Just friends // Reddie

28

"Oh well I'm very much alive. You can talk to the guy I blew yesterday if you want."

Why the fuck did I just say that?

I finally connect with my mom and one of the first things you say is you blew someone? What the fuck is wrong with you?

Is it even blew? Or is it blowed?

Maggie just laughed, which took Richie out from his thoughts and shook her head. "No no that's alright. I believe that you're alive. I know you're working right now, so when would be a good time we could meet up and talk?"

Richie just blinked. "Oh uh right." He had honestly forgotten he was at work. "Uh tomorrow at 4 would work for me." He said before gasping. "Or or, you could call me out of school all day tomorrow since you are my mom and all."

He had to try, right?

That got another laugh out of Maggie followed by a quiet hum. "I'll see what I can do."

Richie's eyes widened and he grinned at the woman in front of him. "Really? You'd do that?" He asked softly as he fiddled with the bottom of his work shirt.

Maggie nodded and smiled softly, giving Richie a small shrug. "Why not? Went has stolen the last sixteen years from me, he won't mind if I take you for one day to start with."

"Oh, he probably wouldn't even notice." Richie found himself saying before realizing what exactly that implied.

Fortunately, Maggie didn't venture on the subject and just nodded. "You have a phone, Richie? I noticed the number you called me from is a landline on a farm just outside of Derry, the Hanlon family I believe? Do you have a cell phone?"

Richie stared at her in shock, who was this woman?

However, Maggie spoke again before he could even ask.

"You called my cell phone; I looked the number up in the phone book."

"That actually makes a lot of sense, although it is disappointing that you're not like a secret spy woman or something."

"I could be."

In that moment, the look of mischief on Maggie's face reminding Richie a lot of Bev, and the thought of Bev made him frown. He really missed his friends. It has been weeks since his fight with Eddie, since he was told to give them all space. When he was younger, and even last year, he couldn't ever imagine being apart from his friends like this. But he didn't know what to do, what was he supposed to do when his best friends wouldn't even talk to him? Eddie literally slapped him, well for good reason, but still. He was aware of his mistake, mistakes, but he has always made mistakes and his friends had always been there for him. Why was it so different this time?

"Hon?" Maggie's voice snapped Richie back into the moment. "You okay? Your lip is bleeding and you've got some blood on your fingers."

Richie glanced down at his hand and frowned; he hadn't picked at his lips in a long time. He wiped his fingers on his shirt as he cleared his throat. "Sorry, must've spaced out. But uh yes, I do have a cell phone." He mumbled and dug through his pocket before handing his small flip phone to the woman.

Maggie took the phone. "Even though you already have my number," she spoke as she very carefully pressed the keypad, "Now," her phone buzzed, "I have yours. I take back what I said before, call me whenever you want too Richie. How about I meet you at the coffee house at 8 tomorrow morning? Even if I can't get you called out, what's so wrong with skipping a day?"

Richie was grinning from ear to ear and his head was bobbing quicker then it should be. "Yeah yeah! Yes I will see you then." He said excitedly. He stood there awkwardly for a moment before realizing he had to be the one to leave since she was still drinking and had to pay. He waved before turning around and walking back into the kitchen.

~~~~~

Richie was having the best morning ever. Even though Maggie couldn't get him called out of school, something about her not being one of his legal guardians or some shit, she took him out to breakfast. They had coffee and bagels and just talked. They had a normal conversation, basically just talking about whatever came to mind.

Which unfortunately and somehow landed them outside of Richie's house.

In their morning talking, he had let it slip that Went was indeed home and no matter how much he protested, he found himself staring at his front door. He was terrified of what was going to happen.

But he opened the door, taking a deep breath as he did so.

"What are you doing home? You should be-" his fathers voice cut short as he spotted the woman standing behind his son.

Richie was immediately embarrassed.

Here was his father, holding a half drank beer in his pajamas, already on his way to getting drunk at ten in the morning. However, his eyes widened in shock as a slap echoed through the room.

"You had no right, absolutely no fucking right, to keep him away from me." Maggie seethed, she was practically towering over Went from how much he was cowering.

He honestly needed to find Maggie sooner by the looks of it.

"That is my son, my boy. He is sixteen years old and I haven't even spend a single day with him. Sixteen years." She scoffed and flung her arms up as she shook her head.

She got quiet.

The room got quiet.

Went didn't dare move.

"How'd you do it?"

It was a moment before he answered.

"Paid the doctors off." Went spoke quietly, carefully.

"You-" Maggie fell off.

"I paid the doctors and nurses a significant amount of money to tell you he died and to provide a fake death certificate. We were 17 Maggie, neither of us wanted a kid yet. You couldn't bring yourself to give him up and were going to force yourself to raise a kid you didn't want. I wanted a better life for you, you deserved to have the chance for a better life."

It shouldn't, but that definitely hurt.

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Yup