This is my submission for @itfandomprompts Secret Santa that I am SUPER late for- @call-me-bread asked for angsty, teen Richie and so I tried to deliver. I love ya babes and Iām so sorry for taking so long on this piece, you deserve better! Read the full story at the link above! - The realization felt a lot like seasickness and a little like getting hit by a truck; too much and too sudden with the dawning that this could very well kill him. In small towns like Derry, realizations like this one end with your body floating down the Kenduskeag or thrown on the steps of the Derry General Hospital without any regard. Thatās how life was here, thatās how it had always been and Richie Tozier did not want to die. He supposed that he had always felt an attraction to men, brushing it off simply as craving attention and the need to get a good laugh out of his friends; but it was more than that. He liked the way he could rile Bill up so bad that his stutter just faded away and left a truly wonderful voice. Something on the fence between honey and gravel. He liked the way that Stan could sit for hours in silence punctuated with rolled eyes and heavy sighs, only to throw a quip back at him at lightning speed. He loved the sound of Eddieās laugh, more like the twinkle of Christmas bells compared to Richieās guffaw. He liked the ease the four of them had, never too worried about misplaced limbs or innuendos with hints of truth buried deep inside of them. He never worried until now. They say that the heat of the Sun is somewhere near 6,000 Kelvin, but the shame that threatened to melt his insides burned at twice that. Something like this would change everything and that fear paralyzed him. It wasnāt like Richie didnāt already know he liked men, he just had an understanding that it wasnāt an option for him here and so those feelings were quelled. That is until one Friday evening, in the summer before the start of their senior year, a huddled mass of whispers and giggles in the Tozierās basement. Since the summer of 1989, the summer of It, they had sworn to the mystical turtle in the sky that Fridaysā would be āLosersā Nightā. The houses rotated but the people never did. Without fail, every Friday every summer, for the past four years all seven of them met up- relishing in each otherās presence, an understanding that life wouldnāt always be like this, so they should celebrate it now. This particular night was one that would change Richie.
