Chapter Text
When Eddie first met Richie in his freshman science class his first thought was, “shit”. Because this was the exact type of guy he didn’t like. The type of guy who was attractive and charismatic but had an uncaring aura about him. The type of guy who could charm his way through life with a flash of his pearly whites. The type of guy that girls literally fawned over. The type of guy who knew all this and used it to his advantage.
Eddie didn’t speak to him in class. Or anywhere for that matter. So all of this character analysis of the boy was done from his seat in the back of the classroom or random encounters in the hallway. His best friend Bill was sure to remind him that there was no way to know if this Richie guy was all that bad if he had never spoken to him. And realistically, Eddie knew this, but it didn’t stop him from giving in to his gut feeling that this guy just annoyed the hell out of him.
Richie talked out loud during class when it wasn’t necessary and no matter how irrelevant his comments were, the teacher never cared. He would laugh along with Richie and continue the lesson, sometimes even stopping the class to have a short conversation. This made Eddie clench his pencil in his hand tightly, glaring at the back of Richie’s head, his dark curls seemingly mocking him as they shook with laughter.
In fact, most of Eddie’s time in the class was spent with him glaring at the back of Richie’s head. He sometimes found himself not paying attention to class as much as he should and his lab partner, Mike, even occasionally waved his hand in front of his face to make sure Eddie was all there. In those situations, Eddie would just smile at his partner and go back to work while Mike gave him a suspicious look.
This went on for nearly the whole school year. The same thing every week. Eddie would glare in science, Eddie would glare in the hallways, Eddie would glare at lunch. He would scoff whenever Richie spoke and roll his eyes when someone mentioned him (mostly Stan, he talked about Richie quite often). But he never did anything else. He never had a conversation with the guy he grew to dislike so much and Richie didn’t even so much as glance to the back of the classroom, so as far as Eddie was concerned, the boy didn’t know he existed.
It wasn’t until February of his freshman year that anyone brought up Richie directly to Eddie and it was a slightly annoyed Stan who mentioned him.
“Why do you hate Richie Tozier so much?” Stan had sat down at the lunch table and set his food down with a slight slam.
Eddie squinted his eyes in confusion. “I don’t hate him. He’s in my science class and he’s annoying.”
“You don’t know him!” Stan exclaimed.
“And I don’t have a desire to, Stan.” Eddie responded.
Each of the four boys at the lunch table had a different emotion displayed across their face. Eddie was confused. Bill was looking at Stan with an upset, huffy face. Mike looked amused as he looked back and forth between Stan and Eddie. But Stan, his lips were pursed, arms crossed, and eyes locked onto Eddie’s.
“Well, I think he’s great.” Stan continued, “He always seems to help out, even if he can be a bit…energetic.”
Eddie had to resist his sudden urge to roll his eyes. “Not all of us have a blatant crush on the trashmouth, Stanley.”
Stan’s mouth fell open. “A-a crush? What, no, that’s not…No. He’s just helpful, a-and nice.”
“Eddie, you have no room to talk about blatant crushes.” Mike spoke up.
The smaller boy’s head whipped around to look at him. “What?”
“W-why didn’t you t-tell me?” Bill smiled.
“Because I don’t have a crush!” Eddie exclaimed.
“You don’t think I can see through this ‘hate’ of Tozier and know why you actually stare at him in science all day?”
“What?” Stan’s eyebrows raised in suspicion.
Eddie scoffed. “Please, if you think that I could ever in my heart like that boy, you’re crazy. Like, ‘you should see a doctor’ crazy.”
Mike drops the subject but Eddie doesn’t miss the way that Stan keeps staring at him.
The next time Richie Tozier makes his way into Eddie’s life is when Stan begs his friends to go to a baseball game with him (Richie is on the baseball team, but Stan simply says he wants to support his school). Bill and Mike are busy, but Eddie has no excuse. He ends up being picked up by Stan’s mom, Stan beaming in the front seat, and Eddie staying quiet in the back of the car until they arrive at the park where the game would be. They’re playing a rival school so the stands are decently full and Stan and Eddie end up sitting next to a girl Eddie knows as Beverly Marsh (apparently, she’s in Stan’s English class).
Eddie sits on the end of the metal bleachers, staring at the teams warming up as Stan and Beverly talk about something in their class. Eddie catches a glimpse of curly dark hair out of the corner of his eye and his heart rate picks up. Richie sends one of his flashing grins up to the stands and waves, obviously directing it at someone.
That someone was Beverly, who stood up and cheered. “Good luck, Tozier!”
Stan’s face turned red. “You know him?”
She beamed and looked over at Stan. “He’s my best friend, has been since the first grade.”
“Oh.” Stan mumbled and looked over to the field.
Eddie sighed at his hopeless friend and looked back at the field.
The game isn’t bad, Eddie could admit. The energy of the crowd is great and Beverly is energetic and loud in all the right ways, making sure Eddie is a part of the conversation but also screaming at the field (her boyfriend, Ben, was on the team and she made sure she yelled words of encouragement to him as well as to her best friend). Stan tried to seem completely neutral but Eddie noticed he only seemed to be cheering for Richie. Eddie yelled along when everyone else did but he’d never been that into baseball.
After the game (they won by one point), Beverly dragged Stan and Eddie by the hands over to where her boyfriend was. Ben was a sweaty mess of a boy with such a kind face that Eddie felt like he could instantly trust him. Bev wrapped her arms around him, not caring about his sweat-drenched clothing.
“You did great!” She pressed a big kiss to his cheek and he smiled down at her.
“Hi, guys!” Ben reached out to shake their hands with Bev still hanging on him. “You friends of Bev’s?”
“Yeah!” Bev answered before they could. “This is Stan, he’s in my English class. And this is Eddie.”
Stan looked as if he was going to say something when a loud voice interrupted him.
“Beverly Marsh, my biggest fan!” Richie Tozier strutted over to their little group, wrapping an arm around Bev and Ben, placing kisses on both of their cheeks. “And of course, how could I forget about dear Ben.”
“Your ass looked great out there.” Beverly winked at him and Ben playfully rolled his eyes.
Eddie glanced between the three of them with squinted eyes, more out of confusion than anything else. When he flicked his eyes over to Stan, his face was red, gaze locked on Richie and his sweaty curls pressed to his face.
“I don’t believe we’ve met.” Richie let go of his friends and took a step towards them. He bowed slightly, smiling up at them. “Richie Tozier, at your service.”
“Um, I’m Stan.” His eyes are wide and he shot out a hand to shake Richie’s.
“Oh, so formal, Stan.” Richie shook his hand, eyes twinkling. “Stan the man.”
Stan squeaked so quietly that only Eddie could hear him.
“And hello there, cutie.” The curly haired boy turned his body to Eddie’s.
“I’m Eddie.” His response is short.
“I know you,” Richie smirked. “I tend to remember cute boys in my science classes.”
Eddie pursed his lips. “Sorry, I figured you were too busy mouthing off to notice anything in that class.”
Beverly threw her head back in a cackle and the corners of Richie’s mouth turned up in amusement. “Alright, Eds.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Feisty one. I like that.” Richie attempted to wrap an arm around Eddie but he quickly shrugged it off. “Remind me to talk to you more.”
Richie didn’t talk to Eddie more. In fact, things go back to normal besides the fact that Beverly and Ben say hi to him in the hallways. Stan and Eddie get into the first fight of their decade of friendship after the baseball game, Stan (still claiming he didn’t like Richie) yelling at Eddie for flirting with Richie and letting him feel like an idiot. It took an hour of convincing and Stan finally confessing his feelings for them to make up.
Eddie could swear that during science, Richie’s eyes make their way to Eddie’s side of the room during his daily performances of outrageousness. But he thinks it’s probably just his mind playing tricks. Richie still annoyed him just as much as he did before but now, Eddie knew that he’s aware of his existence. He doesn’t complain about him anymore to his friends, no matter how infuriating his behavior in the class that day was. Stan also decided to mention him less in public, saving the gushing for when him and Eddie are alone and he could speak without anyone clueing in on his secret.
When Eddie saw Richie in the hallways, his eyes tended to follow the curly haired boy for a bit longer than necessary. He told himself it’s because he’s trying to see what Stan sees in him. Richie was loud and crude. He’s all limbs and no grace. He’s messy and a bit arrogant. But whenever he smiled, a grin that stretched over his face and reached his eyes that sparkled with mischief, Eddie guessed he could see something.
But it didn’t really matter. Eddie wasn’t a fan of Richie Tozier. And Richie lived his life without Eddie Kaspbrak.