quiet

sixteen

"don't leave me high and dry"

☆

although he swore to never talk to his mother again when he was forced out of bed this morning, richie is glad to have showed up for school. the painful part of apologizing to stan, who was well over the argument, was done and richie felt a sense of relief when lunchtime was finally here.

"waddup, casanova!" richie greets ben who sits at their table already, struggling to open the carton of milk on his tray. "where have you been, rich?" ben asks while prying open the flimsy cardboard. richie chokes out a quick "at home" when the rest of the group arrives.

vanessa immediately finds her seat by richie, it's almost muscle memory to her at this point. "hey, chatterbox." richie whispers to her, breath caught in his throat when her doe eyes peer up at him. she smiles and gives him an awkward side hug.

the group conversant over god knows what, richie had lost interest awhile ago. his nerves getting the best of him as he overthinks about asking vanessa out. with a slide of a notepad in front of him, he's back to reality.

are you okay? didn't see you for a couple days

richie feel his cheeks warm up at the sentence, his heartbeat pounding so hard that it might just show through his shirt. "i was just at home, didn't want to do anything risky ya know." vanessa frowns, fiddling with the pen in her hand.

"don't worry your pretty head about me, chatterbox." richie smiles before taking a hold of her hand from underneath the table and giving it a gentle squeeze.

vanessa's cheeks are the ones painted light pink now. she offers richie a bite of pizza, who rejects at first but given that he decided not to get food today, gives in.

"richie and vanessa are at stage three of their relationship, feeding each other. lets give up for them!" eddie sarcastically declares to the table, causing the group to laugh and burst out in applause. "we're not dating, eds."

eddie rolls his eyes before saying, "bullshit." before richie can speak up, the others beat him to it. "leave him alone, eddie." bill jumps in. "what the-" "eat your pasta and shut up, dude." stan bickers back, nodding at richie for reassurance.

eddie mutters under his breath, earning a ruffle of his hair from ben. richie is somewhat surprised at stan for having his back. apologizing isn't that bad it seems. richie observes eddie who hangs his head low in defeat.

he notices the spaghetti thrown on his tray and begins to laugh, "isn't it a crime to eat your own kind, eddie spaghetti?" the others hold back their laughter at the name. eddie drops his fork as he processes what the hell richie just called him. "richie, for fucksake."

"you gotta admit that was funny! gimme some credit here!" richie grins at the annoyed boy, reaching at the apple off his tray. eddie moans in fake agony, continuing to eat. after awhile, eddie chuckles, "okay, it was pretty funny."