Oh Noel | Reddie |

6. Teasing and Tears

We ordered take-out Chinese food from panda Express for dinner. When the delivery man got to the door, Beverly asked me to come with her to grab the food. I was confused, but went along. We grabbed the food and payed for it, and as soon as the delivery man was gone, she turned to me, and she looked pissed.

"Stay away from Richie." she shoved me. "I don't need you turning him into a fag again." she spat.

"W-what? bev? I'm not-” I tried saying, but she cut me off.

" Yes you are. You are useless. Why do you think none of us ever talked to you after your accident? because nobody cares, and they never will." She spat then walked up the stairs. I didn't notice before, but I started to cry as she was talking to me. I set down the takeout boxes I was holding and went to the bathroom to wash my face.

I looked at my red tinted face in the mirror as I splashed it with freezing cold water. Everything she said was true. I lost all the friends I made within that year, as if it never existed. If they really cared, they would have at least said something to me... Right?

I walked out of the bathroom and took the takeout upstairs. I saw a smile plastered on Beverly's face and she pretended to be nice to me again.

"There you are spaghedward!" Richie smiled and grabbed my hand, pulling me down to sit next to him. Beverly gave me a small glare. What? this was Richie we're talking about, nobody can control him.

"Don't call me that, stupid." I smacked him, and set the takeout boxes on the floor between everyone. We all figured out which box belonged to who and began to eat.

I noticed Richie picking at his food, not eating any of it, and now that I thought about it, ever since we met, I haven't seen him eat the food in front of him.

"Richie? Are you doing alright?” I whispered to him so nobody else could hear.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" He asked.

"I've noticed you're not eating, and even at school during lunch I never see you eat. I'm worried about your health." I kept whispering the best I could. I knew this was a triggering topic for some, especially with other people around, but I had to talk to him.

"oh... Yeah I'm fine... I just don't get that hungry I guess." He plastered a fake smile onto his face, it looked so forced, much like other smiles I've seen, it was so different from his natural smile, which usually lit up a, room.

"Richie you haven't eaten anything? no wonder you're so skinny." Ben poked his side. I think that finally pushed him over the edge as Richie began to cry, throwing himself into me, burying his head in my chest. I ran my hands through his hair slowly.

"What? did I say something bad? I was telling the truth, Richie is built like a twig." Ben continued, clearly not taking a hint.

"Shut up ben." I said and continued to rub circles into the back of Richie's head. With my other hand, I took a hold of his hand. "Hey. Come on, let's get you washed up," I nudged him and eventually we both stood up and went downstairs to the bathroom. As we walked down the stairs, Richie clinging to my side, I caught another glimpse of Beverly's glare. Not my problem.

Richie sat on the bathroom counter next to the sink. "I-fuck this is embarrassing." He laughed, but I could tell how fake it was.

"Richie stop, I know it's not funny, you don't have to pretend. That was not okay for Ben to say." I said, holding his hand.

"How do you always know what to say to make me feel better?” Richie half smiled and pulled me closer to him. His face was red and puffy, and snot was leaking out from his nose, yet he was still perfect in my eyes.

"This is the first time I've seen you upset." I said, but I did feel a slight sense of deja vu. As much as I know it's true, the fact that I have amnesia just seams so surreal.

"I've cried to you many, many times before though, at least you don't have to remember how bad I looked every time I did," He cracked a smile.

"You don't look bad," I said.

"Yes I do, I always do... But especially when I'm crying. I always feel so...Weak" He said, fidgeting with his free hand as he spoke.

"Richie, listen to me." I grabbed his other hand, "You are one of the most gorgeous people I've ever seen in my whole life, even when you're crying, you're beautiful, and you're the strongest person I know. It's not a weakness to cry, even the strongest of people have to cry sometimes, it's natural." I wiped the tears off his face softly, and he gave me a genuine smile.

"can I tell you something?" Richie got serious again, looking in my eyes. I nodded hesitantly. "I overheard Bev talking to you earlier. None of what she said is true. We all care about you... I care about you. Beverly does stupid things like that because she likes me, and she knows I'll never like her back." Richie said. I was glad that someone knew and understood me so well. He seemed to know me better than I know myself.

"Oh." I said.

"Yeah. She just doesn't give up though. I overhear her talking to Ben sometimes. She keeps telling him that any day now I'll ask her out, and no matter how many times I tell her I don't like her that way, she doesn't believe me since I'm the stupid jokester." he sighed, jumping off the counter to stand next to me.

"Aren't you literally gay?" I asked, backing away to give him space to stand.

"yeah... We should head back up to the others now." he said and grabbed my hand pulling me all the way back upstairs where everyone was hanging out.

"Are you alright Richie? I didn't mean to make you cry." Ben said, approaching him with a worried look on his face.

"It's alright haystack, I'm okay I promise" Richie gave a weak smile and we all sat back down. It was already late, so Beverly decided to set up our sleeping situation. We all brought sleeping bags, so we all set them up in the living room including her. Richie decided to take a seat on the recliner couch, and forced me to take the one next to him. Mike took a recliner chair by himself, and everyone else were fine sleeping on the floor. Bill and Stan set their sleeping bags next to each other, with Beverly to bills right, and Ben on the other side of her. We put some random Netflix show on as background noise and all decided to go to bed for the night.

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it's been a little bit since I've updated, sorry about that. Family has been really stressful recently because of my brothers wife. Not gonna talk about it much on the internet much but it's caused a lot of stress and my brother is just caught right in the middle of it.

I really really hope you guys like this story. I'm thinking about posting my actual original book on here, should I? I'll give a quick little summary

So it revolves around two characters in two perspectives, one, Akihiro is a rich entrepreneurs son trying to live up to his fathers expectations. He is put into an arranged marriage with this woman who hates his guts and desperately wants to get out, and the other character, Oleander is a serial killer that has been going around in the city. Akihiro runs into the serial killer, more formally known as Alastor the masquerade murderer and it fucks with his life. He becomes friends with Oleander, unknowing to the fact that he is a serial killer who is quickly becoming obsessed with him.

It's actually going to heavily cover topics such as mental conditions, mental health, being trans and latino in America in the 80s (side characters) and lots of other things. It does have LGBT elements in the story, and romantic scenes, but it's not going to end like you may expect. No fairytale happy endings for this melancholy couple.

Anyway yeah if you're interested I can give more cohesive details about it and I might post it. I will most likely make a separate account to post it on though.

Well thanks for reading

-Jay