Bittersweet Love || Reddie [COMPLETED]

Eddie's memory

There he was. It seemed like a nightmare, but it was very real. Eddie could feel his hands shaking, so he hid them in his pockets.
He hadn't seen Connor in almost three years, when the blonde boy left New York to live in another state.

Connor hadn't changed much: his hair was blonder, but Eddie could recognize his face anywhere. That proud smile, those dirty hands, his annoying laugh... every single time he had pushed him on the floor. Kicked him. Punched him. Insulted him.

He took a deep breath before all those memories came back and, before he could realize, everything Connor had done to him appeared in his mind.

//

Four years ago

When Eddie was thirteen years old, nearly fourteen, his routine consisted on going to school and hope Connor and his friends wouldn't notice him. That barely never happened and, for years, Connor would be his shadow: following him, laughing at him, annoying him, breathing behind his neck... always close to Eddie.

The boy didn't know why Connor had decided to pick him as a victim, but he soon realized that was because Eddie didn't have any friends. No matter how hard he tried, everyone always saw him as a short and weak boy.

"Stand up, loser." Connor said to him, just after he had made him fall by kicking his knee. "You're so fucking pathetic."

Eddie held up his tears, he knew how humiliating it was to get bullied by people who were younger than him, but he had no idea how to make him stop.
Slowly, Eddie tried to get up, but Connor punched him in the stomach before he could do so.
His goons laughed with him, feeling joy from Eddie's pain.

Day after day, Sonia spotted a new injury in her son, which destroyed her and every time her son ran towards her and hugged her, crying on her chest, Sonia wanted to kill those kids who were hurting him. No matter how many times the woman walked towards the principal's office to report those kids who bullied Eddie, the man always answered that he couldn't do anything and that there were a thousand other kids that suffered the same thing. That wasn't the answer Sonia was expecting.

Years passed by and the bullying seemed to disappear little by little, but that was just because it wasn't physical anymore. Sonia could see with her eyes the jokes, the insults and the laughs that Connor and his friends dedicated to Eddie every day.
Maybe he was fifteen now, but the others didn't seem to give up.

"Hey, Eddie, does your mom choose your clothes for you?" Connor mocked with a proud smile.

"Yeah, you dress like a fucking child!"

As always, Eddie stayed quiet. Maybe Connor wasn't punching him like before, but his words still hurt and the insults were getting more constant.

Eddie had lost hope about making friends, he didn't know how was he supposed to talk to people. So, instead, Eddie always sat at the back of the classroom in silence.
When a girl sat next to him, unexpectedly, Eddie looked up at her, really surprised. He knew who she was, and that just made him more confused.

"They're never going to stop until you do something about it, you know?"

"What?"

"How do you think I got Greta Keene to stop bullying me?"

Eddie didn't say a word. There was a rumor about that going around the school, but he didn't want to bring that up.

"Oh, yeah." she said as she smiled. "They said we slept together. Because, of course, that's what makes more sense."

"Oh," Eddie finally talked. "I never believed any of the rumors."

The girl smiled shyly and thanked him. Eddie wasn't as bad or boring as everybody thought, that was for sure. He just needed somebody to understand him and she believed that she could.

"I'm Beverly."

"Eddie." the boy told him, looking away. He had never talked to a girl alone, they always made him feel nervous.

"Yeah, I know, we have almost all the classes together."

He didn't know why but that made him smile, just a little bit. Eddie quickly felt ashamed and covered his mouth with his hand, which Beverly found really cute. Maybe they could be friends, after all.

//

A few months later

Eddie never had to confront Connor because, luckily, he moved to another state that he never bothered to know. The only thing that mattered was that he was gone, probably forever and, with him, the bullying also disappeared. Connor's friends never talked to each other because the only thing they had in common was to serve Connor, so they never even bother Eddie anymore.

At the same time, Eddie's and Beverly's friendship grew stronger and they started to hang out outside the school to go shopping, eat food or just spend time together.
Eddie's happiness came back and Beverly was so proud of him; she even got to meet a new Eddie that laughed all the time, joked around and was open with her. They began to share secrets, family issues, clothes and much more until they became best friends.

Eddie was finally happy in New York, everything was perfect and he even was starting to cope with his father's death when he was a child. His mother even looked happier, but, two years later, Eddie never got to know why until she told him the truth.

"You're getting married?" Eddie repeated her own words, really surprised.

"Yes, Eddie. Isn't that great?"

Eddie wanted to be happy for her and he was, but he couldn't help but get worried. What if he was a bad man? Where did he live? How did he look? How old was he?

"Yes, Mommy. I'm happy if you are." he answered with sincere words.

The day of the wedding was one of the loneliest experiences Eddie had ever lived: his mother spent most of the time with her new husband and Eddie was alone all the time. His stepfather didn't look like a bad person but, after all, he never got talk to him. The man left three hours later for a business thing.

When Sonia told him they had to move to Derry, Eddie got real angry and accused her of ruining his life. It took him a lot of effort and time to be happy again and now, she was taking everything away from him. Everything he had fought for. Including Beverly.

Once in Derry, Eddie never considered the option that he would have a stepbrother until his mother told him. That's was when things started to change.