XI

Dream Girl  |  Crisaunt

When Richie gets home, he can barely greet his mom properly as he quickly rushes to his room and closes the door.

He scrambles to get the backpack off of his shoulders and once he does, he shoves in a hand in search of the note. It takes him a minute, but soon, he grins at the feeling of the familiar piece of paper on his fingertips.

Richie throws himself onto his desk and spends about an hour reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading the words. Analyzing the simple note and thinking of every possible outcome that this could come to.

298, Old Cherry Road

12:00, loser

298, Old Cherry Road

12:00, loser

Obviously this was Eddies address, right? And a time. Richies stomach fluttered with excitement. He hadn't seen Eddie since the party, and even then, he was too drunk and high to remember much anyways.

This is his chance. He's got to clear things up between him and Eddie, and he's got to do it now. Their friends groups are fucking enemies now. But there's no way Richie is going to let Eddie slip away that fast.

So, Richie being himself, spends the rest of the evening and night jittering with anticipation, not getting a wink of sleep beforehand, and staring at the clock in his kitchen.

His mom had already left for work by now, but even then, as he watched the clock strike 11:40, he hopped off of the kitchen stool and ran out the door.

Getting to the address wasn't really that difficult, considering he'd already memorized the whole note by heart within the hours that he waited. As he pedaled on, he told himself quickly not to get too excited. For all he knows, Eddie could have invited him just to throw a punch. Hopefully not, Richie sighed as he approached the house in question.

298, Old Cherry Road

He can't knock on the door, that'd be insane, he thinks as he lets his bike fall onto the lawn. Hmm. Richie spotted, by the side of the house, a window with a lamp on. There are white flowy curtains covering anything inside from sight.

"God, I really hope that's yours" he whispers to himself, stepping closer to the side of the house. He picks up a few pebbles by the sidewalk and aims for the light. He throws the first one, wincing in worry at the tap it makes on the window. Then another. And another.

When he aims the fourth pebble once again, sighing shakily, impatiently, he hears a click, and freezes.

Thankfully, when he drops the pebble and watches as the window lifts, all he sees is Eddie. Normal, grinning, perfect Eddie.

Except that Eddies hair is brown now.

"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Eddie hums, sighing dreamily and looking outward as he leans onto the windowsill.

Richie grins. "Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?" he goes along with it, momentarily setting aside the newfound sight of the boy's appearance, his heart burning at the sound of Eddies voice. There was meant to be much more to Juliet's lines here, but Richie just assumed to keep going.

"'Tis but thy name that is my enemy." Eddie says, now sounding serious and honest in contrast to his first lines that were much more theatrically imposed. "Thou art thyself, though not a Montague" he then looked back at Richie with his frown. Richie bit his lip, unsure of what it was that suddenly upset him so much.

Then the weight of his words hit him like bricks. Richie knows what he's talking about.

Oh, Romeo, Romeo, why do you have to be Romeo? It's only your name that's my enemy. You'd still be yourself even if you weren't a Montague.

They shouldn't even be talking right now, that's for sure. Stanley wouldn't approve whatsoever. Eddie is on Bill's side, after all.

That thought sunk into the both of then suddenly, and the guilt of seeing each other once again settled crudely in their stomachs.

But Richie couldn't regret it one bit.

"I take thee at thy word." Richie whispered into the night, so quiet that nor Eddie would hear, and the breath of his voice came out in puffs of air. His eyes nearly slipped shut as the passion of the words overtook him. "Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized" he sighed quietly.

I trust your words. Just call me your love, and I will take a new name.

"Get up here, loser" Eddie responds, rolling his eyes as the smile returns to his face, not having noticed Richies previous actions. Richie doesn't waste another second, quickly maneuvering himself so that he could climb up the tree and finally be face to face with Eddie. Truthfully, it's felt like ages since the party.

After a minute or two of Eddie and him arguing over which foot to put on which branch, he finally gets a leg into the window, and throws the rest of himself inside quickly, his body thumping onto the floor.

Eddie giggles, helping him up quickly and shutting the window. "It's fucking freezing, dude, are you okay?" Eddie says, reaching an arm to touch the shoulder of Richies sweater, feeling it's intensely cold quality. "Honestly wasn't sure you'd come, it's so cold outside".

Richie hops up from the floor, grinning down at him. "Anything for you, my dear Eds" Richie shrugs, smiling at the way Eddie rolls his eyes once again.

He's in his pajamas. Brown knitted sweater and soft shorts. They're evidently a bit shorter than the shorts that Eddie normally goes to school in, and for some reason Richie gets an abrupt reminder of feeling the soft thighs under his fingertips. Richie has to quickly stray his eyes so he doesn't seem like a perv (which he isn't!). Stop making things up, you perv, Richie tells his brain, annoyed. He settles on looking back at Eddies hair instead.

"Also, holy fuck, your hair!" Richie suddenly remembers, beaming as he immediately reaches a hand out to touch the top of Eddies head. "That's like, some kind of witchcraft, I just saw you today!".

"Shh! My mom is still asleep" Eddie hushes, huffing when Richies hand ruffles through his blonde-less hair.

"But uh yeah, I got a haircut just this afternoon. I told the director that I wanted to cut the blonde off, and he said that it'd be great so we don't need a wig for Romeo" he explains, smacking Richies hand away. "Well, just in case".

Richie nods, smiling. "I fucking love it".

And he really did. Rather than the punk blonde tips that Eddie previously had, it was cut down to simply his natural brown. It easily complimented his eyes, and the stark contrast of his features with the blonde was gone, and all Richie saw now was how adorable and soft he looked.

Richie could barely look away. Eddie smirked up at him gratefully, silently thanking him for the compliment.

Oh god, so now they're getting too close. Richie hadn't even noticed their proximity till there practically was none. It seemed almost scary how suddenly easy it felt to move closer to Eddie like this. Oh how easy it'd be to lean just a bit closer and-

"So this is the room, eh?" Richie says abruptly, breaking the silence and moving away from the space. He does a bit of a circle around Eddies room, even though it's quite small, and Eddie nods awkwardly, coughing.

Eddie's room was... bland, to say the least. It wasn't anything like Richie's. Pretty much the opposite. His bed wasn't directly on the floor like Richies, and he had no posters either. There was simply a bed, a desk, a bookshelf, and the door to the bathroom. Not much color either, aside from the bright red script on the desk that read R&J UNDERSTUDY, in loud contrast to the rest of the room. Now Richie gets why Eddie loved his room so much when he visited.

"Yeah, I know, super cool, right?" Eddie jokes sarcastically. Richie chuckles.

"It's not as bad as you think," Richie assures. "Compared to the eyesore that is my room, this is a total sensory vacation" he nods, and Eddie laughs.

"If you say so" he shrugs, and plops himself onto the bed, resting his back on the headboard. When Richie continues to stand there, unsure of what to do, Eddie smacks a hand on the bed politely, gesturing for him to take a seat.

Richie sits on the edge of the bed, his long legs hanging off the edge and reaching the floor easily.

"So, what'd you page me over for, Dr.K?" Richie queries, turning to Eddie. He was thankful that he received the note, of course, but still didn't really know why. He finds Eddie biting his lip, caught on a thought.

"Don't you know?" Eddie raises a brow. Richie freezes. Wh... what is it? He hates not remembering things.

"Our friends are literally about to start World War 3, in case you haven't noticed" Eddie exclaims, crossing his arms over his chest.

Richies face contorts into one of realization. "Oh yeah" he mumbles, with an 'oops' expression.

He sighs a bit and jumps further onto Eddies bed, backing himself up until he's on the opposite side of Eddie. He then plops onto his back so that his head sits next to Eddies clothed feet. Richie's legs slightly dangle from the foot of the bed, but he doesn't mind.

"Hey, you're fucking up my clean bed" Eddie whines, kicking Richie lightly in the face.

Richie snorts, "Boo hoo, get your feet out of my face" he throws Eddies feet aside when he removes Richie's glasses with them.

Eddie scoffs and decides on turning over, lying his head next to Richies so that they'd be facing each other upside down.

"Really, glow in the dark stars?" Richie chuckled, gazing at the ceiling above him, which was dotted with varying sizes of glowing stars.

"What?" Eddie said with an offended tone. "They were on sale at the thrift store".

They both laughed, their heads knocking together by accident. "Ouch" Richie whined, but Eddie just flicked him on the forehead and told him to suck it up.

"They barely work anyways. Sometimes they glow a lot, sometimes they don't" he shrugs.

Richie furrowed his eyebrows. That's not how glow things work, is it? He decided to keep that to himself, avoiding another argument from stubborn little Eddie.

After a second of silence, Richie, stuck in a thought, spoke up.

He sighed. "I don't get it. It was just a stupid, drunken argument. I thought they would have made up by now" Richie said, staring at the ceiling. With the addition of the stars, it wasn't nearly as bland as the rest of the room.

Eddie nodded as best he could while lying down, "I guess. But, I mean... Stan said some pretty nasty things, and so did Bill, and either way, it seemed inevitable that they'd blow up on each other eventually" he voiced, following Richie's eyes to the ceiling as well.

Richie hummed in agreement. They were silent after that for a few minutes, unsure of what to say now.

"You know, Bill told me not to talk to you today, that's why I didn't sit with you in class" Eddie said into the silence. It was a horrible thing to confess, but Eddie would rather he know than stay butthurt for eternity.

"What!?" It had spiked the exact reaction he had prepared for. "Stan said he'd do that, but I didn't believe him" Richie groaned, frowning.

"So you listened to him?" Richie asked, turning his neck to be met with Eddies side profile, upside down.

"No, not entirely. I invited you here!" Eddie responded stubbornly, only giving him a bit of a funny glance before turning back to the ceiling.

Richie snorted, "Yeah, this surely cancels it out. By getting me into your bed, eh?" that earned him a pillow to the face.

"Shut the fuck up."

And so Richie did, and Eddie smiled to himself at his stupidly adorable obedience. Like a trained puppy... well- mildly trained.

Richie kept his eyes on Eddie, focusing involuntarily on the way the stars glinted and morphed into little specks in his eyes. Apparently today was one of the days that the stars were working well enough.

"You know, when I was little," Eddie began, starting to smile more.  "I used to pretend I was outside in the nighttime and I... would..." when Eddie had turned to look back at Richie, he did a bit of a double take, and noticed the way Richie was staring at him.

As though he were the entire world and more.

Richie could feel Eddie's breath hitch, and his mouth curved into a half smile.

"You would what?" he whispered, genuinely interested. They were too close by now to be speaking at normal volume.

Eddie didn't respond for a second, caught on the way the stars above reflected on Richies large glasses. An entire galaxy within this boy's grasp. His heart was swelling with some type of feeling he couldn't quite place.

Slowly, warily, Eddie tilted his head closer, enticed with the way that Richie's (upside down) hooded eyes looked back at him. What was he doing? God knows, but it felt too right to stop.

When he noticed how Richie began growing closer as well, his lips beginning to part desperately, yearning, he simply couldn't hold back.

Unsure, but at the same time more sure of anything in his entire life, Eddie reached forward and took Richie's lips onto his own, his tongue instantly meeting with Richie's on impact, almost as though with familiarity.

Richie immediately reciprocated, his eyes slipping shut, his hand reaching up beside himself and curling the fingers into the soft fluffy strands of hair atop the crown of Eddies head.

And oh. This is new. (is it?). It's not what Eddie thought a kiss would feel like for so many years. It's not boring, or unnecessary or unattainable. It's right here in front of him, and it's better than he'd ever thought it to be. It's... fulfilling. It's the hole in your stomach that you've marked as a burden for so long. It's better than that. It's a flourish of feeling, bursting out of your chest and swirling around you like magic. It's Richie.

Kissing upside down was unknown to the both of them, but the moment was too right, and couldn't possibly be wasted.

Eddie parted from the kiss momentarily, only for Richie to follow his lips like a ghost, in desperate need of his touch once again.

But Eddie wasn't complaining, and merely dived right back in again, feeling the heat in his stomach bloom. The ache in his heart grow.

He feels Richie's hand reach further into his head of hair, then rub at his scalp comfortingly, and Eddies heart melts on the spot.

He never thought he'd ever needed this before.

Eddie pants lightly into his lips, caught on that stupid trashmouth of his. He never thought he'd ever need this before, but now that he has it, he can't help wanting more.

Faster than even Richie can process, Eddie flips over and suddenly has his head hovering over Richies, still upside down, and kissing him passionately. Richie's head lifts slightly, chasing Eddies lips like a lifeline.

And then a loud car zooms by on the street, right outside the open window.

Eddies eyes fly open and immediately  pulls off of Richie quickly, both of them instinctively separating from one another. Eddie backs himself onto the headboard, shocked. Richie turns back around, right side up, and faces him. His expression intensifies, and so does Eddie, as if the reality of what they're actually doing just hit them both.

"Eddie-"

"Oh my fucking god!" Eddie abruptly stiffens up, his hand coming up to rub at his own eyes. Richie, alarmed and eyes wide, sits up as well.

"We- we just-" Eddie stutters out, shocked. He leaped off of the bed and quickly began pacing around the small confines of his room. "We just..."

"I know. I know." Richie says, his face contorted into a wince. This was a mistake! Eddie is going to hate him now. Yeah, Eddie may have been the one to initiate it in the first place, but he's definitely going to hate him now.

Eddie continues pacing, biting at his nail and glancing toward Richie every now and then, who was slightly drowsy and slightly swollen at the lips, his expression worried as ever.

"I've... I've never been kissed before" Eddie confesses, his head hanging low and refusing to look anywhere near him as he continued walking back and forth.

Richie's eyes widen even more, and the panic suddenly strikes harder. "Oh my god! I'm so fucking sorry, Eds. I had no idea. I- I didn't mean to-" Richie rambles, but quickly gets cut off by Eddie.

"Richie!" he whispers in an irritated yell of a tone. Richie finally quiets, still perched on the edge of the bed worriedly. Eddie opens his mouth, pauses, and scoffs in frustration with himself. "You don't- I... I can't-...".

When Richie doesn't respond, his face transitioning from scared and worried to thoroughly confused, Eddie sighs and stops his pacing momentarily.

"Are... um... are all first kisses supposed to feel like that?" he says, and his voice is timid. Quiet. He glances at Richie, awaiting an answer.

A strike of hope sets aflame in Richies chest, and his heart skips a beat.

"I- I don't know" he says after a beat, and sees the disappointment flash in Eddies eyes at the response. Does that mean good, or bad? Eddie resumes his path of left to right in the room.

"But if it makes you feel any better, I've... I've never really had a kiss like that before either" he responds, and he knows it won't make Eddie feel any better at all, but he just had to get it out. He had to. It was stuck, aching low, deep in his heart the second Eddie's lips touched his.

And he does know what it tends to mean for others, he does, but he doesn't want to go into it or overthink it anymore because it feels too scary for either of them to discuss or even think about at all right now, even if it happened so quickly.

"We don't have to talk about it." Richie says quickly, because truthfully his nerves are really getting the best of him, and he doesn't want to discuss about it either. He fiddles with his thumbs anxiously.

Eddie doesn't respond for a second, lost in his own thoughts. Then his pacing stops abruptly, and he looks back at Richie.

Their gazes lock, and the same thought immediately crosses their mind.

"We can't-" Eddie starts.

"-let anyone know" they say in unison. And Eddie's shoulders relax a bit at the mutual understanding.

"We... we have to act fucking normal at school together, because none of this ever happened" Eddie speaks, practically throwing a bucket of ice cold water over the burning match of hope in Richies chest.

"Only we know" he finishes, and suddenly maybe Richie's fire isn't entirely distinguished after all.

Richie quickly nods, straightening his shirt and fixing up anything that could possibly hint to them having done what they... did.

He stood up, and walked over to Eddie, beginning to run his hands through the fluffy curls. He laughs, "Here, let me fix it. Your hair looks ridiculous right no-" but Eddie smacks his hands away.

"Ow- ouch!"

"Don't fucking do that, idiot." Eddie says, "just makes me want to do it again" he murmurs stubbornly, and Richies eyes widen.

The choir of the heavens sing from above him, and the pit in his stomach is suddenly getting shoveled back over, like a pothole on the road. Except better. Because Eddie Kaspbrak wants to kiss him. Like, actually wants to.

Richie tries to hide the absolute joy thrumming within him, and settles on smirking in that stupid, amused, charming way that he does.

"Oh do you?" Richie teases, and Eddie rolls his eyes.

"I shouldn't have said that."

"No, no I'm glad you did. Thrilled, actually." he continues, and Eddie sighs, ushering him toward the window. "Edward Kaspbrak, such a fine lad, he kisses me on his free time cause he wants to-"

"And now is your cue to leave."

When they get Richie safely onto the branch he came in on, he turns back toward Eddie and smiles.

"Do you even know how long I've been wanting to recreate that upside down kissing scene from the Spiderman comic. My entire life just flashed before my eyes" Richie says, and Eddie bursts into laughter.

"Shut up, go home, and goodnight" Eddie announces in between giggles, already having his hands on the window ready to close it.

Just as he begins pulling down, "Wait!". He pauses.

"So no goodnight kiss?" Richie says, only half joking as he sits on the risky tree branch. He grinned goofily at the way Eddie theatrically looked up, pretending to consider it.

"Nope, goodnight!" Eddie smiled, beginning to turn back around into his room.

Richie frowned, "O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?"

Eddie paused, rolling his eyes and turning back around, approaching Richie once again.

Richie smiled back hopefully, he knew another R&J line would bring him back around.

Eddie sighed and gave in, leaning forward on the windowsill and giving Richie a soft peck on the forehead. Richie shut his eyes at the warm feeling of the kiss, and decided, yeah, that was good enough for tonight. More than good.

"There you go, now le-"

"Eddie bear?" a raspy old voice from inside the house said, along with the rhythmic thud of heavy footsteps slowly approaching the bedroom door.

Eddie panicked. He quickly shooed Richie to move down the tree, cursing and huffing under his breath. "Go, go go!" he whispered, hearing the footsteps grow more and more. Richie descended to a low enough branch, to where Eddies mom probably wouldn't see if she were to come in. He turned back up to a panicked Eddie.

"So thrive my soul—"

"Go the fuck to sleep!!" Eddie yelled in a whisper as the doorknob turned.

Eh, close enough, Richie thought.

The door creaked open and Eddie whipped his body back around immediately to cover the view of the window, just in case.

Sonia Kaspbrak rubbed at her eyes and hobbled into Eddies room, looking around confusedly.

"Who are you talking to, Edward?" she yawned. Her lavender purple robe hugged her body tightly, and her hair was stuffed into those stupid curlers again.

"No one, Mama" Eddie responded nonchalantly, as though the possibility of him talking to someone this late at night was impossible. The acting classes had surely paid off by now.

A thud is heard from outside, and a slightly muffled groan that Eddie prayed his mom hadn't heard.

She scratches her side and, squinting heavily, cranes her neck to check for anything behind Eddie. When she luckily finds nothing from that useless search, she nods and tells Eddie to go back to bed.

"Alright, I will, Mama" Eddie says, pushing his mom out of his bedroom quickly, assuring her that he's going to sleep effective immediately. A total lie.

When she's finally gone, and Eddie listens for the heavy footsteps to fade away to her own room, he smirks in satisfaction and returns to the windowsill.

He looks down to see Richie adjusting his glasses back onto his nose and seemingly rubbing at his back.

"All clear" Eddie winked with a grin, and they both laugh. Richie gazes back up at him with his stupidly charming smile, leaning his tall frame onto the tree beside him.

When suddenly, there is nothing left to say, both of their thoughts drift back to what was just happening. What had just happened. Richie gives him a look, and Eddie sighs heavily.

"We... we're just tired," Eddie says, shrugging and nearly failing to act cool about it. Tired, Richie repeats in his mind.

"It was a one time thing" he nods with affirmation.

But Richie could still hear the hesitant sort of feeling in his voice. And he knew that Eddie had heard it too, and he knew that Eddie knew that he'd heard it too. But no one knew what that exactly ought to mean.

So Richie still nodded. Of course he did! He had to believe it himself too if he were going to have any chance of acting normal tomorrow.

"Yeah, obviously" he says, nodding in agreement nonchalantly and missing the way Eddie's expression falters just slightly at his response.

Then there they sat, loitering in lies and lingering in losses. It was only the second that Richie reached up to hug at his own shivering body that Eddie demanded he go home at last.

So on the bike ride back home, Richie did all that his brain could possibly do after a night such as this, and daydreamed about the kiss. Except it's not really daytime, and it's not really a dream after all anymore, is it?

He's trying not to want it too badly, want Eddie too badly, but the need that began low in his stomach not long ago rumbled. He couldn't want it too badly, because after all, even after the miracle that was tonight, Eddie was still Eddie.

And Eddie was still on Bill's side.

And Eddie was still a boy.

Richie's past kisses really had never felt anything like that. He's made out with a few girls before, sure, and his first kiss wasn't nearly as flattering, but they all really just felt meaningless and almost forceful. As though he didn't really want them in the first place, but told himself that he should.

Because with Eddie, it was different. It was like he couldn't get enough. Like he'd grown intoxicated on Eddie's lips alone.

But then again, he was probably just tired.

Tired, he repeated to himself again as he chucked off his sweater and threw it on the kitchen counter. Tired, he repeated to himself as he flopped onto his mother's bed. Tired, as he rolled himself into the sheets and comforter.

Tired.

And still, he lay awake that night, tossing and turning and not getting a wink of sleep.

Tired?

Heyyy, what's uppppp hope you liked it!! <3 next chapter things get BAD but also good?? so good luck =))) lol

-author