cliché || reddie ✔️

thirty eight

Just as if he's trapped in a nightmare, stuck and unable to move.

"Eddie," Richie breaths out, and all he's tried to keep locked in comes undone, "Eddie. I just don't want you to leave. You can't go."

Eddie frowns, a hand lifting out of the water to weave his fingers through Richie's dripping wet hair. He looks just as sad as Richie feels.

"I don't wanna go either," he admits softly. "But you remember what we talked about."

Richie breaths in deeply, the weight of the water around him suddenly becoming too much. He swims past Eddie to get to where he can touch, which isn't very far from the others.

"I remember, I'm not that forgetful," Richie says, turning around and drifting through the water with Eddie right in front of him.

"Good," Eddie says and a smile comes up into his face. It doesn't last very long, faltering until it's completely dropped. "The plans aren't going away, are they?"

"Beverly would hold us accountable," Richie says. "Besides, I would be leaving Derry even if I were in a casket. I'm not staying in that shithole a second longer than needed."

Eddie cracks a full smile and looks over to where the girl in question is, floating through the water with strands of hair falling into her face. She laughs out at something Ben says to her, the happiness radiating off her so greatly Richie feels his own spirits pick up.

"She would probably slap us if we backed out of getting that apartment with her and Ben," Eddie says.

Richie laughs, saying, "Oh, without hesitation."

Eddie dissolves into giggles, a hand reaching up to cover his mouth but only to quickly fall back when he starts to dip. He looks at Richie once again, just looks, with that darling smile of his.

He looks as if he's going to say something. Richie can spot the internal debate from miles away, but before Richie could hear what's on Eddie's mind, the boy swims to close the space between them.

He reaches out and takes Richie's whole head into both hands. Before Richie could react, he feels Eddie pick up his legs and his whole weight is being put onto Richie and the water rises over his head before he knows it.

Eddie releases just as quickly as he hooked on, letting Richie sputter up for a breath. "Is that your way of ending a conversation?" Richie asks, wiping the water away from his eyes. "Because I can do you one better."

A loud laugh that converts into a shriek escapes Eddie. He attempts to swim away, splashing Richie as hard as he could as he does, but Richie already has a grasp on his shoulder and is forcing him underwater just the same.

He resurfaces sputtering and choking on his own laughter, never once giving up on getting away. This time, Richie lets him go. He follows close behind as Eddie swims to where it's more shallow and where the other five are.

Bill and Stanley are there, one just enjoying his time in the water and the other tripping over his words as he tells Mike to get Beverly instead of him.

Richie's eyes trail over each and every one of his friends, his chest swelling with gratitude. Never once did he think he'd finish his high school career with this many friends, nevertheless junior year. He truly doesn't understand what he did in his lifetime to deserve them, but they're here with him now, and they will never know how much that means.

The seven of them don't stay in the water for too long after that, not with the sun dipping down behind the trees and the tips of their fingers pruning.