THICK & THIN ✿ reddie

stuck inside the wrong frame.

He supposes life had been pretty boring until the Toziers moved to town.

His life of monotony began at the age of five. His dad died that year; something that sent his already paranoid, neurotic mother over the edge. From then on out Eddie's life was consumed by the chemical smell of the hospital, doctors, and pills. His mother brought him to every doctor in Maine, convinced something was wrong with him. Along the way he started to believe it himself.

The next few years he spent cooped up in his bedroom, longing to join the kids that he watched play from his window. He watched the pack of neighborhood boys roughhouse each other, earning grass stains that would give his mother a coronary if she saw them on him.

He wondered what it would be like to be a boy. He imagined himself as a part of the group of boys, hair cropped to his ears and dressed in red shorts and a polo shirt. He liked himself better that way. Maybe if he was a boy his mother would stop insisting he was so delicate.

He often wonders if he would have spent the rest of his life stuck up in his bedroom if the Toziers hadn't moved into the largest house on the block. He was eight-years–old the day the moving trucks appeared. His mother spent that hot summer day peering at the new family trough the blinds. She spoke about how well-off they must be in a tone that was equal parts envy and fascination. She had always been enamored by the high-end lifestyle, but never able to afford it for herself.

The next day his mother hastily baked a batch of cookies and dragged him down the street under the guise of being a good neighbor. Looking back on it he supposed she really just wanted to scope out the largest house in town.

He clearly remembers the first day he met Richie Toizer. They came face to face in Richie's barren living room. Their mothers had both already ventured upstairs for an impromptu house tour.

The first thing he noticed about Richie were his bulky, black glasses, next it was hideous fashion sense, lastly it was his obnoxious personality.

"Who are you?" Richie had asked, stalking up to him. Even then Richie towered over him.

"I'm your neighbor, my name's Edith," he said politely, just like his mother had taught.

"Nice to meet you, Eds! I'm Richie!" he responded sticking his hand out for him to shake. When he refused to shake hands with the boy Richie reached out and grabbed one of his braids, shaking that instead.

"Don't touch me!" he protested, "and it's Edith not Eds!"

Before Richie could pester him further, a girl who couldn't be more than a year or two younger than him appeared behind Richie.

Her eyes lit up and she ended up dragging him away, claiming that he was her friend because he was a girl and that Richie should go find one of the neighborhood boys to play with. She introduced herself as Katie and explained that she was Richie's younger sister.

He didn't quite like her explanation as to why they had to be friends, but he liked Katie. It seemed the feeling was mutual because everyday after that Katie Tozier showed up at his door asking if he could come play. It took a week of convincing before Sonia Kaspbrak conceded, sending him on his way with a fanny pack full of pills and his inhaler and strict instructions to play inside.

Katie gladly invited him into her vacant house. He was baffled that she was allowed to stay home alone at such a young age. His first question upon realizing they were alone was to ask where Richie was, not that he cared or anything, he was just curious. Katie explained that Richie had been sent to a year-round boarding school because he managed to get kicked out of or expelled from every school he had attended so far.