- 𝗋𝗎𝗂𝗇𝗌 -

26

"Micheal?"

"Apparently."

"Bev, tell me you're shitting me."

The redhead raised an eyebrow, offence written on her face. "Why the fuck would i be shitting you at 8 AM in the morning? do i look like i want to be sitting behind your nasty garden and talk about why you hurt Eddie?" Richie winced.

"I didn't hurt him!"

"Really? because he knows you've been lying to him the entire month you two were together. He knows that you were with that fire freak." Beverly plucked the cigarette from her lips before stubbing it on the cheeky gnome beside her. "If it were me, i would have come clean ages ago. I would have told him the truth. I know, i freaking know that you wanted Eddie to feel like the specialist boy in this...thing you two have. But you were going about it the wrong way."

Richie sighed, rubbing his tired face. He was tired, so tired and so angry that he had lost the boy he loved in such a short time. Then there was Micheal to worry about, whoever the hell he was. He'd never met a guy in Derry called Micheal, and he knew everybody in this town.

"Whatever, Rich. You weren't thinking when you did the things you did, knowing you, so you should tell Eddie all that yourself."

"What, say i'm sorry and hope he'll take me back? that's not good enough for someone i love! Eddie...he doesn't deserve me. Someone who lied and hid something huge from him."

"Damm right. But," Bev glared at the sad trashmouth, his eyes filled with fury and hate, all aimed at himself. Richie was like her brother, the one she could laugh with when she didn't have Ben with her. Someone who made her rethink her decisions and yet, someone who wouldn't tell her "i told you so" no matter how much he wanted to. She hated that Eddie and Richie were separated. She hated that they were fighting.

So she was going to get them back together. She was going to help Richie, and they would be together again, a whole. Even if they don't make it in one piece, they would survive this.

She hoped so.

________

His heart felt like a lump of cold metal and his head hurt. He missed the boy he now couldn't even trust anymore, and now he had to worry about some mystery guy named Micheal that looked like Richie?

He closed his eyes and breathed.

Richie, was his best friend and his first love all wrapped up in one. Before Rich, he liked girls. He liked safe cautious girls that wore pleated skirts and wore their hair in braids because that was what was expected of him. But the moment he met Richie, it was like a hot coal had been dumped into the center of his body, awakening and making every cell hum. Richie made him feel alive and pushed him to try new things. He made him worry and sometimes get angrier than usual, but he loved him all the same.

Love. Did he even love him anymore? Their fairytale seemed like garbage now when the lies were shoved into his face. Everything that was once the best memory in his life, Richies face on a snowy sunday morning, his hair in the sun, and his easygoing attitude and smile all stained with the lies that now ringed in his ears.

But despite all his fears and sadness, he wanted to reach out to the curly-haired boy and hear the truth from him. He wanted to know, know why he lied in the first place. Was it to make him look like a fag? To humiliate him in front of the school? The old horrifying memory of Richie beating up Bowers resurfaced into his mind and he shuddered.

No, there had to be another reason. It couldn't be so simple.

The brunette smiled bitterly and gazed at all the happy couples surrounding him. How he wished he could be like them, carefree with not a worry in mind. But life didn't work that way, and Eddie was slowly losing hope in him ever finding happiness that didn't include lies and hiding.

________