you began to feel like home- reddie

chapter 6

"What do you mean?" Richie asked, his throat feeling dry. Stanley just sniffed again, wiping at his face. He looked back at Richie before sighing. "Sometimes, his mum she uh." He starts, looking away. Richie looks at him expectingly, for him to continue. "She makes him take these pills. She says that he has all these illnesses, which he knows he doesn't have. But if he doesn't take them, or refuses to she." He stops, trying not to cry again. Now Richies nibbling on his nails, trying not to get worried.

"She locks him in his room for a day, until he agrees to take the pills."
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"LET ME OUT!" Eddie screams, kicking on his door. He can hear his mother on the other side of the door, starting to walk away. He sobs, leaning against the door as he slides down it. He cries in his arms, and he hears the phone go off. He had called stan the night before, telling him how he was going to defy against his mother, and made the boy worried. He knew it would be him, who else would call. So when he heard his mother unplug something, he knew it was the phone.

He sighed, wiping his eyes. He tugged on his hair, trying to stop crying. But at this point he couldn't breath, reaching into this pocket for his inhaler. He took a few sharp breaths, while still crying. He tried calming himself down by drawing circles on the floor, which eventually worked. He then took another breath from his inhaler, before standing on shaky legs.

He walked into the bathroom, to clean himself up. He wiped his face with a flannel, before drying it and facing himself in the mirror. His eyes were puffy, and red. He just stared until he heard something against his window. He jumped at the sound, before slowly looking round the corner of the bathroom door. To his surprise, he saw a mop of black hair, making him gasp. He quickly ran over to the window, climbing atop his bed to open it.

As soon as he did, two people climbed through. Stanley, and Richie. As soon as they were through, Stanley ran up to the boy, grasping him into a hug and starting to cry lightly. He held the boy back tightly, putting his head into his neck. As they pulled away Richie walked up to him, analysing his face. "Are you okay?" He asked, his face filled with worry. Eddie smiled, before nodding. The three of them sat on his bed in silence, with Eddie fiddling with his hands while Stanley looks towards the floor and Richie was looking at Eddie.

"I told him what happened." Stanley says, lifting his head towards Richie. Eddie swallowed, then laughed lightly. "I figured. Otherwise you wouldn't have snuck through my window." The three laugh lightly at that, and then go back into silence. "I don't want to keep taking them." Eddie confesses, sniffing and looking at the two. His eyes were welling with tears as he looked at them. Stanley put his head against Eddies shoulder, while Richie got in front of him. He put his hands on Eddies knees, looking at him. "You don't have too, because we're getting you out of here. You're staying at mine until halloween is over." He says.

Eddie immediately gasps, before talking rather fast. "I could never do that Rich, i'd be invading your personal space and what would your parents say about it?" He asks, looking towards him. Richie laughs at him, before talking again. "One, you won't be invading my space at all, we have a spare room. And two, my dad is on a business trip and my mums out of town visiting my cousins. So they won't know." He says, taking ahold of Eddies hands.

In the next few minutes, Eddie has a bag packed with clothes he can wear for the next few days, his inhaler and some stuff he got from the bathroom. And then, They're out of the house. This isn't the first time he's snuck out, he did it in the summer holidays to go to Bill's birthday party. He closed his bedroom window before sliding down to the edge of his low roof, and jumped down. He barley landed, grabbing his bike and starting to ride.
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It's the middle of the night when Richie hears his bedroom door open and then close. It wakes him up slightly, as he turns over and turns his lamp on. He grabs his glasses and fixes them onto his face before his eyes adjusted in front of him. Eddie is standing there, in just a shirt and boxers. Richie tries not to look surprised, as he sits up properly and pats the spot next to him on the bed. Eddie slowly walks over, his feet padding on the floor quietly. He sits against the pillows next to Richie, not looking at him. "I had a nightmare." Eddie says, barley auditable. Richie just sucks in a breath, looking at the boy. He looks tired, the bags under his eyes shining under the dim light.

Richie just slowly lies down, looking at the boy. Then he feels him move down next to him, looking him back in the eyes. And then, those eyes close, as a breath leaves Eddies mouth. Richie lifts his arm over the boy, going to turn the lamp off. Just then, he shots up, his eyes wide shaking his head. "Light on. Please." It's the look in his eyes tell Richie he's scared, so he just lays back down slowly moving his arm away from the lamp. Eddie settles back down, closing his eyes again. After a few minutes, his breathing evens out signalling to Richie that he's fallen back asleep. He sighs, rolling over and falling back asleep.

The next morning, he wakes up to find Eddie is gone, and not beside him. So he thinks it's all a dream until he hears his door open to see the boy standing there again. He sits up, facing him. Eddies holding a bowl, with cereal in it. He sits down next to Richie, eating quietly. "Where did you get that?" He asks, looking at the cereal. Eddie gives him a confused look. "From the kitchen?" He says, his tone as confused as his face as he takes another spoonful. "No, no i mean how did you get it?" Richie asks, getting the water from his side and opening the lid. "Oh," Eddie says, wiping his mouth as there was a bit of milk dripping off his chin. "Your sister made if for me." He says casually, going back to eating it as Richie chokes on the water he's drinking. "Ew, that's gross" Eddie says, moving away from him while Richie coughs.

"My sister? I thought we said she wasn't going to know you were here." He says, coughing in between a little. Eddie just looks at him. "We walked into the kitchen at the same time, she didn't question anything though. Just made me cereal and sent me on my way." He says, going back to his nearly eaten cereal. Richie just hums at that, crawling down to the bottom of the bed to get off without climbing over Eddie. He gets up and stretches while yawning, before heading out of the door. "Stay in here while i go explain to Ash." He says, before leaving the room.

Downstairs, his sister playing a video game on their console, destroying the controller with how hard she's tapping it. Richie takes it out of her hand, pausing the game. She just looks up at him with a glare on her face. "Who's that boy." She asks, looking round the corner up the stairs. Richie just snaps his fingers to get her attention back towards him. "That's Eddie. He's my friend and he's going to be staying here until Sunday at least." He says, passing the controller back to her. She looks shocked at that. "But that's after halloween?" She says her face unreadable. He just nods, before starting to walk out of the room. "My friends are coming over tomorrow for halloween, so if you want to go trick or treating you'll have to leave before 8:30." He says, laughing when he hears her groan.

Once back in his room, he sees that Eddie is done with his cereal and is now in different clothes. He's in a stripy black and white t-shirt, with a nirvana shirt on top. He's wearing a pair of black jeans, and his hair still looks messy like he hadn't brushed it. "So, Eddie spaghetti." He starts, walking over to him. He hears Eddie sigh, then looking over at him as he sits down on the end of his bed looking at him. "What do you want to do today?" He asks, smiling while pulling his glasses up. Eddie thinks for a moment, before his face turns smug.

"Can you skate?"

"Of course i can."

"Show me then."