streetlamps | richie tozier

chapter six

The bell rings. I spin on my heel to go to class, then turn back, thinking I should talk to Richie. But he'll know I was eavesdropping, and so would Bill, which is worse. I turn around again and walk briskly to my class.

All through the lesson I'm thinking. Replacing? Replacing Beverly? Who's Beverly? I'm pretty sure Bill meant Beverly Marsh. I heard a lot of rumours about her. Mostly that she screwed a bunch of guys, apparently most of them at school while it was in session. I didn't really believe any of them. We had one class last year and we were in second grade together but that's all. We had a few exchanges, she seemed nice. I did notice that she wasn't here this year. I overheard she went away because of her dad. I don't know why, and I don't need to know.

"Miss Vernon? Can you tell me what I just said?" bursts Mrs. Grendall.

I stutter. "No. No ma'am."

"Then I'd suppose you had better start paying attention." she snaps. She proceeds to walk over to my desk and slap down a small green slip of paper. Great. Detention, 40 minutes.

At lunch I grab Richie and pull him into a mop closet. He smirks.

"You sure about this Spence? I mean, you sure you want our first time to be in a clos-"

"Shut up Richie. We need to talk."

"Okay, okay. What about?" he asks, fiddling with a sponge.

"Bill. I overheard you guys talking in the bathroom."

"Oh shit. Listen Spence..." he starts. He pauses and can't seem to think of anything, so he goes back to squeezing and poking the sponge.

"Richie! Please listen."

"Alright, yeah. You heard all of it?" I nod at this.

"Apparently I'm replacing Beverly. Is that Beverly Marsh? Was she part of your group?" Richie nods.

"Bill had a thing for her. She had a thing for him. Her dad was an asshole and I think she left to stay with her aunt in Pennsylvania or... Portland or something..."

"What can I do? To make him like me?" I ask. I don't want to be disliked. I also don't want people believing things that aren't true. I don't think I'm replacing anyone, and I don't think Bill should think that either.

"I don't know Spencer," he says, "I don't think there's much you can do."

I sigh, I can't think of anything. "Then... whatever." I sigh and push open the door. The face outside waiting for us is Felicity Lu. Her eyes widen in surprise as she sees me and Richie exiting the Janitors closet. She scurries away.

"Dammit," I mutter under my breath.

"What?" asks Richie.

"She's one of Erin's minions. Probably off babbling to Erin that we were hooking up in the closet." 

And sure enough, Erin comes around the corner. Her eyes look us up and down, her hair held up in a scrunchie bobs as she nods slowly and smiles slyly.

"Whatever you're thinking Erin, it's not what actually happened." I say.

"So what were you doing in there?" asks Felicity, piping up from behind. Erin tosses her head and glares at her. Felicity shrinks back down.

"Having a private conversation." answers Richie.

The bell rings. Without saying anything else, Erin and Felicity scuttle off. Richie finds my hand and laces his fingers through mine.

"Come on," he says, "we have English."

The rest of the day passes by smoothly aside from a few sideways glances.  Over the weekend I spend basically all my time with the Losers Club. I've been avoiding Bill. The time I don't spend with the group I spend with Richie. On Saturday night his mother is away and his father is in his room, Richie assures me he's asleep. He takes me into his room.

"Wanna watch a movie?" he asks. There's a small TV set up in the corner across from his bed. He opens his closet and motions me inside. "Top shelf." he points to a bunch of VHS tapes. I peek at the titles written with sharpie on tape stretched across the spines. I grab one.

"You have Grease?" I ask, smiling.

"It's my moms favourite." he says back. His arm slides around my shoulders. "Do you wanna watch it?" I nod yes.

He lifts the tape from my hands and puts it in the VCR. I sit on his bed and make room for when he comes to sit. He puts his arm around me and I put my head on his chest. I wrap my arms around him tightly. I inhale. Holding my breath of him.

I think I'll fall in love with this boy.

We watch the movie for a while. His chin rests on my head. He turns it to kiss the top of my head. His lips rest there. Richie inhales deeply.
"You're amazing Spencer." he says, letting out his breath.

I turn and look at him. I roll on top of him. My lips make their way onto his. His lips are soft and so is the kiss. Then he becomes more eager and he's pressing hard against me. I pull away and stare at him. My fingers crawl up his cheeks and rest on the wide frames of his glasses. Then, slowly, I pull them off. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever seen Richie without glasses.

"Oh my god." I whisper.

"What?" he says. His eyes are trained on me.

"You're... beau-" Richie stops my words with a kiss. They lead over my chin and down my neck. He pauses at my collarbone.

"You're all good with this?"

I shudder. "Great."

He continues. His lips trail down my chest. Then lower, lower, lower...

"Wait." I start. He stops immediately and looks up.

"What is it?" he asks.

"I... I'm not ready." I say. "Sorry."

"Do not apologize Spencer. Please don't." he says coming back up to lie beside me. I smile and he leans his head into my neck and leaves it there. He snuggles me. "We're good, Love?"
I nod, holding him closer.  We fall asleep to Hopelessly Devoted to You.