The rest of the Losers watched on in sheer horror at the incident that just took place.
Richie was still crying in Stan's arms, wishing for this night to be over.
"Okay, okay," Stan said, trying his best to calm his friend down, "we'll get you inside and we'll talk this through."
As the two made their way indoors, they retreated back down to the basement.
Richie sat down on the ground, tears still streaming from his eyes.
"I'm such a fuckup. I shouldn't be—"
"Richie, please, get a hold of yourself. You aren't the fuckup in this case; you've never been."
Stan wrapped his arms around the distraught teen, doing whatever he can to soothe him.
Richie flung his glasses off his face, pressing his hands towards his eyes as tears continued to flow down.
"Please – whenever you are ready, please tell me what happened earlier."
"I…I don't know if—"
"Talking this out will help you a bunch, trust me."
As the rest of the Losers made their way down to the basement, each looked on towards Richie and Stan, not knowing what best to do.
"Okay…but I don't want—"
"You rather it be you and I?"
Richie nodded, leaving the rest of the crew having to wander back upstairs.
As soon as the door closed, Richie spoke.
"So, I know I loved Eddie for a long time…ever since Valentine's Day."
"So, before you turned thirteen…you knew you had feelings for him?"
"Mhm," Richie nodded, "I didn't know how to control them at first; I would flush with adrenaline whenever I heard him speak, but over time, I was able to feel somewhat normal."
"And then summertime hit."
"Yes," Richie said, "and every little event that happened between us, even the bantering…it was torture. I wanted him to understand my love for him, but I had no idea how he would react.
And tonight…oh, god, tonight was supposed to be much better. I had this feeling that you guys would accept me coming out and that Eddie would be my boyfriend and we would have this perfect little ending. School would have been a bitch, and telling our parents would have been hell, but as long as we had each other, we could accomplish anything…but now…"
As Richie broke down again, Stan offered another warm embrace.
"I'm sorry to hear how things went down – would you mind if I were to talk to Eddie tomorrow?"
"Go ahead," Richie responded, "though I don't know how much help that'll be."
"Richie!"
Stan snapped and grabbed his friend's shoulders, allowing their faces to meet.
"I'm here to help you, and if that means I need to tug Eddie through the mud for him to understand what he did was wrong, I will do that."
"Th-thanks, Stan," Richie said, reaching out to hug Stan, and as Stan returned the favor, he felt overwhelmed at the task at hand.
The next morning, Stan woke up early and departed from Mike's house, racing home before his parents awoke.
He made it in the nick of time, parking his bike and entering the house.
"Good morning," Donald greeted him with a wave, "how was the sleepover?"
"Oh, it was a fun time! I'm going to quickly fix breakfast for myself and then head over to Eddie's if that's fine with you and Mom."
"It'll be fine – just be back by supper."
Stan nodded as he departed towards the kitchen, fixing himself a small bowl of cereal.
As he sat down at the table and ate, his thoughts were racing on what to say.
'So, Eddie, do you know how much suffering you…no, nothing too harsh…but fuck it, he deserves a stern lecture…but I want him to listen…'
As he finished, he put the bowl in the kitchen sink and exited the house, hopping on his bike and rode to Eddie's house.
'Here's hoping he's up and ready.'
As Stan reached Eddie's, he parked his bike and went to the front door, ringing the doorbell and waiting.
"Hello, there," Sonia answered, greeting the teen.
"Morning, Mrs. K; is Eddie up?"
"Oh, he is – would you like to come in?"
"No thank you; I would like to talk with him out here if that's okay."
Sonia nodded, "Let me go get him."
As she departed from the door and headed into the kitchen, Stan's heartbeat thumped close to his chest.
'Why are you so nervous? This is a good thing you're doing…to avenge Richie.'
As Eddie stepped out in clear view of Stan, he grimaced before walking over.
"What do you want?"
"We need to talk."
"…Like, right now? Can I just—"
"Eddie, if we don't talk now, who knows when I will have this opportunity."
The youngster sighed deeply before exiting the house, stepping out onto the front porch and down the steps.
"Here," Eddie said, standing on the front lawn next to Stan's bike, "I'm out – what do you want?"
Stan walked over to Eddie and restrained himself from punching him right then and there.
"Your attitude really stinks right now."
"Am I getting a lecture? Because I can march right back in and ignore you."
Stan shook his head, "You aren't getting it."
"Getting…what, exactly?"
Stan put his hand on Eddie's back, trying to guide him towards the sidewalk for them to sit, but the youngster pulled away.
"I'm trying to be patient with you, man, but it's running thin."
Eddie scoffed, "Yeah…whatever, man."
"Are you playing dumb?"
"I'll be honest, I don't even know why you're here, so the quicker we have our little convo, the quicker I can get back to doing whatever I want to do."
As Eddie marched over to the sidewalk and took a seat next to the concrete, Stan trudged along.
"Listen," Stan said as he sat down, "what you did yesterday really fucked with Richie."
Eddie sat cross-legged, one arm resting on his knee while his fist was up against his face.
"Yeah, no…what he did fucked me more than—"
"Shit, man, this is not a game! Stop trying to one-up him…and by the way, you were the one that started this debacle."
"If he would have kept it in his pants, things would have been better off."
"So, you really don't understand."
"No, I do – I'm his friend, not his boyfriend. We're supposed to be inseparable, but not like that."
"Is this because you're not attracted to him?"
Eddie slowly nodded, answering Stan's question as duly as possible.
"And you couldn't tell him that?"
"I did, but he persisted. I called him sick because he is, you can't deny that."
Stan looked away, only making Eddie angrier.
"Are you fucking kidding me? You're going to sit there and tell me that he's perfectly fine and that it's normal for boys to love each other?"
At that, Stan stood up, shaking his head.
"Forget it – I tried talking to you, but you're not budging."
"What would you like, for me to kiss him passionately?"
As Stan got on his bike, Eddie stood in front of it, blocking his way out.
"I'm not done bitching."
"Well, I'm done listening. If you aren't going to give me or him the time of day – forget it. Life's way too short."
As Stan pedaled away, Eddie was left flabbergasted.
'Life's too short…yeah, and for me to deal with this shit…I have other important things to worry about.'