not quite goodbye - a reddie story :)

part 1 - sympathetic look

(all the losers are 15 and this is an alternative universe, pennywise doesn't exist)
It was around 1 pm, richie was still in bed, just laying there, it's not like he had anything better to do.
"RICH! GET UP!" A voice yells, only faintly being heard through the window
Richie sits up in his bed, confused.
"RICH! GET OUT OF BED ALREADY BEFORE I COME IN THERE"
There's the voice again.
So he wasn't just hearing things. He slowly and stiffly gets out of bed and walks to the slightly dirty window.
Bill, Stan, Mike, and Beverly are waiting outside, Stan is tapping his foot impatiently.
Richie opens his window and stares down at them. What are they doing here?
"Please don't let them be here for what i think they are" richie silently pleads.
"What do you want?" He asks, glaring at each and every one of them.
"you know w-what we w-w-want rich, get your suit o-on, you're going w-whether you l-like it or n-not" bill says, glaring back at the messy haired boy staring at him from the window. Bill doesn't look angry though, just, serious.
"I already told you I don't want to go" richie says, he pauses for a moment and sighs
"Y'know what? Fine, give me 5 damn minutes"
He looks at the suit on the other side of my room.
The suit he's been trying to avoid, he's been dreading the day he'd have to wear it, he hoped he'd never have to even touch it. Beverly had picked it out for him, she's always had great style, in fact, she picked out pretty much everyone's outfit. He picks up the black and white suit and stares at it, just seeing it makes him want to hurl. But he knows he has to do this, everyone would hate him if he didn't, he'd hate himself as well. He hastily puts it on and rushes down the stairs and out the front door, not even bothering to brush his hair. The others are lucky he even got out of bed, why should he have to make an attempt to look nice?
"Fucking finally" stan says. Richie ignores him and picks up the bike laying in his driveway near the garage. He hasn't touched this bike in a while.
"Ben is getting there later, it should take us only 5 minutes to bike to the church, and it starts in 10" Mike says gently, he gives richie a quick look of sympathy before saying "don't worry, it'll all be over before you know it, just try to stay through the entire thing, alright?"
Rich nods at him, not saying a word.
They all mount their bikes and start speeding down the road towards the church.

Richie had only been to the church once before. Maybe two or three years ago, he had gone with eddie and bill for some event. He didn't like thinking about it, the entire memory of it hurt. He and Eddie had ditched everyone around half way through to go explore the woods behind the church, leaving the noise and the nosy questions behind.
They didn't get back until the event was over. No one had really noticed they were gone other than bill who never said a word to anyone. And oh the fun richie and eddie had, they joked and giggled, at one point they just sat down on a grassy area, not saying a word yet still enjoying the other's company
At some point they threw rocks at trees, which doesn't seem too fun just saying it, but it was fun to them, trying to see who could throw higher. Of course, richie won at that game while eddie pouted about it.

Richie hated remembering that. He missed it. He missed eddie.
When the losers, other than ben, arrived at the church they were only a few minutes early. There were maybe one or two older couples walking slowly into the building as if it were any normal day. Not many people were there, which was no surprise, Ms.kaspbrak had usually kept to herself, staying on her couch watching the same program all day. Not many knew her too well. They only knew she exhisted was because of her son. And even then they didn't see him too often, she usually kept him inside claiming he was too sick or it was too dangerous outside.
Bill, bev, Mike and richie all drop their bikes in the grass while stan neatly props his up with the kickstand.
As they walk into the nearly empty church they hear loud, devastated, agonizing wailing. Of course, coming from no other than Ms.kaspbrak, she was in the front row screaming and sobbing.
"Nice to see her out of the house for once, huh Mike?" Richie whispers to the taller guy beside him. Mike just looks at richie, with a worried expression on his face.
Ms. Kaspbrak continues wailing as the losers find a completely empty row to sit in.
Richie could see the casket in the front of the room. It was a pretty dark brown color, some flowers that richie couldn't quite name were sitting peacefully on top of it.
"There aren't much people, huh?" Richie hears stan whisper to bill.
Bill nods at stan then turns to beverly who was on the other side of him and starts whispering to her
Richie taps his foot impatiently on the ground, knew the funeral was gonna start soon
But he wanted to leave already, he didn't know if he'd be able to make it all the way through.