Family Line | Toziers

2

Months and maybe even a year had passed since the divorce. Richie has never seen his mother in a worse stage in life. It broke his heart but at the same time, he couldn't care. His mother was an asshole.

Eventually, something Richie never thought would happen happened. Maggie. She..

———

Richie showed up to school the day after it happened, to everyone's surprise. He acted like nothing was happening. Like everything was fine. Like everything was normal. He still cracked his normal jokes, still talked shit, still pissed off his friends and teachers and bullies.

But that wasn't enough. And Richie knew it.

Everyone was sitting at lunch that day, silent before Richie came and joined them.

"Howdy fellas, how's it going this lovely lunch period?" Richie said in his horrible southern accent.

"Rich.." Bill didn't even stutter.

"What's up? Heyy, where'd your stutter go?" Richie questioned. He was uncomfortable at the fact that everyone's sympathetic eyes were laid on him. "Oh."

"Are you.. are you alright?" Bev asked.

Richie just smiled at her. "I'm fine, I don't know what you mean Bevvie!" Richie began to eat. That seemed to get everyone to shut up.

It was awkward once again.

"Okay that's it, you know what she means, Richie. Stop trying to hide it from us." Eddie basically yelled.

Richie looked up blankly. His face was covered in the sauce from his school spaghetti. He sat up and wiped his mouth on his wrist.

"So what if I do? Maybe I just don't wanna talk about it," he said. He was strangely happy. His tone was, at least.

Richie was not happy. He was anything but happy. His mother was fucking dead. How could he be happy? Sure, she wasn't even a mother to him, but he can't be happy that she killed herself. That's horrible.

Richie picked up his tray and threw out the rest of his food. He sat back down at the table and started up conversations. Everything was back to normal. They were laughing like usual, joking around, punching each other and Richie felt happy. He wasn't so happy to get home, though.

As he was walking home, he saw cop cars outside of his house. He picked up his speed and walked over to one of the officers.

"Ah, Richie Tozier, is it?" The officer asked, looking at the boy.

"What's it to you?"

"Well, I'm afraid that since your mother has passed away, we're going to have to send you to your father. I'm very sorry for your loss, sir." The officer said, reporting back to the other officers.

Richie felt his heart drop into his stomach. Should that bastard be in jail? Maybe he changed.. or maybe Maggie just never ratted him out for abuse. Whatever it was, Richie did not want to go back. Hell, he would spend every night outside if that meant he wouldn't be around his "father".

Richie could feel tears about to burst out of his eyes as he approached his old house. With a hard gulp, he reached for the handle. He opened the door.

The smell of alcohol and cigarette hit him like a train had just ran into him at full speed. The scent was strong. He carefully walked into the filthy house, closing the door as silent as possible behind him. He walked up the stairs starting to his old room

Richie tripped due to the huge hole in the stairs, falling straight onto his face. He stood up quickly, and tried his best to make it upstairs.

"What the fuck are you doing here." Richie heard a voice from behind him. He jumped, and slowly turned to see Went standing right below the staircase.