soft ✃ reddie

11:37 am

eddie slouched in his chair and placed his head on the desk, blocking out the world as best as he could.

last night he kept waking up, he couldn't stay asleep for more than a few minutes before waking up again, so the boy was exhausted.

he heard the familiar laugh he'd come to love so much, his heart nearly burst in his chest.

"hey eds.. you alright?"
richie asked, a concerned tone in his voice.

"fine" eddie replies bluntly, "don't lie to me ed's.." richie replies, chuckling, "i know something's wrong. don't even try-" richie was cut off by the soft but harsh tone of eddies voice, "im fi-fine richard. just.. leave me a-alone.." it really hurt eddie to talk to his bestfriend like this. he felt horrible, he wanted to reach out and tell richie how much he didn't mean it.

he wanted to hug the tall boy and play with the soft curls on his head.. but he knew the only way to get 'better' was to push away the feelings as best as he could.

he heard the pain in richies voice, "oh. sorry eddie."

for once eddie didn't internally roll his eyes at the idea of the tall boy calling him 'eds' or 'eddie spaghetti'

if he was being honest, he wished richie had used the childish nicknames.

!

after class, eddie walks alone to his locker. he sighs and leans his head on the cold metal material before hearing a chuckle coming from behind him. "oh look! it's little ed's ! no big, bad, boyfriend to protect him." he softly closed his locker and tried his best to get past the three boys, walking straight to the bathroom. his shoulder hit henry's as he turned around and he heard another deep chuckle.

"where do you think you're going, little girly boy?" he shoved the small boy into the locker and he smelt the stench of bad breathe and cologne.

eddies eyes watered as he squeezed them shut, awaiting the fist-on-skin contact.

suddenly henry was no longer towered over him, but he was on the floor under richie.

the familiar scene drew many kids' attention.
eddie only watched in fear as he watched henry go unconscious.

richies fist flew fast as he screamed profanities in the boys face. it took 8 minutes before they were able to pull richie off of henry, and richie was still screaming at the top of his lungs. eddie caught a glimpse of the tears glimmering in the corners of his eyes as he screamed and struggled against the arms of two teachers.

he only managed to make out one thing before he was dragged up to the office,

"don't let him hurt my eddie!"