Wait For It || Reddie ✔️

six

Eddie knocked on the front door. The heat was sticky and thick that next day, clinging to Eddie and diffusing off the wood door like a radiator. Eddie rubbed his lips together and waited.

When the front door swung open, Eddie's attention snapped to Richie's mother standing in the doorway. A smile gravitated onto her face when she saw Eddie. "Darling! Come in, come in." She moved aside and Eddie politely stepped inside, giving her a nod in greeting.

"Hi, Mrs. Tozier."

"Oh, don't be silly. I've been telling you to call me Maggie." She walked to the base of the stairs, her touch light on the banister. In a gentle, yet strong voice, she called, "Richie! Your friend is here!" Then, after turning back to Eddie: "How's your mom been?"

Eddie shrugged. "She's fine---the same, I mean."

"Haven't seen her at church lately, is all."

Eddie shrugged again, his eyes glancing to the floor. "Yeah, she---uh---can't find the time to go anymore."

Maggie hummed. "How unfortunate." Then: "Well." She waved her hand dismissively and begun to head into the kitchen. "You two have fun."

"We will---thank you." Eddie jumped up the stairs, trying to keep his feet light and steps quiet.

Richie's door was hung open. Inside his room, he laid in a jumble of sheets, the top sheet half-slid to the ground. His eyes were closed until Eddie's presence wafted into the room, and he turned his head to the side and looked at the boy, a smile cracking over his face.

"Eds! I was starting to think you'd stand me up."

"I'm starting to think I should've," Eddie replied, his nose crinkling as he looked around the room. "This is a pig-sty, Richie! How do you---Jesus!"

"Hey," Richie interrupted. "Mommy dearest doesn't like it when you use the lord's name in vain."

"Oh, right." Eddie paused. "Jeez! Really, Rich? You couldn't have even put your socks in the hamper?" Eddie used a full hand to point to the blue fabric hamper that sat uneven in the corner, a bright orange shirt and socks hanging both off and next to it. "How lazy are you?"

"Pretty lazy," Richie stated, almost as if bored, as he nodded his head against his pillows.

"Obviously." Eddie sighed and placed his hands on his hips. "I know you didn't call me over just to rot in bed."

Richie puckered his bottom lip. Flinging his arms into the air, they theatrically flopped to the sheets. "I'm in pain, Dr. Eds! In pain! I'm sick and I'm burning up and---" Richie arched his head back and rolled to the side, then the other side, then back again. "I feel like dick!"

Standing in the middle of Richie's messy room, Eddie made a face. "I don't think any doctor can help feeling like.. dick."

Richie stopped his rolling and laid flat on his back. An easy grin slid onto his face. "Yeah-huh. Dr. Eds can. Which is why I called you over, stupid."

"I'm not going to hang around to be called names."

"Sorry," Richie said and shrugged, as if not sorry at all. "I can call you something else than stupid."

"I was referring to Dr. Eds." Then, with a tilt of his head: "Stupid."

Richie gleefully laughed, his head tipping back into his pillows. Eddie, visibly amused with himself, giggled and moved to kick the door closed, hard enough to shut it but not to slam it, then went over to the foot of the bed. Sitting criss-cross, he said, "Alright. Give me the symptoms."

Eyes scouring the ceiling, Richie listed, "Headache. Stomach pains. Too hot, then too cold."

"Sore throat?" Eddie asked and Richie shook his head. "Have you thrown up?" Richie pulled a face, then shook his head again.