mixtape (reddie)

Chapter 23

The two boys grin at each other and decide that they should be getting to school. Richie suggests skipping the whole day, but Stan reminds him that they're going to be watching a movie in History today, so Richie goes just so he can pick up on a few Yankee accent tricks.

At lunchtime, Richie doesn't think anything related to Eddie. He is giddy with the idea of seeing Stan, his new best friend, his new best friend that he can kiss. That changes things, makes Stan more exciting than Beverly ever was, and closer than Eddie ever got. Richie heads into the cafeteria with a spring in his step, the universe correcting itself as he finally begins to feel as if he is happy.

I don't need Eddie. I don't. I don't need him to like me, no, I don't. Stan Uris makes jokes with me, and he lets me kiss him. I won't feel lonely as long as he is around.

Richie grins when he sees Stan and Bill sitting at their usual table, their lunches looking like complete opposites. Stan always brings home-packed lunch, while Bill takes the chance with the cafeteria food. Richie slides a chair up next to Stan, sitting real close and throwing his arm around the boy.

"Hellow fellas," Richie tries to sound like a New Yorker from the 1950's, "What a coupl'a fine folk like you handsome devils doin' in these pahts'a town."

Richie picks up a pencil from Stan's notebooks and tucks it into his mouth like a fake cigar, which earns a gagging noise to the left of the table.

"Richie, that's disgusting, do you know how many bacterial germs are on Stan's hands? You don't know where they've been!" Eddie takes his seat down at the table, his authoritarian voice taking over.

"Oh, dahlin', I know where they've been," Richie turns and grins at Stan, reaching over to tickle the boy's tummy.

Stan frowns and slaps Richie's hands away, saying "Asshole. You forget your medication today, Richie?"

Though, when Bill looks away and starts asking Richie about the new game being put into the arcade, Stan quietly smiles to himself, and Eddie is the only person to see it.

It doesn't feel good to be replaced, Eddie thinks. Especially not so quickly. Was he lying to me all this time?

Eddie silently starts to divide his lunch, splitting things down the middle so he can give them to Richie. Then, he looks over, and he sees Richie preying on Stan's lunch like a vulture waiting for a rabbit to drop dead.

Eddie shakes his head. It's not like Richie and him were going steady, so there's no need to feel jealous. Richie is just his friend, and that's all they've ever been. Richie is just a very good friend. That's all.

After lunch, Richie decides he doesn't want to finish the rest of the day, so he tries to find Stan in the halls between fifth and sixth period. Though, he does find Bill, and Bill is more than ready to avoid his math class after forgetting to do his homework.

"Do you want to go out to Mike's?" Richie asks once they're off school property. Richie and Bill ride double on Bill's massive bike, Richie admiring the silver gleam in the winter sunlight.

"Do you wuh-want to go t-t-to the Qwuh-quarry?" Bill asks instead.

"Are you fucking insane?" Richie tucks his chin over Bill's shoulder, his needy, desperate hands sliding around Bill's middle. "It's December, dipshit. It's probably frozen over."

"Ice s-s-skating," Bill shrugs as if it makes perfect sense. Bill Denbrough has a confidence in everything that he says despite the stutter, and that is the sole reason as to why he is the leader of the losers.

"Okay," Richie says, burrowing his face into the crook of Bill's neck, exhaling muffled breaths. "Ice skating."

Bill rides his bike easily, the only person in the world with the capability to handle a bicycle so much larger than their own body. He doesn't care, he rides with ease. There are moments that Richie feels as if the whole bike will tip over whenever they take a particularly sharp corner, but Bill always steadies them out. For this, Richie will trust Bill Denbrough with just about everything.