the young boy slowly carved an r into the kissing bridge. he looked at it, deciding it was good enough, and went to draw a plus sign. his heart ached as he began to draw an e beside it.
it was a good thing none of the losers were here to see this. he would never here the end of it.
richie tozier. gay. hopelessly in love with eddie kaspbrak.
but what was he to do? was there anything he could do? no. the only reasonable answer was no. he couldn't tell eddie, for if he did, eddie would never hang out with him again. and he was sure henry bowers would find out somehow. if henry found out, richie would be as good as dead. he knew that for a fact.
the only way he could express his feelings in this very moment was carving his and eddie's initials into a piece of wood. that's all.
he traced over the carving one last time before throwing the piece of wood he used to carve it with into the woods. he stared at it for what felt like hours. he ran his fingers over it repeatedly, wishing eddie could see this. he wished eddie could see this and he wished eddie would wrap his arms around his waist and kiss his cheek. he wished he could call eddie his own. it's all he wanted. he was stupid for wanting it.
suddenly, he felt a figure behind him. he slowly looked, and there stood his best friend. there stood beverly marsh herself, a worried look on her face.
richie immediately turned to face her and tried his best to cover the initials.
"oh hey bevvie. what's... uh... what's up?" he smiled as best as he could, wiping a loose tear from his face.
beverly continued to stare at richie for a few more moments. then approached him slowly. richie sat there dumbfoundedly, watching her. she bent down on one knee and wrapped her arms around him.
slowly, she began squeezing him in her grasp tightly.
"oh, richie." she muttered into his shoulder. "you know i'll always love you no matter what, right?" there was no response for moments, but then she heard a sniffle. "richie?" she unconnected their hug but left her hands on his shoulders as they looked at each other. richie was crying.
"bev," he whispered, his voice trembling. "puh-please don't tell the others. i can't- i don't- please."
beverly wiped richie's tear with her thumb. "i promise."
hopeless.
chapter one.
432 words.
published on september 8th 2019, 1:13pm.
