev!” A voice she recognized as Stan Uris’ shouted.

“Hi, Stan,” she greeted and stepped into the bathroom. “Thank you for calling, by the way, you’re interrupting my boring ass date.”

“Damn, you’re welcome,” Stan said.

“Boring dates are not fun,” Eddie sighed. “Anyway, we need to ask you a question involving you’re annoying friend.”

“Is he single? Yes.”

“No! Sheesh, Bev, I don’t like him like that.”

“Did Richie ever date a guy in high school but broke up with him about a month later?” Stan asked.

Beverly raised an eyebrow and leaned against the wall by one of the sinks. Her nose wrinkled some at seeing the fancy soap name on the bottle; she wasn’t able to pronounce it. But she shoved that thought away as she focused on Stan’s question. “Oddly specific,” she muttered.

“Yeah, well…” He trailed off.

“Um,” Beverly sighed and chewed on her bottom lip as she thought back to all the dating stories she has heard from Richie Tozier.

It didn’t take long for her to remember a time where they were both a bit tipsy and Richie was muttering on about how he regretted one of his break ups in high school. He never said who, or whether it was a boy or girl. It confused her, too, because he’s only told her two full stories of dating in high school. One awkward freshman girlfriend, and one senior boyfriend that dumped in right before graduation. Literally, right before everyone was seated to get their diplomas. Beverly doubted he regretted those two.

“Well, he told me once when he was tipsy that he regretted a break up in high school. I don’t know who, though, guys, sorry. I need to ask him about it, actually,” she finally said. “Why do you want to know anyway?”

Stan said, “Bill dated a guy for about a month but he’s never told us who. I was on YouTube looking at the comments on the vlog I put up of us at comic con and fans were speculating that Richie’s that guy.” 

“You and Richie seem pretty close so we were wondering if he told you anything,” Eddie added.

“That’s all I know, guys, sorry. Plus I thought Rich kinda was flirting with you, Eddie.”

A gagging noise and Stan’s laughter was quickly heard, making her smile as Beverly looked at her nails. She then thought of the day they went to comic con. She did notice that Richie and Bill were oddly close, but didn’t think anything of it. Beverly narrowed her eyes at recalling that Richie brings up Bill any time he can. That he made sure to watch all of his videos and support him the best he could with living apart.

“Gross, Bev,” Eddie grumbled and made the redhead snap back to reality.

“Yeah, yeah, you like someone else with curly hair, I know,” Beverly snickered.

“What,” was Stan’s even yet shocked voice while Eddie was trying to sputter out an answer.

“Kind of not kidding, but anyway, I best be going so my date doesn’t get suspicious. I’ll question Richie about it some and see if I come up with anything, okay? Talk to you losers later!”

After getting a farewell and a good luck from both boys, Beverly hung up and used the bathroom. She washed her hands and then walked back out to finish the boring date. Beverly plastered a smile on her face as she sat back down and got ready to tell a spur of lies about her sickly mother in the hospital. Because, of course, her date just had to question her.

Ben sat at his desk in his apartment in front of his computer, going through random website platforms to get caught up on whatever the hell as going on in the world and what dramatic thing the Kardashians did now. Harry Styles’ album played on his spotify to fill up the emptiness of his small home, his black lab chewing on a bone a couple feet away. Once in a while, Ben would look over and simply watch his dog for a few seconds before having his eyes glued to the computer screen once again.

The muscular male was humming along to “Meet Me In the Hallway” as he scrolled through his slightly abandoned FaceBook page. He only got on there to like posts his family put up and share a few news about his favorite singers and bands. Other than that, Ben never got on the Book of Faces - as his grandmother had called it a few months ago. But he stopped short at seeing a title of one of the articles popping up on his feed.

SEVEN HOOLIGANS RUIN COMIC CON

Ben eyes narrowed slightly. He had a sneaking suspicion on what it was about. Still, though, he clinked the link and waited for it to load. When it was done loading, he looked at the author’s name. Penny Wise. What the hell kind of name is that, he asked himself. He just shook his head and went on reading about the ‘hooligans’ at comic con.

“There is no doubt in my mind that a good portion of the population know of YouTubers and their fame that basically none of them should have. Not many of them are good influences on the children of today’s world and that is clearly shown when seven hooligans were seen at comic con causing a scene the entire time they were there.

“The three guys of BES Vids (Bill Denbrough, Eddie Kaspbrak, and Stan Uris), famous for their obnoxious jokes, were with make up and FX artist Beverly Marsh; YouTube sensation who shouldn’t be singing in the first place, Mike Hanlon; historically inaccurate Ben Hanscom-.”

“Rude,” Ben muttered, “And I’m very accurate, asshole, and my best friend is amazing at singing.”

“-and last but not least, the lead singer of The Records, Richie Tozier, who is the most terrible influence of them all.

“These seven 20 to 21 year olds constantly made ruckus at comic con. Some by-standers claim they had snuck in alcohol to the convention, and were drunk. Not only that, but they had a child with them, obviously someone’s little brother. They had even lost the kid at one point. Seven adults lost a child. How does that happen?–.”

Ben groaned and stopped reading there, only skimming the rest of the article and catching other false and ridiculous claims. The guy said that they had been asked to leave at one point and they all refused; it was bullshit. People actually encouraged their weird antics. They were never drunk. They found Georgie less than a minute later after they had lost the kid. Multiple fans came up and asked for pictures.

Then the guy called Beverly a slut for being with all boys and claimed that Richie was extremely high, too, and that he made out with a few fans. Plus even more fake truths. The article was complete bullshit. But by the number of shares and comments, a lot of people actually believed the bullshit. He chewed on the inside of his cheek and quickly sent the link to Mike on FaceBook messenger. The response wasn’t too quick, maybe five minutes later.

Mike Hanlon: WHAT THE FUCK, THAT’S ALL BULLSHIT

Ben Hanscom: Exactly why I shared it. The others need to know this is out there; it’s getting more popular by the minute, Mike.

Mike Hanlon: Making a gc with their numbers + ours. Maybe our hang out will come sooner than we thought. We need to talk about this together.

Ben Hanscom: Damn I know. Fuck this shit, man

Mike Hanlon: YEAH YOU ARE VERY HISTORICALLY ACCURATE IN YOUR VIDEOS, FUCK THIS MAN, FUCK ANY ONE WHO AGREES WITH HIM, I’M P I S S E D NO ONE TALKS ABOUT MY BFF LIKE THAT

Ben Hanscom: Mike I love you but send the link to the others already so we can all yell about this together.

Mike Hanlon: Right, yeah, on it.

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