WHEEZY // an IT story

s e v e n t e e n

JUNE 12th, 1989

two days.
two days since richie had last seen eddie.

it seemed like all he could do now was lay on his bed, and look at the ceiling. he only got up to change the records in his old record player. of course, he chose the oldest and saddest songs he had in his collection, because anything with a fast tempo made him feel sick. also, old music reminded richie of eddie.

one of his favorites was put your head on my shoulder, by paul anka. the slow tempo and the singer's voice seemed to be exactly how richie wanted things to be.
(i suggest if you want to make this really cool, you play the song above, and then real the italic text.)

the warm, summer air smelled of cotton candy and peanuts. of course, what else would you expect at a carnival? richie smiled at the laughing children and the men in the stands, trying to sell him food or asking him to play a game.
he wished there was someone to share it with.
then, he saw him. the beautiful, smiling, eddie kaspbrak. the lights of the fair made his fair skin illuminate, and the small band of freckles on his nose seemed to spring off the teen's face. suddenly, eddie was smiling, and looking straight at richie.
the tall boy felt his heart stop.
this was real.
he was here.
eddie sauntered over to richie, putting richie's hands on his shoulders, and wrapping his own hands around richie's waist.
"it's a nice night," the small boy laughed. richie felt his heart nearly burst out of his chest, but he laughed.
"i agree," he replied.
richie looked into eddie's eyes. they were like dark, brown, pools on his face, that held small specks of yellow and green. they reminded richie of a nice fall day, where he could crash into the dead leaves on the ground that had been piled up. or, the chocolates he used to find in eddie's lunchbox in elementary school, that richie would make sure to steal at least one every day. the flecks were like shimmering diamonds, that richie guesses could be worth more than any diamond he could find on earth. but the deep hue of chocolate wasn't anything less to him. richie could stare at eddie's eyes forever and never get bored. they were like small galaxies.

suddenly, richie awoke. he had really fallen asleep to that song. but, for the first time in a long time, he was content with the dream he had.
he just tried not to think about the fact the eddie wasn't going to come back. or, that he would never be able to see those beautiful chocolate eyes.
either way, that dream was better than any clown nightmare, which, he had been having a lot of.

"richie?"'a voice called from the living room. it was bill. richie still didn't want to say anything to anyone, so he hoped the record playing would be enough sound to bring bill into his room.
finally, the teen appeared in richie's doorway, looking quite distressed.
"we have to go," bill stated. richie sat up on his bed. there better be a good reason he would be leaving his bed, otherwise he wouldn't be leaving at all.
"i'll explain on the way," he said, jogging through the house to get on his bike.

so, bill and richie rose through the streets of derry. it had only been a few seconds after the teens had left richie's house before bill started talking.
"it got beverly. and so we didn't really know where to go next, so we looked at ben's research more, and realized that maybe the schoolhouse wasn't it's hideout. we pinpointed most of the attacks to the house on neibolt. yeah, the really scary one? so, we're going there to see if we can get bev back," bill explained.
so the trip had been for nothing? eddie could still be fucking alive if it wasn't for that 'mistake'!
richie felt tears drip onto his cheeks, so he biked faster to try and ignore them.

a few minutes later, the boys arrived at the house on neibolt street.

while the other boys just wanted to save beverly, all richie could think about was eddie.