The Phone Calls ☏ || reddie

Love You More

Airport, New York, New York
September 4th 1994
8:00 pm

The group stood at the gates to the plane that would send the Indiana kids back home. The weather was hot, kinda sad they left on this day considering the weather was nice for them to do whatever. The grabbed lunch before this at the cafe the girls, Skylar, and Eddie work at. The girls were the only ones working. Lucas drove everyone to the airport and Eddie and Skylar drove themselves.

"It was nice seeing you guys." Lucas spoke, hugging Max goodbye.

"Yeah, nice seeing you too. And nice meeting you, Skylar. And seeing you again, Eddie." Mike smiled. Eddie smiled back, but his heart ached. He was seeing Richie for the last time again, knowing Richie he would probably never call him though he says he loves him.

"Make sure you call me." Max says to Lucas, grabbing her suitcase and standing beside Jane.

"Wouldn't forget." He replies. Eddie glances at Richie who was already looking at him, Richie walks over to Eddie, looking down at him.

"I'll call you." Eddie smiled. "I promise."

"Okay." Eddie then hugged Richie, and smiled. Hoping he'd keep his word. They pulled apart and waved goodbye as the group headed toward their plane.

-

2530 Maple Street, Hawkins, Indiana
September 5th 1994
5:35 pm

Richie stood in the shower, cleaning his hair, getting all his curls clean. He hadn't called Eddie yet, thinking he'd be at school. He didn't want to seem like he didn't want to talk to him, when he wanted everything to get better, but he didn't want to seem too much. He turned off the water, stepping out and wrapping his body in a towel. He didn't dry his hair, causing the water to drip onto his shoulders.

He sat on his bed, playing with the end of the towel. He looked outside, watching the sun set. Autumn was his favourite season, he awaited October to arrive. He sighed, climbing off the bed to get changed. He threw on pyjama pants then sat on his desk, reaching for his phone. Then setting it down.

I don't know his number.

"Shit!" He rubbed his face. "Shit, shit, shit!" He got rid of everyone's numbers, never thinking he'd talk to them. "Now I'm really gonna seem like a douche." He leaned back onto his wall, his back covering the poster of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, the feeling making his back cold. "What the hell am I supposed to do?!" He hopped off the wood, searching in every drawer he had to find anything.

Drawings, music, homework, things from Holly, candy wrappers, change... no numbers. He threw his door open, walking down the stairs, seeing his mom, Ted, and Holly.

"Mom." She looked over to him. "Where's Mike?"

"Oh, he went out with Dustin. They went to go see some movie." He sighed.

"Ew, Richie put a shirt on, so gross!" Holly scrunched her face, playing with her dolls. Richie rolled his eyes.

"Also, Mike talked to us this morning. He and Jane found an apartment and they're gonna look at it." Richie nodded. Growing up definitely scared him, Mike was gonna go soon. His childhood was ending, and as much as he wanted to be young again, fix any mistakes, he knew he couldn't. He was scared of what was to come of him. He had to leave the home soon, but he put it off, he loved his mom too much to go. "I think you should check out that nice one that I showed you."

"Yeah." He walked away, going into the kitchen, searching in the cupboards for anything to eat. He began to make some noodles.

"I'm gonna go do some laundry." Karen yelled to Richie. He groaned. "That room better not have too much, Richie." She stood up walking up the stairs. As she collected Mikes clothes, then Holly's, then Richie's, piling them into her laundry basket. She was about to go when Richie's phone rung. She walked over, picking it up.

"Hello?"

"Uh- hi?"

"Who is this?" Karen knew all of Richie's friends, Richie and her were very close, he told her basically everything.

"E-Eddie." Her eyes widened.

"Eddie?"

"Yeah, I think I called the wrong number..."

"It's Karen. Richie's downstairs."

"Oh."

"How've you been?"

"Good. Busy. How about you?"

"Me too. Getting less busy though." She laughed. "You still in Maine?"

"Oh, no, um, I'm at college now. In New York. I go to the same college as Lucas, actually."

"That's great! Mike, Richie, Jane, and Dustin went down there last week!" Eddie chuckled.

"I know."

"I'll put you on hold, so Richie won't get all moody about me on his phone. I'll tell him you're calling. It was nice talking to you."

"You too."

"Bye bye."

"Goodbye." She walked outside, heading downstairs, walking into the kitchen where Richie sat at the table, eating and looking through the papers full of apartments.

"Eddie called. He's still on the line. I didn't know you guys were talking again." Richie looked up.

"H-he's on the line? Like, right now?" She nodded, heading down the stairs. He stood up, running to the phone in the kitchen. "Hey?"

"Hi, Richie. You never called me, sorry if this is weird."

"No, no. It's not weird at all, I was going to call you, I swear! I didn't have your number.."

"Oh," Eddie smiled. "That's okay. Well I can tell you it."

"Yeah. Please do." He looked around.

"Okay, it's-"

"Wait! I need to put you on hold, I need paper."

"Oh. Haha, okay." Richie put him on hold, grabbing his noodles and papers of apartments, ran upstairs, and picked up the phone.

"Sorry, that was so mean of me." He rummaged through his drawer. Then he found a crayon, probably Holly's, he glanced at his closet where Eddie's number used to written. "Okay, tell me."

"It's," Richie wrote it down on his desk with Holly's green crayon. "I'll be expecting calls, Wheeler."

"You're sure to get them, cutie."