Richie held his hands up in appeasement, because Eddie'd do what he wanted, and Richie wanted him to make those kinds of decisions -- just like back when they were kids. Babying him was what his mom used to do for all sorts of things, most -- if not all of them -- completely made up issues. So if Eddie wanted to not see a nurse and drink whiskey however he pleased, Richie was just gonna have to pat him on the back about it and let him.
Well, maybe not pat him on the back because he was still feeling more or less like the world's shittiest piece of shit for grabbing him like he had earlier. That was -- yeah. That wasn't him. Richie didn't have an excuse beyond being either words or hours from having the biggest breakdown of his life.
"You know I remember your mom," Richie said, and he waggled his eyebrows as if to imply some dirty, dirty deeds, but that wasn't really where the point was here so he tried curbing his nonsense for a second. "Hey. Look. It's all fine. You're doing great. And it's me. How hard do you gotta try, anyway? Not at all. I still like you, despite your awkwardness and weird eyebrows." Eddie'd grown up small, but attractive and Richie had thought that an awful lot the last week or so. Between all the screaming and running, anyway.
"I --uh. The first night I stayed at the mayor's place? His boyfriend is apparently the sole welcome committee so..." He shrugged, a little awkward himself, because it'd been a really strange night and Steve had been ridiculously good looking and kind and Richie had sort of resented him for all that he had. But here they were now. "I picked a place. It's -- uh. Empty. Pretty big. If you don't wanna look around." Live with me, he wanted to say, beg maybe, because the idea of looking away from Eddie for even a minute made him anxious. He just didn't want to let go again. Not if he didn't have to.
"I mean it's -- out of order." Richie's expression went a little helpless. "You're not from when I'm from. I'm from -- after the lights." He paused, picked his drink up and it ran over the lip of the glass, his fingers getting wet. "Fuck."