The sound of screaming could be heard from downstairs as Richie tied up the his shoe laces and shrugged on a grey hoodie. He snatched his cassette player off of his bedside table to where it was resting the night before and blasted The Cure in an attempt to drown out his parents' fighting.
Despite pressing the headphones to his ears in frustration, the boy could still hear the clattering of empty beer bottles and the screaming of 'fuck yous' could still be heard over Robert Smith's voice even though the music was so loud he could feel a ringing in his ears.
As Richie packed his bag for school, he heard a male voice yell from downstairs,
"Richard, get down here right now, hear me?"
Richie knew it was his dad and he also knew that his dad had found out he'd been smoking for the past few months. The teen that was usually loud and carefree around others was now suddenly scared of his own father.
Richie's bedroom was on the second floor meaning that just outside his window was the roof, and then there was a 6ft drop to the ground.
He was willing to take the risk.
Swinging his bag over his shoulder, Richie swiped a couple pillows off his bed and carefully stepped out onto the roof below.
"Richie where the hell are you get down here you little shit!"
As soon as he heard his dad's voice, he threw the pillows onto the ground below.
Then he jumped.
The teen fell with a thud onto the floor, thankfully landing on his stomach.
His hands were cut up from the gravel from the ground and were bleeding from little pricks across his palms. His knees and legs were grazed and bruised. He knew he would have to go to pharmacy to get bandages so they wouldn't get infected. Richie didn't really care about getting hurt, he was incredibly good at hiding pain with humor but he wasn't dumb and he knew his cuts would probably get infected if he didn't treat them.
"Well, at least I ain't dead," Richie told himself in his best Texan accent, slipping his hands into his pockets and whistling on his way to the pharmacy with his head held high.
~❤~
Eddie turned his head as he heard the sound of the pharmacy bell ring. The door swinging open, he caught glimpse of boy he knew from school.
Richie Tozier.
As Richie walked along the isles of medicine, Eddie spotted the other boy's cut hands and bruised knees and felt a surge of sadness fill him.
Was this really Richie Tozier? The boy that his friends Bill wanted him to meet so bad, the boy that could make every situation funny with his jokes and voices. Was it the same Richie that was currently reading the backs of medicine bottles, looking disheveled and hurt in a pharmacy while school started fifteen minutes ago?
Eddie took one look at the teen fumbling through the shelves of medicine and got off of his stool at the front desk and walked over to him.
"Hey, nail polish remover won't help with those you know?"
~❤~
"Hey, nail polish remover won't help with those you know?"
Richie turned at the voice and saw Eddie Kasbrak behind him, holding up a bottle of gauze and bandages.
He immediately became defensive. What if Eddie went back and told everyone what a state he had been this morning? What if he had come here just to poke fun at him?
"Look, Eddie, I know what I'm doing okay? And I just fell over on the way here and I don't want the cuts to get infected, so stop asking, alright?"
Eddie felt bad that he had made the teen uncomfortable and immediately recoiled, speaking to the boy in a softer voice in an attempt to comfort him.
"Look, I won't ask and I won't care about how that happened," Eddie assured, gesturing to Richie's grazing knees and cut hands, "but I do care about good hygiene, so come over here and I'll fix you up, okay?"
Instead of resisting, Richie allowed the smaller teen to lead him to the back of the pharmacy and patiently let Eddie clean the pricks on his hands and bandage up the cuts on his legs. He shivered at the smaller boy's touch across his wounds, his heart pounded in his chest when they accidentally brushed hands.
After Eddie cleaned Richie up, he went over to the desk to get his own prescription. His asthma really wasn't that bad, he was pretty sure it was just anxiety. His mom, Sonia Kasbrak, was the one who worried about him, and she did, didn't she?
"I worry about you because I care for you, Eddie bear. If you love me as well, you will take care of yourself and stay away from that Tozier boy. He's a bad sort, that whole family is, so stay away from them."
Eddie pushed that conversation as far back into his memory as he could, trying to suppress the guilt he felt when he was with Richie, and feeling even more guilty that he kind of loved it as well.
