The End Of Us || losers club ✔️

thirty three

thirty three - music to watch boys to

Richie lays in his bed. He stares up at the ceiling where the moonlight stretches across the popcorn ceiling. His mind swirls with thoughts, races with imagery and fantasies. He tries to shut it down, feeling guilty about it all but he can't help but to let the daydreams play. It interrupts his sleep and keeps him tossing and turning in his sheets.

He thinks about going back. He thinks about doing what he's been yearning for over the last six years. God, six years already? You'd think Richie would've gotten over it.

Please, he thinks, please just get over it

But deep down. He knows that's not happening. He knows he'll feel like this forever. He won't get married, not to a woman at least.

He closes his eyes, imagining a white board and erasing all his thoughts away. He attempts to fall into a light sleep, just anything to keep his mind quiet.

Maybe thirty minutes later, when Richie's breathing steadied and his eyes stayed closed, there was a sharp riiinnggg from the hallway. It jolts Richie awake and forces him up out of bed before it woke up his dad.

"Hello?" Richie answers, quite groggily.

At first there was nothing. Only silence. It lasted long enough for Richie to pull the phone away from his ear and look at it, believing that he might've imagined the ringing. Then comes a mumbled voice from the phone.

Richie brings it back up the his ear, asking, "What?"

"Can you come over, please? Richie?"

His mouth slightly falls open; his heartbeat quickens. "I.. uh, I don't know, Eds. Is that.. really a good idea? I mean.."

"Richie I.. I don't think I can be alone right now," says Eddie. His voice drops to a whisper, "I'm kinda scared being here alone."

The new information about Eddie being alone and scared makes something inside Richie rise to the surface. Suddenly, he doesn't care about Went not finding him in his bedroom in the morning. Now knowing that Eddie is scared erases all fear from Richie.

"Okay. Wait for me."

Before leaving, Richie makes his bed. He pulls on his sneakers and grabs a water bottle from the fridge. Maybe he'll use the restroom before leaving too. Is he hungry? Does he need a snack?

Why are you stalling? Just leave. Eddie is waiting.

Richie closes the fridge and puts on a brave face. After what happened three years ago, he thinks to write a note for Went to find in the morning before panic ensues. Just a few words letting him know where to find his son at.

Then, with a last pull of his sneaker, he is off into the night.

It doesn't take long for Richie to get to Eddie's new residence. He knows all the shortcuts around Derry, even if that means cutting through yards and fields. Soon enough, he's climbing the porch stairs and is entering the soft light of the Denbrough's house. Eddie has obviously been waiting by the windows, Richie realizes, because the door unlocks and pulls open before he even got to it.

"Hi," Eddie says softly.

"Hey," Richie says back in the same tone.