In The End We Are Still The Same (Reddie)

Experimentation

Chapter 3: part 1

Out of all the things Richie could be doing right now, he did not think it would be reading lines out of a bird watching book. Each paragraph becoming more progressively boring as Stan jot down some notes beside him about the species, what they eat, and the different bird calls they made.

What made it all worth it though, was when the bird calls were discribed in the book, Richie took it upon himself to imitate those sounds to as closely as they were discribed.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEeeEE!!"

"Alright! That's enough. No more of that" Stan announced abruptly taking the book away from Richie, only after his fourth time making horridly deafining screeches and screams. Richie could have gone a few more rounds gladly.

He laughed there on the bed for a moment, before they heard the sound of the front door opening up from downstairs.

The destintively familiar sound of Beverly's boots stepping onto the hard wood floor.

"Hey Beverl—" Stan began to announce, setting down his things. But then the sound of multiple other sneakers entered behind her's, cutting him short, each new set of footsteps causing more shock to announce its presence on his features.

Richie's heart sinks. "I thought you said it was only Bev?" He whispered, and Stan nods, confused. "Yeah. It was"

Stan gets up from the bed, and Richie begins to follow, but is held back by Stan's hand, as he shakes his head. "No don't worry I'll take care of it"

And as Richie watched his freind walk out the room, he can hear the conversation downstairs.

"Hi everyone!" Stan announces, and Richie can hear the collective voices of his friends reply in a chippy singsong kind of way. Mike, Bill, Ben and Eddie.

Eddie.

Richie heart feels like it will fall out of his chest, splat onto the floor of Stan's room, and be trampled by a on-slot of dastardly boys, wearing fanny packs and tiny gym shorts.

"Um Beverly" Stan begins, "can I talk to you in private for a moment?"

She must have agreed, because then he could hear the thud of her boots coming upthe stairs, as the others made confused sounds.

Just outside the door, Stan and Beverly speak in hushed tones. "You were supposed to come by yourself?"

"Oh what? Oh god Stan I'm so sorry. I thought you said Richie was going through something?"

"Yeah he is. But he only really has enough energy to talk to you about it. It's a few more things" stan, dripping his voice a little "it's not just his parents. It's. It's something personal. And he isn't ready to share it with everyone else"

"Oh. Okay well yeah. I totally understand, I'm sorry—"

"No no it's okay. It's just. I don't know how to explain to them, ya know?"

"I can try?"

"No it's okay. Richie needs you. You go to him, he's in there. I'll entertain everyone else, try and explain."

They didn't say anything else passed that, either just wordlessly agreeing with each other, or saying it so quietly that even Richie couldn't hear.

Then Beverly was walking into the room, taking off her boots at the entrance, knowing to respect Stan's rules.

Richie hadn't realized it, but listening to the sound of his friends, re-realizing why they were there, and what had happened the night before. What all of this meant. It weighed on him.