Richie had insisted to pay for all the tickets when they got to the cinema, and was greeted with a halfhearted protest from everyone except Beverly, who smugly took up the offer. They were now all standing in front of the confectionary bar, deciding on which snacks to buy. Richie and Eddie were standing together, far enough away from the others that they could talk without them hearing, but close enough that Eddie still felt comfortable.
Richie had been staring at the selection in front of him for several minutes at this point, a concentrated look on his face, mulling over each option in his head carefully. Eddie had the same order since he was ten years old, a medium diet coke and a pack of MnM's, things he only got to indulge in on rare occasions as his mother would never allow those sorts of food at home, and the transaction was promptly fulfilled when they arrived. But Richie had yet to make any sort of decision, and it was really starting to annoy Eddie, who had already downed almost half of his drink.
"You're gonna miss the start of the movie if you don't hurry up," Stan called out to them, starting to head towards the theatre with Bill and Beverly, all with armfuls of sugary food and drinks. Richie held a finger up to them, "Shush you, this is a very important decision and you are breaking my concentration."
Eddie rolled his eyes and watched the three of them disappear around a corner. To his relief, Richie finally stepped towards the counter, asking the cashier for a "large popcorn and coke, if you would, my dear," and whipped his head around to wink at Eddie, who was tapping his foot impatiently.
"Hope you like popcorn Eds."
Eddie did not like popcorn, the butter made his hands and face feel greasy and it always got stuck in his teeth, but he was glad that he had finally made a decision and they could go in and watch the movie, and not talk for an hour and a half, so he smiled politely and shrugged.
Eddie spotted the other three as they entered the theatre, sitting up in the back row on the balcony with their feet up on the chairs in front of them. He instinctively went to go join them, but Beverly shook her head at him, and he remembered that he was supposed to be on a date. Richie had already gone a few rows ahead and was shuffling past people to get to the middle of the row. Eddie followed him, apologising to the people he had to push past. Richie fell down into the chair, popcorn bucket in his lap, and patted the seat next to him. "Take a seat, love."
Eddie sat down in his assigned seat, clenching his hands together in his lap, sitting up as straight as he could, looking at the screen and pretending to be interested with what was playing. They had only missed about a minute and a half of the beginning of the film, and the opening credits were still rolling. His mind was completely occupied though. He could see Richie looking at him from the corner of his eye, and he was only glad that it was too dark to see that he was blushing real hard.
Halfway through and Eddie had not been able to focus on the movie at all. Too many thoughts were running in this head, and he kept glancing at Richie whenever he thought he wouldn't notice. Richie had been enjoying himself, laughing out loud at some of the jokes, and leaning forward in his seat during the more intense chase scenes. Though he was also thinking about Eddie, trying to plan out different moves he could make in his head. He had noticed him looking over every now and then, and had tried hard to pretend he hadn't noticed. He honestly kinda liked this kid, even if he was pretty skittish and hadn't really said much to him at all. Of course he was aware of this stuff before he met him, given a crash course by Bill over the phone, the day before he arrived. He only wished Eddie started to open up a bit more, and not feel as nervous around him.
He noticed Eddie's hands weren't glued together anymore and were resting loosely on his lap, the now empty MnM packet was sitting on the arm of the seat, folded rather than crumpled up. Richie laughed quietly to himself. God, even his rubbish was neat.
He rested his elbow on the chair arm dividing Eddie's seat and his own. Then slowly moved his hand over, only a little at a time. And finally reached and took Eddie's hand gently. When Eddie didn't pull away, he started to intertwine their fingers, and held his hand properly, running his thumb over the other's. After a hesitant moment, Eddie did the same.
Fucking hell, what am I doing?
Eddie couldn't think of anything except the feeling of his hand entwined in Richie's. His hands felt so small compared to Richie's. His stomach felt like it was doing somersaults, and he could practically hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. His face was cold and burning at the same time. He was sure he looked like a tomato right now. Richie seemed so calm, like this was no big deal, while Eddie's whole body was freaking out. He had to stop himself reaching for his inhaler.
Yet, the rhythm of Richie's thumb running over his, eventually started to calm him down
They held hands for the rest of the movie, which he had completely given up on. He knew he wouldn't be able to recall a single part of it later.
The stood up as the end credits started to roll and the lights went up, and headed towards the exit. Bill, Bev, and Stan were waiting eagerly out the front, and they all had to do a double take when they saw the two boys walking out together, holding hands, for gods sake. How in the world did Richie get Eddie to hold his hand?
Eddie honestly had forgotten when they joined up with the group.
"So, you t-two are obviously getting along then," Bill asked with a cocky look on his face. Richie smiled down at Eddie, who looked sort of puzzled. He looked at their hands locked together and his eyes went wide, ripping his away quickly, and Richie's face changed to surprised, and maybe even a little hurt. Eddie suddenly felt really bad for doing it.
"Like the movie?" Stan cut in before things escalated past that point.
"Best I've seen in a while, actually," Richie chirped. And they all started discussing it, talking about their favourite scenes. Eddie stayed silent spare the occasional laugh or exclamation in agreement.
They all stood outside on the footpath for twenty or so minutes, until Bill looked up and stated it was getting cold.
"Alright, well let's head on home," Beverly said. Richie reached into his pocket and grabbed his car keys, throwing them to Bill, who wasn't expecting it and almost dropped them.
"You guys can drive the truck home, I'm gonna walk back with Eds." Bill raised his eyebrows at him.
"You okay with th-that, Eddie?"
Eddie looked at him, then up at Richie, then closed his eyes for a moment. He exhaled sharply.
"Yeah, sounds fine." He forced a smile, and Richie looked down at him fondly, and a little shocked he actually agreed.
"Okay, see you guys tomorrow then!" Beverly called over her shoulder as the three of them made their way over to the truck, Bill swinging the keys around his finger.
"If anything happens to my baby, Denbrough, I'm breaking one of your legs!" Richie shouted as they climbed in. Bill waved out the window.
Richie and Eddie watched them drive out of sight, up the street and turning left at the intersection, and then started to walk in the same direction.
They walked in silence for five minutes. Richie kept opening his mouth to say something, but could think of nothing.
A breeze flew in, and Eddie wrapped his arms around himself. Goosebumps appeared on his arms. Hypothermia. He is going to get hypothermia.
Richie noticed Eddie shivering and stopped in his tracks.
"Fuck, you must be freezing," he slipped off his denim jacket and put it over Eddie's shoulders. "There."
"But you've only got a t-shirt on now, you'll be cold." He started to shrug the jacket off.
"No seriously, take it, I'm all good!"
Eddie looked at him for a while, studying him carefully. The jacket had made him look a lot buffer, so seeing his lanky, pale arms jutting out from the oversized t-shirt sleeves was a little surprising, and even made him look a bit less intimidating. Slowly, he slipped his arms into the jacket sleeves. It had been a few sizes too big on Richie, and Eddie was basically buried in it. The sleeves fell past his fingertips and it came down to his mid thighs. And warm, so warm. Richie melted at the sight, staring with a big, stupid grin on his face.
"Gee, could get used to that view," he sighed.
Eddie turned his face away from Richie, flustered, and continued walking up the street. Richie watched him for a moment, then jogged to catch up.
Eddie had rolled the sleeves up enough so his hands were free.
They walked the rest of the way to Eddie's house in silence, hand in hand, Eddie feeling much more comfortable than before.
They stopped walking when they reached the gate to his front yard. Eddie started to take the jacket off but Richie stopped him. "You can keep it, for now."
"Oh," he paused. "Why?"
Richie shrugged. "Gives you a reason to see me again."
"Oh."
"That is, if you wanted to see me again?"
Eddie hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah, sure."
Richie grinned at him. "Well okay then," he reached his hand towards Eddie, "was a pleasure." Eddie shook it, and turned toward his house, giving Richie one last glance over his shoulder as he walked down to his front door.
Richie stood and watched him for a moment, then, as Eddie was halfway to the door, he called out.
"Hey Eds, wait a moment."
Eddie stopped and turned back around, eyebrows raised. "Hm?"
Richie half-jogged over and stood right in front of him, wrapping his arms around the shorter boy's waist.
"What are you-" he was interrupted with Richie's mouth pressed against his. He pushed him away, and Richie had to catch himself so he didn't fall.
"Dude, what the fuck!" he whisper-yelled, checking back over his shoulder, making sure his mother couldn't see them. Luckily, all the curtains were closed and there wasn't any sign of movement in the house.
Richie was taken aback, and confused. "Are you serious? I thought we had a good night?"
"You don't just- you don't just do that to people you just met," he spat out, and fumbled for his inhaler. "Fuck, fuck, fu-," he brought the inhaler to his mouth and pressed down, breathing in sharply, then breathing deeply a few times until his chest started to feel less constricted. He collapsed onto his knees on the grass, holding a hand over his mouth. Richie stood over him, unsure of what to do. Eddie felt tears welling up behind his eyes and tried his hardest to hold them back.
Richie knelt down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Eddie shrugged him off.
"You need to go," he choked out. The tears started to fall then, he couldn't help it.
"Eds, I-" "Don't fucking call me that." Eddie didn't look up, or move at all. He could see tears falling down into the grass. Richie stayed there, staring at him for a minute or so, then turned and walked off.
"Whatever, man. Fuck this," Eddie heard him mumble as he left.
Eventually he got up and went inside, tiptoeing up the stairs, hoping desperately that he wouldn't wake up his mother. He shut the door to his bedroom and fell face first onto the bed. He sobbed for a while, attempting to muffle the noise in his pillow. When he ran out of tears he turned onto his back and stared at the ceiling. There were glow in the dark stars above his bed, that he had stuck there when he was much younger and had never bothered to take down.
Fuck.
He was still wearing the stupid jacket.
He sat up and tore it off, throwing it onto the floor. He figured he would just give it to Bill and he could pass it on to Richie.
Fucking Richie.
Eddie held his knees close to his chest and put his head down.
Fucking RICHIE.
Surely he wasn't making a big deal out of it, right? I mean, people don't kiss each other when they've only just met... Do they? Not like he would know anything about that.
He did actually enjoy the night, up until the end. Well, enjoyed the parts where he wasn't too busy being flustered or annoyed or terrified by this person, who insisted on sharing popcorn and smiled too much and held his hand, why did he let him hold his hand? And who let someone else drive his car so he could walk home with him. And who kissed him only a few hours after meeting him. The first person to ever kiss him.
Eddie ran his fingers over his lips.
He could remember exactly how he kissed him. He traced the outline of where Richie's lips were, his fingertips barely touching his face. A shiver went down his spine.
The first person to ever kiss him.
And he fucking freaked out. Like he freaks out about everything. And how nothing good could ever happen to him because he ruins it before it has a chance.
He started to regret the way he reacted. He pulled at his hair, wishing he could go back an hour, start again, do it differently.
He stood up from bed and grabbed Richie's jacket. He looked at it in his hands for a moment, trying to figure out what he was about to do.
Richie had found his way to Bill's house rather easily. He had gotten his keys back and was sitting on the hood of his truck, music quietly pouring from the radio. He had a cigarette hanging from his mouth, his second one since he had been sitting there. He was cold, and he started to wish he hadn't given his only jacket away.
What was that kid's deal anyway?
Richie didn't know what to think about everything that had happened. Part of him felt pissed off, the other part of him felt quite upset. Bill had warned him that Eddie would be nervous, but he had still assumed he at least wanted to go out with him. Instead, it was as if he was just being forced to do it. And he did actually think he was cute.
Richie took a long drag of his cigarette. Shouldn't have got my fucking hopes up.
He finished off the cigarette and jumped off his truck, dropping the butt on the ground and putting it out with his shoe. He decided it had gotten too cold to be out, so he turned to head into Bill's house. He had organised to sleep on the couch for a couple nights until Bill's parents got home. From there, well, he would just have to figure it out. Probably couch hop around, sleep in his truck some nights, maybe he could even find a shitty enough motel for a night or two.
He kept his eyes down as he walked around and reached in the window to turn off the radio.
"Hey."
He swung his head around, expecting to see Bill, but was surprised to see Eddie standing in front of him, wearing a dark blue sweatshirt over his outfit from that night, Richie's denim jacket hung over his shoulder.
Richie turned to face him fully, leaning up against the side of his truck.
"I just- you should have this back." Eddie pushed the jacket towards him, and he took it, putting it on without much hesitation.
"Thanks for that, I expect you washed and ironed it before returning it, I can tell y'know." Richie pretended to inspect the jacket, mouth upturned. Eddie laughed, but stopped when he made eye contact with Richie, looking away.
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" Eddie asked.
"It's like every time you smile, as soon as I look at you, you stop. You get – embarrassed, or something. Like, fuck dude," he sighed.
"I- I don't know." Eddie forced himself to make eye contact. "I didn't know I was doing it-"
"Because you're actually fucking cute, when you laugh-" Eddie swallowed hard. Richie shoved his hands into his pockets. "It's fine if you don't- like me, or whatever, but-" he could see that Eddie was starting to look uncomfortable.
Richie shook his head at himself. "Never mind, it's fine. Thanks for bringing the jacket back I guess."
He pulled the box of cigarettes from his pocket and took one, putting it between his lips and reached back in for his lighter.
Eddie watched him carefully as he lit the end of the cigarette and pulled on it, waiting a moment before letting the smoke pour out his mouth. He eventually moved so he was standing next to Richie. Richie didn't protest, in fact neither of them said anything. They just stood together for a while. Richie finished the cigarette and went for another one. Before he could light it, Eddie stepped back up onto the pavement, giving him enough height to pull him by the collar into a kiss, his eyes shut tight. Richie was caught off guard, but he slowly melted into it. He grabbed Eddie's waist and pulled him closer, and Eddie wrapped his arms around his neck, tangling his fingers into Richie's hair.
They made out against Richie's pick-up truck for a considerable amount of time, pausing every now and then to just look at each other's faces, and then fall back into each other. A car drove past and beeped at them, and Richie flipped them off without taking his attention off Eddie.
Bill discovered the two of them on his couch the next morning, Eddie lying on top of Richie, face buried in his neck, and Richie's arms wrapped around him.