real; reddie

t w e n t y s e v e n

"can i stay here for a few days?"

eddie is shaking when he arrives at bev's house, all of his belongings shoved hastily in the bag that hangs from his shoulder.

bev is shocked when she opens the door to her distraught friend, but nonetheless she pulls it wider to allow him to enter. the first thing that eddie notices is the presence of el and max in the living room, lounging comfortably on the sofa. as soon as he walks in, tears staining his red cheeks, they fly up from their seats and rush to him.

"eddie, what happened?"

"are you okay?"

eddie trembles a bit, still overwhelmed from the events of the night, and, quite honestly, ever since him and richie had first pretended to break up. everything had been hard since then, and at this point, he's just not sure he can hold it in anymore.

"come on, let's sit down," bev says carefully, voice soft but sure. she leads him over to the couch and, once he's sitting, she rushes into her kitchen, and eddie can hear the tap running. it's only a moment later when she returns with a glass of water, which she places on the table before settling in beside him. "now, do you want to tell us what's going on?"

eddie wants to speak, but his mouth is much too dry. he reaches for the water, his fingers trembling as he closes them around the glass and draws it to his lips to sip it. once he's settled a little bit, he puts the drink back down and peers around him at his friends. the girls all surround him, sympathy heavy on their features as they wait patiently for him to relax and start his story. none of them rush him, and he makes a mental note to thank them later.

with a stuttering breath, eddie blurts, "richie and i broke up."

el, max, and bev share similar looks of confusion, and eddie wonders if they think he's lost his mind. before any of them can say anything, he explains.

"for real, i mean. the first time, when we told you, we hadn't actually. we were struggling a lot with my mom and his internship, and it was putting a lot of stress on us both, so we pretended to break up."

realization crosses their faces, and max waits a moment before asking, "why didn't you guys tell us what you were doing?"

"well, you know we trust you guys, but there are so many of us, we didn't want to risk the secret getting out. i mean, if richie's boss had heard somehow, he would've been fired, and i'd never hear the end of it from my mom. i'm sorry we lied, we just didn't know how else to go about the situation."

eddie is expecting further questions, or some sort of offended responses from his friends, but nothing comes. when he's been silent for a few moments, el gently prompts him, "so then what happened?"

realizing finally that they aren't going to criticize him or yell at him for having lied, he draws in another shaky breath before telling them everything. he explains how will had overheard them, blackmailed them. how will had gained eddie's trust, driven a wedge between him and richie until their relationship really did come to an end. the girls were silent throughout the entire story, listening attentively to what he says.  when he confides in them about will, about how he'd tried to kiss him and then flown off the handle the moment he was rejected, their faces perfectly reflect one another's looks of disgust.

by the end of the story, they're all comforting him, max and bev with their arms over his shoulders and el holding one of his hands. none of them really know what to say any further than typical words of assurance, and so after twenty minutes has passed, eddie sniffles and wipes his damp eyes with his shirt, plastering on a forced smile.

"so, you guys want to watch a horror movie?"