𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐀 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 - 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐞

Seasons Change But People Don't

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Since Eddie had managed to actually make friends, most people decided to lay off picking on him all the time—they still had a go at him every now and then (he had friends, but they were just as much of losers as him), but he didn't dread going to school as much anymore. In fact, for the most part, he looked forward to going. He got to spend hours with Stan and Bill, and Richie, instead of stuck inside of a stuffy house with a crazy lady who never stopped complaining about his health. School was significantly better than that, he figured.

Of course, he was still pushed around and whispered about, but he couldn't really complain as he watched a girl walk out of the bathroom, drenched waist-down in what looked like everything that should have gone down the drain, and some things that very well may have been in a sewer hobo's bowels at one point.

"Holy shit, what happened to you?" Eddie asked, jogging the rest of the way to get to her. Today he had actually been making up a test, so he had assumed there wouldn't be anymore students in the halls to bother him except for Richie, who was supposed to meet him by where he and the girl now stood.

She jumped and whipped her head around, looking like a deer in the headlights. "Oh- oh... Nothing, just..." her eyes flickered away. "Just ran into the trashcan..."

Eddie knew she was lying, but he nodded anyways. "Do you want me to walk you home? I know how..." Richie was really rubbing off on him, wasn't he? "...shitty, it can be to have to go all the way through town looking like... garbage."

The redhead smiled and rolled her eyes. "Thanks, but I'll be alright. What's your name?"

"Eddie, yours?"

"Beverly."

"Well, Beverly-" he began, being cut off by the one and only.

"Eddie!" Richie whined as he pushed open the supply closet door. "I really don't feel like coming out of the closet right now."

Eddie's face flushed before he slapped his hand over it, trying his damnedest not to laugh at such a terrible joke. He giggled anyways, and he knew the tiny sound made Richie proud.

"Hello pretty lady, you- holy shit, what happened to you?" Richie asked.

Beverly glanced between the two of them, a knowing grin on her face—what she knew, Eddie didn't, and he suspected the boy next to him was just as clueless. "You two are practically the same person, huh?"

Richie smirked and Eddie winced, already knowing he had a really strange joke ready to be served. "I mean, I always found myself attractive, but nowhere near as cute as Ed-"

"Richie, I will strangle you," Eddie threatened. "Anyways, Beverly, if you ever need a bunch of fucking losers," he punched Richie's shoulder affectionately, "to cheer you up, there's double where this came from who aren't half as bad as him."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Beverly with a polite-yet-wicked grin. "See ya, Eddie, Richie."

"Alright, Trashmouth, we've got to have a heart to heart," he said as soon as Beverly was out of earshot.

Richie giggled innocently, and they began walking to the nearest exit while Eddie told him in full detail just how "annoying" he was.

Richie only smiled and nodded throughout the entire lecture, far too busy admiring how cute it was when Eddie tried to get mad at him to actually focus on what he was saying. All he heard was the end, when the tiny boy wasn't as frustrated.

"You can't just be... flirtatious like that... I mean at least not around other people," he added, stumbling over his words in order to force them out, but quiet enough in the hopes that Richie might not have heard. His cheeks burned red from more than just the February cold, so he turned away, but Richie smiled bashfully nonetheless.