The Aftermath (Reddie)

28

Eddie's POV

Richie was wincing from pain. I had been leaning on the door and had forgotten which way the door opened.

I had just barely caught myself with my free foot instead of landing on Richie and pushing him into the toilet.

"Are you okay?" I asked hopelessly.

"Besides the throbbing in my nose...." he sighed and I sensed some stupid joke coming and I glared at him, "I'm a fucking disaster."

He looked down at his feet.

"What happened?"

He didn't answer.

"Is this about what...what happened in the summer?" My voice was quiet. I didn't want to talk about it but I wanted Richie to feel better.

Richie shrugged.

"Richie what happened?" I was becoming impatient, "do you even want to talk about it?"

Richie shrugged again.

Seriously.

I opened my mouth to press him further but then the bathroom door swung open and in waltzed some quarterback.

He was going straight up to a urinal before he caught sight of us.

"Well," he was smirking, I think his name was Michael of something, "if it isn't Richie fucking Tozier peeping around in the boys bathroom."

I could hear Richie gulp.

Why was Michael choosing Richie over me? I was still a short little scrawny boy who they often referred to as 'girly boy.' Richie was only subject to nerd or four-eyes or something.

"You should be using the ladies room Tozier," he spat and marched up so he was spitting in Richie's face.

I was so confused. I wanted to pull Richie's arm and yank him out of the room but I found myself frozen again. A coward.

Michael was spitting, it reminded of IT. When he would spit and grin and drool and laugh, and my heart would stop beating in my chest.

I turned my attention back to Richie. He was cowering under Michael's gaze.

"You are so fucking disgusting!" he screamed and lifted Richie up by his collar.

I sucked in a breath and Michael noticed me.

"This your boyfriend?" he mocked.

There is was. The gay jokes usually came out whenever I was around.

The look in Michael's eyes scared me. They gleamed something mad and violent, I nearly whimpered.

Then Richie sneezed, uncontrollably. You can never control a sneeze.

Michael was livid though, as if sneezing was a choice.

"Fucking disgusting you plague!" he threw Richie down onto the tiles and he hit his head. I winced.

Then Michael spat on his and walked out of the restroom.

The instant he was gone I could move again, and I rushed down to Richie's side.

"Holy shit Richie, are you okay?" I asked.

"What the fuck do you think?" he groaned and lifted his head.

"Oh shit, you're bleeding!"

Blood was trickling down the back of his neck.

He groaned more, "worst day ever." he muttered.

"You need to go to a hospital!"

Richie shook his head and winced, "I think I just have a concussion."

"That's serious!"

"I can't go to a hospital, they ask too many questions," he muttered and rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses.

"Well you need to go home at least."

He just shook his head again, "I already missed too much school, I'm falling behind."

Richie never fell behind in his classes. Me and Bill and Stan usually relied on his for homework answers from time to time. He was a grade A nerd.

"Do you have...like a band-aid I could just slap on?"

My jaw went slack, "Is that a joke?" I asked, "concussions are really serious, we need to get you home to lay down but no sleeping because that's bad and no learning or reading or looking into the light too long or horse play, and loud noises too. And for the blood you might need stiches for it depending how deep and since you've had a pretty steady stream I would say that stitches are definitely needed-"

"Woah now Doc, you are speaking too fast for me to comprehend," he cut me off with one of his stupid British accents.

I rolled my eyes and helped him stand, "come on, let's go to my place. My mom's at work and I have all of the medical supplies needed."

"But I'll miss class," he whined.

"You're bleeding and have head trauma which were both caused by a student, I think you can skip classes," I deadpanned.

----

I'm real tired writing this. It's late and I have school and I'm stressed and dang this sucks ass.

If you can't tell, I like to complain.

More writing tomorrow I hope....