"it's nice."
"and you're from maine, right?"
"uh, yeah."
"cool." richie lit the cigarette in his mouth, taking a long drag off of it before letting it rest between his fingers.
"yeah."
"is that the only word you know?" richie smiled, letting his eyes find eddie's.
"oh, uh. no, sorry."
"i'm just messing with you." richie ended his sentences with a low laugh. "what part of maine?"
"um, derry. it's an hour from bar harbor."
"is it nice out there?"
"not much to do in derry, but bar harbor is nice. pretty."
richie nodded, trying to imagine it in his head.
"you'll have to show me around one day."
"are you, um, are you from here?" eddie questioned, ignoring richies statement.
"i'm from everywhere, a real mutt." eddie smiled at this, tilting his head up to get a better look at richies face.
richie stared straight ahead, watching cars pass.
"that's cool. i never traveled much." he was always too sick.
"you're traveling now." richie turned to face eddie, taking hit from his cigarette before offering it to eddie.
eddie hesitated. he almost declined, the asthma.
until he remembered that he didn't have asthma.
eddie took the cigarette into his hand, brought it to his lips, and inhaled, feeling the dark smoke fill his lungs.
"now you hold it, and then blow it out." richie said, and eddie listened.
hold it. blow it out.
"you good?" richie asked, earning a nod and a slight cough out of eddie.
"yeah, yeah." eddie hesitated. "hey, how did you know?"
"the way you held it. can tell you don't do this often." eddie smile, his face hot. he went to hand the cigarette back, but richie shook his head, opening his pack and lighting another.
"i like the company." richie said, showing eddie his hand-to-cigarette placement and watching as eddie shifted the cigarette in his hand and held it like richie did.
the two stood in silence, richie taking long drags and eddie hitting his ever so slightly and trying not to feel bad for wasting it.
"where are you from originally?" eddie broke the silence after a while.
"new jersey. and then new york, and then hawaii for a bit. california is home for now."
"not forever?" eddie turned his head to richie.
"not forever. i don't like to be tied down for too long. i'm just here for usc, and for stan."
"stan?"
"yeah, the blonde one. with the book."
"no, i know. we met. i just,"
"right, yeah. um. we met in high school. i moved to colorado halfway through my junior year. by that time most people have had the same friend group for all of high school, so it's hard to make friends with people when they've all known each other for years and you just showed up, you know? but we had chemistry together, and we got partnered together for a project. after that we kind of just never spent time apart again."
