The Aftermath (Reddie)

22

Eddie's POV

I was walking home.

My mind was racing.

My head was bowed and I was chewing my lip.

And it was all he could think about.

I had kissed my best friend, Richie.

I softly touched my lips and walked out of the tunnel to the other side of the bridge.

"Stupid," I muttered, "I am so stupid. Why would kissing Richie make him want to be friends again?" I took a glance to my left at all of the names people had carved on there. Some were scratched out and others were carved into hearts.

One carving stood out, mocking me. A large 'R + E' was carved.

My heartrate sped up as I saw it and my breathing got intense, I dug around in my fanny pack for my aspirator.

I sucked in huge breaths and tried to calm down, using his aspirator as a clutch. It was so odd that those stupid letters made me go completely insane.

I was curious though, so I walked toward the carving. I was crouching, with my face close to the splintered wood.

Splinters be damned, I traced my finger of the 'R', "Richie," I whispered stupidly then traced the 'E', "and Eddie."

My heart was still pounding in my chest.

"Fucking Richie," I muttered and looked down away from the carving. There was an open space on the board underneath it.

I barely comprehended what I was doing, but sure enough I had a pointed rock in my hand. I started carving, just a heart.

But then I stared at the carving, knowing it was missing something. So I etched an 'R' into the heart.

"Eddie!"

I jumped back to standing and turned around.

"S-stan," I stuttered.

Stan laughed, "woah there Eddie, sounding like Bill right there, what's troubling you?"

I drew in a deep breath, "just heading home from school."

Stan rolled his eyes, "yeah, I heard about you falling asleep,."

"What?" I asked, "from who?"

Stan just shrugged, "Bill saw you snoozing on his way out," he glanced to the fence behind me.

I paled and nervously looked behind me too, "I was just um," my voice was shaking. I caught sight of the carving I had just made, "just looking at that carving," I said pointing to my own, "looks like someone actually fucking likes Richie."

I tried to be light hearted, unsuspicious even, but that was too hard to hope for.

"Yeah," Stan glanced down at the hand that was holding the rock, "looks like someone does."

I blushed lightly.

"Where are you heading Stan?" I asked trying to change the topic.

He chuckled, "coincidentally, I'm going to see Richie."

I blushed harder at Richie's name drop, thinking about what just happened. I was so ashamed of what I had done.

"Nice," I said quietly, "see ya later alligator."

"After awhile crocodile," Stan chuckled and walked away.

I glanced at the fence again, "I'm so fucking stupid, "I muttered.

Richie probably thought I was even weaker now. Especially because I didn't know how to kiss.

I even kissed him. To be fair it was mutual. He agreed to kiss me too.

And it was nice, better than kissing Mary Ann. Maybe guys were just better kissers than girls, which would royally suck because I was a guy which meant I couldn't date a guy. Or kiss him, you weren't technically supposed to kiss guys if you were a guy either.

At least not according to my mom. She told me the rules when I was little.

Life was so unfair.

If only it was okay for guys to kiss guys, I would kiss Richie all of the time.

It felt wrong to think of my best fried like that but I didn't think much of it because the rules said that girls go with guys and guys with girls.

If only

-----

When Eddie is a clueless little boi

Also I included this scene from my other book but remade it a little.

About Eddie not knowing that being gay existed it is quite believable. To be totally honest I legit did not know that being gay was a thing until like seventh grade or something when Obama made marriage legal.

Cause my fam was asking me how I felt about it and I was like, wait hold up....you can date the same gender? That's allowed?