hard times// eddie + richie // IT

eddie's day with friends

i can't find richie anywhere. maybe he is sick. i guess i could go over after school and see if he's there. i know, it's dumb to want him here, but he always knows what to say, even if he's a total jerk sometimes. he's super smart.
all of my classes were boring. i'm not really a fan of school, but my mom wants me to become a doctor, so i do well anyway.
beverly stopped me in the hall to ask where richie was. i told her my plans and she wanted to come too. i told her she could come.
i'm sure richie wouldn't mind.
so, after school, beverly and i walked outside quickly and mounted our bikes. we biked down the familiar route i had biked a thousand times. sometimes, if richie's parents or brother wouldn't come home for several days, i would stay at his house with him. so, i knew the path by heart.
as we turned the last corner, i saw richie's parents car.
my heart sunk. they were never home in the day unless they were extremely drunk.
i told beverly i needed to make a call, and for her to wait where she was. i biked to the phone both on quarter street, and dialed richie's house. after a few rings, someone picked up the phone. it was richie's mother.
"who's there?" she asked, but her speech was blurred and jumbled.
"um, hi. this is eddie kaspbrak." i didn't really know richie's parents, besides the fact that they were both alcoholics.
"oh, yeah. eddie." she said with a bit of sourness now her voice.
"is richie there?" i asked.
"richard.. n-no i haven't seen him today." richie's mom sounded more tired by the second. also, mrs. tozier actually hadn't been home for three days.
"okay. thank you for looking." i said, trying to be nice. mrs. tozier hung up before i got to say anything else.
i biked back to beverly, who was sitting in a patch of grass near where i asked her to wait.
"richie isn't home right now. wanna go somewhere else?" i know i meant to find richie, but i felt bad for just leaving beverly.
"sure. how about the arcade?" she replied.
as we biked, i tried to be slightly ahead of her, incase i spotted richie.
when we arrived at the arcade, i bought tokens for beverly and i. beverly ran off to go play ski-ball, so i was left with my tokens. i prowled through the arcade, looking for the perfect game to play. i spotted stan by the whack-a-mole machine and decided to say hi.
"hey stan." i said, nonchalantly.
"oh, hey richie." stan replied.
"what's your score?" i asked. i'm not as close to stan as some of the other boys, so i try to keep up the conversation.
"oh, i'm not actually playing yet, richie went to go get the tokens." yes! richie's here!
"oh, r-richie's here?" i tried not to sound too excited.
"yeah. if you want to hang out with us you can." i liked stan, i really did. but sometimes he was just so casual.
"sure, i'm here with beverly, let me tell her." stan's face turned a light pink. i knew he had a crush on beverly, but he knew that bill and ben did too. there was no way he would tell anyone but bill, and he wasn't willing to fight for her.
i searched the arcade for beverly and found her by the pac-man machine.
"bev! richie and stan are here!" i may have come off a little excited.
"oh, cool. can we hang with them?" she asked, still focused on the game.
"yeah, stan said it was cool." i tried to calm my eagerness a little.
we walked to the other side of the arcade, where stan and richie were standing. richie smiled when he saw us.
"so it turns out this loser forgot to bring money." stan groaned.
"well, i didn't know we were going to the arcade." richie teased back. i looked down at the tokens in my hand.
"you guys can have my tokens, i don't mind." stan took the tokens out of my hand.
"sweet, thanks eddie." then, he looked at beverly. 
"wanna split, 50/50?" stan asked, much shyer now.
"sure," beverly answered. they both walked off, and stan had a huge, goofy smile on his face.
"let's hope they don't start making out with each other." richie goofed.
"yeah." i laughed.
"wanna ditch them? go to the park or something?" richie asked.
"yeah, beats sticking around here." i didn't want to see beverly and stan make out.
richie and i walked out of the arcade, and mounted our bikes.
"how much you wanna bet, that by tonight, stan's inside bev-" i cut richie off.
"do not finish that sentence."