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The first time Billy met Stu it was a few weeks after Billy had moved to Woodsboro. He had been at the playground, his dad was supposed to be watching him while is mom ran errands, but he had shooed Billy away almost as soon as they had gotten there. Billy didn’t really care, his dad always made him feel nervous and uncomfortable anyway, so he went to go play in the sandbox. He was just burying his fingers in it, feeling the texture, making little lines in the sand when a group of older boys had begun picking on him.
He tried ignoring them, but that just seemed to make them mad and Billy was promptly shoved face first into the sand, it was horrible, the itchy grainy feeling on his face and in his hair made him want to cry. He tried to flap his hands, shake the dirt off, but that just made them make fun of him more. They were loud and they were touching him and shoving him and his skin felt itchy and before he knew it he had begun crying. Embarrassed and angry he bit one of the kids holding him making them let him go and ran.
He didn’t get very far, just to the edge of the trees at the far corner of the playground when he was snatched by the back of his overalls and shoved roughly into a tree. He felt like he was going to pass out, vision blurred by tears, and breaths coming in heaving gasps, and fingers pulling violently at his hair.
“HEY! Leave him alone, jerks!” A new voice shouted, and Billy heard what sounded like hard plastic connecting with skin.
“Watch it! You little germ!” Billy looked up to see another boy, about his age, standing over one of the bullies, wiffle ball bat in hand and wheezing slightly.
“What's the matter, wheezy? Having trouble breathing?” One of the others cooed reaching out to shove the other kid while his friend got off the ground.
“You gonna call your big sister on us? Oh wait, she doesn’t want to spend time with you, does she? Bet you’re here by yourself huh, Macher?”
“No, he’s not actually,” A new voice called.
“Oh look, its Dewey, what are you gonna do about it?” With a new target to pick on they converged, leaving Billy to tug on his hair trying desperately to calm down. Stu stood off to the side for a minute, watching as the other boy pulled on his hair and rocked back and forth slightly. His mama sometimes had to help him when he got too icked out in public. Like when things were too loud or too bright. She told him it was called....sensory...over...overload? Overstim...something like that. He guessed the other probably wouldn't want to be touched, but maybe he could to talk to him? Before he could though Randy and Tatum were there and Randy must have recognized the kid curled up on the ground because he walked right over to him.
“Hey, you okay?” Another voice asked. Billy recognized this one as a kid he went to school with named Randy. He couldn’t answer though, everything was too loud. Eventually he heard the sounds of a fight breaking out and Randy ran over to join the fight along with some girl he vaguely recognized as Tatum, who had yanked the bat out of the boy he didn’t recognize hands. Then parents came rushing over breaking everything up and the three bullies were led away while Dewey was busy talking to another parent, probably his. Then the boy he didn’t know was in front of him.
“Hey. You’re new right? I’m Stuart, but everyone calls me Stu! I wasn’t in school this week because I got sick, but I’m better now. What’s your name?”
Stu was loud, but no so much that he made the already staticy feeling in Billy’s head worse, and he hadn’t tried to touch him. He sounded winded though, like he was struggling to breathe.
“Bi…Billy,” he managed to get out, staring at the ground. He heard the other shuffle then two puffing sounds followed by sharp gasps. Curious he glanced up and recognized the item the other boy was holding because his mom needed one sometimes so she made him remember what it looked like.
“You…have an inhaler?” He asked, slowly letting go of his own hair.
“Yeah, my asthma flares up bad when I’m sick or just getting over being sick. I’m technically supposed to be resting, but I was bored so Dewey, Tatum's older brother, was watching us and agreed to take us all to the park for a bit. That’s Tyler’s mom he’s talking to. He was one of the jerks, she’s the only one who knows her son’s a jerk and actually grounds him, but his dad is a jerk too and keeps ungrounding him.”
Billy nodded taking all this in, kind of, but mostly just grateful for the distraction. “You have some sand in your hair, can I get it for you?”
He froze for a moment, he really didn’t want to be touched, but he also wanted the sand out of his hair. Slowly he nodded his head and watched as Stu reached forwards carefully and gently ruffled his fingers through his hair, dislodging the sand. “Where are your parents?”
Billy shrugged, he didn’t want to be near his dad right now. “Do you….do you want to stay with us until we find them?” Stu asked gently, picking at the edges of his long sleeves.
“I want my mama.”
“Do you know her number?” Billy looked up and then quickly looked away after making eye contact with Dewey. He shook his head, fingers picking nervously at the skin of his arm. Stu noticed and reached down, soft fabric brushed the brunette’s fingers and he glanced down. Stu had covered his hand with his sleeve and was offering it to him. He gripped the fabric, Stu seemed nice. He didn’t ask why Billy was doing that, didn’t even seem to care. Slowly he started to pick at the fabric, like Stu had done earlier, and the other practically vibrated with excitement. His hand not being held flapping wildly. Dewey hummed, said that Billy should stay with them until they found his mom, but that his parents were on the way to pick them up after the fight. Huffing and pouting over the inevitable grounding awaiting them they trudged back up the hill to the playground again and over to some benches to await their fate. Billy hadn't even noticed that he was technically holding Stu's hand the whole walk back.
Stu kept up light chatter, fielding Randy whenever he’d get too close or a little too loud. “I’m just saying, Batman is waaaay cooler than Superman.”
“You’re only saying that because you only watch the show. The comics are totally cool. I mean it doesn’t matter, they’re like super besties anyway. So they get to be cool together."
"And Wonder Woman is better than both of them anyway," Tatum added, earning an eye roll from Randy but Stu looked excited to start talking about a new character. Before he could though, Billy's small voice piped up from beside him, where he had been sitting and listening, fingers still idly picking away at Stu's sleeve.
“You….you have Batman comics?”
“Yeah! Dr. Setter just gave me a bunch of new ones for my birthday a few weeks ago and I haven’t read them all yet. You wanna come over and read them sometime?”
Billy nodded shyly, he never went to another kid’s house before. He never really wanted to. Eventually Mrs. Riley pulled up and marched over to them. “What on earth happened? A fight, Dwight? Really?”
“Mrs. Linda, those other boys were really mean and they were picking on our friend Billy and then they pushed me so I hit him with the bat. Dewey was just protecting me. I started the fight.” Stu interjected, standing up to face the adult, though he quickly looked down at this shoes, kicking the dirt idly. He hadn't meant to start a fight, he'd just went to go get the ball from where it had rolled by the trees and saw those jerks picking on some one and his....impulse? He thinks that's the word his dad used, his impulse control slipped. He'd done the first thing that had come to his mind.
“They totally deserved it mom! Like they even tried to call me names and when Stu’s asthma got bad they stole his inhaler! I took the bat and beat him until he let it go though, and Randy kept throwing dirt at them, but he missed and now my skirt’s dirty.” Tatum added, really driving home how awful the other boys had been to them.
“Enough! I love that you stood up for your friends but please, next time, just get an adult.”
“My dad says if you let someone else fight for you, they’ll never leave you alone because they’ll know you’re a wimp,” Billy mumbled. Mrs. Riley turned towards him and he looked away.
“He’s…..he’s not entirely wrong. Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself. However, you do not hit others with the wiffle ball bat. Now, Randy, Stuart, your parents couldn’t get away from work, so you’ll be coming with me until after dinner. Are you alright now Stuart, asthma not bothering you? You don’t sound like you’re wheezing. I knew I shouldn’t have let Dewey take you to the park.” Billy blinked slowly, struggling to understand how this woman had gone from berating them to fretting over Stu so quickly.
“Mrs. Linda, Billy can’t find his parents. Can he come with us too?” Stu asked, letting his friends mom fuss over him. Linda Riley paused, looking down at the new boy and the way he was picking at Stu’s sleeve and staring a hole into the ground. Her heart melted a little for him. “Did your parents bring you to the park, sweetie?”
“My….my dad did. But he told me to go away so he could make a phone call. I don’t know where he is.” Billy mumbled, shrugging, like his father just letting his seven year old wander off in a new town was no big deal. Before Mrs. Riley could respond a woman was rushing towards them shouting Billy’s name.
“There you are! You’re all dirty, what happened? Are you hurt?” Billy folded into her arms, letting himself be lifted and held to her chest in a tight hug.
“I’m okay, mama.”
“See Nancy, I told you he’s fine. I only took my eyes off him for a few minutes.”
“It’s been an hour, Hank! You were supposed to be home an hour ago!”
Sensing the impending argument, Mrs. Riley stepped between the two and offered her hand to the woman now holding Billy. “Ma’am, I’m Linda Riley, my kids were just telling me there was a fight earlier. I think you’re son was being picked on by some local trouble makers. From my understanding he’s perfectly fine though.” Billy's mother dropped her hand quickly pulling back to start checking Billy over again frantically at the word 'fight'.
“My baby! A fight? Oh, dear, I’m sorry your children got involved. Were they hurt?” She switched her attention to the other children standing around, scanning them for injuries as well now that she was sure Billy hadn't been hurt.
“They volunteered themselves. Apparently, Stuart here got the bright idea to swing first and talk things out second. The only ones injured appeared to be the bullies, and it’s mostly bruised egos.” She responded, placing her hand firmly on Stu's shoulder, causing him to blush and nod shyly at Billy's mother.
“Mama, Stu said he has Batman comics? Can I go to his house and read them? Please?” Nancy Loomis paused, shocked at her son’s request. He’d never made a friend before.
“Well, that would be up to his mother.” She said slowly, glancing at Linda questioningly.
“She’s working at the moment, so I’m taking Stuart and Randy home with me. I can give you her number if you’d like?”
“That would be wonderful! We just moved here a few weeks ago and I haven’t had a chance to get to know any of the other moms yet.”
“Nancy, I have to go, the office called, I won’t be home for dinner. You got the boy?” Hank Loomis interrupts, sounding agitated. Nancy rolls her eyes, frustrated but trying to play it off in front of the other woman and her children.
“Yes, Hank. I’ve got our son, apparently better than you do.” Her husband didn’t acknowledge her dig at him and simply left, cell phone in hand as he made his way to his car.
Linda Riley smiled sympathetically and handed over Carrie Macher’s number. “Have a good night, hun. Kids, let’s go, everyone in the car.” The kids all turned to pile into the van when Stu turned back, tapped lightly on Billy’s leg and smiled.
“I’ll be back in school tomorrow. If we have any classes together, we can sit next to each other and be best friends. Okay?”
“Okay.” Billy agreed, barely peeking at Stu from his mom's shoulder, voice small and shy but sounding happy none the less. Stu’s smile got bigger and he waved goodbye as he ran off to join the others.
“I’m so proud of you, Billy. You made a friend.” Nancy said, bouncing him a little in her arms as she walked off to her own car.
Billy just shrugged, cheeks pink as his mom carried him off to her car. He doesn’t know it then, but that feeling of warmth is going to become so heavily associated with Stu that eventually he can’t imagine feeling warm without him. Like the sunshine at the park today.