Do Not Fucking Touch Me // Reddie

Sixty One

HOMECOMING CONT.

(Eddie's POV)

I sat by myself on the bleachers as Richie went to get me some punch. I scanned the room for his face, to no avail. He blended in with the lights and all of the other teenagers in the gymnasium. Without warning, someone sat next to me. I saw the figure slowly lower to a sitting position beside me out of the corner of my eye. I turned to face whoever it was, somewhat hoping that Richie had developed lightning fast superpowers and was already back with our punch. I knew it wasn't, though. A dark feeling swept over me as the blue lights showed the face staring at me. 

"Hiya, Eddie," a sinister voice mocked.

I gasped. I thought he was dead. We all thought he was dead. We saw him fall to his death in the Neibolt house. 

But my eyes weren't deceiving me. It was him.  

Henry. Henry Bowers.

I lost my breath. I felt like I was having an asthma attack. I inhaled sharply, gasping for air, reaching at any word I could say. I was screaming inside my head. I was screaming for Richie. I was frozen in place and I couldn't even turn my head. 

Henry then reached out and in my paralyzed state, I was unable to move away or smack him away. As his arm reached closer to my body, I grew cold and all of the little hairs on my arms stood straight upward. 

Henry put a hand on my face. "Say a word, and I'll kill Richie. Just like I should have killed all of you."

My eyes were red and glossy, with his ghostly touch upon my face. It felt so wrong and so unnatural. I wanted him off. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. 

The next thing I saw was a fist. It wasn't Henry's and it wasn't mine either. It was Richie's.

Richie swung a killer right cross straight across Henry's already glum face. He fell over onto the steps below.

"DO NOT. FUCKING. TOUCH HIM!" Richie yelled. He stood in front of me with his arms outstretched as a sort of shield to me. He reached one arm back and barely brushed my shoulder with his hand, being protective over me.

Henry got up and walked away without saying a word. Richie remained in front of me, keeping guard, until he noticed Henry was out of the gymnasium entirely. It seemed everyone had seen what had just occurred. No one other than Stan knew how peculiar it was to see Henry walking about nonchalantly like we didn't watch him plummet to his death. I guess people just forgot about him after a while, like they do with all the missing kids. 

The music was roaring but everyone was still fixated upon Richie and I. Richie swirled around and bent down on his knees to the level of which I was sitting. My mouth was still wide open and I had a paralyzed and fearful look on my face.

"Eddie! Are you okay?" 

That was the last thing I heard. It echoed inside my head and bounced around in my brain from every direction. The room began to spin around me, faster and faster, and Richie's face as well as the crowd melted into nothing but black.

I woke up in the hall. There were concerned teachers and chaperones, and Richie returned to my side with an ice pack. He placed it gently on my forehead as he knelt down beside me. He gently put the ice pack on the side of my temples, and when more people noticed I was awake, they began to leave. Teachers were no longer concerned. Crowds were no longer entertained. Now it was just Richie and I. 

"Richie?" I asked.

"Yes, Eds?" he replied sweetly.

"I want to leave." 

'Fuck it. Let's go."

My first homecoming wasn't the most memorable. I didn't dance the night away to the greatest hits with my peers. I was face to face with someone I feared, passed out, and was rescued by my loving boyfriend. Through the chaos of it all, I have to say I don't think it could have gone better.