𝑹𝑨𝑫𝑰𝑶 -- reddie fic

seven - ice ice baby

   richie was bored again, as he was the day before, and the day before that. summer wasn't all that great, as much as its hyped up. the heat, the sun, he just wished he could throw on a leather jacket. the only good part was, of course, no school. richie wasn't bad at school, he was actually a pretty good student. mostly a's, with a handful of b's in lame things like home-ec, and pe. he just didn't care for school, it was too easy, and boring. the most interesting part of the hellhole was people watching and the ever evolving monster that is the high school social hierarchy.

   he sat on top of his roof eating bugles, with nothing else to do. it had been a few weeks since he had gone out and done anything fun. not just biking to the gas station alone, not that. hanging out with people. if he remembered correctly, though he probably didn't, the last time he had hang out with anyone was the great chocolate chip cookie bake of 1990, just one and a half weeks ago.

   of course he wanted to find someone to do things with, but all the other times he'd done so was by mere luck. richie cursed himself again and again for not asking for a phone number. eddie's number, sure, but he wouldn't mind anybody's at this point. he even had his own line, and it was nice to talk late at night. not that he actually had, not since at least middle school. and back then it wasn't that late, bedtime was 9 o'clock. so it was more left to richie's imagination as to what it's like talk with a good friend late at night.

   even though he knew where eddie lived, apparently his mom was weird about people coming over, so that was a no go. dropping by someone's house unannounced felt strange anyway.

   richie got tired of the burning sun on his unprotected cheeks, guaranteed to cause a nasty red sunburn later that day. he climbed down the rain pipe carefully and hopped down. unsure of what to do next, he started walking toward the kissing bridge.

   richie liked to go there every now and then. it was always empty when he went, no one to bother him. he walked along the sturdy wooden bridge with his finger on the rails, feeling the carving of names of people he never knew. he traced some of them sometimes, too. it may not seem like it, but richie was somewhat of a hopeless romantic; though he would never admit it. flowers, picnics, dinner and movie dates, he was a sucker for all of it. he was 15, almost 16, and never even had his first kiss. what a loser, he thought, laughing slightly.

   richie looked up at the sound of branches crunching and wheels spinning, bicycles. he let his hand drop from the etched letters to his side, feeling a tinge of embarrassment. as the cyclists neared, richie hear a familiar laugh.

   "no way, denbrough! i am way faster than you!" eddie exclaimed, through breathy laughter. richie smiled at the sight of them. eddie had noticed someone else was there, and quickly recognized the figure as none other than richie.

   "oh my god, you need to stop stalking me." eddie said sarcastically, slowing down. bill slowly caught up to the surprisingly fast asthmatic.

   "nuh uh," richie replied "i was here first, which means you're stalking me." richie and eddie exchanged a look of silliness comeplete with wide grins. bill stood to the side, feeling a lot like a third wheel. richie noticed bill's quietness in the situation and asked the both of them, "what are you guys doing here?"

   "could ask you t-the same." bill said.

   "well.." richie stumbled on his words. he didn't know what to say other than the truth; he came to the kissing bridge alone to daydream. eddie interjected his thoughts, "we were just passing through," he said. "on the way to the park by the statue."

   bill nodded. "h-heard there was an ice cream stand." richie stood in silence, picking his words. "oh, me too," he lied through his teeth. "the passing through part, didn't know about the ice cream." all of them were quiet for moments that felt like hours.

   "you can.. come with?" eddie asked richie, turning to bill for approval that richie could join the group. richie vigorously shook his head.

   "no way," he laughed a little. "you don't have to include me every time we bump into each other." bill too, shook his head.

   "don't wor-worry about it, you'll just have to k-k-keep up." bill said, and hopped back into the seat of his bike, starting off toward the statue. "hey, could have given me a warning!" eddie projected, also pedaling away. "this is an unfair race!" richie cupped his hands, hollering to the other two.

time skip (a/n - time skips r so fun bc its like a movie and i have to write less LOL)

   as they all reached the statue, they looked around the park in the afternoon sun. the ice cream stand guy was eyeing them, probably hoping for their cash. eddie was taking a breather, denying needing to use his inhaler. "i'm fine!" he insisted "you. cannot. go. that. fast." he said between breaths. bill held in laughter, still trying to get the stubborn eddie to take a puff.

   "you kids want ice cream? i'm nearly about to leave." the man said. all their heads turned, and without a word they jogged a few metres to the ice cream cart. richie looked down into the containers and read the labels. vanilla, rocky road, strawberry, cookie dough, and pistachio. gross, why did people like pistachio? it's not like adding almonds to something, its just, pistachios. eddie fiddled with the zipper of his blue fanny pack and pulled out crumpled one dollar bills.

   "uhh," he said, thinking. "i'll have strawberry and vanilla, please." the ice cream man turned to bill and richie, waiting for them to say what they wanted. as the man began to scoop eddie's pink and white order into a cone, bill answered. "two s-s-scoops of rocky road, please." the man handed eddie the cone with a napkin, and started on bill's. richie quickly thought. "vanilla and cookie dough," he said. "uh, please." he added.

   all of them received their ice creams and paid, and sat over on a bench by a quiant pond. they sat in mostly silence, just licking the delicious frozen desert. eddie basically devoured the cone, finishing first. "where were you headed?" he asked. richie blanked, not realizing he was being spoken to. "what-? oh uh, i was just coming back from the store."

   "what'd you get?" bill asked. richie thought that it could have seemed intrusive, but he could tell that bill was just being curious. "nothing, they didn't have much there. something about shipping." richie answered.

   the other two slowly finished their ice creams. they stood up to get going, since it was nearing dusk. richie looked at eddie and saw a pink blob on his cheek. he reached into his pocket for the unused napkin that he stuffed in it, and carefully reached out to wipe it off eddie's face.

   "what are you doing?" he asked. richie laughed, "you got ice cream on your face." bill rolled his eyes. "eddie eats like a toddler eating cake on their birthday." 

1246 word count

a/n: first of all, so sorry for being terribly inconsistent on this work!!! im trying to get back into writing for real this time, but i might have slower/shorter updates because there is a lot going on for me atm. anyway ty for reading i hoped u liked this. i am going to write a 1x1 fluff chapter at some point!!!!!! i promise to update more frequently haha...