Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Three weeks ago, the nerdy prudes lured local bully/football star, Max Jägerman into the old Waylon place to prank him. As Peter said when they arrived, the place wasn't structurally sound, but it seemed fine, besides what's the worst that could happen? But Richie saw something the others didn't. As Max thanked them for their prank; he noticed a number of cracks in the wood, and they were getting bigger as Max walked around, the creaking floorboards getting louder and louder under Max's weight. Before Richie could think, he ran towards Max at full speed, grabbing onto him and tackling him to the ground. Simultaneously, a deafening cracking noise exploded from the floor, the loud crash of floorboards hitting the ground below, and then silence.

Max was clutching onto Richie in a tight hug, they were on the ground right next to the gaping hole in the floor where Max was standing. 

"holy shit!" Steph exclaimed, looking down at the floor below

"ugh language, Steph" Grace rolled her eyes, Steph whipped her head around towards Grace to glare in her direction.

Max was silent, he just stared at Richie, like he didn't expect him of all people to save him. Richie was a very skinny, un-athletic guy, not the person you'd expect to be able to shove a football quarterback onto the ground. Not only that, but up until a few minutes ago, Max thought everyone hated him, why would Richie save him like that? Max being dead would probably improve life at Hatchetfield High tremendously. 

"a-are you okay??" Richie looked down at Max, who was still hugging him, tightly clutching his shirt.

"I'm fine." Max waited a few seconds, then let go, pulling away from the nerd, they looked at the mess of splintered wood in front of them. The rest of the group stared at the two boys, perplexed and not knowing what to say.

"you saved me" Max sat on the ground next to Richie, heart still pounding in chest. His hair was a mess of curls and any hair product that was in his hair before was now long gone, his letterman jacket was wrinkled and covered in the dust that once resided in the old house.

"It was just adrenaline" Richie said as he dusted off his vest, "that didn't mean anything" his nonchalant demeanor wasn't an accurate expression of his true feelings; he didn't particularly like Max in any sense, but he didn't want him to DIE. He would've felt truly awful if he had just let Max fall through the floorboards and get hurt, even if he made Richies life a living hell. But maybe, now that he had saved his life Max would leave him alone. 

"oh..." Max looked hurt, he had seemed genuinely happy to find out they didn't hate him, even though they did, "well you still saved me so.. thanks"

Richie had never heard Max thank anyone for anything before, even to his friends. He remembered what Max mentioned about his dad while confronting the "ghost", being scared to go home in fear of being berated by him. 

"You're welcome...?" Richie responded slowly.

"hate to interrupt whatever this is but we should get out of here before the whole floor gives out" Stephanie interjected, she grabbed Pete's hand and Ruth by the backpack and started for the door, dragging them along with her. Grace followed not far behind, pink backpack draped over one shoulder. Richie stood up and held out his hand, Max took it and was pulled up to his feet. 

"this was fun" Max smiled,

"you almost died"

"I'm a football quarterback, I've gone through worse"

"I guess so" Richie recalled watching Max constantly getting tackled to the ground during practice and during games, very similarly to what Richie did just now.

The group walked out of the old house, Grace locking the door behind her with her dad's stolen keys. It was dark now, the sky was clear so they could see the stars. Peter was now calling his brother to pick him up and Stephanie had already ordered an Uber for her and Ruth, whose house was on the way to Stephanies, Stephanie lived on Pinebrook which was on the other side of town. 

"ok my brothers picking me up soon" Peter said as he got off the phone. Grace had already started walking home as her house was only a few blocks away, Richie was slightly worried for her as Hatchetfield at night could be dangerous at times, but he shook the feeling. Soon after, Stephanie, Ruth and eventually Peter left, leaving Richie and Max all alone. He couldn't deny it, Richie was scared, and maybe it was obvious because Max had taken notice of his trembling.

"I'm not gonna hurt you" Max said from behind.

"I'm just cold that's all" Richie shoved his hands under his armpits to further show that he was cold, not scared. Though he often did that even when he wasn't cold.

"don't lie you're wearing like ten layers, I'm probably colder than you are"

"you're not going to hurt me?" Richie repeated, thinking maybe he imagined it.

"nah, I'm too tired anyway"

"Well I should probably get home then" Richie grabbed his backpack from the ground by his feet, putting it on and starting to walk the long way to his house.

"what's on your backpack?" Max asked as he caught up to him.

"uhh Attack on Titan?"

"oh right,, you're a nerd" did Max forget that Richie was a nerd?

"indeed... don't you have a car why are you walking with me?"

"I was already nearby when Steph called me, plus, this is Hatchetfield and its night time and you're a scrawny loser" Max had a funny way of showing that he was nice.

"so why didn't you go walk with Grace, she's alone and don't you like her?" Richie asked, perplexed.

"yeah but she's tougher than you and only lives, like, a block away" Max shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, cold; a gust of wind blowing in their direction. As they neared Richies house they didn't talk much, Richie would occasionally glance over at Max, who looked both annoyed and confused with just a hint of happiness.

"well,, this is my house" they paused in front of the house. "well, uh, thanks for walking me home?"

"you make it sound like we're a couple or something I'm just trying to be nice" Max scoffed and rolled his eyes. Even when he was being nice, he still had a mean aura; he clearly wasn't used to being nice, he'd been bullying the losers at school since the fourth grade.

"of course not! You're Max Jägerman, you probably have, like, three cheerleader girlfriends or something" Richie jokingly stammered.

"yeah, sure" Max rolled his eyes, Richie wasn't sure if that indicated whether he did have three cheerleader girlfriends or he was being sarcastic.

"well bye then" Richie turned around and started to walk up to the door, about 70% sure that when he came back to school on Monday, Max would be right back to his old self; shoving nerds into lockers and slapping peoples lunch trays out of their hands. But the other 30% of him felt like maybe Max had truly changed.

Chapter Text

On a chilly Friday night, Max almost fell through the floorboards and died. But he didn't die, a geek with blue in the tips of his hair tackled him onto the ground just in time to save him. Max had never paid Shit-lips any attention other than to give him a swirly or a flick-it-ticket, all he knew was that he was a nerd with no social status whatsoever. But being saved by Shit-lips changed something in him, like a switch flipped in his brain, if he was worth saving in the eyes of someone he'd tortured for years, maybe he wasn't as useless and hated as he was led to believe. 

That night, he had decided to stop bullying those losers, maybe learn their names. He knew Shit-lips was named Richard because every time he called him "shit-lips" he corrected him, as if that'd ever work; but it came to Max's attention that he didn't know what flem-wads name was, he knew her last name had the word flem in it, but what was her first name? He figured he'd ask Steph later, she seemed to be hanging with those nerds more. 

After walking back home from Richies house, he flopped onto his bed, pulled out his phone and opened the messages app,

         Steph (cool)

Max: hey what's headgears name?

Steph: Ruth? Why?

Max: I realized i didn't know her name and she did good as a skeleton

Steph: I guess, are you like nice now or

Max: I'm gunna try 2 be nice 💪

Steph: hey good for you, man. you can start by apologizing to Pete for what happened at Pasqualli's

Max: ok i will

Max put his phone down, it was late, he rested his eyes and soon fell asleep; still in his dusty letterman jacket and jeans. The rest of the weekend flew by, normally on weekends he went to parties; loud, huge, ragers like the kind you see in movies. But that weekend he thought a lot about the nerds (+ Steph), he managed to come up with a few lines to say when apologizing to them,

"sorry I kicked your ass, micro-peter- Peter"

"sorry for shoving you inside your locker, Ruth"

stuff like that; but he was having trouble coming up with something for shit-lips, "wait no, Richie, his name is Richie" even though RICHIE had risked his life to save him, his bully since 4th grade, he still acted pretty neutral around him, like it wasn't that big a deal. Richies nonchalant attitude towards Max made it seem like he'd be the most forgiving of the three, but Max couldn't be sure.

"whatever, I'll just wing it" he decided, as he was tired and it was a Sunday night.

It was now Monday morning, Max threw together his usual outfit (a shirt, jeans, and his letterman jacket) and headed off the school, 

"BYE!" He yelled to his dad as he headed out the door. No answer, "He's probably still hungover. Asshole" Max thought to himself. Max's dad had certain expectations of him, he was supposed to be the most popular guy in school, be the best at football, and have a hot girlfriend. So far he had only checked two of those boxes.

That's why the comment Richie made about him having "like three cheerleader girlfriends" made him feel queasy; he'd made out with loads of girls yes, but he hadn't ever dated one for more than a few weeks, Grace wasn't even letting him hold her books. But the thing is, even if Grace gave in to his attempts, he'd probably get bored of her within a week, forbidden fruit still rots, and Max was hungry.

By the time Max arrived at school, the hallways were pretty crowded, but he just walked straight through the halls, everyone scrambling out of the way for Max Jägerman, the king of the school. He arrived at his locker to see Kyle and Jason waiting for him.

"hey Max! We have a surprise for you!" Kyle smiled, it was a sinister sort of smile but Max hadn't yet noticed; they had a surprise! Maybe they cared about him after all and he didn't need some losers to prove it.

"what is it?" Max asked.

"take a look, Jägerman" Kyle motioned towards his locker, from inside he could hear someone inside, he opened the locker and out fell Richie Lipschitz, his hair more messed up than usual.

"WHAT THE HELL, KYLE!" Max yelled, "why's he in my locker?! You're real fucked up you know that"

"b-but the other day you shoved him into a locker and said he deserved it every day, I-"

"I don't give a fuck what I said the other day!" Max slammed the locker shut while Richie tried to scramble away, but his shoelaces were unfortunately tied together, likely Jasons doing.

Max punched Kyle in the face, causing Jason to catch him mid-air, "DON'T TOUCH HIM AGAIN, UNDERSTAND?" Kyle nodded while Jason dragged him away.

Richie was still on the ground, attempting to untie is shoes from each other, but his hands were shaky and he was trying to go as fast as possible. Max kneeled down and started to untie his knotted shoelaces. "sorry about that, he's stupid"

"uh huh" Richie nodded slightly. Max was close to fully untying his shoes when he looked up to see Richie just staring at him, his light blue eyes complimenting the dark blue dye in his hair. Max's face suddenly got very hot, very quickly and he choked up, "I- uh sorry" he then got up as quickly as possible and ran to his homeroom.

"god what's wrong with me today? I was fine until he looked at me" Max sat in the back of the classroom where he normally sat so he could slack off in class without the teacher noticing; he usually got that nerd, PJ to do his homework for him. She used to be his tutor but, like all his previous tutors, she regarded her future and quit when she realized he was a lost cause.

"get it together, Max, be a MAN! you've never been nervous around girls before why would you be nervous around some guy?"  ..... "oh. no"

Chapter Text

Later, when Richie arrived at lunch, Ruth, Peter, and Steph were already waiting for him. 

"have you guys seen Max today?" Richie asked as he sat down, he figured maybe the others had similar experiences with Max.

"yeah he found me at my locker before third period" Ruth answered as she shoveled goldfish crackers into her mouth, "it was scary I thought he was gonna give me another swirlie or something"

"what did he say?" Richie asked

"he just said hi, it was weird" 

"did he randomly run away while he was talking to you?"

"sort of, he just gave me this note and wandered off" Ruth pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket.

Richie took the note and read it; it said, in semi-messy handwriting:

        sorry I wus mean to you, headgear Ruth :(

"wow he can't spell, can he" Richie said as he passed back the note, Steph was leaning over Richies shoulder also reading the note,

"so that's why he asked me about you" Steph gestured to Ruth,

"oOo he asked about me" Ruth said in a flirty tone, she waggled her eyebrows, "what'd he say?" 

"he just asked for your name, said you did good as a skeleton" Steph shrugged and turned to Richie, "what'd he say to you?"

"it was weird, this morning Kyle and Jason tied my shoelaces together and shoved me into a locker like they do all the time..." he started to explain what had happened as the group listened, "...and then Max opened the locker and started yelling at them, said to never do it again." 

"woah, I heard Kyle had a black eye in class today, did he get beat up?!" Ruth was enthralled in the story, as it probably lined up with whatever weird fanfic she had read the night before.

"yeah he punched him" Richie smiled slightly, thinking about Max protecting him like that. "but anyways, when he was helping me untie my shoes he called Kyle stupid and said sorry. But then he looked at me, muttered something under his breath, and just ran away"

"not to imply anything, but the only loser he's ever protected like that is Grace" Steph took a sip from her can of Dr. Pepper, putting her arm around Peter, who's face turned bright red.

"ARE YOU IMPLYING YAOI??!!" Ruth loudly asked, leaning on the table; "god half the lunchroom probably heard that"

Peter shushed her and turned towards Richie, face still red from Stephs touch. "well maybe he feels protective of you as recognition for saving him" 

"yeah maybe.." Richie opened his Naruto lunchbox and started to eat his sandwich. Why the hell was Max acting so weird? He's the toughest, scariest, most popular guy in school and he was acting like a complete dork. Complimenting Ruth, helping Richie escape from that locker, AND running away when he met his gaze? They were all such strange behaviors from him. Maybe that "skeleton" had a lasting affect on him.

Sure, Richie had been told he had "scary blue eyes" but he didn't take that LITERALLY, what was Max so freaked out about? Richie looked around the lunchroom, everyone was in their normal spots:

PJ and Reese sat at a small table near Richies, doing homework

Trevor, Caitlyn and the other theater kids were loudly talking and singing at their table (Richies uncle would hate them)

Brooke, Rudolph, and Hannah were all still in line getting food

Grace and Gabe were walking around, handing out pamphlets about the importance of abstinence

and at the front of the cafeteria sat the biggest group; the popular kids. At this table was Brenda and Stacy, who were currently giggling over one of those girly magazines. Kyle, Jason, and Brad, jocks who followed Max wherever he went. And then, Max himself, who looked like he was tuning out whatever stupid thing Brad was talking about. Richie watched as he challenged Jason to an arm wrestle, Max wasn't wearing his jacket so he had a full view of his arms, the dark blue sleeves of his tight raglan shirt only reaching to the middle of his forearm, his hair with a slight curl to it. "God he looks good" Richie thought, he stared at Max as he won the arm wrestle, he was so strong.

Now Richie had been bullied by Max for years, he hated him for a long time because of it; but he wasn't clueless. He could acknowledge that Max was insanely attractive, and now, after seeing his (sort of) soft side when he was trying to fight that "ghost", and he was showing off his big, strong arms; he was more attractive than ever.

He was now intently watching Max, unable to take his eyes off him, "god what is wrong with me?" he knew it was wrong, Max was definitely straight, but it didn't hurt to look at him, did it?! 

He kept staring, tuning out whatever nerdy thing Peter and Ruth were talking about, it probably wasn't important anyways. He watched Max chug an entire blue gatorade and then, without warning, Max turned around to see Richie staring at him. Richie didn't flinch, he didn't quickly turn around to pretend he wasn't doing anything, he just kept staring, like he wanted to see what would happen next. 

What happened next was not what Richie expected, Max looked distressed, he then got up and quickly walked out of the cafeteria, leaving his jacket behind. "that was weird. thought he'd come over and call me a slur or something" Once Max was gone, he turned back in his seat; Ruth and Peter were arguing about Star Wars and Stephanie was on her phone. Nobody else saw Max freak out and leave. This was the second time today Max had looked at Richie and ran off.

Chapter Text

Max walked down the quiet halls of Hatchetfield High, tracing his hand along the lockers. He just couldn't stand to be in that room anymore. Not while Richie was staring at him like he was some freak. He thought about what he did in his third period class after giving Ruth his apology note,, all throughout the day he'd tried to ignore the looming fear of discovering something very... queer about himself

-third period, remedial algebra-

Sitting in the back of class, not listening to the teachers lecture about algebra, he kept thinking about him. He tried to shake the idea that he might be anything but straight, "what would my dad say? What would Jason and Kyle say?! I'm the star quarterback I can't be gay" but he just couldn't stop thinking about it. "I mean, sure, I always stare when Kyles shirtless in the locker room, but, that's just because he's my friend!!"

"Max?" a voice interrupted his thoughts, 

"huh" Max sat up straighter, "what?"

"what's the answer?" his teacher, Mr. Lang asked, pointing to an equation on the whiteboard. 2x + 5 = 43

"uuhh" Max stalled, math was never his strongest skill; that's why he was in remedial algebra, a class full of mostly freshmen and sophmores. The class was quiet except for a few giggles from other students that filled the air.

"pssst" a voice from his left interrupted, he turned his head to see a freshman girl who wore a yellow flannel and a Nighthawks hat, he was pretty sure her name was Hannah, "19"

"huh?" Max leaned in closer to better hear her.

"x equals 19" she whispered even louder with a hint of frustration in her voice.

He sat back up and looked at the teacher, "Uhhh, 19?" Max loudly exclaimed, deciding to trust this random girl he'd never met.

"good work" Mr. Lang rolled his eyes and moved on to quiz another unsuspecting student, Max let out a sigh of relief and opened his laptop. After checking around him to see if anyone was watching, he typed into google: "am I gay quiz" He clicked on the first link and sighed, "whatever it'll probably say I'm straight anyway" 

The first question was simple, "do you ever get nervous around cute guys"

"what does it mean by cute guys??" and then Max remembered how Richie looked when he was on the ground, all flustered; his hair falling in front of his face, his light blue eyes staring into his, the squeak he made when he fell out of that locker. "shit, man" he reluctantly clicked the "yes" option. That's how the rest of the questions went, at first saying the least gay answer then remembering something else he liked about guys, more specifically, Richie. When he got to the end of the quiz he got his answer: he was definitely gay.

"dammit" Max muttered as he slammed his laptop shut, it was now the end of class, "how am I supposed to apologize to that loser knowing I might like him, I'll probably freak out and run away again"

He thought about it during the rest of his classes before lunch and decided he'd just avoid shit-lips at all costs until he knew exactly what he was feeling. So when he turned around at lunch and noticed him staring right at him for god knows how long, he had to get out of there as soon as he could.

So there we was, hiding from Richie Lipschitz. A week ago it was the other way around with Richie hiding from Max. But things were different now. He walked to the end of the hall and sat on the ground by some lockers. Sighing, he leaned his head on the cold locker behind him and closed his eyes.

"Max Jägerman" a familiar voice called his name, startling him, it was coming from the hallway to his left. He looked up to see Richie walking towards him, carrying the letterman jacket Max had left behind.

"shit. no running away now" "oh,, hey" Max said with a smirk, trying to seem nonchalant. Max stared as Richie stood next to him, tossing the jacket into his lap.

"you left your jacket" 

"oh.. yeah thanks" Max paused for second before saying something else, "sorry about bullying you.. by the way"

"yeah, uh,, I came here to say thanks for helping me out this morning..." Richie shoved his hands under his armpits, something Max had noticed he did a lot, "y'know defending me and all"

Richie paused for a moment before adding on, "why did you help me?" he sat down next to Max, close; almost touching shoulders. 

Max froze, what could he say that sounded the LEAST like he was gay for him? "uhh" Max stalled for a moment.

But then remembered something he'd been forgetting recently: he was the most powerful person in school, who cared if some nerd didn't like him back? It's not like shit-lips of all people could bully him for being gay. Plus, Max had perfected the art of flirting, and flirting is flirting no matter who it's with. "so screw it"

"can't a guy flirt without getting interrogated?" Max grinned, he was SO back on his game.

"w-what?!" Richie flinched, shuffling back slightly, "Max are you gay??!!"

"maybe so" Max smiled, trying to stay mysterious.

"...and you like...me?" Richie slowly started shuffling back towards Max.

"yup"

"and this isn't a prank?" Richie was now even closer to Max than he was before, his whole body now facing him.

"you ask too many questions" Max shifted around and leaned in towards the nerd, resting his hand on Richies shoulder, slowly pulling him closer. 

"M-Max.." Richie stammered as their faces got closer and closer.

"Do you want this?" Max whispered, their faces inches from each other.

"yes" Richie responded, wrapping his hand around Max's waist. Max moved his hand from Richies shoulder to his face, pulling him in; he then tilted his head slightly and their lips met. Richie wasn't a bad kisser, especially for what Max assumed was his first kiss. Richie reached his hand up and ran his fingers through Max's hair, trying to get as close as possible to him. They continued the kiss for a few more seconds before the bell interrupted them, ringing loudly. The two pulled apart, Richies face was completely red, "cute", Max thought. A slew of people started to crowd the hallway, all rushing to get to class after lunch ended.

"I gotta go-" Richie quickly stood up, straightening his shirt, "uh.. thanks" and just like that, he disappeared into the crowd. Max continued to sit, jacket still in his lap, watching as the crowd of students slowly thinned out. Down the hallway he could see the familiar faces of his friends, Kyle and Jason, approaching. They walked up to Max and Jason held out his hand, Max took it as he pulled him up from the ground, "you disappeared there, Max"

"yeah where'd you go? That nerd, shit-lips came over and took your jacket after about 10 minutes" Kyle motioned towards the jacket Max held in his hands, then looked closer at Max; taking notice of Max's messier than usual hair and the fact that his face was completely red; putting two-and-two together, he yelled. "OH MY GOD WERE YOU AND SHITLIPS-"

"shUT UP, KYLE" Max hissed, slapping his hand over Kyles mouth so he didn't say anything else, "god you're being the worst today" he lowered his hand as Kyle took a step back.

"does this mean I can date Brenda now?" Kyle smirked, he never shut up about Brenda, Max didn't see what was so special about her but then again, he just found out he was gay so maybe that was the reason.

"yeah sure whatever" Max scoffed as he put his jacket back on, "don't tell anyone about this okay or I'll kill you both",  trying to push past Jason, Max tried to leave, but the two made a barrier between him and the rest of the hallway.

"hey Max, you know we support you, right?" Jason said, with sincerity in his voice. Max turned towards Kyle, who nodded. 

"oh.. well thanks guys" Max let out a deep breath, a weight lifted from his chest, "still don't tell anyone though, ok?"

"you got it, Jägerman" Jason smiled and the three walked to class. While they walked, Jason broke off from the group to go to his next class and Kyle ran into Brenda and stopped to talk to her, and Max was left alone to wonder where Richie had run off to; he wished he'd at least gotten his number or something.

Chapter Text

Richie had decided he wouldn't tell his friends about his... run in with Max. Ruth would probably ask a billion invasive questions and Peter just wouldn't understand. The rest of the day seemed to last forever, but finally it was the end and Richie was waiting outside for his uncle to pick him up; normally his brother Trevor would be with him, but he was in rehearsal for the school play, The Barbecue Monologues. He stood by the parking lot, a slight chill in the air causing him to shiver as it was nearing the end of September. He watched as his uncle pulled up to the school, he opened the passenger seat door and climbed in.

"hey, Richie!" Paul smiled, taking a sip from his coffee.

"hi, Paul" Richie avoided eye contact with his uncle as he buckled his seatbelt.

"how was school??" Paul always had a million questions about school, Richie always lied, saying he had a "great day" even when it wasn't true, (he didn't want Paul to worry about him); but this time he didn't lie, he actually had a pretty great day, besides getting shoved into that locker. 

"it was good!" Richie said with more enthusiasm than usual, he looked outside the window as Paul drove through the parking lot, catching a glimpse of Max walking to his car. He sunk down in his seat, he didn't want Max to see him because of the fact that he left so suddenly and awkwardly after their encounter. 

"who the hell says 'thanks' after someone kisses them?? Idiot" Richie thought, still watching as Max unlocked his car door, his hair was still messy from earlier, making Richie blush.

"what'cha you looking at?" Paul asked, glancing over at Richie before looking straight ahead.

"huh? Nobody" Richie whipped his head around to stare ahead, "I mean nothing!"

"..okay" Paul gripped the steering wheel, pulling onto the road. Richie stayed quiet the rest of the car ride, he had a lot to think about. Like, since when was Max Jägerman GAY?? When the hell did that happen? Also, what was he going to do tomorrow when he inevitably runs into Max? They had football practice tomorrow, and as Zeke the Fighting Nighthawk, it was his duty to the team to come to every practice, at least, thats what Coach Houston said. Before Richie knew it, they were home. Once inside, Richie walked upstairs to his room and flopped onto his bed. He stared at the ceiling which was covered in various anime posters, his favorite being the Attack on Titan poster he got for his 12th birthday. He was staring at beautiful Levi Ackerman when his phone received a text, Richie picked it up to see Ruth had texted him.

        Ruth 🦖

Ruth: so what was it like making out with Max Jagerman?

Ruth: 😛

Now how the HELL did Ruth find out about that?? He sat up in his bed and quickly typed a message back.

Richie: HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT???

Ruth: so you DID?!

Ruth: I can't believe I was right, now Peter owes me $5

Richie: seriously how did you know that

Ruth: I kinda just assumed

Ruth: you took his jacket and followed after him and never came back

Ruth: so was he a good kisser? 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

Richie hesitated before answering, but knowing Ruth, she wasn't going to stop asking if he didn't answer

Richie: ...yeah duh

Richie: we only kissed for about 30 seconds before the bell interrupted us tho

Ruth: bummerrrrr

Ruth: god you're lucky tho, Max is soooo hot

Richie: you think everyone is "soooo hot"

Ruth: true lol

Richie: btw I gotta go now

Ruth: to make out with Max

Richie: NO?? I have homework 

Ruth: surrrreeeeee

Ruth: byeeee :3

Richie didn't actually have homework, he set his phone down on his nightstand next to one of his many anime figurines, "well.. I guess Ruth knows, and she's probably gonna tell Pete too" Richie sighed, he looked at the anime girl body pillow on his bed, "sorry waifu, you may be replaced with a real person soon if I'm lucky" he picked up his phone again to see another text, this time from an unknown number.

   unknown #

unknown #: hey

unknown #:  Steph gave me your number

Richie: who's this?

Unknown #: Max

Richie jumped, almost dropping his phone. He scrambled to compose himself and quickly typed his reply, trying to seem as chill as possible.

Richie: oh hi 

Max: i was thinking about earlier

Richie: you were?

Max: yeah 

Richie watched as the three dots indicating he was typing appeared and disappeared for what seemed like forever.

Max: I think i like you

Richie: 0///0

Richie: I think I might like you too 

First Stephanie (the most popular girl in school, mind you) started hanging with Pete, and now Max the star quarterback was crushing on Richie Lipschitz, change was in the air, so maybe this year wasn't going to be as bad as Richies previous school years.

Never in his 4 years of high school did Richie think he'd be able to go for the popular jock, especially not Max Jägerman; Jason? Maybe, but not Max. But now he had the chance, maybe it was because he seemed like he'd truly changed over the weekend. Maybe it was because he was a good kisser AND he was super hot. And hey, maybe it was both. Richie didn't think he really needed a reason to like him, anyway.

He looked back down at his phone, seeing another text:

Max: wanna hold hands tomorrow

Who knew Max was such a sucker, what is this? Middle school? Might as well get married on the playground. But hey, Richie was pretty sure this was Max's first gay experience so he decided to cut him some slack.

Richie: lol sure

Richie clicked on Max's number and saved it to his phone. He opened his laptop to start on his "homework" (watch anime) when Paul knocked on his door.

"come in" Richie called, not bothering to get up.

Paul opened the door and peeked in, "Trevors home, it's dinner time!"

"ok I'll be down in a sec" Richie closed his laptop and pocketed his phone. While skipping down the stairs, he ran into Trevor on the way.

"how'd you get home, Paul didn't pick you up"

"Rudolph drove me" Trevor answered as the two walked to the kitchen.

"what the christmas reindeer?" Richie teased. He knew who Rudolph was, Peter had become friends with him a while ago; he was pretty sure they met at Beanies at some point.

"No he's the Swedish foreign exchange student, we're... friends"

"mm hmm yeah ok" Richie had seen Trevor hanging around the new kid a lot recently, they looked... friendly with each other.

Richie had a good day today, and he couldn't wait for tomorrow, a sentence he never said on school nights. 

(and then the family of Jon Mattesons had dinner together yay!!)

Chapter Text

Yesterday was a weird day for Max. He realized he liked guys, and even weirder, he realized he liked a NERD; and then he made out with said nerd in the hallway during lunch. So definitely a weird day to say the least. But today might be even weirder for Max because last night he confessed to Richie that he liked him and then asked if they could hold hands today. Not a huge stretch considering Richies tongue was in his mouth less than 24 hours ago, but it was still a nerve-racking experience to ask him that. But hey, he said yes.

He waited outside the doors of the school for Richie, watching as students walked past him to get inside and away from the cold autumn air. Max was a bit chilly, only wearing his letterman jacket over his clothes, but soon enough he'd be inside. A few seconds later, an old, blue car pulled up in the parking lot and Richie (+ some other kid) hopped out of the car. The other kid walked up to his friends after waving bye to Richie, and Max watched as Richie walked from the parking lot to the front doors where he was waiting. 

"Hey, Richie" Max waved, Richie saw him and nervously approached.

"hi Max" Richie gripped the straps of his backpack, Max took note that his hair was slightly neater than usual. It wasn't as spiked up in the back and it fell more evenly over his face. 

"did he brush his hair to look good for me? Dork" Max thought, and then he remembered he wore his good cologne today, the one he only wore for special occasions.

The two started walking together through the front doors, class started in about 10 minutes so they could take their time getting there. As they were walking, their hands brushed against each other, Max decided to go for it and grabbed the nerds hand, tightly holding on. He sneakily looked over to see that Richie was smiling, but his smile faded when he saw Brad Callahan walking towards them. Richie quickly dropped Max's hand, "fucking Brad ruins everything" Max scowled at Brad as he walked past, once he was gone, Max looked back at Richie, who had a stressed look on his face.

"I'll beat him up if you want me to" Max smiled, only half joking. Being the most powerful person in school had its perks, people were too scared to make fun of him for anything, so he could really date anyone he wanted; and if someone dared to try, like Brad usually did, he'd just shove them into a locker or something.

"as much as I'd like to see that given it's a peak yaoi trope, I don't want any more trouble than normal" Richie sighed, scratching his arm, "he's already pretty annoying at football practice as it is, that'll just make it worse"

Max had no idea what "yaoi" meant, but he decided he'd google it later, for now, he was focused on Richie, his eyes so pretty, his hands so soft; he HAD to carry this guys books later. 

"well now that he's gone" Max dramatically held out his hand and Richie took it, his smile reappearing. Max noticed that Richie had painted his nails a dark shade of blue, and it looked like there was some sort of glitter mixed into the polish. Max looked down at his own free hand as they continued to walk, his nails were pretty nice looking for a "straight" football player; but Max had always cared about his looks, they were something important to him.

"Ruth helped me pick the color" Richie said, taking notice of Max staring back and forth at their hands, "she said I should do blue for the Nighthawks, y'know, school pride"

"hell yeah" Max smiled, then yelled "GO NIGHTHAWKS!!!" the rest of the students in the hallway cheered, with a few "fuck clivesdale" 's thrown into the mix. 

They arrived at Richies locker, not letting go of Max's hand, Richie managed to unlock his locker and start grabbing school supplies, he then shut his locker and somehow locked it back up again with his stuff held under his arm.

"how did you do all that with one hand" Max asked as they started walking again.

"remember when you broke my wrist in sophomore year?"

"yeah" Max was confused for a second, then realized what Richie was saying.

"oh..." Max had forgotten he did that, but it was all coming back now; back in 10th grade he liked to target nerds during gym class, and one day while playing dodgeball he'd decided that Richie was the perfect target and threw the ball so hard at him that he fell on his hand, resulting in him breaking his wrist.

"I'm so sorry about that I-" Max stammered.

"It's fine, you can make it up to me by buying me a milkshake at Miss Retros after football practice" Richie said with a wink, Max hadn't realized it, but while he was remembering how horrible he used to be, they had arrived at Miss Mulberry's classroom, "bye, Max" Richie said as he let go of Max's hand and walked inside the room.

"bye!" Max did a tiny wave as he watched Richie sit down next to Ruth. 

He sighed, put his hands in his pockets, and strolled down the hallway to his first class, not really caring that he was late.