If I Could Tell You- Reddie

16: Sophmore

It was officially sophomore year and Richie's home life had been just great. His dad had broken his 2 months of being clean and dragged his ass back to rehab. It wasn't like Wentworth was mean drunk. The problem was his job was the main source of income and without that money, Maggie had to double her shifts to pull in enough money to survive while her husband sat on the couch drinking the money away. His summer had been shit. Both he and Eddie pretended to be just friends so their parents wouldn't catch on. It really sucked but it was only for the summer. 

Eddies home life wasn't much better either. He was back in his mother's clutches, letting her control every aspect of his life. Eddie and Richie had both spent the summer working at a fair for some extra money, this was great and all until Eddie's mom took his money saying "A kid your age doesn't need money, I don't know what you'll do with it." 

Bill's life had been shit ever since Georgie died. His parents didn't care what he did. Hell, sometimes Bill thought they wouldn't care if he died. His parents had always made it blatantly obvious that they thought it was Bill's fault that he died. 

Stan hated everything about his life. His dad was a Rabbi at the synagogue and made him attended church every Sunday no matter what was going on that day. He spends his days wondering what his father would do if he ever found out about his quirk. 

Mike's life was hell that summer. His grandfather had his work on the farm killing sheep, which he despised doing. His grandfather also had him go into town to deliver meat where he was usually beaten up by someone. 

Beverly spent her summer working with Richie and Eddie, trying her best to avoid her dad. 

Ben was the only one of the losers who had a somewhat decent home life. His parents weren't awful people. He was fed, had a roof over his head, and clothes on his back. The only thing was Ben's parents were gone all the time for work. Since his friends spent their summer out of the house that's what Ben did too. He got a job at the fair hoping to work with Beverly.

To say that the losers were excited to go into the sophomore year would be an understatement. They were ecstatic to leave their shit hole of a town. It wasn't like the school was any less homophobic but know they didn't have to deal with the bowers gang. Richie and Eddie got stares everywhere they walked. That would include school and anywhere else that they looked remotely romantic. 

"Hey, Jay." Richie waved as he entered his new Sophomore dorm. He loved calling himself a sophomore, it felt exhilarating. Richie set his stuff down, pulling out his clothes and putting them away. The sophomore dorms looked exactly like the Freshman dorm. A bed, nightstand, and a dresser on each side with a bathroom in the back. 

"Hey, how was your summer?" Richie rolled his eyes at the question.

"Don't ask," he muttered, going right back to organizing his stuff.

"Okay then, "Jay said, going wide-eyed, squishing his lips together. neither of them had really changed much over the summer. Jay did get a litter darker with some more freckles. 

"How was your summer?"

"Pretty sucky. Parents made me babysit my 2-year-old brother every day of the week and on the weekends I had to go to brunch with my grandmother who's a mute and then church on Sunday which lasts all day."

"I see both of our summers were complete and utter shit," Richie's remark caused the both of them to go into a fit of laughter. They continued to talk like no time had passed, catching up on each other lives. 

"So how are you and Eddie, doing," Jay asked, very out of the blue.

"Oh um well it was hard over the summer since nobody minus the other losers in our town knew about us, we had to keep everything on the down-low but I mean we're still here." He said, trying to make light of the situation. 

"That sucks," Richie shrugged, it wasn't the end of the world that they had to pretend to be only friends for one summer. 

Richie met up with the other losers in the courtyard. He overheard Bev talking about how she was over the moon to get out of that fucked up town, Richie couldn't agree more. "Hey, guys." He came up to them throwing his arm around Eddie's shoulder. "Hey, Eddie Spaghetti." 

"Shut up Rich." Eddie laughed as he tried to push Richie's arm off of him. Richie pulled the smaller boy closer, letting him bury his face into his shoulder. 

"Oh Ed's." Eddie knitted his brows together, showing his fury through his facial expressions. 

Richie and the others had started talking about this next year and what they were going to do with their lives when they left. Eddie pipped up, "I mean I kinda want to be a doctor." Everyone agreed that would be a good profession for Eddie. It had only been a few minutes when they heard a scream come from behind them. 

"RICHIE!" The voice yelled out at them. Richie turned around to find Hailey standing only a few feet away from him. She was out of breath and her belly looked a little bigger than last school year. "Can we talk," she whispered to him. Richie nodded a little confused about why she wanted to take to him. She pulled him up every flight of stairs in the school until they reached the roof.

"Why do we need to be up here?" Richie was extremely confused, why didn't she just talk to her girlfriends. When Hailey didn't respond to his question he asked a different one. "Why didn't you talk to your girlfriends." That's when Richie noticed, she wasn't the same Hailey. She didn't have the same sparkle in her eyes or the ambitious personality that he remembered from last year. She pulled him over to where she was standing. Her words came out in a sob. She tried to control it but it wasn't possible. Richie spent the next 10 minutes getting her calm enough to talk. 

WARNING: MENTIONS OF RAPE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

"At the beginning of the summer, I met this guy. His name was Kai, he was the sweetest guy I had ever met. He made me feel special, called me his princess. It was the middle of July and we were over at his friend's pool party. It was one of those teenage party's. His parents were rich and out of town so it was a recipe for disaster. It happened so fast, one minute he was throwing me in the pool the next he was throwing me on the bed. H-he started t-to undress m-me I-I told h-him stop. H-he didn't listen. Instead, he kept going. W-when he was done, he left me. I sat in a ball and cried for what seemed like hours. I met up with my friends the next day and you want to know what they did. They called me a slut, a whore saying that I asked for it. That if I didn't want it I shouldn't have worn a small bikini. A couple of weeks later I found out that I was pregnant" Tears filled up her eyes. She tried her best to blink them away but it didn't work.

END

Hailey was pregnant. Holy shit. What do I do, what should I say, Richie thought. The only words that came out of his mouth were."If you keep the baby I'll help you."  What the fuck did he just say.