mixtape (reddie)

Chapter 25

"Nice sweater, loser," Greta's voice manages to cut through the rest of the chatter, gaining Richie's attention.

He looks over and peers through the sea of students to see where Eddie is standing, wiping his desk down with disinfectant wipes like usual. Greta stands behind him, waiting impatiently for Eddie to move so she can reach her seat. The boy sighs and looks down at his knit sweater, a patterned designs of blues and pinks.

"God, and I didn't think he could get any gayer!" one of Greta's lackeys exclaims.

Say something, Eds. Fight back.

Eddie takes a deep breath, and Richie sits forward to hear this insult deconstruct Greta's entire life. Instead, the boy just closes his mouth and takes his seat without any word of resistance against the girls' comments.

Richie sits back in disappointment, watching the way Eddie's sad eyes roam across the chalkboard, his expression longer than Richie has ever seen.

As if he can feel eyes on him, Eddie turns to look in the direction of Richie's seat, so the boy quickly turns his head to look out the windows at the hurricane of snowflakes raining down over Derry today. Despite his quick actions, Eddie still caught him staring.

Richie doesn't listen to most of the lecture, just watches the blizzard outside wreak its havoc on the small town. It's too cold to go anywhere, and too cold to bike to anybody's house. Richie is stuck at home, alone, and he dreads the school day coming to an end for the first time in his life. When the bell finally rings, Richie heads to his next class and repeats this cycle of window-gazing until it's finally lunch time.

Richie returns to his comfortable routine of hiding in the library, finding his lonely table and sighing in relief once he sits down at it. It feels familiar, and it feels safe. He starts to untangle his headphones and feels himself returning to normal.

Almost normal.

"Hey, Richie!" Ben Hanscom's voice calls out as loudly as you can within a library. "Hey!"

Richie looks up in alarm, seeing the round boy come towards his table with the brightest smile upon his face. He's holding a stack of books, all which make a terrible plopping sound when he drops them down on Richie's table.

"Hey, Ben," Richie says, followed by "What can I do for ya, fella?"

"Oh, nothing. I just thought we could sit together since you're in here today," Ben suggests, taking a seat without waiting for approval. "Haven't seen you in here in awhile! Heard you were sitting down with the other guys. Anyway, I'll stop talkin' your ear off and let you get back to your music."

Richie nods quietly, continuing his cords conundrum, when he suddenly has an idea. "Ben, where are the yearbooks kept?"

Ben looks up at him with a curious expression.

After a good five minutes of carrying over the Derry School District yearbooks from the past five years, Richie finally sits down and opens the most recent yearbook. He flips through the pages until he finds B and scans the page for the name William Byers.

After minutes of no luck, Richie tries looking through the yearbooks from private schools. None. Richie even checks the middle school yearbooks on the shelf, but there is nobody in the books under the name that Eddie had shouted out. Richie tries one last desperate attempt at finding his name in the phone book, but after scanning the various names of Benson and Bryers, Richie gives up. There's nobody in the Derry area under the name Will Byers.

Did Eddie just make him up? Is he trying to make Richie jealous by fabricating an imaginary friend? That's so stupid, it doesn't seem like Eddie at all. Richie is very much about to give up and just put his headphones on when the library door opens up and offers a solution to Richie's problems; Beverly Marsh.