Deep breath. If he's from...he wouldn't know about Brian. He wouldn't know. He never found out about Brian and Tim is fully aware that it makes him unbelievably selfish to want to withhold that, to not be the person to drop that bombshell, but he can't just outright refuse and evade because that's prone to making Jay more determined.

Instead he takes a deep breath.

"Can we...not get into that right now?" He's aware of how it sounds. "I can - if you wanna get into it later, fine, but now's just...not a good time."

How is he supposed to get Jay up to speed while spilling the truth about Brian, of all people?

And how is he supposed to talk about the time he saw It - stark and black against the white of Monsun?

He still doesn't know whether or not It was real.