ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ɪs ʀɪɢʜᴛ

- 4 -

richie checked the hallways were empty before darting over to eddie's locker, smiling at the childish and endearing doodles that littered it. he grimaced as he observed the locker next to it, which had B E T T Y printed across it in offensively bright pink highlighter. there was a unicorn sticker in the very corner of it, and he felt himself shudder.

he nervously read over the small note he held in his hand, making sure there were no spelling errors.

you know how i feel about you, so i guess this is all that's left to do.

let me call you mine?

r.t

richie took a deep breath in, and slipped the note between the two lockers just as the bell rang through the empty halls. he hurried to his next lesson excitedly, eager to tell bill and stanley about his success.

he strolled into the classroom with a smile on his face, relieved that he'd got the hard part over and done with. all he needed to do now was wait. he was at least 7% sure eddie had feelings for him too.

bill and stan both sent him questioning looks, to which he replied with a grin and a thumbs up. he sat back in his seat cockily and with a confidence he hadn't felt since last halloween.

he'd gone as a kettle, although the neighbourhood hadn't appreciated the screaming and the 'help me! i'm boiling!' at 11pm.

"so, d-did you do it?"

whispered bill, to which richie nodded, winking. stan let out an 'alright!' and high fived richie from across the desk.

"p-plan a, in pr-rogress."

but then richie's face paled.

his eyes were fixed on his note.

which had some way or another, fallen into the hands of betty ripson.

he vaguely registered a panicked 'mission abort mission abort' from behind him as betty made her way over to richie's desk. she batted her eyelashes at him flirtatiously, and he had to hold back a gag.

"so, you have feelings for me?"

her voice was sickly sweet, and it made his stomach churn uncomfortably. he gulped.

"um, excuse me?"

she rolled her eyes playfully, as if she was playing along to richie's joke. only he wasn't joking, and there was nothing funny about this.

"i saw your note, richie. i know you like me."

richie feigned confusion.

"i'm sorry betty but...i don't know what you're talking about."

she blinked, her face blank and devoid of all emotion.

"what?"

richie could hear stanley snickering from somewhere behind him, and he made a mental note to beat the shit out of him later.

"i don't know about any note. whoever sent it, wasn't me."

she looked inconvenienced and slightly irritated now, slamming the note onto the table and scoffing.

"who else could it be? those are your initials, aren't they?"

richie read over the note like it wasn't him that had written it, and he wondered if what he was about to do next would make him a bad person.

"ah, well, you should have said."

he chuckled awkwardly, twisting in his seat.

"it must have been randal tacey. it would make sense, you know, since he has the exact same initials as me."

betty raised an eyebrow and followed richie's stare, before her eyes landed on the poor boy.

his hair was blonde and a little too short, and he had buck teeth and wide blue eyes.

betty's expression remained unchanging for a moment, and richie found himself blinking in time with the clock ticking ominously in the background. she smirked suddenly, and didn't utter so much as a goodbye before leaving the table and taking the note with her. not that richie was particularly bothered by this. she strutted over to randal's desk, and richie couldn't help but feel immensely guilty.

he sent a silent prayer for his fallen brother.

he waited until betty was well away before he turned around and punched stanley in the arm.

"hey! what was that for?"

stan whined, rubbing his arm and pouting.

"what the fuck do you think it was for? not cool, dude!"

not only was richie humiliated at what had just happened, he was also unsure as to what was going to happen next. how was he supposed to ask eddie out now? he groaned and slapped himself on the forehead.

"w-what the hell r-richie? i thought y-you said you knew w-which locker was e-e-eddie's?"

bill practically whisper shouted, seemingly very distraught that his plan had not, well, gone to plan.

"i do!"

richie protested, flailing his arms hysterically.

"the note must have slipped and accidentally fallen into betty ripson's locker."

he punctuated his sentence by head butting the table three times. bill sighed, and stanley snickered. richie lifted his head jadedly, sending bill a look of hopelessness through half lidded pleading eyes.

"please tell me you have a plan b?"

his tone was desperate, pathetically so. bill shook his head and crossed something off in his notepad, tapping his nose with the end of his pen.

"n-now now, tozier. y-ou know n-not to doubt me."

-

i wonder how many ideas bill has planned 🤔🤔