Oh Noel | Reddie |

10. the trip

The day of the trip came by fast. The morning of December 14th I woke up in my bed cold and alone as always. I went through my bags for almost the thousandth time in the past few days to make sure I had everything Richie said I'd need. He would be picking me up in around 4 hours with his father. I've met his father before, but never really formally talked to the man. I was anxious, yet excited for this trip.

I heard loud banging on my door, and immediately knew that it was Richie. He didn't stop knocking until I threw the door open and gave him a glare.

"Come on Eds! We gotta get going soon!" Richie barged into my house and grabbed my suitcase for me.

"Would you calm down a little?" I rolled my eyes and followed him out to the car. I made sure everything in my house was locked, and made sure to lock the front door behind me, I was also having Bill make sure nobody broke into my house while I was gone.
I was going to be okay.

I took a deep breath and got into the car next to Richie, who decided to sit in the back with me instead of occupying the passengers seat.

"Welp boys, let's get this road trip started." Wentworth turned around to make eye contact with us both. "Itll take about 33 hours if we don't stop 3." The old man smiled.

"We're driving?" I asked. I was expecting a nice 2 or 3 hour flight, however long it takes, but driving for who even knows how long. Would I even survive? I don't like to look at the bad side of things but driving in cars was far less safe than flying, and driving long distances, and at night, while probably sleep deprived from driving all day. We were going to die.

"yeah, it wouldn't be much fun if we didn't" Wentworth laughed anyway, not noticing my panic.

"All the way to Colorado?" My breath started to shorten. I dug through my pockets to find my aspirator, desperately grabbing at fabric, unable to get it out of my pocket in the panic. Richie nudged my shoulder and handed me one. It must have been a spare I had somewhere that he took.

"you'll survive" Wentworth turned back around and began to drive.

If it only took us 33 hours, it would be afternoon tomorrow when we arrive, that's a whole day driving, the whole night, and then most of the day. I'm hoping we will stop for the night, and that Richie's dad wasn't as insane as he seemed.

It was a long and boring drive, at first we spoke a lot, and I got to formally meet Wentworth, but as the hours dragged on, we had nothing to talk about (if you don't count Richie's constant talking, there's no getting him to stop)

"Eds! Let's play I spy.” Richie's poked my shoulder repeatedly. I groaned, but agreed to play along with his car games, which admittedly, I have never had the chance to play before.

We played a few car games until we got vored and ended up just talking about random things. After some time, we crossed state lines.

"We have officially left Maine!” Wentworth announced to the boys, Richie cheered, and looked over at me. I smiled at him, but then noticed my phone was ringing. I had multiple missed calls from none other than my mother.

"Shit." I forgot to turn my location off, and she noticed I wasn't in Derry anymore.

I answered the phone to immediately hear her screaming.

"Eddie Bear! Where are you? are you okay? have you been kidnapped?" she bombarded me with numerous questions.

"Calm down ma, I'm with a friend and his dad." I said to her.

"You said you would never want to leave Derry. That's why I let you stay when I moved, so you could finish out school in a familiar place." The truth was that she didn't even move far away. She moved into a cheaper home in Bangor, which was right near Derry, and allowed me to stay in the old house for as long as I needed.

"I'm not leaving mom, it's just a short trip, and I'll be home long before Christmas." I explained, hoping she wouldn't go off again, as she often did.

"I don't like this rebellious attitude you've had recently...you better come visit me Eddie bear. I miss you." Was all she said in response.

"yeah... miss you too mom" I said then hung up quickly.

"Quite the mother you got." Richie commented.

"Yeah" I sighed, and leaned my head against the window, looking out at the New Hampshire buildings as we drove by.

"You alright there Eds?" Richie asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine, just... frustrated with everything happening." I mumbled.

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short chapter, but also double upload bc I feel like it, I just want to force myself to write this faster, and I was stuck on this chapter for the longest time bc I didn't put time into writing, I would stare at the page at 1am say I would write it, then get nothing done.

Hopefully I can get more chapters out and finish the whole Christmas stuff before December is over bc I don't want to be writing this for months.

Enjoy the chapter

-Jay