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richie toizer was definitely not gay. how could he be? at least that was what he would tell himself throughout his day spent with his best friend, eddie kaspbrak.
man this kid is a pain, richie thought to himself as the two were bike riding to the carnival that happened to be open that day. eddie had just finished complaining about how dirty the school's bathrooms were for the fourth time that week, and richie could not stand to hear it anymore.
"eddie, do you ever shut the fuck up?" richie asked him, who was now rolling his eyes.
"i'll shut the fuck up once they clean the bathrooms," eddie retorted. they continued to ride their bikes in silence, since there was no one else going with them. they had asked their friends if any of them wanted to come, but they all seemed to be busy; mike was working, ben was spending the day with his family, for it happened to be his mother’s birthday, stanely was working on a history project with bill, and beverly was coming down with a cold.
it would just be the two of them.
they arrived at the carnival and richie bolted to the largest roller coaster they had.
“let’s ride this one first,” he demanded. eddie looked at the roller coaster and gulped, seemingly nervous to richie, however he played it off as nothing.
“i’ll go, but i know you're going to be screaming your ass off,” richie denied this, causing eddie to laugh while carding his brown curls with his hand. richie watched this movement carefully, he had never noticed how... nice, eddie's hair looked. he admired his curls some more, not noticing that eddie was staring right at him. “the fuck are you staring at?” richie, who was forced to break his trance, looked into eddies eyes and panicked.
“your ugly ass face, that’s what. now let’s get on this line before it gets any longer!” richie nervously laughed, grabbed eddies wrist, and pulled him along, ignoring what had happened moments before.
"i'm telling you, ed, mr. jones is a criminal!" richie exclaimed. he was trying to make the long line seem less dull by talking about something funny, apparently their algebra teacher being a criminal was the best thing he could come up with.
"you have no proof, dumbass."
"there is no way someone can be that boring. he has to be hiding something." the two laughed at richie's idiotic idea, but were interrupted by some guy who pushed richie by accident into eddie. richie grabbed both hands onto the railing behind him, but found himself hovering over eddie, whose lips were slightly parted. he examined his face, noticing the freckles dusted on his nose, and the light stubble the boy was growing. his appearance, and the fact that their faces were merely inches apart caused richies’ head to be flooded with thoughts of closing the small gap they had between each other. the two boys stayed like this for what seemed like hours to richie, however was only a second before eddie pushed him onto the rail behind him.
“can you move? i can feel your germs spreading onto me." eddie wiped his shirt as if richie's proximity were to infect him. the latter took a notice to this and felt a certain stabbing pain in his chest; he would never admit this but he was a little upset that eddie had pushed him away.
what the fuck is wrong with me? he asked himself, thinking about the two incidents that had already occurred with eddie that day. he took a moment to regather himself from his peculiar state and smirked.
“please you’re the one with all the germs, you're probably infected with some sort of disease,” richie finally retorted.
“thats not fucking funny, richie,” eddie stated seriously.
“of course it is, i’m hilarious,” he snorted. eddie rolled his eyes and brought up another topic to talk about. richie tried to act like his normal self, however he couldn’t seem to think straight. not of course when his mind had thought of crashing his lips against his best friend minutes before, and it didn't help that the sun was shining on eddie in a way that made him look like a greek god.
"rich, are you even paying attention to what i'm saying?" eddie asked while waving his hand in front of richie.
"yeah, obviously."
"what did i just finish saying then?" richie's mouth gaped open but to neither of their surprise, he didn't answer the question.
"exactly. jeez, i would think you of all people would be interested in this topic! well anyways, there's this new girl at school and-"
"girl?" eddie blinked at richie's confusion but nevertheless continued.
"yeah... she is in my chemistry class and she is super hot-"
"hot?"
"jesus christ rich, first you weren't listening and now you keep interrupting me! would you shut the fuck up?" richie rolled his eyes and let him finish talking about the supposedly hot new girl.
"not like you can get a girl anyways," richie scoffed once he was done, partially jealous at the fact that eddie was eyeing girls.
"fuck you," eddie shoved richie and began to explain to him as to why he could, in his words, "get more girls than richie ever could." to which richie, of course, payed no mind to. his thoughts were occupied with problems much greater than eddie getting more girls than him.
why should i care who eddie finds attractive? he can date whom ever he wants. richie thought to himself, but even those words made him shutter. he stared at the line that seemingly grew longer and sighed. this is gonna take a while.
after what seemed like hours of waiting for the roller coaster, the two finally got on the ride.
“richie i don’t know-“ eddie started.
“what? you scared?”
“of course not-“
“so shut up! you’re going to ruin the fun of the ride!” so eddie did and the two stepped into the cart which to richie's satisfaction, forced them to be pretty close together.
“this ride looks like its about to break down-“
“eddie,”
“there aren’t any handlebars on the fucking thing!”
“eddie!”
“yes?”
“shut the fuck up!” richie demanded once more. silence followed for a matter of seconds and then eddie spoke again.
“if i die on this ride i blame you.”
“for the love of christ.”
“on my tombstone it’s going to say ‘eddie kaspbrak; cause of death: richie’s idiotic bullshit.”
“yeah yeah cry me a river-“ richie’s sarcastic remark was cut off by the sound of a loud squeaking sound.
“we are going to die on this roller coaster and it’s going to be your fault,” eddie repeated. richie rolled his eyes at his best friends’ reaction, yet couldn’t help but smile at how nervous eddie was. all of a sudden the ride sped away from the entrance, and eddie kaspbrak was losing his shit. richie, who was once again enjoying his reaction, laughed loudly.
“i hate you richie toizer!” eddie screamed at the top of his lungs.
“you know you love me!” richie responded. eddie looked at richie and began to laugh, seemingly forgetting about his fear of roller coasters for a second, causing richie to burst into another fit of laughter as well. the two continued to scream in enjoyment up until the door of the roller coaster cart fell off- then they began to scream in fear.
“what the fuck!” both boys shouted at the top of their lungs over and over again. the door that had fallen off was on eddie’s side of the cart, so if it weren’t for one of richie’s arms that instinctively wrapped around eddie's waist while the other was holding onto the door on his own side, he most likely would have fallen out.
“i told you that we were going to die on this ride!” eddie screamed once more.
“would you relax! you aren’t going anywhere!” richie yelled back, although he was much calmer than eddie. once again richie’s face began to burn up at their close proximity. he thought about letting go of eddie who was continuously being pushed closer to him as the ride continued, but then eddie would inevitably fall out of the ride and most likely die.
and despite the fact that richie obviously felt something for eddie, (although his stubborn ass refused to believe this), he would never admit that he was right.
so the two boys stayed in that position, screaming due to obvious reasons.
once they stepped off the ride, and the operator rightfully shut it down, the two boys looked at each other. however instead of making this situation into a heartfelt moment, they broke out into hysterics. they were laughing so much that they didn’t even realize the crowd of people watching behind them. richie opened his eyes while clutching his stomach, and took a look at his best friend. eddie was hunched over, hands on his knees, eyes closed, and his face was plastered with a large grin.
his laugh caused butterflies to erupt in richie's stomach, which at first he played off as an after-effect from laughing so much.
but when eddie took his hand and dragged them to another ride, (which surprised richie since he almost fell out of the first one) he knew that it wasn’t just a stomach ache from laughing, it couldn't be.
richie toizer was definitely gay
and falling in love with his best friend.