you began to feel like home- reddie

chapter 10

"Richie, wake up." Richie groans, rolling over. He hears a sigh before his arm is punched lightly. He groans before lifting his head up to see all of his friends around his bed, with a cake in between them grinning. Eddie and Beverly are holding the cake, while stan is holding balloons and Mike has Bevs camera. Ben is singing, holding onto Bill as the boy smiles at him. Richie is sitting up, putting his glasses on and smiling at them all. They all start singing, voices cracking at his name slightly as he blows out the candles and laughs  as Eddie gags at the spit getting on his top. Everyone else joins in on his laughter as they pull him out of bed.

"Why are you all here?" Everyone has a slice of cake by now, some even finished with theirs. Ashley is sitting next to Eddie on the floor in front of him while Beverly and Ben are too his left and Stan, bill and Mike to the right. Eddie looks up, grinning with a bit of blue icing around his mouth. "We wanted you to feel special on your big day Rich." He says, before going back to his cake. Richie just laughs, before looking down. "You guys do know my birthday is tomorrow right?" Richie says, his face scanning over all of them. "Nope, it's the 10th. Has been every single year." Beverly says, stealing his glasses. Richie huffs, trying to get them back from him as he leans over to Eddie, putting them on him.

"Rich you must be really blind oh my god." He laughs, pulling the glasses off and handing them back to him. "Am not." "Are to." "Am not." "Are to." "Just shut the fuck up both of you." Stanley says, hitting them both round the head. Eddie sends him a death glare while Richie just rubs his head laughing.

"Thank you guys though, really." He says, smiling before taking one last bite of his cake. He gets a few ,,Of course'' back and a few laughs before he stands up, collecting plates and walking into the kitchen to clean them. Just then Ashley comes rushing through, pushing him out of the way claiming it's her day to do it, ushering him when he tries to talk back. "It's your special day, no dish washing." She says, before he just shrugs and walks back into the living room to see his friends all snuggled up while flicking through the channels on his Tv. He takes his seat again, resting his feet on Eddies head only to have them shoved off, followed by a ,,Fuck off Richie'' which made him laugh loudly.

——————-

"Has anyone seen Eddie?" Richie asks, Wednesday lunchtime to the group, as they sat down at their spot. Everybody nods their head in no's before Stan looks like he has an idea. "It's the 13th." He says quietly, not knowing anyone had heard. Richie being closest had heard him, mumbling a quick ,,Shit'' before Stanley got up. "I feel really sick, i'm going to go to medical." He says, waving everyone off.
"Stan, let me walk you. We don't want you fainting or anything." Richie says, laughing slightly. He waves everyone else off before running up to meet Stan, his face looking pale.

"You said it's the 13th Stan, did you not?" Richie says, trying to get the boy to talk. "Why does that matter?" Stan says, looking over at him. Richie sighs, pulling his glasses up before talking again. "He told me Stanley, called me crying the other week about it." Stan looks like he's about to faint, so Richie puts his hands around his shoulders as they walk through the door into the cafeteria. They run into the bathrooms, Stanley running into the closet stall and heaving up his lunch. Richie winced, as he stood outside the door whispering comforting things to him, like he did when Ashley used to be sick as a child.

When the boy finally came out, he almost fell into Richies arms, falling limp. He dragged him out of the boys toilets, and leading him through the school halls to medical. He knocked on the door awaiting a teacher and then he's faced with Mr smith, the medical man. He takes Stanley in while Richie explained to him what had just happened in the bathrooms. "Thank you for bringing him, he's going to have to be sent home." Richie nods, before going outside again.

He feels around for a quarter in his pocket, approaching the phone box just near the exit of the school. He put the coins in, ringing up Eddies number waiting anxiously for an answer. "Hello?" He hears a soft voice on the other side, sighing in relief that it wasn't the boys mother that answered. "Hey Ed's." He says quietly, a smile crawling onto his face. "Richie?" Eddie asks, a yawn coming from the other side of the phone. "Yeah buddy, it's me. Are you holding up okay?" He asks, looking around to see if anyone was near. Surprisingly this part of the outside area was empty, except from the group of nerds who were doing their homework on a bench not in hearing distance. "Yeah Rich, i'm okay." He says, his voice quiet through the machine. "Can i come round to yours after school?" Richie asks, the machine signalling he only has 30 seconds left of the call. "Yeah, my mums not going to be home today so you could stay over if you wanted." He hears, he smiles quickly before agreeing and hanging up, running back over to the group. He explains about stan before sitting down and joining in the conversation all while grinning like a mad person.

———————-

Richie drops his bike on the grass, going to knock on the door. When he opens it, Eddies there, his face all scrunched up along with his clothes. Well not really clothes, he's in pyjamas. He yawns, letting the boy in. "Hey, i picked you up a gift on the way here." Richie says, holding out a hand with a bracelet in it, a chain hanging from it. The chain read ,,You're the best'' Eddie smiled, before slipping it on over his hand to his wrist.  "Thank you," His voice is laced with sleep as he walks upstairs, Richie following him. "Mum won't be back until tomorrow, but we'll be at school so it's fine." He says, opening the door to his room.

This is the first time Richie's been in Eddies room, so he walked in slowly examining it. Eddie had band posters hanging from his wall, and star wars bedding. Richie laughed a little before looking around again. He noticed a skateboard against the wall, a few pieces of paper pinned around it. He walked over, seeing little drawings before Eddie coughed, pulling the attention back to him. Richie looked over, before seeing that Eddie was holding out a comic. He walked over, examining it. "You uh, you let me borrow it the other week. I finished it now." He says, smiling slightly before sitting down on his bed. The boy just smiles, reaching into his bag before pulling a few more comics out while grinning at him.

———————-

Richie bolts awake, his body shaking slightly. He's rubbing his eyes, looking over at the boy sleeping soundly next to him. He sighs in relief, reaching over and putting his glasses on, squinting when he adjusted to the light of the bathroom. Eddie said he needed a new lamp, so they kept the bathroom light on for the night because Eddie hates sleeping in the dark (for reasons Richie has still not found out.) He slowly gets out of bed, walking into Eddies bathroom to pee. When he walks back out again, The boy is stirring from his sleep, rolling over to find Richies body not there. He then sits up blinking at Richie tiredly. He waves a little before Eddie holds out his arms, wanting Richie to come back and lay with him.

Richie slides back under the covers as Eddie flops his head under his chin. His hand is balled up in Richies shirt as he's sighing, falling back asleep quickly. Richie kisses his hair softly, leaning his own head on there before falling back asleep.