5555 reddie (Completed)

Part 5

"Okay," Eddie agrees, and he positions his hands on the metal of Richie's car before hoisting himself up, his feet hanging off the front. He pats the seat next to him, a silent gesture for Richie to hurry up, and takes his box, setting it on his lap and opening it up to dig in. Richie puts the slushie on the hood of the car, too. "I'm starving. It feels like I haven't eaten in weeks."

"You're always hungry." Richie laughs, jumping into the seat next to Eddie. He opens his food and messily stuffs himself. He acts as though he doesn't see Eddie's disgusted expression out of the corner of his eye.

"You're gonna choke by eating that fast," Eddie comments snidely, biting politely into his food.

Still chewing, Richie opens his mouth to reply, "The only thing I'm interested in choking on is-"

"Don't! You're so gross!" Eddie says loudly, his cheeks burning red. Chewing quietly, he turns his head away from Richie in attempt to hide his blush. But Richie sees, and he smiles. "I can't believe you actually say stuff like that. How did you have any friends at school?" This is, Richie immediately realizes, the first time they have ever discussed school life. In their months spent together, the past did not come up very often, and so Richie parts his lips and says, in a lick of honesty, "I didn't have any friends."

This immediately sets Eddie off. His whole face softens, melts, and he looks sorrowful as he says, "Oh."

"It's okay," Richie states. He wonders why he made that comment in the first place. He didn't mean to intentionally make Eddie feel bad. "I've always kinda liked it like that, anyway." He does not. "Me, myself, and I, ya know?" Eddie gives Richie a strange look that he can't place. Richie's eyes widen. "I mean-I did like it like that-before you. Having someone to share me, myself, and I with is pretty cool, too." He much prefers it this way, truth be told, with Eddie by his side and the open road ahead of them. Richie has never been very good at being alone. Which is unfortunate, because he has been alone his whole life.

"Sure," Eddie says slowly, as if he is trying to process all the information Richie unloaded to him. As they sit in silence, both seemingly unsure what to say, Richie watches as Eddie picks at his food idly. "I only had one friend before you, at school. But we didn't really hang out or anything. Not like us." Like us, Richie thinks to himself, and he finds himself itching to discover what this us is... friends that live with each other? Friends that have nobody else? "I think he was in your history class. Jeremy. You know him?"

"Yeah," Richie says. He has a clear image of the boy; he wore baggy clothes and had shaggy blond hair.

"That's him." Eddie smiles at the thought of his old friend. "We just ate lunch together, really. And talked during the classes we had together. That sort of thing-like an in school friend only."

"I see," Richie replies. "And we're out of school friends only, right?" he jokes, and Eddie snickers, putting his box of food to the side of his thigh as he gazes at Richie.

"Out of school friends," Eddie echoes, perhaps testing the label on his tongue. Then he grins and lolls his head back. "You're my only friend now, Rich."

"The same to you," Richie states, grabbing the slushie settled between them and taking a big gulp. He puckers his lips. "This flavor sucks."

"Does not," Eddie snaps, grabbing the beverage from Richie's grip and tightening his mouth around the straw. He looks satisfied. "It's delicious. Fuck blue raspberry."

"Fuck blue raspberry!" Richie yelps, his shout thrown into the darkness. Eddie swats Richie's shoulder. "Ouch, Eds! I'm hurt!"

"Are not," Eddie says. There is a wave of harsh wind, and Richie notices how Eddie sucks in a quick breath and puts the slushie back down, wrapping his sweater arms around his body instead. "Fucking hell. It's freezing."

"It isn't. You're just always cold." Richie purses his lips and finishes up his food quickly. "Want my jacket? It's in the backseat." Richie has not worn his jacket in a while, because the fall weather has been nice to him, but to Eddie not as much.