𝑹𝑨𝑫𝑰𝑶 -- reddie fic

one - fist fight

   "god fucking dammit bowers," richie sighed, slamming his locker door and turning his head to face henry. "what do you want now? " he asked the mullet-wearing kid. henry had a resting scowl on his face and opened his mouth for a few short moments before answering richie. "some stupid kid punched me." henry growled. richie rolled his eyes. "and what would you like me to do, henry? kiss it all better?" richie puckered his lips for further effect. henry's scowl deepened and he huffed before stomping away from richie. 

   who had the guts to punch henry bowers? richie thought to himself as he followed the flow of students and walked to his next class. punching bowers is like.. asking to be killed. richie knew from experience— a few years earlier before he and henry had been somewhat acquainted, the two of them had gotten into a big brawl outside of henry's house. richie was only 13 at the time, while henry was easily older by about two years. in all honesty, richie had provoked henry and started the whole fight. earlier that day richie was passing by henry in the halls, and he got the sudden idea to pull on the end of the other boys' hair. henry turned on his heels almost immediately, and whispered to richie. "i'll see you- fucking (f slur)." he turned back around, but over his shoulder henry still held richie's gaze through the large thick lenses covering his eyes. 

   just after school, richie poked around when biking home and took the route that passed by henry's property. he was feeling reckless and aloof, but who cared? not him. and just in good luck, henry happened to be outside messing with his switchblade when richie stumbled past. the older boys' head perked up and he closed the knife up. henry hopped off of the stack of miscellaneous pieces of wood he was sitting on and walked over to richie. in that moment, richie's inner rationality broke through and he was filled with the instinct to run. he stood there, frozen in shock. every moment henry got closer and closer until they were about six inches away from each other. 

   "what? scared?" henry scoffed, laughing at him. "i know you're just a little pussy. prissy little girl." he spat, and got an inch or two closer, in richie's face now. you could see that richie's eyes were filled with fear, but instead of running away like any other person when faced with henry, richie decided to punch him straight in the stomach. henry reacted by quickly clutching the spot richie threw his fist into and then looked intensely at him. neither of them said a word, and in an instant henry flung his fist right into the side of richie's nose. the blow cracked some of his glasses, and his nose had been jacked up ever since. richie clenched his teeth and punched him back as hard as he could, and within seconds both of them were laying on the side of the dirt road wrestling each other. 

   it had been well over 15 minutes and the two were on the ground still. henry was holding rich down, and he was beat to a pulp. richie held his arms up in an 'x' formation above his face to shield it, a weak attempt at protecting his head. after henry had had all his fun, he stood up and glared at richie who was nearly shaking on the ground. just before henry walked away and back over into his property line, he brought up a mouthful of saliva and spit it all out onto richie's face. richie's hands shot up to cover the spit from hitting his face, but he was too slow and henry's saliva had already landed on the side of his cheek. henry walked away without so much as a glance behind him. 

   richie scrunched up his nose and wiped the spit off his face with the edge of his finger. he slowly got up, leaning on his elbows and watched henry step through the door of his house, and then slamming it shut. richie sat there all by himself for what felt like an hour to him, but in reality was a mere 3 minutes.

   he slowly stood himself up, and staggered over to his bicycle about a metre away. richie sat on the banana seat for a few seconds, gripping the handlebars very roughly. he made a vow to himself that day, that he wouldn't let henry bowers mess with him anymore. he wouldn't let patrick mess with him- or anyone for that matter. he was going to toughen up and learn how to handle things himself instead of getting himself beaten up all the time. he wanted to be able to fight back. 

   so, in the past two years that's what richie had done. he dropped his coke-bottle rims and swapped them for contacts. richie changed his wardrobe completely, throwing away all his hawaiian shirts, khaki shorts, and graphics tees. he replaced them with leather jackets, acid wash jeans, and band t-shirts. he didn't give anyone a reason to pick on him; if anything he had started to be the one to pick on people. for the last couple weeks, richie had been hanging around henry more and more often. they sometimes ate lunch, talked in the corridors between periods. and after the school day ended when henry chased a scared middle schooler to the woods, richie would follow him, along with the rest of his gang. he felt guilty every now and then of course, but what could he do? it was better to beat someone up than get beaten up, right?

   in the midst of richie daydreaming about his past, he had completely lost all sense of direction. he snapped out of his disassociation suddenly, when a confused looking boy bumped into him. the boys' head shot up to look at who he had just walked into, richie, and he did a double take. richie guessed it was his association with bowers, since he had been hanging with henry richie had gotten more looks. scared looks, usually. or sometimes pissed off, but always frightened at some point. especially if richie was in the mood to spit out a comeback. 

   richie looked at the boy in the eyes for only a moment before he looked away quickly. the shorter boy muttered something, an apology, and then started to try and escape from richie's reach. however, richie was caught by the gaze of the kid. he looked afraid, but underneath that richie saw in his eyes a certain kind of innocence. it was intriguing. richie then processed that he had felt something on the end of his shoe, ontop of his toes. he looked down and saw a medium-sized textbook laying on the ground. with everyone else trying to get to class in a hurry, richie bent down and carefully picked up the book. it was for biology. a good width of a book, not overwhelmingly heavy but not so light that it looked like a short read. the cover of it was red and glossy, it looked almost in pristine condition; like someone had just bought it. 

   richie stood back up to his full height and looked around at the heads of people crowded around him. by then the boy was long gone, and all that remained of him at the moment was his biology textbook richie had in his hands. the hallways started to clear out, just under a minute left to get to the last period of the day. originally, richie was going to go to his class, but he felt this was more important. 

   now, there were only a few souls left roaming the halls beside himself. richie stood still in his spot, and gently opened up the cover to the book. his eyes scanned the cover pages, just in case there was a name or something. property of tom smith, or something or other. richie sighed when there was no name on either of the first two pages, so he flipped to the next one to keep searching. richie kept on turning the pages to look for a name until he got to the copyright page. at the top right corner of the page there was a name. in small, neat cursive written there was the name eddie kaspbrak. richie caught himself running his finger over the pencilled words and feeling the graphite. he closed the book with a small clap, and tucked it under his shoulder. from his observation, richie remembered the boy, eddie, going the opposite direction. so her turned around and headed for the set of classrooms next to the gym. he was going to return a lost book.

1470 word count

a/n: aaaa thank u for reading. honestly i didnt think this was a great starter to this story but im never good w starters so. anygays pls let me know your thoughts about this and such?? i have a lot of ideas for this story and ig im just excited but yeah! tell me what you think of it. okayyy ty byebye