RAPTURE ! ( it )

eight.

RAPTURE !

008. ' eddie freaks out again '

THE NEXT MORNING

AMELIA RUBBED HER TIRED EYES WITH THE INSIDES OF HER PALMS as she gradually fluttered them open. They rolled open lazily and she was met with the dim light of the morning sun from the parted curtains. There was a fleeting moment where she became alarmed at where she even was before it sunk through that she was safely on her sofa.

As she rose from the cushion, she was first aware of the coolness of the air and the sound of someone snoring rather obnoxiously. Casting a sidelong glance in direction of the snoring - the other sofa - she saw Eddie in a heavy slumber on it, the snores flowing out his gaping mouth. Her eyebrows furrowed as she then questioned how the two of them had even came to be on the sofa's; the last thing she could recall was them being alongside one another on the fireplace's ledge.

Abruptly, a hand settled on her shoulder and nearly provoked her to topple off the sofa in alarm. Amelia hastily whirled around to find the disgruntled glare of her father on her. He gestured for her to get off the sofa and accompany him into the kitchen, where she quickly understood she'd get a harsh reprimand from him. Sparing a slight glance to her sleeping friend, Amelia trudged after her father down the corridor and into the breakfast nook, where she regarded his expression extend with distress.

"Would you like to explain why I found Eddie and you asleep on the fireplace ledge this morning?" her father remarked lowly, raising an arched eyebrow to his flustered daughter.

"He...he had come to our..our house after h-his mom f-flung a pill bottle at h-him," she hoarsely described, ridding her throat of the rasp and eluding his strict gaze, "It was nearly eleven at night, dad, I wasn't going to leave him out in the night. And it's not like he's a random boy you've never met." Amelia suppressed the compulsion to roll her eyes after uttering that last sentence.

Her father's shoulders slackened slightly from his taut stature, but the harshness to his eyes prevailed, "Why were you even awake to hear him tapping at the door or whatever he did to entice your attention?" How the fuck had he not heard any of her screeching last night?

She then gulped and blurted the first fib that emerged in her mind, "It was warm in my room."

"Even with the air conditioner?" he inquired with incredulity as he indicated at the hunk of junk positioned in her bedroom window. Amelia hastily nodded.

"So, I came down here to the sofa because it was cooler," she proceeded, forcing a tone of nonchalant as she fumbled with her fingers, "And I heard him tapping at the door once I entered the den. Okay? Nothing else happened."

"It doesn't happen again, Amelia," her father then remarked harshly and quietly, "If it does, you wake your mother or me - don't go flinging open the door with open arms. Am I understood?"

"Yes, dad. Crystal and clear."

"Just don't say a thing to your mother regarding him showing up on the porch last night," he proceeded on in a mumble, the stern sharpness to his eyes dissipating as he strode across into kitchen to start the coffee pot, "Just tell her that he came over early this morning."

"Okay," she muttered with light interest and a stride back towards the breakfast nook's door before bolstering it open.

Amelia hastened down the corridor with soft patters against the tile and a skid against the carpet once entering the den. Plucking a throw pillow from the couch, she heaved it at Eddie, who was disposed partially on the sofa and partly off its edge. The cushion smacked into his face and he jolted up too swift that he was mere inches from striking the jagged edge of the coffee table.

"What the fuck?" he shrieked as his bewildered eyes darted around the room while he whirled around. Among his chest heaving, his gaze settled on his best friend, who was snickering behind the sofa.

With a poor toss, he flung the pillow at her with his expression contorted with irritation. It hardly grazed her arm before gliding across the wood floor behind her, which only provoked more unruly snickers from her.

"We're meeting everyone at the quarry in thirty -" Amelia started to state whilst suppressing her chuckles, when a loud smack resounded against the window. The pair leans in direction of the impacted window, their nerves spiking with each trickling moment as their thoughts related back to the preceding night's events.

Her alarm was alleviated as she saw it was solely their friends in the driveway, all leaning on their bicycles in anticipation for her. At the corner of her eye, as she eased away from the window, she regarded Eddie's own eyes swell up in size.

"Come on," Amelia muttered and moved to seize his arm to tow him along to the front door, well aware if another strike impacted the pane the glass would burst. As her fingers came to graze his arm, he scrambled away, shaking and terrified. He shook his head at her with a mumble, "D-Don't touch m-me."

Her eyebrows knit together while she extended her hand once more to his wrist, "I'd rather not be screamed at for allowing those dipshits out there to shatter the window." He plunged off the sofa's arm with a seething chest and he scrambled to retrieve his inhaler from the fanny pack that was missing from around his waist.

Aggravated, Eddie sputtered out an inquire between breaths, "You....you....didn't see that leper out t-there?" He stumbled over his words to the degree it was complicated to comprehend the statement, "D-Did.. you?!"

His pupils began dilating with each passing moment Amelia studied the street as her hand absentmindedly settled onto his wrist.

"Nope," she eventually muttered and his shoulders slackened in appall, "Now, let's leave and forget about it." She gave his quivering arm a tender heave to coax him off the sofa, in which he reluctantly slid off of.

"Dad, we're leaving now for the quarry! See you at supper!" Amelia clamored down the corridor to the breakfast nook, where she knew her father still to be, presumably sipping at his coffee and scoping out Derry's daily newspaper.

"Be back before the curfew!" he retorted in a light shout accompanied by the clink of a mug against the table, "And make sure Eddie is as well! I assured his mother that you would."

Amelia cleared her clasp from Eddie's forearm, "Always am and I will!" She bent to grip the strap of the bag she had prepared for the quarry by the coat closet door. But, before even a finger could brush the leather strap of the bag, her hand was abruptly snatched by the boy behind her, and held firmly yet shakily.

Perplexed, Amelia rose away from the bag to spare a disconcerted glance over her shoulder at him. Her friend was evidently agitated by whatever his eyes had befallen in that street. That douchebag was ridiculing Eddie now. He was a commonly uneasy boy who could be put off by with the slightest of inconveniences. And now to have this creature taunting him, it was creeping up inside and consuming him beyond anything else ever could. It was too close for comfort for him.

And it prompted the slight rage that sparked in her cerulean eyes.

She then clutched his hand in assurance despite the perspiration that squished between their joined hands,

"It's okay, Eds."

  ➯

author's note:

APOLOGIES FOR THE RATHER UNEVENTFUL CHAPTER !

THE NEXT ONE WILL BE VERY EVENTFUL AND EMOTIONAL, SO PREPARE YOURSELVES.

Anyway, thank you for 4,000 reads on this book.

It means the absolute world to me how constant your support is. 

So, what are your thoughts on this story so far? What do you enjoy the most about it? Is it lacking anything?

I just want to know if I'm incorporating the right things into it. I always appreciate the feedback!

Thank you! ♡