✓ 𝗦𝗘𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧, reddie

v. the lights

THE LIGHTS!

　 ҉ THE NEXT MORNING, Eddie is practically vibrating from excitement when he pulls on his white jeans and sweater that is one size too big, which Maggie was nice enough to wash for him after they got soaked in the river. Still, he borrows Richie's belt again, just because he likes how it looks on him. Richie doesn't say anything about it, he just smiles when Eddie walks into the room.

Half of the day they spend inside; Richie and Eddie make pancakes together, which are sprinkled with chocolate chips that Eddie ate from the bag as the cooked, and Richie sprinkles some cinnamon on top of his own. In the kitchen as they eat, they softly talk - it's the earlier hours of the morning, and since it's the fourth of July his parents don't have work, so they're still in their bedroom fast asleep in a tangle of silky sheets and pale skin. It's around ten when they're up, finally, and as Maggie makes herself a coffee and Went sits just out of sight in the living room in his recliner, Richie complains to his mom about his boredom. Rolling her eyes and giving him a tired glare, she says, "Why don't you read a book or something?"

Groaning and tilting his head back in a way that makes Eddie's heart beat harder for reasons he hardly understands, Richie says, "Mom, what the hell is Eddie supposed to do, just sit there and watch me like a frickin' cat?"

"Language," Maggie warns blandly as she walks past him to sit on the couch in the living room. He follows her, and blindly, Eddie follows him. "Play a boardgame or go hang out with your friends or something," Maggie says, "You're annoying as shit." Went glares at her, but a smirk plays on his lips.

Richie snorts at her attitude, which she nearly always gets when she's just woke up. "What's a board-game?" Eddie asks from his place next to Richie, practically drowning in his pale yellow shirt, and before Maggie can ask him how he doesn't know what a boardgame is, Richie is already gasping and pulling him to their self-proclaimed Boardgame Closet.

"We got Life, where you, well, you live. We got Monopoly, where you get money. We got Scrabble, where you make words, but that's like, an old person game," Richie says, pointing to the boxes as he speaks. Eddie's eyes glow a little at the mention of a word game, but then Richie looks at him with an expression that makes it seem like the word game is uncool. "That's the one Sir Wentworth plays when it's his turn to pick a game. Lame-o."

Eddie clicks his tongue. "Yeah, lame-o," He parrots, staring at Richie for a positive reaction, who just turns to him with a fond grin and shakes his head in amusement. Eddie turns back to the shelf. "What is Apples to Apples?" Eddie asks then, and Richie beams at the mention of his personal favorite game on the shelf.

"It's a new game," He says as he carefully tugs it from beneath a Checkers set, "Just got it for Christmas, it's so funny - we need three players, though. Let me call Bev's house phone and ask if she wants to come play, yeah?" He asks, handing the box off to Eddie. The smaller boy pastes on a smile and takes the box out to the living room while Richie heads to the wall phone in the hall.