coy ➳ Reddie

Four

"No, he's not. Just recently he is. All emotional and shit."

"What do you say? Prank him again tomorrow?" 

No, please leave him alone. Richie thought, as if maybe they could read his mind, and would listen to him. But his mouth said this:

"Sure. That would be fun."

And the next day, they did. 

  ♚ 

Richie was with Christopher and James. They were walking up to Eddie, who was alone at his locker, which he was trying to open. Richie noted how he didn't look sad, or on-edge from the mud incident. He looked deep in thought, not caring about what happened. 

He didn't know what his friends were going to do to Eddie. He was small and frail, though, so he hoped that they weren't going to hurt him. 

They're not going to hurt him, though, right? They're jerks, but they're not violent. Richie thought.

And they didn't hurt him. Christopher simply leaned on the locker next to Eddie, and James approached him from behind. Richie stayed back, just watching, remorse overwhelming him.

"Hey, Eddie." he said. "What're you doing?"

Eddie's eyes widened, and he didn't look up. He instead fiddled with his inhaler that he held in his hand.

"I said, what are you doing?" 

Eddie couldn't speak. Nervousness was all he felt, and it seemed to glue him in place. 

"Why don't you ever talk?"

Eddie felt himself shake his head, and mutter "No."

"No? No what?"

James then grabbed Eddie's fanny pack, and snatched his inhaler. The small boy's heart filled with fear, and he turned around, facing James, who he didn't even realize was there before. Eddie looked around desperately, trying to see if anybody was coming to help him, but everyone was either staring, or ignoring. Richie was ignoring, too.

"Please..." Eddie managed to choke out. He felt his throat starting to close up. He could have an asthma attack any moment.

"What? I'm just looking." James sneered, and unzipped his fanny pack. He stuck his hand in it, and began looking through it. "Hmm... These things look pretty important." He then flipped the fanny pack upside down, and shook it until all of its contents lay splayed out on the dirty tile floor.

"I'm sorry." Eddie said. He felt salty tears cascading down his face.

"What?" asked James. 

"I said I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I'm sorry. I'm not looking for trouble. Please stop."

Richie felt more and more guilt and sadness for the small boy. So he walked to art class, and felt Eddie's desperate eyes follow him until he was out of sight. James kicked at the spilled pills and walked away with Christopher. Everyone else in the hall walked to their first hour classes, disappointed that the show was over.

Mike walked in to school late, and saw the scene in front of him. Eddie was on the ground, all of his medical things scattered across the ground. He was alone, and quickly shoving all of his stuff back into his fanny pack. He was crying. Concern rushed over Mike's emotions, and he swiftly ran over to the paltry boy on the ground.

"Eddie, what happened?" Mike asked, immediately kneeling down and helping him pick up the mess. The first hour bell rang, and they were both late.

"They spilled my stuff out, and embarrassed me..."