Act VII

Homage  |  Mild High Club

The bags under Richie's eyes practically sunk into his skull as he trudged through the hallway, headed to second period at last.

He didn't even bother moving out of the way for others, frankly too disoriented in his own exhaustion to care.

So yes, maybe staying up all night was a mistake.

But, it wasn't nearly all that bad when the memory of last night flashes into his mind every five seconds, like an alarm clock, but with motivation.

Generally, Richie isn't very grumpy or irritable when he doesn't sleep, it's really just... extreme desperation and a morning filled with dramatic whines and frowns. His face burrowed into his arms during first period, and his head shoved into his locker when Beverly and Stan had joined him there.

"I told you before, never have a restless night, or else this will happen and we'll be stuck dragging you around the rest of the day" Stan had said earlier, leaned up beside him as Richie groans quietly into his locker.

"You say that as if it's my decision to be restless," Richie retorted, his words ringing throughout the confines of his locker as Beverly snickers.

"Well what happened?" she had asked, and Richie's brain short circuited so bad that his head lifted abruptly and slammed into the little metal door behind him.

He groaned again, closed his locker, and rested his head on it with a shaky sigh. "Uh, no- nothing" he shrugs, turning slightly to glance at her with an exasperated and sarcastic grin.

She narrows her gaze and gives him a look, but after a suspenseful second she just rolls her eyes and turns back to Stan. And the morning continued on.

So now, as he stumbles through the blackbox doors and greets his classmates, he's met with the empty chair beside his once again.

It doesn't feel all too horrible now that he knows why Eddie had done it yesterday, but it still is just as lonely nevertheless as he sat down and the instructions for the morning began.

He didn't have to look over to where Myra was sitting to know that Eddie was there too, but, pushing aside his pride, he took a glance over there anyways.

Eddie was sitting, perked up and alert, facing toward the board and away from Richie. He was wearing his usual baggy collared sweater and shorts, and his leg bounced profusely on the tiles.

"I reminded you guys yesterday, and I'll remind you again today" the director said. "This is the last week till winter break, and all throughout those two weeks, I want you memorizing and memorizing till your brains ooze out of your ears".

A few people groaned in disgust at that remark, and another few laughed, but everyone got the memo.

"I want everyone memorized by the time we're back" the director clarified.

After another minute of instruction, the class went back to rehearsing. Richie had already gotten his fair share of workshop days with the director one-on-one for R&J, and they were even able to partly choreograph the fencing scene with Jason and the others. But today they weren't working on a scene with Mercutio, so luckily he was able to mumble lines to himself in seclusion and comfort.

He ignored the eye-rolling giggles and laughs from the girls' table, stubbornly keeping his eyes glued to his script.

He knew that this was just how things had to be. For now. Ignore each other. Play along with Bill and Stan's issues. Not be together.

The remainder of class wasn't all that bad. He wallowed in his loneliness for half an hour and took little glances at Eddie, just hoping he'd do the same. But he never really did.

And when the director called on a different group for a certain scene, Richie had finally decided on giving up. He sighed into the eraser of his pencil, letting it fall from the anxious confines of his lips and writing down something on the edge of his paper.

Stop thinking about Eddie. He's not thinking about you. Stop thinking about Ed-

Richie was just about to erase it, shaking is head with a frown, when abruptly, in the very corner of his eyesight, he saw the familiar outline of Eddie stand up, and heard his voice ask to go to the bathroom.

Richie lifted his head to watch him walk to the door. Eddie turned to look back at him, almost knowingly, and winked.

Richie watched, stunned into silence as he left the room. What... what was that?

He slowly closed his script and dropped his legs from where they laid on the chair beside him. Uh.

Without thinking, Richie waited a minute. An even more restless, fidgety minute, till he asked to go to the bathroom as well.

It was slightly risky, because couples pull that card all the time when they want alone time, but it must have meant nothing to these people as he fled from the room. They were two boys after all. That would just be absurd.

He skipped down the hall impatiently, craning his neck left and right in search of Eddie. Richie first stopped by the boy's bathroom, of course, but no sign of Eddie.

Then thinking why not, he jogged to the auditorium, which was on the way to the bathrooms anyway.

Richie couldn't think of any possible reason that Eddie would even be in here. But as he pushed open the door, he found him sitting criss-crossed on the apron of the stage, fiddling with the straps of his backpack as a single light shone down on the center stage, away from him. It reminded Richie, vaguely, of their time together in tutoring. A faraway memory.

Confusedly, Richie walked down the carpeted aisle to the stairs. When Eddie's head lifted finally, his expression lit up at the sight of Richie, and he quickly scrambled to get up as Richie ascended the stairs of the stage.

When they were finally face to face, it grew immediately silent. Only awkward smiles and quiet nods of hello to fill the silence. As if it were a scene they'd forgotten the lines to. Nobody knew just what to say in this situation.

After another dreadful second, Eddie, who had been rocking back and forth on his feet, stopped and awkwardly gestured to the spotlight that they were now coincidentally under. "That- that wasn't me, by the way. It was just like that when I got here" he shrugged, pointing to the blinding light.

Richie snorted out a laugh at that, and both of them giggled a bit, bubbly with nerves. What was it that they were both nervous about again?

Oh yeah.

As if the realization had hit them both at the same time, they quieted down and the awkwardness returned.

Eddie sucked in a breath, knowing well enough that they were both think of the same thing.

"God, Richie, I'm so sorry about last night. I don't know what came over me, it was a total-" Richie had accidentally tuned him out from there on out, his thoughts and eyes too preoccupied with Eddie's lips to focus any more.

Richie felt the sudden, desperate urge to lean in. Kiss him. Hug him. Absolutely anything. As long as he can get close. Closer than he is now, at least. They're not that far apart, and if Richie were to bend down just a bit, peck those rambling lips of his and make him shut up for once-

It's unbearable.

"Eddie... Eddie, Eds!" Richie exclaimed, cutting the shorter boy off from whatever ridiculous thing he was saying now. Eddie stopped, looking back up at Richie with a nervous, guilty frown.

"There's no need to apologize," he says, and Eddie's fidgety hands dropped in relief.

"No?" he said, exasperated with the amount of calm that rushed over him within that second.

Richie smirked in amusement. "No, of course not.

"I mean, like you said, we were just tired" Richie nods with a shrug. Eddie nods in agreement with him, smiling in embarrassment at how Richie remembers the comment from before.

And so the awkwardness settled back in, and Eddie returned to rocking back and forth on his feet.

Richie smiled, doing his best to mask the frown that wanted to follow after.

When Eddie looked back up from his converse to see Richie, his eyebrows slowly furrowed, and with a concerned purse of his lips, reached a hand out to Richie's face.

"Jesus Rich, your eyes!" Eddie exclaimed, stepping closer as his thumb reached out to stroke over the bags under his eyes.

Richie was at first taken aback by the touch, but almost immediately melted into it, practically having to stop himself from leaning into the warmth of Eddie's fingers brushing his cheek.

"I'm- uh, I'm fine" Richie takes Eddie's wrist in his own and lowers it from his face, rolling his eyes with an amused smile. He didn't want Eddie worrying. He'd had worse anyways.

Eddie just frowned with a small nod, "You sure?"

"Yeah," Richie assured, "I'm just a little... tired, right now" he shrugs. The wording wasn't exactly meant to say that, but as Eddie does a bit of a double take looking back at him, he hopes he's getting the message efficiently.

Eddie hesitates. Shit shit shit, this is happening. Is this where it happens? the smaller boy thinks, chewing at his bottom lip.

"I'm... I'm kind of tired too" Eddie adds quietly as he feels Richie move closer, leaning in.

Eddie shut his eyes, the feeling of Richie being close becoming all too familiar to him.

"We're just tired, right?" Richie breathes near his ear, his cheek brushing Eddie's. It had the tone of query, but it wasn't a question. No strings attached. We both want this, but not in that way. Not in that way, right?

"I'm cool with that" Eddie whispers back shakily, in an overwhelmed voice, wanting Richie's head to come back desperately so that he could see him clearly again.

The second Richie retracted, a small smirk on his face, Eddie grabbed him by the face and smashed their lips together, pushing him backward so that they'd disappear into the darkness of the stage together.

His arms draped around the taller boy's neck, pulling him closer, and Richie settled on resting his hands on the small of Eddie's back lightly, too afraid of coming off as overly forward if he held on any tighter. They couldn't see anything, but it didn't really matter anyway.

So they kissed. They kissed because, weirdly enough, it felt good for the both of them, and there was no reasons holding them back anymore. No strings attached was a fair card to play, and if it mean't they could keep doing this, of course they'd take each other up on the chance.

They can do this now, Richie has to keep reminding himself as he still hesitantly reciprocated these kisses. They're his now. We can do this now.

So they kissed. And kept kissing and kissing; little pecks every now and then, and also deep, passionate ones that shot them right back to the night before. The tingle on Richie's lips, the dizziness of Eddie's lightheaded state. It was... perfect.

That was until the bell rang, loud out in the halls and they suddenly realized they hadn't returned to class since they first left.

"Well fuck" Richie had cursed softly onto Eddie's lips at the sound of the dreadful bell, frowning when the shorter boy pulled away from his grasp.

"C'mon, we're not being late just because you can't get enough" Eddie says jokingly, posing with a sweet smile. Richie rolls his eyes playfully.

Nevertheless, Richie straightened up and fixed his own hair, which had become an absolute mess from Eddie's grabby hands.

"Get to class, shorty! I need to retrieve my backpack" Richie winks, giving one last smooch on Eddie's worn out lips before racing down the steps and running for the double doors. "I'll... uh I'll see you... later?" he shouts, the double doors closing loudly behind him. Eddie waves back, even though he's out the door already, and smiles.

He let out the bubbly giggle that threatened to come out from before Richie had left, and let his fingers graze the trembling lips of his that were once just on somebody else's. On Richie's.

He stepped back into the spotlight, and sighed contentedly, taking a second to calm his rapid-beating heart.

Richie cursed silently as students blocked his way back to the black box, hurrying to get his backpack from his table and get to class so he could daydream some more.

When he finally made it back, the room was empty aside from the director, tsking dramatically as he watched Richie heave out breaths of exhaustion.

"I'll let this slide, since you were only out for the last few minutes of class" he shrugs, and Richie lets out a phew of relief.

"But, actually, did you see Kaspbrak at all? At the bathrooms, I mean" the teacher asked confusedly as Richie slings his backpack over his shoulder.

"Eddie? I just saw him walk out of class right now, what are you talking about?" Richie laughs, shaking his head as he skips out of the classroom.

He hears the director hum out an 'oh', and Richie smirks.

"And.. the student has become the teacher."

___

"Are we seriously still keeping up with this?" Beverly groans as she settles into her chair around the lunch table.

"Of fucking course we are" Stan hisses, "Don't look at them. Avoiding eye contact is supposedly meant to assert dominance" he says, straightening his back and stubbornly looking forward.

Richie nods in agreement, "Yup, we just need to act like we don't care, and they'll lose their shit."

"That's not how it works" Beverly says, rolling her eyes. "Also, you're in on this too?!"

Richie turns to her, sighing. "Of course I am! Eddie has been avoiding me ever since the party! The only way to assert dominance is avoid him back" he says, shrugging.

That was an absolute lie, but it was a damn good one at least. If he were to have said it around this time yesterday, it would have been true, but a lot has happened since then. And Richie knew well enough that Eddie was probably explaining a similar story to Bill right now...

"No, for sure, Bill!" Eddie exclaimed, shoving him with his shoulder. "Richie noticed that I'd been avoiding him yesterday, so now he's avoiding me too".

"Good." was all Bill said, before shrugging and returning to picking at his tray. Eddie slowly nodded, nearly forgetting that he was meant to be 'happy' about this fact.

"And why are you okay with that?" Ben asked confusedly.

"Because, if that's how he wants to play it, I'm not backing down either" Eddie shook his head stubbornly.

Ben rolled his eyes. "You guys really are-

"Childish!" Beverly called out in a sing-songy tone, to which Stan and Richie both scoffed at in unison.

"We're being the bigger men, what's so childish about that?" Stan says.

"Ignoring each other like middle school girls? Oh I definitely see the man in you now" she says sarcastically. Richie tries to hold back a laugh at that, but it comes out as a quiet snort instead. Stan glares at them both.

Abruptly, someone passed by the trio's lunch table. Two complete randos, whispering to one another and eyeing Stan. Richie furrowed his eyebrows.

Beverly and Stan also took notice, and looked to one another confusedly.

Once the people were gone, the three found themselves overhearing their names over and over in the whispers and laughs of people around them.

"Uh, guys? Are you hearing this too or am I hallucinating?" Richie asked worriedly, looking around.

"Hallucinating is when you see things, idiot" Stan corrects. "But yeah, I'm definitely hearing it."

"Me too," Bev chimes in. "This can't be good."

As soon as Richie can, he catches any one of his familiar classmates that's closest and pulls them down to sit in the table.

This classmate luckily just happened to be Jason.

"Richie, the fuck are you doing?" Beverly hisses quietly, smiling awkwardly at this unfamiliar person at their table.

"Uh, this is Jason, from theatre" he explains in a rush. "Nevermind that" he waves it off.

"Dude, what are people talking about that just happens to bring us up so damn much?" Richie asks straight up, his foot beginning to bounce with anxiety.

Jason is stunned silent for a moment, confused, but then his face grows into a wince of sorts.

"Is it bad?" Stan suddenly asks, leaning in almost secretively and squirming with anticipation.

"Uhm, yeah, kind of" Jason speaks up, looking at each of them individually with equal amounts of remorse.

"Well, what is it?" Beverly asks.

Jason sighs, "It's about the party".

Oh.

"It's not as bad as you think," he says quickly, probably an attempt to ease their thoughts. It wasn't working.

"You're lucky you didn't go to the other party from that night. At some other guy's house. There was a lot more people there, you guys would definitely have been dead meat by now" he says, and Richie elbows him hard in the side.

When the three motion for Jason to continue, he clears his throat.

"People have been talking a lot about you and the Denbrough boy today" Jason says, turning to Stan.

"Not too much, though, just the casual daily gossip" Jason shrugs, "No one really remembers anyway."

Stan nods slowly, though his expression is petrified with fear.

"And barely anyone is talking about you, Marsh" he nods to Beverly, and she hums questioningly.

"These girls somewhere spread around that you and someone were getting a bit, uh, hot and heavy that night" he says hesitantly, and she freezes.

"What?" she says, though it comes out through gritted teeth, and her nostrils flare.

"You and..." Jason trails off, his eyes wandering around the cafeteria till they land on a certain, familiar table.

"Him." Jason confirms, pointing to the slightly overweight boy turned away from them all, right next to a petite body and redhead boy on either side of him.

Beverly stabs the food under her with her fork, suddenly fuming. "Fuckin nerd is dead!" she mumbles.

"And you Rich, well..." Jason hesitates.

"What? What is it?" he begs. His leg might as well just pop out of the socket with how frantically it's bouncing by now.

Jason sighs, then continues.

"Someone from the party mentioned that you... went into a bathroom," he draws out. Richie nods, gesturing for him to keep going. "-that already had some blond kid in it, but you guys... didn't come out for a... long... time..." almost as though it was painful for him to repeat, his words end choppily, and he merely stares at Richies fear-struck face.

"The Kaspbrak kid, I think they mentioned" Jason says, pointing back over to where they had just looked, seeing once again the familiar table from afar.

Stan and Beverly don't say a word, their eyes wide and mouths slightly agape.

Richie doesn't even have to look over to where he pointed, his stomach already sinking and his eyes growing wider. Oh my fuck.

"Wuh- we... we didn't..." Richie starts, shaking his head. He gulps, "We didn't do anything" he says, chuckling nervously as if the thought itself was the most ridiculous thing ever. Although, his horrified expression did anything but assure the table around him of it.

"We didn't do anything" he repeats to himself, mumbling.

The bell rings, and Jason apologizes quickly before scurrying off, leaving the three stunned in their own silence. Richie can't bring himself to stand up from his seat, and slowly as the cafeteria filters out, Stan leaves, then Beverly, and he's stuck.

"I swear to fucking god" Richie hears a familiar voice growing nearer and nearer, mumbling curses and profanities, until he feels a small yet firm hand grip by the arm and pull him out of his seat.

"Richard fucking Tozier" the squeaky voice of Eddie huffs, pulling him out of the cafeteria and through the hallways. A few people (not many though) around them watch the scene, chuckling and whispering to one another. Richie feels compelled to flip them off, but he can't bring himself to move any more than he is now.

Eddie drags him over to an empty hallway, and pulls him into a small room.

"Ow! Fuck!" Richie exclaims as Eddie shoves him to one side of the room angrily.

"You little shit, I knew this was a bad idea from the start, I knew we sh-" Richie's mind was racing, and Eddie's words going at a trillion miles an hour is not exactly helping. Richie took this time of Eddie's rambling to take in his surroundings.

They were in the janitors closet.

"-why the fuck I'd do that!" Eddie huffs in conclusion, crossing his arms over his chest.

He glares up at Richie, awaiting a response, but the taller boy is too busy processing everything that has just happened in the past minute.

With a violent shake of his head, he clears his mind and focuses on the conversation at hand.

"Richie!" Eddie snaps.

"Eddie!" Richie retorts. What is he supposed to say? He didn't hear a word Eddie had just said.

"Wait what the fuck is happening right now?" he asks genuinely. Eddie rolls his eyes.

"Oh I don't know, nothing, other than the fact that people are fucking gossiping about us right now as we speak!" Eddie rushes out in a murderous tone. He emphasized the word us, Richie realized, and that was what finally made him come to his senses.

"I heard" Richie says, biting his lip and feeling his heart begin to race.

"Richie! You never told me that fucking happened!" Eddie exclaims. Richie halts and turns to Eddie confusedly.

"I'm sorry, this is my fault?" he says, laughing in surprise.

"Yes! Yes actually, you dick" Eddie spat. "That was my first time at a party, my first time drinking at all for that matter! You were supposed to make sure I don't do anything stupid."

You calling me stupid? Richie wanted to say, perhaps lighten the mood, but he knew that would just make matters worse.

So he scoffed. "I'm not your babysitter, Eds, I wanted to have fun too!"

"Does the term 'buddy' mean nothing to you in terms of what we all fucking agreed on that night?" Eddie exclaims, rubbing a hand over his face with a disapproving shake of his head.

"I'm sorry, okay? But I vaguely remember me telling you not to drink too much" Richie says, adjusting his glasses on his face.

Eddie pauses, seemingly trying to remember. "I- Okay I do remember that, but you're the one who gave me the damn drink in the first place" he huffed, beginning to pace in short paths on his side of the closet.

Richie laughs wickedly, "That's the exact same thing you said that night!"

"Because it's true! And- and then you went on to be stupid and spill it all over me, remember?"

"Oh be quiet, because you were just as bad! Right after, you flipped out and... and you went... to the..." Richie trails off.

His memory was slowly coming back to him, and was this a good thing or bad thing? Eddie seemed to slowly understand what he meant as well.

"To the bathroom..." Eddie finished, his breath hitching, halting his pacing.

They stand there, terrified. The thought had never crossed their minds before.

After a hesitant second, Richie looks back up to Eddie and gulps. "We didn't... do anything, did we?" Richie says, quietly, and watches the way Eddie bites his lip, caught on a thought.

"They- they can't think that we-... that we're..." Richie trails off, his chest heaving and his palms growing sweaty at the thought.

Can't think what? That we made out in a tacky bathroom at a party Friday night? That we're fucking gay for each other and like to kiss for fun? Spit it out, Richie.

Finally, after a tense second, the shorter boy sighs and walks over to Richie.

"They're just rumors, Rich, they go away eventually" he says, brushing a few stubborn curls out of Richie's worried eyes and resting a small hand on the boy's face. Richie lets out a shaky breath, his own hand reaching up to cup Eddie's hand on his cheek.

"I know" Richie whispers, biting his lip and looking down to to his other hand. His pinkie specifically, which Eddie had taken and curled safely into his own.

"But if we want to keep doing this," Eddie raises their conjoined pinkies between them, and Richie listens intently.

"Then we'll have to work harder on keeping it between us" he explains, getting on his tiptoes to nudge their foreheads together softly. Richie breathes out a short laugh through his nose, half a smile beginning to spread somberly on his face.

Richie nods, his eyes finally straying up to look back into Eddie's. They simply smile, because they're in the janitors closet and because they can do this. Be close. Hold pinkies. Other things too.

Richie leans closer, letting his lips hover over Eddie's teasingly. He breathes out a sigh.

"Can I kiss you?" he whispers onto his lips, and Eddie's knees practically give out then and there.

Eddie tries to pull him in the rest of the way himself with the hand he has on Richie's jaw, too embarrassed and warm in the face to want to respond, but Richie holds back. He needs to hear it from him first.

"Please" Eddie responds, a ghost of breath over Richies lips, barely audible. And the second that escapes, Richie is taking them onto his own desperately. And it feels just like it did the first time, the second time. It feels just as perfect.

And it's simple, no tongue incorporated, unlike the other times, but it feels just as good. Richie wants to cry with how lucky he feels, getting to do this with Eddie and not be super awkward, because it's not meant to mean anything more than physicality.

Eddie could have easily called off the whole damn thing the second they heard news about the party, but he didn't. Because he still wanted this. And Richie did too.

So they kiss. And when the bell rings, they laugh and part ways, their pinkies being the last to leave one another.

Maybe they could have this.

this took so long to write bc it kept getting deleted in short parts, so I had to keep rewriting LMAO but it's here!! hope you liked it :D see you next chapter!! -author