now or never [reddie au]

21

That night, Richie and Stan lay in Richie's bed, their backs touching. Richie couldn't sleep. He had been too worried about the thought of Eddie leaving. "Stan, are you awake?," Richie whispers. "Mhm.," Stan answers, half asleep.

"What if Eddie forgets about us?," Richie asks.

Stan turns on his other side to look at Richie, "What?"

"He's gonna go to college in New York, and he's gonna make new friends, and he's gonna forget about us."

"I highly doubt he will-"

"Now, I don't know what to do because if I ask him to, you know, actually be my boyfriend, he's eventually gonna leave and long distance never works. But if I don't, I'm gonna regret it."

"Just fucking do it.," Stan mumbles, "I don't know. I'm tired."

"Sorry.," Richie tells Stan, "Goodnight."

Meanwhile, Eddie and Beverly had decided to stay at her house for the night. It was 2 a.m., and they were still awake and bored out of their minds, so Eddie had let Beverly do his makeup. Throughout the process, he was asking how she did it. When she finishes, he picks up a small mirror and looks at it.

"Wow, I look hot!," Eddie says before looking at Beverly, "You should do my makeup for prom."

"I will if you want me to.," Beverly tells him. Eddie takes a few pictures of his makeup before saying, "I'm gonna ask Richie if I should wear makeup to prom."

"Why would he care?," she asks.

Eddie shrugs as he opens his texts with Richie. He didn't expect him to be awake, but he still sent a picture of himself with the message, "bev did my makeup. should i wear makeup to prom?"

Richie was still awake when he had gotten the text. He unlocks his phone and smiles to himself when he sees the picture of Eddie. He looked beautiful. He stares at the picture for a few minutes before replying with, "YES!!!"

"Bev, look!," Eddie tells her as he shows her Richie's reply. Beverly looks at his phone screen, then at him. She hadn't seen Eddie smile like that in almost a year, and even though he had makeup on to hide it, she could just tell that Eddie was blushing.

The next day, Beverly takes Eddie home. She leaves, and Eddie enters his house. "Eddie bear?," Eddie's mom looks over at him, holding an envelope, "This is for you."

"Oh, okay.," Eddie closes the door behind himself before approaching his mom and taking the envelope. He looks at it, and sees that it's from a college he had applied to in New York. He quickly goes into his room and closes his door.

The first thing he does is facetime Mike. Earlier that year, Mike had talked to Eddie about wanting to go to college, but he felt that it would be difficult since he was homeschooled. Eddie had helped him out and told him that they could apply for some of the same colleges together so they wouldn't be alone. NYU was one of them.

"Hey, what's up?," Mike asks on the other end. "Did you get one of these?," Eddie asks, showing him the envelope. "I don't know. Let me go check really quick.," Mike answers, leaving the call for a few seconds. He then comes back holding an envelope, "Yeah, I got one!"

"Are you ready?," Eddie asks. Mike nods and they open the envelopes together. Eddie's eyes widen and Mike's jaw drops, both of their hearts skipping a beat. They look up at each other through their phone screens. "What does yours say?," Eddie asks, his lips curling up into a smile.

"I got in!," Mike smiles, "What about you?"

Eddie nods, "Yeah, me too!"

"Hell yeah!," Mike jumps around excitedly, "I'm going to college!"

"We could be roommates!," Eddie tells him, his eyes lighting up.

"Yeah! It's gonna be so fun! Man, I can't wait to tell everyone that I got into a college! I'm gonna go tell my grandfather. I'll call you back!," Mike cheers before hanging up on Eddie.

Eddie then remembered how Richie had gotten upset over the idea of him going to New York last night. Of course, he loved Richie, but Eddie didn't want to stay in Derry forever. He could come back and visit whenever he had the chance.

Mike sends the losers a text in the group chat that he and Eddie had a surprise for them, and wanted to meet them at the clubhouse. That afternoon, everyone went to the clubhouse and sat in a circle inside.

"So," Beverly looks at Eddie, then Mike, "What's the surprise?"

"Well," Mike answers, "We both got accepted to college!"

While everyone congratulated the two of them, Richie looks at Eddie and asks, "In New York?"

Eddie nods, noticing Richie had the same expression on his face that he did the day before. "Nice. I'm happy for you.," Richie smiles at him. "Thanks.," Eddie smiles back.

"I'm gonna step outside for a second.," Richie tells everyone before leaving the clubhouse. Everyone but Eddie was too busy talking to Mike to notice. Shortly after, Eddie follows him outside.

Eddie finds Richie sitting in his car and knocks on the window of the passenger seat, "Richie?"

Richie looks at Eddie and unlocks the passenger door. Eddie gets in Richie's car. Richie had just started playing music.

"What's wrong?," Eddie asks. Richie doesn't answer because he know that Eddie knows what's wrong.

"New York isn't far from here.," Eddie tells him.

"It's seven hours.," Richie tells him.

"Everyone else will still be here."

"That's not the point, Eds."

"Then what is it?"

"I love you a lot, Eddie!," Richie says, his heart racing.

"Okay? I love you, too-"

"No, Eddie!," Richie raises his voice, "I mean, I'm in love with you! I have been forever and I've been too scared to tell you, and now I fucked up because you're leaving and this conversation won't matter because you'll go to school in New York and forget about me-"

"Richie!," Eddie interrupts him.

"What?," Richie looks at Eddie.

Eddie grabs the collar of Richie's shirt and presses his lips against Richie's, kissing him. He then pulls away and looks into Richie's eyes, telling him, "How could I forget about you, trashmouth?"

Although Eddie had pulled away, Richie could still feel Eddie's lips on his. The song playing from his radio was "Everyday" by Buddy Holly, the line, "Every day seems a little longer, every day, love's a little stronger,"blasting through the speakers of Richie's car, as if this was meant to happen this way, despite the awful timing. In that moment, everything that Richie had been scared of disappeared. This was the moment Richie learned to live in the moments that he had with Eddie instead of dwelling on the moments he'd soon have to spend without him.

"You better come back to me, okay?," Richie says to Eddie as he puts a hand on Eddie's cheek, "You looked cute last night, by the way."

"I will come back, don't worry.," Eddie assures him before Richie kisses him again.

///

yall this chapter actually turned out so cute i-