Stand by Us || Reddie [COMPLETED]

chapter 10

Suddenly, everybody searched for the resource of the gunshot with scared looks. The Losers Club stared at the Bowers gang afraid one of those psychopath would have carried a gun with them to shot the kids and take Will's body whatever it took; but the gunshot didn't come from their way.

Instead, it was one of the Losers who was now pointing a gun towards the sky. And it couldn't be more unexpected.

"Eds..." Richie muttered, staring at the not-so-sweet boy standing a few steps away.

Eddie, with a calm and severe expression, grabbed the gun tightly against his body and pointed at Henry, who was nearly going to stab his friend.

"You're not hurting him." Eddie ordered confidently. "Nobody's hurting him."

Richie looked at Eddie walking towards his side and, later on, at the rest of his friends: Beverly had looked up still hugging Ben's body, Ben's arm was around Beverly's shoulder but his eyes were focused on Eddie, Stanley and Bill were next to each other with a surprised and confused look and Mike was just staring proudly at the little boy.

"Come on, kid," Henry's body slightly started to shake. "just give me the gun before you take your foot off."

"Shoot him, Eds!" Richie said raising his voice, encouraging him. "Kill him!"

"Shut the fuck up!" Eddie shouted, pointing his gun, now, at Richie.

Before Eddie could even think about it, he was, effectively, threatening Richie with a loaded gun. He hadn't intentionally done it, he was so altered and nervous that he would have pointed at anyone who had spoken to him while debating Henry's life... anyone. But now it was Richie.

The sky got darker and clouds appeared when Richie found himself in such a position. Eddie could have moved his hands and point to Henry again but he couldn't understand why he hadn't done it yet: he just stayed there, frozen, being the reason why Richie had a gun near to his forehead.

"Are you going to-"

"Fuck! No!" he said before Richie could finish his sentence. He low his guard and pointed the gun towards the floor.

Just a sigh for Henry was enough for Eddie to point his gun at him again. Even though everything had changed: He had pointed a gun towards Richie.

"You sure you're pointing at the right target?" Henry mocked. "Wanna try again?" his eyes looked back at Richie.

Tozier grunted angrily and left his place next to Eddie to get inside the forest again. Everything was better than a gun on his forehead.

Eddie's hands started to tremble as he watched Richie ignoring his friends words about not leaving and walking towards the forest. Once his loved one was out of his sight, he couldn't help but cry so he ran towards Bill and gave him the gun. Seconds later, he was following Richie to the woods.

"That's some good drama, isn't it, guys?" Belch joked.

His friends laughed with him except Henry, who was still focused on the loaded gun on a kid's hands. Maybe they weren't going to kill him but they could possibly shoot him somewhere.

"Don't be dumb, Pansy." Bowers said glaring at the stuttering boy. "We all know you don't have the guts to kill me."

"God!" Mike suddenly spoke. "I'm so tired of your bullshit, you dog killer!"

So before anyone could stop him, Mike Hanlon grabbed the gun and shoot Henry near his feet. He didn't hurt him but he could if he really wanted to: he had good aim. He just wanted to warn him.

And he did.

Henry jumped scared as the proximity of the bullet and started to tremble. His goons looked at Henry shaking and felt bad for the bully: they had stared at his father doing the same to him some days ago.

'Ain't nothing like a little fear to make a paper man crumble.' he had told them.

"Get the fuck out!" Stanley shouted, helping Mike.

Bill stared at his friends trying to get rid of his bullies so he helped them out too.

"Y-yeah! F-f-fuck off!"

"You heard him!" Ben backed up.

Belch, Vic and Patrick looked at each other and with a soft voice saying: "Let's get out of here."; they started running away from them.

"Yeah! That's right! You better run! He's our friend and he's crazy!" Beverly proudly shouted.

Ben looked back at her and hugged, smiling. Bev breathed calmly and rested her head on his shoulder.

//

"Stop following me!"

"Then stop running away from me!"

Richie sighed dramatically and finally turned around to stare at the freckled boy with oversize T-shirt. He know Eddie looked cute with big clothes since they first met at primary school but now his best friend seemed different, more... distant.

"Why? So you can point a gun at my head again?"

Eddie whipped his tears from his eyes and tried to stay calm, even though his heart was beating with a supernatural speed.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"Why did you have a gun in the first place?" his eyes shined bright and Eddie could only think about how he saw them so closely when they kissed yesterday.

"For protection?"

"Bullshit."

"Okay, fine." he stepped closer to Richie but the other boy stepped back. "Are you serious? I don't have it with me now. I gave it to Bill."

Richie crossed his arms, showing his indignation.

"Would be a better idea to hand it to Mike, anyway."

"Can we please talk about this?" Eddie asked, impatiently.

"Yeah. Explain me why you pointed me with a gun."

"I was scared, okay?" his tears showed up again. "I thought he was going to kill you."

"He wouldn't..."

"But he could!" the little boy looked him on his eyes. "For fucks sake! He could!"

Richie's heart broke as he saw Eddie sobbing in front of him. He knew he couldn't do anything about it until he knew all the truth but that didn't mean he wasn't dying for hugging and kissing his little bean.

"You still pointed-"

"Could you please stop saying that?" Eddie asked, breaking down. "I didn't mean to... I got overwhelmed by the whole situation... I wasn't going to shoot you, I promise... I would- would never-"

He suddenly found himself without the capacity of saying any more words. His sobs and trembling hands were starting to take control over him and didn't know how many time he had left until Richie got tired of his crying attitude and left his side.

Instead, Richie was walking towards the crying boy and hugged him tenderly. They hadn't hugged a lot before but Eddie felt like that hug wasn't like the other ones: it was more personal.

"It's okay." Richie said softly next to Eddie's ear. "I know you."

"I-I am s-so sorry..." Eddie said sobbing.

Even if Richie knew that it would make a great joke to compare his stutter with Bill's, he didn't say anything about it. He just kept caressing Eddie's hair.

"You know what's funny?" Richie said with a nervous laugh.

"What?" Eddie asked looking up at him with his cheeks red.

Richie felt their faces so close and their eyes so united that he kissed Eddie's forehead.

"I think I'm in love with you."