||Sinner|| (a Reddie fanfic)

Chapter 4

September 1st, 1988

By the end of the day, Eddie was exhausted and ready to go home and take a nap. He walked towards the exit of the school, hoping his friends wouldn't mind him skipping out on they're daily trip to the library after classes.

Right as Eddie was about to slip outside, someone suddenly stumbled in front of him.

"Woah, Jesus Christ!" Eddie looked up, surprised at the sudden outburst.

"Sorry." Eddie backed up slightly, just wanting to get out of this building.

"Jeez, sorry man, my friend is being a dick and thought it would be funny to push me into other people." The tall boy looked down at Eddie with a shake of his head.

He had curly black hair, and pale freckled skin. He wore big coke bottle glasses, and Eddie realized it was Richie Tozier, the same boy who sat next to him in English class.

"Yeah, it's-it's fine. Happens a lot." Eddie hadn't meant to say the last part of that sentence, but he couldn't look at Richie without having memories resurface in his head.

Just as Eddie was about to continue on his way, Richie spoke up once more.

"You uh, you look familiar. Did you happen to come to my party a little while back?" Richie knew this boy from his party, and knew he was one of Beverlys friends.

Eddie looked up at Richie, reminding himself that Richie was not the cause of Henry Bowers, and it was in no way his fault.

Eddie sighed, recomposing himself, before answering.

"Yes I- yeah, my names Eddie. Eddie Kaspbrak. I came to the party with Bev." Eddie tugged the sleeves of his hoodie over his hands, making sure to hide the bandages on his arm.

"Eddie Kaspbrak." Richie seemed to be trying out Eddies name, almost as if he was testing how it sounded on his tongue. "I feel like I didn't really see you at my party very much Eddie, and I didn't have many people over."

Eddies eyes widened slightly. "I-I left early and uh, Bev was drunk, and I-"

"Hey, it's ok, I don't mind if you had to get home early, but it would be nice to get to know some of Beverlys friends." Richie suddenly looked nervous. "You wouldn't wanna, uh, hang out anytime soon, would you?"

Eddie suddenly understood, Richie wanted to hang out with him, probably out of pity.

"You know, you don't have to hang out with me out of pity, just because I'm one of Bev's friends." Eddie looked right into Richies eyes, not wanting to have someone be fake to him.

"That's not what it is!" Richie rubbed his temple lightly. "Look, I think you're really cool, and I don't know, I just thought it would be nice to hang out with someone new, because all of my friends are asses to me. You seem like a good kid, and I just thought, If Beverly likes you so much, I probably will too. I sound like an ass right now I'm sorry. I get it if you don't wanna hang out."

Richie rambled, looking at Eddie, and hoping he wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"I guess we can hang out, sorry I just thought it was out of pity because you saw me sitting alone in English today. I just don't like drawing attention to myself." Eddie hoped,hoped to god, that Richie was telling the truth and not just trying to throw him a pity party.

The truth was, Richie thought Eddie was really cute, and saw how Eddie had grabbed his wrist in English, so he wanted to make sure Eddie was ok, and not going through anything he shouldn't be.

"Yeah, sorry if I came off the wrong way. I'm free pretty much any day of the week, so whatever day works for you, we can go to the diner down the street and grab some food or something." Richie fiddled with his hands, nervous.

Eddie smiled slightly. "Wednesday work?"

"Yep, Wednesday."

Eddie walked towards the library now, suddenly feeling less exhausted. "I'll see you around Richie."

"See ya." Richie turned the opposite way, glaring at Bill when he made a heart with his hands.

"It's not like that dipshit" Richie punched Bill in the shoulder lightly.

"Whatever T-Tozier."

———

"Stan! Bev! I'm so sorry I'm late, I got held up in the hallway by a teacher. He wanted to know some stuff about an English assignment." Eddie felt bad for lying, but now was not the time to tell them all about hanging out with Richie.

That was for a later time. For now Eddie say down across from Stan and Bev, relaxing in his chair. Stan was poring over a book about birds, and Bev was helping him find places to go birdwatching. Stan loves birds, so Eddie and Bev often helped him look for certain types, or go out on weekends to birdwatch.

Soon, Eddie had to get going home, so he wished both Bev and Stan farewell, and made his way over to the exit.

Today had been a pretty good day, despite the memories which lay fresh in Eddies head.

Eddie got home about 15 minutes later, ate a quick dinner with his mother, then ran up to his room.

This was the first night in a week where Eddie didn't touch the metal blade in his medicine cabinet. He simply went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and slipped into bed early, falling into a deep sleep, in which the only dreams that plagued him where ones of Richies face.

Hey you guys! I made an early update for this book because I had some free time today to write, so here's an early update! This book is very lightly edited, so if you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out to me so I can fix them! Anyways I hope you enjoy the book, and I should have the next update soon!
-Emma
Word count: 1006