XVI

The End Part 3

I'll have to say this one more time, and by one more time, I mean one more time. Prepare yourself.

Now tell me, what's your favorite part of the groundbreaking Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet? Hold on, let me guess...

Is it the forced apart by rivaling families bit? The stupid decision-making and near death experiences? Or maybe the part when they both tragically die in the end? Pretty neat stuff, eh?

I know what you're thinking. Don't worry, the end will likely appear just as bad as you expect it to be.

How many times have we resumed the story today? I don't even fucking know. Anyways, action!

Richie dashed out of the school parking lot and heads straight for his destination, lips pursing as he tries to navigate swiftly.

The rain hits down on him hard, his speed causing the droplets to hurtle down like bullets. The huge fucking glasses Richie has always deemed as a burden seem to come in handy though, as it shields his eyes from the heavy downpour. He can't help but laugh at the irony of it all.

He should've known before. It's too obvious! The universe was telling him this, everything he needed to know.

When he gets to the entrance of the diner, he drops his bike immediately and opens the door, hearing the subsequent bell tolling above his wet curls.

He spots Eddie, -glorious fucking Eddie- sitting in a booth. The same one from that day.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Eddie shook his head, sliding into a booth across from Richie.

"New learning experience" Richie states, smirking.

Richie has no time to be surprised that Eddie actually is here, and instead, he takes his time in walking over to the table. His converse make sad squelching noises as each foot takes a step, and he's sure his flannel is dripping a trail of rain water along the way. It's no surprise that he gets weird looks from lounging customers around, but he shakes them off easily enough.

When Richie gets to their table, he slides into the seat across from Eddie and sits, the chair and his ass making a wet squishing noise as he bites the inside of his cheek. Richie reaches behind his back and pulls the soaked, blood-stained emergency files out of his pants, smacking them onto the table.

Eddie is stirring a straw into his cup of water, biting his lip and watching the swirls move freely, wildly. He doesn't look surprised when Richie shows up. In fact, he doesn't even look up at all for a long time.

Richie purses his lips, tapping his fingers lightly on the table. Nervous. His leg begins bouncing erratically, and he needs to say something now.

"When I said theatre is about taking risks, I hope you know this is not what I meant" Richie mumbles, and hears Eddie scoff softly under his breath. Okay, maybe not that.

They sit in silence awkwardly for another few minute or so, listening to the quiet slow 50's song playing on the speakers, and the rain pattering down on the diner still. Richie can't take it.

"I'm sorry!" Richie blurts, sounding suddenly desperate and exhausted. He'd been running around everywhere ever since 6th period, and hadn't forgotten for a second why Eddie had run off in the first place. He's still mad.

"I- I tried looking for help, after you... y'know. But then when we got back you were gone, so I checked everywhere for you, and went through... a ton of fucked up shit to find you, and I'm sorry!" Richie finishes quickly.

He watches Eddie's downcast, expressionless face, awaiting a reaction or just something.

He sighs, "I shouldn't have left you in there. It was just me being.. an idiot" Richie remarks, shaking his head softly.

Eddie bites his lip, and Richie represses a sigh of relief when he realizes he might finally be getting to him.

The shorter boy snorts quietly, "You kind of really are an idio- WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOU!?" he exclaims, panicked when his eyes finally trail up to meet with Richie's.

"What?" Richie says, taken aback by Eddie's shocked expression.

"You... you look like hell" Eddie replies in awe, staring at him, mouth agape.

And sure enough, whether Richie knew it or not, he did. He still had blood smeared around his face and under his nose, stained in the two lines that they flowed in before. His flannel had splotches of blood in all sorts of places, which sort of just made him look like a psychopath. No wonder people were staring. Not to mention his right hand, which still remained entirely covered in dry blood from earlier. His hair was slowly drying from the rain now, too. And without the proper care to it after it gets wet, Richie knows that the curls are bound to get poofy and uncontrollable within minutes. And that's what it seems to be doing right about now, slowly lifting like a fucking inflating ballon.

"Yeah, well I just got back" Richie winks. Eddie rolls his eyes, and Richie grins. He is back. He's okay.

"You don't need to reference movies to make me not mad, Rich," Eddie smirks, resuming his movement with the straw of his drink as he shakes his head.

"Thought maybe it'd lift your spirits" Richie shrugs, grinning knowingly at Eddie and simply relishing in the familiar feeling of his heart thumping erratically when Eddie's around. When he smiles. Anything involving Eddie, really. You'd think after all the crap he went through for this little shit, Richie would be mad or at least have an affected opinion on the shorter boy in the slightest.

But definitely no, Richie thinks with an internal forehead smack. He's still hung up on this loser.

Eddie grabs Richie's glasses from his face unexpectedly, lowering them to brush the hem of his soft polo as he begins to clean them. Richie scrunches his nose and chuckles at that, and can see the faint, blurry image of Eddie smiling too.

"What? They're all fucking wet!" he says in a scolding manner. "You're going to end up damaging them permanently if you don't clean them on the regular."

Richie doesn't respond, just snorts with a shake of his head. Well, Eddie doesn't seem to be mad anymore, that's one thing off the table.

Eddie returns his glasses quickly, and settles back in his seat with a plop, then sinking into the chair with a huff as though he knew exactly what was on Richie's mind right now.

Richie folded his hands together and bit his lip, eyeing Eddie expectantly.

"I'm sorry about the news, Eds, really..." Richie says, trailing off. "But you're gonna have to do it" he finishes, strained as though he didn't want to admit it himself.

Eddie sighs, evidently bothered by the fact. Though he doesn't seem all too mad about it as much as he must have been before. He had to have come to terms with the idea while he was here at the diner. The ambience of the place is truly worthy of calming someone down anyways.

"I know, I'm just-" Eddie huffs, cutting himself off and stuck in thought. Richie tilted his head at him in confusion, expectant.

"You know that feeling when you're on a roller coaster, and you're falling. Everything around you doesn't really matter in the moment, and your stomach twists up and you just want to get off already" Eddie says, tracing circles into the tattered edge of the table, timid.

Richie stares at Eddie, a small smile stretched at the edges of his lips, because yeah. Of course he knows that feeling.

Eddie doesn't wait for him to reply. "Well I've had that feeling stuck in me every fucking second since you told me, and it won't... it won't go away!" he explains, shaking his hand around as though it'll help describe what he means.

Richie isn't sure why he feels so guilty right now, a pain in his chest at the sight of Eddie so scared like this. And he knows what it feels like, how could he not? But how to help him with it? He can't be sure. After all, he's the one who caused this ruckus in the first place.

But he has to try. "I know," is all he says for a minute, still watching Eddie huff with a frown. If he's gonna convince Eddie, it might as well be with the honest truth.

"I've felt like that every performance day since the 6th grade, Eddie" he says matter-of-factly. Eddie looks back up to him finally, almost surprised by his words.

Richie wasn't sure how else to go on, but speaking from the heart seemed to be working well so far.

"It's scary, I can't even sugar coat it for you. But... you get used to it. And soon, it ends up being the best feeling in the fucking world! Being up there... on stage with your friends, having created something out of nothing? There's nothing else like it... It's amazing! A rush!" he doesn't realize he'd closed his eyes in the middle of it till they opened, and Eddie was staring back at him admiringly.

He smiles. "You really love this stuff, huh?" Eddie says, though it was not sounding like much of a question at all. Richie nodded with a sheepish smile.

"Of course I do. You learn to love it after a couple tries, maybe even after the first. That's how it happened to me, anyways" Richie shrugs, a small laugh escaping his lips at the bittersweet reminder of the past.

Eddie was looking at him with his eyebrows raised, as though to say 'go on'. Richie couldn't say no to that.

"It was my first year of middle school; Stan was getting shit from some assholes that were making fun of him for signing up for a club. So me, being the idiot that I am, told them to fuck off and blindly chose the closest clipboard I could find" Richie explained. Eddie snorted at the image, then gestured for him to keep going.

Richie made a pfft noise, then continued with a roll of his eyes. "I didn't realize what I'd actually signed up for until I got taken out of class early for our first rehearsal a week later" he said, almost looking embarrassed at that point.

"I thought I was in trouble and was going to the office the entire time, until I arrived at the tiny fucking cafeteria stage and... I didn't know it then, but it was like home to me.

"I had an hour at most to prepare for auditions that same day, and of course I was terrified out of my mind" Richie said, emphasizing that point with an anxious look toward Eddie.

"But I used it to my advantage, and I turned all that fucked up energy into a performance! I'm not gonna lie, it had to have been my worst, most awkward audition ever, but luckily it was funny. Funny enough to make the director laugh. I got casted as a background character with one line" Richie held up his index finger to display, to which Eddie furrowed his eyebrows at. "It was a comedic line, obviously.

"The day of the show, I was practically exploding with anxiety. Ten times worse than in the fucking audition room! I wasn't even sure if I could go through with it, I though maybe I'd trip onstage, or my voice would crack with the one fucking line I had.

"And I did." Richie said in another matter-of-fact tone. Eddie's jaw dropped suddenly.

"What!?" he exclaimed incredulously. "Which one?"

"Both," Richie grinned smugly. "I freaked out and tripped on my shoelace when I heard my cue line. I stumbled onstage and said my one line as best I could, face red all over. And my voice? God it sounded like a fucking prepubescent 12 year old! Which I was, but that's beside the point"

Eddie scoffed, "So what is your point? How the hell is this supposed to make me feel better!?"

"I'm not finished" Richie glared back at him, to which Eddie just rolled his eyes and settled down again.

"Anyways, the director later told me that they had never heard a crowd laugh that much in all the time they've ever worked as a theatre teacher" Richie chuckled, pushing his glasses further up his nose as he continued.

"When I bowed for the curtain call, there was like, a whole two minutes where people clapped and cheered me on as if I had done it on purpose!" he still had this wild look in his eyes, as though he were reliving the moment while he explained.

Eddie purses his lips and raised his arms so that they could rest on the tabletop with Richie's. He hadn't considered how lucky Richie could be with all of that, or exactly how lucky he himself could end up with tonight.

"Stan had told me that the whole shebang suited me, considering I was 'constantly a total attention-deprived drama queen' in his words. But jeesh, not to sound like an asshole, but I couldn't be more glad that he'd gotten bullied that day at that time. I wouldn't have picked up that pen on the bulletin board, and... I'd be a totally different person otherwise" Richie remarked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I got called a fag by those boys for the rest of the year after that, but I'd have to say it was so worth it" he grins. "And The. End."

Eddie was laid back in his seat, arms crossed and observing Richie almost as though he were trying to see into him. Through him. Reflective.

"So what are you saying, Rich? Is this the cheesy 'just believe in yourself' talk like in the movies where you try to persuade me into doing my best and 'following my heart'" Eddie says, mimicking movie characters with his hands clasped together sweetly.

Richie rolls his eyes with a shake of his head. "I'm not persuading you into doing anything. In fact, you'll be doing that yourself" he says, pointing an accusing finger at Eddie.

"And besides, if this were a movie, I think things would not be going this horribly for me" he remarks, huffing with a grimace.

Eddie scoffs. "What's that supposed to mean? Things are going terribly for me too!" he frowns, a hand running through his hair exasperatedly.

Richie hums out in agreement, and Eddie goes back to angrily sipping at his water.

He thinks maybe for a minute things will work out in their favor. That Eddie will go through with the performance successfully, and that Richie himself won't let the kiss interfere with his own performance or attitude, and that maybe the cast will be able to high five backstage after curtain call like they always do. Richie thinks, just for a minute, that the universe might work out in his favor after all.

But this is Dramatic, sorry for the let down.

A tall, old lady comes hobbling down the aisle of tables toward the two boys. "You kids goin'tuh order somethin' or what?"

Eddie rolls his eyes and adverts his gaze quickly. Richie doesn't even think to pretend to be nice right now. "No" is all he says, raising his eyebrows with an accidental hint of attitude.

The lady doesn't seem fazed. "Well, we gon' have to kick you out then" she says, mirroring his attitude with a hand on her hip.

The second the words slip past her crusty lips, Eddie is rising from his seat abruptly and is taking hold of Richie's sleeve, pulling him out of the booth and away. Richie can tell he's tempted to curse her out at this point.

Richie, still stumbling closely behind with the grip Eddie has on his flannel, lets out a giggle watching Eddie storm away, still looking annoyingly adorable while he's at it.

"Shut up," Eddie hisses, though the hint of sass and seriousness is gone from his voice when he resists a smile back to Richie in response.

He halts when they reach the entryway doors, and he and Richie gaze out into the heavy storm before them.

Eddie purses his lips, wincing at the bleak gray sky, then turns to Richie quickly. "Give me your shirt," he says almost demandingly, holding out his hand for it and rocking on his toes impatiently.

Richie raised a brow. "Now isn't exactly the time for-"

"Your flannel, shitbird" Eddie sneered, rolling his eyes at Richie's mocking grin. Without hesitation, Richie shrugged it off and handed it to Eddie.

"What'cha need it for?" Richie queried, trailing his gaze back outside to his bike sprawled on the ground.

"I- I have... I just don't want to get my head wet" he said, waving it off in a rush. Richie eyed him curiously, too many pauses in one sentence to be true, but dropped it nonetheless.

Eddie pulled the flannel over his own head, huffed out a nervous breath and nodded to himself. Ready? "Okay, let's go. We've got a rehearsal to get to."

___

Richie has no real reason to be nervous tonight. It's the same old same old. Performance night. He did this just last night. He shouldn't be worried about anything.

But his palms are clammy and his legs are restless and he can't stop fucking worrying.

"Would you sit fucking still? I can't work with you when you're like this" Beverly snaps, huffing as she dabs at a glob of foundation near his nose.

"And what is it with you people and bruises this week? I swear, you have one job before a show; don't fucking kill yourself. And what do you do? Jesus, I'm on my last nerve here, Rich"

"I can tell," Richie nods, trying not to retract in fear from her as she goes off on her rant in exasperation.

"Ah! Watch it!" he winces when she pushes just a bit too hard on his nose. "Seems like everyone is on edge today."

Richie recalls what the auditorium looked like when him and Eddie arrived earlier. Chaos, for short. There was yelling, people running back and forth frantically and the teacher attempting to calm everything down unsuccessfully. Stan had been on the stage, shouting across the room to move a spotlight a centimetre to the right, not your right, my right! And the director nearly sobbed in relief when he caught sight of them two by the double doors, frozen in their position.

Eddie was practically pried out of Richie's arms the second they stepped in, off to rehearse somewhere with the director probably. All the while Richie was being pulled into a current of his own, which is how he'd ended up here right now. Perched at the edge of a chair in the boys' changing room with Beverly attacking his face with a makeup sponge frustratedly.

"I'm not sure," Bev says with a faint shrug. "There's just something about today... I think everyone has had their fair share of horrible this past 12 hours" she confesses with honesty.

Richie suppresses a huff of a laugh at that idea. He knows that he sure has, and he couldn't possibly rule out that factor for the rest of the cast. He can only hope it doesn't cause harm to the show or anything like that.

"Okay, you're all good. Now what the hell happened to your hair. You usually end up looking like you got struck by lightning after rainy weather? What the fuck's all this?" Beverly says, tossing the sponge aside and examining the abomination atop Richie's head.

It got wet all over again as he and Eddie returned back to the school, and surprisingly it stayed that way for now, as Beverly lifted certain droopy curls curiously then let them fall again on their own. He was used to the unpredictability of his wild hair by now, and it simply made his eyes roll.

A boy burst in through the door, panting heavily. Jason. "Costumes on in 10" he says in a huff, catching his breath. He was only slightly surprised by Beverly's presence in the boys' dressing room, but he seemed to be too deep in his own busy mess of things to care.

"I'll be out in 5," she responded without hesitation, before quickly resuming back to Richie's situation.

"Five?" Richie queried enthusiastically. "You think you can deal with this mess in five minutes?" he says, pointing to the top of his head.

"Challenge accepted" she shrugs, grabbing the comb from the counter.

"What! No I- OW!"

___

"If you can't dip Juliet in this scene, it really doesn't matter, then just spin her and that's that" the director says, instructing the blocking with a dry erase board in front of him.

Eddie chuckles with a nod, and scribbles an abundance of things in his notebook quickly.

They've been at it back and forth like this for the past half an hour. Locked away in the classroom while everyone prepares for tonight in the auditorium. Discussing certain scenes, what to do and what not to do. Eddie was overwhelmingly thankful for the director's thoughtfulness, and took in all the information eagerly.

"That's pretty much it, right?" the director sighed in query, clasping his hands together loudly. "We went over the sword fights before, all that jazz, didn't we?" he wondered aloud, flipping through the pages of his director's script rapidly.

Eddie nodded with a hum of agreement, "We rehearsed all of them with the cast at least a thousand times if I recall correctly" he says this with such nonchalance that the director laughs and drops his script back onto his desk.

"Perfect! Well, I think you're all set, kiddo" with one dramatic bow of his head, they laughed as the director ushered Eddie out of the room and wished him luck.

Although technically Eddie had everything he needed to succeed tonight in his performance, that didn't stop his nerves from going absolutely haywire. He'd tried thinking about Richie's story earlier, and that this is simply part of the process, but as he trudged through the empty hallways toward the auditorium, he couldn't help but loathe the squirming pain in his stomach.

He was hoping to see Richie soon, now that all his business with the director is sorted out. As much as he hated to admit it, Richie's presence always seemed to soothe him even in the worst of situations. He always knew just what to say, what to do, to make Eddie feel alright again.

It's so stupid, so stupid that Eddie still has to suffer through these thoughts and daydreams about Richie and his wonderful qualities, because he has to accept already that it's never happening. After what Eddie did, him and Richie really have no chance with each other. It's just so stupid. He's so stupid.

Eddie approached the auditorium doors and pushed one open, being greeted by the sweet silence of the auditorium. He could see some technical theatre students scattered around, fixing things here and there, and others chatting lowly on the sidelines. Of course they were much calmer than the theatre class, who are just an insane bunch of dramatics.

"Hey Eddie!" Stan hollered from the other side of the room, where he was holding a mini trash-can and swiping things off the ground with a frantic hop in his step. Eddie flashed him a tired smile as he approached him, and Stan snorted with a nod in response.

"I agree. This is how it always is on performance days, believe it or not" he sighed, hugging the trashcan to his stomach with nonchalance as they conversed.

"My limbs are going to fall off," Eddie responded with a giggle.

"Hey, have you seen Richie anywhere?" he couldn't hold in the question any longer, hoping Stan wouldn't be offended by it.

Luckily nothing close to that flashed through Stan's expression, and instead he hummed and  jabbed is thumb through the air, in the direction of the stage.

"All the actors are already in the dressing rooms getting ready," he answered with a shrug. "Which means he's probably wallowing in fear and self-doubt right about now."

"That idiot," Eddie shook his head. "He seriously doesn't know how good he is?" Stan, with a roll of his eyes, shakes his head too.

"We've all tried telling him, but it's pretty much useless. He seems to have issues in listening to people no matter what it's about" Stan says with a laugh, his gaze straying to the stage as he huffs out a breath.

"Well... y'know, except for you."

That sentence caught Eddie off guard.

"Wh- What?" Eddie said, truly believing that he may have misheard for a moment.

Stan laughed again, almost as though Eddie should know this already, and nodded. "Yeah, of course. He has this sort of... soft spot when it comes to you, Eddie. We all thought you knew" he shrugged.

"Notice how he's practically fixed every time you talk to him before a performance? That's not very common" Stan says matter-of-factly, lowering down to scoop up a crumbled ball of paper by his feet.

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows, trying to process this information properly... Stan was right, Richie always did accept Eddie's compliments with a sheepish grin, effectively shutting him up every time. Richie is like that, though. He needs affirmation -comfort, I guess- or else he simply assumes he's being an idiot, since everyone tells him that he is. Eddie hadn't really realized he was often the one to give him that affirmation in the first place.

"Anyways, you should probably start getting ready too. We've got..." Stan checks his watch, "Less than an hour till the house opens, after all. Good luck!" and then he's off, hopping through rows of chairs and tossing every minute shrivel of paper he finds from the carpet.

Eddie hesitantly begins rushing away to the dressing rooms, shaking off the butterflies he feels swarming within his stomach. He needs to get through this performance without any distractions. Perhaps he could indulge in that thought later instead.

Eddie was still hoping to find Richie somewhere in the crowd of cast members as he approached the boys dressing room. They were all conveniently dressed in their costumes for the show already, playing and chatting around with one another.

But now, as Eddie stands in front of a blank curtain and hears the low roaring of a crowd just a stage away, he regrets thinking he'd be able to see Richie again before he was to get onstage. He wasn't even sure where he was now, and he's supposed to go on just minutes after Eddie.

The half of the first scene passes by quickly, and Eddie takes a deep, deep breath, mentally reviewing everything he's learned from Richie, everything he's memorized for this show, and every single possible way to make this go smoothly.

He steps out on his cue line and... there's no turning back now.

"Good morrow, cousin." Jason hums, greeting Eddie onto the stage politely.

"Is the day so young?" Eddie replies, frowning as he approaches Jason.

Where's Richie? is all Eddie thinks in the back of his mind. His brain racks with it dangerously as he delivers his lines, continuing on with the story.

When the scene ends, Eddie passes Myra as he slides into the wings. She flashes him a small grin as she steps onstage, an encouraging thumbs up thrown behind her back to him.

"Where the fuck is Richie?" Eddie mouthed to Jason, to which he shrugged nervously in response.

They're on to get back out soon, and he's still not here.

Jason shook his head, "He does this a lot, he'll be here in a sec."

Just then, Richie came tumbling over in a quiet, frantic motion, grinning from ear to ear. "Missed me?" he whispered, straightening his outfit and winking at the shorter boy.

"You fucker! I could kill you right now, seriously," Eddie sneers, punching him hard on the arm.

Richie scoffs, wincing. "Ow! Jeez, save it for Act 3, wouldja?" he teases, rubbing over his minor injury with a pout.

"Oh you assho-" Eddie panics when Richie already begins stepping out, pulling him along by the arm with a skip in his step. Jason follows them closely behind, shaking his head with a chuckle.

This is hardly the blocking they discussed, but then again, Mercutio is Mercutio. Richie plays him almost too perfectly, in the sense that improvisation and unpredictability is inevitable.

They continue on with the scene, Richie and Eddie bickering back and forth over whether love is worth a dime. Richie gets a few laughs out of the crowd with this scene effortlessly. Eventually, they exit stage left and wait in the wings impatiently for their next entrance.

"You're unbearable, you know that?" Eddie says quietly, standing beside Richie as he gazes out to the stage, watching the show continue.

"Oh? Then that's a job well done, don't you think?" he jokes, shutting Eddie up finally with that stated fact.

Eddie simply rolls his eyes and watches the show play out in front of them, though he's begrudgingly aware of what scene is next. And it seems Richie does too, because the air shifts into something painfully awkward and tense a second later.

But, well... we all know Richie's first instinct in an awkward situation is make a joke out of it. A really, really bad joke.

He nudges Eddie with his elbow lightly. "Truly wounded that it won't be me you'll be kissing tonight, Eds" Richie teased, then immediately internally slapped himself across the face.

Eddie rolls his eyes, but Richie sees the outline of his face in the darkness of the room. His lips nearly twitch into a smile. "Shut the fuck up, asshole. You're being dramatic. It's just pretend, remember?"

"Right. Just pretend" Richie reminds himself.

Despite the fact that it was Eddie simply snapping back at another one of Richie's crude comments, it seemed to soothe the raven haired boy just slightly. Eddie's right, that's all they're doing, right? Pretend. Richie is being dramatic.

Seconds later, they're already putting on their masks and hopping out once again for the next scene. The party scene.

Thankfully, Richie doesn't have to be onstage the entire time, so at least that saves him the agony of watching this escalate any further in front of an audience. Eddie and him talk more about love together, arguing about Eddie's... or more so Romeo's depressed manner over a girl.

Soon enough, Jason and him exit to the right together, and they once again lounge in the wings impatiently.

It's coming up, Richie can tell. He'd pretty much subconsciously memorized this scene on his own while silently hyper listening during rehearsals on accident. He knows it's coming.

Myra looks beautiful in the Juliet costume, which is sort of the point, but Richie still hates to admit it.

They're dancing now. Eddie and Myra are flirting and dancing together on center stage. Pretending, Richie reminds himself again with a shake of his head, attempting to clear away the plaguing thoughts.

But it's quite hard to do that as seconds pass, and Richie clutches onto the hem of his button-up shirt, tuning out the lines being exchanged, watching intensely as their faces grow closer. Closer.

They're inches away, noses nearly brushing, and it's sort of extremely awkward. He can hardly tell if it's just him feeling this way, but either way, it's horrible. Richie can feel it pierce through his stomach painfully, his mask suddenly becoming hot and uncomfortable on his face.

Myra leans in the rest of the way, and misses his lips by an inch. Perhaps even more than so Their faces are angled so that the audience can hardly see the difference, and silent gasps and chatter begin around the backstage immediately. They all saw it for what it was. Staged. They didn't exactly block the kiss to be staged, but this was surely a heavily staged course of action.

Richie can't even manage to suppress the sigh of mild relief he had held in for minutes on end. Confused students backstage huddle around Richie in the wings to watch. 'What happened?' 'They staged it?' 'I knew neither of them had the balls.' 'No, it was Myra!'

Eddie and Myra part quickly, awkwardly, and the audience is awed into a silence of sorts. Richie blinks, swallows the lump in his throat, and the moment is over. Invidia (the Nurse) comes storming in just then.

After the short conversation, Eddie exits into backstage, opposite of Richie. Myra and Invidia talk frantically, and Richie raises his eyebrows when he sees Myra look at him and wink through her mask. Faint, but still there.

Did she... do that on purpose? For Richie...? That's unexpected. Even with the way they're sort of on better terms now, he didn't think she was that... nice? He smiles back at her. Faint, but still there.

Richie hopes Eddie isn't looking for him right now. The jokes may be even worse if he comes around again.

So, Richie does what he thinks is best for the both of them, and avoids Eddie the entire time, as one does.

When they have scenes together, Richie makes the audience laugh, and Eddie delivers certain lines quite harshly in response, as if to say, through subtext, 'stop fucking avoiding me!'

But it's too awkward. The edge hasn't been taken off of Richie since the kiss scene, and even the balcony scene has Richie harshly twisting to look away.

When it's finally Richie's death scene, Eddie falls to the floor with him and holds him close in his arms, watching as he pretends to fade away. "A plague o' both your houses!" Eddie pinches Richie's arm between them, and Richie does good at mumbling a slight 'fuck off' like a fucking ventriloquist. No one notices but Eddie.

People pull Richie offstage like a corpse, and as he slides into the wings, he avoids Eddie's eye with agility.

They perform the fight scene, and finally the curtains close for intermission. Eddie walks offstage with a sigh of relief. That went pretty well.

Now where the fuck is Richie?

Richie sighed as he pulled on his converse, still clad in his Mercutio costume, though he hated the shoes assigned to him. He began tying one of the shoes' laces carefully.

He had run off into the boys dressing room long after his death scene, and now he simply sat there contemplating his life choices. What was this all about? Maybe he shouldn't be avoiding Eddie. It seems like the right thing to do to talk to him instead, but he couldn't even bear to imagine what kind of fool he'd make out of himself if he did.

He hadn't actually tried looking for Eddie since intermission started, but suddenly he thinks maybe he should. Before the next act starts and Eddie goes back onstage thinking Richie is some douchebag or hates him entirely.

Almost as though the universe were pushing at him, he heard a familiar voice just outside the door, passing by and humming out a tune.

Richie hopped up and lurched toward the door. Thank god for coincidences. He took hold of the handle and turned it, but when the door swung open and he looked left and right for the brunette boy, he was gone. Fuck.

He closed his eyes and listened hard, smirking when he heard once again the sounds of humming coming from the hall leading to the school building.

He tripped over his shoelaces, but still pursued the noise frantically. The universe may have been bad to him today, but there's no way it could stop him from doing this right now. He has to.

His converse skid onto the tiles of the school halls as he rounds a corner and catches sight of Eddie once again. He's in his costume, the hood of his cape almost half on, so Richie can only really see the top of his head. And he's still humming and whistling to a funny tune Richie probably knows from somewhere.

"Eds!" Richie hollers, hoping to catch the attention of the boy. But it doesn't seem to be working, because either he can't hear him (which is doubtful) or he's ignoring Richie.

"Eddie! Eddie, what are you doing?" Richie desperately queried aloud, but his pleas went unanswered.

As Eddie pulled his hood further up over his head, Richie hadn't realized that he'd been following him to a dead ended hallway. Oh god, Richie thought, as Eddie pushed open the door to the outside, pouring rain engulfing him.

"Where the fuck are you going?" Richie huffed, growing more and more confused when Eddie simply kept on walking and kept whistling.

But after today? What hasn't he done to get to Eddie? This is just a minor inconvenience compared to the rest.

"Eddie!" Richie hesitantly ran outside under the rain and made it to the middle of the courtyard, already feeling the rain beginning to sink into his shoes and in his hair for the fourth time.

Richie finally reached him, spinning him around by the shoulder.

"Huh?" someone who was definitely not Eddie said in confusion, sliding off the walkman headphones from their head.

Richie stumbled backwards at the sight of the stranger, taken aback. What the fuck!?

So maybe the universe can do that to him.

"Who are you? Why are you following me?" the stranger said, almost yelling to be heard over the rain as he turns to Richie.

"I'm- I'm looking for... Agh! Sorry!" Richie stuttered, before turning back away on his help and shaking his head.

Why the fuck does this have to keep happening to him? Richie's just about had it with losing Eddie today.

Before Richie could take half a step more, "Eddie? Eddie Kapsbrak?" the random boy queried aloud, to which Richie whipped his head back to nod mindlessly.

"He's right there" the boy shrugged, pointing to the door, then sliding his headphones back on.

Richie cursed under his breath and turned back to the hall that was once empty, suddenly seeing the familiar boy on the opposite side of the hall. He was already making his way toward Richie, and when Richie turned to thank the random boy, they were gone. Umm, what?

He couldn't give less of a fuck that such a weird thing just happened. Because he was still in the pouring rain when Eddie appeared in the view of the window of the door

"Eddie?" he yelled again.

"Richie?" he heard from actual Eddie, sounding confused as he pushed the door open to step out into the rain too.

He ran over to the taller boy, seeming concerned. "What are you doing here?" Eddie queried, hugging his arms to his chest, still in his Romeo costume.

Richie opened his mouth to say something, but no words came. His voice cut off in his throat, and he stood there in the rain trying to think of what to say. He needs to say something.

Something worth saying.

He has to.

He bit the inside of his cheek and sighed. "You should go back inside, we only have a few more minutes of intermission" Richie said lamely, shaking his head softly and staring at the ground.

When he glanced back up, he watched a look of disappointment flash over Eddie's expression before he nodded and hesitantly turned to leave.

His heart tugged in his chest, and he felt himself suddenly on the verge of crying. It's all been too much. This whole week, this whole month. He knew it was only a matter of time before he'd overflow with this feeling. This nagging feeling.

Richie winced as he watched Eddie walk away, the hurt in his chest spreading everywhere like wildfire. Coward, he thought, clenching his eyes shut as he whimpered softly. Coward, coward, coward-

He took a deep breath, "I love you!" Richie shouted.

"I love you, I love you, I love you, I fucking love you, Eddie Kaspbrak!!" he yelled into the rain, not bothering to hold back the sob that racked through his body as the words spilled out of his mouth.

He saw the blurry silhouette of Eddie through his wet glasses, stopping in his tracks.

"I- I think I loved you the second you insulted me in that cramped janitors closet the day we met, and even minutes before then, and... fuck, every single day since then," Richie said, voice wavering dangerously, feeling the hot trail of tears roll down his cheeks in stark contrast to the cold rain on his skin. A blundering rush of emotion.

Eddie is slowly turning around, looking to Richie, though the raven haired boy can't really see much of what he looks like right now.

Richie huffed out a groan, stumbling on his next few words, unsure how to say them.

"I just... I don't know, I can't do this any longer, Eddie" Richie said, gesturing between the both of them.

"I can't just stop being fucking madly in love with you when we decide to stop things. Trust me, I've tried. There's no off button for this shit.

"I told myself I'd hold out for you. Be the friend that you needed, and... God, it's so selfish, but I can't!

"I want to ...fuck, how do I say this? I just- I just want to be with you, Eddie. I never wanted to 'pretend you were a girl' in the janitors closet, because I like you for you"

Richie wiped the rain and tears from his face as he choked out a laugh, "It's so fucking stupid, I know, but... I wanna do cheesy couples crap with you, okay?" he said, flailing his arms up and shrugging.

"I want to be able to kiss you on the nose, and hug you without being weird, and I want to love you unconditionally!" breathing hard, whimpering under his breath and watching Eddie slowly tread closer.

It was when Eddie's face comes back into view that he'd realized just what he was saying out loud. The weight of everything had just been lifted with the words, rolling off his body and his tongue like a sonnet sung to the clouds. He finally said it.

Looking at Eddie's face, dripping wet and nearly glowing as always, Richie was worried that he'd grow pitiful of Richie because of all of this, and his possible unrequited love toward Eddie. But what he saw wasn't pity in his expression, it was a somber, knowing smile.

Richie wasn't sure what to say next, he just knew that he had more to say than this. More to his feelings than all of this.

He shut his eyes again, and let his heart do the talking.

"And believe me, I'm fine if you want to keep us a secret, more than fine. But... if we're gonna keep it a secret within ourselves, then.... gosh, I can't keep doing that" he says it sort of in a rush, his hands fiddling around restlessly.

Eddie finally grew close enough so that they were face to face, and Richie glanced down to him wearily. He's prepared for the shit Eddie may be ready to spew at him, a punch, maybe. He's always prepared for the worst. But instead, as he clenches his eyes tight awaiting his misfortune, hands are wrapping around his neck and he's being pulled down.

The kiss is gentle, it's soft. It's enough to warm every cell in Richie's quivering body, make him forget about the rain around the both of them completely. Their lips move together perfectly, Eddie's delicate hand traces a line across Richie's cheek comfortingly, and it's everything Richie's ever wanted. All those days Richie would have Eddie all to himself, but something felt wrong, something felt missing.

It's fading. That horrible nagging feeling. It's going away.

They part slowly, and stare at each other's lips, breathless. Eddie tilts his head and looks at Richie so earnestly and genuinely, that all of Richie's thoughts and doubts tumble down and away in dizzying cascades.

Eddie smiles and doesn't hesitate to pull Richie further down into a hug. Richie buries his cold nose into the crook of Eddie's neck and lets out his muffled, broken cries, a choked up laugh bubbling out of his throat too.

The smaller boy trails his hand down to brush against Richie's, and he interlocks their pinkies easily. Eddie plants a kiss to the base of Richie's neck, and whispers softly in his ear.

"I love you too."

Richie's throat goes dry, and he's not sure why he's so surprised. So utterly confused and equally pleased as his his heart fills with the joy of a thousand burning suns. Four simple words, and it's feels like the last puzzle piece to his peace of mind.

Richie pulls away to knock their foreheads together, and they're suddenly giggling hysterically. Not a care in the world because Eddie loves him. He does! And Richie loves him too.

Eddie looks up to the sky, rain still showering his face relentlessly, and lets out a laughing breath. "You hear that universe!? I love Richie Tozier!!" he shouts, and Richie doesn't waste another second in pulling Eddie in again and catching his lips onto his own again, a grin smushed between them.

"Hey!" a voice shouts from afar. The door leading to the hallway.

Richie and Eddie freeze in their position, whipping their heads around to look worriedly. Richie's hands are the first to pull away, but he keeps their pinkies entwined behind them.

"What the fuck!" the voice shouts over the rain. It's Beverly, an incredulous, panicky look on her face.

Richie and Eddie are both suddenly struck with an oh fuck moment simultaneously. This is it. She's going to gag at the sight and swear to never speak to them ever again.

"The fucking costumes!!" she cries out, rubbing a hand over her face with a loud groan. "Hey shitbirds, those took weeks to make!"

Stan peeks his head out of the door too, just beneath her, and chuckles. "Told you," he mumbled, just loud enough for the two to hear.

Eddie scowls, and flips his middle finger in the direction of them two. Richie simply laughs, words aren't really working for him right now.

"Get back in here! We've got breaking news for you!!" Beverly huffs, annoyed as she gestures a hand to come back.

The couple quickly make their way to the door, and Richie winces at the wet rubbery sound his shoes make with every step he takes on the tiles.

"Oh my god, it's so warm in here" Eddie sighs, wrapping his arms around himself with a faint shiver. "And who turned off the lights?"

The hall lights were indeed completely darkened, the only supply of light being the windows beaming a bleak, gray, natural light from outside. Beverly waves a hand around, shaking her head, 'Shut up!'.

Stan opens his mouth to say something, but Beverly beats him to it.

"The power went out around the entire school! The director is finally calling it, I think the show is cancelled!" she says, her arms flapping up in a frantic 'what the fuck' motion.

"Oh shit! Are you serious?" Richie gaped, aghast. Eddie squeaked out a noise of surprise, and both Stan and Beverly nodded, exchanging worried glances.

It was only then that Richie realized what was on Eddie's face, now being able to see it clearer in the safety of the indoors.

"Eddie! Your eye!" Richie exclaimed. He reached a hand to graze over the bruise that's left there, on the cheekbone just under his right eye.

Eddie furrows his eyebrows, then suddenly registers what he means by that, his eyes widening and beginning to stutter over words.

"Oh I- I just... My-" "He got his ass kicked by Bowers at some point this week. He's asked me to cover it up twice already!" Beverly interrupts, rolling her eyes.

"You two really are idiots. Made for each other!" Stan murmurs with a laugh.

"Hey!" Richie protested, though he gave a simple side glance to Eddie, his lips nearly twitching into a grin.

"It's so obvious he's been wearing makeup, Richie. I didn't think you were that blind" Stan shrugs, shaking his head. Richie simply scoffs, rolling his eyes.

But... there was more to this conversation that needs to be said. His lips purse together anxiously.

"Soo, I'm guessing you guys saw what, uh... happened outside?" he said questioningly, practically holding his breath in preparation for their answer.

It's not that he doesn't trust them with this information, it's just that... him and Eddie have hardly had a chance to discuss this. Who needs to know, who doesn't, and when anyone has to know at all!

Stan and Beverly hummed a 'eh' of agreement. "We saw enough, and we frankly are both disappointed that it hadn't happened sooner" Stan says, arms crossing over his chest.

"Oh shut up, Richie was too much of a dickhead for it to have happened any sooner" Eddie scoffs. Richie elbows him with a giggle. "Don't get me wrong, he still is."

Before anyone could utter another word, Beverly was launching herself onto them in a large embrace.

"I fuckin' love you guys... never forget that" she sighed, resting her head in between the gap of Richie's head and Eddie's. Richie could hear the faint sound of Stan scoffing before the feel of his lanky arms wrapped around them too.

"Yeah, I guess I love you all too, a little bit" he jokes, joining in on the unannounced group hug. Richie grinned into the embrace, and took a glance at Eddie fleetingly.

He could cry with how joyous he felt. Like all of his limbs, which were heavy with anxiety and stress throughout the day, were suddenly being lifted by this simple hug, and he may as well be flying. So liberating, having such friends like these. And so sweet, with such a boy like Eddie Kaspbrak.

"Oh shit, backstage must be fucking chaos right now. I should go check on them" Beverly says with a snap of her fingers, breaking away from the hug and waving goodbye. She shuffled away and disappears around a corner.

"I guess I should too," Stan shrugs, then follows her steps swiftly till he's gone from sight.

And then they were alone.

Richie smacks his lips together awkwardly, and huffs out a breath through his nose. "Sooo..."

"You have got to figure out another thing to say other than 'So' when no one is talking" Eddie says, immediately plucking Richie's glasses off of his face and beginning to wipe them with the hem of his shirt.

Richie scoffs out an offended noise, suddenly adjusting to the lack of sight. "Rude, I'm just trying not to get into an awkward situation!" he interjects.

"Well, Richard, I think maybe sometimes you could use a moment of silence or two, don't you think?" he queries, looking back up to place them back on his face, lopsided.

"Ooh, Edward, speak full name talk to me babe" Richie taunts with a hum, edging closer and cackling at a punch he gets on the shoulder.

Richie fixes up his glasses, and Eddie rolls his eyes "Shut up, suddenly I'm regretting everything."

"Too late for that, my beautiful Edward!" Richie says dreamily, swaying around Eddie in a smooth circle.

Eddie glares at him, "Don't call me that," he says, but smiles nonetheless.

Eddie bites at the inside of his cheek for a moment, thinking. "Hmm, the way we first met wasn't all that great, now that I think of it" he says, a bit of a frown overtaking his features.

Richie stops his tracks circling Eddie and finally leans himself onto a wall beside them. He shrugs, "I wholeheartedly agree, but then again, all couples have their own... unique meeting stories" Richie says, wincing at the reminder of that day. Truly tragic.

Eddie hops closer to him enthusiastically. "I'm thinking we should start over! Pretend you don't know me" he says playfully, proceeding to pretend to get into character and reveal his poker face.

Richie raises an eyebrow, "So we're just gonna.. forget everything that just happened?-"

"Shut up, just play along!" Eddie waves his hands around to silence him. Richie snorts with a shake of his head, but does so anyways. "Hi, I'm Eddie," Eddie says, grinning momentarily.

"Hello, Eds- I mean, Eddie. I'm Richie!" Richie replies, grinning as he extends a hand out for Eddie to shake.

Eddie giggles as they exchange formal nods. Then Richie spontaneously twirls Eddie with the grasp he'd gotten with his hand, then pulls him in close with a smile.

"I knew you were cute the second you walked into Theatre that day, Eds" Richie grinned teasingly, drawing nearer to Eddie. "Cute, cute, cute!"

Eddie raised his eyebrows. "And I knew you were trouble the second I walked into your Theatre class" he remarked, lifting his chin to see Richie clearly, a playful smirk stretched across his face.

"Oh? Well then what's the verdict, Judge Kaspbrak? Was I really worth all that trouble?" Richie queries, his eyes already drifting toward Eddie's lips. Perfect and oh so kissable.

"I think maybe, yes. But also..." Eddie trails off, quickly noticing Richie's eyes wandering.

"I must say, you are so very dramatic, Richie, there's no denying that."

"And I could say the same for you."

Without another missed beat, they're kissing again. Just as perfect and soft as all the times before. Giggles trapped inbetween their locked lips, joy beyond any simple comprehension.

Eddie pulls away to smile fondly, "But I think we can handle each other.

That's the best part."

YES i'm aware it's late asfuck, but i couldn't wait! i've been here on valentine's day wallowing in loneliness and staying up watching a24 movies by myself. but nevermind that lol

so... that's sort of it! :DD hope you guys liked it! i tried not to make it too anticlimactic, and especially bc i've been planning this chapter for a long long long time lmao. yeah, i went with the cheesy rain kiss, bully me all you want lol, but the story isn't completely over yet. we've still got an epilogue and an authors note left to go! also.. this was nearly 10,000 words 😳 LOL i love you all so much, but i'll say all that cheesy shit later on anyways. love and light! - author