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#21: ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴀʀꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴏᴅꜱ

There was a soft glisten in the moonlight that began shining on Eddie's face. He was glowing and radiating, especially in a mostly white and gold costume. He was bright. He stood out. He always seemed to draw attention to himself without meaning to. That's what I loved most about him.

"Is it just me or are you glowin', Spaghetti?" I tilted my head and held my fingers out in a square shape, like I was scaling a picture to take. "Are you pregnant or somethin'?"

Eddie raised an eyebrow but wasn't reluctant to snap back. "Surprise. It's a boy."

"Is it mine?"

"No."

I pretended to seem offended and blown away, placing a distraught hand over my forehead. "I can live with that. Who's the daddy then, Eds? It's Bev, isn't it? You two spent too long getting ready in the bathroom today."

"Babies take nine months to fully develop, dipshit," Eddie folded his arms. 

"How far along are you, then?"

Eddie tried to resist an annoyed smile. He did enjoy arguing with me, and half the time, he didn't give a shit what we were arguing about. It was the turmoil that drove him. "Five days." 

"Well, shit. I'm stumped then, Eddie bear. You're an open book."

Eddie let a soft chuckle escape his lips as he awkwardly picked at the hem of his outfit. A cool breeze brushed through the nighttime air and Eddie took a troubled breath, staring off at a leaf that quivered on the driveway due to the wind. "You know, Richie, you don't have to fake being all charming when no one else is here and it's just us."

Silence.

I'm not faking shit.

I just needed to play it cool. Play it cool, Richie. That's all you know how to do. Just play it off and no one will suspect shit. Eddie won't suspect anything.

"Don't flatter yourself, I act like this all the time around your Ma. Even more so, actually," I would've ironically pushed my glasses up my nose if I was wearing them. "She likes it way more than Bev likes you. Do you kiss her?"

Eddie blinked. "What?"

"Beverly. I mean, come on, you're carrying her kid in that vagina of yours. Have you kissed?"

Eddie rolled his eyes. "Sure, Richie."

I took a deep breath and watched another kid dressed as some shitty pumpkin skip past the house. Other than him, the neighborhood was mostly silent except for music that could be heard blaring from a couple blocks away. "Does Bev think you're good at it?"

Eddie almost seemed so flustered that he was done with my bullshit. He looked over very slowly and met my eyes, trying his very best to not prolong the contact. "Don't take her word for it."

I blinked.

Holy shit.

Was that... flirting back  that I just sensed?

Well, I'll be damned. This was a momentous occasion. Never in my fourteen years of being on Earth had I ever heard Edward Kaspbrak flirt back. I wanted to clap and bow and playfully shove Eddie, but I was having so much trouble trying to figure out how to respond that I forgot.

Let me tell you one thing. Now that Eddie had made the mistake of leading me on through my sorry attempts at being charming, he would live to regret it. Because I took this opportunity as a challenge.

Eddie's going to flirt for the first time? Now I'm gonna flirt back harder.

It's worth it now. It might just amount to something in the end. I just needed to try hard enough to see.