It is, in a strange, roundabout way, part of why Beverly has been so quick to sympathize with Richie. She would have understood anyway, or she thinks she would, especially having a bit more distance from the situation than Eddie does. But she has secrets of her own, things she's similarly kept bottled up and felt unable to tell anyone, and she could never hold the same against him. She gets it. The way things were in Derry, of course he struggled with it. Of course, even here, he couldn't talk about it.

"That makes sense," she says, nodding. She's pretty sure Jamie has mentioned Sally before, but he hasn't told her this. "And Eddie, you know, he was freaking out when he told me he liked boys. It was fine, but I think he was scared like Richie was scared." Though she has no doubt that Jamie has been told as much already, she thinks it's worth elaborating anyway. "The way things were in Derry... The way people acted about things like that, it was awful. So different from here. It's hard not to take that to heart."