breath•reddie

two.

3:18 pm was the only thing circulating in richies mind. he challenged not only the scariest kids in his school but also one of his very own friends to a fight. a physical fight, skin to skin.

clearly he wasn't thinking, he only did it to get him to stop using that horrible slur. it kept repeating in richies mind, the way mike had the audacity to let it roll of his tongue as it was nothing. richie has no idea why it bothered him so much, everyone knew he wasn't gay— right? seems like everyone knew except richie.

time flew throughout the day until the clock let the children out of school at exactly 3:05. richie made his way to the back of the school as promised, he was terrified but richard tozier didn't back down from a fight.

before he knew it mike was walking around the corner with multiple people following. a crowd was here to watch it go down, this was gonna get ugly and everyone knew it.

richie said nothing and stared in fear, his opponent seemed unphased. while richie was in his own world he felt a heavy blow to his left cheek. even thought it hurt it wasn't enough to take him down, he stayed standing but refused to swing back. he cupped his cheek only to be hit again in the right cheek followed by a major blow to the stomach. richies father was a drunk, an abusive drunk. richie could take a hit and surprised everyone when he was still standing. as tough as richie was a final kick finally took him down, a kick straight to the groin. he was left on the dirt looking up at mike smirking down at him.

"punk ass," mike spoke quick and walked away and was followed my the crowd.

as the crowd faded a single person stood there with their eyes glued onto the bruised and battered boy on the ground.

he walked over to richie, "hey, you ok?" richie recognized him. he was the same kid from earlier, the kid mike called a fag. richie was lost in his eyes and as much as he didn't want to admit it this kid was truly beautiful to him.

when certain people try to ignore their feelings they act out in anger, those certain people are richie. richie was stunned by his beauty but pushed him away, "get off me," he spoke sharp as the smaller boy stumbled back. "i don't need your help, quit trying to be my friend if i wanted to know you i would've remembered your name from earlier." richie didn't know why he was saying these things to the harmless boy. richie walked away saying nothing else, he could hear was the boy's name bouncing around his mind.

as he walked away he heard a small voice behind him," my names eddie, eddie kaspbrack." he spoke quitely almost a whisper. richie chose to ignore it and continued to walk away, each step he took broke his heart a little more for being rude to the boy named eddie.

-loverrsclub