✓ | LOSERS CLUB → richie tozier ¹

fourteen

RICHIE WAS crying.

He didn't know how long he had sat there, in his dark and always empty house, sobbing his eyes out.

It felt like hours, maybe even days.

"God fucking damn it, you fucking idiot!" He said hoarsely, gulping air as more tears flowed down his cheeks. "How could you be so stupid?"

He swiped at his face with his hand, and shakily got to his feet, looking around.

"Where are my damn cigarettes?" He said, his voice shaking as he scanned the room for them, his eyes blurry with tears.

He stumbled around, looking for them. "Where the fuck are they, I just bought-"

Richie stopped abruptly. The alley.

He had dropped them on the ground.

He let out a string of curses, wanting to punch something; preferably Eddie Kaspbrak.

Slumping back to the ground, he leaned against the kitchen counter, hating her with every inch of his body.

Why Eddie? Of all people, why him?

His eyes scanned the room absently, and came to rest on something underneath the couch.

He slowly squinted, and crawled over to the couch, bending down and reaching for whatever it was.

His heart lifted as he saw it was a package of cigarettes, and he eagerly grabbed them, examining the package.

And then, the faint, barely there smile slowly slid from his face as he recognized the initials AB scrawled across they top of the package.

Her cigarettes.

He studied the package, and realized it was the exact same kind he bought and loved, and his entire face crumpled in agony.

He turned the package over in his hands, and then saw more writing written in messy handwriting across the backside.

Rich-

Thanks for letting me stay. You are better than you know. One day I'll say something. Maybe then you won't be asleep. I'll work up the courage.

Yeah right.

Gotta go burn this.

-Ash

PS. You're my favorite loser, Tozier.

Richie read her words over and over again. Say something about what? Work up the courage? What the hell could that mean?

The night she had appeared on his doorstep appeared in his mind, and he remembered her whisper of, "Richie, I-"

But he had dropped off to sleep before he could hear the rest. Could this be what she was talking about?

He shook the thought from his mind. No. She was with Eddie. She had been kissing Eddie.

He slowly pulled a cigarette out of the box, and got a whiff of something.

Vanilla and mint. Her scent.

He threw the cigarettes from him, watching as they skidded across the floor.

Pulling his knees up to his chest he stared at them, thinking back to the alley, and to the fight with the Losers club, and to Neibolt, where she had called him a Trashmouth, and to the projector, where she had walked towards that fucking clown and almost gotten herself killed. . .

He stopped dead, his eyebrows pulling together.

The projector. She had kept looking at the clown, and it hadn't done anything. And then after, she hadn't even really talked.

She had had that weird. . .attitude.

His mouth dropped open and he scrambled to his feet.

Everything was clicking.

Why she had done exactly what his fear had been, why she hadn't acted more like the spitfire she was at the fight between him and Bill, and why she hadn't run after him or yelled at him or done something Ash-like after he had seen her kiss Eddie.

It was the clown.

How could he have been so stupid!? None of that had been Ash, none of that had been her.

He ran his hands through his hair, scrambling to his feet. Scooping up the cigarettes, her cigarettes, he shoved them into his jeans pocket and grabbed the phone, dialing Mrs. Kaspbrak's number.

Please, please, please-

"Hello?"

His heart sank. It was Mrs. Kaspbrak.

"Um, hi. Mrs. Kaspbrak? This is Richie Tozier."

He heard her give a little sniff. "Eddie isn't home right now. He's out with his girlfriend at the moment."

Richie felt a pang shoot through his body, and swallowed. "Do you know where they are?"

"Eddie decided to take her to the fair tonight. It's the last day for it you know."

Richie went silent, his mind racing. Ash had told him once she hated fairs, thinking they were tacky and cheap. The person that did like fairs was a clown.

"Richie?"

He started, remembering Mrs. Kaspbrak was on the other line, and said abruptly, "I have to go."

Hanging up, he bolted to the front door, grabbing his bike and swinging his leg on it, starting to pedal furiously down the road.

While he biked, memories of her flashed all through his mind, the real her:

"So I'm in the Losers Club? I mean, I see why Richie's in here but what about the rest of you?"

"It's telepathy, idiot!"

"Beep, beep Richie."

"Stop, Richie. You could have died. Look at you!"

"I never believed her for a second, because while you might get into trouble, you would never do that. Ever."

"Richie, I-"

What had she been about to say? He was so stupid for falling asleep!

And then he remembered what he had said to her in the alley when he had seen her with Eddie.

I hope it fucking kills you.

His heart rate sped up so fast he almost swerved the bike into the curb and his palms went sweaty as he gripped the handlebars tighter.

How could he have been so stupid? How could he have said that to her?

He hit his hand on the handlebar, swearing underneath his breath. She could be anywhere. And that fucking clown would just have to get her alone, and that was it. It would be all over.

He pedaled even harder. He was an idiot. An absolute idiot.

But he wasn't going to let that happen. If he had to risk his own life to save hers, he would do it, because she meant more to him than anything.

Richie was going to get to that fucking fair and get to her before Pennywise did. And maybe, if he was lucky, he could get in a punch at Eddie Kaspbrak along the way.

i want to update again so freaking badly omg i just want to write another chapter this is getting so INTENSE!! vote and comment some reactions, can't wait to read em! if you're lucky, i'l update again tomorrow (or maybe even tonight again??)

see you soon (;