Kisses | Reddie

six ☆ we're normal too

by: michaelmellheere

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The voice of Eddie Kaspbrak's mother ran through his head as he was hauled into a different room in the medical institution. 'Eddie Bear, these pills are good for you. See? Just a couple pills every morning and night, and everything will get better.'  Eddie wasn't crazy. He wasn't crazy for liking boys and he wasn't crazy for thinking his mother was crazy.

"Okay Edward, you can sit in this bed and we are going to run some tests, okay?" The nurse said, the surgical mask muffling her gentle voice. "Yes...," he replied, his voice sounding empty; dark.

Eddie had been at Derry Mental Institution for about 3 months, no contact with the outside world whatsoever. Just the condensation fogging up the cold window, making it difficult to see the snow falling. That's all he wanted, to see, to feel the cold snow falling from the sky onto his eyelashes. The cool breeze that flowed through the air, piercing his now pale skin.

Eddie's skin, once tanned was now sickly pale. The glow in his eyes, now dull, no sparkle at all. Eddie was lost all hope of ever getting out. Little glances of other attractive male patients made Eddie's heart flutter. He was once sort of happy, befriending a couple of the patients, sitting with them during lunch hour. But now he stayed in his room with himself, reading the book that were neatly piled on the floor next to his bed.

"Okay Edward, I am going to insert this IV into your arm," the nurse explained, rolling the machine with the attatched bag filled with fluids over to Eddie. "Ready?" She held the needle over the vein, waiting for a clear response. "Just go already, I can't feel it anyways," Eddie responded, his head looking down to the tiled floor beneath him. The needle was pushed into his arm, Eddie not even flinching.  He was so used to the constant IV's and blood taking that he didn't even flinch anymore.

"Okay, so we are going to walk back to your room. Can you walk while holding onto the IV stand?" The nurse asked, helping Eddie get his feet back onto the ground. "Yes," he replied, emotionless. "Okay Edwar—." "Can you call me Eddie instead?" He cut the curse off, making her jump slightly from his change of tone. Her eyes softened, a smile appearing on her face, "Of course Eddie. Ready to go?" Eddie grabbed the IV stand, the nurse opening the door for him. "Yeah, let's go."

Eddie walked side by side with the nurse, her trying to make small talk, but Eddie only giving one word answers. They arrived at Eddie's room; 213. "Okay Eddie, keep the IV in and I'll be back in about half an hour to take it out," she said, helping Eddie sit on his neatly made bed. "Thanks," Eddie sighed, flopping onto his uncomfortable bed. "My pleasure Eddie, by the way, you have a roommate. The hospital is running out of rooms so you and this other boy are going to share a room. Is that okay with you?" the nurse asked, her hand on the doorknob. Eddie didn't respond. "Listen Eddie, I believe you when you say you're cured. You'll be out of here soon enough. The doctors say you're in here for being gay, but I think that you're okay now. The doctors think you aren't gay anymore and you've been cured too. So they've given you a male roommate, okay?"

The amount of information that was being given confused Eddie none the less, but he understood that everyone believed that he was cured. This made Eddie ecstatic, knowing that he had fooled the people that knew everything about him.

"Yes ma'am, is he here now?" Eddie looked up at the nurse, who was still smiling genuinely. "He'll be here in a little while. He's really... interesting, so just giving you a head's up. He can get, kind of attatched quickly. So if he gets attatched to you, just go along with it." She closed the door before Eddie could ask what that meant.

• • •

The door to Eddie's room slammed open, revealing a boy that look about the same age as him. His curly hair framed his face nicely, big coke bottle glasses made his deep blue eyes stand out. Freckles were dusted across his nose and cheeks, making him seem so lively. Two men were holding his arms behind his back, restraining him from breaking free.