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October 31st. Halloween. The greatest day of the year - in Richie's opinion.
I mean, what wasn't to love about Halloween? People handing out free candy, scary movies on every channel on TV, getting to dress up covered in fake blood. Oh and best of all, the Halloween parties.
Every year Sam Walker, a junior who seemingly was friends with everybody, would throw his infamous halloween party and everyone (even losers like Richie and his friends) was invited.
Last year Richie and his friends had all gone as zombies, they had tore up old clothes and Bev had covered them in makeup to make them look undead. They had looked totally badass, there was no denying it.
Just as they had every other year, everyone was meeting at Bill's house before they went to Sam's together; Sam's house was a five minute walk from Bill's.
Richie looked at his watch in the dim light that was provided by the streetlight at the bottom of Bill's drive. It was 6:56, which meant he was four minutes early, but it didn't matter as it was likely that most of the other loser's would be there already.
Richie walked up the drive and knocked on the door, having only to wait a few seconds until it was swung open and Richie found himself looking at Stanley Uris.
"Stan the man, what's happening dude? Gotta say, I'm not surprised that you're here already, lemme guess, you've been here for an hour already?" Richie teased his friend, stepping through the door,
"Ha ha Richie," Stan replied sarcastically, "if you must know I've only been here for twenty minutes"
Bill comes up behind Stan and wraps an arm around his shoulders, "Hey Tozier, stop bullying my boyfriend," Bill says to Richie, and Richie holds his hands up defensively.
"Sorry man," Richie says, then looks at their costumes, Bill is wearing a batman suit and Stan is dressed as robin. "Nice matching costumes guys, very cute"
"Hey we're not the only ones" Bill says, pointing behind him at Ben and Bev.
"Woah ho! Beverly Marsh my dear you look stunning! Oh and you too of course Ben, very nice guys, very nice!" Richie calls out to his friends, taking on a British accent and walking up to where they're stood in the sitting room. Richie looks them up and down and nods approvingly, Bev is dressed as Sandy from the final scene of Grease, and Ben as Danny.
"Thanks Richie," Bev replies, greeting him with a hug.
"So who are we waiting for?" Richie asks, looking around the room.
"Just Eddie and Mike, they should be getting here any minute now," Ben tells him, "I like the costume by the way man, you're really rocking the whole wolf thing."
"Oh thanks dude, you know I couldn't think of anything to be, then Bev suggested this and I thought, yeah that could work," Richie replied to his friend. Ben nodded, then he and Bev shared a look which Richie didn't understand, but also didn't question, because it was at that moment the front door was opened again and Mike and Eddie entered.
Mike was dressed as a mummy, wrapped in bandages from head to foot. He looked impressive, it must have taken him ages to get ready, Richie thought.
Eddie, wow. Eddie looked amazing. He was wearing a red cape with the hood pulled up and he had fake claw marks across his face as if he had been attacked by a wild animal.
Eddie was dressed as little red riding hood, Richie realised.
And Richie was dressed as a wolf.
They were wearing matching costumes.
Richie spun around to look at Bev, who was smirking at him with a smug look on her face.
"Hi Eddie, cool costume," Richie heard Stan greet Eddie.
"Thanks Stan. It was Bev's idea, she suggested it and helped me with my makeup and stuff," Eddie replied.
Of course it was Bev's idea, Richie thought, rolling his eyes. Bev knew how Richie felt about Eddie, and she was always doing stuff like this, not that Richie cared that much to be honest. He always wants to spend time with Eddie.
"Hey Eds, looking good" Richie called out, catching Eddie's attention.
"Don't call me that" Eddie replied, but walked over to where Richie was standing anyway. "Huh, looks like we match?" Eddie asked, looking at Bev accusingly.
"You sure do boys, and you look great," Bev said, slinging an arm over each of their shoulders, and knocking her head gently against Eddie's. "Hey Bill! Take a picture of me and my boys!" She shouted at Bill, who was following everybody around, sticking his camera in their faces (Stan was the main victim, but he didn't mind; he would do anything to keep his boyfriend happy).
Bill pointed the camera at the three of them and they posed while he took several pictures.
"Guys we should start getting ready to leave" Ben's voice interrupted them, and Bev untangled her arms from around the two boy's necks to go and find her coat.
"Ready to party Eddie Spaghetti?" Richie asked, looking down at his shorter friend with a smirk.
"Hell yeah."
--
Twenty minutes later and they finally arrived at Sam's house for the party, after having been distracted on the way out of Bill's house by Bill's little brother Georgie arriving home from trick or treating. They obviously stopped to talk to him (and steal some of his candy), they all loved Georgie just as much as they loved any of the other losers.
Walking into the huge house, Richie grabbed Eddie's hand so that he wouldn't get lost in the masses of people who were crammed into the house, and pushed his way through the crowd to get to the kitchen.
When they had finally elbowed their way there they were greeted by a girl named Ellen something, who was one of Sam's friends and who must be in charge of distributing drinks at the party.
"Hey Richie, Eddie right? What can I get you guys to drink, we've got everything, I'd stay away from the punch though because its been spiked by about eight people so far," Ellen laughed.
"I'll just have a coke," Richie told her, then turned to Eddie who nodded.
"I'll have the same please," Eddie said quietly.
"Help yourselves guys," Ellen told them, gesturing to the many cans lined up on the kitchen counter. "You guys definitely have the best matching couples costumes I've seen so far tonight by the way."
Richie choked on air. "O-oh we, we um, we're not, we..."
"Thank you!" Eddie interrupted him, smiling at Ellen and grabbing their drinks. He pulled Richie out of the kitchen by their still entwined hands.
Eddie pulled Richie to a relatively quiet spot by the wall and handed him a coke. He didn't say anything about Ellen's comment, instead he started talking to Richie about how Mike had almost made him late because he was taking forever to wrap bandages around himself.
Richie couldn't pay attention to a word Eddie was saying however, as he kept thinking about how the girl had called him and Eddie a couple, about how his hand was still warm from where Eddie's had been grasped in it, about how Eddie's lips looked so soft, so kissable. About how the feelings he had for the boy in front of him had been more than just friendship for a while now.
"We could be!" Richie shouted, interrupting Eddie's ramblings, and causing the boy to look up at him, startled.
"What?" Eddie asked him, eyebrows drawn together in confusion.
"I mean... we could be. You know?" Richie replied, looking down at the ground so not to meet Eddie's gaze.
"Richie I don't-"
"She thought we were a couple, right? I'm just saying we could be..." Richie trailed off, his voice an unsure mumble.
Eddie didn't say anything, and Richie knew he had messed up. He started to pull his hand out of Eddie's loose grasp, and turned to walk away.
In a sudden movement, Eddie's grip on Richie's hand tightened, and he pulled the taller boy towards him quickly, his other hand reaching up to rest agains Richie's neck, his thumb brushing agains Richie's delicate cheekbone. He surged up and pressed his lips against Richie's. The kiss was short and soft, Eddie pulled away after a few seconds, and rested his forehead against Richie's.
"Yeah, we could be," Eddie whispered against Richie's lips.
--
Yeah, Richie loved Halloween.