I Know Well Enough ✔️ Reddie

Almost

Since their conversation, Eddie had been increasingly subdued, and Richie hated to see it. He knew it was the right thing to have asked Eddie about the status of their relationship, but he hadn't heard what he wanted to hear, and the levity of their liaison had been replaced with a heavy burden.

Eddie hadn't told him to fuck off all week, and they'd not spent any evenings alone together either. Richie had tried to make jokes, but even his worst offences hardly garnered more than a half-hearted beep-beep. He'd tried to make time for them, but Eddie always cut it short.

He presumed that Eddie was inevitably preparing for the moment when Richie told him that he couldn't do this, that he couldn't wait any longer, that having the almost was worse than not having at all. So, Richie had thought and thought about how to bring Eddie back up again, to assure him, to try and alleviate some of the pressure which had been brought down upon him.

He managed to convince Eddie to come to the music room one Friday lunchtime, under the guise that he had a song which he wanted to play for him.

'Alright, sit down, Eds,' Richie said, tugging the stool out from underneath the piano.

Eddie did. 'What's going on with you? You're all sweaty.'

Running a hand over his sheening brow, Richie said, 'I'm a little nervous.'

'You've played for me a dozen times,' Eddie chuckled.

'Not something I've written,' Richie blushed.

Eddie bit his lip, 'You've written something?'

'Well, I took a bit of a shortcut,' Richie admitted. 'But yeah, I've written something. For you.'

Hot, burning, Eddie swallowed, 'Really?'

Richie nodded. 'Can I play it for you?'

Reluctantly, Eddie said, 'Yeah. Okay.'

He made a few mistakes in the early chords as his fingers trembled, as though they were freezing cold. He gripped the plectrum between his thumb and forefinger tightly, pressed his callused hands to the fretboard hard enough to leave indentations through his fingerprints.

Whispering, his breath catching, Eddie recognised the chord progression. 'This is the song you wrote about me.'

'Almost,' Richie corrected, and then he started to sing.

It's not often at just eighteen years

You're forced to face your wildest fears

I never knew someone so brave as you.

He caught Eddie's eyes; they were swimming, shimmering like the surface of the quarry in the summertime, like rainbow trout circled through them, scales glinting and refracting the light.

Then when I felt you kiss me back

You gave me your asthma attacks

And all that's red inside me craved for blue

Eddie couldn't help a small laugh, and the dancing sound lifted Richie's spirits enough for him to smile through the start of the chorus.

And through my coke-bottle glasses

I've seen you take a thousand chances

And still I find that we've been so fucking blind

We live through stolen glances

Yet I keep searching for the answers

You ask yourself if maybe there's an us