𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐩𝐭. 𝟏 | 𝐞 & 𝐫

R

      Approximately ten minutes after the preceding events, Richie was sitting on the couch in the foyer. He was fiddling with his fingers nervously, trying to compose mental obstacles to distract himself from thinking about just how much he regretted giving Eddie that letter.

    Richie was extremely impulsive, and the anger and sadness he had built up in him certainly contributed to this fault of his. This was seen in many instances of his life, including the accident that night. Richie knew he had to fix his relationship with Eddie again. Somehow do some grand, showy display of affection and win him back. A great apology. He didn't even know where to start.

Soon, Richie looked up to see Eddie walking into the room. Richie noticed that Eddie always had the crisp, sharp composure about him now, no matter how stressful a situation was. This was one of the things about Eddie that made Richie question if he wanted to be with Eddie or just be him. And experience what it was like to be "perfect" for a while. Atleast one day.

E

    Eddie sat down next to Richie, sitting in a fixed, straight position. He saw some concerning patterns in Richie - for starters, he saw that the boy's eyes were bloodshot. He also noticed Richie was quite jumpy and ill at ease. He could tell the boy was extremely nervous, and frankly, a mess. Eddie was feeling the same way, but managed to do a better job at hiding it than Richie was. He inhaled, moving closer to Richie a little to break the prominent wall of tension that was left there between the two of them.

    Eddie was searching for words to pull out of his mind, sort of struggling to start the conversation. "We need to talk." He said. He wished he could take back his words, seeing that Richie's head darted up in alarm. Eddie was brought back to that day two days ago where the two first reunited. He sharply exhaled, trying to phrase his words in a better way.  I want to try to understand what's going on." Eddie said in an exhausted voice, really trying to wrap his head around what was going on in the other boy's mind. Eddie waited for Richie's reply, and looked back up once he noticed he still hadn't answered him.

R

    "Can you please talk to me?" Eddie said to him in a lower voice, not sounding frustrated, but just tired. "I'm trying, okay?" Richie chimed in, not being able to verbally express quite exactly what he was feeling. He was processing his emotions in the moment, as he hadn't had time to truly sit in his emotions before. His mind wasn't foggy for once. It was... clear. He understood how he was feeling. But there was a thick mist that stopped him from truly understanding why he was feeling the way he was feeling.

    "Whatever. It's nothing." Richie said, trying to stop internalizing his feelings before his mind got to an even darker feeling. Stop trying to make it go away, dumbass. It's not going to. He ignored his subconscious mind telling him what he knew was the truth. His breathing was laboured, and he felt himself slipping into another panic attack. He took deeper breaths and tried to focus on himself to not further induce his feelings of panic. "It's not 'nothing'. I know something's wrong. Just talk to me-" "Thanks for being my therapist. You're great at it." Richie said sarcastically, cutting Eddie off and using humor to mask the problem at large. Eddie had an exasperated look on his face, borderline annoyed. "Come on, Rich." Richie didn't get the signal. He kept on. "I know you think you can 'fix me', but this is my life. I'm not some project for you to work on." "You know that's not what I'm trying to do-" "Great therapy session. So, what's the fee?" Eddie rolled his eyes, obviously frustrated now. "Can you just be fucking serious for once?" Eddie snapped.

E

    Eddie didn't mean to snap at Richie. He just cared so much about him that it was hard to not... care. There was an undeniable tension in the air, and Richie flinched back, shocked by Eddie's sudden change in tone. Richie looked back down, and Eddie could see he was uncomfortable again.