I Know Well Enough ✔️ Reddie

Codeword

On Monday morning, Richie turned up at Eddie's to cycle to school. 'Hey, you,' he greeted as Eddie came out of the front door.

'Hey,' Eddie smiled, hopping over the steps to get to his bike. They started to ride.

'So,' Richie said, extending the vowel, 'we never actually agreed how we're playing it from here on out. Around everyone else, I mean. We got a little distracted.'

'You mean with all the shirtless panic attacks and crying?' Eddie summarised, laughing.

Richie laughed too, 'Yeah. I'm so lucky.'

'I think,' Eddie sighed, 'a little bit of normal would go a long fucking way right now.'

'Is that you verbally signing the permission slip?' Richie asked, cocking an eyebrow. 'You reinstating me?'

Eddie shook his head, 'Apparently. Must have lost my fucking mind. I'm actually asking you to rip the shit out of me.'

'And your mom,' Richie added.

Pondering a second, Eddie asked, 'Can I put a condition in your contract?'

'Depends what it is.'

'Well,' Eddie said, 'I know that you're going to really fucking annoy me, because that's one of your absolute favourite things to do, and I know you're going to make jokes about,' he searched for the words, 'what we do together.'

'With almost one hundred percent certainty, yes,' Richie confirmed.

'In that case, at some point, you're inevitably going to say something which makes me want to either kiss you or kill you. So, I'm going to need a codeword, or something.'

'A codeword?' Richie grinned. 'You've already got one. Beep-beep.'

'Yeah, that's the code for "shut the fuck up before I rescind all your kissing privileges". I'm going to need another code for "we need to go somewhere alone as soon as possible so that I can exploit all aforementioned privileges".'

Richie's grin only got wider. 'Well, well, well. I'm sure we can think of something.'

'Needs to be something I can say in most contexts,' Eddie mused. '"Fuck off" springs to mind.'

Snickering, Richie suggested, 'As in, "we're gonna fuck off together"?'

'Yeah,' Eddie laughed.

They arced into the school grounds and went to chain their bikes. When they were bent low to the locks, Richie asked quietly, 'So, what does "Fuck you" mean?' Richie winked at him.

Eddie went scarlet, 'Oh, I feel like I'm going to regret this already.'

'Can I use the codewords?' Richie asked suddenly.

'There's no fucking way I'd let you beep-beep me,' Eddie scoffed, rolling his eyes and walking away.

With a smirk, Richie trotted to catch him up, draping his arm over Eddie's shoulder. 'What about the other one?'

Happily, Eddie sank into the hold, 'I don't know. Feel like you might abuse it.'

'Excuse me,' Richie feigned offence, putting his hand to his heart. 'I have a much better track record of controlling myself than you fucking do.'

Eddie's jaw dropped, 'Oh, fuck you, Richie.'

'What did that mean again?' Richie asked, hooking his elbow tighter around Eddie's neck and ruffling his hair.

Quickly, Eddie escaped and shoved him, grinning, then went to his locker.

Stan wandered over, 'Christ, you two are in a good mood.'