Fix Me // Reddie

Chapter One - Drunk I Miss You's

Richie's Pov

Richie knew it was going to be a cigarette day the moment his alarm started blaring through his dark and quiet room. He had never been a heavy smoker, but on certain days, days where his father and school got to be too much, he had a cigarette day, where he could smoke as many cigarettes as he pleased without feeling guilty. Based on the raging headache he can feel pounding through his skull, Richie knew he would need to smoke at least three.

Before he could find the energy to slam his fist against the alarm to silence it, he saw the person lying next to him throw a pillow at the blaring clock. "Just five more minutes," the boy muttered.

Richie fought against his instincts to close his eyes again and reached across the pillow barrier that separated him and his best friend. He gave a slight push and Stanley Uris tumbled out of the bed, landing on the floor with a loud thud.

"Fuck you, Richie," Stanley rasped from his new position on the floor, pulling one of the tossled blankets over his head.

"Yeah, yeah, Stannie," Richie muttered, pulling on his giant coke bottle glasses. He had always hated those glasses. He was already considered a loser to everyone in school, and the cumbersome glasses helped him fit the image. When he first started high school he wore contacts for a fresh start, but after the harassment from Bower's and his crew persisted, Richie decided to just go back to the old glasses that made him feel like himself. Besides, the contacts made it too difficult for him to sleep in class.

As Richie stumbled to the light switch, he heard a very tired Stanley Uris pick himself off the floor and rummage through his bag for something that wasn't too wrinkled to be worn to school. Finally settling on a slightly wrinkled red sweater and pair of jeans, Stanley launched himself down the hallway and into the bathroom.

These weekend sleepovers had become a ritual for Stanley and Richie, ever since the fight at Neibolt Street the previous summer. Every Friday night the two boys biked to the local 7/11 after school, where they purchased loads of candy and soda with that week's chore money. All the junk food gave them enough supplies to make it through the next two days, locked away in Richie's room playing board games and watching trashy movies.

They had gotten a lot closer in the last year, hardly ever leaving each other's side. At first, Richie was confused by Stan's growing interest to hang out with him. He learned quickly that Stan was more lonely than he let on to be. He knew that being raised in a strict religious household was hard on Stan, but after the "disaster" at the bar mitzvah, Stan's parents started to neglect him, even calling him a disgrace to the family name.

Richie knew all about the struggles of family life. Ever since last summer, Richie's once perfect stereotypical family had begun to crumble. His mother was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer the previous June. At first Richie was full of hope for his mother's recovery, but that hope died out once his mother became too weak to feed herself or get out of bed. He could still remember what it was like being in the hospital the day that her heart beat for the last time. The white walls, white sheets, white cupboards, white gloves - he had never felt so claustrophobic and desperate to get away. He could still remember the feeling of wanting to run far away from the room, where his mothers breathing grew shallow and his father's pitiful wails filled the silence. Right when he thought he wouldn't survive another second, his saving grace walked through the door. Eddie.

Once the thought of Eddie popped into his head, Richie struggled to shake the brown haired boy from his thoughts. As he danced around the kitchen making eggs, and only tripping over his feet once, he let his mind wander back to Eddie, when the world seemed to revolve around the time that they spent together. Sometimes he was able to shake away the horror of that summer and focus on the beautiful things. Orange sunsets, vanilla ice cream, bike rides to the barrens, movie nights, a set of the most gorgeous chocolate brown eyes that he seemed to get lost in - these things were what Richie liked to think about.