Lover | Richie Tozier

Chapter 31.

"Y-You think if I asked Beh-Beverly M-Marsh out she'd suh-say yes?" Bill asked hopefully, looking around at the familiar faces that he had grown so accustomed to. It's only been a handful of days since they began hanging out with each other, but for the empty space in his heart that was left there by his brother, that was enough.

Elle and Richie sunk back in their seats.

"Sure, Bill, no reason for her to reject you if you're not Richie," Stan snarled, a small grin on his face.

"How's she gonna reject me if she's too busy filling her mouth with this dick?" Richie pointed to his lap, smirking.

Eddie gagged. "That's sick. Who actually does stuff like that?"

Richie crossed his arms over his chest. His eyebrow raised emphatically, opening his dark eyes. "Your mom, Eds."

Eddie bundled his small hands into a fist. He scowled, poking out his bottom lip. "I thought I told you to stop calling me that!"

Richie jumped back. "Holy shit, I made Eddie Kaspbrak angry. I didn't think the kid had it in him."

Bill rolled his eyes. "Eh-Elle, you're Beh-Beverlys friend. Do you think she'd g-go out with me?"

A torrent of selfish tears formed in her throat. She tried to swallow it down, but it only caused nothing but pain when she did. Those God awful manifestations of emotion that prevented you from telling your truth because the second you open your mouth you'll begin to cry; Elle hated them. She looked eagerly over at Richie, the look in her eyes drowning, hoping he'd jump in and save her.

He picked up on her glance, speaking up.

He recognized the pleading eyes because he'd seen the same ones when looking at his mother around age 5. He'd walk out of his room after playing with the toys she used to distract him with and saw her crying with her back against the fridge. His father would have his hands dangerously close to either side of her face, and she looked at Richie with that same begging plea on her features. She fixed a gaze on him that just screamed, "Go back in your room. You don't need to see this. For God's sake, go back to your room."

"Sorry, Big Bill, I'm afraid Elle doesn't think at all," Richie joked, shaking himself out of the evocative memory.

I wanted you to save me but not like that, asshole. She nudged him, eventually speaking for herself. "You could give it a shot. I don't know much about Beverlys views on dating."

But she did know, of course. She knew Beverly made herself out to be boy-crazy sometimes but never thought she'd see the day that Bev actually dated someone. She knew she'd never be able to partake in a normal relationship because of the way she normalized abuse. She knew Alvin Marsh would grow increasingly suspicious and sneak off into his daughters room and tear through it. She knew if he found a note from a boy it was game over for Beverly.

She knew a lot about Beverly, but it didn't seem to matter half as much anymore. Carelessness clouded her face, but internally she felt the edges of a sharp dagger drive through her heart. She didn't miss Bev, though. She only missed who Bev used to be — and that was what was so painful.

Richie looked at Elle from the corners of his eyes. He could see that she was swimming in her thoughts. Her irises seemed to fall deep, like everything that had happened between her and Beverly Marsh was all hitting her at full speed, jerking her backwards.

He moved slightly closer to her. Doing so completely went against his moral compass, but being around her strong magnetic field always seemed to point the needle in her direction, anyways. 

"Are you uh..." he dropped his voice to a low whisper. "Are you okay?"

And just like that, the look in his magnified eyes and his faded red lips filled her to the brim again. She cracked a small smile. "Yeah. I'm okay. Thank you."

She put her hand on his thigh under the table momentarily as a gesture to comfort the concerned boy. The second her small palm laid flat on top of his jeans, he felt every string that was holding up the cold wire fence around his heart come undone. 

He slowly moved his hand from the top of the table and into his lap. His fingers danced anxiously as his eyes focused on her hand. He wondered what it would be like to gradually move his hand closer to hers. What it would be like to slip his hand under hers. What it would be like to intertwine their fingers and feel every ounce of love she had transfer to him. What it would be like to hold her. 

"Richie, are you listening? Jesus Christ. Sometimes I think all the words that come out of your mouth come right back to you and plug up your ears." Stan nudged his shin under the table, resulting in Richie's reflexes kicking in.

He quickly moved his hand on top of the table again. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was listening," Richie waved his hand in the air, dismissing him. "Stan found a species of bird he's never seen before, there's 10 different types of bacteria in the water we drink, Bill wants to go out with Beverly, same old shit. I was listening, see?"

Stan blinked.

Richie sighed in defeat. "Tell me what you guys were talking about. I'm sorry, I was just thinking about the test I have next hour." God, Rich. You're so smart. Why don't you put it to good use and stop using all your brain cells to think about someone who's not even thinking about you.

Bill crumpled up a chip bag. "W-Wanted to go to the movies this weekend. Y-You can all come, Mike too."

Eddie and Elle exchanged similar looks. "Mike?"

"Hanlon," Stanley clarified. "He's the 6th Loser."

"There's another one? How many of these damn things are there?" Eddie asked quickly, surprised.

Stan laughed. "Just 6. So you coming or not?"

"Oh, I'm coming alright," Richie answered, grinning largely as he waited for the others to pick up on his innuendo.

The table reacted in typical fashion, except for Eddie.

"What's funny?" He asked.

The table fell silent. He looked so genuinely confused that it almost hurt Richie. "You've never... you've never heard that term before?"

Eddie shook his head while his auburn eyes stayed planted on him. "No."

Richie took off his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Oh, my sweet Eddie. We have so much to teach you."