im giving you this early because i feel like i made the goal too high lol

based on the edit above by @/fxltw on ig
set in modern time. also they're 18/19 in this

also just warning you, they just finally met by the end of this, this is kind of boring and doesn't have much reddie action but it's kind of the build up to part 2 so you'll get to see their impressions and thoughts about each other. there's a lot of riverly too 🥰

eddie sat in his bed and stared at the ceiling. it was december 1st and he didn't know what to do with himself. he was no longer in school since he graduated just seven months before, so this would be his first 'christmas time' without school, so he pulled an all-nighter; what other way was there to start off christmas? so here he was, at two in the morning.

he decided to go to the bathroom and then get a drink, waking himself up a bit. then he sat up and pulled out his laptop, going to youtube. he stayed awake the best if he watched youtube videos because time just flew, especially if they were good.

he normally had trouble finding things to watch since he only watched two youtubers who uploaded once a week. he uploaded his own videos aswell. he's always been interested in video recording, ever since he was around eight years old, but he didn't start a youtube channel until five years ago, when he was thirteen. he has gained about 226 thousand followers over the course of six years years, and he couldn't have been more grateful.

he scrolled through his recommended for a while to try to find something new to watch when he came across a video titled "baking a fucking cake."

it made him smile, he already had some interest in this person. he also looked at the thumbnail which displayed a picture of the boy, and he looked around his age. his name was richie tozier, apparently.

so he clicked on the video and watched it, then he watched another one and another one and another one. before he knew it, it was six am and he had watched every video on this guys channel. he fell in love with his humor first along with his personality, and he was quite attractive.

he yawned and tried to decide what to do with himself now. he commented on one of his videos, one of the first ones he watched, and typed, "your videos are really cool :)"

he genuinely wanted to be this guys friend, but he didn't know where he lived or if he would be interested, as he had over 560 thousand and he didn't know if he cared about numbers. he decided to put his laptop to the side and to go on his phone for a bit, looking up his Instagram account.

The same guy popped up and he immediately followed him, and he noticed that he already followed him back, which made him nervous, why did richie follow him? did he watch his videos too? this suddenly made eddie feel insecure about his whole youtube channel.

eddie sighed and scrolled through richies account, starting from the bottom and going up to see him change over time.

richietozier: i need a haircut lol

richietozier: help

richietozier: just fucked ur mom hehe

richietozier: me in birdbox 🤣🤣🤠👊🏻😳😎

richietozier: just spent 2 minutes reading an actual book. i deserve a break

richietozier: u can see here that i have a headache.

richietozier: chillin XD

eddie smiled to himself as he went through and shook his head when looking at all the pictures and reading the captions. he loved his personality so much and he couldn't believe how humble richie was. as someone with so many followers and subscribers, he was surprised at how unprofessional he was, but that's probably what everyone loves about him.

eddie put his phone down and went back to his laptop, seeing he got a notification.

richie actually replied to him. he replied to his comment. like only 20 minutes later. what the fuck?

"thanks! so are yours. wanna collab? ;)" he read. what the actual fuck? is this really happening?

over the course of a few hours, eddie has already gained a crush on him, and now he finds out richie watches his videos too? and he wants to collab with him? with a winky face?

"really?" eddie replied. he felt like he was dreaming.

"yeah! you're kinda cute :)" richie replied back after just two minutes, causing eddie to nearly faint.

He called me cute!! what the hell!!

eddie quickly went to his "about tab" and clicked the business email, instantly emailing him.

eddie: so... this whole collab thing. I've never done this before so i don't know how this will work.

richie: here, text me it's easier xxx-xxx-xxxx

eddie gulped and tried to get himself to chill out and stop being so nervous. if he was gonna see this guy in person then he could not be acting like this over just a text message.

a/n i seriously do not know how people work out collabs so im just taking wild guesses

eddie: hey! it's eddie

richie: hey eds, so you wanna collab then?

eddie: yeah sure, why not. also u can just call me eddie

richie: i'll stick with eds ! where do u live?

eddie: uh,, ok... and connecticut wbu ?

richie: tiny ass state. im in maine

eddie: don't insult my state like that

eddie: and good we don't live tooooo far away

richie: welllll I've never collabed before but

richie: shall i come to connecticut-a-bitch or u come to the sweet ol' state of maine buddy boy?

eddie: i guess i can come there? haven't traveled in a while so

eddie: but like what kind of video will we even film

richie: i just do vlogs and dumb shit

eddie: i do tutorials and ideas and share my hobbies and stuff so

richie: we could record a vlog for my channel and maybe like a contest of some sort for yours like some type of i don't know

eddie: thats helpful

eddie: maybe like

eddie: we should both try to do makeup lol

eddie: unless ur not into that

richie: i don't wear it but i have nothing against it. do you? cause if you already know how to put it on then that's an unfair advantage

eddie: no ive never used it before but it looks fun and ive always wanted to try something with it

richie: well looks like we know what we're filming !!!! so are you driving here? how old are u again?

eddie: yeah i'll drive. im 18

richie: noice im 19 and okie dokie

eddie: when should i even drive over? like idk

richie: maybe you could come within the next couple days and stay for like a week or two so we can film a bunch of videos together and also get to know eachother better :)))

eddie: ok, I'll get everything sorted within the next day or two and start my road trip!!

richie: can't wait to see u:)

eddie: you too :))

eddie smiled to himself and exited out of the messages app, thinking over everything that just went down. he would need to start planning what to pack to make sure he had everything he needed and he would have to find a place to stay. luckily he did make money off of youtube which made everything easier for him.

-

a week later, richie laid in the living room of his apartment at 6 pm and thought about eddie. his best and most supportive friend, beverly marsh, sat at the end of the couch with her feet up on the table. richie laid his head on her lap and practically forced her to play with his hair while he ranted about eddie.

"he'll be driving over tomorrow morning and im fucking scared like what am i gonna do? how does this work?" he asked, looking up at her face, which was sideways from the way he was laying.

"rich, you're overthinking it. just text him and figure out when he's settled in his hotel room and then you can discuss a meet up time where you can hang out and get to know eachother better." she said, gently untangling his curls.

"im so awkward though, i don't know how to talk to people. i feel like im a dry and sarcastic person with a dry sense of humor so hopefully i don't come across as bored or something."

"dude, you watch each other's videos. you know each other's personalities, somewhat. you'll be fine!!"

richie closed his eyes and sighed.

"I've been watching his videos for a while now so I don't want to fuck anything up."

"if you want, i can tag along when you first meet in person and hang out so i can help out if things get awkward." beverly suggested, resting her left hand on richie's chest and pushing his hair out of his face with her right hand.

"yeah, that'd be nice. I'd feel better if I had someone with me anyway." he said, yawning. she nodded, even though he can't see her with his eyes closed.

-

eddie texted richie beforehand to let him know he'd be leaving around 7 am which would make him arrive around 1 pm.

richie woke up at 9 am to beverly bursting into his room and screaming. they lived in the same apartment complex, she wasn't too far away from his room and he gave her a spare key incase she ever needed anything, even though she usually ended up sleeping over anyway. their friendship was weird and hard to explain.

"wake the fuck up!!! it's your big day! woo hoo!" she yelled, jumping into his bed and shoving the groaning boy to the floor.

"was that really necessary bev?" he said, slowly lifting himself off the floor and rubbing his eyes, flopping back down on the bed next to beverly.

"yes!! he's arriving in like four hours dumbass!" she replied, clearly more excited than he was.

"i could've slept for three more hours, dumbass." he said, continuing to rub his eyes.

"why are you so moody? you wake up between 9 and 10 naturally anyway. how late were you up?"

"seeing as i fell asleep on you at like 7 and slept till 10, when you had to leave, i didn't fall back asleep until ... let's see ... like 4 am."

"damn that sucks. well you're awake now! what should we do?" beverly said.

"i guess I'll text eds and see where he's at."

"oooh eds now huh? nicknames? hm"

"oh shuuuut up beverly you already know i like him. don't make it worse." he rolled his eyes, pulling out his phone.

richie: hey! where are u at? lmk when you're at a stop so i know ur okay :)

"well i guess im gonna take a shower or something, what are you gonna do?" richie asked her, standing up from his bed and stretching. he looked back down at his short-haired ginger friend who sat criss cross on his bed. she wore light grey joggers and a white t-shirt crop top that covered most of her stomach.

"probably straighten up a little incase u guys come here. don't want him seeing this mess as his first impression."

"his first impression is when he first sees me anyway, it wouldn't be here, but ok smarty pants." he replied, walking into the bathroom and starting his day off.

about an hour and a half later, richie got a text back.

eddie: hey! sorry for late reply. i stopped at a rest stop to get something to eat and drink, im over halfway there, probably gonna arrive around 1 ish like i thought :)

richie: ok! see u then. drive safe, lmk when u arrive

eddie: sure will, ttyl :)

-

"hooooly shit. holy shit. holy shit!" richie said nervously as he sat in the passenger seat of beverlys car, her driving him to Eddie's hotel.

"dude you need to calm the fuck down."

"I can't! I'm so nervous to meet him." he said, making a weird noise with his mouth that pretty much sounded like him internally screaming.

"If you're gonna be filming videos with him then you can't be acting like this."

"I know, I know, leave me alone." He said, pausing and looking out the window. "I'm hungry."

"Perfect! Great opportunity for you to take Eddie out for lunch."

"WHAT?" Richie yelled.

"I'm driving, asshole!" She screamed, sending him a glare. They arrived at the hotel, where Eddie was waiting outside.

Richie made eye contact with him and smiled awkwardly, feeling butterflies in his stomach as he actually saw him face to face. Eddie got in the back seat of the car.

"Hey guys!" Eddie said excitedly, sitting in the middle and leaning forward so he could talk to them. Richie turned to his side to face him and Beverly.

"Hey! So happy to finally meet you! I can't wait to do these collabs. This is my best friend Bev." Richie said awkwardly, pointing his thumb in her direction and then smiling at Eddie, taking in all his features that he never noticed on camera.

The boy had curly brown hair and soft brown eyes, but now that he was in person he could see them twinkling. he took notice of the boys naturally red lips, and he had a few freckles on them and along the bridge of his nose. He was pretty.

"So we were going to get something for lunch, you hungry?" Richie asked.

"Hell yeah, I'm starving. I had a bagel a few hours ago but that did nothing for me." Eddie replied.

"Great, lets go now then."

"Actually, I'm not feeling that well, you know. Girly things. So how about I drive back to our apartment complex and you take eddie in your car, Richie?" She lied, extremely believable.

Richie looked at her wide eyed, mouthing "what that fuck dude ?!" which caused her to smirk. She was lying. She didn't get her period for another week. Richie rolled his eyes, without eddie seeing.

"Alright, sure if that's okay with you?" He looked at eddie, saying it in the nicest way possible. She promised to go with him.

Once they arrived at their apartment complex, beverly got out of her car and locked it. Richie led Eddie to his car, that beverly cleaned for him beforehand, and told him he could get inside.

Once eddies car door was closed, Richie faced beverly, standing outside the car.

"What the fuck Beverly! You know I'm an awkward idiot who will mess this up so fast!"

"Come on man, you got this. I'm not into the whole YouTube thing, you guys are, so why don't you talk about that and start there?" She smiled,

"You promised to come with me for our first interaction or whatever so I wasn't awkward."

"That was your first interaction. And you were fine! Just let loose and be yourself, don't make this a whole professional ordeal, let him know you want to be friends and this isn't just for YouTube." She said, sighing and putting her hand on his shoulder.

"I hate you." He said, trying to look angry but there was a smile creeping up on his face. She leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Love you too. Have fun! Seeya later. Text me if you need help." She said, letting go of his shoulder and turning around to walk away, waving at him.

Richie sighed.

-

ok i wasn't gonna make a part 2, i was gonna have it all happen in this chapter but this is almost 3000 words and by the time it's done it'll be at like 7000 and we can't have that lol. I know this was kind of boring sorry

next oneshot out at 800-850 reads