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“This afternoon we got news from the Pentagon that the capital of Russia has been nuked. President Howard Goodman has demanded a country wide state of emergency, and has ordered people to return to their homes as quickly as possible,” Donna Daggit’s ear piercing voice flooded Paul’s apartment, as Richie Lipschitz phone went back to voicemail.
“Hey sorry, I’m busy. Leave a message after the tone!” his uncle's cheery voice spoke again, Richie’s hand in his hair as he paced the living room. If this was the last thing he heard from his uncle, it would be a terrible thing to hear.
“Uncle Paul, I know you and Emma are busy but can you please answer,” Richie choked on his sob, trying to compose himself. They had gone silent, Paul said he’d only be a few hours.
Then the news started flooding in about what was happening in Lakeside Mall, the news reporting multiple deaths in the span of a few hours. Richie knew Paul wasn’t stupid enough to go there on Black Friday, and yet his silence for the past 5 hours was concerning to say the least.
The clock hit 11pm, and Richie was about ready to throw his phone at the wall.
“That’s amazing Donna!” Dan Reynolds said cheerfully. How could anyone be cheerful at a time like this? He shut the TV off in frustration, he couldn’t listen to their voices any more.
His calls to Paul weren’t working, Ruth and Peter were the next best options. Neither of them had picked up all day, and it was still like that now. Even Ruth, who picked up every call from everyone ever didn’t even message him.
Where the hell were they? What was happening? Those were the only thoughts Richie had about the situation.
Richie put his phone on the table and grabbed a pillow, squeezing it for security as he sat down on the couch. “Breath, Richie,” he was usually so happy to be home alone, things were so quiet. Richie always liked the quiet, now it was the thing he dreaded most.
All of a sudden he heard his phone vibrate. He picked it up and replied to the call as fast as he could. He didn’t care if it was a telemarketer or someone scamming him, he needed to hear someone's voice that wasn’t Dan and Donna’s.
“Richie?” The voice on the other end was all too familiar, and for all of his wanting to talk to literally anyone, he didn’t want to hear it and yet he knew it was the best he’d get, “Hi sorry, it’s Max. No one else was picking up and I drove by the mall and there were people surrounding it and I drove away and I just ended up on your street and then my car broke down and-”
Max stopped himself from talking, hearing Richie’s heavy breathing on the other end, “Come inside, please.”
The phone beeped with the ending of the call, and moments later he heard a knock at the door. He opened it to see Max, his eyes with dark circles under his eyes and a tired expression. He was wearing his signature varsity jacket and a Hatchetfield Nighthawks T-Shirt. Richie sometimes wondered if that was all he owned, after all he was given it by the school for free.
“You look dead inside,” Richie chuckled. Somehow Max didn’t look scary today, not compared to everything else happening, “I thought you blocked my number.”
“I blocked you for a day and then I unblocked you,” Max explained, entering the apartment, “I’m glad you still live in the same place, it would be awkward if you didn’t.”
“Yeah,” Richie closed the door, his hand shaking, “Paul’s not home. Ruth and Peter aren’t answering.”
“Who?” Max looked at him, confused.
“Paul? Wait, how'd you forget him?”
“No, I know Paul, I love Paul!” Max grinned, “Who are the other two? Puth and Reter?”
Richie chuckled and shook his head, “Whatever.” Normally he’d try to defend his best friends, but frankly he didn’t want to lose the one person he had the chance to talk to. “This is the first time since high school started you haven’t instantly tried to hurt me the second you saw me,” he felt the need to point that out, how could he not? Although Max’s bullying has slowed that year, mean comments were more frequent than punches to the face.
“Well the world seems to be ending and I want to have a friend to die with. None of my ‘friends’ are people I want to die with.”
“I thought your car broke down.”
“You really think that I would drive down some random street that just so happens to be home to my ex best friend?” Max let out a small laugh, “I think I want to not be an asshole right before we die.”
Richie felt his heart drop in his chest, he couldn’t bring himself to feel angry. He’d thought about what would happen for years if Max suddenly came back to him, his arms open to his former friend. He’d thought about punching him, about saying all the terrible things he’s thought of in his brain. And yet all he could do was say, “I guess I could forget for a while.”
They sat down on the couch, Max turning on the news, “They’re making it sound peaceful out there, it’s a bloodbath.”
Richie winced, looking away from the screen. He didn’t want the news on, he didn’t want to hear Donna or Dan or those stupid commercials for medicine for people with heart pains or whatever, “Can you shut it off?”
Max didn’t respond, his eyes were glued to the screen, terror beaming off them, watching the Lakeside Mall chaos.
“Max, shut it off,” Richie reached for the remote in Max’s hands, who swiped it away from him, “Shut it off!” he yelled, his hands becoming fists as he fought for the remote like his life depended on it. Max turned the TV off, while Richie tried to compose himself, sitting back down and bowing his head in frustration, “Sorry, I just don’t want to see that stuff.” Max nodded. He took his phone out of his pocket and pushed it away from him. Richie looked at him, “I want to see if I can call my uncle.” Max nodded his head again, watching Richie enter Paul’s number into his phone, but it instantly went to decline, no voicemail, just gone. Richie felt his heart sink in his chest, as he pointed his head towards the floor, shutting his phone off before throwing it against the wall, hearing it crash onto the floor, “Shit shit shit!” he felt himself finally break into a panic, his heart pained in his chest as he tried to breathe, to hold himself together in some way, “Shit!”
Max watched him, eyes wide. He knew he wasn’t good at comforting people, and yet some part of him wanted to try to help Richie, “Breathe, breathe.”
Richie sat back down on the couch, his eyes watery as they stained his face, “He was the only family I had left,” he wiped his eyes, holding his legs close to his chest.
Max felt his eyes sting, reaching out a hand to touch Richie’s shoulder, before remembering how much he hated being touched, it was why he resorted to violence for so many years. Still, it wouldn’t have been bad to ask, right?
“Can I touch you?”
Richie nodded his head, almost in desperation, begging to feel some comfort, to feel something that maybe wouldn’t hurt. Max closed the gap between him and Richie, his body surrounding the nerds like a shield, a bubble for protection. He felt himself begin to cry into Richie’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I’ve been so terrible to you. I don’t know what I did to deserve this now.”
Richie kept his eyes open, a pain filling his chest as Max squeezed himself against him, “Don’t talk like that right now, please.” Everything hurt, his head, his chest, he was shaking uncontrollably. And yet there was no better place for either of them to be. 11:30. Maybe they could survive the Black Friday from hell.
If it weren’t for the frequent sob it would have been silent in the Matthews apartment. Max squeezed Richie a little harder, until Richie turned inwards and laid his head on Max’s shoulders, who held him like he was a small child.
“Remember when we were kids and we used to have sleepovers?” Max asked him, Richie nodding his head, “You would always fall asleep during movies.”
“Yeah, you’d get really annoyed because I didn’t finish watching Sharknado with you or something.”
Max chuckled, “Those movies fucking sucked.”
“I think that’s half the reason I fell asleep during them,” Richie smiled, he hadn’t smiled all day, “If I watched those movies now I’d be so annoying during it.”
“Nerd.”
“Shut up.”
Max listened to Richie, keeping his mouth shut. He felt Richie’s hands on his chest, they squeezed his shirt in desperation. Max sighed, breaking his promised silence, “If we survive today do you wanna go see that new Santa movie?”
“Santa Claus is Going to High School?” Richie asked him.
“Yeah that one. I heard it was shit. We can make fun of it or something.”
Richie chuckled, nodding his head, “I’d like that.” he hadn’t gone to the movies with Max in ages, frankly you wouldn’t go to the movies with someone who shoved you in a locker for fun, “If we survive this will you not bully me anymore?”
Max thought about it for a moment, “Probably not, I think I’d feel even worse about it now.”
“It was your choice to bully me in the first place.”
Max went quiet again, covering his hand next to Richie’s neck, “The blue from your hair faded,” he frowned, “It was cute.”
“You called me an attention seeker when I dyed it.”
“Well you caught my attention and I didn’t know how to say I liked it.”
“I like your hair would have been a good start,” Richie laughed, going quiet as Max touched his neck. Richie lightly pushed himself away from Max, who looked disappointed.
“Sorry,” he apologized, Richie tilting his head towards the ground.
“It’s fine,” he looked down at his hands, which still shook anxiously, “Black Friday is a stupid holiday.”
“All holidays are stupid when you think about them too much,” Max pointed out, almost in a way that made him sound wise.
“Guess you’re right,” Richie put his head back on Max’s shoulder, “You can do the neck thing again.”
“I thought you didn’t like the neck thing,” he raised an eyebrow.
“I didn’t say I didn’t like it, I just wasn’t prepared for it.”
His logic made enough sense to Max, who rested his hand on the back of Richie’s neck against, who he felt shiver with his touch. He didn’t know if his hands were cold, but his face certainly felt hot. He debated on whether he should lay back, he was so damn tired. He decided to do so, if Richie questioned him on it he could just explain how exhausted he felt.
To his surprise Richie went down with him, something Max thought he would mind in theory but the jock didn’t seem to in practice. Richie’s arm lay limp off the couch, Max’s arm around his chest. The nerd was still shaking, although it wasn’t as bad as before, “You don’t mind if I sleep, right?”
“Why would I? I was planning to sleep too.”
Max smiled, he was glad Richie couldn’t see it. He had never seen Richie as the type of person to actively smell nice, he was proven wrong here. Despite his above average amount of sweat he didn’t smell too bad, which to Max was a good thing because of how close they were to each other. His hair wasn’t too greasy today, it was actually quite soft when Max got the chance to touch it. There was a strange aura in the air, not one of terror like before but one of peace, like they’d wake up tomorrow and things would be alright.
By the time Max had finished his last few thoughts, Richie was asleep. He smiled, Richie still snored the way he used to. Max gently nuzzled his head against the back of Richie’s neck, feeling a smile creep onto his face.
Max wondered to himself if it was like this in every world, if every Black Friday of 2019 ended in he and Richie huddled close together, trapped in an embrace as the clock nearly struck 12. Maybe in other realities they didn’t have the pain of Max’s bullying hanging over their heads, maybe they remained close in some.
Maybe in some realities they survive, they wake up the next morning in each other's arms. Maybe Paul comes home and catches them, Richie needing to explain everything to his uncle. Maybe Max asks Richie to go to the Hatchetfield High winter dance with him, maybe Richie says yes. Maybe they’re happy together in the end, and maybe things don’t hurt as much after that.
Max goes to sleep with these thoughts in his mind, thoughts of a better future, a better timeline.
In this timeline he goes to sleep just before midnight, when Russia drops a nuclear bomb a few miles away from them the second before Black Friday is over. They’re killed in a matter of minutes due to the radiation. It doesn’t hurt. Well, maybe it does. In their sleep it doesn’t.
They hardly make it past the Black Friday from Hell, and just like that it’s all gone. Any chance they had of making things better was wiped away in an instant.
Max in his sleep still hopes that one day he and Richie get to survive a timeline together, that they prevail through all their struggles and hardships.
Maybe the next timeline is kinder to them, Max sure hopes it is.