2am | reddie

cinq

     richie pushed himself up from the cold tile below, coughing up blood as he supported his weight with his elbows.  blood.  all he saw was blood.  the thicker red substance dripped from his face as he saw it pooling on the floor underneath him.  he's always hated the sight of it.  not a hate in the sort of way that made him sick, but the kind of hate that made him upset and angry in a way that he couldn't ever explain correctly.  

     it was only then, the moment he finally pushed himself up to sit on his legs that folded beneath him, that he realized his father was still standing over him.  with a beer bottle in one hand and the late-delivered pack of smokes in the other, he scoffed.

     "i hope y'learned what happens when ya' deliver late," he muttered, digging his foot into the space between richie's ribs and hip bone, earning a wince from the boy.

     richie kept his head down until he heard the sound of footsteps slowly fade from where he sat, tears running down his cheeks that mixed with the warm blood that fell along with it.  slowly, he stood up and quietly shuffled his way upstairs to his bedroom where he crumbled apart.

__________

     never once had richie cried in front of someone other than his mother.  but now that his mother wasn't in the picture, it didn't matter anymore.  that statistic was almost as dead as she was.  

     richie couldn't believe himself as he was climbing out of his window, his entire body trembling as he could barely support his weight.  he couldn't believe himself as he found himself jumping from his two story window and running to a house that he barely trusted more than his own.

__________

     "goodnight, mommy!" eddie called to his mother, earning a fake smile from the lady that sat on the couch, waving him off.

     "remember to take your pills, eddiebear."

     eddie nodded silently and invisibly in return to his mothers comment, sighing as he trudged down half the house to his bedroom.  flopping down on his bed, he frowned to himself as he stared at his ceiling.

     his whole life revolved around fake things.  fake people, fake medication, fake feelings, fake words.  he couldn't ever stop thinking about it all.  about how his mother fed him fake lies about a fake sickness revolving around fake medication.  about how people would sift in and out of his life, leaving an aura of fake around him as they came and went.  eddie felt nothing but fake.  until he met richie.

     he was disrupted by a knock at his window, causing his entire body to jump, lurching off his bed.  he felt his heart race as he stumbled cautiously to the window, poking his nose out of the blinds slightly as he leaned forward onto the tips of his toes to look out, only to be met with the most beautiful sight of all.

     richie tozier himself.