Richie remained silent for at least five minutes, gathering all the courage required to complete the task of telling Stan the truth.

He had thought that, after listening to his friend's story, the words would come out easier. He wasn't alone. He wouldn't be abandoned if everyone knew the truth. Stan, Bill, Mike, they were just like him.

Still, the words were stuck in his throat. He couldn't breathe. He grabbed the pointy grass underneath his hands, holding it tight.

"I like boys," he clumsily whispered.

"I know," Stan smiled calmly.

"Since when? Is it too obvious? Do the others know? Does everyone know?" Richie asked in a desperate cry.

"The others don't know, calm down," he reassured him, "I found it out myself about four years ago, I guess."

"Did someone tell you? Who told you?"

"You gave yourself up pretty easy," Stan shrugged, "You know, Eddie."

"What about him?" He swallowed dry.

"You like him. I spent too many years babysitting the two of you. It wasn't hard to tell. You just look at him in a way that it's just so obvious."

"Does he know?" He insisted, wide-eyed, hugging his knees.

"He doesn't. How many times do I have to tell you that no one knows?" Stanley sighed. "And no one has to know, if you don't want them to."

"Please, don't tell anyone."

"I won't." He paused, "I thought you'd never tell me."

"It's... difficult," he buried his head between his knees.

"It's ok," Stan patted his head. "Let's go home."

"Give me five minutes," he mumbled.

"Alright." Stan looked up, searching for any type of bird. He couldn't find any, and even if he did, it wouldn't matter at that moment.

It didn't take long for him to notice Tozier's muffled cries. With not much to be done, he hugged him, and whispered to him, assuring him everything would be just fine.

Richie removed his glasses to clumsily dry his tears with his face, laying his head against the tall tree behind them. "I thought you'd hate me."

"I would never hate you, even if you shot me dead, Rich," Stanley smiled.

"When I saw him... when I saw It, you know, when I was alone," he let out among some desperate hiccups, "It knew about me. About my secret, and I... I thought everyone would hate me if they knew it as well."

"You were never scared of clowns, were you?"

"Clowns are just fucking annoying," he replied giggling, and putting his glasses back on. "Eddie would hate me if he knew it."

"I don't think he would," Uris shook his head. "He's too nice."

"He'd think I have AIDS or something. He'd freak out, and he'd never want to see me again."

"No, he wouldn't," he stood up, reaching his hand to help his friend in standing up, "He's better than all of that, and you know it. Maybe he'd freak out a little, but that's just how Eddie works. Remember when Mike told him that Julia Curtis had a crush on him?"

"I had forgotten about that," he laughed loudly, "He lost it completely!"

"Remember he didn't even want to go to school anymore?" Stan picked up his bike from the ground, "He told his mom he needed to be homeschooled."

"And then she asked him out, remember?"

"Yes! And had an asthma attack because he didn't know how to reject her." 

"He didn't even reject her. He asked Bev to tell her that he couldn't date her." He giggled, as they started walking again.

"Oh, that's right! I remember he asked Bev to make up any excuse she could think of, and she told Julia that Eddie was going to be a priest."

"I had forgotten that happened," he sighed, drying his laugh-tears.

As Richie and Stan headed to their destination, the latter made sure to bring up as many funny stories about the other Losers as he possibly could, making sure to keep Richie laughing through the whole path.

He told him about the time Ben's poem won an award at school, and as he went upstairs towards the stage to pick it up, he fell face-first in front of the whole school, and tried to play it off by awkwardly sitting, and posing to a picture to the school's newspaper.

Or the time Bev made an attempt to dye her hair black, but ended up having to walk around with a very green-ish hair for a week.

There was also the time Theodosia Montenegro, who was one of the prettiest girls in town, asked Mike if he could gift her a baby sheep for her birthday, because, apparently, she wanted one just that much.

Not to forget the infamous time when Bill, without even stuttering, called a boy who was annoying them a "Fart-faced apple," and proceeded to punch him so hard in the face he broke the boy's nose.

Richie made sure to remember Stan about the time he took Ashley Mars to go birdwatching with him, and the bird decided to poop on her head. He also reminded his friend about how Ashley Mars never once looked at his face again.

When they arrived home, they immediately went upstairs to Stan's bedroom. They sat on the floor, still giggling.

Then, Richie stopped. "There's another thing I need to tell you."

"How many secrets are you keeping from me?" He joked.

"That's the last one. No one knows. Well, Eddie does, because I told him. I wanted to tell you guys, but I didn't know how to," he took a deep breath, "I'm leaving Derry, forever. My dad got a job at San Francisco, I'm moving by the end of summer, and I don't ever want to step foot in this city again."

"You're leaving?" Stanley mumbled. "You'll still call us, right?"

"I'll probably write you."

"This our last summer, then? The last summer with the seven of us?"

"Yes," he sighed deeply, leaning back against the bed behind him.

"When are you going to tell the others?"

"I was supposed to tell them today. Someday around this week, I swear."

"What about the other thing?" Uris questioned reluctantly.

"What other thing?" He narrowed his eyes.

"The Eddie-thing. You don't have to tell them, if you don't want to. But it looks like a fucking big deal to you, so I think you should."

"Well, why don't you tell them about the Bill-thing then?" He snapped.

"Because it doesn't really make a difference to me if they know or if they don't," Stan replied quickly, "And, there's other things involved, alright? There's Bill, there's Mike, there's Bev. It's not my secret, I can't decide by myself what I want to do with it."

"I don't wanna tell all of them," he said determined, "But I'm gonna tell Bev."

"She's going to have better advices, that's for sure," The boy chuckled.

The air was lighter than it had ever been, and for the first time in a long time, Richie managed to sleep without any nightmares troubling him during the night.

********************
I can come up with random people's names for eternity, that's one thing, uh.
I love this chapter.
Listen, I'm a SLUT for Stan's and Reddie's friendship, just as I'd give my life to see Richie's and Bev's, so you bet that will be featured, A GODDAMN LOT.
Also, hope you enjoyed reading all my headcanons for this characters LMAO
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a comment, and a like!
Love,
Liv💓