Chapter Text
“God, I don’t understand why you had to drag me to this bullshit nerd-con thing.” Stu grumbled through his teeth as he maneuvered through the sea of undead geeks. He had been dragged along by his older half-brother, Pete, and the rest of the dumb club members, Bill, Josh, and Jerry.
“‘Cause, you can’t be out in public without a chaperone, remember?” Pete retorted, shoulder-checking a kid out of his way. “Plus, I thought you liked zombies?”
Stu rolled his eyes, he wasn’t surprised that his brother knew nothing of what he liked, no one ever did. “You like zombies, I like vampires,” he corrected, then added under his breath: “Dumbass.”
“Quit it, goth and gother.” Bill snapped, turning to the two brothers with a glare. “I don’t want to hear you two freaks arguing about shit that doesn’t pertain to the club.”
“One, I’m not in the club,” Stu pointed out, stepping closer to Bill to hopefully instigate something. “Two, I thought zombies and vampires were under the ‘horror’ aspect?” he smirked.
Before Bill could argue with something hypocritical and before Stu could throw the first punch to his bespectacled face, another guy walked up to them, wearing a green hoodie and the zombie makeup everyone else was wearing, along with two of his friends behind him.
“What’s going on in the Smelltingville Club? Another argument?” he asked rhetorically. “Typical.”
“Oh, great.” Bill rolled his eyes. “Look what you did, Stuart. You brought freak-fucker Gary over here.”
“What I did?!” Stu yelled, appalled by Bill’s baseless accusation. He stepped closer. “You mother-”
“Who’s this? He looks too cool to be in your dumb club.” Gary pointed out Stu with a jerk of his chin.
Stu stopped in surprise, his eyes wide. He had never had anyone call him cool before, only a “freak” or a “fag”. He was both but that didn’t make it less isolating.
“That’s Stu, my brother.” Pete spoke up, keeping a close eye on Gary for some reason. “He’s not in our club, just a tag-along.”
“Stu.” Gary repeated. “Cool.” Then he walked off with his friends, leaving the club in confusion and Stu with a racing heart.
He had never felt this way before, especially not for someone as basic looking as Gary, no offense to him. The club kept walking to the race area, Stu following a couple feet behind.
While standing, Stu tuned out the conversation they were having and the announcer, his mind on Gary instead. He had seen him around school, he was a football player, he would’ve never guessed he liked geeky stuff too.
The whistle was blown and everyone rushed past, while Stu just walked. In an instant, everything went to chaos. Some prick had tripped a racer and it had caused a near catastrophic domino effect where everyone fell to the ground, hard and fast. Stu had been shoved so hard it knocked the wind out of his lungs but thankfully he had landed on someone when he fell with minimal injury.
“Hey, you okay?” He recognized the voice immediately. He raised his head up to see that it was Gary who had broken his fall. “That would’ve been a nasty fall.”
Stu stayed quiet, staring at Gary as he felt his face heat up with embarrassment. He couldn’t believe his luck, landing on this guy, right on his chest too.
“I… I… uhm…” he stammered dumbly as Gary smiled warmly at him.
“You don’t have to say anything, I just hope you’re alright.” Gary reassured as he stood up and gently grabbed Stu’s arm to help him up with him. “I’m-”
“Gary. I remember.
“And you’re…” Gary paused to think for a moment. “Stu, right?”
“Right.” Stu smiled, feeling his face heat up again. He couldn’t believe that a jock like Gary would notice a goth like Stu, let alone remember his name.
They stood, staring in each other's eyes while the zombie hoard around them went after the dope who caused this whole fiasco. Then Gary cleared his throat.
“So, uhm…” he rubbed the back of his neck. “I was wondering if maybe you’d like to… hang out? Like, outside of school?”
Stu froze. “Wha- Like, actually?” he laughed in disbelief.
Gary nodded, smiling softly at Stu as he eagerly awaited his answer.
Though, before Stu could answer, he was grabbed by his arm and quickly dragged away. “C’mon, Stu!” Pete’s voice sounded hurried and slightly fearful as he escaped the angry zombie hoard.
Gary could only watch in confusion and disappointment as the pretty goth boy he wanted to be friends with was practically taken from their conversation.
“Man,” he sighed, stuffing his hands in his hoodie pockets. “That blows.”
. . .
“Damnit, Pete!” Stu yelled as he was rushed into the backseat of his older brother Alice’s car by Pete. “I was talking to someone, you inconsiderate asshole!”
“Screw Gary!” Pete shouted back with a dismissive wave of his hand as he jumped into the passenger seat. “You shouldn’t be talking to that wannabe Gremlin lookalike anyway!”
Stu knew better than to argue but he hated hearing someone insult someone he thought was cute, handsome even, maybe even smokin’ hot.
“What the hell are you two kids bickering about?” Alice spoke up, starting up his beat up truck. “Who’s Gary?”
“Gary is this guy that we saw at the…” he paused. “Whatever nerdy thing we were at, that constantly picks on Pete and his stupid little club.” Stu answered, sinking down in his seat and crossing his arms.
“Be nice, Stubarf,” Alice teased, using a nickname he knew Stu despised.
“I am being nice, especially when it comes to Pete.”
“Shut it, Stuart!” Pete snapped. “You have no right to judge me, you Elvira copycat!”
“Snuff whore!”
“Son of a meth dealer!”
“Hey, hey, hey!” Alice yelled over the both of them. “Quit it, the both of you!”
But the damage had already been done, Pete had brought up the one thing everyone knew not to bring up; Stu’s mother.
Alice glanced back at Stu in the backseat and noticed how he hid his face behind his hair, no doubt crying.
He sighed, frustrated with Pete’s downright inconsiderate words, but didn’t say anything, knowing it would upset his youngest brother even more.
The moment that Alice put his truck in park in the driveway Stu jumped out and ran inside, sprinting upstairs and slamming his bedroom door behind him once he was inside.
He heard his step-mom yell at him about the door but he just screamed back “FUCK YOU!” before falling onto his bed and letting his pillow catch his tears.
Chapter Text
The following week, they were back at school. Stu was skipping his math class and hiding out in a boys’ bathroom stall, trying to roll up a joint but getting scared by every noise he heard.
He held his breath as he heard someone walk in, watching their shoes through the gap under the door. It was no doubt a jock, and he began to panic.
“Stu, I know that’s you.”
Stu froze and immediately recognized the voice. He swore under his breath and hid his joint in the inside pocket of his jacket.
He stepped out sheepishly and looked up at the jock through his lashes. “Hey, Gary.” he mumbled.
Gary smiled at him, trying to show that he wasn’t trying to threaten Stu. “Whatcha doin’?” he asked, leaning against the sink.
“Skipping.” Stu shrugged, then crossed his arms. “What about you?”
Gary sighed. “Needed a break from my P.E. class, the people in there are so annoying.”
The response surprised Stu. “You? The jock?” he chuckled incredulously. “No way.”
“Oh yeah!” Gary laughed as well as he moved to stand next to Stu. “Sometimes I can’t stand them, y’know?”
Stu nodded along, knowing all too well that those cocky athletes were too much to deal with sometimes.
“Hey,” Stu perked up, remembering something. “My answer to your question from the other day? I would love to hang out with you.”
Gary’s eyes widened with surprise and delight. “Actually?”
“Actually.” Stu giggled, amused that Gary was so excited to hang out with him. “Time and place?”
“How does Friday after school at my place sound?” Gary suggested. “I’ll take you there myself.” he puffed out his chest jokingly, making Stu giggle more.
“Sure, I’m off work on Friday so that’s perfect.” Stu wasn’t actually off on Friday, but he needed a break from his dead end job at the comic book store.
Gary smiled brightly, practically lighting up the room, and Stu’s heart. “Great!” he glanced down to see that Stu’s hand was in his jacket. “What are you hiding?”
Stu froze. Gary was going to for sure snitch him out to the principal. “Nothing.” he lied, stepping back.
“It’s definitely something.” Gary stepped forward. “
Stu swallowed nervously and yelped as he found himself backed against the wall, with nowhere to go.
Gary was chest to chest with him, with an eyebrow raised and his arms crossed. “Well?”
Stu couldn’t speak, he was too busy staring up at Gary and trying so hard to not fold for this jock. “It’s nothing,” he insisted. “Back the fuck up.”
“Okay, okay.” And to Stu’s surprise, Gary actually listened to him. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” he apologized, his eyes sincere.
“It’s…” Stu hesitated. “It’s fine.” he sighed before deciding to take his hand out of his jacket finally. “It was a joint.”
“Pardon?”
“Weed, Mary-Jane, pot, do I really need to give you the scientific name?” Stu raised an eyebrow.
Gary looked stunned, like he had no idea people actually smoked weed. It was almost humorous to Stu. Almost.
“It ain’t as bad as people make it out to be.” Stu shrugged before moving to leave the bathroom. “You ever wanna do it, come find me.” Then, he was gone again.
Gary stood there, conflicted. On one hand, he knew he needed to stay out of drugs and weed if he ever wanted to continue his football career. On the other hand, the idea of doing something with Stu was enticing.
He leaned against the wall, watching as the pretty goth boy left his life again, but this time with an invitation.
After a few minutes of wracking his brain about the ethics of smoking marijuana with the school freak, he got up and went to go find him.