✓ | TEENS AND THINGS → richie tozier ²

twelve

"What is your problem with me, Tozier?" Spencer asked. "Your girlfriend seems to love me."

Richie clenched his hands into fists, and took a step towards Spencer, saying in a dark voice, "Hey pal, don't know if you know or not, but she's my girl. Not yours."

Spencer raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Yeah." Richie said forcefully, and Spencer smirked. "I wouldn't be so sure."

He shoved into Richie's shoulder as he walked past him, and Richie bit his lip so angrily he could taste blood, continuing to his last class and resisting the urge to turn around and murder Spencer Allen.

~

Ash hurriedly put her books in her locker, excited to be out of school for the day and wanting to get to Richie as fast as she could.

As she put her math book up, someone tapped on her shoulder, and she whirled around.

"Woah, it's just me!" Spencer said, shooting her a quirky smile.

Ash gave him a slight wave, and continued putting her books in her locker. "Uh, hey Spencer."

"Hey." He said, and watched her. "Are you in a rush?"

She smiled ruefully at him. "Actually I am. I'm meeting Rich after school, so. . ." She trailed off, turning back to her bag, and a dark shadow passed over Spencer's face but was gone as quickly as it had come.

He turned and reached into his backpack. "Actually, I was wondering if you could help me with some of my math homework? You're a lot smarter than me in math."

She looked up at him, biting her lip. "Well. . ."

Spencer tilted his head at her. "Pleeease?"

Ash sighed, looking anxiously at the school doors, and relented. "Fine. But this has to be fast, Spencer."

Spencer nodded. "Oh yeah, of course."

Ash reluctantly pulled out her math book and Spencer snaked an arm around her shoulders, using that hand to flip the pages of her book.

"I think it's page 32." He said, and they found the page, Spencer leaving his arm on her shoulders as they peered over the book together.

Meanwhile, Richie checked the watch on his wrist for what felt like the billionth time, heaving a groan.

"Where are you, gorgeous?" He asked aloud, and then he left the bike rack, entering the school to look for her.

He roamed the hallways, eventually finding the one near her locker, and squinted around for her.

As he looked, he heard voices coming from the end of the hallway, and his forehead creased as he walked to the end, turning the corner.

He stopped dead, and felt all the blood drain from his face at once.

Standing at her locker, were Ash and Spencer Allen, his arm draped around her as they looked down at something together, Spencer leaning into her as her locker lazily hung open, her backpack still inside.

Richie stood completely still as Ash laughed at something he murmured to her, and he took a step forward; to confront her, to punch him.

And then, he changed his mind.

Rage pulsing through his entire body, he turned on his heel, and stormed away, feeling the blood pounding in his ears.

He shoved open the doors to the school, and yanked his bike from the bike rack, slinging himself across the seat and beginning to pedal furiously away from the school, away from his girlfriend.

As he rode, he couldn't feel anything. Nothing but complete and total anger.

She would find him.

Christ, she always found him. No matter what he fucking tried to do, she found him.

So as he pulled up to his house and dropped his bike carelessly on the driveway and let himself in, he thought, Let her.

He reached in the fridge and opened up a can of beer, downing the whole thing at once and grabbing another; slumping down onto his couch into the living room.

Fucking let her.

see you next chapter.