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eddie was standing at his locker when he heard the oh so familiar taunt for the first time that day.

"hey, queer!"

he wasn't surprised. he didn't even bat an eyelash at it as the boy shoved past him, digging his elbow into eddie's shoulder blade and shoving the small boy into the door of his locker. with a harsh laugh, the bully walked away with his friends, throwing "fag" jokes at one another like eddie couldn't hear them.   though, he knew that their intentions were for him to listen.   eddie didn't fuel the fire.

eddie didn't know what he'd expected after coming out. though half the school already suspected that he was gay -- as if it wasn't obvious enough -- there were still crowds of people like the one boy that would go out of their way just to try and make him feel like shit. he'd learned to adapt to it all and not care.

swiftly and silently, the boy piled books and papers, all of his necessities for the day, into his backpack. he hummed softly to himself as he made sure he had what he needed before swinging his bag over his shoulder, glancing into the mirror that hung precariously from the locker door. examining his outfit choice for the day, he smiled. a well-worn forest green sweater that he tucked into his favorite pair of high-waisted jeans (cuffed at the bottom, of course), finished off with his thrifted adidas shoes. his favorite part of the day was probably picking out his outfit. he'd do it for fun. though, as much as he wanted to stand there and think of more ways that he could style his sweater, he had to get to class.

eddie smiled at himself once more in the mirror before gently shutting the locker door, wincing as he heard the mirror bounce back against the door. he was practically waiting for the day that the mirror would fall. he hummed softly as he made his way to his first class, history, a slight skip in his step as he walked. he took a good look around the room as he walked into the classroom, finding his empty seat close towards the back.

the class started soon after eddie's arrival, the teacher walking in and slapping the nearly-grey whiteboard to announce her entrance and the start of the class. eddie stared blankly at the board as the teacher started scribbling out dates, rambling on about something along the lines of another white guy getting killed. he sighed heavily as he started feeling himself drift off, but not to sleep. his mind separating itself from his body. in the moment, nothing felt real. panic arose inside of him, breathing growing heavier as he felt a lack of self.

none of this is real. you're just dreaming in a dead boys body. you don't even know what reality truly feels like because half the time you're dreaming. stuck on another side, in between two worlds, or lost as a whole. you're so fa-

eddie jolted back to life, jumping back to reality, as he heard a door slam open. looking up, his chest heaving up and down, he couldn't believe what he saw. a boy. but he was the prettiest boy eddie had ever seen. he was tall -- taller than eddie at least -- with beautiful curly, brown, hair. he was dressed a lot more rugged than eddie himself. he was wearing black semi-baggy jeans that were cuffed at the bottom, just how eddie liked to do it himself. he had on an all black t-shirt as well that read out some punk-ish looking band. on top of the t-shirt he had on a dark green flannel that almost matched the color of eddie's sweater. eddie couldn't stop staring at the boy as he tried catching his breath, nervously fixing his hair.

the teacher turned around to greet the boy with a scowl before her mood lightened, turning to face the rest of us. during the cheesy introduction of this new and hot as hell boy, he learned that his name was richie. richie. it was a nice name, eddie liked it.

"you can sit wherever is free," she exclaimed, dragging her hand out for him to turn to the room and take a seat.

eddie felt his heartbeat pick up as the tall boy, richie, made his way down the isle of desks. it looked like he was almost analyzing every individual, frowning at almost everyone. eddie kept his head down as he tried to avoid any sort of eye contact from the boy, but couldn't help it as he saw richie take a seat no other place than right next to him. eddie slowly looked over to richie, his heart skipping a beat as the boy looked at him. he flashed a small smile at the other, his stomach sinking as he got an odd look in return.

"what're you looking at, short stack?" he snapped, frowning as he spoke.

eddie shook his head as he looked down, closing his eyes for a moment. blocking out richie from his side view, he sighed.

"nothing."

his heart was aching, unable to leave as the teacher droned on the joys about life in greece, the tension between him and everyone surrounding him pushing him to the edge as he laid down on his desk , his arms hiding his face from the rest of the classroom. tears rolled down his cheeks as he canceled out everything surrounding him. the boy forgot about all the things good as he silently cried into the table, hoping nobody noticed.

but richie noticed.