Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 66: Outside Looking In

Eddie walks along the street on his way home from the pharmacy, the paper bags crinkle in his backpack with every step he takes. He's glad his mother finally trusts the pharmacy here in town enough to fill her and his prescriptions. She had to do a full background check on the pharmacist and his business before she'd even consider purchasing anything, she'd said. Eddie thinks it's his mom being paranoid that it wasn't a real pharmacy and was pushing illegal drugs on her and her "baby boy." After discovering over the summer that most of the medication he took was "gazebos," the only thing he insisted on now was the inhaler, which helped when he needed to calm himself down and just to shut his mother up.

As he goes along, Eddie begins to make loon calls using his hands, something that Richie had taught him a long time ago, which in turn was something that Richie learned at summer camp. He doesn't know why he still does it, especially since he and Richie haven't spoken in months. Maybe it was to occupy the sheer amount of boredom he feels these days to the point that he feels as though he's going insane. Every day it was school, home, school, home, school, home. Nothing else and while his grades were great because he had extra time to study, if he's honest, Eddie wants to do something else... anything else.

Deep down, he's lain awake at night, wondering what his former friends were doing. He barely saw them at school, and when he did, he just avoided eye contact and didn't look at them. While he couldn't care less about Richie; Ben, Stan, Bill and Beverly were another story. While he doesn't want to admit it, he misses his friends a lot. He misses being able to hang out with them, but when he admits this in his mind, his pride gets in the way and makes him feel sick. They weren't his friends. If they were, they would have apologized by now. It's what his mom told him. Real friends apologize when they do wrong, and they'd all done him wrong... most of them.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, he walks down Main Street until he comes to Melvald's General Store. He takes a peek in the window, past the Halloween display advertising trick or treat items and decorations, and sees hardly anyone inside, which is a good sign. He wanted to pick up the latest issue of Spider-Man with his allowance money, and he hoped that he wouldn't run into anyone he knew.

His entrance is announced with the bell overhead, and the woman behind the counter looks up and smiles at him.

"Hello, welcome to Melvald's," she says. "Is there anything I can help you find?"

"Just the comics," Eddie replies.

"Just over there on the back wall," Joyce says.

"Thank you."

Eddie weaves his way through the aisles until he comes to the back wall lined with all kinds of magazines. He begins scanning the shelves in search of comic books. He knows his mom hates them as they "promote violence" and "corrupt the youth," but Eddie can't help it. Comics were his only escape these days, and while Richie was the one who introduced them to him, he liked them too much to stop reading. All the stories were cheesy, but fun, and the heroes all had amazing powers...which made them unique.

Eventually, he finds what he's looking for and then also grabs a bird magazine. Something to hide the comic in to fool his mom when she asks what he bought.

As he walks towards the register, Eddie hears a clatter behind him. He turns to see that a bunch of letter magnets have fallen from some kind of whiteboard.

Joyce also hears the noise and leans over from the cash counter to see what happened.

"Not again," she groans.

"I'm sorry," Eddie immediately says. He leans down to try and pick them up.

"It's okay, buddy, it wasn't you," Joyce says. "It's already happened once today."