Richie: 16
Eddie: 16
"Mom I'm 16. I don't need a babysitter. I can take care of myself!" Eddie said.
"I don't care if you actually need a babysitter. You need friends since you have none. And he needs money." Sonia said. Eddie ran upstairs to his room. He locked the door and sat with his back against it. He pulled his knees up to his chest, put his head on the top of his knees, and started crying. He couldn't understand why his mom hated him so much. What had he done to deserve her hate? He heard the doorbell ring but make no move to go answer it.
My mom will get it Eddie thought keeping his head on his knees. Sonia was getting her shoes on as the doorbell rang. She expected Eddie to get it. It rang again.
"Stupid brat, why did I even have a kid?" Sonia growled under her breath. She made her way to the door. She opened the door to let him in. "Your instructions on the table and the brat is somewhere in here." Sonia said as she walked out with a week supply of clothes.
The brat? What kind of parent refers to their kid as the brat? Richie thought. Eddie heard everything his mom said.
Yeah, why did you? You don't like me anyway so why didn't you even have me? Eddie thought, he was still crying. Richie walked upstairs with his duffel bag full of clothes to find the guest room. When Richie got upstairs, he heard someone crying. He tried to open the door, but it was locked.
"Go away mom. I don't want to talk to you. Leave me alone please." Eddie said, his voice cracked on the last word. Richie felt his heart break.
"It's not your mom, it's Richie" he said, quietly.
"So, my babysitter?" Eddie said.
"Can I please come in?" Richie pleaded. Eddie stood up, unlocked his door, and sat on his bed, facing the wall.
"Sure" Eddie said. Richie came in and sat on the end of the bed.
"What's your name?" Richie asked.
"My mom didn't tell you?" Eddie said.
"No, she umm she just called you 'the brat'." Richie said with air quotes.
"She probably doesn't remember my real name. It's Eddie" he said. Richie felt so bad for this boy. His parents weren't the best but compared to Eddie's mom they were angels. Eddie wiped his face free of tears then turned to face Richie. Richie was struck by how beautiful he was.
"What's wrong? Is it something to do with your mom?" Richie asked.
"Yeah, like always. I told her that I didn't need a babysitter since I'm 16 and she said 'you need friends since you have none'" Eddie said.
"You do now" Richie said. He wanted to hug the tiny boy and tell him everything will be alright, but it would be awkward. Eddie leaned forward to hug Richie tightly. Both boys wanted the hug to last longer than it did.
"Thank you" Eddie said.
"Let's go eat" Richie said. The boys walked downstairs. Richie glanced at the instructions to see if Eddie had any allergies and it said don't feed him a lot, he needs to lose weight. Richie looked at the boy setting the table. He was too skinny; his clothes were way too big on him. Richie threw the instructions away.
"What do you want to eat?" Richie asked.
"Can we have mac and cheese with ham sandwiches?" Eddie asked. His mood brightens, his mom never let him pick what to eat. Seeing that he made Eddie happy just by asking him what he wanted made him happy. He found the Mac and cheese, made it and added extra cheese. Then he made the sandwiches. He brought both to the table.
"How old are you?" Eddie asked.
"Almost 17" Richie answered. They ate and went back upstairs.
"I'm sorry for earlier" Eddie said, blushing.
"It's fine. I thought I was going to watching an 8-year-old though. Not that you're much bigger than one." Richie said. Eddie pounced onto Richie and pinned him down. Richie struggled to get up. "For someone so tiny you're super strong." Richie said. Eddie giggled and got off of Richie. "So, what do what to do?" Richie asked.
"Can we watch movies?" Eddie asked. They laid in Eddie's bed, watching movies until 10:00pm.
"Where is the guest room?" Richie asked.
"You can stay here" Eddie said. Richie made a makeshift bed on the ground.
When Richie thought Eddie was asleep, he whispered "You're cute".
Eddie heard and whispered, "You too". As much as he didn't want a babysitter he had to admit, he was pretty cool.
