Through Good & Bad (Reddie)

Chapter III- Friends

Richie wakes up right after the first tambourine rhythm in 'Are You Gonna Be My Girl' by Jet.
"What the hell is this song doing here?" He barely screams
Eddie looks at him, with half-closed eyes.
"What?"
"Did I wake you up? I'm so sorry..."
"It's okay. Did you just wake up?" He asks
"Yeah, Jet woke me up"

Eds looks at his phone, and smiles. It's eight am. Way too early for that song to be playing.
"Sorry, Rich" He unplugs the earphones and changes the song to something a little calmer: 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' by Wham!
He starts dancing around, making Richie laugh
"C'mon!" Eddie offers Richie his hand
"Oh, no. I don't dance" he shakes his head
"You don't d-? What do you mean by 'I don't dance? You can't tell me you've never done it"
"I have, but..."
"Then you're doing it again. C'mon!" Eddie grabs Richie's arm and throws him out of bed.
Richie smiles at him and starts dancing, stupidly. He jumps around, and moves his hands joining the drums' rhythm. He hates dancing. He feels ridiculous. But maybe dancing is okay, if he's with Eddie Kaspbrak. Maybe they can dance together.

The song ends, and 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol starts playing
"C'mon" Eddie grabs Richie's hands, and gets close to him, to slow dance "Don't step on me, bigfoot. It's gonna hurt"
"I'll try..." Richie smiles at him, then focus on getting every one of the steps right. He doesn't wanna ruin it

The song's interrupted by an incoming call. Eddie lets go of Richie's hands, and runs to answer it
"Hey"
"Kiddos? Get ready. We're coming to get you in ten"
"Already?"
"Yeah, we want to sign Richie up for school"
"Oh, okay. We'll be ready"
"Great. Thanks, Eddie"
"No problem"
He hangs up, then looks at Richie

"Your parents will be here in ten minutes. You're going to get signed up somewhere"
"What? Where?"
"I don't know, he didn't say"
"Shit, I wanna go to your school"
"And I want you to come to my school!"
"Fuck. They said they'd let me choose"
Eddie smiles
"What?"
"Nothing, you don't swear much, but you just did"
"Right, yeah. I shouldn't" Richie pinches himself, but Eddie throws a pillow at him
"Hey! Stop it!"
"Sorry"

"Why shouldn't you swear? Everyone does it"
"Believe it or not, my old friends used to call me Trashmouth"
"Richie 'Trashmouth' Wheeler... I like it"
"Get dressed already"

Richie throws Eddie's- already dried- clothes at him, and gets in the bathroom
Five minutes later, they're both in the reception, handing back the key.

The Wheelers get there exactly ten minutes after their call
"Okay, I'll see ya around, Rich"
"Wait! Give me your number" Richie hands Eds his new phone, for him to write it down
"I thought you'd never ask" Eddie says, making Richie blush "We can meet tomorrow to study..."
"Yeah, that'd be great"
"Call me"
"In your dreams"
"Hey! Eddie! Let us take you home. We can explain the situation to your parents" Adelaide says
"Oh, that's okay, Ms Wheeler. Don't bother"
"Are you sure? It's no problem" Harry insists
"Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine. It's not even raining anymore"

Richie frowns, and watches him leave on his bike
"Let's go, son"
"Yeah"
He gets in the car, and they both look at him

'What was all that about? Explain the situation? There's really nothing to explain. It was safer to stay in a motel'

"Richie, honey. Have you thought about your future?"
"Not really... what should I think about?"
"We need you to choose what you wanna do, where you wanna go to school..."
"Oh, I've thought about that. I want art school. For sure"
"Arts? Just like Eddie?"
"Yeah. He told me he'd help me pass the test, and I love drawing, and writing poetry, and everything... so yeah. Is that okay?"
"Yeah, cool. Let's go sign you up then"
"Seriously?"
"Of course, kiddo."
"As long as you study, and do something productive with your life, we don't care what you do. We just want you to be happy"