Do Not Fucking Touch Me // Reddie

Twenty Eight

(Eddie's POV)

At our school, we had a dance the Friday we came back from winter break. Christmas and New Years were over, seemingly in the blink of an eye. I celebrated both with Richie's family, even though I could tell they felt awkward about it. My uncle wasn't into celebrating, and wanted to go out drinking with his friends anyway. For Christmas, Richie got me a necklace with the letter R on it, just like the one I gave him for our six months. It made me really happy. We both wore them every day. 

It was the first day back at school, and Richie and I were sitting at lunch with Stan and Ben. They started hanging out with us again, for some reason, but it was great. Even though Mike was homeschooled, and Beverly and Bill had moved, it felt like a piece of the Losers Club was still intact. Stan went to a friend's house over the break for New Years Eve, and a girl kissed him at midnight. We could really tell he liked her by the way his face lit up while he was talking about it. Stan was really awkward when it came to expressing his feelings and talking about girls, but we were happy for him. Ben was a wreck. He missed Beverly so much. We knew that he loved her, from the moment he kissed her down in Pennywise's lair. I felt bad for him, and I could tell the others did too. We all had dates to the dance except for him, and were scheming to pair him up with someone. 

"How about Jan?" Richie turned in his seat to a chubby girl with glasses similar to the ones he used to wear. 

Ben shrugged. "It's just...she's okay...she's just..."

"She's not Bev," Stan said. Ben looked at his food and frowned. It was Pizza day at school, and even though the piece of cardboard flavored pizza was revolting, I had never seen Ben not devour it. 

"Guys, don't worry about me. I'm not going to go to the dance. It's stupid."

We frowned. It was obvious he wanted to go. 

"Are you sure?" Richie asked. 

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." 

We left lunch after the bell rang and went our separate ways. The first day back from break was always a half day. After lunch, we were free to go home. Richie turned to me and kissed me on the cheek and got on his bike.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Uh, I just have to go home. I'll call you later?"

Before I could respond, he was off. I looked down at my necklace, and held the R charm in my palm. I thought he was going to go on the bus with me that day. It was freezing outside. 

A few minutes later, the bus pulled up and I slowly strolled on and sat at the back by myself. I looked out at the window. It was snowing. I was really getting worried about Richie. He was only wearing a sweatshirt, definitely not warm enough. Because of his eating disorder, he became so frail and cold. Maybe he was biking home to lose more weight. Even the thought of that made me upset. I continued to stare out of the window, this time, wondering. Where was he going? Why was he doing this to himself? Was he really okay?

The bus went from neighborhood to neighborhood, and soon it drove into Richie's. We only lived a couple blocks apart, now that I had moved in with my uncle. I looked out the window, feeling relieved and wanted to make sure he got home okay. I was expecting to see my boyfriend walking inside, or at least his bike in the yard. 

I didn't see what I wanted to see. I saw him at the mailbox, reading a letter. Greta, the girl who had written loser on my cast and terrorized him to begin with, was standing next to him. They were talking, seemingly laughing. He didn't see the bus pass by, or more importantly, me, watching. 

Then my nightmares became reality when I watched Greta lean in and kiss him. I simply watched from the window, my eyes tearing up. I wanted to shout. I wanted to yell and scream and make him hear me, but I couldn't. 

Richie didn't love me after all.