Sleepless 

Song: Sleep, MCR

Richie couldn't stop thinking about how he saw Eddie and Athena getting along so well together.

Did I do something wrong?

The feeling of impending doom lurked around in the shadows of Richies mind for the rest of the day, plaguing his thoughts. The girl that he wanted to confess to was somehow slipping away from him and moving closer to his best friend.

Never once did he stop to think about this rationally.

I can't stay here.

The boy thought to himself as he got out of bed and packet a bag of essentials. He knew staying at home would provide nothing in the way of emotional support, so he decided to go elsewhere to find it, like one of his friend's places.

But he had no idea if they would take him in at such short notice. Richie sighed as he exited his room, heading off in the general direction of his friends houses.

Athena however was kept awake for another reason altogether, it was still on a less happier note. She was still awake because of the feeling of the blood rain, and terror as they ran from the leper just to get caught by the clown with the very same red balloons that Athena saw before the rain.

Was this connected? It was too close to be just a coincidence.

The girl thought to herself in the inky blackness of her bedroom. At this rate she felt like Ben with all of the conspiracies racing through her sleepy mind. She yawned and eventually shut her eyes, just lightly under the spell of sleep when she heard it.

The clown's laugh.

It sounded pretty close too, probably only just outside of her window, followed by chanting. "Athena...Athena...." The voice was faint, and eerie. She jolts up and turns to her window. "Athena!" The voice changes from a creepy clowns voice to a very familiar one, one that she never thought she'd hear coming from right outside her window.

She draws back her curtain to see Richie sitting outside on the roof of the lower level of the house, a backpack slung over his shoulder as he looks down over the lawn. "Richie?" She opens her window and slides it up, still confused about the boy's sudden appearance. "Richie, What the actual fuck?" Athena hisses, leaning out the window slightly, the colder night air stinging her eyes as the spectacled boy climbs up closer to her newly opened window.

"Sorry about this, but staying at home for me didn't feel like such a good idea right now." Richie explained. Athena didn't know how to feel or what to do at this stage. Should she let the boy in? Let alone a boy that hated her very existence. She sighed wearily before looking around for a minute as she weighed her options."Uh sure..."

Athena opened the window wider and let Richie inside. He awkwardly clambered in and sat on the end of her bed and laid his bag on the ground. Athena sat up, rubbing her eyes and switching on a lamp on her bedside table.

"Are you okay Richie?" She asks. "Yeah, I just felt... lonely."

Richie had no clue what he was saying, it was like the filter between his mouth and his brain had stopped for the first time in his life. He hated this girl and now he was in her bedroom at midnight.

"Well, I guess you could stay tonight." She sighed. Athena is kind of annoyed that she has a double bed, and not any other mattress that he could sleep on. Athena was too tired to set up all that jazz.

"Well you will have to sleep in my bed with me..." she said awkwardly. Richie's face turned a bright pink color. "O-oh well, okay."

He climbed in next to her, setting his glasses on the windowsill, as Athena was next to the bedside table she reached over and turned off the lamp, the room once again being engulfed in darkness.

"Night, Richie." she says with a yawn. "Goodnight Athena."

Athena smiled that Richie actually said her name properly, without a nasty nickname in front of it.

The moonlight shone through a crack in her room, landing on her 'music corner.' Richie looks over and sees the strings on display, and her acoustic drum kit chilling underneath. Next was a couple of amps and some cables on a hook.

Wow, she's really serious about music. Richie thought in the darkness

He looked over to Athena, and noticed she had already fallen asleep. He looks down on her face and combs a bit of red hair behind her ear, a smile forming on his face.

What was he doing?

Normally he would never even want to go this close to her, but right now something felt different. He turned over, so he was now facing the wall. But one thing couldn't escape his mind.

How jealous he was of Athena and Eddie.

Just thinking about it hurt him, she was the reason he left his own house and now he's somehow sharing the same bed as her.

Couldn't he just make up his mind?!

The feeling of hopelessness is something that you wish you could take away permanently, and for Richie, the only thing he was able to feel was hopelessness.

Hopelessness as he lay next to Athena as he knew he could never have her to himself.

Hopelessness as he knew that she was too good for him.

All Richie wanted to do was just talk to her about the way he was feeling, which would completely ruin his reputation and his unused chances at love. She'd probably think he was joking about the whole 'I like you' thing, and she would never stop teasing him about it until the day he died.

But that's what Richie thought.

Not what Athena did.