Just friends // Reddie

18

⚠️TW: talks of sexual abuse⚠️

Mike was at a loss of words.

He had no idea Richie was going through this of all things. He knew his friend didn't have the best dad, but all he knew was that he was a privileged prick who was racist and homophobic, not an abuser.

But that's who Wentworth Tozier was.
An abusive father.

All Mike could do was hold his friend as he cried into his shirt. All he could do was comfort his best friend. But that's all Richie needed at the moment. All he needed was to be comforted.

Richie was calming down, again. He was drained from the days events and how much he had cried, but he did feel a lot better after talking to Mike. He took a sip of hot cocoa and let out a sigh. "Thank you Mikey. For letting me talk to you and for this amazing cocoa." He said, laughing a little.

Mike smiled and rubbed his friends back. "Of course rich, you can talk to me anytime and I can make cocoa anytime you want too."

The two sat in a comfortable silence as they drank their hot cocoa and ate some cookies. It was the type of silence Richie wished he had at home, a silence where he wasn't straining his ears to notice the slightest noise.

Richie set his mug down and looked at the other boy. "Do you think I could stay here for a couple days?" He asked softly and played with the handle of the mug.

Mike offered a soft smile and nodded. "Yes you can rich, you're always welcome. Plus, I could use the company. It's been a little quiet around here." He paused, not sure if he should ask the question he'd been wanting to ask.

The ravenette smiled and nodded. "Coolio. Thanks Mikey." He said before raising an eyebrow as he noticed his friends apprehension. "What is it?"

Mike let out a soft sighed and shrugged. "I was just wondering about your mom. You've never talked about her."

Richie shrugged a little and ran a hand through her hair. "I don't know much about her. Dad says she left after she gave birth to me and hadn't heard from her since. All I know is her name is Maggie, we'll Margret legally and she was born and raised in Derry but went to college some where upstate."

Mike nodded a little and jumped as he heard a phone go off.

Richie jumped a little as well before realizing it was his own phone. He pulled it out of his pocket to reveal a text from eddie.

Eds 💛: hey! I'm hanging out with Carter, otherwise I totally would've gotten ice cream with you. Maybe next time.

Richie sighed and shut his phone off before setting it down. He barely got to hang out with his best friend lately, he was too preoccupied with his boyfriend. Who shouldn't be his boyfriend because it's not him.

Mike raised an eyebrow as he stood up to put the mugs in the sink. "May I ask who that was?" He asked as he walked into the kitchen.

"It was eddie. I had texted him asking if he wanted to get ice cream with me like two hours ago and he finally responded that he can't because he's with his stupid boyfriend." Richie ranted, ending with a huff.

Mike put the cookies away before walking back out to his friend. "Oh, I see. How about we go get ice cream? Or we can go visit my sheep. Or do whatever you want. I'm cool with whatever."

Mike knew his friend was hurting because of Eddie. Who wouldn't when the person they love is dating someone else? He seemed to be the only one of the losers to really notice.

Ben and Bev started dating so they were in their 'honeymoon' phase as everyone liked to call it, and Stan and Bill were together, so it was just Mike and Richie left.

Although they were all still really close and cared for each other, they didn't seem to quite grasp the fact that Richie still had feelings for eddie even though Eddie's dating someone. Maybe it's because they got to date the one they loved or maybe they just didn't understand the pain since they've never experienced it.

Because of that, they didn't know how to help Richie or how to comfort him. They just didn't talk about his feeling for eddie, they avoided them because of that. Mike was the only one who let Richie talk about how he felt about Eddie and how frustrated he was that Carter got to be with him instead.

Richie snapped Mike out of his thoughts. "Let's go visit the sheep. The cocoa and cookies filled me up and I wanna see Betty." He said as he stood up.

Mike laughed and nodded. "Sure thing Rich. Betty's doing great by the way. I think she's missed you though."

Betty was Richies sheep Mike had let him name. He let all the losers name a sheep, except Carter since he was wasn't apart of the group at the time. Betty was the runt of the flock, which is why Richie had picked her as his sheep. She had stood out to him.

Maybe she'd be able to comfort him as well.

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Who still doesn't know how to end chapters??
Meeeeeee