cash in. (au story)

chapter 14; he knows.

the shift was over and richie tried to hide from kevin and leave before he had to speak up.

"richie—" kevin yelped from behind the counter as richie stopped in his tracks in front of the front door. the boy sighed and slowly turned to kevin.

"what.." he groaned.

"get your ass back here, we're not done," kevin said impatiently. richie sighed and walked over, leaning over the counter.

"what?"

"tell me now."

"i plead the fifth."

"no, richie. you need to talk to me."

"this is uncomforting."

"what else is uncomforting is you not being okay. not that you have to be, just that there's serious shit going on with you."

"there's serious shit going on with everyone. we don't gotta get this personal."

"richie tozier."

"kevin last name."

"you don't have to act like nothing's wrong."

"nothing is."

"you're lying, richie."

richie took a deep breath and stood normally, staring at the counter. "can you.. just.. promise."

"promise what?"

"that you won't tell a soul."

"i promise."

richie swallowed and nodded. "okay," he breathed. "so like, the reason i'm all disgusting and shit is because i ran away from home this past week and tried returning last night, but my mom locked me in our basement and shit and hit me a few times."

"what?!" kevin yelled. "what the fuck??"

"she's a shitty person. so's my dad. he kicked me out last week, it wasn't actually that i ran away. he kicked me out after he was forced to pay for the hospital bill and blamed it on me. then he asked for me back just to watch his wife beat his kid and lock him in a basement, which i had to escape out of this morning and immediately ran away with nothing but my phone. she's super fucking abusive towards me and my stupid father does nothing. my back looks like shit because why not just bring a fucking bat into the abuse? i can't even do shit about it because i have to 'keep a family reputation' which is just bullshit because our family is total shit and if i do something things won't go well, everything just fucking sucks."

"holy shit, rich! i'm so sorry! why didn't you speak up about this sooner?!"

"i already said why. plus, i've only known you for less than two weeks," richie said.

"fuck.. well, i'm really sorry about what you're going through. that's so shitty. your parents are assholes, and they don't deserve you. if you ever need me, or if they pull shit like that ever again, text me asap, i'll help you. you can even hang at mine if you ever need to," kevin comforted.

"thanks, kev. i'm not going home again. i have a few friends i can rely on, one of them agreed to let me shower at theirs every night so i can probably just chill with them after," richie explained, and kevin nodded.

"yeah, that's reasonable. again, i'm sorry about your situation, if i can do anything to help just let me know."

"thank you. so much, kev. it means a lot," richie said with a smile.

"of course."

"wanna walk home together?" richie asked.

"damn, you like me now?"