✓ | BETTER WITH YOU → richie tozier ³

ten

"YOU READY for report cards?" Richie asked, his hand in Ash's, and she glanced at him, her brown eyes piercing his.

It was December, and the Asshole Duo's relationship was a little off, a little shakier than normal.

Reason number one: Richie was almost ninety-nine percent positive that Ash was keeping something from him.

She would disappear for hours at a time, and weirdly, Mike would disappear at that exact same time.

Richie kept brushing this off, but he still had the uneasy feeling they were together whenever she was gone.

Reason number two: Ash had no idea what had happened to the rest of the Losers, but it seemed as though they were too busy to hang out with her or Richie anymore.

And if they did, for some reason, it was never with the both of them at the same time- and Ash had no idea why.

But the most important reason of why their relationship wasn't smoothed out, was because Richie felt himself slowly sinking back into that place that he had tried so hard to claw his way out of in freshman year; and Ash knew he was.

And he hated that she knew.

Richie Tozier hated being made to look weak- especially in front of Ash.

Every single goddamn time he had climbed through her window and practically begged her to let him stay so he didn't have to go back to his mom was torture.

And even if she didn't know every single part of the past three years- and thank God she didn't, because if she found out, Richie wouldn't know what he would do- she still knew about the scars on Richie's wrist, and the gist of what had happened with them.

He clenched his fingers tighter around his handlebars and gritted his teeth.

She didn't know everything.

"Report cards? Do those come out today?"

Richie nodded. "Yup. God, I'm nervous. If my grades are bad. . ."

Ash looked at him. "They won't be, Rich."

He swallowed. "But if they are, my parents are going to murder me."

It was silent for a couple of seconds before Ash said softly, "They won't, Rich. I promise."

Richie didn't answer, and they continued biking together in silence, eventually reaching the school building.

The rest of the day passed in a blur- that is, until white envelopes were handed to each student in their last period class of the day.

"Yo, Brenner."

Ash turned to see James Thomas grinning at her. "Think you got all A's? You aced the trig final right?"

Ash grinned. "Shut up, James. I'm not that smart."

He snorted. "Yeah right. Think you can get your freak boyfriend to let you tutor me sometime?"

Ash's eyebrows drew together and she opened her mouth to say something about the freak line when she changed her mind, letting it slide. "Um, maybe."

She forced another smile at him before slitting open the envelope and pulling out her grades, unfolding the white paper.

All A's.

She breathed a sigh of relief- thank God.

When the final bell rang for the day, she burst out of the classroom, looking around for Richie when she got sidetracked by running straight into Michael Wheeler, who it looked like had been waiting for her.