.: Friday I'm In Love :|: Reddie :.

It's On Me

"I don't know, Stan, alright? I just did."

Eddie was on the verge of throwing his phone across the room, but he kept it pressed to his ear. He was holed up in his own room once again, because when he had left Richie's house he hadn't seen the point in going anywhere else. He took a shower when he got home but afterwards put on one of Richie's huge sweatshirts despite the summer heat. He hadn't bothered to put any pants on over his boxers. He knew Richie would have teased him if he had been there to see him that way, but he wasn't.

"Listen, I don't want to fucking talk about it. Alright? I saw the weed, and Ri- " Eddie broke off, frowning deeply. "He always used to talk about how it helped him relax, but that too much of it wasn't as nice. I was careful, okay?"

He hadn't been careful. He felt like shit and his breathing was getting worse the longer he laid around without doing anything.

"I don't care, Eddie! You can't just go off and do shit like that. Richie wouldn't want you to -" Stan began, but Eddie cut him off rather harshly.

"Richie wouldn't want a lot of things, Stanley. Shut up about what you think he would or wouldn't want. You don't know. I know that if I was the one missing, Richie would die before he stopped looking for me." Tears pricked the edges of Eddie's eyes. He hadn't cried in a while. He'd been too emotionally blocked to anything besides anger to have a really good cry. "But I also know that if he went missing, he would flip his shit if he found out I went looking for him. Especially near a place like that house on Neibolt Street." There was silence on the other end of the line, but Eddie knew Stan hadn't hung up.

"Okay. Alright. I won't do it again, is that what you want to hear? There isn't any left, anyway, and I don't want to pay for it." Eddie rolled over in his bed and the first few tears tumbled down his cheeks.

"I want to hear that you're going to at least try to move on with life. Come to the park with Bill and I tomorrow. We're just going to walk around. Maybe get an ice cream. Don't bring any money, it's on me." Stan sounded like he wasn't trying to get his hopes up. It made Eddie feel bad as he sniffled and a soft cry escaped him.

"Okay," he managed, his voice breaking. "Stan? Can I talk to you about something?" There was a moment of hesitation that almost felt full of surprise.

"Yeah, Eddie, of course. Go ahead. You can talk to me about anything." Eddie took a deep breath, thinking deeply about his words. How was he supposed to ask about this?

"Well... There was this person on Instagram. They had some weird name. I think it was like, backup, or something like that." He paused, and Stan's end had a weird noise, like he was shifting the phone in his grip.

"Yeah, I saw their comment on your post. Who is that?"

Eddie hesitated, his mouth running dry.

"They say that they're Richie. They type just like him, make jokes just like him, and everything. They only reply every few hours, but the other night they actually were able to hold a conversation and they said it was only because he was sleeping. I told them they were crazy but all they kept saying was 'don't come looking for me' and 'i need help'. I didn't believe them but then he said something that was just so Richie and I'm afraid of what will happen if I don't do anything and then some day after he's long dead we find out it really had been him and I didn't do anything to help him."

Stan was quiet for a minute, a bad habit for phone users. Eddie actually thought he hung up this time. "Stan?"

"Right, sorry. What did he was that was 'so Richie'?" Stan sounded like his gears were turning like crazy in his head. Eddie knew Stan was taking this very seriously.

"Well, I was mad and I kept saying things like 'why am I even talking to you' and he goes, 'because you're my Eds and you know who I am'. So I told him to shut up and asked if this was a joke and he said, 'no, this is the part where you say, omg rich is it really you! and I go, the one and only!' It was so confusing." Eddie closed his eyes, trying to block out the feeling of hope. He so desperately wanted it to be Richie. He was terrified to unblock the user, but at the same time he was even more afraid of what would happen if he didn't.

"I don't know what to tell you, Eddie. If Richie was really kidnapped, how could he even have a phone anyway? Nobody is dumb enough to leave something that could be used to contact people on the person of a kid they're taking." Eddie wanted to talk about this in person, but he was too deep in the conversation to just hang up and he was still only in a sweatshirt and underwear.

"I don't know... Richie had an old iPhone at his house that he would use when he lost his new one. Maybe he brought it, just in case the guy took his first one? He could have hidden it somewhere stupid like his underwear." Eddie sat up, wiping his eyes and pulling his blankets tightly around himself. He could imagine Richie doing something like that. The thought made Eddie smile a little bit.

"I guess you're right... Listen, I've gotta go, Bill is waking up. We can talk about it more tomorrow, okay?" Eddie shifted the phone to his other ear and sighed.

"Yeah, that's fine. Take care of Bill, okay? I may have lost my best friend, but he lost family. He lost his little brother." Eddie heard Stan take a deep breath.

"Yeah, I know. I'm trying." And with that, he hung up.

Eddie lowered the phone and look down at his hands. He had a decision to make. He scrolled through Instagram and hovered over the mystery profile. His fingers trembled as he stared at the name.

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