𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫

✩ 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚊 𝚋𝚛𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚎 ~ 𝚎.𝚔. ✩

pairing: eddie kaspbrak x (fem)reader

warnings: mild cursing

word count: 1294

song preference: upside down, jack johnson

requested? [yes] [no]

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"ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʙᴇ ꜱᴜᴄʜ ᴀ pussy Eddie, come on!" Richie shouted, waving his best friend over to where the Losers were standing. For the past month, they had been searching high and low for a new clubhouse for them to relax in. Eddie wasn't the adventurous type, but he went along because [Name] would be there. The crush he was harboring for her was immense and at times over the top, always something in the back of his mind that persisted like a pulse, every thump another nail in the coffin. Truly, he was so desperate for this love he didn't care whether or not she even felt the same way. He only wanted to keep this feeling alive.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming," he grumbled, stalking after his friends from the safety of the tall grass and into the deepness of the thick woods. Ever since the incident, the Losers had been searching for a place to call their own, specifically a clubhouse of sorts. Currently, the woods behind [Name]'s mom's house was where their most recent territorial search was taking place. Supposedly, there was an old tree house rotting away somewhere in here, and even if the Losers wouldn't find the tree house, they were excited at the presentation of a new adventure. The only burdens were Richie's mouth and the muggy air swarming with mosquitoes. At the time, Eddie, who who was agitated as it was by the recent argument he'd had with his mother, wasn't sure which was a worse fate to suffer from.

Eventually, as most things seem to happen, the Losers found the tree house. It was indeed rotting away, looking like it was made as a shelter during the Civil War rather than a play house for little kids. It was stuck in the side of a huge tree whose trunk was split at the base into two thick mini-tress, although "mini" certainly didn't describe either trunk. The tree house itself rested on the flat end of one of the trunks, which was bent at a sharp ninety-degree angle, the right wall supported by the other trunk.

"How are we supposed to get up there?" Eddie asked, looking up from the bottom of the tree. The Losers stood in a clot, all staring up at the tree before [Name] began to shimmy between the two trunks, grabbing onto small branches that stuck out of the trunks like arms until she was at the top, able to crawl safely into the house. The Losers were quick to follow her, although it was clear Eddie was hesitant. He milled about the ground for a moment, biting his lip in agitation. He could get a countless amount of infected splinters from this. He wasn't used to being this dirty. Richie, who was the second to last person to enter the tree house, looked down at his friend from halfway up. "Eddie, come on! God, you're slower than my nan," he grumbled, finishing the climb with ease.

Eddie huffed, flustered, and reached out to the first branch. He hoisted himself up and put his foot firmly on the left trunk, pulling himself up to another branch, this time putting his other foot on the right trunk. He continued this hot, half-shimmy up the split tree for at least three minutes before finally making it to the dusty doorway. He rested a hand on the door frame, trying not to pant as heavily as he wanted to, when something sharp pierced his thumb. A splinter. "Shit!" he shouted, kneeling on the ground and pulling out his tweezers with a dramatically shaking hand.

The Losers, who had been crawling around the small shack of a tree house, hunched over or straight up on their knees, now turned to Eddie with concern on their faces. "What? What's wrong?" [Name] asked, coming to his side. Eddie plucked the splinter from his finger, wiped the thumb down with an alcohol pad, and then placed a Band-Aid gingerly on top. He sighed in relief, standing once more and zipping his bag closed.

"Splinter," he said, making everyone in the room groan. He rolled his eyes at their exasperation, shoving all of his medical supplies back into his fanny pack, grumbling under his breath, "At least I won't have to get my thumb amputated because I decided not to risk an infection and, in turn, my life."

ᴜɴꜰᴏʀᴛᴜɴᴀᴛᴇʟʏ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴇᴇ ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ didn't work out for the Losers. It was too rickety and the forest was filled with all kinds of freaky bugs that made everyone's skin crawl. So today, they took a break from looking for somewhere to hideout and instead took the time to head down to the Barrens, where they would find all kinds of weird rocks and junk that people left behind. The Losers took Thicket Road to the east side of the Barrens, where a steep hill laid out before dropping to the rocky banks.

It was customary to begin a sentence with "Last one down" and then finish the objective, and today [Name] wanted to add something to their long list. There were many things the last of the Losers could become; a sucker, a mama's boy, a rotten egg, a landlord. Horrific.

"Last one down—" she began before sharply tumbling down the hill after tripping over an exposed tree root. She grunted every time she hit the ground, tumbling into the water and groaning as she sat up. The Losers watched with mouths agape, not sure whether to laugh or go help her. She pushed some of her wet hair from her face and laughed, picking herself up and shaking the water off of her body and grinning. "Last one down sucks!"

Eddie made it down last, of course, and once he had gotten there, he immediately rushed to his friend. "Holy shit, [Name], how did you do that? You just, like . . . took the fall. I mean, I'm pretty sure you're bleeding and you have cuts all over—"

"Eddie, quit it," [Name] groaned, rolling her eyes and giving him a pointed look. "Honestly, it's just a bruise."

"B-but it's not! Those could be blood clots or signs of internal bleeding, or worse— a broken bone," he grimaced, taking her arm and inspecting a particularly nasty bruise forming on her forearm.

"Quit it, seriously! Maybe it's a sign you're a pussy who's been coddled his entire life. I'm not telling you to grow up, Eds; I'm telling you to grow in, as in grow into your new body. You're a teenager, now, Eddie. Just suck it up and go," [Name] said, poking his side and grinning.

He huffed a breath and pouted, crossing his arms as they continued to walk. [Name] laughed a little and poked him again, wiping some of the blood from a cut on her cheek away. "You're adorable when you pout."

Eddie tried to force down the blush climbing up his neck as [Name] ran ahead and jumped on Richie's back, tackling him to the ground with a laugh. Eddie took a deep breath and made a vow that this summer, he would grow into the man he was always supposed to be.

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hey yall sorry i havent updated, busy with another book... this is really trash and i apologize, i might go back and add more later but im not really in a writing mood right now. sorry but i think these will come out better when im back into the swing of it, you know? anyway, hope yall enjoyed this one, possibly more coming soon? thanks a bunch, get some rest and drink some water all <3

edit: i redid this one a little, hope this doesn't suck as much as it did a few days ago :)