now or never [reddie au]

22

As soon as he gets home, the first thing he does is facetime Beverly. "You're not gonna believe what happened!," Eddie tells her as soon as she picks up. "What happened?," Beverly asks.

"So, you remember when me and Richie went outside, right?," Eddie asks her as he props his phone up on bis night stand.

"Yeah.," she nods.

Eddie had already started blushing, "Well, we were sitting in his car talking and guess what?"

"What?"

"I fucking kissed him!"

"NO WAY!"

"Uh-huh!"

Beverly's jaw drops, "You're joking."

Eddie shakes his head, "Nope. And then after that, he kissed me!"

"EDDIE, OH MY GOD!"

"I KNOW!"

"So, what are you guys now?," she asks.

"I have no clue.," Eddie answers, "I just can't believe that happened! Like, I really kissed him."

"I'm proud of you!," Beverly tells him, "I have to go now, though. Talk later?"

"Yeah.," Eddie nods, "Love you, Bev!"

"Love you more! Bye!," Beverly tells him before hanging up.

The next day, Richie is the last of the losers to show up at school, as per usual. He joins his friends at their table in the cafeteria before the first bell rings. He sits down between Eddie and Stan.

"Finally, you're here.," Eddie says to Richie after he sits down. "What? Did you miss me or something?," Richie smirks.

"Maybe.," Eddie answers, "Is that a problem?"

"Not at all, Eds.," Richie answers as he grabs his hand, their fingers intertwined. They rest their hands on the table, not paying attention to what anyone else thinks about them.

Richie doesn't notice, but Beverly elbows Eddie, smiling at him. Eddie shakes his head at her, blushing uncontrollably.

"I'll be right back, guys.," Ben, who's sitting across from Richie and Eddie, says as he stands up to throw a piece of trash away.

As Ben walks over to the trash can, Richie catches Henry, Connor, and the rest of their friends looking at him and Eddie. Henry looks furious and Connor just looks pitiful. Richie pulls his hand away from Eddie's and hides his hands under the table.

Richie only felt slightly bad for Connor, but he at least had enough sense to know that holding the hand of the boy he told Connor he had no feelings for immediately after they broke up was a dick move. Unintentional, but a dick move nonetheless. He wasn't trying to make Connor jealous- he wasn't really trying to do anything having to do with him.

Overall, he was more terrified of what Henry had potentially planned on doing to him- or even both him and Eddie.

"Are you okay?," Eddie asks Richie. "Yeah.," Richie answers, his eyes peeled on Connor's table. Eddie looks over at what Richie is looking at and immediately understands why he let go.

Soon, thankfully, Ben comes back and sits down, blocking Richie from looking at the other table, and vice versa.

Meanwhile, Bill couldn't keep his eyes off of Stan. He admires every little detail about him, and every little thing he does gives Bill butterflies. The fact that he gets to go to prom with such an amazing person makes his heart skip a beat. Bill assumes it's obvious to Stan that he feels this way, and he really hopes that's the case because the last time he said it out loud, he didn't get the best reaction.

The bell rings and Bill snaps out of his thoughts. Stan had been looking at him. "Are you good?," he asks Bill. Bill nods, "Y-Yeah. I'm just t-t-tired."

"Are you sure?," he asks, "Richie told me what your dad said the other day."

"H-He told you?," Bill asks him.

"Do you wanna talk about it?," Stan asks as the rest of the losers begin walking to class.

Bill shakes his head, "I-I'm fine. I don't want you to m-m-miss class because of me."

"Can I at least ask you a question?"

Bill nods and Stan asks, "When you told them, did you say we were going, like... as a couple?"

"I-I didn't really s-sp-specify.," Bill answers, "A-Are we not?"

"Do you want to?"

Bill starts to answer, but the thoughts in his head prevent him from doing so. He could just ignore his dad and go with Stanley, but there's no telling how he'd react. And sure, he could take Richie's advice and pretend to go with Beverly, but Bill hadn't even considered what would happen when they actually got there.

Bill's thoughts are interrupted by Stan, "We're gonna be late to class. Wanna talk about it later?"

Bill nods, "Y-Yeah."

The rest of the day, Bill and Stan had been waiting to talk to each other. After school, they decide to hang out at the park. However, while they were there, neither of them brought up the topic of prom or dating or anything. The two boys didn't want to deal with that stress right now.

They had been sitting on a bench. Stan was taking pictures of the pigeons on the ground and Bill had been looking over Stan's shoulder as he took the pictures. They hadn't realized how much time had passed until Bill gets a text from his mom asking where he was. It was 6:41 p.m. and the sun would be setting in less than an hour.

"Sh-Shit, I think I have to g-go.," Bill tells Stan. "Oh, okay.," Stan and Bill stand up and walk to where their cars were parked. "I'll text you when I get home.," Stan tells Bill. "Okay.," Bill nods before they both get into their cars.

When Bill gets home, he's greeted by his dad, who seems annoyed. "Where have you been?," Zack asks Bill.

"I was w-w-with my f-friend.," Bill answers. Although Bill hadn't said any names, Zack already knows, "Stanley, huh?"

Bill didn't say anything. He didn't want to get himself into any more trouble than he was already in.

"You hang around with that Tozier kid too much.," Zack tells him, shaking his head.

"Zack, leave him alone.," Sharon tells him from the kitchen. Sharon didn't completely agree with Zack. However, since Richie had began being pretty open about his sexuality, she had became a little more educated on the topic. She just wasn't really used to having a kid that was anything but straight. She knew that Bill didn't choose to be this way, and couldn't hate him for that. "What, Sharon?," Zack looks at her, "I don't want my kid to-"

Bill knew what was about to happen, so he quietly goes to Georgie's room and plays with him to distract him from the shit show happening in the other room.

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hi i'm sorry it took me so long to update lol