cliché || reddie ✔️

thirty eight

slight nsfw

Maybe the teens started their fire a few hours too early, but not one of them could care less. This night is for them and only them. A night to forget the fears they have for the near future because all that matters is they're with each other in these moments.

Beverly and Ben are off along the lake side, dipping their feet in and shallowly kicking up water. Richie had thought about joining them, especially with the sun relentlessly blistering down, but Beverly's smile shimmered brighter than the water she stood in and he knew instantly he shouldn't intrude.

The fire in front of him crackles and pops as it chars down the logs Mike and Bill found at the forest line. Stanley's marshmallow hovers right where the fire whips off into smoke, the heat distorting the world behind it.

He doesn't remember who exactly, either Bill or Mike, but one of the boys brought a wireless radio with them and tuned into the nearest radio station. It was a mixture of music from the 80's and 90's and early 2000's, some Richie loved and some he didn't.

His eyes snap up to Eddie when the boy turns from the picnic table, a s'more pressed between his fingers. "Here," Eddie says, offering it to Richie. "I heard you say you liked them completely burnt. A gross way to eat s'mores, but I made you one anyway."

Richie looks up at him, reaching out to take the smashed down sandwich from him. "Thanks, Eds," he says. Eddie sits down on the low bench next to him, clearly not comprehending the amount of gratitude Richie feels towards him right then.

Mike and Bill talk amongst each other, the former bobbing his own marshmallow into the fire. Stanley will throw a few sentences into their conversation here and there, but for the most part he's quiet.
Richie doesn't want to jump to conclusions, or make any rash assumptions, but he thinks it may be because of him and Eddie.

He hates to say it, but no amount of guilt could ever tear him away from loving Eddie so freely.

Just as Richie is a few bites away from finishing his s'more, Beverly runs up to the group with her shoes in her hand and Ben right after her.

"Aren't you going to come into the water?" She asks, dropping her shoes to the ground. "It's not too cold."

"It's very cold," Ben says from behind her.

She shakes her head. "Ben is a sissy. It's not that bad."

"It's very bad, actually-"

Beverly twirls around and slaps him playfully on the arm, only to break out into a grin when Ben laughs out. "Stop contradicting everything I say!" She says, still smiling over at the boy she made laugh.

"So is it or is it not cold?" Stanley asks, pulling his skewer out from the fire as he looks over his shoulder at the two.

"It's not," Beverly says, a hand waving behind her to push at Ben.

Mike twists around to look at the lake, the dark waters lapping at the edge. "Are we allowed to go swimming in there?" He asks, his eyes scanning the surface.

"I saw no sign," Richie says, standing up. "No sign, no foul."

Clearly it didn't take much as Richie's words seemed to persuade the rest enough for both Mike and Eddie to abandon the fire. Bill and Stanley stay planted on the low benches and when asked by Ben, the former says he'll join later.

As everyone strips from their t-shirts and pants, Richie can't help himself from dragging his eyes up to Eddie. Partly to see if he's watching, and partly to simply watch. But Eddie wasn't watching, instead he's folding his shirt neatly and dropping it onto the towel he set out for himself.