Reddie Oneshots

Richie and Eddie Versus the First Time (Pt. 3)

WOAHHHH THIS CHAPTER WAS 🥵🥵🥵 proceed with caution
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Eddie, Stan, and Bill have study hall together every other day, and when Stan departs from their table in search of a different textbook, Eddie takes the opportunity to sigh over his spiral notebook, and ask, as casually as he can, "so, the last time you spoke to Richie about me, did he mention whether or not he was gonna make a move any time soon?"

"N-No way," Bill laughs, consumed by his book, "Richie's waiting for you to - !"

Jumping in his seat, Bill's head shoots up, looking wide-eyed at Eddie, who's glaring expectantly at him.

"He's waiting on me ? He's so fuckin' lazy."

"W-Wait! I didn't - I didn't mean to s-say anything! Th-that was a d-dirty t-trick, Eddie!"

"Dirty?!" Eddie stage-whispers furiously, "Me?! What about you!? You two, gossiping about me behind my back!? For God knows how long!?"

Bill blushes, leans further over the library table, and whispers back, "it's not l-like that! We don't g-gossip ! He j-just n-needed someone t-to-to t-talk to!"

"How long?"

"Eddie," Bill sighs, shaking his head, "R-Richie will already b-be r-really upset with m-me if he fi-finds out I sp-spilled the b-beans."

"A year?"

"Eddie," Bill warns.

"More than a year? Two years?" Eddie interrogates incredulously when Bill doesn't stop him, " Three ?"

"Oh my God," Bill bemoans, laying his head over his arms on the tabletop.

"It was in eighth grade."

Eddie twists around to stare at Stan, who's looking down at him with a cocked brow.

"He, Mike, Bill and I went to Kevin Tully's birthday party that year, and he'd gotten into his parents' liquor cabinet to spread the good cheer. Richie went overboard, of course, and while on the brink of alcohol poisoning, vomiting obscenely on the Tully family's gardenias in the backyard, he complained that he wanted to see you."

While trying to squash the warm fuzzies that gives Eddie - because the image of Richie vomiting into someone's lovely garden should in no way evoke lovey-dovey feelings - Eddie flushes to his ears, feels the back of his neck burn. He begins wondering if, perhaps anytime Richie feels ill, he hopes Eddie will arrive with medicine, and a kind bedside manner.

He can't help liking the idea - it's sweet, to think up, that Richie wishes for him like a salve for a wound, that even when he can't keep his head on straight, he can still think of Eddie.

"I told Mike to go get some water for him, and then it was just Bill and me, keeping his glasses safe, and our shoes out of the way," Stan explains, "He focused on Bill, and forgot I was there. I still think he should've gone to the hospital that night, but he didn't - anyway, he looked at Bill, and said some incriminating things. It's been my understanding that he and Bill discuss that night, and the things he said, with no regularity, but enough that he considers Bill his confidant."

"Stan!" Bill scolds, looking outraged.

Stan shrugs, sitting down beside Eddie again, "what? He knew already, and there's little point in trying to keep it from Eddie. After all, Mike figured it out a year ago, it wasn't going to take Eddie much longer, and I heard everything he said that night too, whether he remembers me being there or not, and -"

"You're just m-mad that he ch-chose me t-to c-confide in over you," Bill interrupts, smirking.

Stan's pout is very telling.