INFINITY || reddie

➳ lipstick

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"But I do have a girlfriend!"

There were very few things in the world that could make Eddie Kaspbrak stop listening to his music, especially when Marina and the Diamonds was playing, but that loud shout did the trick. Feeling startled, Eddie pulled his earbuds from his ears and looked across the street towards the source of the noise. He was met with the sight of a tall guy, young and gangly and around Eddie's own age, walking backwards down the sidewalk as he faced an older couple. Despite the indignance in his voice he had a spring in his step, and the similarities between himself and the couple in front of him--most notably, the woman's dark curly hair and the man's thick glasses--had Eddie guessing that they were the guy's parents.

"Richie, why don't you just get back together with Beverly?" The woman asked, and the guy Eddie figured had to be Richie rolled his eyes at her.

"I was never dating Beverly, Mom!" Eddie's family assumption seemed to be correct, and he found himself losing interest, turning his eyes back to his phone, reaching for his earbuds to replace them in his ears. "I never was dating her; that would be like dating my sister! Super weird. Bill dated her for a while, though."

Eddie's ears pricked. Bill? Beverly? It seemed like an unbelievable coincidence, but Eddie was friends with a Bill, a Bill that had an ex-girlfriend named Beverly Marsh. Eddie glanced back over, looking more scrutinizingly at the stranger to see if he recognized him. It seemed way too "small world" to be true, but if they went to the same college campus, maybe they'd met before.

The woman, however, didn't look very convinced.

"But she used to visit us with you all the time! What happened?"

"She's taking more classes this semester, and she's super involved with the university's Disability Alliance now. Lots of volunteer work and stuff. She just doesn't have time."

"Okay, so you say you have a girlfriend." The guy's father stuffed his hands in his pockets, his mustache furrowed, speaking slowly. "And she goes to this school? She's on campus?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's meet her."

"Dad, no!" Richie's eyes took on a frantic sort of look, glancing anywhere but his father's face, and Eddie realized in amusement that this Richie was lying about being in a relationship. "We just started dating, that would be so weird, I--"

In Richie's frantic turning this way and that, his eyes met Eddie's across the street. Richie seemed to freeze completely, his voice dying, just staring back at him. Eddie knew then that he'd never met Richie in his life, because he was blushing just from looking at him. Richie was incredibly cute, with thin features and high cheekbones, the kind of tall that made Eddie's knees go embarrassingly weak. And while he was busy staring, cute guy said something to his parents that Eddie completely didn't hear, and the next moment, to Eddie's great surprise, jogged across the street in his direction.

Eddie stopped in his tracks, and Richie came to a halt right in front of him.

"Um... Hi." Eddie said after a few moments, because this guy was still just looking at him with an expression Eddie couldn't quite place. Despite the November chill in the air, it was starting to make Eddie's body feel a little too warm.

"Hey." Something about the guy's voice sounded breathless, and Eddie wasn't quite sure what to do with that, either.

"What, um..." Eddie managed to pull himself together. "What do you want?"