𝗇𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝗆𝖺𝗋𝖾𝗌 ʳᵉᵈᵈⁱᵉ

1.

SOME people wouldn't understand. My name is Eddie Kaspbrak. Im 16 years old. Some people would say im girly or too soft but I think im fine.

At least I thought I was. Until about 1 month ago I could go a full night without waking up.

Now if you asked me how many hours I slept, I don't even know if I could even stay awake long enough to hear what you were asking.

My mother finds me crying sometimes but shes doesn't think anything of it. She doesn't know her sweet "Eddie bear" has a great fear.

One day he will wake up and everyone will be gone. Especially his best friend.

Richie Tozier.

"Hey Eds." I quickly snap out of my trance and turn my attention to Richie.

"How many times do I have to tell you to quit calling me Eds." I ask bitterly. He chuckles. "Don't get all flustered Eddie spaghetti." He says pinching my cheeks.

I swat his hand away blush creeping up on my face. Richie flirts a lot. Sometimes I wonder why he hasn't had a girlfriend yet, but thats beside the point.

The bell rings signaling that the day is over. I glance up at Richie only to find him gone. My panic starts to rise and I search around. My breathing becomes almost frantic and I place a shaky hand on my chest.

"Eddie you okay?" I feel a hand gently touch my shoulder. I tense up to turn around and find Richie looking at me with a concerned face. "Yeah Im fine." I gently shake his hand off and start to the door.

God that was so stupid. How many people saw that? To many. Bowers will be after me soon. Maybe people won't even care. Shit of course people will care. They want to talk about anything.

I snap out of overthinking before it gets the best of me. I make my way home occasionally looking out for Bowers.

I open the front door. A yellow sticky note hangs on the fridge.

"Working late and wont be home until late. Take your pills and no friends over.
-Mommy"

I sigh and look in the fridge to see if dinner was there. News flash it wasn't. I sigh and go up to my bedroom.

I lay on my bed and put in my airpods. I turn on Arctic Monkeys.

All the sudden a couple bangs comes from my window. I shoot up panic rising in my chest. I look over at the window to find no other than Richie.

He smiles and waves while stumbling trying not to fall off my roof. I roll my eyes and walk over to the window opening it.

"What the hell Richie." I scoff crossing my arms to my chest. He shrugs. "I wanted to see you. You seemed off."

He noticed. A part of me wanted him to. The other part wanted to tell him off and just sit and cry. That side won a lot.

"Whatever come inside its freezing out there." I say grabbing his arm and pulling him inside. He took a look around and flopped on my bed.

"What was wrong today?" Richie asked playing with ball he found. I huff and roll my eyes. "Nothing asshole." He shrugs and continues to throw the ball at the ceiling.

"Got anything to eat? Im starving." I roll my eyes. "You know where the pantry is. Go get it yourself." He gets up and heads to the door. "Want anything?" He asks. I shake my head. "Not hungry." He starts downstairs.

"Im backkk." Richie says as he enters the room. "Did you honestly just bring my entire pantry?" I say as the dark haired boy sits on my bed.

"Only the good stuff Eds." I face away from him. The ball still sits on the floor I go to pick it up and chip my finger on the side of the bed.

I hiss in pain and get up. "Eds what did you do now?" Richie asked putting down his oreo and following me to the bathroom.

"Just a cut its fine." I mumbled pulling out supplies to clean it. Richie raises an eyebrow. "What now dipshit." I ask not looking up at him.

"Why do you need all that stuff if it's just a little cut?" I don't look at him. "Richie how many fucking times do we have to go over this. If it gets infected then it could go into my blood stream and I could get septicemia or something."

His eyes widen out of curiosity. He opens his mouth but I place my hand over it. "Just search it up Rich. Don't make me explain it." He nods and rushes back to the bedroom to grab his phone.

I scoff not knowing how I ending up even becoming friends with him. I look down at my watch and wince at the time.

9:30

"Richie it's late you should go." I say walking into the room. He's sitting on my bed and playing with that ball. "Can't I stay over?"

Don't let him. He could find out. No one could. You're already so girly already. Besides he probably doesn't even want anything to do with you. You're doing him a favor by rejecting him. I don't even know why he-.

"Eds?" I quickly snap out of my small trance and shake my head. "Not tonight my mom is going to be home soon and she won't want to find you sleeping here."

"Fine fine. Hopefully you won't hear us tonight I always tell her to be quiet but she always resists."

"Beep beep asshole now get out." I say and he throws up his hands in defense. "See youu." The dark haired boy said while taking a bow.

He was gone. My mom was gone. Everybody left. Why did I send him away. Please stay.

I cant think straight as I lay in my bed and drift off into a deep sleep. The nightmare awaiting me.

(1012 words)