it was friday, and I was in class with richie and eddie

we had theatre, and me and richie were outside the classroom practicing for an upcoming play we all had to audition for

it was a script that our teacher, mrs. byers, had written herself

'so, richie, who are you going to audition for?' I asked him

'the role inside of eddie's mom' he replied with a slight laugh

'ewww!' I told him as I playfully slapped his chest

we both went silent as we looked into each other's eyes

richie whispered a small,'you look beautiful, victoria'

i smiled while tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear

'you're blushing, hot stuff'

when richie said that, it made me blush even harder and we both laughed

he smiled at me and then grabbed my paper out of my hands,

'hey! give it backkk!' I said while laughing

'you'll have to pry it from my dry, cold hands!' he said with an accent

we were both laughing our heads off as I reached over to grab it but then he put his arm around my waist and pulled me in so I toppled on top of him

'what are you two kids doing out here?!' we quickly let go of each other and stopped laughing as mrs. byers came out of the classroom

richie coughed as we picked up our things and went into the classroom as the bell rang

'come on, victoria! do you want to go down to the meadows after school? we can drop of our stuff at my house,' richie asked

'of course, tozier' I said while laughing

once we got outside, we said goodbye to the others and biked back to richie's

we dropped off our things at his house and richie packed some food and drinks for us, and then left right after to go down to the meadows on the edge of town

when we got there, we both got off our bikes and then richie said,'come on, lets run right into the middle of the field and eat there'

i winked at him,'race you down there!' he laughed,'it's on!' he said while taking off

richie beat me there, but that was okay.

he sat down on the grass and laid out a blanket for us to sit on

once everything was ready, we sat down on the pink and white checkered picnic blanket that richie had brought for us

richie looked so cute today, he was wearing a white shirt with a hawaii button down that wasn't buttoned over it

'what are you looking at?' richie asked me

'just how cute you look today'

he smiled and blushed a little,'how about we open up the cherry cola?'

'of course, rich'

he picked up the bottle and struggled a little bit to open it, but succeeded after a few tries and poured it into two plastic cups he had also brought

he handed me the cup, and I drank it

i put the cup down and noticed that he was smiling at me,

'victoria, you look beautiful'

'thank you, richie'

'you're the best girl in the entire world and I couldn't be more happy to be here with you, right now'

'if only I could say the same to you, richie' I said while giggling a little bit

'heyyy that's mean' he said while fake pouting

'awh, richie. don't get sad! what can I do to make it up to you?' I said with fake vulnerability in my voice

'you could give me a kiss on the cheek?' he said

i slithered closer to him, and sat next to him and gave him a small kiss on the cheek,'all better?'

'it's all better when i'm with you' he smiled at me

we layed down together while cuddling and looking up at the sky

richie had his hands around my neck and waist, laying on his back, while I was facing him with my chest towards him, kinda half on top of him, and my arm was wrapped around his torso and my other hand was playing with his dark curly hair

i closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh air

with my eyes still closed, I brought myself closer to richie and laid there next to him, without a care in the world

'you look pretty even with your eyes closed' richie whispered in my ear

i smiled

we could hear cars driving by in the distance, but we didn't care about them right now

the only thing we cared about was each other, laying there in our arms, just taking in the other ones presence

my eyes fluttered open and I could see richie looking at something in the distance

we sat up as I asked him,'what are you looking at?'

he looked at me and then back at whatever he was looking at,'isn't that your brother's car?'

i shot up and looked in the distance to see what richie was talking about

'shit' I mumbled

it was steve's car

steve is my older brother, he cares about me so much,

but too much, he's super over protective of me

and if he ever figured out that I was with richie, I would die

it's basically only us that lives in our house, since our mom and dad both are nowhere to be found

they just send us money every week, and that's that

only a few people know that

some of steve's friends know, and bill and richie know

that's it

steve is what you call 'popular', he has great hair, great grades, and a great car

but enough about that, I could see steve's car pulling up, and him and his new friend billy walking out with a pissed off look on both of their faces

me and richie quickly got up and packed everything up

'richie, i'm so sorry, but run' I looked at richie

'no, victoria. I don't want you to get hurt, so i'm staying here' richie said to me as he went in front of me

steve and billy came closer and closer to us

did I mention that billy is henry's older brother?

'victoria mia miller! what the hell are you doing with this boy?!' steve yelled at me

'we weren't doing anything' I told steve

then, billy chimed in,'as if, what would two fourteen year olds be doing out on a meadow?!'

ugh, I really hate billy

'steve, come on. can't we just go now?' I pleaded

'no, victoria. not before this boy gets what he deserves' steve walked over past me and went towards richie

i ran after him,'no, steve! please don't touch him!' I yelled after him

but, then billy grabbed my arms and held me back

as I was forced to watch my older brother beat up the person that meant the most to me in the entire world

on the way back to our house, steve dropped billy off at his house

'steve, why couldn't I just have biked home?'

steve looked at me in the mirror of the car,'because then you would've gone back with him. and don't worry, i'll drive you to school tomorrow and you can pick up the bike after school. speaking of school, where's your backpack?'

'um, its in my locker at school.. we didn't have any homework so I just left it there'

he nodded while looking out on the road,

after a few minutes of silence, steve spoke up,'you shouldn't be hanging out with those boys. they aren't good for you. soon enough, they're gonna develop feelings towards you and force you to do things for them'

i slumped back into my seat and mumbled in a low voice,'richie would never do that. it's only henry bowers that has tried to'

steve looked up at me with concern and anger spread all over his face,'what did you just say?'

i looked up at him and didn't respond

'victoria, tell me' he started to raise his voice

'nothing, just forget it'

he kept on driving

i walked into the doors of the school and saw henry bowers leaning up against a locker with his little 'gang'

quickly, I walked past them, but one of them followed me to my locker

it was patrick

i turned around quickly and snapped at him,'what do you want?!'

he stepped back and laughed,'I just wanted to ask you where your boy toy was'

i rolled my eyes,'shut up, he's not my boy toy. we're just friends'

he smiled at me and came closer to my face,'well that's so funny that you're saying you guys are just friends, now go away'

with a weird look on my face, I walked through the doors into the part of the school where there weren't lockers, just classrooms and the cafeteria and gym, and then walked to science class

richie was already there when I had arrived, and he gave me my backpack from yesterday

'richie, your eye' I said to him as I brushed my hand over a bruise that had formed under his eye

'oh, that? it's nothing' he said, reassuring me. I could tell it hurt, and also that he didn't want to talk about it, he didn't want to show me it hurt

'i'm sorry, rich' I said in a quiet voice

he grabbed and held my hands and looked into my eyes,'don't be, vic.' with a smile

i hugged him and tightly wrapped my arms around him as if if it was too lose, he'd leave me

he wrapped his arms around mine, and I rested my head in the nook of his shoulders, inhaling his scent

i wish I could've stayed in his arms forever, but we had class and we had to get started on our project

'richie, do you want to go get my bike at the meadows?' I asked him

'no, because I brought it back to my place so it wouldn't get stolen yesterday'

smiling, I replied,'oh richie, what would I do without you?'

he got onto his bike and I sat behind him, with my arms tightly wrapped around him

'i'll never let go of you richie' I whispered

'what'd you say, vic?'

'nothing, let's go before henry comes after us'

he nodded, and biked off to his house

when we got there, I could see my bike parked in his garage and hugged him tighter

not because I was scared of falling off, but simply because I didn't want to lose this kid

we got off the bike and went inside the house

'hello, mrs. tozier'

'well what a pleasent surprise, victoria! how long are you staying, since I need to know how many people I'm cooking for for dinner?'

i bit my lip and looked at richie,'is it okay if I sleep here?'

'of course, just no naughty stuff, the walls are paper thin here' she said and winked

so that's where richie gets it from

my face turned super red, and then I rushed richie into his room to get away from the awkward situation

we were both laying on his bed, not saying anything while reading some of richie's old comics

well, richie was. I was on my side, just admiring richie's facial features

he's so beautiful

richie turned over and put his comic down and looked at me while smiling,'wow, thanks for the compliment; but you're still the most beautiful girl in the entire world that i've ever laid my eyes on'

'did I just say that out loud?' my whole face turned red as I realised what I had said

'yup' richie said while smiling and inching towards me

he wrapped his arms around me, my face buried in his chest

while smelling his sweater, I noticed something,'richie, are you wearing cologne? you never wear cologne'

he let his arms go a little bit, but they were still wrapped around me as he smiled sheepishly and said,'I wanted to impress you, I guess'

i smiled,'you don't have to impress me, rich. I like you for who you are, no matter what you do'

his smile grew big,'you mean so much to me, vic'

he leaned in, and then I did too

it was as if fireworks exploded everywhere around us