fifteen // reddie

2.0

Soulmates, Richie thinks as he clings onto Mike. When he had first stood up, he felt a wave of dizziness and had almost fallen, which resulted in Mike dipping under his arm to hold him up. He adjusts his glasses before they slip down his nose with his free hand.

"What should we do?" Mike asks, scanning the face of all the other Losers.

"I can patch him up." Ben offers. "I couldn't last time 'cause it was me, but I can this time." It goes unspoken that Eddie- who is having an asthma attack, probably a panic attack, and feeling the pain of Richie's attack- can't be the one to do it. "We just gotta get him to the pharmacy alley." After Ben had gotten sliced up, the Losers didn't think it would be smart to just throw out their extra emergency supplies, instead hiding them in a box in the same alley they (Eddie, really) doctored Ben in.

The group agrees that Mike and Ben should be the two who bring him, but Richie quickly protests. "Just bring me home." He says quickly, shaking his head. He didn't feel like dealing with his friends pestering questions, and he's extremely distraught over being soulmates with Eddie.

Distraught isn't the correct word. He's fucking elated, is what he is. Except he thinks- knows that this is some colossal universe fuck-up. Richie Tozier is hyper active, annoying, and though he gets good grades in school, he's the stupidest smart person you'll ever meet. Eddie Kaspbrak is... not that. He's sweet and caring and genuinely intelligent and everything Richie is not.

Richie does not deserve Eddie. Eddie does not deserve to be burdened with Richie.

That's a simple fact.

"Not even you can talk your way out of this to your parents!" Stan states, his hand comfortingly resting on Eddie's knee. Eddie has started to calm down, but he's staring at Richie with his eyes bugging out of his head. He's probably thinking about how unlucky he is.

"Yeah, I can't. I don't really care. I want to go home." Richie retaliates, hardly aware of what he's saying. He just wants to be in bed. Richie does not deserve Eddie.

"We're not going to just leave you like this." Bev adds.

"I'll be with my parents." Eddie does not deserve to be burdened with Richie.

"B-b-b-but d-don't you want our h-h-help?"

"No." Richie does not deserve Eddie.

"We want to help you."

"I don't care. Please, just-" Eddie does not deserve to be burdened with Richie.

"Richie-"

"Bring me home!" Richie does not deserve Eddie. As he shouts, Eddie winces and Richie can't tell if it's because the shouting or the pain that shoots through his abdomen.

The sudden influx of noise startles the others and they acquiesce. Bill quietly offers to drive Richie doubles and have Stan ride Richie's bike back (Stan and Bill had ridden there on the same bike). Eddie's Richie-pains were subsiding (pain didn't last as long when you weren't the soulmate who actually received it) and he insisted that in a few minutes he'll be able to ride his bike home, so every bike was accounted for. He didn't say much else other than that.

The ride home was silent, Richie loosely holding onto Bill while Stan trailed slightly behind them. When they arrived, Stan laid Richie's bike on his front lawn after dismounting it, telling Bill he'll wait outside for a ride home while he helps Richie in.

Bill helped Richie off his bike, asking if the ride had hurt him much. Truthfully, Richie told him that he was fine, it was just flesh wounds, but he'd be lying his if said at some parts he was sure that Eddie could feel the bursts of pain that struck whenever he would twist too much one way. Bill also had a faint pink line of blood on his back, mirroring the darker one on the front of Richie's shirt. The bleeding had stopped- it wasn't as deep a wound as the Losers originally thought- so Richie definitely was better off than they had first imagined. Still, Richie was visibly shaken up.

When he entered the house, he received a low whistle from Wentworth. "Birthday beating?" He asks, one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. Henry." Richie replies quickly, sitting down. He wasn't dizzy anymore, so he ruled out that he had a concussion, but he didn't feel like standing anyway.

Then, Maggie walks in, tutting. "Richard, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"H-H-H-Henry Bow-wuh-weh-wers had a b-buh-bad day, apparent-ly." Bill answers for him.

Maggie sighs, licking her thumb and sliding it across his cheek, presumably rubbing off some blood that dried there. It hurts, and Richie concludes he had a bruise there. "Well, at least today it could come in handy. Did Beverly end up being your soulmate?" She asks, laughing.

Richie knows his parents have good intentions, but seeing how unconcerned they are about him makes his stomach churn. Sure, he's not dying or anything, but he had a line of blood soaked through his shirt and his mom is giggling about it like a school girl.

"Whoever your soulmate is, she's probably regretting it right about now!" Wentworth exclaims, chuckling at his own joke. Maggie giggles some more.

Richie does not deserve Eddie. Eddie does not deserve to be burdened with Richie.

Richie's stomach churns again and he feels like hurling. He quickly stands up from his chair, causing it to push back and fall down with a loud bang, to which his parents stop their giggling. "Fuck you. Fuck both of you!" He screams. Bill frowns, putting his hand on Richie's arm and opening his mouth like he's about to say something, but Richie shoots him a look that screams shut up. Promptly, Bill closes his mouth.

"The town psychopath knifed me and you two are laughing about my soulmate wishing I wasn't their soulmate? Fuck you! You two are the most self-centered pieces of shit- I'm your kid! I could have died! But I hope you got off a good one!" He yells. Kicking the chair out of the way and storming out, Richie is fuming.

He walks outside, ignoring Stan's question about what happened, grabbing his bike and sitting down on it. By now, Bill had followed him outside, but Richie ignored him, too.

Richie's unsure about how fast he's pedaling, but he knows it's faster than he's ever gone before. He's on his way to Beverly's house, wishing and praying that her father isn't home so that he could talk to her. He needs to talk to her. One thing Bev is very good at is keeping secrets: she's never told anyone about Richie's crush on Eddie, though he suspects Stan had figured it out on his own, and he also knows that she's never told anyone about Ben's New Kid on the Block obsession that Richie only found out about because he had walked into Ben's house one day to find them belting in while jumping on the bed, using hairbrushes as microphones.

As he continues his way to Beverly's house, his thoughts slow down more and more.

He thinks about Eddie falling, Eddie screaming, Eddie wheezing and staring at Richie like he was scared.

He thinks about how he doesn't deserve Eddie.