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- 09 | LIVE FAST

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His name was Richie Tozier. He sat behind Eddie in Biology, and there was something about him that Eddie could not for the life of him remember. He knew he had seen him in the office on the first day of school— or, what had been his first day there. But after that, there was nothing, and it was killing Eddie because judging from the way Richie kept looking at him knowingly, there was something.

It had crossed his mind that perhaps they had met at Bev's party where he had gotten a lot more drunk than originally planned and woken up with the worst hangover of his life, and he had thought about asking, but he didn't want to be rude or seem like an idiot. Plus, the party had been a week ago, and the longer Eddie put off asking, the weirder it was going to seem.

Sometimes he swore he could feel warm breath on the back of his neck in Biology, but when he turned his head and risked a glance behind him, Richie was sitting back in his seat like he always was with that stupid little smirk that said 'I know something you don't'. And then there were the eyes, as persistent and dark and all-knowing as ever, staring and burning holes into the back of Eddie's head while he tried to work.

When he finally brought the issue to Bill and Ben at lunch one day, they were horrified.

"Are you kidding?! Richie Tozier is like, the worst news ever!" Ben had informed him hurriedly. "He's Beverly Marsh's best friend." Eddie had burst out laughing at that, earning a few confused glances from tabled around them and an uneasy glance from Bill.

"That's kind of ironic how you hate the love of your life's best friend," Eddie pointed out once he'd calmed down.

"It's n-not a juh-juh-joke, Eddie," Bill said seriously, and the brunette immediately sobered up at that, smile becoming a frown. "R-R-Richie really is buh-buh-buh-bad nuh-news."

"Yeah," Ben nodded. "He drinks, and smokes. Cigarettes, and weed! He's always getting into trouble. He has detention all the time, and I heard that he almost got expelled once because they caught him drinking under the stairwell!" Eddie cast a skeptical glance at the table where Beverly Marsh sat at lunch. Today, Richie was next to her, an arm slung casually over her shoulders, saying something that was making the whole table laugh.

"There's something about him that I'm forgetting," Eddie insisted. "He always looks at me really weird, like he knows something about me, but I don't remember ever speaking a word to him in my life!"

"Muh-Maybe you g-g-guys got down and d-dirty at Beh-Beh-Beh-Bev's party," Bill suggested, wiggling his eyebrows. An unexpected heat rushed into Eddie's cheeks, and he clutched his face in an attempt to cool them down, eyes wide with horror.

"Oh, God. You don't think so, do you?" He gasped. "Oh fuck..." He glanced back Richie's way and froze up when the boy looked right back at him, eyes lighting up. Eddie felt his cheeks get darker, and then the worst thing that could have possibly happened happened. Richie got up and shoved his hands in his pockets, making his way casually over to Eddie. A few heads turned, watching carefully as for the second time in a week and a half one of the more popular kids approached the new kid. Richie plopped down on Eddie's left like it was the most natural thing in the world, and Bill was visibly stiff with shock while Ben hardly seemed to notice. Eddie, however, was blushing harder than he had thought possible.

"Hiya, Eds," Richie greeted him smoothly. That was another thing. Although he rarely spoke to Eddie, every once in a while he would address him as such and then duck away with a sly smile. The name made Eddie's blood boil, but at the same time, he admittedly liked it a little bit. It was kind of cute. Not that he would ever admit that, of course.

"Don't call me that," he replied automatically, on autopilot, as if he had said it before. "Why do I know you?" He demanded. "Besides seeing you in the office last week? Where did I see you? Was it at the party?" He was almost afraid to hear the answer. Richie's smirk deepened, and there was an almost dirty look in his eyes that terrified Eddie, but he couldn't look away.

"Man, I thought you'd remember a guy like me. I'm wounded, Eds." He placed a hand over his heart, pretending to be offended, but Eddie just scowled. He really wanted to know what had happened.

"I'm serious. Did we meet at the party? Because you keep looking at me weird, and I know I got drunk enough to forget the majority of that night, so—"

"What?!" Bill cut him off with a shriek. "You got d-d-drunk?! Why didn't you t-tell us?" Eddie gasped at him, utterly astonished for a brief moment. He exchanged a look with Richie, who raised his eyebrows as if to say 'You're on your own' and held up his hands in surrender.

"I did tell you," Eddie replied irritably. "I was talking just a few minutes ago about how I thought I had forgotten something about the party because I blacked out less than halfway through." Bill's eyes widened, and then his cheeks went red.

"O-Oh... Right. S-S-Sorry. Carry on." Eddie shook his head, smiling a little bit as he turned to look at Richie again, who had grown distracted with his gaze darting around the lunch room.

"We talked a little bit," Richie said, startling Eddie, who had thought he wasn't paying attention. "It was my turn to be the designated driver for punks like you who lay it on too thick. I'm the one that drove you a whole five minutes away from our meet-up that's supposed to be in the middle of nowhere." He rolled his eyes, grinning lazily. Eddie flushed a bright pink color as the vague memory of drowning in dark brown orbs resurfaced in his mind as well as the smell of candy, cigarettes and alcohol.

"Oh.. Well, thanks, I guess," Eddie mumbled, struggling to cool off his cheeks with his tiny hands.

"No problem, Eds," Richie replied cheerfully. Eddie opened his mouth to protest, but Richie spoke again before he could say anything. "Glad we cleared that up. Staring at you suggestively like I was planning on jumping you after school was getting exhausting." Cue the blush, back again. But Eddie searched back into the depths of himself and dug around in his old box of comebacks and snarky remarks that he hadn't used since his father passed away, searching for one that would really establish his position as a guy who wouldn't take shit from a flirty stoner.

"I'm sure I'm very exhausting to look at," he agreed snidely, even allowing a little smirk of his own as those eyes lit up in surprise and even a hint of anticipation. "Next time you can feel free to just take a picture. It'll last longer." With that, Eddie shrugged, sliding the remains of his salad over to Richie and getting up. He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder, hyper-focused on the feeling of a gaze burning into his back as he walked away. The bell rang just as he approached the door, so he just left anyway without waiting for Bill and Ben. They'd all be showing up at the same place anyway, so he gave himself a pat on the back and started his journey down the hall towards Biology.

Despite his head start, Bill caught up with him anyway.

"Y-You know we're s-s-serious about R-Richie, right?" He asked anxiously. "I-I get it, he's fuh-fun and a-all, b-b-b-but that stuff's n-not good for y-you." Eddie hesitated. Of course he knew it wasn't good for him, and he was fairly sure that he would be smoking more than just cigarettes if he started hanging around Richie. Bill was his friend first, Eddie decided.

"Alright, Bill," Eddie sighed. "I trust you."