Not Sure If You're A Boy or A Girl~ Reddie

Morning After

Dry.
Eddie's tongue was cemented to the roof of his mouth as he started to regain consciousness and the only word that kept bouncing around his skull-dry. As he peeled back his eyelids. The next thing to cause him discomfort was the light. It was way too bright and every time he blinked or looked around the room a sharp knife would press deeper into his brain.
"Fuck." Eddie managed to huff out as I propped himself up. The room began to twirl and his head hit the ground again.

~Am I still drunk? What even happened last night?~

Snippets of time flashed in his mind. He let that cashier mistake him for a boy, he chugged some liquor, he laid on Richie and told him his secret, then it was blurry. Eddie swallowed hard, the thick saliva running down his esophagus reminding him how sore it was. He's pretty sure there was a lot of yelling and belching out shitty songs too. With a little more willpower Eddie pushed himself up again and managed to stay cross legged in a pile of unfamiliar blankets in a very familiar room.
"Morning Ed's!" Rich practically screamed, or maybe it just felt that way on Eddies sensitive ears.
"What'd you call me?"
"Eds, it's short for Eddie," he explained handing the boy a mug. The scent of French vanilla and coffee beans seemed to ease the burning ball of hell in his stomach, "Which typically is short for Edward, but you told me to call you Eddie so I'm going to save a lot of time with Eds."
"No your not. Don't call me that."
"Eds or Eddie?"
"I dunno, both?"
Richie sat next to his friend on the floor. Eddie wouldn't look at him, opting to stare at the posters, album sleeves and Christmas lights that covered his walls instead. For the most part it looked the same as it had for years, but the lights were new. He knew it was November right?
"Why do you have strings of lights?"
Richie smiled getting up and plugging them in.
"They make me happy," he returned to his seat with a cigarette and lighter. He liked smoking, especially in the morning with coffee. It made him feel more mature. Like his mom before she broke down. When he was ten, he came home one day to find his father gone and all the dishes and kitchen appliances in the front yard. His mother had found out about his fathers affair and completely lost it. She'd painted half of the kitchen a bright red, leaving the other half its original beige. All the bathroom mirrors had been covered over with lipsticks. When he ventured upstairs he found her dumping his dresser drawers into a suitcase talking about moving to New York. In a childish attempt to calm his mom he tried to hug her and ask what was wrong. As she started to push him away, he noticed the blood. Her wrists were bleeding profusely, leaving dots of red all over his carpet. He looked to the spots now, older. They were rust colored. Most covered by the clothes scattered around his room. He called 911. They put her in the hospital for "nerves". Dad came back insisting the affair was part of Janet Tozier manic delusions. A month later she came back, different; unfeeling and addicted to her anxiety meds. Rich shook his curls realizing he'd trailed off. His eyes wandered to Eddie who hadn't seemed to notice. He pushed his shitty memories away with the smoke flowing from his nose, "Sometimes things that are unorthodox make you happy. Is it weird to have Christmas lights up all year? Sure. Does it make my day a little fucking easier? Hell yeah. So I do it, life is short and if you compromise everything you want for someone else you'll wake up one day and throw your fucking silverware all over the lawn."
Eddie couldn't really piece together what Rich meant at the end of his speech, but he was fairly certain Trashmouth was trying to compare being a freak to decorating year round. He kept his mouth clamped. As misguided as the boy was Eddie appreciated he was trying. He gave a small nod sipping at his drink.
"Did I drunkenly confess to anyone else?"
"Just Bev. I was carrying you back to her place and you thanked me very loudly for not telling anyone. Bev asked what the fuck you were talking about and you very bluntly stated you were a boy. You were Eddie."
Ed's eyes widened taking up most of his freckled face as his breath hitched. The gears turned rapidly in his head.
~Bev found out and got pissed. That's why your here instead of on one side of her bed~
"How mad is she?"
Just then Rich's door opened to reveal Beverly, all smiles with scissors in one hand and a magazine it the other.
"Woah dude, I thought we were friends? You think I'm gonna bail based on your gender. Lame."
"Then why did we stay here?"
Eddie looked from the girl to Rich. There was a flash of rejection on his face, but he covered it up with an adjustment to his glasses.
"Uh, you are a fucking loud drunk. We woulda got caught and my Aunt would blow a fuse, not to mention call your Mom," Eddies brow shot up as he remembered he had a Mother. A controlling possessive mother who could not see him hungover, "Nobody would bother us here."
Richie tried to ignore the kick in the lungs he felt as the words left Bev's lips. The girls.. no Bev and Eds were really busting his balls today.
Bev threw herself onto the floor next to Eddie, smushing him between the two. She was flipping through the magazine she brought along. Eddie stared at her confused.
"So were you thinking shoulder length side part or short with some bangs?"
"Am I still drunk or did I miss something?"
"Your hair?"
Eddie shook his head eyes falling on a sullen Richie, "My hair?"
"Last night, you said you were chopping it all off."
A silence as cold as the morning air outside settled between the three. All in deep thought. Rich was fuming quietly. He'd been the first Eddie told. Eddies best fucking friend until a few months ago. Now Bev had wormed her way into everything, even this. Eddie looked scared. He had no idea how the other boy felt but if it were him he'd say this was all a little fast. The drinking scared him too. Drinking to have fun with friends sure, but drinking to forget you weren't born the way you needed to be? And now the hair? Whatever Eddie did he supported, but fuck he also didn't want him to regret anything.
"Eds if you wanna take a day to think it over."
Beverly gave Rich a look that shot arrows into his head. He ignored them placing a hand on the smaller boys knee.
Eddie continued boycotting any type of eye contact with anyone. Instead he grabbed his hair. The bun he'd so carelessly thrown it in yesterday was now more of a rats nest. Still he combed his fingers through it. It was too long. He hated it.
The Misfits 'Mommy, Can I go out and kill tonight' played hastily in Richie's small room as Bev began to chop away at her friends hair. Eddie flipped through the magazine quickly, pretty much knowing what he was looking for already. Bev was trying to make it as close to J.D.'s hair from Heathers.
"Now, for you to really pull this off you may need to flat iron the front and totally leave it greasy. We're going for a too cool for hygiene look here."
Eddie watched as clumps of his hair fell around him. Rich was laying on the floor, looking at the ceiling. If Eddie didn't know any better he'd say he was.. waiting patiently? The idea seemed so ridiculous Eddie couldn't help but crack a smirk.
"You alive over there, Tozier?"
"Ask your Mother." He replied half heartedly.
If Bev wasn't so intimidating with a sharp object in her hand Eddie would've got up to slap him.
"That was forced. What's wrong?"
The record stopped. The Misfits were badass but the downside to their music was one album lasted about 15 minutes. Rich sighed balling his fists against his cheeks and sliding them past his glasses. He kept them there for a moment pressing hard into his sockets before getting up and changing the record.
"I'm just fucking bored s'all," The lanky boy lied. In all honesty he had almost completely confirmed in his mind that Eddie liked Bev. That's why they were so close and why Richie had become nothing more than a house with no parental guidance. He was also just trying to process the information given to him yesterday. Emily is Eddie and Eddie is a boy. But like did he like girls or boys or both?
"So Eds are you into dudes still or are you more into hunting beaver?"
"Holy shit, Trashmouth! Really?"
Bev snapped. She was almost through with his hair and had been so proud that Richie had kept his trap shut.
"What? I'm just curious. Is this not a safe place where we can share questions and answers?"
Eddie would be lying if he said he was annoyed. Rich was just being Rich and after the bombshell he dropped yesterday it was nice to be treated the same as he always had been.
"You askin cuz you think I'm a threat?"
Rich laughed taking in the boy before him. Bev might be annoying but she knew her way around a pair of scissors. Eddie actually looked handsome. When he was Emily he'd always been beautiful, but looking at him now Rich could feel his hands begin to sweat.
"Well fuck, you just might be Eds."