now or never [reddie au]

6

Later that day, Connor takes Richie to a nice restaurant for their date. Richie wore a dark grey button up shirt with the same jeans and shoes he had been wearing all day. Connor wore a striped polo and blue jeans, with black tennis shoes. The boys sit down at a table. They both ordered water to drink, and the waiter brings it to them.

"You look cute.," Connor says to Richie. "Thanks, so do you.," Richie smiles at Connor. Connor grabs Richie's and and Richie takes a sip of his water. He loved holding hands with Connor, but it felt like something had changed. He didn't get the same feeling he used to when their hands touched, but they've been holding hands for months, so Richie's probably just gotten used to it.

"So, what did you do today?," Connor asks, making small talk. "Not much.," Richie tells him, "I just hung out with a friend."

"Oh, who?"

"Eddie."

Connor presses his lips together. "How was it?," he asks, almost sounding irritated. "It was fun.," Richie answers, "We drove around and got coffee."

"Like we do?," Connor lets go of Richie's hand. Driving around and going to the coffee shop was something that Richie and Connor did together as often as possible. It was special to Connor because they had their first date, first kiss, first 'I love you' at that coffee shop. And the fact that Richie turned around and took someone else- someone that Richie had liked before him- hurt Connor's feelings.

Richie knew that. He could see the disappointment on Connor's face. "Hey, it's no big deal, babe.," Richie assures him, "Bill, Stan, and Mike were there, too. The coffee dates are our thing, and no one will ever get in the way of that."

Connor crosses his arms, "You didn't even tell me you were going to hang out with him."

Richie sighs, "Connor, I've known Eddie almost my whole life and we haven't talked as much as we used to, so I asked if he wanted to hang out."

"So you took the boy that you used to like on a coffee date?"

"Connor, please don't do this right now.," Richie sighs, "It wasn't a date. Eddie's dating Beverly. There's nothing to worry about."

"Okay, I'm sorry.," Connor says, "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."

"It's okay, babe.," Richie assures Connor, "I get it."

At the end of the night, Connor drops Richie off at his house. He kisses Richie before he gets out of Connor's truck. Connor waits for Richie to enter his house before heading home.

Richie goes into his room and changes into a pair of flannel pajama pants. He begins unbuttoning his shirt as he gets a facetime call from Eddie. Richie sets his phone up on his nightstand and answers, "Hey, Eds. What's up?"

"Beverly just took me home and I'm kind of bored.," Eddie starts before noticing that Richie was unbuttoning his shirt, "Is this a bad time?"

"Oh, no. It's fine.," Richie pulls the shirt off and puts on a white t-shirt, "Why would it be a bad time?"

"I don't know.," Eddie shrugs, "Anyways, how was your day?"

"It was alright. Connor got off of work early so we finally went on that date."

"Hey, that's good.," Eddie says, faking a smile, "You seemed like you were looking forward to it when you texted me."

"Yeah, but..." Richie sighs as he lays down on his bed, grabbing his phone off of his nightstand, "I don't think either one of us were in the mood for it. It felt more like it was something we had to do instead of something we wanted to do, you know?"

"Oh.," Eddie says in a sympathetic tone, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine.," Richie says, "Maybe I can just take him on a different date that he'll like more."

"Yeah, you do that-"

"Have you gone on a date with Beverly yet?"

"No, I haven't because we're not dating, idiot."

"But you like her, right?"

"Duh, she's my friend-"

"Well, good luck.," Richie jokes, disregarding the "she's my friend" part of his answer, "Ben and Bill would beat you to a pulp over her."

"Richie, I don't even like girls!," Eddie didn't realize he had let that slip out. As soon as he did, he froze.

Richie's heart begins racing, "You what?"

"Fuck, I didn't mean to say that. Sorry.," Eddie panics and hangs up.

For whatever reason, Richie felt relieved. He thought about when they were younger. The way Eddie acted towards Richie, his body language. He then thought about how they had drifted apart when he started dating Connor. He put two and two together and came to the conclusion that Eddie did like him, too.

That thought wouldn't leave Richie's mind once it was in there. What if Eddie still liked him? What if he had a chance to be with him? What about... Connor? He liked Connor a lot. He had just told him that he didn't have to worry about Eddie.

But, maybe Richie was just reading into it too much. He could've meant to say he didn't like Beverly like that. It could just be his inner,
fifteen year old self telling him that he still liked Eddie and had to be with him. Richie decides to do what he usually does when he has a problem like this- he calls Stan.

"Hello-," Stan starts, and Richie interrupts him.

"Stan the man, I have a problem."

"What is it now?"

"Let's say that theoretically, you used to like someone, but you got over them and started dating someone else, but then you started liking that other person again. What would you do?"

"You mean Eddie, right?"

The second that Richie realized that he liked Eddie, Stan was the first person he told. Richie had mentioned to the other losers that he liked a boy, but Stan was the only one that knew it was Eddie. Richie just didn't pursue it because He didn't think Eddie felt the same way.

"Richie, did you actually stop liking Eddie?," Stan asks.

"What do you mean?," Richie asks.

"Connor wasn't just a rebound because you couldn't have a relationship with Eddie and Connor was the only other gay kid you knew, was he?"

"Stan, that's crazy! I actually do like him, thank you very much."

"You just like him?"

"Okay, thank you for listening to me. Bye, Stan!," Richie hangs up.

Richie didn't understand what was going on. His feelings for Eddie resurfacing and his feelings for Connor fading away just felt too sudden. Nothing had changed about Eddie or Connor to make him feel this way about them.

It could just be the fact that Eddie- and some of their other friends- were about to leave for college after school ended, and Richie didn't want Eddie to leave not knowing that he used to feel this way about him. He had to talk to Eddie about his feelings before he spends the rest of his life dwelling on what could have happened between them. As for Connor, Richie had no idea how he was going to tell him.