Chapter Text
RICHIE:
It’d been a few weeks since the final encounter with Pennywise, but Richie would much rather face that terrifying stupid clown again over staying in boring old Hawkins, Indiana, with his stupid cousin Mike.
“Mom, come on, seriously? Do I have to go? I’ll do my chores for a month!” A lie, of course, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
“End of discussion, Richie,” Marge huffed. “You’ve spent enough time with your friends doing God knows what in those filthy sewers. You are going to your cousins’, and that’s that. You two used to be so close!”
“Yeah, that was before he turned into a boring lame shitbag,” Richie argued.
“Richie!”
“What? It’s the truth!”
Marge claps her hands together, taking a deep breath. “Richard Tozier, you’re going down there and you’re going to spend time with your family.”
Richie groans, frustrated. “But why do I have to go alone?”
“Because you wanted to spend your time running in sewers. Your actions have consequences,” Marge pinches the bridge of her nose, pushing her glasses up. “Luckily, I have some business to attend to with some old friends of mine who live past Indiana, so I can take you.”
“I wouldn’t call this shit lucky,” Richie mumbles, adjusting his glasses. He folds his arms, thinking of any last escape possible.
“Mom,” he begins. “Look, I’m gifted. I’m a charmer! Mike is... he’s a dweeb. He plays imaginary games with his stupid friends, I’m not meant for a boring crowd like that! My gifts can only go so far! Are you really going to throw your sweet son that you adore so much into such a horrible environment?”
Marge stares at him, unamused.
A few moments of silence.
“Tough crowd,” Richie coughs. “Okay! Fine, fine!”
He groans as he stumbles back to his room, dragging his feet as he goes. He lazily plops his suitcase onto his bed.
“This is gonna be such a shitty summer.”
MIKE:
“What?? Richie’s gonna be staying here?? Why??”
Mike had to swallow back a sigh. Of course, it was temporary. Of course, it was family. And of course… it was Richie.
He remembered when Richie used to be fun. Loud, yes, but funny. Brave. A little too much, maybe, but someone you wanted on your side. That person was gone. Now he was just loud, obnoxious, and… unpredictable.
“No need to sound so happy about it,” Karen said, looking shocked. “I thought you and Richie got along?”
“That was forever ago, Mom. He’s annoying.”
“Michael!”
Mike rolled his eyes. He didn’t like that he couldn’t even imagine Richie quietly respecting his boundaries. The basement. The radio nights. His friends. Everything. He could already feel it: Richie was going to crash into all of it, and he’d have to deal with it. Mike spoke to El on the radio every night, it was his routine. Even if she never answered, he knew she had to be out there. One day, she'd hear him. One day, she'd answer. And Richie would jeapordize that.
Karen gazed at him, her voice softening. “He’s only going to be staying for what’s left of the summer,” she reassured. “Then he’ll go back home. Can you please play nice?”
“It’s not me who has to play nice, Mom. It’s him! With his stupid attitude and bad jokes and loud—” He stops mid-sentence at the look on her face, before sighing in defeat.
“Fine. Just— I want to keep him out of the basement. He’s gonna ruin my nights with the party.”
“I think it’d be good if you invited him with you guys,” she opposed. “You might bond, and it’ll be more welcoming.”
Disgust completely takes over Mike's expression. The boy has no poker face. “No! He’ll ruin it, he’s not joining.”
Karen lets out a sigh, shrugging before waving Mike off.
That night, Mike sat on the basement floor under his little tent, the radio crackling with static. He clenched his fists, imagining all the ways Richie might make his life more… complicated. Part of him even felt… uneasy, like his chest had been nudged in a place he didn’t know existed. He shoved the thought away. Focus. He grabs the radio, turning it on. The static cackles as he lets his feelings out the only way he knows how.
And, of course, there is no response.