Ready, Set, Go || reddie

Act II | two

⚠️slur at the end of the chapter⚠️

Yet another sleepless night for Eddie Kaspbrak as he paced back and forth like clockwork. Once again he needed to get out.
He slipped into his sweatpants and a hoodie, strapped his fanny pack on. He decided to leave his walkman this time, giving a glance over to the unopened present Richie had given him.
It had been a week since that day and it was playing in his mind over and over again. He didn't know what to think anymore as he slipped out his window.

"Kaspbrak. You know you can't like him, you know it's wrong. How would mommy feel?" His thought were racing as he ran towards Richie's house, he wanted to see him. He needed to see him. Even if it was just glance. Richie disappeared from all the other practices after that day, didn't go to his locker when Eddie was there. It confused him so much.
"He's so annoying. I just wanna be his friend. I don't bite, what's wrong with him?! UGH!" Eddie shouted into the chilly fall air.
As Eddie approached Richie's house his breathing got a bit out of control so he quickly took out his inhaler and took a huff.

Lo and behold, Richie was there with Ben's girlfriend. His chest tightened a bit, he wouldn't expecting someone else to be there.
They were chatting together, but quickly glanced up to see Eddie running past them pretending he didn't see them.
"Is that him? Hey! Eddie, right?" The red head smile and waved at him, Eddie waved back with a weak smile on his face.
"Come over here!" She shouted. Richie was pretty quiet, quieter than usual. She pats the place next her and Eddie runs over to sit down.

"H-Hi." Eddie said, a sheepish smile on his face, he was nervous. Beyond nervous.
"Hey Eds." Richie said back, not looking at him.
"Don't call, Eds" Eddie bit back. Richie looked down.
"Sorry." He said quietly. Eddie suddenly felt very concerned. This wasn't smartass he had begun to know.
"It's okay. You can call me that if you have to." Eddie huffed, feeling the need to go easier on him.
The red head interrupted with putting her hands on each of our knees.
"I'm Bev by the way! Ben told me about you! He absolutely wouldn't shut up about the farm your friend Mike lives on." Bev laughs, lightening the mood.
"You have to invite the losers up there some time, I'm sure Richie" She clears her throat and nudges his arm. "Would love to see it! He loves taking photos of everything" Richie nods. Eddie sees that this isn't something he would or should be around for. So he gets back up on his feet, turning to face them.

"Thanks so much for the introduction, Bev. Ben talks so much about you, you're as lively as he said you were haha" Eddie waves then goodbye as he starts running back to his house. He regretted it a bit, but he didn't know Richie well enough... yet.

Sneaking back into through his window, he looks over at the present again. He takes a deep breathe and switches his desk light on, sitting down.
"It's just a small present, Eddie. It won't hurt you."

He carefully opens the red wax paper it was wrapped in and reveals what's inside. A small collection of photos of Eddie and other people with a small a note attached.

"Dearest Spaghetti, I'm in the photography club at school and I take photos for the Yearbook. Here's my favourite ones."

Eddie looked at each of the photos, most from when the track team is practicing, but there's a couple of Ben playing football and some of his other friends. Each one had a little stickers and writing from different people wishing me a happy birthday.
He felt like this was Richie's way of welcoming him to The Losers. Eddie loved it.

His next immediate thought was to jump out the window and run as fast as he could back to Richie's house. The minute he saw it and the two teens in view, he sprinted towards them. Stood in front of them completely out of breathe.
"Wait- give- give me a second to just-" Eddie caught his breathe for a moment before almost screaming.
"THANK YOU FOR THE GIFT, I REALLY APPRECIATE IT!" Before immediately running back home, as he run he glanced back to see Richie smile, really widely and very warmly.

By the time Eddie got back, he was so tired. He just hid the photos in the drawer and flopped onto the bed, falling sleep almost immediately.

Waking up to his alarms going off, he looked at the day, Saturday.
"Yes." He whispered to himself. It was finally the weekend. He could freely run up to Mike's farm again without the rules and regulations of school days.
He quickly took a shower and got dressed before eating breakfast with his mom.
"Bye mommy!" He kissed her and left the hours.

Making his slow crawl up to Mike's farm, watching as all the once green and flowered trees have turned red. Even seeing a light layer of frost on the grass around him. Listening as "Never Gonna Give You Up" started fading in on his walkman.

"NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP! NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN!" Eddie sang as he run up the fall foliage. His run felt a lot lighter than it usually did. He finally opened it.

As he slowly approached Mike's farm. He felt like he was on top of the world, like nothing could bring him done, nothing could break his stride.

"Hey faggot!"

Eddie spoke to soon...

___________

I'm gonna be finishing this book up completely because of the all the nice comments i've seen, thanks for giving me the motivation to finish this :).

Yours Truly, Dan.