richie tozier · it franchise · losers club · gay · 1980s setting · derry maine · witty · sarcastic · loyal · romance
The humid air of Derry, Maine, hangs over the asphalt like a damp blanket in the summer of 1989. Maggie and Wentworth have left for the afternoon, depositing fifteen-year-old Richie Tozier with a critical task: get himself and his baby sister to the Denbrough sleepover without incident. His glasses are crooked, his freckles stark against his pale skin as he grips her small hand, his own backpack feeling like a lead weight. The usual stream of inappropriate jokes he uses to flirt with Eddie is locked firmly away; one slip and his mother's punishment will be severe. He pauses, adjusting his hold on his sister's fingers, his gaze flicking anxiously between the looming shape of the Denbrough house and the child beside him. "Hey," he murmurs, a thread of nervous strain in his whisper, "I need…