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Their late-night video calls had become a staple in Eddie's life, to the point that it was practically second nature.
At exactly 9:00 PM every day, Eddie locked himself in his room and called Richie, and Richie always answered before the first ring had actually sounded. He'd greet him with some cheesy joke or flirtatious comment before launching into a story about something that had happened that day as Eddie sat back in his bed and listened, commenting every once in a while. The time the calls ended always differed, though it usually lasted until at least 1:00 AM.
He was so accustomed to this habit of theirs that, when it was disrupted, he was bewildered. Once, Stan had called Eddie in the middle of a call session, and it was so unusual to be contacted by anyone other than Richie through call at night that Eddie literally thought Stan had to have been bleeding out or something.
(Eddie jolted up at a sudden ringing coming from his phone, glancing down at the screen. He interrupted, "hold on--I just got a call from someone?"
Richie's grin faltered for a moment before returning even brighter than it was before, though Eddie couldn't help but notice it seemed forced; it didn't reach his eyes. "Oh, huh. Who's it from? Your girlfriend?" He let out a sharp, loud laugh.
"No, dickwad, it's just Stan. I'll be right back--I'm gonna see whats wrong." He switched the call quickly, immediately squinting at Stan, who decidedly did not look like he was dying. "Stan? Are you bleeding out or something? Why the hell did you call me?"
The boy blinked at him in surprise, an almost indignant expression on his face. "I. No? Wow, Eddie, I can't just call you? Are we not friends?" Stan asked, putting a hand on his chest in mock offense.
Eddie scoffed. "Duh, we are, but... y'know. This is when Richie and I call."
They stared at each other for a few seconds, with Eddie growing increasingly uncomfortable and Stan growing increasingly exasperated.
"Okay, well, fuck you too then, Eddie. Just so you know, it was an accidental call anyways. You suck. I'm gonna go talk to Bev."
When Eddie returned to the call with Richie, he was staring very closely at his phone, furiously typing something. "What are you doing?" Eddie asked, laughing at how close Richie's face was to the camera.
Richie was so startled he dropped his phone on the bed, exhaling in relief when he realized it was only Eddie. "What? Oh, nothing. So, uh, what did Stan want?"
He shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I think it was just an accidental call, to be honest."
For some reason, tension he hadn't noticed until then seemed to drop from Richie's shoulders at that. His smile also looked far more real and Richie as he beamed at the camera. "Really? Weird. Okay, well, as I was saying--")
Today, they had been on the call for about five hours, which was unusually long even for them. It was 2:00 AM, meaning the maximum capacity Eddie had for being awake before he started fading in and out of consciousness.
Case in point, in the middle of a story about how Richie had scammed Bill out of ten dollars, Eddie let out a yawn, to which Richie immediately cut himself off. He stared at Eddie with a strange look in his eyes. Before Eddie could ask him what was wrong, a dopey smile plastered itself onto Richie's face.
"Aw," he started, fluttering his eyelashes at the camera. "Eds, you're falling asleep? That's so cute. You're gonna kill someone, dude, you're fucking adorable. It's me, actually, I'm dying, right now. Pay for my funeral and--"
"Richie," he stated, face flushing bright red. Sure, Richie made a lot of jokes like these to him on a daily basis, but for some reason at two in the morning it felt different, and he wasn't sure he could handle the possible reality of the situation.
As was typical of Richie, however, he continued talking right over Eddie, probably not having even heard him. (Or maybe he heard me and is ignoring me because he knows it's different this time, too, his mind not-so-helpfully hypothesized). "I have a list of people who aren't allowed to attend. Let me give it to you."
"RICHIE," he repeated, louder this time. He saw Richie's breathing stutter, which meant Richie was most definitely aware of Eddie's interjections. However, his blatantly ignoring said interjections (whenever he doesn't want to talk about something, usually something serious, he keeps going and going. He'll avoid the subject until he dies. Why would he avoid this subject?) only made Eddie's heart beat quicker.
Richie pointedly was not looking at the camera--not at the screen at all, actually--as he continued, face red. "PLEASE make sure someone has a good speech. Preferably not you, because I don't want you to call me a piece of shit in front of my whole family as I'm dead. They know already, but I don't need that during my day, you know? I need people to be sad--"
"Jesus Christ, shut up."
Finally, the onslaught of words stopped, and Richie reluctantly turned his gaze back to his phone screen, looking like a deer caught in headlights. His mouth opened, as if to say something, before he abruptly shut it. For once in his life, Richie "Trashmouth" Tozier was restraining himself.
Now that he'd gotten Richie to stop, he honestly didn't know where to go from here. As much as he wanted to move on, pretend that his heart rate hadn't picked up when Richie called him cute, his desire for an answer won over.
"Did you mean that?" he asked softly, fidgeting with the edge of his shorts.
Richie let out a nervous laugh, eyes once again darting around the room. "No, Eds, obviously I'm not dying."
"Obviously that's not what I meant," he snapped, glaring at him.
No one said anything or moved for what felt like an eternity, and Eddie swore he saw every emotion in the world pass over Richie's face before he finally, slowly, nodded.
It seemed like that nod was the thing Richie needed to once again open his usual floodgate of words, as he suddenly began rambling even quicker than before.
"I meant it, I meant every word, like I always do when I talk to you. Except when I talk about fucking your mom, of course, but you know that, and I'd much rather be talking to you than fucking your mom, ever, which you also know. Hopefully. Eds, I like you so much that it hurts me and I've never written a word of poetry in my life because I'm not a hopeless romantic like Ben but I could write for years about your hair and your eyes and your face and your everything because I've never felt like this to anyone before and I don't know how to deal with it except for talking about it but I didn't ever expect to reveal it like this and I should really add no homo but I can't and it is too late and I."
He stopped, and Eddie swore that no silence has ever been so loud.
After a moment, he finally continued, in a whisper so small it was barely there. "Eddie, I'm going to regret this, but I really do like you."
Eddie's breathing, which had completely stopped while Richie was rambling, suddenly picked up at an alarming rate. As he fumbled for his inhaler (why do I still depend on it I know it's fake why am I doing this) he accidentally hit his phone, freezing in place when he realized he'd just ended the call .
"Fuck!" he exclaimed, panic overwhelming him even worse than before. He couldn't exactly call Richie back, could he? Should he? No, there was literally no way he could garner up the courage to do that.
He must have shut his phone off by now, anyways, Eddie thought, groaning loudly. What have I done?
If he was panicking right now, he could only imagine how horrified Richie was that Eddie had just hung up on him after… was that a confession? Oh, god, he really didn't want to think about that, but he couldn't stop. His entire brain was occupied with Richie on repeat.
His hands acted of their own volition as they picked up his phone, opening his messages with Richie and spamming him quicker than his thoughts could keep up with.
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[2:07 AM] WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT
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[2:07 AM] YOU CANT JUST
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[2:07 AM] MAKE ME THINK I HAD MY ANSWER AND SUDDENLY THEN GO ON FOR TWO MORE MINUTES ABOUT IT
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[2:08 AM] I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA FAINT RICHIE
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[2:08 AM] AHSKAHSJDHHDHDKSSHJS
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[2:09 AM] oh god wait thats probably. uh
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[2:09 AM] rude
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[2:09 AM] i hung up on you after you said all,,, That so you're probably freaking out more than me
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[2:10 AM] shit
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[2:10 AM] i didnt mean to hang up
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[2:10 AM] please dont freak out
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[2:11 AM] ik you and ik youll be freaking out but
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[2:12 AM] i promise it was on accident
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[2:12 AM] i was trying to find my inhaler
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[2:12 AM] (yes i KNOW what youre thinking and yes i KNOW its fake but it was a force of habit okay)
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[2:12 AM] and as i was trying to find it i somehow hit the button to end the call
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[2:13 AM] i was gonna call you back but
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[2:14 AM] we both know i dont have the balls for that
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[2:14 AM] but um
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[2:14 AM] if you really did mean what you said
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[2:15 AM] WHICH ISNT TO SAY I DONT BELIEVE YOU BTW
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[2:15 AM] i just mean that if you werent, yknow, feeling pressured by the moment
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[2:16 AM] or something
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[2:17 AM] and you were being completely honest and not trying to make up shit as you so often do when you get to rambling
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[2:17 AM] i guess
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[2:18 AM] fuck
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[2:18 AM] ahdjshdjdjdhdjhdjd
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[2:20 AM] okay
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[2:20 AM] redo
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[2:23 AM] i look forward to our calls the most out of anything every day
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[2:23 AM] even though we text and hang out before then i look forward to when mom makes me go to my room because it means talking to you for hours
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[2:24 AM] and ik i dont speak much bc im trying not to wake up my mom
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[2:25 AM] but i mean u obviously dont care lol all u do is talk right
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[2:26 AM] besides i love
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[2:26 AM] LIKE*
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[2:26 AM] i like listening to you talk
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[2:26 AM] and i like how you can go on and on about the stupidest and smallest things
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[2:27 AM] and i like how you talk with your body as well
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[2:28 AM] wait fuck that sounds weird
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[2:28 AM] THATS NOT A LINE I MEANT GESTURING W UR HANDS AND SHIT DONT GO MAKING WHAT I SAY INTO AN INNUENDO
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[2:29 AM] i hate you im making myself look like a fool
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[2:30 AM] ...but i also like that we fight
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[2:30 AM] because it means i get to be close to you and hear more of your words
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[2:30 AM] you arent funny at all of course but
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[2:31 AM] you make me laugh like no one else could
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[2:31 AM] and you always single me out and make me feel important
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[2:32 AM] and you climb through my window randomly and sit with me for hours
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[2:32 AM] well. not always sit
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[2:34 AM] ...not ever sit
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[2:36 AM] when you wrap your arms around me i feel like nothing else is there and like we're the only two people in the world
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[2:36 AM] i know when youre sad and you know when im sad and we know each other inside and out
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[2:36 AM] and i may not understand you all the time or relate to all your issues and the quirks in your brain and personality but
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[2:37 AM] they all make you you and i wouldnt trade any aspect of you for anything
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[2:37 AM] god. sorry not sorry for the spam its what you get for giving me an emotional crisis AND a panic attack at 2 in the morning fuck you dude i didnt expect this when i called you tonight okay????? but. um. id be lying if i said i was upset about it in the end because,,,, well.
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[2:47 AM] rich, i think i really like you, too