VII

BLEACH  |  Brockhampton

Before Richie can register anything else going on, he's bowing in front of a roaring crowd and holding hands with his cast mates. He can hear them giggling beside him, like they always did after a show, all giddy with adrenaline from being on stage.

He huffs out an exhausted breath, one that almost comes out as a laugh, and scans around the audience once more, spotting his friends who are howling and screaming in the back of the crowd, clapping and dancing around like maniacs. That makes him smile. His eyes linger on the blond boy for a second too long, then he suddenly feels Jason obnoxiously tapping at his shoulder and ushering him to get back into the wings.

"Fucking loser, you did amazing out there!" Beverly marvelled as he approached all of them in the lobby. She's still in her all black tech attire, and Richie had practically forgotten that she must have been in the sound booth the whole time.

He smiles shyly as everyone says a variation of the same thing, patting his back and hugging him. 'Yeah!' 'That was so cool' 'Great job, man!'. He's already changed out of his costume and into his clothes, so he has his backpack resting on his shoulders.

Ben and Beverly are babbling to Richie about his acting, laughing at one another for which scene was their favourite, and Mike is looking over the plays program with Eddie, pointing and nodding at whatever they're looking at. Bill is in the very back, in a seemingly heated argument with Stan. Richie watches as Stans mouth moves 50 miles an hour and Bill rolls his eyes. They turn away from one another, and Richie shakes it off.

As everyone begins a new conversation about their collectively favourite parts of the show, Eddie snakes through them to give Richie a side hug, which surprises him, but leans into it nevertheless. Just as he pulls away though, Eddie punches him in the shoulder, and Richie yelps quietly.

Richie: The hell was that for, weirdo?

Eddie: Don't ever doubt yourself again, idiot. That was the best thing I've ever seen in my life.

Richie blushes, but rolls his eyes in an attempt to hide his expression. 'That's just because you've never seen a show before', Richie had it on the tip of his tongue, but he held it back and accepted the praise instead.

"Thanks," Richie laughs, shaking his head as Eddie and him join into the conversation the others are having. Something about Scene 7.

—

Richie sighs and plops himself onto his bed. He's fucking exhausted. His mind wanders for a second as he feels the comfort of his mattress engulf him. The losers had asked if he wanted to go to the diner, so he could treat himself while everyone else would chip in for it, but he declined, saying that he was too damn tired to move another limb, and that he'd need a rain check on that offer (despite having to ride back home on a bicycle in 30 degree weather).

He sighed deeper, and covered his chest with his blanket. That was probably the best performance he's ever done, aside from the comedy plays he's done in the past. He thinks it had something to do with all the newfound support from today. He's never had that many people cheer him on before. It felt... good. Really good. Foreign, but good as hell. Richie sure doesn't want it to go away anytime soon.

Just as he rolls onto his side, his vans dragging on the floor beside him, his door creaks open slowly. Richie looks up, and smiles tiredly as his mom toes over to his bed in her scrubs.

Technically she didn't really need scrubs for her job, because she never gets her hands dirty as a receptionist, especially here in Derry where nothing bad ever happens. He always thought of it as exaggerated, dramatic. Like they give her more credit than she deserves just by wearing that stupid bright purple uniform.

"Hey baby," she says, same raspy tired tone as usual. She settles on taking a seat on the very corner of his mattress, hugging her knees to her chest. "How was school?"

She only ever asked this maybe once a month, but Richie knows she easily gets annoyed by his blabbering, despite her positive attempts at being a good mother.

He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it and thought for a moment. I don't want to fucking guilt trip her for not going to my show. It's a normal occurrence at this point. She just couldn't make it, why bother to tell her about it?

"It was fine," Richie caught himself saying, before he even registered his mouth was moving. "Great, actually" he corrected, thinking back to his friends. He was so accustomed to saying ambiguously mysterious things in response to the question, that it was just muscle memory for him to say at this point. He smiles at the thought of it changing now. Today was great. Yeah, great.

——

One Week Later

"Gooood morning, shorty" Richie said, saluting Eddie as the shorter boy approached the door to the black box. Eddie raised his eyebrows, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What the hell are you doing? Tutoring is officially over, Tozier" Eddie said matter-of-factly, a smile on his face. Richie faked a pout.

"Yeah I'm aware, I was just waiting to open the door for the princess, that's all" Richie says dramatically, pushing the door wide and gesturing for Eddie to walk in.

Eddie punched him on the shoulder as he entered. "Ow! Again?!".

Richie: That's like the fifth time you've punched me in the past 24 hours!

Eddie giggled, making his way over to the back of the room and into his seat. Richie followed closely behind.

He knew that today the director would be announcing the new play they be doing for December and January. After a week of rest, everyone would easily be ready to get back into the game.

The bell rang. "Hello class" the teacher waved, coffee cup grasped tightly in hand. Everyone was on the edge of their seats. What's the next show going to be? I'm so ready for our new play to be announced! Whispers had rung around the class all damn week, and they'd been edged for too long.

"I'm sure you're all wondering what the upcoming show we're putting on is going to be,". All heads nodded eagerly, and many even verbally agreed. He smiled into his coffee cup, teasing.

"Oh just get on with it, Mister! Please!" Richie whined, throwing his head back. His legs were sprawled out on the chair in front of him, and his chair tipped back just slightly. Back to normal.

Everyone chimes in, agreeing with Richie as they always did. A mantra of begging from the entire classroom resulted in the director walking over to the board and picking up the dry erase marker.

The director stuck his tongue out at the class, before quickly writing in big bold letters, what seemed to be...

R-O-M-E-O

A-N-D

J-U-L-I-E-T

His handwriting may have been chicken scratch, but the entire class fell silent as he put the marker down and gazed upon them with an excited grin.

It wasn't until someone from the far left of the classroom groaned dramatically that the entire classroom broke out into a symphony of groans and laughter.

"Dude, that's so cliché," Jason spoke, giggling. Not even Richie could help letting out a few laughs. It truly was the most cliche thing for him to have picked that as their Winter play.

Eddie sat there, unsure of whether that was the reaction he should be giving as well. He actually loved Romeo and Juliet. He'd only ever read a little bit of the real thing, but it always got him all giddy, the idea of pursuing forbidden love. So romantic.

As the class finally quieted down, the director waved them off and went to settle back into his chair in the front of the room.

"I'm going to be completely honest with you guys," he sighed.

"As if you aren't always already" Richie mumbled loudly. The class chuckled quietly. The director rolled his eyes and made a throat slicing gesture to Richie, to which he responded to by pretending he was dying dramatically. Everyone laughed.

"Anyways, I don't want to hold auditions, because I'm lazy," he said that last part quickly. "I already know how all of you guys are up on stage with this kind of show at this point. But, let it be known that I will if I have to. So how about we take a poll?

"All in favor of having auditions for Romeo and Juliet?". Crickets chirped in the distance.

The director sighed, probably of relief. "All those in favor of... not... holding auditions?" The class immediately erupted into a song of agreement and excitement. If anyone had a chance to be in a show without auditioning, they'd be crazy not to take up on the offer. Auditions are the most nerve-racking part of anything ever.

Richie wooped as the director settled into his desk to write something down. Eddie snickered and rolled his eyes.

"Cast list should be posted maybe... today after school?". The class chattered with one another in excitement.

Richies head quirked up at the announcement. Today after school. Subtly, he glanced at Eddie in the corner of his eye, to find that Eddie was looking at him too.

He smirked.

——

"Ello fellow birds" Richie announced loudly, in a horrible british accent, as he settled into his seat around the table at lunch. Everyone greeted him, either with a low joking groan, or an unenthusiastic hello.

"Tough crowd" he sneered jokingly. Some people are having a bad day.

Eddie, sitting beside him, immediately turned to him and fell into talking about a class he couldn't stand earlier today.

Richie listener halfheartedly, letting him talk his own head off as he scanned the table. Abruptly, he noticed something off.

Ben is sitting in Mike's usual seat... that's weird. And Mike is sitting in Richies usual seat? That's when he realizes that he is sitting in Eddies seat. And that Eddie is sitting in Ben's seat.

And that it all leads to Stan sitting in Bills seat, and Bill sitting in Stan's seat, which is usually right next to Beverly.

Stan has his arms crossed over his chest, a slight scowl evident on his face as his eyes are trained on Bill.

Everyone is quieter today. Everything is skewed. The earth turned off its axis. And Bill is laughing and chatting with Beverly like everything is okay.

What the hell is going on? Richie thinks, rubbing the back of his neck as he stares blankly all around the table, the other losers silently eating their food. Bill and Eddie are the only ones talking through the silence.

"And when Addison broke the beaker, it took the teacher like, more than ten minutes to finally clean it up!" Eddie rambled. He was slightly quieter, even though he was still practically yelling at Richie. "That was a major fucking safety hazard! I could have slipped and fallen on the pieces of something!".

Richie: Uh hey, Eds?

Eddie: Don't call me that

Richie: Why's everyone so on edge today? Something goin' on?

Eddie paused for a moment, unsure of what he was talking about. Till he took one look around the table and nodded in understanding.

He leaned into Richies ear, "Bill's been acting all fuckin weird! Today, he sat in Stans seat and everyone got all thrown off". Richie listened, nodding along, but hoping it looked like mindless chatter to all the others.

"And he didn't even mention it! I suspect... that Beverly has got something to do with it" Eddie says, leaning away and eyeing the three teens on the other side of the table suspiciously.

Drama in the friend group.

That's something Richie hadn't even thought of up until now. This could be bad. Fuck, this could be fatal for all he knew. Stan and Bill are the ones who brought them all together, after all. Who knows what would happen if it reverses itself.

Or maybe he's just overthinking things again. Maybe he's way in over his head and everything is going to go back to normal by tomorrow. That should be Richies new philosophy at this point, 'Just Don't Think'. That ought to sum up his entire experience with the hyperactivity of his own brain.

So lunch went on that way. The full hour of hardly anyone speaking while the cafeteria blared with noise all around them.

Once the bell rang, they all parted ways without speaking,

Bill following Beverly closely behind.

——

"Ayo Kaspbrak!"

Richie pried through the ocean of teenagers, surfing his way down the hall over to the petite blonde in his eyesight.

Eddie didn't even need to turn his head before slinging his backpack off his shoulder, opening his locker, and sighing loud and clear. As loudly as he damn well could.

"Jesus Christ, I get it Eds, you're just mad that we finally got over our enemies phase and I'm an irresistible human being," Richie says matter of factly, his face smug as he leans on the locker beside him.

"Yeah, I know kid, your life is like, a trillion times better now because of me, no need to rub it in" Richie taunts

Eddie rolls his eyes, "Well actually quite the opposite, Tozier, because now I might have to actually play a role in Romeo and Juliet, which would be an absolute fucking travesty!" he explains in a rush, stuffing books and papers into his locker and running hands through his hair.

Richie: Yeah, that's the whole purpose of performance theatre, doofus.

Eddie: But what if I'm not ready?

Richie: Um, ouch? Are you seriously questioning my teaching abilities?

Eddie shut his locker and grabbed his backpack, finally looking Richie in the face, "I questioned everything the first day I met you, dear Richard".