𝔸 ℝ𝕠𝕤𝕖 𝔹𝕪 𝔸𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 ℕ𝕒𝕞𝕖 - reddie

#𝟙𝟚: 𝕃𝕖𝕥'𝕤 𝕋𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕆𝕗𝕗 𝕆𝕦𝕣 𝕊𝕙𝕚𝕣𝕥𝕤 𝔸𝕟𝕕 𝕂𝕚𝕤𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕟, ℍ𝕦𝕙?

"Hold on- Bill, I'm drunk out of my mind, but I'm almost positive that I saw a book with your goddamn name on it in a Goodwill once," Bev mentioned, wiping her eyes and taking another drink. "Are you writing shit now?"

Bill nodded in a bashful manner, staring at the small fizzy bubbles that started from the bottom of the cup and drifted to the top. "Yeah, that's what I do. I'm an author. What do you do now, Bevvy?"

She took another piece of shrimp from the table and put it on her plate. "I dabble in fashion design, actually. Up in Illinois, with my husband, Tom."

"Illinois? What part?" Ben glanced up.

"Chicago."

"I have family up there," Bill replied, smiling a bit. It was as if he was glad that it was such a small world; he seemed to forget the reason we were actually here when he was surrounded by his childhood best friends.

"Do you have a job, Haystack?" I asked, leaning back and propping my feet up on the table. I kept my eyes on Eddie, though, like they had seemed to be, this whole time. There was no way Dr. K wasn't in some form of medical department; I knew that much. Even though I had asked Ben the question, I still had my mind on Eds.

"I work on architectural matters, I have my own business and such, actually." Ben had a gentle, proud expression on his face as some of the losers seemed pleasantly surprised. "You?"

I grinned and pushed my glasses farther up my nose. "You could never guess," I glanced at the assortment of thoughtful faces. "I started stand-up comedy gigs."

"Of course you did," I heard Eddie mutter from behind his glass. "I'm sure people eat that shit right up."

"Why take my word for it? Come see one of my shows yourself," I offered. I didn't fully mean this in a snarky, sarcastic way, but Eddie scoffed as if he assumed I did.

"I already had to spend seventeen years of my life standing around and listening to you talk about dicks and my mom, Tozier. I don't need to spend two hours more." Eddie played with the zipper of his jacket with his free hand.

"Mm, your loss, I guess."

Bill cleared his throat, seemingly already tired by the back and forth bickering we kept getting into. I'm sure he missed it all the same, though. "What do you do, Eddie?"

Eddie straightened his back a bit and stared at a bundle of fake flowers that rested in a pot behind my chair. "Well, I... I became a risk analyst."

I had a fake sense of mockery to my manner as I rested one hand on my chin, pretending to look intrigued. "Wow, that's really interesting. What exactly does a risk analyst do, Spaghetti?"

Eddie cleared his throat, as if he had been waiting to tell someone this information for an incredibly long time and had just started to let go a bit. "You see, in my company, I'm basically the one that has to make financial decisions for the group as a whole. Each decision I come to must assist the client and the organization in general, so there's no chance of us getting sued. I also have to make sure each choice that's made will not risk the health of the-"

I slowly drooped my chin down to my chest and closed my eyes shut, pretending to make loud snoring noises in my seat.

Eddie paused what he was saying, scowling at the rest of the losers as they tried their best to hold back a chuckle. "Are you fucking finished, dipshit?"

I pretended to wake up in a shocked and confused manner. "Funny, I was just about to ask the same thing. How do you make it through a day of work like that, huh? I think I'd drop dead and disintegrate after the first hour or so."