pretend; reddie

t w e n t y o n e

"i know you're sorry, eddie."

richie is pissed. eddie broke a rule, told will that their whole arrangement was pretend. he did it at some point during a party they were at, eddie had explained. he hadn't meant to expose their plan, but in the heat of the moment, the confusion of will almost kissing him, he had just kind of blurted it out, completely accidentally, and guilt had been gnawing at him ever since.

it's three days after richie had pushed will up against a wall, three days after will had admitted that he knew of their plan, three days after richie gave eddie that disappointed, betrayed look that made eddie's stomach clench in regret.

richie is still being more quiet than usual. he still seems upset. he hasn't been saying much, and whenever he is, he isn't making the usual crude jokes that eddie had become accustomed to.

"but you're still mad at me," eddie had been worrying over this ever since the incident, and he'd apologized a numerous amount of times, and richie had said it was fine, but for some reason eds just couldn't believe it. "why are you still mad at me?"

"i'm not still mad at you."

eddie crosses his arms, moving over to poke richie's shoulder. "then why have you been shunning me all day?"

richie sighs to himself, mostly, and he cards both of his hair through the mess of hair on his head, which he'd been playing with out of stress nonstop for the past hour. "i haven't. and i'm not mad at you, eddie, okay? i promise you that much."

eddie doesn't want to give up on this, and so he persists. "then what's wrong?"

"nothing," richie insists. they both know he's lying. "look, eddie, i'm just having a bit of a hard time, alright? don't worry about me."

eddie hesitates for a few moments before finally nodding. "fine. but you know you can talk to me. we are friends."

richie gasps playfully, and it seems forced, but eddie is just glad that he's trying. "since when were we friends? i thought it was either us hating each other or us dating each other! but friends? no no, i didn't expect friends!"

eddie smiles at the theatrics, and he feels a bit more at ease. "shut up."

"whatever you say."

eddie takes a seat next to richie and leans on him. it's mostly to annoy him, but for some reason richie doesn't react, and then eddie is left just kind of leaning against his friend, and he doesn't really mind. neither of them do, and that's kind of strange, but they roll with it anyway.

"wanna play mario kart?"

richie snickers a bit. "are you going to cheat again?"

eds gasps dramatically and whacks richie's shoulder playfully. "i've never cheated at a video game in my life!"

richie lets out a laugh, and eddie feels a lot more at ease that he's more comfortable, that he's proving that he's not mad at him anymore. "fine. let's play, then."