INSTANT REPLAY | REDDIE

- 04 | INSTANT REPLAY

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"— good!" Someone was soothing as Eddie jolted awake, hot, fat tears streaming down his cheeks. He gasped for breath, chest heaving and looked around himself wildly, flinching away from the hands that were clutching his arms.

"Don't touch me!" He choked, scrambling away and slipping off the edge of the bed. "Why didn't you wake me up?" He sobbed as he hit the floor, and a dull ache spread through his back, but he was too adrenalized to focus on the pain. He ripped the wires off of himself and struggled to his feet, knees buckling as he clutched at the wall only to go sliding down again. The people in the room were all talking at once. First it was a nurse, then a doctor rushed in, and his mother was screaming in the corner while he clutched his head in his hands. He pressed himself into the corner, sobbing hysterically and flinching away from any hands that attempted to reach out.

"Jesus Christ, what a nightmare this kid must've been through.." An unfamiliar voice muttered. Eddie tried to calm himself down, taking as deep of breaths as he could, but his mother's cries were just getting louder and he could hardly hear anything over the leper's deafening whisper in the back of his mind. A gentle hand grabbed his wrist, and he started to pull away only to feel something press against his palm. He opened his eyes, blinking away the tears that blurred his vision so he could see a young woman pressing his inhaler into his hand. Eddie stared at her for a second, taking in her calm nature and the warm smile on her face. He slowly formed a fist around his inhaler, bringing it up to his lips and triggering it a few times.

"Thank you," he managed to say in a small voice. She just nodded, and her eyes flashed with that dreaded sympathy, the kind that Eddie despised. He looked away, and she got up, walking towards the other side of the room. Everything was silent except for Sonia Kaspbrak's sobs and the whispers of the doctors who were trying to console her. Eddie stayed where he was, keeping his crying to himself now. He glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was the next morning. Looked like he was going to be missing school again. He wondered if they would let him go in late with a note. He wanted to be with his friends.

He got up slowly, shakily, and made his way over to the nurse who had given him his aspirator. She waited patiently for him to get there, and he hesitated, leaning on the wall for a bit of support.

"Can I go to school today?" He asked quietly. "I'd like to see my friends. I didn't get to see them yesterday." Her eyes flashed with slight surprise. Eddie silently prayed, wiping the tears from his face and trying to pull himself together.

"I... I suppose you could," the nurse replied. "We can't hold you here against your will. I can get the doctor to write you a note, and if your mother isn't in a state to drive you then we could get you an Uber or something." Eddie nodded, thanking her softly, and headed back over to the table next to the bed. He picked up his clothes from the day before and started to get dressed, deciding that since nobody at school would know the difference, he didn't care much if he wore the same outfit.

It took a while, but the nurse came back sporting an official note and the Uber app opened on her phone. Eddie must have thanked her a million times on the walk down to the parking lot, but she just shook her head and insisted that it was her job, handing him a bag that held his things and ushering him into the car that had pulled up to the curb.

"Have a good day, kid." She waved, and he waved back, pulling his phone out of the bag she had given him. He winced at the numerous missed calls and texts from his friends. Most of them were from Richie, which made him happy, but he felt immense guilt at the same time. His hands were still shaking a bit when he got into the school, and he knew his eyes were red. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed after crying his eyes out, which, granted, was what had happened, but he hoped nobody would mention it. He got there during second period, but late enough that they were only ten minutes away from starting third.