It Started With A Kiss { Reddie }

• Calculate That •

He wanted to say something like that. His thoughts were more brave than his mouth. He just couldn't bring himself to say anything other than an excuse.

"Brady, I'm really not in the mood to talk, okay?" The words left Eddie's mouth before his brain could check and make sure any trace of attitude was gone.

"I just want to talk—"

As Brady was mid sentence he had found a good way to escape. He darted past him, only for Brady to pause and grab a hold of Eddie's forearm.

"Dude, you're being so weird. Just let me—"

Eddie stared up with fear as Brady's grip tightened on his arm. He was just about to say something until someone else did.

"Hey!" Their heads simultaneously turned to the door.

Richie dropped his backpack and approached Brady, prying his hand off of Eddie's arm.

"Ever heard of personal space?" He asked him, getting in his face a little.

Eddie rubbed the spot on his arm and noticed a small red spot. He looked up at Richie and then at Brady.

Brady looked annoyed. He looked as though he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't have, even though he hadn't really done anything yet.

"We were just talking." Brady scoffed.

"That's funny. Eddie doesn't look like he wants to talk to you?" Richie turned his head to face Eddie's.

The ladder just turned away, not wanting any part of this.

"Yeah." Richie muttered. "I better not see that again."

Eddie's attention turned back towards Richie as he could hear the aggressiveness in his voice. His gaze darted back and forth between he and Brady.

He didn't have a good feeling at all.

Brady chuckled. "The hell are you gonna do about it?"

As Eddie saw Richie open his big mouth to say something else, Eddie quickly grabbed a hold of his ear.

"Nothing! He won't do anything, right?"

"Ow! Ow!" Richie prayed Eddie's pinch off of his ear and glared at Brady.

Richie could hear the fear and nervousness in Eddie's voice. He wouldn't do anything Eddie didn't want him to do, no matter how much he wanted to beat the hell out of this guy right now.

Richie's scowl faded, and a small smile replaced it. "Yeah, man. No trouble here."

Brady scoffed and shoved past Richie, and exited just as the bell rang.

Shit.

Eddie could finally breathe again, but he was late for class because of this.

"Hey, you okay?" Richie asked.

Eddie shrugged. "Yeah, I-I just need to go get a tardy slip now from the attendance office, and I've gotta explain why I was even late in the first place, which is so embarrassing..."

Richie could see the panic in his eyes and the nervousness in his voice. He was rambling for God's sakes.

"Hey, hey, hey." His hands rest on Eddie's shoulders. "You don't need to do all of that."

Eddie frowned. "But, I do-"

"But, I'm not gonna let you." Richie smiled. "How's about you and I hang out in the bathroom for the rest of this evening?"

Eddie was hesitant.

Richie could see that.

"Look, we can just tell them you were...er—having a panic attack or something? Yeah! And, you can tell them that I was like, helping you or something like that?"

Eddie didn't like the thought of using a panic attack as an excuse to leave class. Sure, he did have them every now and then, but the thought of faking such a terrible pain really made him feel bad.

But, when he looked up at Richie...when he saw how much he cared about him right now; he decided to go along with it.

"Okay."

Richie had a silent celebration as he grabbed his backpack from off of the floor.

"The hardest part is getting down there without anyone seeing us, so..." he looked around.

"Ah ha!" Richie's eyes lit up as he snatched two of my third period teacher's hall passes from off the little rack.

"You cannot steal those!" Eddie whispered.

"Says who?" He handed Eddie one.

"Says...Says..." Eddie paused. "Me!"

Eddie tried to think about all of the possible outcomes of this action, but he honestly couldn't right now as Richie moved faster than his brain right now.

And, he still sucked at Math.