INSTANT REPLAY | REDDIE

- 06 | INSTANT REPLAY

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Lunch was the most awkward twenty-five minutes of Eddie's life. It was filled with lots of accidental eye contact and forced laughter on his end. When they had entered the lunch room, Bill had figured out right away what happened to Stan, which dubbed Eddie's promise that he wouldn't tell just about as meaningless as the wad of gum he had stepped in the other day while he was walking to the bus stop. A little bothersome, but insignificantly so.

He sat down in his seat next to the stuttering boy and across from the boy who was supposed to be his closest friend. He avoided his gaze, even though he could feel it burning into his skull. Eddie didn't bring a lunch that day, but his mother had forbidden him from buying the cafeteria food, claiming that it was nasty and it was going to give him cancer. So he sat in silence, listening to Bill's worrying about Stan's injuries and Bev's attempt at cracking jokes with Richie, who hardly seemed to be paying attention. Mike sat down on Eddie's other side and nudged him a little bit, to which he looked up blearily with unfocused eyes.

"Hm?" He grunted once he had finally focused on the dark skinned boy. Mike smiled gently.

"Aren't you hungry, Eddie? You aren't eating anything." Mike opened his brown paper bag and pulled out an apple, holding it out in Eddie's direction. The brunette swallowed thickly, staring at the fruit for a long moment.

I'm just a lonesome old hobo, ain't got no money, ain't got no home, but I got me one thing; I got me a disease that's eating me up. My skin's cracking open, my teeth are falling out, and you know what? I can feel myself turning bad like an apple that's going soft, I can feel it happening, eating from the inside to the out, eating, eating, eating—

"Eddie!" Mike said again, bringing him back down to earth. Eddie jolted awake from where he had been beginning to drowse and his hand flew forward, grabbing the apple.

"Yes! Thank you!" He said loudly, blinking a few times to clear his blurry vision. "Sorry, I just got a little distracted." He took a bite out of the fruit, trying to enjoy it instead of thinking about the other night. Mike raised an eyebrow, slowly reaching back into his bag and pulling out his sandwich.

"Are you sure you're alright? You look kinda—"

"I'm fine!" Eddie insisted, once again raising his voice more than he really had to. Mike flinched, eyes going wide, and Eddie immediately felt guilty. "I'm okay! Just tired. I had a cold. Still getting over it, you know the deal." He pretended to cough into his elbow, but it was a pitiful attempt at a lie. Even Stan, who had overheard, was looking at him with a new sense of suspicion. Eddie flushed a deep red color as all eyes settled on him, and he himself forced his gaze down onto the table.

"Um... Okay. I hope you feel better." Mike shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich. Eddie tried to force himself to relax, puffing on his inhaler and taking another bite of his apple. He had lost his appetite. It went down with a lot of difficulty, and he almost choked, which caused his eyes to water a little bit. This time when he coughed it was the real deal. Once again, everyone looked at him with alarmed expressions. He held up a hand, waving them away as he got up and walked over to the trash can. He threw away his apple even though he had barely eaten half, then stormed from the lunch room with red cheeks and tear-filled eyes.

Instead of heading to class, he walked to the RTI room for a break. He had only exercised this ability once before, after he got beat up by Henry Bowers for the first time in front of the whole school, but he wasn't in the mood to be around people who would try to talk to him. He sat down on one of the couches, leaning back and allowing his eyes to flutter shut. He wondered if it was worth the risk of another horror haunting his dreams, but before he could make his decision, he was already drifting off.