the lockbox [richie tozier x eddie kaspbrak]

012

"Is that Richie's jacket?" Bev asks when Eddie steps over to her, Ben, Stan and Bill at school the next day.

"Oh yeah, I was going to return it to him but he called and said he couldn't pick me up today. I biked here, it's windy out and this was the first jacket I grabbed." He waves down to the jacket with a small blush and a frown of disappointment. Richie is really pushing Eddie away, two dates is all it took for him to realize that Eddie isn't worth it. It fucking sucks.

Eddie's heart hurts. He feels like someone's hand is around it and every time he thinks of Richie ignoring his hand holding and being standoffish the hand squeezes his heart ever so slightly. He likes Richie -actually he more than likes Richie. He thought Richie more than liked him back but apparently it only takes two dates and zero kisses to ruin everything. That's another no kisses. No advances at all and Eddie's too nervous to be rejected to initiate the kiss.

"I heard that you two are going well." Stan smiles at him.

"What?" Eddie asks, face red.

"Richie called me last night, wouldn't shut up about how cute you look in his jacket and how he had fun and blah blah blah. It's all really annoying." Bev gives him a look. "But it's nice." He rolls his eyes.

"He said that? He said he had fun?" Eddie mumbles to himself.

"Did you do the lab homework?" Mike asks, walking up to Eddie and getting Richie away from his mind for a bit.