richie tells only the truth.

ladies and gentlemen; he's outta the closet.

"i no longer have control of what i say, everything i think just spills out of my mouth and i hate it! i hate it!" richie yelped. he gripped the back of eddie's shirt tight around his white knuckles.

"wh.. why would you think like that?!" eddie asked.

"i'm not okay, i need help. i don't want help but i really need it.."

"yeah! serious help! what's going on? what were you talking about in the clubhouse?" eddie asked, toning his voice down a bit and pulling away from the hug, staring down at richie who was trying to avoid eye contact.

richie grabbed eddie's hand before it was too late and shoved it over his own mouth, leaving eddie incredibly confused.

"my mom's really awful to me a lot of the time and my dad's abusive, like maaaad abusive, and i have the fattest, gayest fucking crush on you, eds, aaand im getting AWFUL ptsd from this so please get the fuck off of me and don't hurt me," richie mumbled, but eddie couldn't hear any of it. his hand muffled richie's words.

"richie.. don't- don't do that," eddie fought, pulling his arm away. richie bit his tongue hard to prevent from repeating what he said. his hand gave up, not able to reach up on its own and cover his own mouth.

"sorry," richie gasped and closed his mouth again, not wanting anything else to slip out.

"you can tell me anything. i promise. nothing you say will change the way i see you. i'm here for you. i need you to talk to me. and.. i can keep this a secret! i won't tell the losers," eddie tried to convince the boy.

richie shook his head, his eyes screwed shut. "i can't tell you. it's.. not what you think."

"please?" eddie begged. richie sighed and sat up, eddie crawling off of him.

"fine," richie uttered. but, the second he was free from eddie's grasp, he stumbled to his feet and sprinted away.

"what the fuck?!" eddie screamed, watching him run.

"I'M SORRYY!" richie yelled as he ran. he was glad it wasn't "i'm gay!" at least.

eddie sighed and closed his eyes. "he has no clue where he's going."

little did richie know, he only ran the way he came from, turning around one of the trees and tripping on the root. his fell to his knees and yelped, sucking in a toothy breath.

"no! noo, no!" he cried. richie sat on his behind and grabbed his leg, ripping the leg of the jeans up so that he could see his leg.

it already had a cut in it from his father, and he had busted it open stupidly. he began to cry again, just a lot lighter. he sniffed and took off his hawaiian jacket, fully aware he would regret this later on.

as richie was wrapping the half-shirt around his leg and crying, he heard more rustling.

"is your leg okay?! what happened?" some random kid said, bending next to richie, who looked up, confused as to who that was.

"uhh- oh. no it's not," richie sighed at the fact he just admitted he wasn't alright, and tried to wipe the tears from his face.

the boy looked to the rest of his friends. the others walked closer and gathered around richie, who didn't want to look up and kept his eyes on his leg as he applied pressure.

"rich.."

"don't, mike. please," richie mumbled.

"no you're not. you realize we're not that stupid, right?" beverly said.

"clearly you are, you've believed my stupid lies for years," richie said.

"come again?" ben mumbled.