Chapter Text
"Fuck, that letter--why did I ever let you read it?"
"You wanted me to check your grammar, I think?" Stan chuckles and pats Eddie on the back. "Shit, you wanted to be married to Pamela Anderson, remember?"
"Yeah, how'd that work out for ya?" Richie asks dryly, and everyone laughs.
"But it was so sweet!" Stan grins, glancing between them.
Eddie covers his face, laughing in embarrassment. "God, stop reminding me. It's worse than the time I thought I was dating Richie, remember?"
Bill, Ben, and Beverly gasp. Richie chokes on his drink, the glass dropping heavily onto the table. Eddie swallows hard.
"What?" Richie sputters out.
"Oh, I remember that!" Mike laughs, and passes Bill a beer when he gestures for one.
Bev gapes at Eddie. "I do not remember that! What?"
"Me neither," Bill says after taking a swig, concentrating like it might come back to him.
"Neither do I! When did this happen?" Ben says, leaning forward on his elbows.
"Yeah Eddie, man," Mike says with a grin, "you've gotta tell 'em the story."
"Oh, God it's all coming back to me," Eddie says, leaning away from the table and laughing awkwardly. "I dunno, it's really fucking embarrassing, guys."
"Aw come on!" Bev says, reaching over to shove at his shoulder.
"Yeah, we have to know now, c'mon man," says Bill, and a chorus of yeahs and tell us! follows.
"Alright, alright," Eddie says, a little buzzed on his second beer, "But let me preface this by saying I was only thirteen!"
They all murmur their understanding and everyone at the table goes quiet, rapt.
"Look," Eddie begins, "When, well - we'd just killed a fucking demonic monster clown. After that we were all pretty... freaked out, I think is fair to say?" Everyone nods at that, some taking a long gulp of their drinks. "So Richie spent a lot of time with me, at my house." He pauses and thinks of how to explain, how much he can give away and still keep it lighthearted.
This is supposed to be about how silly Eddie was back then, and not how completely lovestruck.
He makes sure not to look over at Richie as he speaks, though he can feel him staring.
"Right so-hah, okay," Eddie rubs at his neck, uncomfortable. "So he'd sneak in usually on school nights, and he always had to sneak in since my mom wasn't his biggest fan, ever," he pauses again, expecting Richie to make a joke there, but he doesn't.
Eddie goes on, the details becoming clearer as he speaks, "We would have sleepovers almost every night and share my bed, and just talk all night--and when he wasn't there we'd talk on the phone for, like, hours on end." He doesn't go into specifics, like how serious and honest Richie was those nights and over the phone, how their foreheads would touch or his hand would slowly find Eddie's in the dark.
How warm and safe it felt to be loved like that.
Eddie clears his throat. "Rich always called me pet-names, ya know? Christ, this is so… but like, you guys know, right? He was always so touchy and fake-flirty back then, but even more after... after It. And I just felt so special," he clasps his hands together and flutters his eyelashes, "'Cause here I thought, at the time, I thought he was only doing that with me."
Eddie gets a few odd looks at that, but he goes on, "And then one night, I remember he couldn't stay over, for whatever reason," he looks down at the table, fighting a blush. "I don't remember why. But it was late, I was half asleep. And before he left he leaned down real close and, um... kissed me on the cheek. He said "bye, baby" really softly, and left," Eddie lets out a breath, his heart racing at the memory, the flood of old feelings.
"So I was like, oh so we're definitely dating then, he just called me baby and kissed me, it's official," he finishes with a laugh, but no one else does.
Bev is the first to break the silence, resting her chin on her palm, her eyes searching.
"How did you find out you weren't?"
"Oh, see that's how Stan and Mike know," Eddie says, smiling at them all, "I was kind of ecstatic and petrified about having my first boyfriend of all things, so one day I went to the barrens early, saw Stan and I just--blurted everything out. And then I cried, like so much."
Stan nods, slowly remembering more. "Oh yeah, you were bawling your eyes out and saying you hoped I wouldn't hate you--as if any of us ever would," he says, and then his mouth pulls down at the memory, "then you mentioned it was Richie."
"Yeah," Eddie says ruefully, his voice cracking just a little. "That's when Mike barged in and told us he saw Richie making out with Brenda Arrowsmith outside of the Aladdin, and then I cried even harder. Hah."
Everyone goes silent for a minute.
"...That story's a lot less funny than I remember it being," Mike says awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.
Eddie waves his hand at him and shrugs. "It's funny now, I mean, if you think about it," he grins, "for two whole months I really thought Richie Tozier was my first fucking boyfriend. That's nuts."
It's strange to remember things like this, an odd mix of old and fresh bittersweetness to it. Eddie feels the sting of that moment, how his heart dropped when he found out Richie was cheating on him.
And then that slow like molasses realization, that there was really nothing to cheat on.
He thinks, and almost convinces himself that he finds it funny too. It's a memory so distant he only just remembered it, it barely registers as a memory of his own. So that must mean it barely hurts at all. Eddie thinks hard about this until he sees Richie's face.
Richie, who has gone pale and stayed silent and still the whole time he was telling the story. His hands flat on the table, staring at Eddie with big, shining eyes.
Richie opens his mouth to say something.
But then the fortune cookies begin to tremble.