Chapter Text
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
’Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man
(ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man)
”Have you guys seen Richie?” Eddie asks Stan and Bill as he takes his books out of his locker. ”He should be annoying me by now.”
”N-n-no, haven’t seen him,” Bill replies.
”Here comes Bev, maybe she’s seen him,” Stan says. Eddie turns to look at Bev, weaving past people in the hallway towards them.
”Have you guys seen Richie yet?” she asks, a wide smile on her face.
”I was just about to ask you,” Eddie replies. ”Why? What’s he done now?”
”Just wait,” Bev said, smile widening.
And then Eddie spots Richie in the hallway crowd, coming towards them with a sunny grin on his face, but it takes a second for his mind to register that it is Richie, because he looks… different. He’s not wearing his glasses, his hair looks even wilder than normal, and he has a new Ramones-style black leather jacket, worn with an Anthrax t-shirt, distressed dark jeans and new black boots. So few changes, and yet… he looks so different. He looks good.
”N-n-not bad, T-tozier,” Bill chuckles as Richie comes up to them.
”Why, thank you, master William,” Richie says in his British voice. ”I do believe I don’t look too shabby, even if I do say so myself.”
”What happened to your glasses?” Stan asks, looking Richie up and down.
”Dude,” Richie says excitedly, ”my old man won a shitload of money on poker. He was in a good mood, and feeling unusually generous and offered to pay for new glasses, finally. I took the chance to see if I could talk him into getting me contacts instead, and he said okay.”
Eddie smiles. Richie always hated those glasses. He looks relieved to be rid of them.
”And what about the jacket?” he asks.
”Like it?” Richie grins, preening. ”Pops gave even gave me some dough for new clothes, so I thought I’d go for something different.”
”Doesn’t it look awesome?” Bev says. ”I helped him pick it out.”
Eddie’s eyes turn to her.
”You did?”
”Yeah,” Richie nods. ”I asked her to help me with my new look, and she found this jacket in the thrift store. The boots too, both as good as new. Looks great, right?”
Eddie’s feels his smile stiffen.
”He asked Bev for help instead of me?”
”Eds?”
Eddie looks up, meeting Richie’s eyes, now no longer hidden behind those Coke-bottle lenses.
”Huh?”
”What do you think?”
”Oh, uhm… yeah, you look good, I guess… but with you, anything’s an improvement,” he adds sourly, then mentally kicks himself for not coming up with a better insult. But Richie seems to appreciate it, as he breaks into loud laughter.
”I was kidding,” Eddie relents. ”You look fine, Richie.”
Richie gives him a warm, pleased smile. Eddie looks down, fidgeting with his books.
”Well, I gotta go find Ben and Mike,” Bev says with a wave. ”I’ll see you guys at lunch.”
”See you, thanks again,” Richie calls after her, then throws an arm around Eddie’s shoulder. ”Alright, Eddie Spaghetti, unfortunately we’d better get to class.”
Eddie shrugs his arm off.
”Then hurry up! And don’t call me Eddie Spaghetti!”
They say bye to Stan and Bill and walk down the hall together, heading for their classroom. As they pass Mary Graham, one of the more popular girls in their year, her eyes fix on Richie.
”Hi, Richie,” she says, smiling shyly.
”Good morning, milady!” he says with a flourished bow, then hurries to catch up with Eddie.
”See, Eds? It’s the jacket. Chicks dig a guy in a black leather jacket.”
Apparently so, because all day long, Eddie notices how girls turn their heads, how they whisper and giggle when Richie walks by. And it’s getting on his nerves. Once, as he exits the bathroom he finds Richie, who’s waiting for him, surrounded by a group of girls, giggling shrilly at his jokes.
”That’s so funny!” one of them says, tossing her hair. Eddie’s mouth forms a stiff line, and he can feel his annoyance forming a hard, cold pit in his stomach.
”Come on, dumbass. Let’s go get lunch, I’m hungry,” he hisses impatiently.
”Why don’t you go on ahead,” the hair-tosser says, looping her arm around Richie’s, and giving Eddie an insincere, dismissive smile. ”We thought Richie could join us for lunch today.”
Grinding his teeth, Eddie is about to storm off, when Richie pulls free from the girl’s grip.
”Sorry m’am, no can do. I always sit with Eddie and the rest of my fellow bandits. But y’all have a nice day, now, ladies.” Then he tips an imaginary cowboy hat, slings an arm around Eddie’s shoulder and steers him away in the direction of the cafeteria. Eddie can’t resist looking back at the girls with a gleeful smirk, and sees with no small satisfaction that they’re practically fuming.
In the cafeteria, Eddie finds Mike and Ben already sitting at their usual table in the corner by the windows, and hurries over. His mom, of course, doesn’t trust the cafeteria food and packs packs a lunch for him every day. Richie usually just brings a sandwich. They’ve gotten the habit of cutting Richie’s sandwich in half and share it along with Eddie’s lunch, and Eddie always brings an extra apple for Richie.
Sitting down next to Mike, he notices Richie is no longer at his side. Looking around, he sees Richie standing near the doors, chatting with Bev. He’s smiling as he leans closer to her to listen to something she’s saying, and Eddie feels that pit in his stomach again.
”Isn’t it enough for her that she’s had Bill and Ben eating from the palm of her hand, she has to have Richie, too?” he thinks bitterly, then looks down in shame. Why did he like think that, all of a sudden? He, himself, adores Bev as much as the rest of them. Of course he does, she’s awesome. It’s just… Bev and Richie seem closer. They don’t normally hang out just the two of them without the other Losers, and now all of a sudden she’s given him a damn makeover. But Bev is interested in fashion, Eddie knows that. Of course Richie asked her for advice. And… maybe Richie does have a crush on her. What’s wrong with that?
Eddie pulls out his lunch, avoiding looking at Richie as he and Bev approach the table along with Stan and Bill, who have joined them. For a second, Eddie thinks Richie might sit next to Bev, but he takes his usual seat next to Eddie, and Bev sits next to Ben.
As Eddie and Richie start dividing up their food, Richie peers at Eddie with a worried frown.
”You okay, Eds? You look pale. You don’t have a fever, do you?”
He tries to feel Eddie’s forehead, but Eddie swats his hand away.
”I’m fine! I already have my mom treating me like glass, I don’t need you to do the same,” he snaps.
”Hey, you don’t have to tell me you’re a badass fucker, but you really don’t look so good,” Richie says calmly.
”Sorry. I’m fine, it’s just a slight headache.” And that’s true. Eddie can feel a throbbing pain inside his skull.
”So, take some aspirin.”
”Don’t have any, I forgot I was out and didn’t refill.”
”Fear not!” Richie says, digging through his backpack, and pulls out a bottle of aspirin. ”I have some for emergencies.”
Eddie takes it with a grateful smile. Winking at him, Richie grabs his apple and takes an enormous bite.
”Hey, Eds, why don’t we hang out later, huh? Just the two of us?”
”Say it, don’t spray it, asswipe!” Eddie says he narrowly avoids being splattered with apple juice. ”I don’t know. My mom was in a mood this morning, and she’s probably going to insist on sending me off to bed early. And... I really am kinda tired.”
”Tomorrow, then?”
Eddie looks up at Richie, smiling at him hopefully. His eyes are so warm, and Eddie is so unused to seeing them without glasses in the way that he finds himself looking down at the table, heart beating a little faster.
”Okay. Tomorrow’s good.”
*
His mom really does send him off to bed early, and because Eddie’s headache refused to go away even with the aspirin, Eddie doesn’t fight her on it. He has an overwhelming urge to feel sorry for himself, and stretches out on his bed under a blanket with a miserable sigh.
He finds himself wishing that Richie still wore his glasses, still wore the same old clothes, though he feels bad for thinking it. Richie has always hated his glasses, hated the thick lenses, and the glasses have been broken many times (mostly by Henry Bowers) which Richie’s parents would yell at Richie for. Richie has always wanted contacts. And Richie rarely got anything from his parents, so getting the clothes as well as the contacts must mean a lot to him. But it’s not really the changes in Richie’s appearance that’s bothering Eddie.
It’s the thought of losing Richie.
Eddie’s friends in the Losers Club mean everything to him, and he doesn't want to lose any of them. He had been so worried at the end of the summer last year when they thought Bev was going to move away, until her aunt decided to settle down in Derry instead. And he had been so glad when Mike’s grandfather let him go to school with them, because it meant they got to spend more time together. All the Losers, the whole set. Undivided, and stronger than ever.
But then today happened, and now Eddie finds himself afraid. He saw how the girls at school, many of them from the popular crowd, looked at Richie today, how they giggled at his jokes, how they went out of their way to talk to him. What if they lose Richie to popularity? The thought of Richie drifting away, of him sitting at another table at lunch, sharing someone else’s meal, hanging out with other people, looking past Eddie when their paths crossed… that thought hurts. Deep down Eddie knows Richie would never let that happen, but he still can't stop fearing the possibility.
And, he has to admit to himself, that somehow, Richie has become the most important person in the world to him. How that had happened, he couldn’t say. Once, if asked, he would have said Bill was his closest friend. But somehow, without him knowing it, something's changed. Now, whenever something happens, when he has news to tell, when he's bored, when he needs cheering up… Richie is always the first person he thinks of, the first person he wants to talk to. And he thought maybe it's the same with Richie. He always seems to come to Eddie before anyone else. And Eddie doesn’t want to lose that.
Not for anything.
*
They hang out the following day as agreed. As usual, Eddie’s mom glares at Richie with disapproval the second she sees him - disapproval that only becomes clearer when she glances at his jacket and boots. But she keeps her dislike to herself and even, after many pleading looks from Eddie, lets him eat dinner with them.
After they’ve been fed, they retreat up to Eddie’s room to read and listen to music in their usual relaxed, comfortable silence. Stretching out on the bed, Eddie grabs the book he’s been reading, while Richie flips through a stack of Eddie’s comic books.
”Slumber Party Massacre 3’s playing at the Aladdin,” Richie says. ”We should go see it Saturday, with the Losers. We could hang out at the Barrens after.”
”I don’t want to miss Twin Peaks. It’s the season premiere.”
”Oh yeah, forgot. Friday, then.”
Eddie glances at Richie
”It probably sucks ass.”
”Yeah, probably, but sometimes the suckiness of a horror movie is part of the fun.” Richie, turning on his side, starts tickling Eddie. ”Come on, Eddie Spaghetti! Say yes, Eddie Spaghetti! It’ll be fun, Eddie Spaghetti! Promise, Eddie Spaghetti!”
”Okay, fuck, okay!” Eddie laughs, trying to squirm away, slapping at Richie’s hands. ”Quit it, you jackass!”
Richie stops tickling him and lays there next to Eddie, grinning smugly. Meeting his eyes, as dark as coffee, Eddie feels a little short of breath. Richie is lying so close Eddie can feel the warmth from his body. His skin has a soft, almost golden glow in the dim light from Eddie’s desk lamp. Eddie wants to reach out and touch his cheek, trace lines between his freckles with the tip of his finger. He wants to brush away that unruly lock of hair from his forehead, wants to lean over and kiss…
”Oh…”
Richie nudges him with his elbow.
”Now you’ve given me your word. It’ll be fun, Eds. I promise.”
”Yeah… sure,” Eddie smiles weakly.
Richie pinches his cheek and says ”Cute, cute, cute!”, then gets up to change the music. As he starts looking through Eddie’s music collection, Eddie stares up at the ceiling, heart pounding in his chest, his cheek burning hot where Richie just touched it.Turning his head, he fixes his eyes on his friend, who is examining the track list of one of his mixtapes.
And for the first time, Eddie fully understands what his feelings for Richie has grown into. He fully understand why he’s so afraid.
”Oh, fuck.”