✧alive✧ reddie

eight

Richie POV

I woke up the next morning, dreading the fact of school.

Last night, I thought the best to avoid Eddie. For his own good. I'm already late anyways, so I'll just skip first block considering that's my only class with him. But the real issue here is what am I going to do about lunch. I obviously can't go back to Mike and Beverly, neither Eddie so... I guess I'll try and make friends?

The thought of that gave me chills, because I knew that this wasn't going to be easy. Maybe I should just skip school altogether. It would be a lot easier to do so but.. I know for a fact that if my mom found out, my head would be on a fucking stick.

Time lapse~Lunch

So I did end up going to school, but here was the hard part. The lunch bell rang as everyone hurried out of the classes to the hub to meet up wth their friends or whatever.

I started to walk down the halls, my hands clutched onto my backpack straps, until a group of kids who appeared to look around my age caught my eye. Deep breaths, Richie.

"Heyo buckos." I said in a horrible accent.

"Uhm.. hi?" Said the darker skinned boy.

"Ya mind if I sit with y'all?"

"Do you mind if you cut the accent?" Chimed in a redheaded girl next to the other.

"Whatcha talkn' about? This is my real voice." I chuckled.

"Well what makes you think we would want you to sit with us? Your one of the school's biggest assholes there is." Said a slightly overweight boy.

"That would be miss Marsh over there." I said, pointing to her and Mike's table.

"Whatever, fine." Said a different boy, one who had a head of curls tucked underneath a hat.

"Great!" I said, sliding in beside the chubby one.

"I'm Richie."

"Yeah, we know." The redheaded replied cockily.

"Anyways, I'm Lucas, this is Max, then there's Big Ben over there and lastly Dustin." Lucas introduced, motioning to them as he said their names, indicating it's them.

"Fun." I said, taking a bite out of  my sandwich.

"So what's brings you here?" Asks Ben.

"Oh you know.. the usual." I answered biting into a ham and cheese sandwich. Dustin raises his eyebrow and eats a spoonful of chocolate pudding from his lunchbag.

"No but seriously, Richie, why are you here? Shouldn't you be hanging out with Mike and Beverly?" Max asks with tone.

"Nah, they're a bunch of losers." I say.

"You're basically calling yourself a loser." Lucas says.

"Nope. They're all losers because I'm not there." I grin.

"So then you're basically calling us losers?" Asks Dustin.

"Not anymore at least." I reply. Ben scoffs. I begin to take another bite but stop midway as I see Eddie walking towards his table with his arm linked with Will's and some other kid's.

Dustin notices this and waves his hands in my face. I blink and look to Dustin.

"What was that?" He asks.

"N-Nothing, don't worry about it." I say and take another bite.

Max rolls her eyes and eats another fry. I glance back over at the group and basically facepalm myself for doing so. I direct my attention back to my table who are casually eating and making small talk.

"Hey guys." I started, them all looking at me.

"Do you mind if I sit with you guys from now on?" They gave approving nods and went back to what they were previously doing.

I look back towards Eddie to see him looking at me with sad eyes. I turn away and continue to finish my food.

Eddie POV

"Do you mind if I sit with you guys from now on?" I hear someone say, then recognize the voice. It's Richie's.

I thought he was away today. I look over to where his voice was coming from, to be met with him sitting with an entirely new group of people, only one I recognized was Dustin, from math class.

I looked at Richie with disbelief. Was he really leaving me for them? What did I do wrong? Did I upset him somehow, to the point he didn't show up to the class we had together? Or was that just some coincidence?

He turned and looked at me, his face becoming a slight red, then looking away. Bill noticed this and waved in my face.

"Sorry, What?" I asked.

"You d-dozed off.." He said. I frowned a bit and looked down at my food.

"Hey, everything okay?" Will asked a bit worried.

"Yeah, no, everything alright. Thanks for asking." I gave him a slight smile and went back to eating.

"Are you sure? You were just looking at Richie." Said Stan. I choked and looked up with my eyes widened a bit.

"Yes. I'm fine, Stanley." I say, then look back down at my food.

"O-oh hey, sorry, I don't remember catching your name?" I say looking back up in sudden realization to the person Will introduced me to.

"It's fine, I'm Mike."

"O-okay, thank you." I giggle. But the thing that really threw myself off, was that I was staring at him. Mike that is. He reminded me a lot like Ri-

Mike caught me looking at him and gave me a weird look. I blushed from embarrassment and got up from my seat.

"I gotta use the bathroom, I'll be right back." Mike didn't look convinced, but didn't bother.

I ran into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I turned on the tap and splashed my face with water to regain myself.

I looked back up at my now wet face and saw Will behind me with a concerned look.

"Hey, are you alright?" He says when I turn to face him.

"I-I don't know.." I say as my voice starts to get raspy from my tears. He pulls me into a comforting hug and starts to rub soothing circles on my back.

"Hey, you can tell me anything, okay?" I nod slightly, letting tears trickle down my freckled cheeks onto Will's shirt.

"Thank you.." I say quietly, pulling away from the hug.

"Of course, Eddie." He says. We walk back to the cafeteria, Will's arm soothingly wrapped around my shoulder, and my cheeks stained with tears.

"E-Eddie, are you alright?" Bill stutters in worry.

"Yeah.. I'll be alright.." I can already feel Richie's gaze piercing into the side of my head, but decided to ignore it. Before I knew it, everyone from our table got up and group hugged. This made me feel more relaxed.

"Thanks guys."

Oof okay first of all, I KNOW THERES A WHOLE BUNCH OF NEW CHARACTERS I HOPE THATS OKAY. The majority of them are important later on so yeah. How are you guys feeling about Richie doing for what he did? I wanna know. Also the part where Eddie looks at Mike and Mike gives him a weird look is the same look Mike gives Steve a look after he calls her Nancy in Stranger Things. That's about it soo