real; reddie

t w e l v e

"richie, please stop asking about my date."

eddie rolls his eyes, his fingers gripping the coffee mug in his hands. his hair is messy and there is sleep in his eyes. he'd returned home from his little hang-out with will around 9:45pm, and then begged richie not to talk about it for the rest of the night. of course, richie obliged, and the two of them had ended up watching the vow in their living room before passing out together on the couch.

"aha – so you admit it was a date!"

richie has wild eyes. eddie isn't sure exactly why his boyfriend is acting so crazy. "no, rich," he sighs, sipping the warm beverage to wake himself up. "it wasn't a date, i misspoke."

"can you just tell me how it was?" richie's eyes widen, and he's looking so innocent that eddie isn't sure he could really say no.

"it was fine. i mean, it sucked, because i hate will, you know that. but it didn't suck as much as i expected it to. he was somewhat civil, as soon as i got him to stop hitting on me."

richie's eyes narrow. "he was hitting on you?"

eddie puts down his mug and wraps his arms around his boyfriend, moving to sit on his lap. "stop worrying so much, i told him to fuck off and he did. we ended up just talking about random shit."

richie grumbles something under his breath. eddie giggles a bit and tilts his chin up.

"okay?"

richie, hesitantly, repeats, "okay."

"good. now can you tell me why you're being so crazy about all this?"

the taller boy wraps his arms around eddie's waist, pulling him even closer. "hey, can you blame me? you're my boyfriend and you're basically dating my ex best friend, who, if you've forgotten, tried to break us up multiple times."

eddie's features soften, and he runs his fingers through richie's hair in a calming manner. "i know, baby. but i'm not actually dating him. you know that, i know that, he knows that. whether i'm hanging out with him or not, you're my boyfriend. the love of my life. he's just blackmailing us, and we're gonna get through this."

rich buries his face in eddie's shirt. "i know you're right, but i'm still not happy about it."

"neither am i, my love. neither am i."

before richie can say anything else, a text message comes through on eddie's phone. it's bev.

bev: hey, not to be intrusive or anything but i saw you hanging out with will yesterday? was curious as to what was going on

eddie's stomach drops. richie is immediately glaring.

before eddie can say anything, assure bev it was a one time thing or make up some sort of explanation as to why he was hanging out with the boy he'd been very vocal about hating, another message comes in.

will: this weekend i'm taking you to dinner. i'll pick you up around 8:00 saturday. see you then.

richie groans and eddie turns his phone off, sliding it across the table.

-
hello shall i write my stenbrough spin-off of this book? where our favourite boys have an iffy on-again-off-again relationship!!! it will be full of angst but also fluff