Reddie Oneshots

Richie's Guitar Pt.3

again, not mine. found it on ao3
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'Morning,' Richie greeted, his shoulder crashing noisily into the closed locker beside Eddie's. The guitar was strapped to his back. Of course it was.

'Morning,' Eddie returned, trying not to look at him too long. 'Got a lesson?'

'Yeah, but I'm gonna have lunch with you today.' He blushed, then rambled, 'You all. All of you.'

For once, Eddie wouldn't have hated it if Richie had been absent. That meant that lunchtime would be the first time that they were all hanging out together. He'd hoped it would be the movie theatre later that week, where he wouldn't be obliged to talk much and could sit as far away from Richie as possible.

'You don't have to,' Eddie said as Richie went to his own locker and slipped the guitar inside, then gathered his books.

'I want to, Eds,' Richie promised, smiling at him. It was a soft smile.

'Don't call me Eds,' he said, searching for the normalcy he needed.

Bill blundered over, his arm around Bev. 'Honestly, you sh-should just give in at this p-point.'

'Morning, Billiam,' Richie grinned.

'Bill's right,' Bev agreed, chuckling. 'Nicknames stick.'

Saluting, Richie said, 'Ringwald.' Then, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, he threw his arm over Eddie's shoulder.

A week ago, Eddie would have thought nothing of it, even enjoyed the weight of Richie's arm around his neck, almost protective. Now he was noticing the way that Richie's fingertips grazed his collarbone, the way Richie's bony hip bumped into his side, the scent of his laundry detergent.

He looked over at Bev and Bill, in the same position. The lines of Richie's song came back to him:

I'll wrap my arm around your shoulder

The only way I get to hold ya.

Still, he didn't know if he could shrug Richie off without it being obvious to his friends that something had happened between them. So he just started to walk, trying to join in with the conversation as though it were any other day.

'Right,' Richie said as he relinquished Eddie, needing to head further up the corridor to a different classroom. 'See you all at lunch.' He blew each of them a kiss in turn, reserving Eddie for last, to whom he also threw a wink.

Mortified, Eddie wandered into the class and quickly sat down. Having kissed Bev lightly in the hallway before she went into the room opposite, Bill came and sat beside him.

'Are you alright, m-mate?' he asked.

'Yeah,' Eddie said, 'I'm fine.'

Secrets ached to spill out. Richie writes his own music. Richie can sing. Richie wrote a song about me. Richie likes boys. Richie likes me. Richie loves me. Richie kissed me. Richie kissed me again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

'You sure? We m-missed you this w-weekend.'

The secrets kept coming. I wanted him to kiss me. I let him kiss me. I kissed him back. I want to kiss him again. I will kiss him again. I like kissing him.

'I said I'm fine,' Eddie said curtly. To curb the questions against him, he asked, 'What movie are we seeing this week?' He didn't listen to the answer.

A final secret popped into his head. Not even a secret he knew he had, not a thought he had uncovered before. Probably the biggest secret of them all.