Half The World Away

Happy Birthday to Ya

"Captain America could beat Spider-Man in a fight easily." 15 year old Eddie Kaspbrak states as he lies on the bed of 14 year old Richie Tozier. The younger boy is lying beside the older one, the two reading comics. Richie's was Spider-Man whilst Eddie's was Captain America.

"Nope, Spider-Man would win." Richie states casually as he turns a page, Eddie sitting up and staring at him with disbelief.

"How?" The 15 year old asks.

"Just web up his legs and drag him down. It's not difficult. He doesn't use the shield to shield his legs. He's kinda dumb." The 14 year old responds, laughing when Eddie whacks him in the face with a pillow that has marvel comics strips as the pattern of the bedding.

"Take that back!" Eddie says, also laughing. Richie chuckles and grabs Eddie's wrist lightly, the two giggling. Eddie drops the pillow, and the giggling dies down a little, the 14 year old just looking up at him with a small smile. Eddie smiles back as he feels Richie's thumb gently stroking his wrist. In that moment, the 15 year old gets an urge to kiss the other boy, making him feel uneasy and scared about that. Eddie swears Richie's eyes flick to his lips, but he doesn't want to believe that.

"BOYS! DINNER!" Comes the voice of Maggie Tozier.

Eddie's eyes flutter open and he winces as he lifts his head up, a pain in his neck from the position he was lying in. Eddie hated flying. He wasn't like Richie was on flights, but he also didn't like them. The amount of germs that could be on there made him uneasy, but he was trying to beat his hypochondria. He hadn't been sleeping well for weeks, and so he'd slept for the last hour of the two hour flight. He'd gotten a few anxiety attacks in the night due to parental anxiety. Most of them consisted of something happening to his baby and he'd wake up in a panic. Myra wasn't helping his situation by being cold to him, but their divorce was almost finalised, meaning he was one step closer to being away from her for good.

There's a little girl beside him on the flight, around 4 or 5, and she kept staring at him throughout the first 15 minutes of the flight. She was sat with her mom, but had taken a liking to Eddie, and so she had started talking with him without any fear, because she was a toddler, and toddlers didn't have any fear in that way. Eddie spoke to her and even let her play on his phone for a little while until she had fallen asleep. He'd fallen asleep two seconds later. Her name was Sarah, and she was a red head like Beverly, with big green eyes. She couldn't quite pronounce his name, so she called him Teddy. Eddie had only ever allowed one person to call him Teddy, and that had been his dad. If anyone else called him Teddy, he would tell them to stop, but he didn't mind Sarah calling him it. She was only young. There was about 15 minutes left of the flight, and Eddie just sits and waits. Sharon was sat a little away from Eddie as they couldn't get seats near each other.

"Teddy!" Sarah says as she wakes up, grinning up at the man." Did you sleep good?"

"I did, did you?" Eddie asks and Sarah nods with a cheeky grin." Well, that's good. I'm glad you had a good nap."

"You're really good with kids." Sarah's mom states, her name Eddie had learnt to be Ellie. Eddie smiles at her." Do you have any children of your own?"

"Not yet...my, uh, ex is pregnant." Eddie explains as Sarah enthusiastically shows him her toys." We split because I'm gay and then I found out she was pregnant and she's basically dumping the baby onto me because she's homophobic and doesn't want anything to do with me or the baby...sorry. I-I shouldn't be unloading this onto you."

"No, it's okay. I understand. Sarah's dad fled the minute I said I was pregnant." Ellie explains and Eddie nods." You do have someone helping you, don't you? It is not an easy ride; I will tell you that."