pretend; reddie

t w e n t y t h r e e

"are you scared?"

richie is holding a bucket of movie theatre popcorn in his hands, and though they haven't even entered the theatre yet, he's already snacking away. almost a quarter of it is gone, and they're just seated in the dining area of the theatre, waiting to go in.

eddie snorts a bit at the question, and he pops a malteaser into his mouth and finishes it before replying. "not even in the slightest."

richie clucks his tongue a few times, and eddie can't tell if that's supposed to be intimidating or challenging, but really it's neither; it's just amusing. "i guarantee you'll be pissing your pants halfway through. you'll be so scared you'll end up on my lap."

eddie throws one of the chocolate balls at rich from across the table, but his plan backfires as richie moves to catch it in his mouth. hey, not the plan, but pretty impressive nonetheless. "not a chance, loverboy," eddie reassures him. "if anything, you'll be the one running to me for comfort."

richie puffs out his chest in an overly dramatic manner, and it's embarrassing, but eddie is grinning anyway. "never! i'm a manly man. never been scared before in my life."

"oh, yeah, okay, because that's believable," eddie laughs. he pulls out his phone to check the time, and when he does so, he stands from his spot their table and motions with his head for richie to follow. "come on, we should get into the theatre. find some good spots — prime spooky seats."

richie chuckles along with eddie's sentence, but still follows him. he doesn't really care where they sit. eddie ends up leading them to the very top row, where, surprisingly, more than enough seats were available. "gasp," richie voices. "are you trying to seduce me? was that your plan all along? make out in the back row? naughty naughty, kaspbrak."

eddie's laugh is loud as he moves to the centre of the row to two free seats and positions himself almost directly in the middle. "you fucking wish, tozier."

richie takes a seat next to him and winks, placing his popcorn down. "only a little bit."

eddie shakes his head. the lights dim, and it goes pretty much silent as more people file in and the screen starts playing trailers.

hold up — a little bit?

eds doesn't really know what richie meant by that, why he said it or how eddie missed it when he did say it. but the theatre is silent and the movie is starting, so now he can't ask, and he decides that that's probably for the best. richie was just being stupid, he figures. if he asked about it, richie would just laugh about it in his face and eddie would never get a straight answer.

the movie starts not too long after eddie's internal battle. just as he'd presumed, it isn't scary, or at least, not to him, because he had memorized every single scene and jump scare and pretty much kind of the movie. but richie definitely hadn't, and he keeps accidentally jumping, and eddie just smiles, reaching across the armrest to grab richie's hand in order to hopefully comfort him. their fingers intertwine, and it's so natural, and richie doesn't look over at him, but eddie does, and when he does, he can see a faint smile on richie's face.