𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒏 • 𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒆

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟓

Beverly Marsh is in love with Ben Hanscom. This much she knows.

It's been two weeks since they discovered their plan to talk to Eddie, but now that the time is here, and Eddie Kaspbrak is sitting across from him, she doesn't know what to say. She holds on to Ben's hand like her life depends on it. At this point, though, it might be Eddie's life on the life.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Eddie says, looking at them from across the room. He's sunk into the back of the couch, his yellow sweater vest hanging off of him. He's gained weight in the past two weeks, according to Richie, and now, looking at him, she can visibly tell. He's still smaller than he used to be, but getting him to eat was easier than everyone had thought it would be. Stan thinks Jake must have placed the thoughts into Eddie's head about him being overweight, so once they got him to believe it was all bullshit, he was fine again. He was still hesitant every once in a while, usually after a rough night back at home, but Richie's soothing never failed.

Ben smiles and nods at him. "Yeah, we did."

"So?"

Beverly Marsh is in love with Ben Hanscom. This much she knows. She also knows that this is what she and Ben came to talk to Eddie about. "We wanted to talk to you about love," Beverly says, deciding to get straight to the point. She sees Eddie tense up, but Ben starts talking before he can freak out.

"I even wrote out some notes," he says, his cheeks tinted red. He pulls out his notebook and coughs. "I, uh. Stan likes when things are orderly, and you and him are pretty similar about that kind of stuff. I kind of figured, you know..."

"You're good, Ben," Eddie smiles at him. His cheeks are red, too, coating his freckles. "I appreciate it."

Ben lightens up and smiles back at Bev. "Great! Okay, then..." He flips through the notebook, biting his lip as he does it. "Okay, first thing first, I got the definition of love here. I just, uh, thought maybe I could read it to you and you could tell us what you think?" Eddie nods, although a little flustered, so Ben nods as well and coughs before reading. " An intense feeling of deep affection; a great interest or pleasure in something or someone; like very much; find pleasure in ."

They all stay quiet for a second. The redness on Ben's cheeks has greatened considerably. Looking over at Eddie, she can see that his has, too, reaching all the way up to his ears. From the way they're both acting in this conversation, it looks almost like they were in love with each other. Bev almost laughs out loud at the idea, but figures the timing would be inappropriate.

"Do any of those relate to how you feel about Jake?" She asks instead, looking at Eddie intensely.

Eddie looks down at his hands and twiddles his thumbs. "I don't know," he says.

"Well, here," she takes the journal from Ben. "How about I read them out one at a time, and you tell me whether you feel it applies to you or not. Yeah?"

"Yeah," Eddie nods.

"Okay," Beverly nods as well and looks down at the notebook. She bites her lip and runs her finger along the page. "Okay, how about this one. An intense feeling of deep affection ?"

Eddie inhales slowly through his nose. "I don't know ," he says, his voice strained from holding back tears. "It's like - it's almost like, half and half. It's just. I feel the deep affection, but it's never intense , and never constant."