athazagoraphobia

Chapter 2

Richies favorite thing to do in the fall was play in the leaves. Although it was deemed extremely childish by locals in Derry especially his neighbor Ms. Riley he didn't let that stop him.
He ran full force at a huge pile of red, brown, and yellow leaves and jumped into it and rolled around. He stopped after a second and layed there for a second looking up at the sky through his thick glasses taking in the scenery although not very nice-
it was home.

    After sitting in silence and crushing the leaves with his hands for a solid five minutes he sat up and fiddled his thumbs for a second suddenly he didn't feel so nice. This happened often. One second Richie would be fine and the next he would be thinking the same old toxic thoughts he always did. He always pondered the same questions. Am I still here? Do I exist? Did they forget about me?
He always tried to push those thoughts away but they tugged at him.
No one payed Richie much attention.
Two days ago when he interacted with Bill was the first time he had spoken to anyone except his overly intoxicated mother in months.
He felt as if he wasn't there and it would dawn on him that he practically wasn't. People barely looked at him. Barely said his name. Sometimes it's like he had disappeared. He couldn't cope with the thought of being forgotten it made his stomach knot up and tears swell up in his eyes.

Richie finally stood up and wiped all the leaves off his clothes and tried to get them all out of his shaggy hair.
He removed his glasses and wiped away the tears that were forming in his eyes.
An unwanted urge to start running appeared. He wanted to just start running and never stop. He wanted to go somewhere where no one knew who he was. He wanted a new family. A new life. But that would never happen. He'd be stuck in Derry, Maine feeling like the small, weak, worthless boy he was forever. If only he had his friends by his side still maybe things wouldn't have been so bad.