✓ 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐲 ━━ 𝗋𝖾𝖽𝖽𝗂𝖾.

𝟔.

     𝓘t was the middle of the night, still Eddie's birthday. His mom wasn't too happy with how he came home, but at least she didn't find out about the alcohol. Eddie wasn't feeling too well either. He had a bit of a stomachache and felt like his head was pounding. It slightly hurt, but he was going through the gifts he got from his friends, opening the scrapbook. He smiled, flipping through the pages. There was a bunch of pages filled with stickers and words and just pictures of him and his friends from years ago.

     But then he suddenly felt a warm feeling in his throat and he felt his stomach broil. He gagged and quickly made his way to the bathroom, heaving over the toilet as he threw up the pills and alcohol he had today. The left of the shells from his pills were now in the bottom of the toilet and his throat burned very vividly. Eddie's eyes always teared up and he always cried when he threw up. It was just the whole murky vibe as well as his throat hurting, he couldn't handle it.

     As soon as he turned around, he began to cough. As that stopped, he went down the hall and grabbed a cup, filling it with water. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and drank the cup of water before going back to his room. He was very tired, but he stopped once he saw his radio, remembering he never got to listen to the last recording on the cassette Richie gave him. Eddie went over and sat on the chair in front of his radio, clicking it on. He made sure to move the scale to low on the volume before pressing play, beginning to listen.

     "Eddie, hey! I was gonna sing that shitty happy birthday song, but if I did that then it wouldn't be that special. You're finally seventeen! That's great, I hope you had a good day. Y'know, I hear that seventeen is where all the magic happens, but what do I know." Richie chuckled, making Eddie smile to himself.

     "I just wanted to do something nice for your birthday and since we can't talk...normally, this is the best I could do. But if you ever wanna talk, just say my name." The radio clicked off, finishing.

     Eddie took the tape out and held it in his hands as he put it in his dresser. He didn't want to risk his mom finding it, so it was the only safe place to hide it for now. "You're so corny, Richie." Eddie mumbled as he shook his head. "Only for you, Kaspbrak." The spirit answered. Eddie looked back, seeing Richie sitting on the edge of Eddie's bed with a small smile.

     "How'd you — I thought I had to call you to get you to come here." He trailed off, confused. Richie shook his head, humming. "You don't have to do all that magic stuff, it's all bullshit." He explained. "If you just think about me, then I can come out." He explained. Eddie nodded, understanding.

     "Well, I'm kinda tired." He admitted quietly, standing up from his chair. The dark haired boy got up and wrapped his long arms around himself. "Yeah, you should be after all that hacking you did." Richie reminded. Eddie cringed at the mention of that. "You saw?" He asked, grimacing. "Yep...I see everything." He gave, sitting down on the chair in Eddie's room.