sonia and eddie having a great bond is my favorite thing about this book
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
when eddie woke up late the next morning, richie was no where to be found. not that eddie really expected him to be, it was sunday. richie knew how sundays went in the kaspbrak household.
sonia woke up every sunday sometime between five-forty and six o'clock. she made coffee, turned on the sunday morning news, and cleaned around the house before she got herself ready for the morning service at church. after the service was over, she normally had her sisters and nieces and nephews over for lunch. after the company had left, she cleaned (again) and invited eddie to the living room, where they watched movies until dinner. after dinner, she cleaned (yes, again), took her nightly shower, and headed off to bed.
richie wasn't allowed at the house most sundays.
just for sake of keeping up the routine. he wasn't a part of the flow, which means that something would be out of place. sonia kaspbrak didn't like things to be out of place. though she adored richie with everything in her, she didn't want to see his face on sunday's.
eddie assumed that the service ran a little long, due to the silence that filled his house. not that silence in the kaspbrak home was uncommon, it just was weird for a sunday. he made his way downstairs, finding a sheet of paper on the granite countertop.
eddie, i will be heading to your aunts house after the church service today. we've decided to change things up this week, i hope you don't mind. there are leftovers in the fridge if you get hungry, but please if you make a mess, clean up after yourself. i won't be home until late tonight, so you may have a friend over, but no one that i've not met, and no more than one friend, i trust you. please call me if you need anything. i love you!
mom xx
eddie smiled to himself, folding the page and putting it in the pocket of his pajama pants. he always saved letters from his mother, they never failed to make him smile. he decided to send richie a text, asking if he was busy.
while waiting for a response, eddie checked his email, finding that richie had already sent him one this morning. richie had been emailing eddie for weeks now, with anything from paragraphs to single sentences. they always came through an email.
richietozier@xmail.com
hey cutie, i wanted to tell you something, and i know you'll be mad at me for it so before i say it, i just wanted to say that i love you. in the short time that i've gotten to know you, and learn through you, and see the person you are, i've really changed. you've made me into a richie tozier that i want to be. you've made me proud to be richie tozier. before you, i was just some loser who sat under the bleachers on the football field, watching henry during practice and wishing that i was him. i would've never had the confidence to speak to you, so i'm really glad that you did that one first. eddie, i've been in love with you since the seventh grade. i don't think i ever told you that but, for years i've been head over heals for you, and now that i'm with you, i know that i'm still head over heals for you. being with you is so much more than i thought it would be. i thought i knew you like the back of my hand, eddie kaspbrak, but man was i wrong. you're so much more than the surface. you've got so much to you, so much that only you know, and you've let me see that. you've let me in. you've let me know you. and i'll forever be grateful. i'm so lucky to have you, eds. i'm so happy that it was me. and you're always going to have to deal with people like henry, telling you that you could've done better than me, or that i'm an embarrassment to you, and i'm sorry for that. but i know that you'll never believe that, and that's why i love you so much. i never thought that i could love you more than i did, and that's when i realized that it was only the beginning. thank yo iso much for helping me become me. i don't know where i'd be without you, eds. i don't know what i'd do on my own, and i don't want to find out. i couldn't do this without you eddie. and here's me getting to that thing that i wanted to tell you, you know, the one that's going to make you mad? i've decided that i'm going to go to princeton with you. i know that you want me to go to columbia, and do whatever there. but i don't think i can be away from you. and yeah that sounds more psycho-stalker than romantic, but so be it. i'm sorry, because i know you're going to be upset. but know that i love you so much.
motherfucker.
eddies instinct told him to call richie and yell at him, and naturally, eddie always follows his instinct.
"hello?" richies voice sounded concerned, but not too stressed. he sounded like he knew what this phone call was about, and oh boy did he know. richie knew that eddie was going to call and give him a piece of his mind. who would eddie be if he didn't?
"richard wentworth tozier, i am so unbelievably upset with you right now." richie thought about how eddie looked in this moment, picturing the steam coming from his ears like it does in the cartoons.
"hi to you too, baby." eddie huffed, not wanting anything to do with richies stupid pet names and flirting.
"honestly, i don't understand how your brain works, richie. you're the dumbest smart person i've ever met. is it too late to change your mind?" eddie was irritated, and richie knew. eddie decided to take the conversation to his room, leaving the kitchen and running up the stair case. richie heard him slam his door and sigh as he sat in his desk chair.
"yes eds, it's too late. i already accepted the acceptance. why can't you just be happy that we're going to the same school?" richie knew why he couldn't be happy.
"because, richie! i mean, i am happy. but this isn't what you want. you want columbia. if i was going to columbia, or any other school in new york, you'd be perfectly content. but since i'm going to princeton, you're upset and you feel like you need to change your path to accompany mine. i don't want you to mess up your future for me, richie. you'll regret it if things don't work out."
"if things don't work out? what's that supposed to mean? do you not intend on things working?" richie spoke so fast that eddie almost didn't catch it all. though when the words registered, eddie realized his mistake.
"no, richie, that's not what i meant. i want things to work. i do, i really do. you're all i want, okay? you're everything. i'm just, you might realize that you want something more, or something less, than me once we get to college. i just don't want for you to realize that and then be forced to spend the rest of your college life around me."
