Chapter Text
His palms were sweating. Oh god. He was pacing up and down in his room, getting more and more nervous with every movement. Was he really gonna do this? He should at some point. Correction: he had to.
Derry wasn’t exactly the kind of town to be really accepting towards anything that’s different, strange or considered out of the ordinary in general. Who was he kidding, most towns around here weren’t. But Derry was an especially judgemental environment. If you weren’t perfectly average in every aspect, you were an easy target for bullies who thrived off mindlessly shaming physically less powerful kids. As long as they could fairly beat you up in case you dared to protest due to some brave impulse, there was absolutely nothing to stop them.
Richie’s mind was wandering, his thoughts becoming one big mush. At the end of the day, its not that big of a deal, he tried to reason with his panicking brain. Its just a few flowers, nothing more. It could be easily interpreted as a friendly gesture. Right? Do boys even give each other flowers as a “friendly gesture”? Probably not.
Sometimes, he was really jealous of girls. Only because of how they could express their affection towards each other without getting beaten up by Henry Bowers or any of his minions for acting like a fucking queer. Ever since the incident with Connor, Henry definitely had an eye on him. And all he did was act a little friendly! Okay, maybe a bit too friendly for Connors liking, but even he didn’t really know what he wanted. What he did know though, is that he was never gonna pull some shit like this ever again.
Well, he was just about to break that promise he made to himself. Except this time, Henry fucking Bowers wasn’t gonna be there to sabotage him. Or any of his little bully friends. Or Greta. Or anyone. No one but Eddie and him.
He finally stepped outside, after long minutes of standing in front of the mirror, repeatedly slapping himself to get his shit together as much as possible, just to fall back on his bed every time and get more and more irritated after every failed attempt to leave the house. After hearing his mother knock on the door and ask if everything was alright, he knew he had to do something. Maggie knew her son, and she knew well enough that Richie Tozier would rather stay at school to sneak into classes he did not go to, only to make prude comments every time he was given the chance, than stay in his room all day, alone. Yeah, she definitely knew something was up. That’s when Richie decided to put on the nicest shoes he owned, those being a mildly dirty pair of Converse sneakers. Those will do just fine, he thought, its not like he was going on a date anyway. Or was he? He really needed to clear his head but his racing thoughts only seemed to get louder and messier.
He was walking to the Quarry, that’s where Eddie and him decided to meet up. Though Eddie was a bit skeptical about the “hangout”, as Richie referred to it, he still decided to go. Hopefully. Wait, what if he doesn’t show up? If anyone, Richie would be the kind of person to meet up with someone only to pull some cheap prank on them, and Eddie was very much aware of that. Perhaps he assumed Richie had just learnt a new way to get on his nerves and couldn’t have waited until school the next day to try it out on him. But he wouldn’t just leave him hanging, would he?
With every step he took, his legs seemed to get heavier and heavier, he could swear someone was putting small invisible rocks in his shoes and pants after every single movement. He considered riding his bike, but he thought he might just fall off at some point because of the unbearable stress, so he decided it would be better to just walk with a bunch of flowers behind his back, like a fucking idiot.
Yeah, he definitely looked like an idiot right now.
As he was getting closer and closer, that excitement turned into complete nausea, because oh fuck, he could see Eddies shape forming on the cliff. He couldn’t turn back now, partly because Eddie was aggressively waving at him with a frown on his face, and partly because his legs didn’t seem to feel like moving. Oh, yeah. Richie was about 20 minutes late. The visible irritation also could have been just Eddies usual anger that everyone had gotten used to by then, but this time, he actually had a valid reason to be mad at Richie.
He didn’t want Eddie to leave. He didn’t look like he was about to, especially considering that there was no bike lying next to him, leading Richie to assume that he walked here as well, but he figured it would be better to collect all of his remaining energy and courage, and walk there as fast as possible, trying his best to stop his scrawny legs from trembling so damn hard.
Finally standing face to face with each other, Richie started at Eddies questioning face, who was looking at him as if he was expecting him to say something.
“I have been waiting here for 20 fucking minutes, asshole!” Eddie exclaimed. His sentence was accompanied by an aggressive hand gesture, which made Richie realise that he was probably expecting an apology or an explanation. Sorry, I was busy stressing about giving you a few goddamn flowers. You know, just like, as a friendly gesture or whatever. Just guys being dudes.
“Uh. Yeah. Sorry about that.” He managed to spit out after a few seconds of silence. Just to check that he really wasn’t going to get beat up for whatever he was about to do, he looked around alarmingly, which caused Eddie to do the same, then look at the other boy, still looking like he’s not at all satisfied with the answer.
“Is everything okay, Rich? Or did you just forget about this so your mom had to remind you or— Dude? Are you even listening to me?”
Richie subconsciously looked down at his hand, only to come to the realisation that he was aggressively fidgeting. It wasn’t his ADHD acting up this time, no, he was just undeniably fucking nervous. Suddenly, he remembered why he was there. He remembered he was in fact holding a fucking bouquet of flowers in his left hand, which Eddie probably didn’t pay much attention to, considering he hadn’t said a single thing about it, plus, he seemed like he was way too busy being angry at Richie.
“Everything’s A-Okay Eds. Sorry I was late, I was just helping my poor old mother with the housework, you know how it is. They just never leave you alone, am I right?” Richie finally decided to speak, ending his monologue with a nervous giggle, while trying his absolute best to hide those flowers as much as possible.
“You’re being so weird today, Tozier. Why did you want to meet up anyway? And what’s with the cologne? You smell like my mom on thanksgiving.”
This was getting awkward. As much as Richie wanted to get to the point, things weren’t looking very good for him. He was sweating like crazy, which probably strengthened the scent of the cheap cologne he decided to put on in the last minute. While he was thinking about all of this, he noticed Eddie's expression change for a brief second, then saw his eyes wander to Richie’s left hand.
“Are those..flowers? What are you doing with those?”
Fuck. Yeah. Well, there’s no escape now. Eddie has seen it, and before he could even notice, Richie was looking at his own hand too. Suddenly, he wasn’t able to remember a single one of those smooth lines he practiced in front of the mirror earlier. They matched the colour of Eddie’s shirt, he should say something about that. Its not too flirty, it simply sounds like an observation.
“Your shirt.”
“What?” Eddie seemed completely confused by now. His annoyance was gone, he was now just desperately trying to figure out what was going on.
“Its pink. Or red. I’m not sure. And the flowers. They— yeah. Pink?”
What the actual fuck was going on. Even Richie himself was confused.
What was he doing? Maybe Eddie thinks this is some weird prank his humour is not advanced enough to understand. Judging by his expression, he was almost as lost as Richie.
Eddie was observing him. His face, his mannerisms, and all he could tell was that he was ridiculously nervous. And red. He isn’t the type of person to get embarrassed easily, he’s usually the one to make others feel uncomfortable, but this time he looked like he was dangerously close to jumping off the cliff they were standing on. He still didn’t get an answer to why Richie was carrying around a bunch of dead, soggy flowers. He looked a bit closer and to his horror, they were wrapped in a plastic bag which had definitely seen better days. It was possibly the ugliest bouquet of flowers Eddie had ever layed his eyes on. Regardless of all that, they looked like they were bought. Wait..were they for him? Huh. Why would Richie get him flowers? Is he meeting a girl after this? Is that the reason for the stinky cologne too? Eddie didn’t excactly know why, but the idea of Richie having a date made him extremely irritated. It was best to ask before Richie could fall apart even more.
“Is this a prank, Rich? Are the flowers for me? Are they for a girl or something?”
What the hell was he supposed to say to that!? The way Eddie was staring directly into his eyes and now he was positive that he knew exactly what was going on. Maybe he shouldn’t have done this at all. Can he undo this somehow? Would someone please kill him? Now Eddie started moving, oh boy he was about to grab the flowers. Richie noticed what he was about to do. He was panicking now. He didn’t know what he was doing. He wasn’t thinking, as usual, and the next thing he noticed was that he was stuffing the flowers in his fucking mouth, to keep Eddie from taking them.
Nom.
Eddie just stood there, staring at him with a devastated expression. His hand was still reaching towards where Richie’s hand once was. There’s no way Richie just fucking ate those flowers.
They tasted like shit, Richie thought to himself, but before he could spit them out, a few petals slipped down his throat, which caused him to start coughing like his life depended on it.
“Are you okay!? Richie, what the hell is going on?” This couldn’t get any worse now. He was still choking on flower petals, making inhumane noises, while Eddie was hitting his back, unable to think of anything else to do. This seemed to be working though, as pink flower petals were now starting to fall out of Richie’s mouth. He was so confused. Currently more focused on trying to save his friend from choking on flowers, but still wondering what just happened. Were the flowers for him? Don’t be fucking stupid, Eddie. Oh, wait. He was getting them for a girl, right? Maybe he wanted to meet up with him to ask for some sorta relationship advice. That makes sense. But why him? Why not Bill? After all, he is the only one who’s ever been in a relationship. With a girl. Richie could also possibly ask Bev, but Eddie didn’t suppose he wanted advice on how to charm a boy. Eddie didn’t have any kind of experience. He was simply grossed out by the idea of doing anything with a girl. He wasn’t sure if that was considered normal at his age. Kissing is a very easy and effective way to transfer all sorts of bacteria, that’s why Eddie was so repulsed by it. Or at least that’s what his mom always told him, and that’s what he told himself.
Richie finally straightened his back, standing up straighter than he usually does. “Sorry about that Eds, I’m—I’m gonna have to–so, see ya later!” He stuttered , fighting back a few last coughs. God, he was so fucking stupid. What the hell was that, Rich!? Good job, what a way to sweep him off his feet. He couldn’t think of anything, so he decided to use the easiest defence mechanism: running. Eddie wanted to answer, to keep him there, make him explain what that was about, but Richie was running, faster than Eddie had ever seen him run. Eddie could swear he saw a single flower petal fall from Richie’s direction in the distance. And Richie was just running. He was running home as fast as he could while cursing himself for skipping all those gym classes. They were both thinking the same thing: What the actual fuck was that.
Richie had always been weird and unpredictable, but this was something else, even from him. Eddie looked down at the ground, realising that the part of the bouquet that Richie did not put in his mouth was still laying on the ground. Guess no girl will be getting any flowers tonight. Richie was right, the flowers really were the same colour as his shirt, if that’s what he was trying to say. It was magenta, by the way. Not pink. Or red. Richie could really educate himself on basic terminology, the dickhead. As he leaned closer to take a better look at the flowers, he noticed a small paper attached to the string holding the remains of the bouquet together. There was something written on it, with that disgustingly messy handwriting Eddie knew well enough. He tried his best to read it, and if he hadn't been totally convinced that the flowers were for a special someone Richie was about to meet, he would have sworn that the small paper said: “For Eddie.”