Chapter 16

The ice cream place was long forgotten, and the boys spent a good few hours in the field with the sheep. Mike and ben bent over double laughing, watching Richie chase eddie around with a large stick he'd found.

They had walked into the field, and Mike had hopped onto one of the many haystacks that lay near the sheep. Ben did the same getting comfortable on the tall block and he and Mike smiled at each other, breaking into conversation.

"Aren't you guys coming up?" Ben asked a few minutes later, watching Richie and eddie from a metre above them. 

"Aren't you guys coming down? What are you gonna do sitting up there?," Richie asked with an eyebrow raised, 

"Uh-," mike began

"Embrace the nature," Richie interrupted, spinning around with his arms stretched out and eyes closed, "Smell the fresh...shitty air," he wrinkled his nose in disgust as a particularly large sheep came by him, that looked like it had spent an eternity bathing in mud, pushing him aside to go and stand with its other sheep friends. Eddie laughed at the other boy, who was checking his trousers for mud stains and narrowing his eyes at the sheep, "You can stay down here with the shitty air, I'm gonna climb,"

"Oh yeah? And how are you gonna do that shortstack?" Richie asked, turning around with half a smirk

"Puh-lease, I am not that short,"

"Let's see you do it then," 

"I can, Mike, Ben help me up-," 

"On your own."

Richie crossed his arms, a full smirk on his face, knowing full well that Eddie wouldn't be able to get onto the haystack Eddie turned to Richie and narrowed his eyes, "I can do this, just watch dickhead, I am not short,"

"You kind of are-" Ben began when a nudge from Mike and a glare from Eddie shut him up.

"You can do this Eddie," he said meekly

Eddie puffed out his cheeks, and shifted his weight from the balls of his feet, almost jumping side to side on the spot, "I can do this," he whispered to himself. And then, he did something unimaginable, something unthinkable, something astounding, to even Richie. He took off his fanny pack. "You're taking off the fanny pack," Richie asked amused and impressed, "You don't have to do that Ed's, I was just kidding-"

"Shut up," Eddie said harshly, "I am not short. And I will be proving that to you morons,"

And with that, he groped at the edge of the haystack and did his best to pull himself up. He grunted and groaned and even tried swinging his leg over but after a solid minute of trying his still couldn't jump high enough to get his hands to sit flat on the surface at the top so that he could heave himself on. All the other boys were biting the insides of their cheeks, covering their mouths with their hands, trying to do anything that would stop them from bursting out into laughter, and when Eddie noticed he let out a sigh of defeat, "You guys need to shut the fuck up, I'm almost there .... look" 

He jumped for the last time and by some miracle, managed to grab onto the side of the haystack, far enough to hold himself up. 

Everyone stared shocked.

"I DID IT," he exclaimed a triumphant grin lighting up his face as he hung from the edge of the stack, feet dangling in the air.

Richie gaped with his mouth open, amazed that the small boy had actually done it, the block of hay was at least a foot taller than him

"I DID IT RICHIE," Eddie carried on, "HA SUCK ON THAT I DI- .... oh no," a panicked look crossed Eddie's face, and his smile was wiped off. His fingers began to slip, and his eyes widened, "No no no no RICHIEEEE.... RICHIE GET HERE HELP ME UP, IM GONNA FALL COME HERE RIGHT NOW,"

An alarmed Richie immediately ran over not hesitating to grab Eddie's legs and try and hoist the small boy onto the haystack.

"EDS ARE YOU HOLDING ON?"

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK?"

"WELL HOLD HARDER YOUR SLIPPING," 

"DONT YOU THINK I KNOW THAT IM FUCKING TRY- AAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!!!!!!!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!!!!!!!!" The both let out a scared yell as Eddie's upper arm strength gave in, he let go with a screech, falling backwards, and the boy's collapsed on top of each other. Now for the third time that day, Richie ended up, on the ground, but this time, with Eddie on top of him. His ear's rung a little, and he could just about make out the panicked voices of people a little way off.

The boy's chest was pressed firmly against Eddie's and needless to say, they were both breathing very hard, they could practically hear each other's hearts pounding. Now it was hard to tell whether this was from the shock of the fall, the hard impact of their bodies hitting the ground... or from something else. Eddie's legs were slotted in between Richie's, and their hips rubbed against each other's as Eddie shifted, groaning, making a weak attempt to move, and then falling limp again, and Richie, suddenly becoming aware of this, didn't think it felt too bad... he didn't actively think this no, it was, of course, a subconscious thought, but he made no hurry in getting up off the ground. 

Eddie, once again, made another noise that sounded like he was in pain, and this time, managed to tilt his head up slightly. His head had been pressed up against Richie's chin, and he lifted it up slowly, his breath hitching when he realised just how close his face was to the other boy's.

 Hardly centimetres apart. 

He looked into Richie's eyes, saying nothing, making no attempt to move, although he wanted to, he just couldn't . Richie stared back for a few seconds and moved his own head slightly closer to Eddie's. He was about to say something, when he paused for a few seconds, thinking that he saw Eddie's eyes flicker down to his lips, but he could easily have been mistaken. . Eddie's heart sped up watching Richie stare into his eyes, but why? Why did it do that? Why did it feel like it was about to fall out of his chest? Why was it getting harder to breathe? Did he need his inhaler?

It was probably just the adrenaline of the fall.

He scanned Richie's face, eyes lingering a little longer on his lips, as the other boy licked the, lightly, Eddie didn't know that though, he didn't actively do it, just a subconscious thing. He watched as those lips broke into a smirk, and as quick as ever set his eyes back on Richie's. Richie grinned, and then propped himself on his elbows, "Damn Ed's you look good on top of me," 

Eddie's eyes widened, the beating in his chest becoming faster, and the lightest blush taking over his cheeks

just the fall it's the adrenaline just the fall just the fall 

"But not as good as your mom does every night." ... Did this immediately snap Eddie out if whatever trance he was in? 

Absolutely.

"Oh for god's sake," he muttered, blinking rapidly, he shoved Richie away from him and stalked towards his fanny pack, leaving the taller boy cackling on the ground. "Are you guys alright?" a concerned Mike ask, coming over to help Richie up, whilst Ben rushed over to Eddie to see if he had hurt himself. The short boy bent down to pick up his fanny pack, and fiddled with the straps, tightening it on his waist, and murmured, "I'm fine thanks Ben," he eyed the boy who lay still howling away on the ground, "Richie's just an annoying arsehole," 

Ben watched the boy rolling about in the ground, laughing at whatever he had said as if he was the world's funniest comedian, and cringed a little "Tell me about it," he replied to Eddie

The smaller boy stopped what he was doing and looked over at Ben shocked, sure Richie was annoying, but Ben had only known him for a few hours, he couldn't judge his whole personality based off of one interaction.

Don't act like that's not what you did Eddie's subconscious whispered Shut up, he told himself, I'm different, but Ben isn't. What do you mean different? Shut the fuck up.

Eddie blinked a few times staring hard at the pudgy boy in front of him, Did he really just say that? Did he? 

For some reason, unknown to him and his subconscious, it made Eddie really mad, Richie slander was not acceptable, unless it came from him.

And suddenly, his flustered attitude changed to angry in a split second, and he narrowed his eyes at ben, with his lips in a hard line. 

"Say that again. I fucking dare you." 

Ben looked back with slightly widened eyes, now realizing that he had gravely mistaken Eddie's sarcasm towards Richie for real hate

"I didn't mean it," he spluttered, "I was just trying to join in with the jokes-"

"Well stop." Eddie wasn't having any of Ben's bullshit. 

"I'm sorry Eds I-"

"Don't call me that. Richie's the only one that does that."

Why are you suddenly so protective of that stupid nickname?

You hate it

"Didn't I say to shut the FUCK UP," except this time, Eddie said it out loud, he hated talking to himself, it made him feel insane, and poor ben looked terrified.

"Shit sorry," he mumbled, "I won't call you that again." ... "How are we here guys," Richie and mike walked over, Richie stumbling a little and laughing as Mike stopped him from falling headfirst into a fat sheep. The boy grabbed onto mike's shoulders and giggled about how fat the sheep were, and Mike sighed, but nevertheless, laughed along with Richie, because he found the boy quite amusing.

"How are we here guys," Richie grinned

"Great." Eddie replied with a false smile, "Hey rich, I'm leaving now but thanks for the....eventful day,"

"Aw c'mon Ed's are you mad that you couldn't climb the haystack," He reached out to poke Eddies face, and Eddie slapped the boy's finger away from him, flipping him off while he did so, and then turned around, stalking off down the path. 

"Don't worry Ed's you'll get there someday," the boy called from behind Eddie as the shorter one started to get smaller and smaller in the distance.

"See you Monday!" Eddie called back, he had a lot on his mind, and needed to go home and think.

"Call me when you get home kaspbrak," Richie yelled watching eddie disappear out of view. 

"He looked a bit worked up didn't he," Richie mentioned to the Ben and Mike, who nodded.

"Couldn't imagine what it could be," Ben said quietly

"Well see you Monday Ben, and I'll see you some other time too Mike, thanks for lunch," And Richie too, walked off down the path. 

"They're fun to hang around, aren't they?" Mike said to ben, watching Richie skip onto the main road and carry on skipping until he too disappeared around the block.

Ben gave no answer, but instead, thanked Mike for lunch and started to his own house. Yes, he wanted friends, but Richie and eddie were not what he had in mind, Eddie seemed too angry all of the time, and Richie...well he just seemed plain stupid. What could ben do? Well, nothing at the moment that's for sure, he'd just have to put up with them, if he didn't plan on getting slaughtered by Henry bowers.

A/N 

I haven't checked through anything 

Stay safe and healthy besties, IM PROUD OF YOU ALL <33