I feel like no one talks about the fact that Hopper had a pill problem and Eddie was a drug dealer... Like there's so much story to explore there!
Hop and Eddie having an odd sort of friendship/understanding.
Hop's not really a parental figure, he's got Wayne for that, but he is another adult he's found he can rely on, at least a little. And sometimes it's easier to talk to Hop precisely because he's not Wayne.
And Eddie is too old, too independent for Hop to really feel like he's another one of his adopted kids. But a second pair of eyes on the troublemaker never hurts.
Hop looks out for him, let's him off the hook when he gets caught with a little weed in his pocket. Hop knows he sells worse, but he also knows Eddie isn't an idiot, despite what the boy, and his peers, might think.
He'll admit he's a little protective of the kid, Eddie reminds him a lot of El, different in a way that people seemed to just sense and know that they didn't belong (even before the dramatics). He worries for him, sometimes.
He feels bad for not checking in more often after the shit with the upside down started, and he feels even worse that it's nearly a year after he gets back to Hawkins that he finds out the kid died. In the fucking upside down. Hop knows it's irrational, but he can't help but feel guilty about it, feel like it's his fault. Just another life he'd destroyed by being in their orbit. Maybe he really was cursed.
And how does he explain the guilt he feels? He knows Joyce can tell something's eating him up inside, but he just can't bring himself to tell her. Because then he has to tell her about the pills. And that's a weakness he's not ready to admit. Not to her.
Surprisingly, it's Steve that Hopper finally talks to. He never really interacted much with the Harrington boy, but somehow they get on the topic of Eddie and Hop could see the same guilt living in Steve's eyes that was present in his own. The talking helps, but Hop's confident he'll always feel the guilt, because he knows he could have done more.
But he's not the only one who could have done more, there were lots of people who had failed Eddie throughout his life, and for some reason, that thought is as comforting as it is depressing.
Maybe they had all failed Eddie, even if just a little.
