richie and eddie sipped on their milkshakes fast as the losers watched. they all made a bet on who they think could finish theirs faster. eddie had strawberry and richie had chocolate. "gulp, gulp, gulp!" the losers chanted. they tried not to be loud and disturb everyone else in the small diner. finally, eddie had finished his with richie a second behind. "damn it!" bev, bill, and ben crossed their arms and handed stan and mike $10. richie eyed eddie from the side.
"how does it feel to lose, trashmouth?" he playfully shoved the boy. richie laughed and shoved eddie back towards the window, since he was on the end. the boys got into a shove fight before bill giggled and chimed in. "guys c-come on. d-don't b-b-break the w-wind-dow." the boy stuttered. "no, tell eddie not to break the window. i didn't do shit. i'm one hundred percent innocent." richie threw his arms up into the air.
eddie gasped and gave him the death stare. "tell me not to break the window? you're the one shoving me at like, 20 miles per hour!" he complained. "eds what? that makes no sense whatsoev-" "before this escalates and we get kicked out because of you two dumbasses, i'm putting an end to it here." stan sarcastically smiled and rolled his eyes. "thank you, stan." mike spoke up.
...
"it's pronounced car-amel." "are you fucking insane? it's care-amel." "no the fuck it's not, richie!" the sound of richie and eddie's bickering could be heard from behind the losers. they were currently in the clubhouse, they had shown it to eddie and he immediately loved it. there were free caramels in a plastic bin at the front desk of erin's, the diner, and richie did not agree with the way eddie had pronounced "caramel". nor was he happy that eddie had called caramel the scum of the earth.
"caramel is fucking gross, rich. how can you eat that?" eddie scrunched his nose in disgust as he sat across from richie in the hammock. he plopped the tiny piece of caramel into his mouth and stared at eddie with his bug eyes. "first of all, it's care-amel. we've been through this. and second of all, because it's heavenly and delicious." eddie rolled his eyes. "no it is not! it's so chewy and gross and- just EW. i'll eat any kind of gummies but not caramel." "if you say car-amel one more goddamn time eddie-"
the rest of the losers were doing their own thing. ben was teaching bev and mike how to sew, and bill and stan were looking at the bird pictures they had took the day before. everything felt so... calm. besides the two boys arguing in the hammock, they felt so calm around each other. eddie didn't even feel like he only knew the losers for a day. it felt like he knew them for years, since birth even. they just all got along so well, it was natural.
"you honestly should've took one, eds. they're really good." ben interrupted them arguing while sewing a button onto a blanket he was making. "no they're not! they're the literal scum of the earth-" "WHAT!" richie widened his eyes at the boy in front of him. eddie shrugged his shoulders in response. "okay, you are fucking insane, kaspbrak." "and you don't have good taste in candy, tozier. oh yeah, speaking of toes.." eddie threw richie's glasses off of his face with his foot and gently smacked him.
"seriously? was that really necessary, you asshole?" he asked eddie. but the boy just stared at richie, dazed. he stared deeply into his brown eyes and admired everything about the raven haired boy's face without his big glasses on. his breath had hitched and this caught richie's attention. "uh, eds? hello?" he snapped eddie out of his stare. "oh u-uh what? sorry i- um-" he truly was at a loss for words. "eds, y-you s-sound li-ke me." bill laughed from across the clubhouse.
the losers all stared at eddie's red face and immediately caught on to why he was so flustered. "sorry i just- nevermind it's stupid." he took his inhaler out from his fannypack and shook it rapidly. richie noticed how fast he was pumping from his inhaler and slowly lowered his hand. "hey, hey eddie. eds- breathe. it's okay. just breathe." eddie stared into richie's eyes and listened to the sound of his soothing voice.
he slowly caught his breath and lowered his hand. "now, what is it that you wanted to say? look, we've all said a lot of really fucking dumb shit throughout our lives and our freindship, nothing you say is gonna be stupid compared to anything all of us have said before." stan chimed in. "i hate to admit it, and i rarely admit this, but richie's right. we do say pretty dumb stuff. so don't worry about it."
this calmed the boy's nerves a lot as he swallowed the lump in his throat, and finally spoke. "i just wanted to say that you look really nice without your glasses and i love your eyes, rich." eddie spoke really fast and released the breath he had been holding, taking rapid pumps from his inhaler.
the losers eyes widened. oh no, richie thought. here comes the feeling again. he could feel his heart flutter and beat faster and faster inside his chest. his face got crimson red, and he couldn't help but crack a smile. while bringing a hand up to his face to feel how hot it was, he noticed eddie blushing like crazy and staring at richie with his bright, hersey colored eyes. "thank you, eds." he managed to say. richie peered over at bev, and she winked at him. the boy smiled even more and flipped the redhead off.
little did he know, eddie had gotten the same strange feeling every time he felt the trashmouth's presence.
———
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