Two stitches. I got two stitches for this damn measly cut on my forehead. I honestly didn't see the point of getting them. I suggested that I just use butterfly tape, but both my mom and the Doctor insisted on stitches– so that was that. He said that the cut wasn't as severe as normal stitch wounds, but he didn't want to take any chances on the butterfly tape. On the bright side, if everything heals well and I take care of the wound, I could possibly get my stitches out in three to four days. He also said there was a chance I could have a scar, but I don't really care about that– I think scars are cool. My mom, however, does not and has been lecturing me on our entire ride home about how I shouldn't be riding in the woods without a helmet. I just played along with it, I couldn't let her know how I really got the injury.

It had started raining really hard by the time we left the hospital, but only for a short time. By the time we got back home, the rain had lightened up a lot to a drizzle. My mom turned towards our driveway, shining the lights on our house. "Is that someone sitting on our front porch?" I asked, trying to get a better look.

She pulled into the driveway and rolled down her window to get a better look. "It's Richie," she rolled her window back up and turned off the car– looking at me. "did you know he was coming over?"

I shook my head. "No, I didn't. We kind of got into an argument today."

"Oh?"

"It was nothing serious mom, it was silly kid stuff. Come on, it's raining and he's got to be cold." I said, getting out of the car.

Honestly, my first immediate thought when my mom said Richie was sitting on our front porch was okay maybe he doesn't hate me– but then I remembered everything he had said earlier and I became angry. I followed my mom up to our porch, staying behind her and partially out of Richie's view. "Richie, what are you doing here? It's an hour after curfew."

I stepped out from behind my mom and looked at Richie. His clothes looked soaked and water was dripping from the ends of his hair and onto his glasses. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't dead or anything." He said, a small laugh escaping his lips as he looked at me.

My mom turned to me and I nodded. She turned back to Richie and walked to the front door. "Well, I'll let you two talk. When you're done, both of you come inside. We'll give you some dry clothes to wear and then you can call your parents to let them know where you are and that I'll bring you home, okay Richie?"

"Thanks, mom," I replied, watching her until she walked into the house– completely cut off from the conversation Richie and I were about to have. I looked down at him, my arms crossed. "Why are you here?"

He took a deep breath and stood up. "Dani I-"

"Because if I remember correctly, you said that I was fucking crazy, there obviously had to be something wrong with me...oh and that I was bi-polar or some shit." I smiled sarcastically and brought my hands together. "does any of that ring a bell?"

He took his glasses off of his face and cleaned off the lenses with the end of his soaked t-shirt. It didn't make it any better, but it didn't make it any worse either. He placed them back on his face and looked at me. "That's why I'm here."

I wasn't sure if what I had seen was right. It could be the dim light on our front porch or my tired eyes, but I knew I saw something. I stepped closer to Richie and carefully took his glasses off of his face. His eyes met mine only for a few seconds before looking away. Right below his left eye was a bruise forming. "Richie...what happened?"

"Eddie." I tried my best to suppress the smile that was fighting its way onto my face, but I couldn't. Richie rolled his eyes and huffed. "Yeah, trust me– I know."

I brought my hand up slowly towards the bruise and he leaned away. "Stop, just let me see it." He reluctantly came closer to me and my fingers brushed against his cold, bruised skin. I looked at him before very lightly pressing onto the bruise, causing him to back away.

"Uh, OW?!"

"We're even now," I said, crossing my arms again. "now really, why are you here? Do you want to call me more names? Or are you running over here like a dog with its tail between its leg because my cousin punched you?"

"I just-" he looked up at the sky and sighed, closing his eyes as if what he was going to say next was going to be painful or something. "I was a huge dick earlier. Like, a gigantic dick– I know that now."

I was a little disappointed. I was actually expecting him to have some kind of apology for what he had said. I mean, I'm sure even Richie Tozier is capable of mustering up an apology every once in a while. "Well if that's all..." I walked passed him and to my front door.

"I'm still pissed that you left me out there, okay?" He turned around to face me, the look on his face not his normal, jokester one. He was being serious. "I'm pissed that I had to ride home alone and you just left. I mean, Jesus Dani– there's a killer on the loose and–"

"You're too adorable, someone will take you. Yeah, you said that earlier."

He opened his mouth and then mumbled something under his breath, but it was too low for me to make out. I sighed as the rain started to get heavier, blowing into the porch. "I'm not going to stand out here and get soaked," I turned towards the door and opened it, looking back at him. "If you have more to say, you can come inside."

He looked up from his shoes and walked by me and into the house. I closed the door behind us as my mom came downstairs, a stack of clothes in her hand. "Here Richie, I grabbed you some of Benny's old clothes. The bathroom's right down the hall."

"Thank you." He replied, taking the clothes from her and disappearing down the hall.

She looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Everything alright there?"

I sighed and leaned against the counter. "I'm not really sure actually. It's like he's apologizing, but there's something else going on...does that make sense? I can't tell what he's really doing."

"Well sweetie, all I can say is that if a boy sits on your front porch in the pouring rain waiting for you to get home...he deserves to be heard."

"Thanks, mom...I think." I replied as she kissed the top of my head.

"Let me know when he calls his parents and when it's time to drive him home. I'll be upstairs." She said, walking away.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, my forehead throbbing slightly. I opened my eyes and grabbed the bottle of ibuprofen off of the counter. I screwed the cap off and dumped two of them into my hand, tossing them into my mouth and taking a swig of the remaining water from my mom's cup she left on the counter. The Doctor said there would be times where I would probably get some headaches, only because of where the cut is located. But this ibuprofen would be my secret weapon, that's for damn sure. "Where should I put these?"

I turned around to see Richie standing in a pair of my benny's old pajama pants and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt. "Here, I'll put them in the laundry room," I said, walking over to him and taking his soaked clothes from him. "You can sit on the couch, or get yourself something to drink or eat if you want. Make yourself at home."

He nodded as I walked by him and down the hall to our laundry room. I dumped his soaked clothes into the washer with some soap and turned it on. I left the laundry room and walked back toward the living room to see Richie looking at my family pictures. "You're really lucky..."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, you've got great parents. I mean, I haven't met your dad– but if he's anything like your mom, then I'd say you're pretty lucky," he turned away from the pictures and nodded back at them. "I'd honestly give anything to have my parents give two shits about me."

I scrunched my eyebrows together and looked at him concerned. "Richie, I'm sure your parents care about you. Have you called them yet? To let them know where you are?"

"No, not yet" he laughed and shook his head. "Though I doubt anyone would actually answer."

I could tell that now would not be the right time to pressure him into calling his house. I didn't know much about his home life. Then again, I guess there was a lot about him that I really didn't know. For the time I've known him, he's never really dwelled into his personal life...and I guess I couldn't blame him. "So...did you still want to talk?"

"Can I say something without you pressing my black eye again? Cause that really fucking hurt." He replied, with no sense of sarcasm in his voice.

I nodded and looked over towards the couch. "Okay, let's sit down then."

We both walked over to the couch, sitting down next to one another. For a short time, there was silence. It wasn't comfortable– it was tense. As if both of us knew we had things that we wanted to say, but we really weren't sure how we wanted to say it. "What I said earlier, after the rock fight...I'm sorry. I-I let my anger get the best of me, which I know isn't an excuse, but can you really blame me for being mad?" I looked over at him to see that for once in Richie Tozier's life...he wasn't shitting around. "Maybe I went too far calling you crazy and bi-polar, but you left me out in the woods with no explanation, no warning...and damn it I was fucking scared."

I didn't blame him, I knew I shouldn't have even blamed him from the beginning. It was all my fault– him blowing up earlier today. He was right, I did leave him there. I didn't even bother to wait for him to ride home with me...I just left him. All because I was being hypersensitive over something that he honestly had no control of. I could have told him why I was upset, instead of just running away. He could have even helped me if I had and none of those things would have ever been said. "You're right, I don't blame you for being mad at me."

"Huh?" He asked as if he was almost shocked that I had confirmed his accusation.

"You have every right to be mad at me. I left you in the woods alone without any explanation why. I could have waited for you and we could have ridden home safely and together...but I was selfish and I put myself before you. And I'm sorry about that."

"Well since we're apologizing...I'm sorry for what I said." He replied, biting the inside of his cheek.

We looked at one another, unsure of what to do next. How do you really start a new conversation when you had one that was as serious as that? "So...hug?" I asked.

Richie shrugged his shoulders and opened his arms. "The ladies can't resist Richie Tozier."

"Whatever you say, Richie." I laughed and scooted closer to him, wrapping my arms around his neck.

His arms slid around my waist as we hugged. "I guess I still like you, even though you're bi-polar or some shit." The playful tone in his voice told me he was joking, and this time I didn't mind.

I laughed and leaned back out of our hug, looking at him. "And to think I thought that you were starting anew."

"Never." He smirked.

You know that moment when you're just hanging out with someone and then suddenly it's like the atmosphere in the room shifts? How it goes from being relaxed and fun to where you're suddenly seeing someone differently? Like, 'oh hey Richie, I didn't know you had a slight dimple on the left side of your face.' You don't notice the shift in the atmosphere until the moment it happens and it's almost like there's this gravitational pull between the two of you. As if life is saying 'hey, here's the moment everything could change– this is it, don't let it go!!' Well, it was happening, and that's when I noticed that Richie's eyes have been switching from staring at my lips and back up to my eyes. I leaned in slowly, my brain running a million miles a minute. I mean, this would be my first kiss. 

Am I even supposed to be leaning it? What if he'll think I'm crazy? Wait– he's moving in too. Oh my God...this is about to happen. I'm about to kiss Richie Tozier.

"Richie? Have you called your parents yet?" My mom called from upstairs, causing Richie and I to practically jump away from one another in case she was coming down the stairs.

Nothing would be more tragically embarrassing than my mom witnessing what would have been my first kiss. "I'm calling them right now Mrs. Merritt!" Richie said, looking at me.

We stared at one another as if we both knew what could have happened if my mom hadn't interrupted. The only thing I couldn't do was try and get a read off of his expression. Was this something we both had wanted to do? Or did we simply just feed into the moment? I heard Richie clear his throat and I shook my thoughts away. "The phone is over there...on the counter," I said, pointing over towards the kitchen.

"Yeah, okay." He said, sucking in his lips and pushing himself off of the couch, walking towards the kitchen.

I brought my hands to my face in an attempt to hide my embarrassment. We almost kissed and all I could say was the phone is over there? Geez Dani, could you be any more of an idiot? I heard Richie hang the phone up and I looked to see him walking back over to the couch. "Anything?"

He shook his head and sat back down onto the couch, looking down at his hands. "My dad's on some big business trip with a bunch of his Dentist colleagues, so I knew he wouldn't answer. Part of me thought my mom would at least make an attempt to answer the phone, but she's probably nine drinks deep right now."

I just stared at him in shock. I guess he really didn't have that good of a home life. I could hear my mom start to head near the stairs and I stood up. "Stay here, I'll talk to my mom," I said, walking over to the end of the stairs and jogging up them, blocking my mom as she stood at the top.

"Dani, did Richie get ahold of his parents?"

I bit the inside of my cheek and shook my head. "His dad's out of town and his mom..." I didn't want to finish the sentence, unsure if Richie wanted my mom to know about his. "Do you think there's any way he could just stay here tonight? It's still raining, his mom isn't answering the phone..."

"I don't know Dani, there's a curfew. He shouldn't have even been out this late in the first place!"

"Mom, I wouldn't ask you this if it wasn't important okay? I just...I think Richie needs to be somewhere, and I don't think that place to be is home."

We had a stare off for what felt like minutes before she took a deep breath and sighed. "Okay, but he sleeps in the guest room, understood? No fraternizing and no-"

"Okay, you can stop now." I leaned up and kissed her cheek. "Thanks, mom."

We both walked down the stairs to see Richie watching the TV. "Richie," my mom said, gaining his attention. "you're more than welcome to stay here tonight in the guest room."

He looked shocked as if he had expected that we were going to send him home anyway. His eyes met mine and I smiled. "Thank you Mrs. Merritt...really."

She took another deep breath that resulted in a yawn. "Well, I'm going to bed. You two don't stay up too late, make sure you get some sleep," she walked back towards the stairs and pointed at us both. "in separate rooms."

"GOODNIGHT MOM." I groaned as Richie tried to hide his smirk. When she was out of view, I hit him with one of the couch pillows. "You can wipe the smirk off of your face or you'll be sleeping on the couch tonight."

He held up his arms and laughed. "Okay, Okay I'm sorry."

I tossed the pillow at him and fell back onto the couch. "So I'm nowhere near being tired...do you want to watch a movie or something?" I asked, looking at him.

"I'm glad you asked that, because I already skimmed through your collection," He stood up off of the couch and walked over to where we kept our VHS tapes beneath the TV. "and while I'm severely disappointed in your lack of monster films, I will say that the fact you own 'Stand By Me' almost makes it okay."

"I love that movie, it's one of my favorites."

"So let's watch it." He said, taking the tape out of its cover and putting into the VCR and changing the channel to the right one.

"I'll make us popcorn!" I replied, getting up and walking to the kitchen. I opened up the pantry and grabbed a popcorn package. I rushed to put it into the microwave the moment I heard the movie intro begin and peeked around the corner. "I swear to God Richie if you're starting that movie without me–"

"I'm not, I'm not." He said, pausing it.

I walked back into the kitchen, waiting impatiently as the timer on the microwave slowly winded down. I grabbed a big bowl from the cupboard and when the microwave beeped, I immediately opened it and grabbed the bad, ripping it open and pouring the hot popcorn into the bowl. I turned off the kitchen light and walked back into the living room. "Okay, you can start now, also grab that blanket off of the love-seat over there please!"

"Loveseat? Well, why don't we sit there instead?" He smirked, wiggling his eyebrows as he grabbed the blanket. "No? Yikes, tough crowd."

He sat back down next to me and threw the blanket over us. I placed the popcorn bowl in-between us. "I swear I can quote this movie word for word," I said, filling my mouth with popcorn as my eyes were glued to the screen.

"So does this mean you won't get up and leave without saying a word this time? Because the last time I went and saw a movie with you...you kind of did that."

I looked over at him and swallowed the chewed up popcorn in my mouth. "No," I softly smiled. "I won't."

He smiled back at me before grabbing some popcorn and putting it into his mouth, returning his gaze to the TV screen.

Being here with him right now felt how it did that day we hung out together. Relaxed and fun. I liked spending time with Richie...it was easy. Sure, it made me nervous sometimes...but this time, I think I could deal with the butterflies.

❏❏❏❏

The sound of the phone ringing is what woke me up. If it hadn't, I probably could have slept the entire day away. I sat up, the TV was off, the popcorn bowl Richie and I had shared was on the small table and there was a piece of paper sticking to my forehead. I pulled it off as I stood up and walked towards the phone– answering it. "Hello?"

"Well good morning!" Richie said, a bit too cheerful for my liking. "Hey, did you know that you snore?"

"I do not!" I said, hoping that he was wrong. I mean, I don't think that I snore. "Can you maybe save the jokes for a time when I'm more wide awake?"

"Fine, fine, I'll save them for when I see you later."

"Later?"

"Yeah, did you get my note?"

I looked down at the folded piece of paper that had been taped to my forehead and flipped it over.

thanks for not running away this time.

ps. I'm never being a pillow to you again, you snore.

- richie シ

I laughed and shook my head. "Of course I got it, you taped it to my forehead while I was sleeping. Now, what is this about seeing you later? I didn't think we all made plans today."

"Bill called me earlier, we're all meeting in town. That alleyway across the street from the movie theatre."

"Okay, I'll be there! What time?"

"I think he said around 12!"

I looked at the clock in the kitchen to see it was almost 11:15. "Richie! That's in 45 minutes! I still need to shower!"

"See ya then Dani!" He laughed, hanging up the phone.

I hung up and looked back towards the living room. I didn't know what point in the movie I fell asleep, but I vaguely remember waking up early in the morning to see that Richie was fast asleep still somewhat sitting up, and I was lying against him, his arm around my shoulder. I smiled at the memory and jogged up the stairs. Thanks to Richie I only had 45 minutes to get ready to meet my friends in town. I'm not saying that I want to dress up and impress him...but suddenly 45 minutes just didn't seem like enough.