"You HAVE to ask him out, Richie." Stan insisted, whispering.
"That is not true. What if he says no?" Richie asked, clearly insecure about it.
"What if he says yes?"
"I can't just... Invite him, Bevs." Said Richie, not paying attention at all to the chemistry teacher.
"Yes you can, he's one of your friends now," Beverly elbowed him.
"Yeah, but friends don't make out, go on dates, have amazing sex, get married, cherish each other's careers, have a dog, name them Freddie, and get old together..."
"And that's too much information..." Murmured Mike, who was trying to take notes, which was impossible with his mates talking like no one else was in the room.
"Listen. You WILL invite him, okay?" Beverly sentenced, turning to Bill and Mike. "You both better tell Stan and Ben that they will NOT accept a ride from Richie, okay? We're going with Mike today."
"Yeah, sure, why would you ask kindly? Just abuse the good ol' Mike's kindness," he said sarcastically.
"I don't even know if I'm going to ask him. I-It's too soon." Richie looked down and started doodling on his notebook.
"S-Since w-when does that c-concern you?" Bill said.
"Yeah, you tell him, Big Bill!" Beverly backed him up, getting a 'shh!' from Mike.
Richie decided to stop the conversation right there, he just... Couldn't. The conversations under the bleachers were all he and Eddie had and mostly, all he needed for now.
Richie used to be very straightforward when he liked a girl, he invited them to the backseat of his car, and if they rejected him, he'd just move on and forget about it. But with guys... It was a bit harder. He remembered that summer at the arcade, he couldn't even bother to remember the guy's name, but it was Henry's cousin. Richie and the guy were playing Street Fighter together, it was fun, they even did a handshake and played like five matches... Richie thought the guy liked him back, I mean... That handshake lasted longer than usual and his touch felt warm. At the time of the sixth match, Bowser came to ruin everything as always.
Richie lost an opportunity that day, and even if he already was looking at Eddie with hearty eyes, he really had more chances with this new guy. Kaspbrak didn't even look at him back then, or so he thought, everything seemed blurry now with Eddie.
Richie liked him, really, and he'd kill someone to get to spend an evening alone with him, but he, for once, felt too shy to ask. Trashmouth Tozier, the guy that joked and asked his friends' moms for a kiss goodbye was too scared to ask a dude 'Hey, wanna come to my house and listen to good music? My mom made brownies' Fucking. Ridiculous.
The bell freed him from his own thoughts, he basically begged Bevs to go with the rest of the gang anywhere, but she just told him to stop acting like a pussy and go ask the guy out.
Everything was even more ridiculous if you considered that Eddie has a girlfriend, the scariest girl in school. Eddie didn't seem to care much about her, or like her in the slightest, and wasn't afraid to say it, but still... It felt a bit embarrassing being the mistress... What the fuck was he thinking? He's not even the mistress yet.
At the end of the day, all his friends left in Mike's pickup, leaving him to drive home alone. Bill told Beverly it was useless since Mike lived on the opposite side and Richie didn't ask Eddie out, but she insisted.
So there he was, looking for his keys in his pockets, taking as long as usual, since his pockets were something near a magician's top hat, full of the weirdest stuff. Once he found them, before getting to actually open the car, someone ran into him, holding his Hawaiian shirt sleeve to catch his attention.
"C-Can you give me a ride? Please?"
It was him. He was trying to catch his breath.
"Eduardo? What the fuck is happening?" Rich asked, worried about him.
"No time to explain, just drive." Eddie looked at both sides and fastly ran to sit on the passenger's seat of the car.
Richie, of course, did as Eddie said, starting the engine and driving away from the school parking lot.
As soon as they left school property, Eddie took a puff off his inhaler.
"Didn't you say that you don't need it?" Richie asked, looking at him sideways.
"Anything helps now, I guess."
"Okay... So... What's your address, Eds?"
"I told you not to call me Eds... Don't drive me home, just... Drive, I don't fucking know."
"O-kay..."
Dead silence. Richie turned the radio on, just to fill the awkward silence Eddie created.
Harry Truman...
"Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe," Richie started singing, following Billy Joel's voice. "COME ON! Sing with me, spaghetti!" He asked.
Eddie looked at him, not even making himself smile.
"Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom, Brando, 'The King and I', and 'The Catcher in the Rye', Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen, Marciano, Liberace, Santayana, goodbye! WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE!"
"It was always burning..." Eddie barely whispered.
"SINCE THE WORLD IS TURNING, WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE!" Rich shouted as he moved his fist towards Eds, pretending it was a microphone.
"No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it..." Eddie couldn't help but chuckle at this point.
"Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev, Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc, Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron, Dien Bien Phu falls, 'Rock Around the Clock'" He kept tapping the steering wheel with his fingers, following the rhythm.
"How do you do that?" The guy in the passenger's seat asked.
"Do what?"
"You know the whole lyrics to the song?"
"Yeah, now that I think about it..."
"HOW?"
"Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team, Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland, Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev, Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez! WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE! IT WAS ALWAYS BURNING SINCE THE WORLD'S BEEN TURNING!"
"No we didn't make it but we try to end it!" Eddie backed him up.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Richie cheered him.
They both laughed together, louder at start, but it faded a bit later.
"I... I broke up with Harriet." Eddie whispered, looking at his feet.
"Huh?" Richie asked, socked.
"I broke up with her today, that's... That's why I needed a ride, Henry was looking for me to kick my ass."
"Oh shit man, I-I'm sorry... Are you okay?"
Thankfully, they were just a block away from Richie's house. He drove over there, parked in his garage and let Eddie talk.
"I never liked her, I was just... Scared of her. It was terrible, every anniversary, birthday, holiday, her parents are shitty, my mum is shitty. I hate everything about her, them, everyone."
"Hey, you were very brave to end it, at last, you know?" Richie comforted him.
"You think so?" Eddie asked, not believing him.
"You are braver than you think, Eds..." Richie smiled and pinched his cheek. "Wanna come inside for some water? Soda? My mom made brownies... We can go to my room and listen to some tunes," He offered, a bit nervous.
"O-Oh... Uhm, y-yeah! Sure!" Eddie answered as he nodded.
"Cool... Cool, cool, cool, cool."
They both entered Richie's house and went straight to his room, his parents were -conveniently- out.
"May I use your bathroom, please?" Eddie asked.
"Sure, first door at the left."
Once Richie was sure Eddie left the room, he ran to the phone downstairs and dialed Beverly as fast as he could.
"BEVS?"
"Yeah, Rich, 'sup?"
"He's here." He sentenced.
"OH MY GOD, REALLY?"
"Yeah, I have no fucking clue what to do or... I don't know. He broke up with Harriet."
"NO SHIT RICHIE!"
"Yeah, he was... So upset... You have no idea." He heard the bathroom door opening. "I gotta hang up, Bevs, talk to you tonight, yeah?" He said. Beverly didn't get to say anything before the call was over.
Richie went upstairs again with food and something to drink... Just on time to see Eddie looking at his cassette collection, his books and his posters like it was the most magnificent thing he had ever seen.
"I brought you stuff..." Richie said, showing Eddie the brownies and the drinks.
"Thank you..." Eddie sat criss-cross on the floor. "Your room is... So fucking cool... Didn't know you could read."
"Ha, ha, very funny... Still, thanks, man. It's a trashdump, but it's MY trash trashdump." Richie thanked him as he put some music on. Robert Smith's voice filled up the room now.
I've waited hours for this, I've made myself so sick, I wish I'd stayed asleep today...
"Is that... The cure?" Eddie asked as he watched Richie sit in front of him.
"Yeah, their sixth album... An amazing one. You can borrow it and copy it if you want."
"Thank you..." Eddie smiled at Richie and grabbed a brownie. "Thank you for everything, actually. For the ride and for... letting me sit with your friends today at lunch."
"They are your friends too, dickwad." Richie rolled his eyes. "You don't have to hang out with the bullies... I mean, your mom does not have to know, right?"
"I mean, she will kill me, but..."
"And if you need it you could stay here... I have an extra mattress..."
And a big, big bed. Big enough for two.
"For now... I'd appreciate a ride to school, could you?"
"Of course Eds..."
"Don't call me Eds, asshole."
"Anyways, EDS, congratulations on ending your toxic relationship. Permission to hug you?" Richie asked, opening his arms.
"You won't care if I give you permission or not, right?"
"Oh, baby, you know me so well."
I never thought this day would end. I never thought tonight could ever be this close to me.