#yahti

Chapters: 27/31 Fandom: IT - Stephen King, IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT (1990) Rating: Explicit Summary:

Richie can't deal with his feelings of abandonment very well, even when he has Mike left in Derry to keep him company.

From a scene in You’re a Hideous Thing Inside, chap 12

***

Eddie can’t really help himself. He knows it’s wrong, especially when Richie specifically asked Eddie to leave the room, but he’s lived in the closet his whole life. Not just figuratively, but he sometimes felt the literal isolation from the world outside his tiny apartment bedroom, his mother not allowing him to know anything beyond what she wanted him to. So when the opportunity strikes, he can’t really help but eavesdrop. Especially not after the comment Maggie made.

He stays close to Richie’s bedroom door, making sure to open and close it loud enough for them to hear, then kneels towards the stairs so he can hear Richie and Maggie’s voices carry up to him.

“Mom, what do you think of me, that I’d be doing stuff like that, huh?” Richie’s voice says softly.

“Richie, I know you wouldn’t hurt anyone like that…”

And it seems normal, their conversation, with Richie apologizing and explaining what happened at school, Maggie silent as Richie keeps begging her to believe him. It doesn’t dawn on Eddie what could possibly warrant Richie to want Eddie away from this conversation. Until–

“What did she say to you to get you so riled up?”

“They mentioned Eddie…” Richie says, causing Eddie’s chest to constrict. “...and us being together… and they said something about a disease, which just… made me think of the shit his mom always told him about being sick. Because he – Well, you know…”

At that, Eddie clampers back up, carefully going into Richie’s room without making a sound. His heart is pounding when he gets to the bed, grabbing a random comic book from Richie’s pile on the floor and opening it to a random page. Pretending to read while he tries rinsing his mind of the unclean and horrible thoughts in his head.