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#13: ʜᴏʟᴅ ʏᴏᴜʀ ꜱᴛɪɴᴋɪɴ' ʜᴏʀꜱᴇꜱ

No matter how much I tried, I don't even remember if I replied after Eddie's statement. I was probably so lost in the view that I wasn't even focusing on words. 

And I didn't mean the stars, I meant Eddie. If all of nature's beauty was plucked from the universe and forged into one human being, it would be Edward Kaspbrak, hands down. Thinking these types of things felt wrong to me, though. So I stopped, not long after making eye contact.

The lighting was perfect, and the stars twinkled so delicately that it made my eyes sag. It almost felt as though the grass beneath me soothed and lightly grazed my injuries, sending my body into a state of calm. 

I could hear Eddie's breathing begin to slow; he was getting tired too.

I probably yawned, but I don't know for sure. I do know for a fact, however, that I glanced over at Eddie for just a moment, to catch a glimpse of his freshly relaxed expression. He was actually pretty cute when he wasn't telling everyone to shut the fuck up, at the top of his lungs, every single second.

And I probably tried to crack a sleepy joke, and Eddie probably groaned in annoyance, and that was all. The headache seemed to overcome my senses, and the world faded into complete darkness around me. 

It was the good kind of darkness, though. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Richie! Oh jesus christ, Richie, wake up!"

I blinked my eyes open quickly at the feeling of being violently shaken, with two very small hands pressed into my shoulders, heaving them back and forth with all the strength they seemed to have.

For fuck's sake, my head.

I rubbed my eyes. Yep, my hypothesis was correct. I did feel everything in the morning. My entire body, from head to toe, seemed to be radiating with a slight sting of pain. I took notice of the fact that Eddie was probably in lots of pain too, so I was surprised that he still found it inside himself to shake me completely awake. That was when I knew it had to be something important.

The agony over my body was so overwhelming that I closed my eyes again to adjust to my morning grogginess. Taking a deep breath and subconsiously trying to find my glasses that weren't there, I lifted my sleepy gaze up to Eddie. "Where's the fire, dollface?"

Eddie shook his own head and I watched as he glanced around frantically, anxiously picking at his fingers. "We fell asleep, dipshit! Ma's probably got an entire fucking watchparty looking for me! I told her I'd be gone at the arcade until seven! We've been out for twelve extra hours!"

In Eddie's eyes, this was a severe issue. His mother gets anxious simply seeing him walk off to school by himself, and ever since the murders were happening and more and more children were going missing, Sonia Kaspbrak was the exact definition of sitting paranoia.

When it came to my folks, though, they could care less whether I'm dead or alive. Okay, maybe that's over exaggerating a bit, but I'm not lying when I tell you that my dad doesn't mind where I am, as long as I'm not being a public menace and getting arrested. Which I've come damn near close to doing, mind you. Their parenting skills are flawed, only a little.

Still, I can't complain much. Eddie doesn't have a dad. Beverly doesn't have a mom. Ben's parents are divorced. Bill has a dead brother. Mike doesn't have any parents at all. 

I learn to appreciate the family I got. At least I got two parents that are together, even if they'd rather I stay out of the house instead of in it.

"Aight, aight, Eds, hold your stinkin' horses." I stretched my limbs out just a bit to adjust myself to the aches that I was surrounded by. Walking seemed impossible now, but I had no choice.