Hear My Words
Chapter 2
Eddie woke up in a sweat. Another dream about that damned leper. He laid back down, closed his eyes and tried to fall back asleep. It was around six in the morning and Ms. Kaspbrak was already awake banging around in the kitchen.
Eddie cringed at the thought of his mother. He loved her but not was too loud, clanging dishes and Eddie couldn't fall back asleep.
He got up and pulled on a white polo tee shirt and knee length khaki shorts. He pulled on his mid-calf length socks which had red and blue stripes on the ends and put on a pair of black shoes.
He walked into the kitchen to see minor chaos. Ms. Kaspbrak was filling a container with Eddie's pills while toast burnt in the toaster, water ran from the tap and bacon was burning to a crisp on the stove.
"Mommy?" Eddie said. Sonia jumped, letting go of a few pills.
"Lords over heaven Eddie, you scared me!" she exclaimed and turned to Eddie. She looked worse than usual.
"Mommy things are burning.. The bacon and the bread." Eddie told her. She justS stared at his fragile figure, hugged her son and sighed. My boy. She thought.
"I'll get to it." she said and let go of him. Sonia turned, turned off the tap and threw away the burnt bacon and toast. She continued at Eddie's pills without a word.
After Ms. Kaspbrak cleaned up, she filled Eddie's fanny pack with his inhaler some first aid supplies and Eddie's pills.
Eddie took in an inhale without struggle and spoke, "Can I go to the library today mommy?" He didn't actually intend to go to the library, he had spoken with Bill about going to the Quarry the day before but he knew his mom would never let him go there, all the bacteria in the water.
"I suppose," Sonia sighed, " Just be back by curfew Eddie Bear."
"Yes mommy." Eddie responded and put on his fanny pack then walked to the door. Something was up, she was usually a bitch about Eddie leaving the house.
"I love you Eddie." Ms. Kaspbrack said. She meant it, she did love him, she just didn't know how to show it.
"I love you too mommy." Eddie shouted out of the doorway and the door closed.
Once Eddie arrived at the Quarry, Stan, Richie, Mike, and Beverly were there. Bill was probably late. Eddie walked over to Bev and Richie who were in the middle of a laughing fit.
As soon as Richie saw Eddie he eased his laughter and looked at him. Richie felt flush and uneasy. His stomach disappeared and instead there were butterflies.
"Hey Eddie Spaghetti." Richie said. He had a tint of pink in his cheeks but Richie thought he looked like a tomato had a bad sunburn.
"Don't call me that," Eddie huffed and turned to Beverly, "Hey Bev."
Eddie liked Beverly she was funny and wasn't judgemental, she was pretty, sure, but she wasn't Eddie's type. To be fair, Eddie didn't know what his type was.
Beverly looked up at Eddie and smiled. She always liked Eddie, he was annoying most of the time but he had grown on her.
"Hey Eddie." she said. Richie stared at Eddie for a minute, though Eddie wouldn't notice, he was talking with Bev. But little did Richie know that Eddie did notice because for some unexplainable reason Eddie's eyes were drawn to Richie like magnets. Both of them stared at each other, amusement in their eyes.
Richie looked Eddie up and down, taking in every inch of him(not very many inches but still) The slightly sun damaged dark brown hair, his unkept but perfect eyebrows, his brown eyes just like melted chocolate. His freckles looked like a splatter of paint across his cheeks and nose. His polo tee and his khaki shorts. The fanny pack. Richie thought for a moment, I really should make more fun of that. It's so ridiculous. But Eddie still pulled it off in Richie's mind. Finally the socks and shoes, he noticed how small Eddie's feet were. Richie giggled a slight bit. Baby feet.
Eddie looked at Richie feeling something he had never felt, some passion that was unexplainable. Eddie looked at Richie from the bottom up. Eddie had always loved Richie's white Converse, the little sketches on them and Eddie liked Richie's jeans, always rolled up twice with their holes around the knees. Eddie looked at Richie's shirt, there was white with a orange stain near the bottom that was almost covered by his hawiian tee. Eddie now looked at Richie's face. His Coke bottle lenses with a taped frame. He looked cute..
Eddie looked away. His heart was fluttering, yet throbbing.
Beverly was staring at both of them. Eddie had trailed off in the middle of their conversation so she looked at him to see what was the matter. Richie was that matter. It's not that Richie was the problem, it was that they were staring at each other googly eyed, practically drooling.
"Eddie?" Beverly broke the silence. Eddie looked at her. He was red. Eddie smiled as he dove through his fanny pack. He retrieved his aspirator and stuck it in his mouth. He inhaled and pressed down the trigger. He found it hard to breathe.
The Losers Club hung out at the Quarry for only another hour after Bill came then they all went their separate ways.
As Eddie walked home, he thought about when he had found it so hard to breathe after looking at Richie. It came to him.
Richie Trashmouth Tozier took my fucking breath away.