𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚝 // 𝔯𝔢𝔡𝔡𝔦𝔢 𝔣𝔞𝔫𝔣𝔦𝔠🦋

Chapter Five📻

.•*
Richie fell back onto Eddie's bed and sighed.

His room was a lot cleaner than Richie's. Everything was in order and kept organized. Even his clothes were color coded in his closet. Richie's on the other hand was always a mess. His dirty clothes were strung across the floor and his dresser was covered in all kinds of shit he sometimes didn't remember having.

Every time Eddie would go over to Richie's, he would complain about the mess and try to pick it up for him, but Richie would hold him back so he wouldn't. He found it easier to leave the clothes on the floor and pick it up when he needs them. Eddie found it disgusting. Richie was surprised on how he could keep his clean. He hadn't cleaned his in months.

Eddie put a Queen tape inside of the boom box on his dresser to cover their voices. He couldn't do anything that would make more noise than the music if his mom were to turn the TV off. He ran to his closet and grabbed a comic book from a stack. He smiled down at it. He ran back towards Richie and put it right in front of his face. "Want to read it?" Eddie was smiling widely at him.

Richie grabbed it and sat up. It was one of his Spider-Man comics. He grinned. Eddie would invite Richie over when they were younger all of the time just to read his comics. They would sit next to each other on his bed and Richie would read them out loud. He had certain Voices for each and every character that he came across. Eddie found it hilarious when he would do them, even if they all sounded the same. He would giggle and kick in the air, often getting yelled at by his mom to "be quiet."

Sonia did not like Eddie reading comic books. She was afraid Eddie would get "influenced" by them. Eddie's dad collected the comics and would read them to Eddie when Sonia wasn't around. Eddie would sit on his dad's lap and only study the pictures on the book, since he was too young to read at the time. His dad let Eddie live his own life. It broke everything in Eddie when he died. He lost all his freedom, his mom started controlling every move he made. Every day he'd be wishing he'd come back, sometimes thinking he would. But he never did.

His mom never came upstairs, so he stole the comics and hid them in his room. It was one of the only things that kept him from forgetting about when he was truly happy.

Richie came to have a sleepover a year later and found them. He asked to read one, and it became their thing to do. The way Richie would read them had helped Eddie. Eddie had started to feel like his own person around him, as well as the other Losers, but especially Richie. He felt safe to act like himself around him. He never told Richie how much it meant to him, he thought he would sound stupid.

"Is this a new one?" Richie peeked at Eddie over the book.

"Yeah, don't tell my mom. I had saved up money that I had found around the house and I finally had enough to afford one."

"Oooo! Such a rebel Eds!" Richie laughed.

Eddie rolled his eyes and sat down. "Don't call me that. I had gotten it a while ago, but it hasn't been just us two hanging out without anyone else. I had forgot we used to read them, so I've already read it and it's really good but-" Eddie looked at Richie. He didn't want to make it awkward, which he knew he was failing at. "I love it when you do it more."

Richie smiled. "Say that again, I don't think I-"

"Just read the fucking book Rich. I won't say it again." Richie laughed. He found it cute when Eddie snapped at him. His eyebrows would scrunch together and he would turn a light shade of pink. It reminded him of an angry puppy.