𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄 / 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔

ꜱɪᴇᴛᴇ

If there's one thing Richie doesn't consider himself, it's a Neanderthal. That doesn't mean he'll back down from a fight, but he doesn't deliberately go out looking for problems, either.

A valiant effort has been made on his part to put Sam The Creep out of his mind, and trust Eddie and his capabilities. He's been paying closer attention since the night at the park, and he feels so fucking ignorant to have missed that there was something going on.

Eddie is in a decent mood on Monday, but Tuesday brings on a fresh wave of agitation that spares no one. Richie notices how withdrawn Eddie is in the morning and doesn't comment, pictures his boot connecting with Sam's face and allows it to entertain his thoughts.

Stan, Bev and Mike wisely leave Eddie be, and Richie follows their lead and doesn't take Eddie's outburst Wednesday morning personally. In second period Mike leans over their shared table and asks, "Do you know what's going on with Eddie? He's being a little crazy."

Richie shakes his head; it's not his place to say, even if he wants to round up the Losers and take a bat to Sam's car. "He's probably stressed about his grades."

At lunch Richie does his best to make Eddie laugh, but he only cracks a barely-there smile that looks so sad and worried that Richie gives up halfway and just sits as close as Eddie allows. It's not very close, and Richie wonders what, exactly, Sam is doing to Eddie that's causing him to recoil from the touches of his friends.

Eddie snaps at each of them, but not as badly as last week, and nothing like when Eddie's homework was ruined by mistake.

Bev asks Richie about Eddie next, Wednesday night at the quarry over a shared cigarrette.

"Obviously, something's wrong with Eddie, but he won't say," Bev says, blowing smoke out in a thin stream over Richie's head. Bev is sitting in the open backseat of an abandoned Chevy Bel Air, rusted and with the front seats torn out. Richie has his back against the fender beside her, his ass sore from sitting on the hard ground for too long. "What do you know?"

Richie accepts the cigarette as she passes it to him, but doesn't immediately take a drag. "Are you interrogating me?"

"No, but I know you know something." She nudges his shoulder with her knee. "Mike thinks so, too."

"Are you and Mike a united front now, or is Stan in on this, too?" Richie shoots her a cheeky grin and sticks the butt of the smoke between his lips.

"Mike and I are together," she admits. "But that's not important- Eddie's important."

"I don't know what's going on with him."

Richie has to lie and repeat himself when Stan takes a shot on his own. He hates lying to them, but it's not up to him to share what's happening to Eddie.

When Richie gets home on Friday after dropping Eddie off at home, he dumps his things on his bed, kicks his boots off, and gets his guitar out. He's just starting to strum a few chords when his mom knocks on the door and pushes it open when he tells her to come in.

"Rich, Eddie called a bit ago. Before you got home," she says, a worried expression curling her brows in the middle. "He said not to call him back, just go over to his house as soon as you can. He sounded a little upset."

Richie flies off the bed and jams his boots back on. "Did he say anything else?"

"No, just to please make sure you get the message." Richie feels her watch him as he grabs his keys and wallet off the dresser and stuffs them in his pockets. She says, "Is that boy doing okay? His mother is such a nightmare. Have him come spend the night if he needs to get away. I can deal with her."