Your dirty little secret - Reddie

-13-

Eddie knocked on Richie's door holding a bag with hydrogen peroxide and aspirin. He was worried what had happened to Richie and why he asked for the hydrogen peroxide. Why do you want hydrogen peroxide? That's for cuts. Did you cut yourself? He thought as he waited for Richie or Maggie to open the door.

Maggie opened the door and let Eddie come in, "Been a while. It's good to see you!" She said smiling. Eddie smiled back, "It's good to see you too! Is Richie in his room?" Maggie nodded and sighed, covering her mouth with one hand slightly as she turned back to the living room.

Eddie's heart began to race as he walked up the stairs. Eddie knocked on Richie's door. He opened the door slightly, "Richie? Are you in here?" Eddie opened the door all the way to see Richie lying down on his bed with his face covered with a blanket.

"Head ache?" He shut Richie's door and sat next to him on his bed. Richie sighed softly, "Not really. I just don't want one....Ed's?" He paused, placing a hand over the blanket on his face, "If I...asked you for a favor, right now...could you help we without asking any questions?"

Eddie's heart started to beat fast again, "What's up?" Richie shook his head, "Promise me no questions first." Eddie sighed softly, "Fine. I promise, now what's wrong before I leave and don't come back?"

Richie took the blanket off of his face and sat up. One of Richie's eyes was bruised and swollen. His chin had a small bruise, lip was busted open again, and his eyebrow was scratched open from when his dad ripped his glasses. His nails were sharp. Eddie's heart sunk, "What-"

"No questions. Can you help me clean this up or not?" He looked Eddie directly in the eyes. Eddie froze for a moment, thinking of a billion different questions to ask but he kept them in. Eddie stood up and placed the bag on Richie's before walking out of the room, leaving the door open.

He walked down to the kitchen and grabbed the roll of paper towels and a small plastic bowl. Eddie walked back up the stairs into Richie's bathroom and filled the bowl with a small amount of water, then walked back into Richie's room and shut the door.

Eddie placed the bowl of water on Richie's nightstand, dipped a paper towel in the water, then squeezed the water out. Eddie walked over to Richie and dabbed the towel on his lip, like he'd done earlier that week. Eddie smiled, "déjà vu."

Richie felt that. He knew exactly what Eddie meant. Earlier that week, he'd had problems with his dad. Eddie helped him clean up his face then too. And once again Richie was just trying not to be obvious. He didn't want Eddie to catch him starring it was one of his bigger fears.

Eddie leaned in a bit closer. Richie could barely see him as is, he didn't want to be awkward. Eddie held Richie's face in one hand, then stepped a bit closer to see how bad the scratch on Richie's eyebrow was.

Richie's heart began to beat like crazy. He felt like his head was going to explode off. Eddie always did that to Richie. He didn't know he was making Richie's heart pound. Eddie turned his head and reached over for the hydrogen peroxide in the bag.

He grabbed another paper towel and dabbed some of it on the hydrogen peroxide onto it, then turned back to look at Richie. Richie was fidgeting with his fingers. Eddie stepped close to Richie's face and dabbed his eyebrow with the paper towel. Richie closed his eyes tightly, "Mother Fucker!"

Eddie smiled, "Well if you didn't get hurt then I wouldn't have to fix you." Richie frowned, "Am I broken doc?" Eddie pressed harder on the cut. Richie laughed in pain and apologized.

Eddie felt different. He liked taking care of his best friend. When they fixed Ben's wounds out back the pharmacy, he just felt like a nurse. Fixing Richie's wounds felt nice somehow. He figured he just liked seeing Richie in pain.

Eddie stayed over and talked to Richie, who had his eyes closed and covered the whole conversation. Eddie didn't mind so much. Richie still joked and laughed the whole time, only difference was Eddie couldn't see Richie's eyes. They would have looked to weird without the glasses anyways.

Maggie came back from the pharmacy around 12:15. She brought Richie's glasses up to his room, then left them alone. Eddie exhaled softly, "I helped you. I didn't ask any questions. What's going on? This is the third time you've had bruises or cuts, this week! I don't want to be pushy, but you need to talk to me!"

"I need to?" Richie said placing the glasses on his face. Eddie scoffed, "You're scaring the crap out of me with this so, yes?" Richie rolled his eyes, "Why should you be scared?"

"I didn't say this was up for debate! Just tell me what the fuck is going on with you asshole!" Eddie snapped. Richie flinched. He turned away from Eddie, then starred at his hands. He closed his eyes, "My dad go mad that I was late yesterday...And I was being disrespectful yesterday, and I don't remember what else."

"So the wrist thing wasn't from rubber bands? The why did Stan back you up?" Eddie shot back. Richie looked Eddie in the eyes again, "I asked him to..."

They sat in silence for a moment. Eddie sighed, "Do you want to hang out with the group, or just us today?" Richie's face turned bright red as he avoided looking at Eddie. He twisted his thumbs, "I don't know. We could hang out with the group. But you're gonna have to lie about my face for me."

"Are you kidding me? They're your friends? What are you scared they'll make fun of you?" Eddie said back. Richie looked back at Eddie, "I'm not afraid of anything! Except for clowns. Trust me, I just don't want everyone to know my business."

"You told me?" Eddie bargained. Richie rolled his eyes, "Yeah but you're my favorite. The others are meh." Eddie smiled and punched Richie's arm.