Opposite But Identical

Chapter 5: The Losers/ Party Sleepover

          "Okay, what do we want to watch?" Mike asked the two groups. He held up Ghostbusters and Jaws. They all started arguing.
           "Okay, okay," Eddie said, standing up, "Who wants Jaws?" Exactly half of them raised their hand. Then the other half raised them for Ghostbusters.
            Mike sighed. "We can just watch both then, I guess." He slid the Jaws taps into the VCR player and turned off the light. The movie started, and the kids burrowed into their blankets. By the third shark attack, Richie was hiding behind Eddie. Let's just say that he didn't fare well with horror movies, especially ones like this. He liked them, he just didn't do that well with them.
            Nancy came downstairs with some food then saw what they were watching. "Jesus, how do you guys even like this? It's about children getting ripped up by sharks." They all shrugged.
           Richie, who needed a distraction from the movie, said, "Hey, who wants to play Never Have I Ever?" The kids gathered into a messy circle on the floor and put their hands up.
           "Okay, so everyone is going to go around the circle asking questions. If you have done something that a person says, put a finger down. The person with all fingers down first wins," Richie explained. "I'll go first. Never have I ever..." he thought for a moment, "... fallen in love."
            He looked around the circle. Richie has put a finger down, along with Eddie, Ben, Mike (Wheeler), Lucas, and Dustin. Lucas shot Max a dirty look, which she pretended not to see. "Okay, me next," Eddie said. "Never have I ever eaten something off of the floor." Everyone put a finger down except for Eddie, who said, "That's fucking disgusting, you guys."
            They went halfway around the circle asking questions then got to Max, who asked, "Never have I ever kissed anyone." Everyone dropped a finger except for Stan, Ben, and Will.
            After twenty minutes, they all got bored of the game and decided to just watch the movie until they all fell asleep. Unsurprisingly, that plan didn't last too long. Richie went upstairs to grab some leftover pizza, and came down to see his friends duct-taping Eddie to the wall.
          "What's going on?" Richie laughed.
          "W-we wanted to-to see if Ed-Eddie would stick to the w-wall," Bill responded casually.
         "Count me in!" Richie shouted, walking over to help tape up his boyfriend, who was standing on a chair, rolling his eyes.
         After using a whole roll of duct tape, Bev said, "Okay, Eddie, 3...2...1!" Eddie squeezed his eyes shut as Beverly moved the chair out from underneath his legs, his feet dangling in midair. He opened his eyes to see them all laughing hysterically.
         "I hate you all," he said dryly. Richie stuck his bottom lip out playfully.
        "Even me, Eds?"
        "Especially you."
         Dustin looked over, casually chewing on popcorn. "What are you gonna do with him now? Just leave him there?"
         "Wait! Lemme get my Polaroid," Richie said. He returned with it a minute later and snapped a picture of Eddie, who was staring daggers at him.
           He went up next to the boy taped to the wall and said, "I need something to show our kids someday, Eddie Spaghetti. Don't take it personally." Eddie's expression softened slightly, his face beet red.
         "Can I get down now?"
         "Gimme a minute. I'm enjoying this situation."
         "Fuck you."
         "Aww, I love you, too."
         By the time they got Eddie down, the movie was practically over. "Ghostbusters time!" Mike shouted, ejecting the Jaws tape from the VCR player and trading it for Ghostbusters. Mike looked over at the clock. It was almost one in the morning. Oh well, the
movie was already in. Not even halfway through, everyone was fast asleep.

                                      •••

         Nancy came down to the basement the next morning. The sun was shining in softly through the Wheeler's basement window, but not brightly enough to wake up the group. Most of the kids were sleeping on the floor. Max and Beverly were in the recliners, and Richie was snoring lightly on the couch with Eddie laying on him, a blanket draped over them both. There was a bowl of chip crumbs sitting on the floor near a pile of used duct tape.
         "Okay, everyone, up!" Nancy announced. "My mother is going to be home soon and I doubt that she's going to want to come home to a house full of teenagers!"
         They all groaned, and Richie said, "Nancy, it's only 7:30!" He pulled the blanket up over his and Eddie's heads. They all got up groggily and cleaned up the mess they had made in the basement, then ran upstairs to eat breakfast.
         Eddie rubbed his arm. "Ugh, guys, my arm is still sticky from when you taped me to the wall last night."
         "Wait, what?" Nancy asked.