He Touched Me ~ Reddie (IT)

GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!

TW!!! Non-consensual make out/ getting a little handsy between minors, but it doesn't go beyond that.
Also, Eddie is a suuuuper unreliable narrator, so some things (lots of things) contradict each other. It's all intentional my dudes.

~

It's been two days since I broke my arm, lost all my friends, and acquired a blank, white cast. I try to convince myself that it's only blank because I don't want to get it dirty, but if anyone asked to sign it, I'd let them do it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to see the few people who would actually ask me that.

When I force myself to look on the bright side, I just think about how Mommy hasn't revoked phone privileges. Granted, nobody has called me, so there's not really a reason why she would take away the phone. As if waiting for my train of thought to drift over to my friends and their lack of calling me, the phone abruptly rings. I shoot up from not only my bed but my growing hole of self-pity and run downstairs. Mommy would have already picked up, but she's at the store and she will be for the next few hours. (She likes to read the labels of everything she buys to make sure it's okay for me to have with all of my sicknesses, even if she's already bought the product before, just in case the ingredients change.)

"Hello?"

"Eddie?"

"That's me. Who is this?"

"It's Ben."

"Ben! I've been worried sick about you guys. How's your gut? You got beat up pretty bad."

"I'm okay, or at least I will be soon enough. And as much as I wish I could say that I called to catch up, I don't wanna lie to you. There was a big fight between Stan and Bev and everyone else. Richie and Bill ended up punching each other in the face and now none of us are really friends anymore."

"Wait, what? What are you trying to say?"

"The Losers' Club... it broke up, Eddie. We broke up."

My mouth goes dry and I'm at a loss for words.

"You still there, Eddie?"

"Yeah..."

"So what? Do you think that's the end?"

I take a moment to process everything before shaking my head, despite Ben not being able to see me. "We've gotten in fights before. It'll probably be fine by the end of this week."

"I dunno... this seemed... legit. It was like some final battle you'd see at the end of a video game. It felt so much like the conclusion to a story, it was unreal."

"I think I know what you mean."

"Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that. I'd ask if you wanted to hang out but with your mom and all..."

"She's practically breathing down my neck. It's gross."

I would never say that to her face, but I know Ben won't snitch on me.

"Sounds like it."

"I mean, it's for my own good though. Or, at least I'm pretty sure it is."

We're both silent for a moment, lost in thought.

"I gotta go now, Eddie. My mom needs to use the phone."

"Oh, okay. Call me later?"

"I'll try."

"Same."

"Bye."

"Bye."

And the line goes dead. I hang it up and sit down in the chair at the table, drumming my fingers against the wood. It was perfectly smooth when we bought it a few years ago, but Mommy sanded to down and did a whole bunch of other stuff to it to make sure there were no tiny pieces of wood sticking up in random places that could give me a splinter. As much I love her and appreciate what she does for me, sometimes Mommy can go a little overboard. Still, it's for my own good.