~ 𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙙𝙞𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙨 ~

seven : carnival

Nothing could compare to this empty feeling Richie Tozier was experiencing at this moment. The pressure he felt on his chest when he realised he lost everything. Not having a destination as he wandered the empty streets of his hometown. No shoes, a blood stained shirt, cracked glasses. Eyes dull, lips fixed into a line, scratches and bruises covering his formally pristine skin.

No longer exhibiting a wide smile with dimples prominent on his cheeks. Unable to even open his mouth as he tried to drag himself from reality. As he tried to forget.

Richie wished he could leave. He wanted drive as far away as possible, but at this moment his feet were leading him somewhere he had forgotten. Somewhere his most treasured memory was stored. A memory that had been out of his grasp for 27 years.

Until this very moment...

"Come on Chee, please!" A small brown haired boy begged. "I'll even pay! Can we please go?" He continued whining.

"Fine, but I'm not going to be mean and make you pay Eds. It can be my treat since you want to go so badly." A much taller raven-haired boy spoke from his comfortable position in a hammock.

"Yay!" Eddie exclaimed, drawing out the 'y' as he jumped up and down like a little kid. Richie turned his attention from his comic to the ecstatic boy and smiled.

"Tomorrow?" Eddie asked hopefully. "Tomorrow. It's a date." Richie replied as he started packing his things.

"Mrs K must miss me, better go give her little Richard." Richie spoke as he stood from his laying position in the hammock. Eddie scoffed as he swung his own bag over his shoulder.

"As if! My mother has standards." He retorted, climbing the exit ladder of their 'loser clubhouse' as Richie calls it.

"Rude and hurtful! She'd tap this, she has tapped this!" Richie joked as he joined Eddie above ground.

"Sure thing weirdo, see you tomorrow. Meet me at my house at 10." Eddie waved goodbye as he jumped on his bicycle.

"Cya Eds!" Richie called as he climbed onto his own bike, riding into the distance as he thought about how the following day would play out. Absolutely ecstatic about spending yet another day with his best friend.

. . .

"Richie get your ass up or you'll be late." A voice called from outside Richie's room.

"Yeah yeah I'm up!" Richie called back to his mother as he yawned.

'Time for the carnival'

Richie smiled at the thought.

Richie had gotten dressed in his usual jeans and buttonup floral shirt along with dirty aged vans and his iconic black, thick framed glasses.

"Ma I'm going now!" Richie called out before he slammed the door a little too hard from excitement. He grabbed his bike hastily and rode towards his best friend's house.

"Hey Eds!" Richie called out as he threw small pebbles at Eddie's window.

"Richie what the fuck stop!" Eddie whisper yelled back as he started climbing out the window. "Come on let's go before my mother sees." He commented, grabbing his own bike.

"After you." Richie spoke, trying his best to bow as he sat on his bike.

"Dummy." He heard Eddie mumble before riding off towards the carnival.