A New Beginning

Chapter 10

"Welcome to my humble abode, Eds." Richie exclaimed and opened his apartment door to wheel in some of Eddie's bags.
Eddie examined the comedian's apartment from the doorway. It was pretty average for someone who is considered famous. The entryway was next to the kitchen with a bar across from it. The living room was connected to the entry way where it was only filled with a coffee table, a wall mounted tv, a couch, and a tv stand for consoles. The window behind the living era showed the city and the other buildings surrounding the apartment. There seemed to be a small hall on the left and one to the right. It was average.
"You coming?" Richie called and looked back to the man with a questioning look.
"Yeah, sorry," Eddie took a step into the apartment, finally, and looked around once more.
"I'll set your suit cases next to the couch so you can sort through things and I'm gunna...make some coffee. You want some?" Richie asked, swerving around him and the kitchen bar.
"Sure," Eddie brought his other suitcase to the the couch.
"Creamer?" Richie pulled two cups down from the cabinets and looked back at Eddie.
"Do you have any milk instead?" Eddie sat against the chocolate brown couch and moved his toiletry bag aside.
"Sure, Mr Bland," Richie grabber creamer and milk from the fridge before closing the door with his foot.
"Shut the fuck up, Dickhead." Eddie scowled at the other as he opened up one of his suitcases and sorted through it.
Richie chuckled and started up his Keurig for Eddie's coffee. Eddie needed a place to stay since he was divorcing Myra and Richie knew staying at the house wouldn't help Eddie in any way. All the other losers were either in a relationship or traveling, but Richie wasn't doing either. Whether it was a blessing or a curse, Richie happily invited Eddie into his apartment.
Richie poured some milk into Eddie's coffee and walked it over to the focused man. "Oh," Eddie looked up from his gradual mess and smiled, "Thanks."
"No problem, Eds," Richie nudged his glasses back into place and went back over to the Keurig to his coffee cup.
"Don't call me 'Eds'. My name has been shortened enough as it is." Eddie called from the couch, but Richie couldn't hear him, even if they were so close.
Richie seemed to be making his own cup of coffee, but internally, he was freaking out over the interaction they just had. The gentle smile that had appeared from the frown Eddie originally had on his face was something that got Richie's heart pounding against his chest. This was a messy situation, but he could handle it. Right? What's a few more years of gay repression piled onto the 30-odd years that came before?
This was gunna suck.
The last drop of coffee dripped into the mug and Richie pulled away from the coffee maker. He started to pour some creamer into the cup as Eddie stated, "For a well-known comedian, I would've expected more."
Richie laughed lightly as he put away the milk and creamer, "Well, I wanna say on the downlow, Yanno?"
"That makes sense," Eddie commented from his fort of piles.
"And it's kinda a shared business," Richie leans back against the kitchen counter, sipping his coffee, "The crew gets some, the manager gets some, the venue gets some. That whole mess of connected ties. I don't worry about it too much, as long as I get paid."
"True, true. Especially from your portion of the job," Eddie muttered and started folding his clothes back into the suitcases.
"What do you mean?" Richie questioned the slightly younger fellow.
"Well, you're mainly the manager's puppet. I wouldn't think your revenue would be that much." Eddie blatantly told the man, not paying attention as he was focused on folding his clothes.
This shocked Richie. He didn't think about it in that way. That he was a puppet for the company who supported him. It left him a bit silent, but he knew he had to go and give a quick witted response before Eddie felt bad for what he said. "It's more than you think it is. I was able to get your mom swooning over my cash." Richie teased Eddie, quickly pulling it out of his ass.
Eddie's face scrunched up in disgust as Richie always remembered it doing, "Shut up. God. I would've thought you'd stopped the 'your mom' jokes by now, but your still 12!"
Richie chuckled and walked over to his organization piles, "A 12 out of 10, baby!"
"Jesus Christ," Eddie rubbed his face and looked up to him, "and I agreed to move in with you."
"That's all on you, man. You had a choice." Richie told the Eddie, but he hoped he stayed.
Eddie sighed and shook his head before putting more clothes away. Richie's phone buzzed in his back pocket and he retrieved it quickly to see a familiar face on the screen. It was the leader of the Losers, Bill Denbrough. He answered the FaceTime call while exclaiming "Hey!"
"Hey, Rich," Bill happily responded, "How's it going?"
"Good, good," Richie looked over at Eddie, wondering if he should tell the man about him living with him.
"Yeah?" He noticed Richie looking off which brought his attention back to him.
"Yeah! Sorry, I'm just thinking. Uh, anyways, how are you?" Richie asked with a soft smile.
       Eddie had recognized the man's voice over the phone and called to Richie, "Is that Bill? Tell him I say Hi."
      Bill hear Eddie's voice and it stopped him from speaking only to make him question, "Is that Eddie?"
      "Uh yeah. He says hi." Richie told Bill and sat down beside Eddie on the couch.
      "Hi, Eddie. How are you doing?" Bill adjusted in his seat at his desk on the face time.
      Eddie chuckled and looked to the screen, "Stressed as hell, man. You?"
      "Jeeze, man, I'm sorry. I'm..pretty busy. I've been working on this new book while settling some things with the film industry about the latest movie adaptation of one of my books. Also a bunch of press stuff, so I guess I'm stressed as well." Bill replied with a small smile as he ran a hand through his slowly graying hair.
          "Seems like it man," Richie commented before sipping the coffee that was starting to cool.
          "Yeah," Bill finally noticed the piles of clothes and items around Eddie, "Wait, Eddie, you're staying with Richie?"
Shit, Richie thought. He didn't know why he was afraid of them knowing, but he was. Maybe he was afraid of them finding out he liked Eddie, or assuming that Eddie and him got together. Whatever it was, it made him dread any reaction his friends had.
        "Yeah, I needed to get out of the house. It wasn't the right environment to heal in." Eddie stated while he set his clothes back into his bags.
        "That makes sense, and you're okay with this, Rich?" Bill looked at Richie through the screen.
        Richie felt Bill's eyes pierce his soul. He knew what he was talking about. He was mainly the only one he confided in about the whole Eddie situation after he got out of the hospital. Eddie being shanked by IT in his arms. He could still hear the sickle puncture through Eddie's body, sometimes.
         Richie threw on another cocky smile, "Of course. Eddie is in great hands in mi casa," before he set his mug down an ruffled the smaller man's hair.
       "Fuckin-Richie! Piss off!" Eddie pushed Richie lightly and the other two laughed.
       "So what we you calling about Big Bill?" Richie asked, adjusting his glasses.
        "I wanted to interview you for my book but you two seem busy right now, so I might go ahead and call Bev instead." Bill looked at his notepad in front of him and flipped through some pages before looking back up to the two.
        "I mean, Eddie's pretty busy. I'm just helping him out when it's needed."
        "That's what I mean. I'll call Bev instead. You two have fun with living together." Bill smiled through the phone to them.
        "Alright, if you insist. Have a good day. I'll text you later when we aren't busy, okay?" Richie told Bill and he nodded in response.
        "Sounds good. Talk to you later," Bill waved with a smile while the other two waved back.
       "Bye," the both exclaimed as the call ended.
       Richie slipped his phone back in his pocket and looked to Eddie, "any bags you wanna keep in my room?"
      Eddie looked to him as Richie grabbed his coffee once again, "uh, maybe this one that's full of summer clothes and some of my different shoes."
       Eddie gestured to the far left bag near the wall and Richie snorted, "okay."
      "Shut up, Richie," Eddie spat as Richie grabbed the smaller bag.
      "Never. It's what I do." He wheeled it off to his room and set it beside his wardrobe.
       He fell back against his bed like he had a long day at school. This whole situation was going to be a mess. He was going to deal with it like he did all those years ago. Repression and jokes. The two things he was best at in life. It was going to be a hard few months.