Sweetspot - Reddie

16

A million fireworks exploded gracefully around Richie's mind, however a slight wistfulness knowing that he would not be able to hold, kiss, talk with Eddie for two whole days, until Tuesday! Flashes from the..the kiss plastering itself to his sparkling eyes. Hell, he knew one thing. He fucking loved that boy. The way that kiss made him feel was so indescribable it was shit crazy, the feel of Ed's laying next to him, his lips on his, Eddie's soft, smooth hair running through Richie's shaking fingers.... Richie could feel himself being transported back to that very wonderful moment....damn who thought Eddie could kiss like that?! Fucking Eddie! Shit, man. Eddie "kiss meh ass" Kasbrak knew his shit.

"Richie, honey?" Richie felt himself melt back into reality, his mother, a horribly nervous look on her face, her eyes still red and puffy from the....fight. Richie's dazed expression met Maggie's (Richie's mother's first name) his bright pink cheeks darkening a shade and his eyes glossing over with some sort of 'I don't know how to feel about you right now' film. Richie tried to break eye contact with Maggie, but her eyes were begging for something from him, anything, she was begging for her son. But when Richie had begged for his mother, when she was needed the most, she was still stuck in the thickness of the liquor.

"What, mom?" Richie muttered, as the silently traumatic memories screamed at him making his hands shake around his knife and fork as he tried to scoop more scrambled eggs into his mouth, his mouth that urged for Eddie's lips....

"More toast? I made extra because...because I know you used to like it." Maggie glanced up at Richie hopefully, her eyes large and pleading as she held the plate of fresh-smelling toast. Richie's eyes flickered from his mother's to the plate of toast, his stomach churning uneasily, behind that sweet urge for Ed's was the urge for more toast. But they had argued. Him and his mom. She was trying to make it up to him. That's why she had got up especially early to make scrambled eggs, streaky bacon, toast, beans, pancakes with extra syrup and melted butter....

Richie's eyes locked with his mother's as he smiled slightly. Nothing could spoil how alive he felt right now.

"Sure. Thanks mom." Richie reached towards the shining white plate and took two slices of toast, done perfectly, slightly golden just as he liked it. 'Golden like how you felt when Eddie was kissing you...' Richie grinned harder at these thoughts until he was sure he looked stupid, his heart and pure soul being devoured by that feeling, spreading goosebumps up his slender arms...

"Oh Richie." Richie snapped back to his mother, the same dazed expression floating across the young teenagers face.

"Mom?"

"I am so so sorry, honey. I should never have barged into your business like that. Your a teenager now, and sometimes I forget you don't need me anymore-"

"Mom. I'll always need you, okay? A son always needs his mom. Although it kinda sucks to admit."

"Oh, honey. And from now on, I will be there for you, I promise. No more....no more...."

"Turning into a dumbass drunk who doesn't give a shit about her son? The one and only Richie Tozier?" Richie laughed, but not in a cruel way, in fact his face radiated ultimate positivity. He was so sure. He was so sure because he joyous tears sliding down his mother's glowing cheeks were so real. She really cared about him. Richie smiled at his mother before pausing, thinking about what he was about to say, his mind working like cogs, cogs still sticky sweet from the taste of Eddie's lips...

"You know, I wasn't actually upset about dad. Last night. I was just...just emotional, I guess. Teenager ties, you know?" 'Teenager ties!' His thoughts echoed, 'You mean gay boy ties?' Richie smiled secretly to himself.

"Y-you weren't? Oh, honey, I'm so glad."

"I am too mom. I'm glad we can leave him behind. Y-you deserve better, I promise."

"I deserve nothing, Richie. Not after how I left you too. Let me have that one, son." Richie frowned slightly, almost hurt that his mother was still cutting herself down for that... 'It's because how you treat her Rich, you treat her like trash.' Richie's face contorted, his eyes drifting down to his denim shorts, and his slip-on Vans, his stomach sliding like the waves of that of a seaside, so undecided.

"I'll let you have it mom."

"Thank you, Richie." A comfortable silence settled between mother and son, no longer tensely awkward. Of course, the silence wasn't as velvety or precious as the silences were with him and Ed's, but it was still something.

"You know what, honey? From now on, no secrets. We tell eachother what's going on in our lives. Mother to son. Son to mother. Agreed?"

A mischievous smile crept onto Richie's glowing face.

"Only if you let me curse, mom. No deal or no deal."

"Oh I'll let you have that one, Richard Tozier." The two laughed together, finally clicking like real family again. Real family with real family connections. Not...not like him and Eddie though...

"You look happy this morning, Rich. I'm serious, you look really damn happy. Did something happen at school, with your friends...?" As Richie processed what Maggie just said with a helplessly joyous grin, still dreaming about the kiss between him and Eddie, something slipped from Richie's mouth that was not meant to. A half-secret that made his stomach churn with the lush, made his skin tingle and prickle with goosebumps, made his cheeks glow, his hands shake, his legs wobble and his heart swell. The words tumbled out of his mouth like a water from the Niagara Falls.

"I kissed Eddie Kasbrak. I'm gay."