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The sun still hung high in the sky for it being 5:30, the time the two boys finally got back to Richie's house. A car was parked in the driveway, signaling that Richie's dad was home. After the attic was cleaned out, Wentworth ungrounded his son but the rules stayed the same. No one in this house unless permission is given.

"Hey, Eds," Richie said when they dumped their bikes on the side of his house. "My dad's home and he likes his house to be a prison. You know, no friends over, staying inside room - you get it." Eddie laughed quietly and nodded, glancing over at the house. "Alright, Rich."

Richie pushed the front door open. He walked in first, peeking around in the kitchen and living room. Both were empty. He motioned for Eddie to walk in and they both ran up the stairs to his room. "Wow! Like ninjas," Richie said as he closed the bedroom door. Eddie shook his head as sat down on the bed. "Yeah, ninjas that run up stairs loudly."

"Yeah, you should be a bit quieter next time."

Eddie's eyes snapped over to his. "Me?" He asked, motioning to himself. "Did you hear yourself? It was like 1000 elephants running up those stairs." Richie laughed, soon joining him on the bed.

~~~

They spent the rest of the day in Richie's room. Eddie found paper and pencils in the drawers of the desk and brought up the idea of having a drawing contest. Music played quietly in the background as pencils scratched onto paper.

"I'm done, wanna see?" Richie asked, a grin coming onto his face. "Wait," Eddie mumbled. His eyebrows were drawn close in concentration as he finished his the last few lines of his drawing. "Okay," he said and Richie flipped over his paper.

It was a sketch of a bigger woman and Richie, hearts surrounding them. Eddie's curious expression fell as he looked at him. "Really? You drew a your mom joke?"

"I wanted to draw what was near and dear to my heart."

Eddie rolled his eyes and dropped his pencil onto the desk. "I thought you'd stop with the jokes after what my mom did, but I guess not," he said, trailing his words off. "I gotta keep the tradition alive, Eds," Richie explained, setting his drawing down. "Now let's see yours."

Eddie glanced down at his sketch. "Uhh.. I don't think you'd want to see this.." Richie snorted and stood up. "That's ridiculous. What is it?" Eddie grabbed his paper, holding it behind his back and Richie raised an eyebrow. "Making me work for it, huh Eds?" He asked teasingly. Eddie narrowed his eyes and tried to ignore the red spreading across his cheeks.

Richie stepped forward and grabbed for the paper, missing when Eddie moved it away. Richie caught his arms and grabbed the paper out of his grasp. "Richie, please," Eddie began but was silenced when Richie jumped onto his lap. "You're crushing me!" He yelled, slapping at Richie's body. Richie casted a quick glance to the door before turning back around, pressing a quick kiss to Eddie.

"You have to be quiet, remember?" He whispered. Eddie quickly nodded, his words getting stuck in his throat. Richie smiled and unraveled the paper, much to Eddie's dismay. He paused, staring at it. "Oh.."

It was a neat drawing of him and Eddie, a small dog laying at their feet. Richie, me, and our future dog was scrawled at the top. He placed a hand over his heart and grinned. "Eds this is adorable. Now I feel bad about my drawing." Eddie rolled his eyes and forced the drawing out of Richie's hands. "You fucking saw nothing," he said and Richie grinned.

~~~

"Hey Eds?" Richie asked, turning his head towards Eddie. It was night and he couldn't sleep. Nothing in particular was keeping him up, he just couldn't seem to keep his eyes closed longer than a few seconds. "What?" Eddie asked irritably, "I'm trying to sleep." Richie smiled softly and studied his face. The way the moonlight reflected off his face, how his nose curved, the way his eyelashes pressed softly against his cheek when his eyes are closed-wait-

"Why are you staring at me?"

Richie breathed in sharply and turned to lie on his back. "You wouldn't wake up so I.." he trailed off. Eddie shifted and rolled onto his back too. "What'd you want, Chee?" He mumbled, close to falling back asleep. Richie breathed in steadily as he stared at the ceiling. "Run away with me."

Eddie was silent for a while and Richie became afraid he'd fallen asleep. "You dick, you can't fall asleep on me," he said as he nudged Eddie in the ribs. "I know," he said, more awake now. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before looking down at Richie. "Why do you want to run away?"

Richie sighed and stared out the window at the streetlights- was it the streetlights casting the glow on Eddie's face or the moon?- off topic. "I want to get away from this fucking town," he explained. Eddie pushed out a quick breath and shook his head. "Chee, we're only 13/14 years old. How the hell are we supposed to run away? And what about the others?"

Richie sat up and slapped the side table for his glasses. "Come on, Eds," he said as he slid his glasses onto his nose. "Everyone hates their lives here. We both have shitty parents, Bev never talks about her dad, Stan says his is too controlling along with Mike's grandpa. Bill probably has bad memories of Georgie.."

"And Ben?"

Richie sucked in his lips and shrugged. "I'm not sure about Ben, but his friends are everything to him. He'd go anywhere we'd go." Eddie studied his face as much as he could in the dark. "Richie.." he said softly and Richie's shoulders fell instantly.

He sighed and pulled the covers back up. "It's a stupid idea, I know." He laid back down, crossing his arms over his chest. "I never said it was stupid," Eddie said quickly, absentmindedly placing a hand over Richie's. He stopped breathing for a second as he stared at Eddie's hand on his. Eddie's hand is on my hand holy fuck we're touching we're practically holding fucking hands holy shit holy fucking fuck ho-

Richie shook his head and breathed in deeply. "It's fine, Eds." Eddie snorted softly and grabbed Richies hands, pulling him back up. "What? Wanna hold my hand, Eds?" Eddie made a face, dropping Richie's hand. "You know, I thought maybe having a nice, deep conversation about our feelings and the world might help but if you want to act this way then-"

"Wait no," Richie said quickly, almost desperately, "I'm sorry, Eds. No jokes." Eddie raised an eyebrow, watching him. "I don't know, you already ruined the moment."

"Eddie please," Richie said. "I wanna talk to
you." He swallowed thickly, Richie wanted to talk to him. Eddie was about to go to sleep after Richie ruined it but he wants to talk to Eddie about feelings and the world and... All he could do was nod. "Okay," Eddie said, "So you want to run away?" Richie nodded. "Like.. for real?"

"Yes Eddie! For real-real." He ran a finger up and down the stitching of the bedding and looked at the wall. "You do know this isn't going to happen right?" Richie's face fell and he crossed his arms. "....yeah, I know," he said reluctantly, "What if when we turn 18?"

"What about college? and money?"

Richie rolled his eyes and got up off the bed. He went to the window and stared out it, watching as the trees blew in the wind. "Can we fantasize about running away from this fucking place and not be rational?" Richie turned and faced Eddie. "Please?"

He opened his mouth to respond but didn't know exactly what to say. He closed his eyes and sighed. "A non-rational scenario of running away?" Richie nodded. "Okay. I can do that."

A small smile appeared on Richie's face and he got back into bed, leaning against the wall. "Where would you want to go?" Richie asked and Eddie looks away in thought. "I'm not sure.. I once saw a postal card with a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it. Even with all the people and germs, it seems like a cool place to visit." Richie hummed in response. "What about you?" A smile came onto Richie's face. "The Grand Canyon." Eddie forced down a yawn and he set his chin in his hand. "Why's that, Chee?"

"My mom went there when she was a teenager and she's always talked about going back. Apparently its breathtaking and she said she could've stared at it for hours." Eddie studied Richie's face. Even with how dark it was, Eddie could see the passion and longing in his eyes.

"Why don't we go there?" Eddie said, "When we run away." Richie met his eyes. "I'd like that." Eddie shuffled and sat down next to Richie. The two looked at each other and Eddie smiled. "Me too."

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