now or never [reddie au]

2

Richie lays in bed waiting for his boyfriend, Connor, to get off of work so he can call him. In the meantime, he scrolls through instagram. He comes across a post from Beverly. It was a video of Eddie and Beverly laughing hysterically at a snapchat filter, with the caption:

"bev.marsh: our sleepovers are my favorite <3 love u eddie"

Richie laughs to himself at the video. The way Eddie laughs so hard that he has tears in his eyes and nearly falls off of Beverly's bed cracked him up. He likes the post and comments, "Eddie's laugh kills me 💀 can I come to one of those sleepovers?"

Richie wouldn't be surprised if Eddie and Beverly were dating. The two were really close and hung out together almost every day. Richie just assumed that since Ben and Bill both liked Beverly, her and Eddie haven't confirmed or denied their relationship to avoid hurting their feelings.

Richie missed his friends. He sees them at school and talks to them every day, but since he started dating Connor, Richie had been spending his free time with him instead of his friends. Eddie especially seemed to be more distant from him.

Richie continuously watches Beverly's video, smiling as Eddie laughs his ass off. He then gets a notification. Beverly had replied to his comment:

"idk ask Eddie 😉"

Richie missed hanging out with Eddie. They didn't really get to hang out alone anymore. Richie didn't like to think that Connor was the reason Eddie didn't talk to him as often anymore, but Eddie wasn't like this before he and Connor started dating. He knew that none of his friends liked Connor's cousin, Henry, so that may be the reason why Eddie didn't like him. But Connor was nothing like Henry.

Richie closes instagram and opens his texts. He scrolls down to his texts with "Eddie Spaghetti💛". The contact name was a nickname Richie had given Eddie, that Eddie used to hate, and the yellow heart was because yellow was Eddie's favorite color.

The last conversation they had was a month ago. Eddie had congratulated Richie on his seven month anniversary with Connor, and Richie thanked him. Richie hadn't realized how little they had talked since then.

"hey Eds I miss you," Richie types, then immediately presses the backspace button.

"Eddie spaghetti! What's up?," Richie shakes his head and presses the backspace button again.

"Hey," Richie types and presses send.

It wasn't long before Eddie answered.

hey richie :)

What's up?

hanging out with bev 
wbu?

Just missing you. 
We don't talk much anymore

yeah :/ i miss you too

Let's hang out soon...
Just you and me?

okay
what about connor?

What about him?
He shouldn't care, he knows
how long we've been friends.

when are you free to hang out?

Any day but tomorrow.
I'm taking him on a date because
he had to work today.

the day after tomorrow?

That sounds fine to me.

okay ;)

Richie doesn't answer after that. He reads the conversation over and over. "Just missing you?," Richie mumbles to himself as he reads the text he sent to Eddie out loud, "That literally sounds like I'm flirting with him."

He then looks at one of the messages Eddie had sent.

"what about connor?"

It confused Richie. Connor didn't seem to have a problem with Richie hanging out with his friends. They hadn't been together long, and Richie wasn't sure if Connor was the jealous type. He didn't appear to be, but on the other hand, Richie had only hung out with his friends in a group since he and Connor started dating.

Richie opens his camera roll and scrolls through an album of him and his friends. In it, he finds a selfie of him and Eddie from their sophomore year. Eddie had started growing out his hair and it was a curled mess. It was one of his favorite pictures of them because Eddie looked adorable.

Richie's reminiscing on the memories he had made with Eddie was interrupted by a facetime call from Connor. Richie sighs and answers the call.

"Hi, baby! How was work?," Richie smiles as he looks at Connor on his phone screen.

"It sucked, of course. I don't understand how people make a mess every time they watch a damn movie.," Connor rolls his eyes. He worked at the movie theater in downtown Derry, and was referring to popcorn being spilled all over the floors.

"I'm sorry.," Richie tells him, "Tomorrow will be better. I'm going to take you on that date and we'll have fun and then you can spend the night."

"Actually, they need me to come in tomorrow to cover for Greta. I'm sorry, we can just do it another day."

"Oh, okay.," Richie presses his lips together. They had been putting this date off so much that Richie could care less if they actually did it.

"I have to go, I'll call you when I get home. I love you.," Connor says to Richie.

"Okay, bye.," Richie says, "Love you."

Richie hangs up the call. Richie goes back to his texts and opens his conversation with Eddie.

"What about tomorrow? Connor has to work again 🙄😤," Richie types before pressing send.

Richie opens snapchat as he waits for Eddie to answer his text. He opens Beverly's snapchat story, smiling as he looks at all of the pictures and videos of her and Eddie. Then taps quickly through Ben, Bill, and Stan's stories, before getting to Eddie's. He had posted a picture on him and Beverly's hands. Their nails were both painted. Eddie's nails were black and looked nice, while Beverly's nails were bright pink and nail polish was all over her fingertips.

Richie giggles and slides up on the picture. "Cute 😤😫," he types, using the emojis sarcastically.

Eddie quickly replies, "☺️". Nothing more, nothing less. Yet, the message from Eddie made him smile. Richie soon gets a text from Eddie.

"see you tomorrow :)"