Have you ever wanted to run away? Ever wanted to pack up all your shit and run far away from everyone and everything? Away from the hurt and the trouble. All your problems. Eddie desperately wanted to leave. As far as he was concerned, this town was cursed. From the homophobes in the town that hated Eddie for his sexual identification, to his own mother who constantly was breathing down his back and telling him to take his pills.
His fake pills. He knew they were fake, but he had been so attached to the pills from the constant fear of disease. He could survive without them, he knew that his phobia was irrational, but nonetheless that didn’t help his mind change course. He despised the town and the people in it. Just one more year, one more year of absolute hell, then he could run far away from all that hurt that this town had caused him.
Grabbing his black back pack off his wooden floor, Eddie ran down the stairs. Reaching for the doorknob, there was a voice behind him. He was foolish to think he could possibly scurry away that quickly from his mother. A complete and udder fool to think it would be that easy.
“Eddie! You better not be leaving without saying goodbye to your dear mother!” His large mother said from the kitchen. She was a plump woman in her forties who treated Eddie like a child. Like he was incapable of tying his own shoes, chewing his own food. And even, breathing his own air.
“Sorry mommy, I just forgot.” He lied directly to his delirious, bulky mother’s face. He huffed out a large breath knowing that the crazy lady wouldn’t let him leave without the everyday, endless kiss on the cheek. It’s not that he didn’t love his mother because, he did. Of course he did. But, she was piece of work, she probably thought the same of him.
Dragging his feet along the floor, the boy smooches a big, fat wet kiss on her cheek. He could feel the cheap pink blush that was coated on her face and well, now on his lips. The germaphobe could only think about how the hell he was gonna get this off his lips without offending his mom’s poor feelings.
Retracting as fast as possible, Eddie says a quick goodbye once again and makes his way out the door. After closing it, he tries to breathe. A huff that he had no idea was stuck in his throat was finally released. Being in his town made him feel like he was constantly suffocating and dying. A slow and agonizing death.
Eddie began dragging his feet along the side walk to school. Luckily, he only lived a short 10-minute walk from and to Derry High school. There was just one stop before school, as always. When he was younger, he used to ride his bike everywhere. Up until last year when his mother decided that it was too threatening and unsafe for a boy like him. At the rate, she was taking things from him for being ‘unsafe’, he eventually won’t even be able leave the house at all. Sometimes he thinks about just defying his mother entirely. All hell would probably break loose.
Getting bored, he began counting the number of steps he took and he lugged himself along. It was still warm outside, summer just ending. Too bad, it going to get cold. Though Eddie hated the bitter weather, always tugging and biting at him as he walked, he hated summer. Not for the weather, but rather the loneliness.
Since Eddie had come out as gay right before high school, in the eighth grade, not many people talked to him. He had his couple of friends Bill, Stan, and Mike. They were really excepting for him. They weren’t around much though; Bill and Stan were always off doing something. Most of the time they talked was at school where they were safe and away from Eddie’s frightening mom. But Mike was a home schooled kid. They got along well because Mike got made fun of for that and well, his skin color.
But, they rarely ever got to hang out anymore. As he pondered, Eddie made a turn in the opposite direction of the school. Coming to the coffee shop everyday of high school, well everyday he wasn’t in the hospital for some god-forbidding disease his mother thought he had. Seeing the small Roasted Bean sign in bold black letters he swerved to the door. He pulled open the warm metal handle and slid in.
This was Eddie’s favorite place, he felt as though he could escape from his life here. Not many of people came to this little place. It was just down the road from the school. You would think most students would come here in the mornings, but no. This place wasn’t cool enough for the annoying high schoolers.
Every morning the short boy would tell his mom that he was going to a early morning study session but rather, he was just coming to this old place and sitting alone in a booth. Usually just looking out the window and drinking his coffee silently. The only part that he thought was enjoyable about Derry. The silence.
He took in a long inhale of grounded coffee beans and instantly felt relaxed. Coffee was Eddie’s favorite drink. It was one of the first things you would learn about him. Well, that is if they ever take the time to get to know him. Most don’t. They see him as a queer, asthmatic freak. They look at him and heavily judge who he is as a person. Thank god he met Bill and Stan when they were younger, they were so innocent and thought nothing much of him. Just wanted to make some friends.
That’s how the people in Derry are, judgmental. Eddie always supposed it was because they felt invalid as people and so they take it out on the odd one out. Who just so happened to be Eddie. Fulfilling his morning ritual, he walked up to the counter to get the same drink he always does. A black coffee. His mom doesn’t let him drink coffee, says it’s bad from him. But something was off, something was not like normal.
The barista wasn’t the normal lady with the dark brown hair and bright blue eyes in her forties who usually took his order and didn’t say much. The lady with the dark bags that plainly didn’t care what he had to say because I was too early to care. He could recognize that face from a mile away though. The dark chocolate curls the hung low on his face and the freckles that reminded him of a galaxy of stars. Oh, and let’s not forget the thick glasses that shielded this pretty eyes that were full of light.
Richie Tozier? Trash mouth? He and the boy in the apron at the register used to be the best of friends. They were closer than most. They would share secrets and would sneak into each room’s every single night. But all the shared secrets and midnight talks stopped when Richie’s parents became more and more abusive. But, to top it all off, Eddie was gay. Richie’s parents didn’t like that very much at all.
It’s not that Richie had ever said that was one of the reasons but, it didn’t need to be said. The two drifted apart and now they seemed to being lived on different planets. They could see each other but, they never spoke. Just glances in halls and small one word exchanges if only absolutely nessesary. Eddie had almost forgot about the annoying boy who made him realize his sexuality.
Oh yes, the pain and agonizing truth. Eddie had always had a thing for the trash mouth growing up. His gross ‘your mom’ jokes and such. Snapping out of his trance of shock and confusion, Eddie walked to the counter. Richie looked equally confused and distraught by seeing the boy in the coffee shop.
It threw them off like a broken roller coaster that went off it’s tracks.
“So what can I get you, good looking?” The annoying boy said in a British accent wiggling his eyebrows in almost a mocking manner. Oh boy.
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