Calculator (Reddie)

-15-

'What the fuck, Richie likes me?'

Eddie was wide awake at 2am, thinking about the phone call that happened almost an hour ago.

'He was drunk, he couldn't have meant it.'

'But how does that saying go? Drunk words are sober thoughts?'

Eddie's brain goes a million miles a minute on a good day, but now it was just reeling.

'Did he tell my mom something? Is that why she kept bringing up us dating?'

Eddie's mind never calmed. The numbers flicked on his clock.

2am.

3am.

4am.

Eddie finally felt himself falling asleep at 4:30. His mind had stopped racing just enough that he could settle into bed. He let sleep overtake him, and slept through the night.

Meanwhile, Richie woke up at 5am with a splitting headache. He rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, turning on the light before making his way to the medicine cabinet. He pulled it open and grabbed the bottle of acetaminophen, taking two and going back to his room. He sat on the edge of the bed and tried to figure out why he had such a bad headache, and what had happened before he fell asleep.

I got home from Eddie's, and practiced guitar. I got thirsty after singing and went to grab something to drink. Drank two glasses and Nick said it was hard lemonade.

That's where the headache came from then.

Grabbed a snack, watched some TV, Nick asked me to try and get some rest so I went upstairs and got in bed. Couldn't stop thinking about Eddie so I called and confessed to him.

Wait, FUCK.

Richie was no longer tired. He grabbed his phone and went to the call history to see that he did, in fact, call Eddie shortly after one in the morning.

Shit shit shit.

Richie lept out of the bed and began pacing around his room. He tried to convince himself that there was no way he had actually told Eddie that he liked him. That was supposed to stay a secret. But, Richie and his big mouth blabbed. He knew that he had to explain himself, but he didn't have the guts to do it in person. So, he grabbed his phone and typed out a text to Eddie.

"Hey Eds, call me when u wake up ok?"

Simple and to the point, Richie thought, and not like himself at all. He knew there was no way that he could go back to sleep now, so he pulled out his laptop and began to watch the first thing that loaded up on Netflix, not really paying attention though trying to follow the story of the distraction.

Eddie called him a long while later, at 10:30. Richie answered the phone without thinking about what he was doing or what he would say. He had thought about it for the past two and a half hours and hadn't come up with anything, so figured his motormouth would figure something out in the moment.

"Hiya Eds."

"Hey Rich, you wanted me to call you? What's up?"

"Uh yeah, about that. Uh, do you remember anything about me calling you last night?" Richie bit his lip. There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"Um, yeah. You called me at like 1:30am."

Richie closed his eyes out of anxiousness.

"Um, do you remember uh, what I said?" Richie crossed his fingers in hopes that somehow Eddie had forgotten. Even though he knew he hadn't.

"I remember everything you said Chee. About the lemonade and how you were getting lost in your thoughts, and how you were thinking of me, and um,  how uh-"

"And how I like you?" Richie interjected. He knew it was coming so he got it over with.

"Uh yeah, that. What was that? I mean you hung up before I even got the chance to respond."

"Like I said last night, I'm a pussy Eds. Also I was drunk. But hey, in all honesty, who couldn't like you?"

"Richie." Came Eddie's sigh from the other side of the phone. Richie knew that his rejection was coming. "Richie, we've only been talking for a couple of weeks, but you are one of the people that I'm closest to in my life. I used to not like you at all, and I'm sure the feelings mutual, but once we actually started up the tutoring look what came out of it? There's no person that I trust more than you, other than my own mom."

"Yeah, I know I'm pretty special. But can we put all of this behind us? I was drunk last night and I wasn't thinking when I called you, let alone think about what I was saying. I just wanna keep things the way they were, with the tutoring and all. I guess that's all I wanted to say Eds. I'll talk to you later."

"Wait, Richie-"

And Richie hung up on Eddie for the second time in twelve hours.

Eddie on the other hand was slightly annoyed. He knew that he was starting to like Richie, but there's no way he could tell him that. Sure Richie likes him, but Eddie never got the chance to explain himself to Richie. As far as he was concerned, he wouldn't admit that he liked Richie to anyway for a while.

Besides his mom anyway.

He trudged down the stairs still in his pyjamas to see Sonia placing a plate of bacon and eggs at his place at the table. She looked up when she heard his feet scuffle into the kitchen.

"Morning sweetie, I was beginning to think you died up there. What's got you waking up so late?" She asked, getting a plate for herself and sitting next to the boy.

"I didn't get to sleep until really late. My mind was racing." He started to eat his breakfast while Sonia stopped.

"Anything on your mind? Something you wanna talk about?" She asked and he nodded. He swallowed his food.

"Last night, I was reading, and I lost track of time. Then my phone rings, and I look up to see that it was a little bit after 1am. I grabbed my phone and saw that it was Richie, so I answered it. He talked a little but was talking weird. I asked what was up and he said he accidentally got drunk off of hard lemonade that he thought was past due regular lemonade. (Sonia rolled her eyes at that but her smile stayed put.) He said that Nick, his brother, told him to go to bed and so he tried but he couldn't fall asleep. He kept thinking. I asked him what he was thinking about, and he said me. (Sonia raised her eyebrows but knew this would come sooner or later.) Then I asked what he was thinking about me, and he said that he liked me. (Sonia's eyes glowed and her smile grew.) But then right after he said it, he hung up. So I tried to get to sleep, but didn't get to sleep until like 4:30. Skip to when I woke up at 10:30, I had a text from Richie which he had sent at 5am asking me to call him when I woke up. So, I called him and we talked about what he said last night, and then he told me to forget it and hung up on me again. So I dunno what to do." Eddie slumped onto one of his hands which rested his elbow on the table and ate another piece of bacon.

"Well, do you like him?" Was the first thing Sonia said. Eddie blushed.

"I...don't know yet. I think I'm starting to, Mom, but I don't want to be anything more with him for a while because we're such good friends. Yknow?"

"Well honey, when the time comes, you'll know if you like him or not. And from there, you can decide if you want to act on your feelings. You already know the part that's usually scary, he likes you back. Now you're the one who has to figure stuff out Eddiebear." Sonia leaned over and ruffled his hair, and the two ate the rest of their breakfast in silence.

Here we are with another update, only I wrote this one in the bathtub while waiting for a face mask to dry lmao. Guess you could say I'm living the life.

See you next chapter Snowflakes!!