how we were ✰ 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐞 ¹

three

"i am intrigued by the smile upon your face and, the sadness in your eyes."
   — jeremy aldana

warning: chapter contains homophobic slurs
if richie was being honest with himself, the first day of school was even more uneventful than he thought it would be. he rode his bike to school with beverly alongside him in silence, slinking away when they arrived to avoid the stares of her friends. he knew all of their faces, knew all of their names. though, richie knew them mostly by different names, so he couldn't quite look them in the eye.

everytime richie tozier had come into relatively close contact with the losers it had been in the shadow of henry bowers. henry hated them all, but richie didn't really know why. he knew hen was mad a lot—knew that he couldn't really help the way he lashed out sometimes at richie. yet with the losers, it was like henry was a whole different person.

because of this, richie kept his head down and ignored the soft calls of beverly marsh as she tried to lead him over to her friends. her friends. not his. instead, richie would find himself stalking the halls behind henry and his goons, shoulders dipped and eyes locked on the floor. richie never participated in henry's harassing of other students, but he never tried to stop it either, so he figured he was just as bad as the rest of them.

often times, the raven haired boy would find himself in the back corners of the library rather than the classrooms he should have been in. richie found solace in the stillness of the room, save for the librarian sat at her desk, occasionally flipping the page of a book. she didn't mind him, richie was fairly sure she didn't even know he was there most of the time. he knew the teachers had long since given up discovering his whereabouts—richie would ace whatever material they gave him regardless of his presence.

so richie found himself in the back of the library, sat on the ground and leaning against one of the ancient shelves. the headphones of his walkman covered his ears, the colorfully painted system tucked into his backpack at his side. the wanderer echoed in his ears, eyes closed and foot unconsciously tapping to the gentle rhythm.

they don't even know my name..

the tozier felt the music seeping into him, covering him with a layer of certainty—a feeling—that was all consuming. he listening to the words, more closely than most, deciphering their meanings and the embodiment of emotion behind them.

cause i'm the wanderer,
yeah, the wanderer..

a hand falling onto his shoulder sent richie shooting straight up, tensed and alert with his eyes wide open. in front of him stood the figure of ben hanscom, bright smiling face staring down at him and hand falling off his shoulder and coming up to rub the back of his own neck. "sorry!" he laughed, chubby cheeks taking on a red hue. "i didn't mean to scare you." richie stared at him, eyes slightly narrowed in confusion at the situation he currently found himself in. why the fuck was ben hanscom acknowledging him, much less in a friendly manner? christ, the world was coming to an end.

richie's face must have displayed one of his many conflicting emotions because ben's face brightened even further and he huffed out an embarrassed laugh. "sorry," he repeated again, ignoring richie's wide eyes and plopping down on the ground next to the tozier, "i'm ben, but i'm sure you already knew that, derry is too small to not know everyone's names." ben was rambling, but richie couldn't find it in himself to be annoyed, he was a trashmouth himself after all.

"anyway, sorry for interrupting you, but the reason i'm here is because beverly talks about you a lot—" that had his head jerking to the side, she talked about richie with them? "—and since you're her best friend, i wanted to ask for your help." richie's mind was running a mile a minute and he barely had time to digest that load before ben was talking again. "i've been in lo—liked her for a while now and i want to ask her to go on a date with me, but i'm not sure if i should get her a gift to ask, or if she'd even like a gift, or.."