"So, what do we have here?"
"Three straight papers, all less than average work according to—"
"Okay, I see the problem."
"How the fuck?"
Richie and Eddie met up at the library on Saturday after the first week of school was complete, the latter not thrilled over his marks.
"You need to explain in more depth what you're writing."
"…I thought I was doing that."
Richie looked deadpan over at Eddie. "You can do better."
Eddie shook his head, "These aren't that big of a deal, though."
Richie sighed as he reached through his bookbag, finding what he was looking for, and pulling out a paper he composed last year detailing one of Edgar Allan Poe's writing.
"See this?" Richie asked, showing the youngster the full front and back of writing he composed.
"Am I capable of—"
"Eddie, you are. You can rant on and on about certain illnesses; you can certainly talk about your feelings in a much more detailed manner."
Eddie sighed, "I just…this all seems hard."
"Okay, who's in advanced math for the second year in a row?"
"Me."
"Who doesn't seem to complain when things get extremely hard…in terms of school?"
"Me…sort of."
"Who stood up to a morbid clown and ended up defeating him?"
"Not singlehandedly, but…me."
"See, you can do this," Richie said, reaching his left arm across the table.
Eddie took a few seconds to realize what his friend wanted; as he reached out his left arm, the two embraced in a small high-five handshake.
"How much time do you have left with your cast?"
"Another month…I can't wait for this thing to be off."
"We all can't…our little Eds is going to get better sooner than you know it."
"Richie," Eddie whined, "you know how I hate that."
Richie smiled, "I know…and that's why I love calling you that."
Saturday night saw Richie spending time alone in his house as his parents were out for a nice date.
"Don't do anything stupid," Richie mimicked his father for the third time as he lied on his bed.
So, when are you going to come out?
Richie sighed, "To whom, exactly?"
His conscious didn't answer, to which Richie felt annoyed.
"Maybe listening to some music will calm me down."
Instead of going over to his boombox and turning on some tunes, Richie went downstairs into the living room and made his way other to his father's record player.
"Hmm, let's see what my old man has here."
Fumbling through the collection of records, one cover stood out to all the others. It was one of the few ones to be white, and this one had a human hand on the cover.
"Genesis? Why not give you a try?"
As Richie pulled out the record, he set it straight on the turntable and after checking over all the settings to ensure the record played properly, he lifted the needle and allowed it to be placed on the first indentation.
From there, Invisible Touch began to play, and right from the get-go, Richie found himself dancing to the catchy tune.
He listened to the lyrics while dancing to better get an understanding of what the song was saying, and he understood the theme as soon as the chorus played.
'Man, what was my Dad thinking, not allowing me to play this?'
Though it was certain that Phil Collins was singing this about a woman, it didn't stop Richie from lip-syncing all the gender names to correct them to his situation.
'Eds, you are mine. All mine and this summer proved it! You have this touch on me, and I could care less!'
As the song concluded, Richie lifted the needle and chose to go to the last indentation of the record; setting the needle down, In Too Deep started to play.
Seeing that this was more of a slow song, Richie sat down on the couch, catching his breath from his prior dancing and letting the lyrics seep into him.
"I have all the answers I need, Genesis. All I need to do is have Eddie…listen to this, and see what he comes up with."
Richie silently marked the next date that his parents would have – next month, last Saturday of the month – so that he could invite Eddie over, and play for him these two songs.
'That there is the third step…'