Chapter 17

                                    

                                          


                          
The cold was beginning to creep up outside, and the sky had become considerably darker from when Richie first left the house. Now there he was, 3 hours later, skateboard in hand, aggressively cleaning the gunk off of his shoes on the crusty mat outside his houses because his mother didn't want him "fucking up the hallway" as if their house wasn't already a steaming pile of shit. He cringed a bit at the scratchy sounds of the soles of his shoes rubbing against the with bristles on the cheap mat, but he didn't want to "fuck up the hallway" and so, much to his displeasure, continued to sacrifice his hearing until his shoes looked somewhat presentable. He sighed, reaching into his pocket for the dented key to the house, almost slipping into a panic when he didn't feel it in his pockets.
                          
 Come on Richie, it's not lost, just try again , and so he did, putting his hands in his pockets once more and let out a breath of relief when he felt the jagged metal against his hands, quickly scooping it out, and slotting it into the keyhole. It took a few tries because of how old and damaged the key was, but after abusing the door with a few well aimed kicks at the knob, he managed to get it open, stumbling into the dark house, feeling more than a little tired, and propping his skateboard against the wall, as he closed the door behind him. 
                          
The boy kicked his shoes off at the entrance and dropped the key onto the little shelf just by the door, walking into the dimly lit living room and collapsing onto the sofa. His back sunk deep into the plushie base pillows and his feet stuck out over the arm rest, and despite the sofa only being about 3/4 of his size, he found it extremely comfortable, and nuzzled his head into the crook of his elbow, longing to get some well-earned rest before his mother got home. He was in the stages of not quite falling asleep, but also having no thoughts flitting through his mind, he felt relaxed, but was still conscious about what was going around him, so only on the brink of falling asleep. And that's when the telephone rang. 
                          
It wasn't even a soft sound, it was one of the scary ones, the loud ones, that sounded more like a fire alarm than a telephone, because it would probably be heard along the whole street. He jerked at the sudden noise, the face scrunching up in annoyance, and he left his comfy sofa to go answer whoever had decided to call. He trudged to the hallway, and to where the telephone was kept, letting out a sigh, then picked it up and held it to his ear. No one usually called the Tozier household, unless it was for his mother. And the only sort of people who called his mother, were not worth Richie's time.

 "Listen here, if your one of my mom's fuck buddy's-"
                          
 "Richie what?" came a crackly voice from the other end, sounding incredibly confused
                          
 Richie stopped in his tracks, that didn't sound like a grown man at all, that sounded like...
 "Eds?"
                          
 "Um...yeah?"
                          
 ".... Where did you get my number?"
                          
 " Why were you calling me your mom's fuck buddy?"
                          
 "I asked first"
                          
 "I think my question's better."
                          
 "Your question doesn't have a short answer but mine probably will, now where did you get the number?"
                          
 "Alright geez... I found it in the telephone book,"
                          
 Richie paused, "People still use those?"
                          
 "Shut up.. now why did you call me your mom's fuckbuddy?"
                          
 "Wait why are you calling me?"
                          
 "I was busy yesterday and all of today morning, and you told me to call when I got home from the farm... So I did,"
                          
 "Oh yeah I did, great timing though, you could have died and I wouldn't even know,"
                          
 "Didn't seem like you remembered,"