He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (Reddie)

6

Richie's POV

I woke up in a bathtub all curled up into a ball on top of the drain. My body ached from the sleeping spot but my head hurt worse. I already knew what the culprit was, even if I couldn't remember anything from the night before.

As I stretched and got out of the tub my bones cracked obnoxiously. I had to squint in the light shining in through a muggy window. Fuck hangovers, can't a guy make bad decisions and not get punished for it?

The bathroom door was closed and as I opened it a body fell into the bathroom. It was a shirtless ad groaning Mike.

"Ow," he muttered and put a hand over his eyes.

I just grunted and stepped over him. I then made my way back into the basement, finding the lighting down there much better.

All of the losers seemed to be passed out besides Bev, who was cleaning up garbage wearing some overalls with a stripped shirt underneath.

"Why the fuck do you look presentable?" I muttered as I stumbled, with only one eye open, to the couch.

Beverly shrugged, "I can hold my alcohol a lot better than you dipshits," she pointed to the losers sprawled out on the floor, "besides, I've felt worse cramps than any hangover I have ever gotten."

I grimaced at the thought of something worse than a hangover.

******

Eddie's POV

People were talking, loudly too. Everything seemed so bright and blurry when I opened my eyes, but I eventually made out the forms of Beverly and Richie.

"You remember much from last night?" Bev asked as she shoved a pizza box into a trash bag.

I saw Richie pause before shaking his head, "do I even want to?"

Bev shrugged, "I don't know, I didn't keep many tabs on you after you started pole dancing."

Richie groaned.

I laughed and sat up, causing the two to look at me.

"You're a terrible dancer," I teased remembering how stupid he looking just swinging wildly around a pole like a little kid.

"You remember last night then?" Bev asked.

I thought for a moment.

Richie was pole dancing, I remembered watching him do that for awhile. A long while. I remembered everyone laughing. I remembered...telling him to take his shirt off? Weird.

And he did though. He dipped his head back so that his button up just fell right off of him.

I remembered Stan making some sort of mean comment and I remembered yelling at him for some reason.

I was so mad and worked up and....and I kissed Richie on the cheek.

Holy shit.

I kissed Richie on the cheek.

He's gonna hold that over my head forever now.

Oh fuck. I probably have rabbis now, or AIDS, or cancer, or-

"Eddie? You good?"

I was hyperventilating and I looked up to see Richie and Bev giving me concerned looked.

I gasped and nodded then pointed to my chest and mouthed 'Asthama.'

Richie got the memo and lounged for the bag that was sitting at the edge of the couch. It was his bag.

But he pulled out an aspirator and ran over to give it to me.

"It's okay, just breathe," he said softly then turned to Bev, "you weren't smoking down here were you?"

Bev shook her head, I tried to focus on the pump and not the fact that Richie had one of these in his bag.

He probably has asthma too, oh damnit, I'm getting even more germs from him. It's weird that he never told me though.

My breathing wasn't ragged anymore and I handed the pump back to Richie, who was sitting in front of me and watching with wide, worried eyes.

"Thanks," I said and Richie just nodded, "so you have asthma too?" I bit my lip, waiting for his answer. It would hurt if he had had asthma and never told me, even though we were best friends. Was he ashamed of having asthma? He must not have wanted to seem weak and fragile, like me. If this was his pump, I was about to get some serious germs too. I wanted to gag at the thought of germs.

Richie turned pink and raised a hand to the back of his neck while looking down, "uh...no....I just have it in case of an emergency." He looked back into my eyes again.

All that I could think of was smacking my lips to his cheek and grinning, then I shuddered at the thought. Those were bad thoughts to have about friends, disgusting even. It was wrong to think about kissing friends, but even worse to have kissed your friend.

Not in a romantic way, but in a way that would probably make things awkward between the two of us. So I prayed that Richie didn't remember last night like I did, as I looked awkwardly into his eyes.

And then the rest of the losers woke up.

-----

Another chapter cause who needs education. I have a bunch of research notes due but I haven't touched them....fuck.

More to come but it might be hard this week since it's the last school week for me until break. Sorry pals.

Also idk if I made this clear on not in the chapter, cause I'm real tired rn, but Eddie isn't aware of his sexuality yet. He just thinks its weird cause its Richie and they have a weird arguing thing. Idk