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He always thought about Richie before he went to sleep, it calmed Eddie down thinking about how Richie would run his fingers through his hair and watch over him for a bit before he fell asleep whenever they had sleepovers. Thinking about how vulnerable Richie was with him when it was just the two of them late at night. It made Eddie feel safe, and usually the memory was enough to drown out the memories of Pennywise and their misadventures, however tonight he couldn’t. It had already been a week without Richie, and Eddie was kind of going delirious. Eddie was happy for Richie because he was at his uncle’s house in Boston after Richie had finally convinced his parents to let him go, but Eddie wasn’t used to not seeing Richie for so long.
It felt stupider than Richie himself, to think that Eddie’s heart physically hurt without Richie there, but it did. Eddie couldn’t breathe and felt melodramatic about wanting his inhaler because he knew his asthma wasn’t real, but he yearned to use it. Eddie got off his bed, and crept down the hall cringing with every squeak of the floorboards but his mother was already fast asleep on the couch, so Eddie rushed to the phone and dialed Richie’s uncles phone number before he could think twice about it.
Once the line started ringing Eddie felt very dumb, and as soon as somebody picked up from the other side (Eddie assumed it was Richie’s uncle) he hung up, sweating nervously wondering why on earth he thought it was a good idea to call so late at night. He hung the phone back up, but then it began ringing for him to pick up and he panicked and picked the phone back up.
“ ‘Ello Mrs. K, Did you really just hang up on me or am I just dreaming?” Richie’s voice said loudly over the line, so loud Eddie was certain his mother would hear. Eddie was surprised his mother hadn’t woken up from the ringing in the first place.
“Shut up asshole, you almost woke up my mother.” Eddie whispered harshly into the receiver.
“Eds! It’s you, oh my I thought Mrs. K wanted to have some phone sex with me but guess I was wrong.”
Eddie rolled his eyes, he couldn’t believe he had been so desperate to be hear Richie again that he decided to call him only to have to listen to Richie go on about his mother again.
“Fuck off, or I’ll hang up again.” Eddie threatened unconvincingly.
“No you won’t. You miss me too much to do that.” Richie laughed.
“Shut up.”
“Aw Eds you’re so cute, you DO miss me!” Richie cooed over the phone.
“I don’t miss you ass hat…”
“Oh yeah? Then why’d you call me?” Richie challenged, and god Eddie regretted ever calling Richie. He was never going to live this down.
“I-” Eddie began helplessly trying to think of an excuse. “I just wanted to hear your voice.” He admitted, whispering into the phone again, peeping around the corner to check if his mother was still asleep(she was, thank god).
There was a 3 second silence on the line and Eddie was beginning to wonder if Richie hung up on him. The trash mouth was silent for once.
“Richie, you there?”
“I miss you too Eds.” Richie finally said truthfully, in the voice he only ever used on Eddie if Eddie was sad, scared or hurt. Not one of his stupid accents, but the voice specifically for Eddie. “Just a little longer okay. 4 more days and then I’ll be there with you.”
Eddie exhaled the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “You fucking sap.”
“Hey you started it with your ‘I just wanted to hear your voice’.”
And then they were back to normal. Bickering over the phone for at least 20 minutes talking about nothing and everything all at once. Richie told Eddie about the guy who robbed a gas station he was at, and how his uncle had told Richie about a Beatles concert he'd been to. Eddie told Richie about how his mother actually got up from the couch and raked leaves for 2 hours only to take a bath for 25 minutes and find the leaves blown all over the yard again. It was good, and it felt normal for the first time in a while.
Unfortunately Richie broke the calm.“Hey Eds, I think I should hang up now because I don’t want my uncle to have to pay a huge phone bill thanks to me.”
Eddie’s heart ached again dramatically not wanting Richie to leave. ‘Stupid ass heart’ Eddie thought. “Yeah okay.” He said reluctantly,
“Give Mrs.K a huge kiss from me, I know she misses me.” Richie said, his joke falling flat. There was a silence between them again neither of them wanting to hang up first. “Hey, um Eddie?”
“Yeah?”
“I left a hoodie at your house in your closet, and um if you wanted to wear it, to like, pretend I’m with you... you can.” Richie said embarrassment seeping through his voice.
“Richie gross. You probably haven’t washed it in years.’ Eddie said trying to break Richie’s embarrassment of their conversation.
“Oh okay, if you don’t want to that’s okay I just thought- never mind, but I did wash it.” Richie said sadly.
Eddie didn’t understand how their conversation got to this point but Richie genuinely sounded so dejected that Eddie felt obligated to wear his sweater.
He sighed in defeat. “I better not be wearing your ghost busters sweater tonight asshole.” he grumbled.
Richie laughed and the tension was broken.
“Ed’s I gotta go I love you and the losers. I’ll see you soon okay?”
“Yeah. I love you too, see you soon.” Eddie said blushing at the word love. When did they start saying I love you all the time? Not that Eddie didn't love Richie. He did, so much that sometimes he was ashamed of just how much he truly did.
Then Richie hung up the phone and Eddie wandered back to his bedroom searching his closet only to find Richie’s ghost busters sweater thrown wildly over Eddie’s neatly folded clothes. Eddie rolled his eyes, but if he smelled the sweater because it felt safe and imagined Richie there with him as he fell asleep, no one had to know.