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Richie sighed as he finished the carving, running his fingers softly along the indented rotting wood of the bridge. It was dumb, he knew, as anyone could walk by and assume it was Richie and Eddie’s initials, but then again there were a lot of R’s and E’s in Derry. Surely enough to at least assume it was something straight involving either Richie or Eddie, that would be safer for the both of them as Derry wasn’t the most accepting town when it came to anything involving LGBTQ+.
Standing up, Richie wiped his eyes to stop the forming tears from falling, he didn’t want to shed any more tears over this than he already had. He’d cried enough for a lifetime over many things, his parents, school, the fact he was in the ‘losers club’, his dumb jokes, and of course, Eddie, and he was tired of crying when he knew it never fixed anything. If anything it just made everything ten times harder to bare.
“Whatcha doing there, Richie?” Richie turned around hastily at the sound of Eddie’s voice, trying to quickly hide the knife behind his back in a way that wouldn’t cut him.
“Nothing much!” Richie replied, hoping he didn’t sound to frazzled and squeaky. “Just reminiscing about the lovely time I spent inside your mom the other day, she’s quite the lovely lady, a real beauty to behold.”
Eddie merely rolled his eyes and took a few steps toward Richie, eyes gleaming with curiosity and Richie would be lying if he said the other boy didn’t look damned adorable just then. Not that he would ever be able to voice such opinions, but still. His thoughts were all his own.
“That’s the same old joke you say every time, can’t you try and be a bit more original?” Eddie teased back, eyes flitting dangerously to the arms Richie was hiding behind his back before returning to meet Richie’s nervous gaze.
“I’m sorry, are my jokes not to your liking,” Richie motioned his arms ceremoniously in the air, his hand moving only by his wrist, while he did a poor half bow, his voice dripping with mock respect. “Your highness?”
“Why do you have a knife?” Eddie asked, sounding a bit concerned. Which was both understandable and not as it seemed like everyone in Derry was always carrying knives around these days. Except Eddie of course, who’s such a freak about health he would probably faint if he found any sharp objects in either of his fanny packs.
“Well, earlier I was, uh…” Richie turned around and scanned the bridge for some believable carving that had nothing to do with the one he had actually carved, which was harder than it needed to be seeing as everything seemed some level of romantic. “I was carving that dick right there, I modeled it to scale after your own, it’s the exact same size. I’d be pretty disappointed if I was your mom, having spawned such a disappointment down there and all.”
Scowling as he looked at the barely visible, minuscule dick carving not to far from the R+E Richie was praying he wouldn’t pay any mind to, Eddie stepped even closer to Richie. “Very funny. That one’s a little more original, even if you still included my mom.”
The two of them stared at each other for a while, deadpan seriousness, before smiles started to slowly inch across their faces and they were soon doubling over in laughter.
“I think you’re contagious!” Eddie cried out between laughs, rushing to get his inhaler and using it with shaking hands. Even though it was obvious on Richie’s part he didn’t need it as much as he claimed.
“You sure you don’t have a pill in one of your fanny packs to cure my horrible joke disease?” Richie smirked, pushing his glasses up a little on his nose, beginning to recover from the shared laughter himself.
“Nope, you’re incurable,” Eddie smiled back, nearly recovered from his own laughing fit and carefully putting his inhaler back in his first fanny pack. “But even if I could cure it I doubt I would, you’re one of my best friends Richie, I really like you. Your jokes, and your ‘joke disease’, are a part of you, meaning I like that to.”
And in that moment Richie’s head and heart both exploded and his world began crashing into him, battering him with every emotion under the sun. Part of him was overjoyed to hear Eddie say that, while another part of him was screaming ‘friend, friend, friend, friend! That’s all he sees you as; a friend!’ It both hurt and was absolutely glorious all at once. So you know, just the average Tuesday.
“You’re pretty cool yourself, Kaspbrak.” Richie chuckled, trying his best to cover up the implosion occurring within himself.
“Well I have to run back home now, my moms probably already worried about me.” Eddie continued to smile as he turned and walked away, waving back to Richie.
Richie waved back and smiled, calling out another joke about him fucking Eddie’s mom and laughing when Eddie,without turning around, lifted a hand and flipped him off. Maybe the tears were worth it, Richie conceded, if he got to have happiness as great as this. He pondered the thought as he headed back home, humming the whole way.
Meanwhile, Eddie smiled softly to himself as he wondered why Richie hadn’t just told him he’d carved the R+E, it was obvious he had as that was the carving which was newest in the wood, while the dick had been nearly faded. He wondered who the E was, and hoped Richie had fallen in love with a nice girl, though a part of him he didn’t fully understand yet was a bit crestfallen at the prospect of Richie dating some girl.
He merely shook the thought out of his head, quite literally, and hurried back to his house, though the happy feeling of laughing alongside Richie stuck with him long after he’d crossed the threshold of his doorway.