You Don't Have To Be Sorry For Leaving and Growing Up

You Showed Me a Power That is Strong Enough to Bring Sun to the Darkest Days

It had been a few weeks since the whole Derry catastrophe and Richie's nightmares weren't entirely gone. He was having them about four times a week and it was making him stay up until the late hours of the morning. He lies in bed and scrolls on Twitter one morning, at around 4am. This is what he tended to do most nights, and a lot of fans were excited to see that he was okay, but were also a bit perplexed by the fact he was retweeting the most random shit at 4 in the morning. 

A knock at the door startles him, as he'd been practically half asleep by then. He turns on his lamp on his bedroom table and gets out of bed as the knocking gets louder and more frantic. He's slightly terrified as he makes his way down the hallway to open the door, turning the light on and grabbing a baseball bat he'd recently purchased to protect himself.

"Fucking hell dude you gave me a heart attack!" Richie breathes out once he opens the door to find Eddie standing there. He's got four suitcases with him." Why didn't you call to tell me you were coming over?"

"Sorry it was a last minute thing." Eddie responds and Richie notices that along with the suitcases he's got two duffel bags." I needed to get away from New York and...you live in Chicago and that's like over 700 miles away. She can't get me here. She doesn't have my number anymore. I transferred all my money over to a new bank-

"Slow down!" Richie begs as Eddie talks at 100 MPH. Eddie takes a deep breath and starts again with," my divorce is being finalised and she's giving me hell!"

"You need a place to stay?" Richie asks. Eddie nods in response, looking almost ashamed at needing help." I've got a spare room. Don't worry, come in before Mrs Jenkins from across the hall yells at me."

Eddie walks into the apartment and Richie helps him with his stuff. The suitcases are quite heavy but all Richie can focus on is Eddie looking at the few photos he has in the entrance hall. There's one from Richie's 6th birthday, where he's sat inbetween his parents, all three wearing party hats whilst a cake is in front of them.

"I'm in this." Eddie states and Richie glances over at where Eddie is pointing on the photo. Sure enough, in the background smiling, is a 6 year old Eddie, also in a party hat." I remember this birthday. Your parents threw it in your back yard and Stan, Bill and I all attended."

"Yeah and I had so much sugar I threw up and you all had to go home early." Richie says with a slight laugh. Eddie smiles and looks over at him.

"Let me deal with those." He says, nodding towards the suitcases.

"I've got it." Richie responds, but Eddie ignores him as he takes two of the suitcases." Please excuse the mess." the comedian apologises as the risk analyst glances into the living room.

The whole apartment is a mess. Richie's got dirty washing lying everywhere, dirty bowls, plates and cups, takeout boxes stacked up high and his mail is extremely unorganised. His apartment hadn't been this bad since 2001.

"What on earth happened in here?" Eddie asks with a jokey kind of tone. But it doesn't stop Richie from feeling embarrassed.

"If I knew I would be having a guest stay over I would've cleaned." Richie explains and Eddie nods as if to say 'that's fair'." My room is worse. I haven't really left there much if I'm being honest. I only leave the house for therapy, Steve gets my groceries."

"Who's Steve?" Eddie asks as he follows Richie down the hall to the guest room.

"My manager." Richie replies." I only really see him or my best friend Sandy nowadays. I also leave my house to see my parents too-

"They live close by?"

"Yeah only like three blocks away." Richie responds as he opens up the guest room, which is where Steve or Sandy would usually sleep. It's clean, thankfully, and the two head inside with the suitcases.