Autophobia ♡ r.t

Chapter Seventeen

By some miracle, Caroline had just about managed to explain that horrid day to her aunt without mentioning anything about that psychotic clown. She merely passed it off as a stupid dare gone horribly wrong.

She did however have to explain the situation with Mrs. Kaspbrak, meaning she would spending her days at her own house, alone, rather than with Eddie and his mother.

But Caroline knew she wouldn't be doing this whole thing for long, she knew her friends would be alright in the end. This would all be blown over within a few days. Hell she had already waited out two days! Have bad could two more be?!

Two more days. That would be it. And she didn't even have to spend the first two alone as her aunt had taken time off work to make sure she was gonna be ok, which she obviously was.

But her aunt had to go back today, but she would be fine. She could so entertain herself!

She had woken that morning to a small yellow sticky note on her bedside table, with her aunts familiar scrawl across it.

"Gone off the work! $20 on the counter for food. I'll be back by 8 :)"

So here she sat at her kitchen table, alone, not quite sure what to do. She had her backpack placed neatly on the chair next to her, her cassette player and headphones placed inside along with this aforementioned $20 and some reading material.

But the problem was she didn't want to do her usual summer routine. She had gotten to hang out with some of the nicest people for the past month and she wasn't quite ready to give that up.

After intently staring at the different scratches and marks on the dark wood table, she decided to call the only person she knew she could for sure trust at this present moment in time.

Eddie Kaspbrak.

He was always there for her, and she was sure he'd be there once again. They could spend the whole day together! Just like when they were younger.

She had even given him his space for two whole days! They'd never gone that long without seeing each other. He had surely started to miss her, just as she had with him.

She rose swiftly, bounding towards the phone excitedly as she pressed in the oh-so familiar sequence of numbers.

She listened to the ringing as she waited for the boy to pick up. At least she hoped it would be Eddie, she'd probably panic and hang up if it was Mrs K.

"Hello, Kaspbrak residence, This is Eddie Kaspbrak speaking" Eddie said in a dull tone.

"Eds! It's Carrie! I'm just calling to see if you're ok after everything the other day, I should've called sooner but I wanted to give you space or whatever! Maybe we could go for a walk and talk about it or something?!" Caroline asked excitedly, twirling the cord of the phone idly between her fingers.

"Oh-I'm Uh-fine but um-my Mommy said I can't talk to you anymore" Eddie said, lowering his voice, clearly so Mrs. K wouldn't hear him.

Caroline scoffed slightly at the statement. This had to be a joke.

"Eds are-are you kidding me?! We've been friends for almost 6 years and you're going to stop talking to me coz of your mom?!"

"She just-she said you'd be a bad influence on me and-and you know how she is! She'll flip if I went out to you or anyone else right now and-"

"Ok Eddie. It's whatever. I see how it is. Bye-or whatever" Caroline pouted as she hung up the phone, not giving the boy a chance to finish.

She wasn't going to admit it to herself, but she was angry. After them sticking together for so long, she couldn't believe he would just drop her like that all because of his mom!

Caroline decided to do the only thing she could think of to calm herself right now; go down to the barrens, listen to music and read.

She didn't want to think too much about the fact that she was back where she had started, but feeling far worse than she ever was before.

She quickly took her headphones and tape player out of her bag, popping in the mixtape she had made for the summer as she headed to the front door, bag lazily slung over her shoulder.

She put her bag and the cassette player gently into the basket of her bike, pressing play as she began cycling down the familiar route to barrens, trying her best to ignore the acrobatics her heart did every time a song she had listened to with the losers came on.

Everything was going to be fine! She had to keep reminding herself. She knew these people! They were her friends! They'd all be fine! Of course they would!

•••

God this was boring compared to what she had done all summer.

Caroline wasn't even paying attention to the words she was reading, nor was she really listening to the music.

No, she had sat herself down against a tree that provided a healthy amount of both shade and sun and day-dreamed about hanging out with Richie and Riley and Eddie and all her other friends.

She just felt so secure around all of them. They were all really good friends in their own unique ways. She was missing Richie a bit extra compared to everyone else though, but only because the last time they spoke was so horrible. That's obviously her only reasoning.

Her peaceful day-dreams were suddenly interrupted by a shout from a col and harsh voice.

"Schizoid! Hey!"

Caroline slowly looked up, her body feeling as if it had completely seized up. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. She slowly removed her headphones, hanging them around her neck.

"H-hey Henry"