Richie's POV

When I woke up, Eddie was gone. I didn't panic, but only because I knew Eddie's morning routine like the back of my hand. Probably better since I've stared at him more than I've stared at my hands.

Eddie (so long as he is able) has to get up as the sun shines into his room and grazes his face. Then he's off to the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth.

Fortunately for me, he likes to walk around in a huge ass fuzzy robe just eating and taking medication and stuff like that before he gets dressed.

It's not like I'm a creeper, I just have stayed the night with Eddie several times throughout our friendship. Thinking back, I am not sure how I managed to stay sane seeing Eddie's pale legs shuffle around at the crack of dawn. Or even just the fluffy robe totally drowning him with it's size.

I sighed to myself and snuggled into the bed more. I did not have a morning routine. Besides sleeping as long as possible. Would I brush my teeth? I didn't know, it as like a guessing game I had with myself. For that morning, the answer was yes, as Eddie wouldn't let any smooches happen with an unclean mouth.

I heard the bathroom door open down the hall and pretended to sleep.

"Richie, get the fuck up."

Something was thrown at me and I sat up holding one of Eddie's shoes. He was standing at the foot of the bed, completely wrapped up in his robe. Besides his completely adorable and innocent look, he was glaring at me hard.

"What'd I do?" I asked innocently.

He stopped glaring instantly, "oh, sorry," he said, "I'm not mad at you. My mom is just getting on my nerves."

Eddie sat down on his bed stuck in his head. I wondered what Sonia had said to him so I scooted so that I was sitting next to him and grabbed his hand.

He didn't even flinch, his cheeks didn't heat up.

"What'd she say?"

Eddie shook his head.

I debated on pestering him to tell me but thought better of it. He would tell me if he wanted to, I didn't want to push him and make him feel pressured.

So I just rubbed the back of his hand with my thumb and stared straight ahead as he sat thinking.

Finally he broke the silence and turned his body towards me.

"I don't think my mom would approve of this," he whispered. It looked like he wanted to say more but that was all he could manage.

"Of what?"

"Of whatever it is we're doing," his voice had gotten louder, "kissing? holding hands? dating? I don't even know Richie."

Fuck, I hadn't really thought of that. I had never though Eddie could be gay or even like me back, that was as far as I had gotten. Were we supposed to date? People who liked each other usually did. But this was different, we were two guys. We couldn't just flaunt our relationship to the world.

"Well," I said slowly, "would you want to date?"

Eddie opened his mouth to speak but I continued on.

"We wouldn't have to tell anyone, we could just sneak around. It'll be fun!"

"But my mom..." Eddie swallowed hard, "she really doesn't approve of...gays and everything.""

I furrowed my brow, "I'll make sure she never finds out, we only have a couple years before we can leave this hell hole so it shouldn't be too hard."

Then Eddie nodded, but didn't seem that I had convinced him so much as some part of his brain had.

"Then I think it would be nice to date you Richie Tozier."

I smiled so wide it hurt, then I leaned forward and kissed him softly and placed my hands on his wet hair.

Eddie pulled back after a second, disgust on his face.

"Fuck that's nasty," he complained, "go brush your teeth!"

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Heh.

I promise good stuff will come I'm just not doing great rn. I really do love to write, I love writing this book and it's definitely a good thing to write. The thing is I just am running out of time with everything lol.

Thank you for all of your support too, it really warms my heart. I really appreciate it, you guys are lovely beings.