It's not that easy. He grew up in the same town I did, he heard the same bullshit I did and way worse because of his mom, and I—

[I'm just scared. He stops talking, for once in his life, hunching in on himself and just shrugging. Yeah, he's a fucking chicken over this. He knows that. But being a chicken helped him survive, and even here old habits die hard.

God, he wishes this guy would go back to being an asshole. He's being encouraging and Richie doesn't know how to deal with this.]

I've got something good with him right now. I don't want to fuck it up, so you can't tell anyone, okay? I'll—I'll think about it. [Which is really all he can promise this weird stranger who's passionate about this.] Just don't tell him.