"Hey, where's Eddie?" Ben asked Richie as he sat at the lunch table.
Richie plopped down between Bev and Mike, "Dunno. Heard he had to study or something." He answered absent mindedly, taking a bite of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"Oh that's right, we have that history test coming up..." Mike mumbled, almost to himself.
The group ate their lunch, talking about random things that happened through out the day, when Eddie walked up to the table, taking a seat next to Stan with a sigh.
"Man, I don't think I'm going to pass this test." Eddie mentioned, worriedly, pulling out his brown lunch sack from his back pack.
"Why don't you get a t-tutor?" Bill asked him from across the table.
"I dunno, I don't know anyone who's really good at history." Eddie replied. Richie was fidgeting in his seat.
"I'll help you, Eds!" He volunteered, almost too excitedly.
Eddie looked at him with an off expression, "I didn't know you were so good at history."
"Richie has been on the honor roll every semester. Since grade school." Stan interjected, not looking up from his book.
All eyes turned to Richie, who looked around uncomfortably. "What? I don't like making a big deal out of it." He waved off the looks.
Eddie raised an eyebrow at him, "So, you'll help me?"
"Of course, Eds!" Richie replied.
"Stop calling me that." Eddie said coldly, a smile cracking at the corner of his lips. "Come by my house after school?" Richie nodded in response, taking a large bite of an apple.
A few hours after school Richie made his way over to Eddie's house. He gave a quick knock on the door and let himself in. He looked in the doorway to find Mrs. K in her usual spot in her chair, not even acknowledging Richie.
Richie made his way to Eddie's bedroom, where Eddie had books and papers sprawled all over his bed. Eddie looked up at Richie, who was standing in his doorway, with a look of desperation on his face.
"What are you doing?" Richie asked, gingerly making his way towards the bed, not wanting to knock any papers or books off.
"Uh... studying? Isn't this what studying looks like?" Eddie replied.
"Oh God, Eddie, no.", Richie laughed. Eddie let out a groan and threw himself backwards onto his pillow.
"Help me." He said helplessly.
Richie rolled his eyes and dropped his backpack on the ground. Richie started gathering all the papers surrounding Eddie, taking a quick glance at each sheet before adding it to the pile in his hands. After he gathered the papers, he started piling all of the books onto the ground next to Eddie's bed.
"There we go, now I can see you!" Richie exclaimed, satisfied with his work. He flipped onto Eddie's bed, close to his friend. "Are you ready?" He looked over expectantly, Eddie hadn't moved from his spot on the bed.
"No." Eddie replied flatly.
Richie smiled, god Eddie was cute when he was desperate. He grabbed Eddie's hand, it was warm and soft. Richie's breathing stopped for a minute, he had never realized how soft Eddie's hands actually were. Eddie's fingers twitched under Richie's.
Richie cleared his throat. "Uh, well. Come on then! Time to get down to business!" He said loudly, shooting up out of the bed, holding onto Eddie's hand to pull him up.
The two studied well into the evening, until Eddie felt confident enough for his test the following morning.
"Thanks again, Richie. I don't know what I would have done without you." Eddie told his friend with a smile.
"You would have bombed your test, failed your class, never have been able to get into college, and you would have spent the rest of you life taking care of your mom while working at the grocery store. Creepy Eddie from the produce department." Richie joked with a smirk.
"Fuck off, Richie." Eddie laughed, not breaking eye contact with Richie. The two sat quietly for a long second before Richie broke the silence.
"Uh, I should be getting home. Curfew and what not. I'll see you at school tomorrow?"
"Er, yeah. See ya at school tomorrow." Eddie trailed, looking towards the floor. Richie left, almost forgetting his backpack, while Eddie cleared his bed of books and notes to get ready to sleep.
Eddie made his way to his group of friends the following day between classes.
"Hey Eddie! How did you do on your test?" Bev asked with a smile.
"Uh, I think I did pretty good actually! Thanks to Richie." Eddie almost blushed.
"W-where is Richie?" Bill asked the group, looking around.
"Not sure, I haven't seen him yet today." Mike mentioned, repositioning his backpack.
"Thank God." Stand said bluntly, the group giving him a look.
Eddie looked around the halls puzzled, but there was no sign of his friend anywhere.
The day went on as it normally would, only a lot quieter without Richie around. No random singing, no crazy voices, no one being used as a make shift drum set for Richie to use. Eddie had decided he was going to Richie's house after school to see what was going on. Richie never missed school. And if he did, he always called Eddie in the morning to try and convince him to ditch school with him. It never worked, but he never stopped trying.
Eddie walked up the steps of the Tozier household and rang the doorbell. When there was no answer he began to knock loudly. Again there was no answer. Eddie was beginning to get worried, until he heard a fumbling coming from inside the house. He took a step back as the front door swing open.
"Oh, Eddie, hey." Richie was out of breath and looked dishelved. Eddie gave his friend a look.
"I almost fell down the stairs..." Richie mumbled, answering Eddie's silent question.
Eddie nodded with a smirk. "I just came to check on you. You weren't in school, are you okay? You didn't call me, like you usually do..." Eddie trailed.
Richie let a soft smile spread across his face, "Yeah of course I'm fine. Sorry for not checking in with you, mom."
"At least if I were you mom, you'd have a mom who cared you little shit." Eddie joked.
"Low blow." Richie laughed. It bothered him a lot, when he was younger, that his parents showed no interest in him. But as he grew up, he realized he didn't need them to care about him. He had the Losers. And Eddie.
Richie invited Eddie inside the house and awkwardly closed the door behind him.
"So how was your test?"
"Good! Thanks, again." Eddie smiled.
The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon talking and laughing with each other. Before long the sky was turning dark and Eddie knew he'd have to get home soon if he didn't want his mother to have a heart attack.
"Will you be at school tomorrow?" Eddie asked, looking up at Richie with hopeful eyes.
Richie rolled his eyes and smirked, "Yeah, I'll be there. Hey, say hi to your mom for me." He called out as Eddie walked down his front steps, giving him the middle finger without looking back.
The following day at school was spent in suspense, Eddie had been anxiously waiting to get his test score back. When he did receive it he ran to find his friends at their usial lunch spot outside.
He slammed the test down on the table for all of his friends to see. The group was taken aback momentarily before congratulating Eddie.
"A ninety-eight percent! Suck on that history!" Eddie beamed.
The group laughed at him, telling him how proud they were of him. All except for Richie, who sat in his seat smugly.
"I'm the best tutor ever, I know." Richie smirked.
"God I could kiss you right now." Eddie said before the realization hit him. Everyone stopped and looked between he and Richie, who were both starting at each other in shock.
"What?" Richie asked.
"What?" Eddie mimicked, trying to play it off as though he hadn't said it at all and it was a big misunderstanding.
"He said he'd kiss you!" Stan rolled his eyes, which received giggled from Beverly and Mike.
Eddie quickly grabbed his test and walked off briskly, his face turning a bright red.
Richie sat stunned, unsure of what had just happened. He watched Eddie walk away, and knew he had to do something. Richie stood on his seat and cupped his hands around his mouth, "I'd kiss you right now too, if you'd let me!"
Eddie stopped dead in his tracks and turned around. Richie jumped down from his seat and made his way over towards Eddie. Richie grabbed Eddie's hand, flourishing in the warmth and softness of it, and smiled.
"Really?" Eddie asked, flustered.
"Yes, you nerd" Richie laughed.
The two stared into each other's eyes and shared their first kiss together.
It was soft at first, and cautious. Richie quickly cupped his hand over Eddie's cheek and deepened the kiss, almost needily.
