The Aftermath (Reddie)

4

Eddie's POV

It was lunch, and I was alone. I was too cowardly to face my friends, but none of them were sitting together anyway.

Except Stanley and Richie. They sat at the same table.

I was standing frozen in the doorway to the lunch room, holding the brown paper bag with my lunch in one hand.

Then my heart stopped, Richie looked up at me. He was smiling.

He didn't hate me.

Then he motioned to come over and patted the seat next to him.

I couldn't stop the smile from breaking out on my face as I started to walk forward.

But then I ran straight into Laura Johnson.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" She talked so brightly.

"It's all good," I muttered and rubbed my arm.

She had already turned around and continued walking.

Straight over to Richie's table she marched like she owned the place, then she sat down next to him and kissed his cheek.

My stomach felt sick.

I watched Richie turn to face her and start kissing her.

He didn't miss our friendship like I did.

I found a seat at a basically empty table, save some senior who was indulged into her book.

"Uh, mind if I sit?" I asked her.

She looked up from her book and nodded, "go ahead."

I sat down and emptied my lunch onto the table.

"Dude, are you eating baby food?"

I looked up at her embarrassed. It did look like I was eating baby food. My mom had packed applesauce, white bread, and broccoli. I didn't answer her. She closed her book.

"Here, take the rest of mine," she offered over a slice of pepperoni pizza and some cinnamon apples.

"It's totally fine, I'm used to eating stuff like this. My mom says it's good for me to eat this foods, they are supposed to be super foods and-"

"Dude," she cut off my rambling and slide her tray all the way over to me, "relax, I had a big breakfast. And that 'food' wouldn't even satisfy a baby."

I accepted the tray gratefully, "thanks uh..."

"Mary Ann," she filled in.

"Eddie," I returned.

It was nice to have a friend, so long as she didn't know how much of a coward I was.

It hurt how much she reminded me of Richie.

Richie always shared his lunch with me, even though he was much taller than me and definitely didn't have large breakfasts every day.

Mary Ann kind of looked like Richie too. Her hair was black, but it was sleek instead of unruly.

She didn't wear the huge glasses Richie was required to accessorize with, but she did have the disarray of freckles coating her nose and cheeks. She was tall and lanky like him too. It was stunning how similar they were.

But it hurt my heart even more.

There was no way I could replace the friendship me and Richie had, but I was sure as hell going to try.

------

Dang.

I'm really tired right now, I have written four chapters in a row but I still need at least one more before I can publish this book.

But I'm too tired to write more.