No One But You ✔️ Reddie

Three

Richie tried to keep telling himself that they were just friends. The connection he felt with Eddie was platonic, because it had to be. They had just known each other for so long, spent so much time together. They did love each other, but only in the way that friends love each other.

Girls got to say it; he heard them all the time at school. Girls held hands, girls kissed each other and brushed each other's hair and complimented each other. 'I love you.' 'I love you too.' That's all it was, only boys didn't get to do those things together. Boys hit each other, they teased each other, called each other names, competed and cussed and lied to each other. 'I fucked your mom.' 'Fuck you.'

His heart twanged. That didn't seem fair. Sure, it was fun to josh around and fight, and he loved the way that Eddie snorted when he laughed and how his cheeks flushed when he was angry, but he envied a little that girls didn't have to have a reason to be near one another or be nice to each other. Those moments happened every day. Surely that made it easier to figure out who was a friend and who was more. Or perhaps it made it harder.

'Hey, R-R-Richie. Are you r-r-ready to go?' Bill hollered, Quicksilver skidding to a halt on the kerbside. Bev, Stan and Mike were on their bikes beside him.

'Where's Eddie?' Richie asked automatically. Hastily, he added, 'And Ben?'

'They're meeting us there,' Stan said.

Richie started to pedal. Idly, the five meandered through the streets. Richie looked around at each of them.

He looked at Mike, his new friend. He didn't feel the same way about Mike as he did Eddie, but that was probably because he hadn't known him as long, hadn't spent as much time with him.

He looked at Bill, who he had known forever. He saw Bill more like a brother than a friend. Sometimes an annoying, older brother, who always thought he knew better and was a better leader. Not that Richie would ever tell him so. Eddie wasn't like a brother. Eddie was more like another limb.

He looked at Beverly, the only girl of the group. She was beautiful, confident, cool. He didn't feel about her like he did about Eddie, but maybe that's because she was Bill's girl. He wasn't allowed to look at Bev that way. That didn't stop Ben, though.

He looked at Stan. What about Stan? He'd known Stan for as long as he could remember. They were thick as thieves, knew everything about each other. They joked with each other, he was good-looking, he knew how to take a joke but also knew when to take things seriously. He was smart and sensitive, perceptive and could be very brave.

Stan was a quintessential best friend. Yet, his heart didn't stop when he saw Stan's smile, his breath didn't catch when Stan touched him. He didn't think about every instance when Stan had showed him kindness or demanded his attention, he didn't memorise every feature of Stan's face. He didn't think about what it would be like to kiss him. 

Outside the movie theatre, they chained up their bikes. Richie scanned for Eddie's bike, but he couldn't see it. They wandered inside. There was Eddie, already in the queue at the counter, staring up at the price list, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

'Hey Eddie Spaghetti,' Richie greeted, trying to ignore the butterflies in his stomach. 'Where've you been?'

Eddie rolled his eyes. 'Mom dragged me to another doctor's appointment.'

'What'd you do? Stub your toe?' Richie teased.

'Fuck off,' Eddie said, meeting Richie's gaze. 'Do you want ice cream or popcorn?'

Eddie was Richie's best friend. He was the funniest, loudest, cutest, most irritating, most neurotic and most wonderful person he knew. He was his right-hand man, his partner in crime and his arch rival. But he was more than all those things too. Richie knew that he was ridiculously, irredeemably in love with him. His heart sank. That couldn't be good.