Alone Again | Reddie (unfinished, but no longer writing)

Chapter 20

Richie had just showed up with Ash. Ash was outside the car waiting for Richie. "Come on Richie. We have to go in." She sighed crouching down so that she was looking through Richies window.

He just nodded and got out of the car without a word said. When they got to the entrance Ben and Beverly were standing there. "Wow, you two look amazing. What the fuck happened to me?" Richie stated, putting on a fake smile to avoid questions.

Ben laughed and Beverly pulled Richie into a hug as Ben hugged Ash. "I missed you so much Rich."

"I missed you too Bev." Richie smiled once again.

"I'm gonna go check who's in there." Ben smiled. He returned minutes later and they all turned to look at him. "Okay so it's Mike, Bill, and Eddie." Richie looked at his feet and tried to hide his expression, but Beverly saw right through him.

They all went in besides Beverly and Richie. "We will go in soon Ben." When they left Beverly spoke. "You okay Rich?"

Richie realized he was frowning and put on a fake smile. "Yeah of course! I'm glad to be back in Derry." He smiled.

Beverly didn't believe it one bit, but she was going to let him slide for today because this wasn't easy on any of them. "If you say so, but let's go in now. Just please don't lie to me Rich."

"You go ahead. I'm going to wait for Victor and Stan." Richie stated and when she laughed his mind became blurry. He saw Pennywise standing in front of him. He was holding a lifeless Eddie with a wound on his chest.

"You don't want them to know your secret do you Richie. You don't want me to take poor little Eddie do you." Pennywise laughed creepily before he ripped out Eddies heart.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Richie screamed covering his ears. Pennywise disappeared and Victor appeared next to him.

"Richie what's wrong?" Victor asked, concerned. Richie looked like he was going break any moment so Victor pulled him into a hug.

Richie fought back tears. Boys didn't cry. Why couldn't he grow up? He was still stuck as his teenage stuff. He used humor to cope. He put on fake smiles to avoid questions and his was still obsessed with Eddie Kaspbrak or Eddie Marsh now I guess even though he didn't change his last name for some odd reason or he made Marsh his middle name I guess. It's weird. "Nothing. I'm okay." He said with a smile planted on his lips.

Victor frowned. "Richie don't give me that shit. I know how this works. I've gone through it multiple times. Don't lie to me Richie."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean this pretending to be okay shit. Beverly might know, but she never does anything about it. I saw you guys talking."

"Look i'm fine Victor. You clearly don't know the new me." Richie sighed.

"Your right, but I know enough to know you are about to have a panic attack over seeing my brother after 22 years because you still love him and he probably doesn't even know you anymore. You also are trying to not to cry right now because you are quote on quote 'a man' and you are ready to push everyone away already because you don't want to hurt them." Richies mouth parted in shock at the fact that it was all right. "Face it Tozier. I see right through you."

Richie smiled. God he had missed Victor who was someone if you asked his 13 year old self, he would never be friends with because he was Henry Bowers sidekick. "God I missed you Vic and somehow that was all right. I really don't want to go in there."

"Neither do I. I'm in the town where Henry walks a free man after 27 years of being locked up. I'm scared shitless, but we can do it Rich. I think we are braver than we tell ourselves we are."