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Fake: not genuine; imitation or counterfeit.
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Richie smiled self-consciously at the boys for a few seconds while he waited for them to talk, as they had been staring at him blankly for a while.

"So, when do you give us the money?" One of them spoke up, raising an pierced eyebrow at Richie, waiting for him to chicken out. With nobody ever really speaking to the gang of boys, making a deal with them seemed strange to them. Especially because it was over a boy. "Or do we have to wait for the money? You should know, I hate waiting." He added in, rolling his eyes.

Richie copied his action and rolled his eyes, "I'll get it for you tomorrow morning. If you would like to meet me at the school gates at eight o'clock, I'll have it. How much do you guys want again?"

"We want fifty quid each." The skinny one piped up. "We'll leave the weirdo alone, but can't promise we'd be nice if he spoke to us, he was no fun anyways; always cried." Richie resisted the urge to defend Eddie but he pushed it down to the bottom of his chest. This was more important.

Besides, he wasn't in love with Eddie. He could cope.

He wasn't in love with the things Eddie did, or the way he spoke, or the way he moved. But today, Eddie would just simply look at him in the eyes, and somehow all of Richie's breath would be taken away. Somehow he just felt right with him.

However he wasn't in love with him. He hasn't even known him that long anyways, sure he'd met him at the shop and today, but that's it. In reality, that's two days. Well, if you don't count the days Richie thought about him, because that would be a lot more than just two days.

Richie doesn't understand those who love. Why put yourself through that much pain when they'd just leave you at the end? Surely it's better just not to fall in love with people, because if there's no people to fall in love with, there's no-one to hurt you.

Yes he understands love. It's a feeling, everybody has felt it sometime in their life. Whether they are little or old, love is the same regardless. He just doesn't understand why people want to fall in love. Why people go out searching, desperately, trying to find their one true love.

It's not Snow White, someone just can't kiss you and make your problems go away. Sometimes they create the problems when they kiss you.

Being hidden away for so long, Richie hadn't had the chance to fall in love. He knew he loved his parents, obviously - but that was a different type of love. And he was fine how he was.

Even if he did fall in love with Eddie, or anybody, it was unlikely any of them could like him back. He's lied to everybody. He's a fraud. He's a liar. But he's also Richie Toizer, a prince, a leader. A friend.

He wasn't in love with Eddie. He assured himself it was just a silly crush that will fade away soon.

All the guys nodded and muttered small words of approval before turning around and continuing walking almost like nothing had ever happened.

Suddenly a thought hit him, "Wait!" He shouted out to them, making some of them turn around. "You can't, whatever you do, tell Eddie about this or I'll tell someone that you stole my money." He threatened.

"Why they gonna believe the scrawny ass rich kid?" The guy on the left spat out, smirked.

Richie simply smirked, "I have my ways."

The boys groaned, "Whatever. But we don't start being nice to the fairy until we get our money. Also we won't go out of our way to be nice to him, got it?" They told him. Richie nodded again and the gang of boys turned around and carried on walking again.

Richie decided that he definitely did not want to walk home with them, so he made a decision to go the longer way around. Eddie was right, they do walk the same direction as he does and, that is certainly a bad thing.

He wasn't worried at all about the money he now owed. He had loads, stacks even of it everywhere. You'd think that it was a good thing, but to him once again, it wasn't. It was so much pressure owning that much money, as he knew money could do many things. It could help people, and it could also do the opposite.

He always thought of money as that one episode of SpongeBob. SpongeBob gets millions of money, and when everybody finds out they all want to be his friend just for his money. So they ask him for things, he gives them it as they are his 'friends' and as soon as he runs out of money they all leave him.

That is just one of the reasons he doesn't want people knowing about his true identity, people are greedy.

He finally arrived home after his long walk home of thinking. He stepped inside and closed the door, letting the warm air gather around him. Eleanor rushed towards Richie as soon as she heard the door close.

"Where were you then?" She asked him with a smirk. "Found someone already?" Eleanor teased, her dimples showing as she smiled widely.

Richie rolled his eyes playfully, "I can assure you, that's definitely not what happened. I needed to use the lavatory and I couldn't wait, so I went back into school to find them and it took me a while." He said as he neatly hung his school bag on the coat hanger.

Eleanor watched him with her eyes wide open and her nose scrunched up, "What you doing that for?" She asked him.

"You mean going to the lavatory? It's normal you know." Richie told her. He placed his shoes side by side.

Eleanor shook her head, "No!" She commented. "Being all neat and stuff. Like why you hanging your school bag on the coat hanger? What? Calling it a lavatory? I call it the dumper. You don't need to be polite around me, you aren't in the castle anymore." Eleanor told him, watching his face instantly change. "Also you don't need to talk so formal."

"But..." He trailed off, struggling to find his words. "I've spent my whole life learning to be neat and tidy. To throw that away would be just silly!" He quickly changed his tone, "I'm sorry that upsets you at all!" Richie squeaked out.

Eleanor sighed, "Don't apologise, you didn't do anything wrong! Look, all I'm saying is you can loosen up around me. I'm not going to do anything. Want to swear? Whatever. I'm not here to make you do things the way I want you to, I'm here to support you and look after you."

"But Eddie said..." Richie blurted out suddenly, quickly covering his mouth with his hand straight afterwards.

Eleanor raised an eyebrow, a smirk settling on her lipstick-covered lips again, "Is that a little crush you have there? Or are you blushing for no reason?"

Richie shrugged, "I don't know what you're talking about. I never said anything." He lied as his face turned blank and he breathed out heavily.

Eleanor narrowed her eyes at him, "why do you look like a naughty kid who's been caught with their hand in the cookie jar?" She asked only to be responded by Richie with a shrug.

Her smile disappeared, "You did something bad, didn't you?" He gazed down to the floor, and she sighed deeply before putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Why don't we sit down on the sofa, I'll make you a hot chocolate and you can tell me about your day? Does that sound good?" Eleanor asked him.

Could he trust her? He knew he couldn't trust that gang of boys, but who else could he trust?

He was staying in her home, he told himself. Stop being so stupid and so damn closed off.

That's the problem, he decided. That's what it's been all his life. He puts no trust in people and when he finally does, they let him down.

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