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Eddie Kaspbrak was not a rebel. He was a goody-two-shoes and a mama’s boy. He was headed down the right path in life, never straying from his mother’s intentions. Sonia Kaspbrak would feed her son with statistics about infections, and horror stories about teenagers getting drunk that would make him fear living an actual life. God forbid if he tied his shoes the wrong way, all hell would break loose.
That’s why when Richie Tozier walked through the double doors that marked the main entrance one day, he was marked as trouble. He was tall and gorgeous, but most importantly a troublemaker. You could tell by the way he wore his smile and how he held his head up a little too high. He wore a leather jacket over one of his many Hawaiian t-shirts. The two styles clash each other but he somehow manages to make it work. He also wears skin tight black jeans paired with his dirty black converse high tops. The exact opposite of what Eddie wears. Eddie wears a blue polo with red shorts that he’s owned since he was a small boy. He hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet so he still fit into some of his childhood clothing.
Richie was everything that Eddie had been told not to interact with. A “bad banana” as his mother would say. And so Eddie followed his mother’s advice and stayed away from the boy. He didn’t know any better. His mother had brainwashed him into thinking that anyone to the likes of Richie Tozier was straight up bad news. And for that, Eddie hated him. In his mind he wasn’t sure exactly why he didn’t like the new kid in town, Eddie told himself Richie had a bad vibe, like most other kids in his grade.
Eddie had an unpopular opinion though. Every kid in school loved him. Richie Tozier was the man, the myth, the legend. Cutting class, getting detentions, smart mouthing teachers; all in a days work for Richie Tozier. Eddie found it disgusting that people would applaud him for such behavior.
Eddie was headed to the cafeteria after fourth period for lunch. Of course he had to grab his lunch box first because he wasn’t about to eat the stuff they call “food” in the lunch room. After he made his way there he walked out the door that lead into the courtyard. As he spotted his familiar lunch table that he had sat at since freshman year, he saw something that was not so similar to him. He walked up to the table and found all of his friends, once called the losers club, sitting around the table and laughing next to none other than the man himself.
“Hey Eddie!” Bev called out as soon as she spotted him, “this is Richie, and he’s sitting with us during lunch today.”
Richie turned his head along with the top half of his body towards Eddie. Richie had seen the boy around the school before, but he never actually talked to him.
“Great.” Eddie says as he rolls his eyes basically into the back of his head. Just fucking peachy.
“Nice shorts,” Richie laughs as he takes a bit out of one of his fries. He looks him up and down and he finishes it. He had never realized just how adorable the boy looked. He was tiny in child like clothing, yet he had an attitude and was feisty as hell.
“Oh my god shut the fuck up,” Eddie glares at him finding him so god damn annoying. Richie just looks back at him with a toothy grin.
“Hey, hey, hey, just trying to make some conversation here,” he replies with his hands up to show surrender.
“Well you’re not very good at it, seeing as you’re not a very good conversationalist.” Eddie retorts taking a seat next to mike at the picnic table.
Richie pretends to take a physical blow and puts his hand over his heart as if he just hurt him, “You really hurt me with that one Eds.”
Eddie’s playful grin drops as his eyebrow raises at the nickname Richie just came up with, “Eds? Really?” he asks as if Richie just asked the dumbest question in the world. If he actually did it wouldn’t surprise him seeing as Richie was probably the dumbest person in the world.
Richie smiles to himself at the comment as he has found his nickname for the boy. And just because Eddie doesn’t like it, Richie decides he is going to call him that from now on.
“Yep, that’s what it’s going to be from now on Eds.” Richie couldn’t be more content with himself right now.
“For Christ’s fucking sake, did you just crawl out from hell?” Eddie shoots him a glare once again.
“Nah, more like from Wonderland.” He smirks as he waves his fry around a bit as he talks before eating it.
Bill, Mike, Bev and Stan all shot each other a look. Ben was completely oblivious to the situation like always. They spent the rest of lunch just like that. Eddie and Richie bickering as the others chimed in too. The lunch bell finally rang and they all headed back to class. That was everyone except Richie. He told the rest of the group he would be fine and he just wanted to stay out of the building for as long as he could. Truth is just wanted to watch Eddie walk away in those tight shorts of his.
A few days went by and the same thing continued. Richie was known for hopping lunch table to lunch table, but it seemed like he had found a home at the losers club’s table. Throughout the days Eddie found himself gazing at Richie a little too long. And even if Richie noticed he never made a remark about it, which Eddie was glad he didn’t. Richie was everything Eddie was not. Chill, rebellious, popular. And to top it all off Richie was beautiful. No matter how hard Eddie tried to tell himself the thoughts were nothing, he found himself staring at Richie again. “Why him?” Eddie thought to himself during sixth period.
Eddie had to admit it now. He had a big fat crush on Richie Tozier. The kid he was told to stay away from. He was the definition of trouble. His mother would have shunned the boy at first glance. How could the goody-two-shoes have a crush on the biggest rebel throughout the whole town of Derry? Too bad the new revelation wasn’t very grand, seeing half of the school also came to this conclusion. No matter how infatuated he became with him, he knew the crush wouldn’t go anywhere. He didn’t even know if Richie liked guys or not in the first place, and if I’m some crazy world he did, Eddie Kaspbrak the child sized hypochondriac definitely wouldn’t be his first choice in men. If Richie really was from wonderland like he said, didn’t want to go chasing rabbits.
It was now the end of the school day and the final bell rang. Kids pushed their way through each other to reach the doors that lead out into the parking lot.
Eddie pushed his wag through the rest of the kids. He was relieved when he finally made it outside and he wasn’t being trampled anymore. As he walked he looked up at the sky and found that it was darker than before. Eddie let out a huff kicking a pebble on the sidewalk in front of him when he realized he was most likely going to have to walk home in the rain.
He was right. He felt a raindrop on his shoulder. And then another below his left elbow. And then all around. Soon he became drenched in water. He wasn’t even near his house and he was already soaked.
He saw a silver run down car pass him.
“Who the fuck drives a piece of shit like that?” Eddie asked himself out loud, barely hearing himself due to the noise of the rain hitting the cement.
He sees the car pull over on the other side of the road. Eddie watches in curiosity. He can see the car door being open and out walks the tall handsome boy Eddie can’t keep his mind off of. He doesn’t close his door and rain starts to wet the drivers seat. Eddie cringes at the sight.
Richie huddled himself in his leather jacket as he uses his lanky legs to take himself to the end of the curb, almost slipping and falling once or twice. Eddie sees Richie pick up something from the sidewalk and grin to himself. Eddie squints his eyes to see what Richie is holding. It’s a kitten. One stray cat. Eddie nearly melts at the sight. He takes off his jacket and wraps the kitten into it. Eddie watches contently to himself.
“He’s lucky that damn cat didn’t scratch his eyes out,” Eddie thinks to himself.
His mother was wrong. Richie was not a bad guy in the slightest. Sure he made some inappropriate jokes sometimes, ok maybe all the time, but that didn’t mean he was this evil person. He was a kind soul, despite his black outer layer.
All of a sudden Eddie was snapped back into reality. He found himself literally standing in the rain watching Richie like a creep. Richie let the cat jump into the seat and he took a look around as if to see who was there; maybe if see if he could spot the owner of the newly found kitten.
Richie could see someone standing in the distance. He took off his glasses and wiped away the raindrops with his soaking wet Hawaiian t-shirt. It didn’t do much justice, but at least he could see who it was. “Eddie?” Richie stays to himself. He closes the car door and looks both left and right down the road.
Eddie looks back at Richie walking towards him. Eddie is mad. Mad at his mother for making him so afraid of the dark, when in reality wasn’t half as bad as she had made it sound. Mad that he liked Richie as much as he did. Mad that there was a 0.01% chance that Richie could possibly like him back. Mad that he never did anything with his life. Maybe if it wasn’t in the spur of the moment what happened next wouldn’t have.
Once Richie walked up to Eddie in confusion his face was pulled down to meet Eddie’s lips. Eddie was just as surprised as Richie was. As soon as the initial shock was over, their mouthes moved together sloppily. Eddie’s hands moved from Richie’s face to his hair. Richie moved his hands to Eddie’s lower back and pressed their bodies together getting rid of the space between them. Neither of them minded Richie’s glasses smushing into both of their foreheads.
Maybe his first kiss wasn’t like as he had planed, but he wasn’t complaining that his mouth was smashed against the trash mouth of the boy in front of him. Hell, he was making out in the rain, how much more cliché can you get? He then thought back to what Richie had said earlier that week. If Richie came from Wonderland, hell, he would kill to be Alice.