𑁍 Eddie Munson was innocent. He’d been cleared, vindicated, but never really freed. He still wears the scars of ‘86, physical and emotional, and moving on from his past feels almost impossible. When someone new moves in next door, fleeing from her own troubled history, will Eddie find solace in someone just as scarred as himself? 𑁍
Series warnings: 18+ minors dni, eventual smut, angst, mentions of injury, body image issues, physical and emotional abuse, drug and alcohol use
Chapter warnings: smoking, alcohol use, mention of vomiting, mentions of injury, swearing. 4.7k
A/N: I’m so nervous to post this, my first proper slow burn! Just a heads up this is set in 1992, all of the events of S4 still took place (but for the sake of making things a little easier we’re going to assume that the trailer park was never destroyed by the ‘earthquake’). Eddie is a virgin (poor little touch starved baby) and to try to keep the use of Y/N to a minimum, Reader will be given the nickname ‘Honey’ and will mostly be referred to as such. Enjoy! Also the Eddie edit I’ve used was made by the very talented @eddiemunsons-missingnipple 𑁍
Chapter 01/?
𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍
The gentle breeze blowing in from the open window catches Eddie’s curls, shifting them across his face to tickle his nose. He groans, sweeping his palm across his face to brush away the waves. His eyes open hesitantly, an action he immediately regrets, screwing them shut again to hide from the offending bright sunlight cast across his pillows. Rolling onto his side and using his hand as a shield from the light, his lids flutter open once again, and he squints at the red glowing numbers on his alarm clock coming into focus.
10:32.
It’s a more than reasonable time to wake up, but on Sundays Eddie generally doesn’t like to rouse before midday, usually sleeping through the worst of his hangover, only clambering out of his pit of a bed when the urge to pee becomes all consuming.
With a groan he rolls onto his back, calloused fingertips picking the crusts of sleep from the corner of his eyes. His head pounds in time with his heartbeat, his mouth ash dry, the faint taste of tequila and vomit lingering on his tongue. He knew he’d regret it the second Harrington had slammed the expensive glass bottle down on his kitchen counter.
𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍
Eddie was already two beers in when Steve had arrived home. Sat in the living room, sandwiched between Robin and Nancy on the couch, he half-listened to the girls playfully bickering about some pop group, which girl was the best singer, who was the cutest. Eddie had zoned out, not particularly interested in the topic, wishing Steve would hurry up and get home. He was grateful at least for the Harrington’s working air conditioning, cold air caressing his skin.
Steve had finally burst through the front door, with a cheerful call of “honey I’m home!”. Robin leapt up from her seat, running through to the hall, Nancy and Eddie hot on her heels. Steve grinned from ear to ear, waving the tequila above his head in triumph.
“You got it?” Robin asked excitedly.
“Course I did!” Steve laughed, to a chorus of cheers from the group.
He’d finally caved last year, accepting the offer of a position at his dads company. He hasn’t been all too thrilled at the time, it was a tough enough pill to swallow that he was still living rent free in his family’s old home, staying behind when his parents made the move to Indianapolis. The only perk had been that with them gone, Robin had been free to move in, meaning that Steve didn’t have to wander around the large empty house alone. He’d worked his ass off in his new job, determined to prove that he was worthy of the position, that he had merit of his own. He’d done enough to earn himself a shot at a promotion.
Robin squeals, throwing her arms around Steve’s neck.
“Congrats dingus! I never doubted you for a second!”
“That’s not even the best part.” Steve says, kicking off his shoes and ripping the tie from around his neck, ushering everyone back into the kitchen.
“What’s the best part?” Nancy asks, grabbing four shot glasses from the cupboard above the sink.
“Well this new job requires me to have a PA, someone to handle calls, my schedule, stuff like that.”
“And that’s the best part because..?” Robin says, pulling the bottle from Steve’s hands and wrenching the cork from the top with a low pop.
“Because they told me I can pick whoever I want. So Buckley - the jobs yours if you want it.”
Robin freezes, tequila in hand hovering over the glasses.
“For real?”
“For real.”
There’s a moment of quiet as Robin mulls over the offer, a grin slowly creeping onto her face. She fills each shot to the brim, placing the bottle down on the counter and selecting a glass, holding it high in the air.
“To no more Family Video!”
Eddie laughs, grabbing his own shot, a little of the clear liquor spilling over the side.
“To no more Keith!” He adds, making Robin cackle.
“To Steve and Robin, on to better things.” Nancy says sweetly. The four of them clink their glasses together, then throw back the shots. It burns as it slides down Eddie’s throat, making him wince, but the resulting warmth in his chest isn’t unpleasant. He doesn’t complain when Steve leans over to refill his glass, although he knows he’ll feel it tomorrow.
𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍 𑁍
Eddies back clicks loudly when he stands up from the bed, his shoulders making similar crunching sounds as he rolls them back, easing out the tension. He grabs the glass of water at his bedside, now warm from the sweltering heat, but he guzzles it down all the same, grunting when some spills from the side of his lips, dripping down to his chest. He runs a palm over his skin to wipe away the liquid, grimacing when he realises his chest is already damp, sweat having matted down the fine hairs sprouting there.
It had been a record breaking summer, the mercury rising steadily since early June, having finally reached its peak in mid August. Throughout the town, the roads and buildings shimmered and danced in waves of heat, the sidewalks and roads cracked and split. In Forest Hills, where most of the residents weren’t fortunate enough to have working air con, they had to get a little more creative in their battle against the sweltering temperatures. The dried lawn outside was littered with shallow plastic tubs and cheap inflatable pools, the kids of the park splashing and shrieking in cool water. They’d called out for Eddie to get in on more than one occasion, but the sight of the murky water, full of grass and mud from the kids bare feet had turned his stomach, and he’d politely declined their offer. He preferred to plug in the noisy electric fan in his room, crawling inside a spare bedsheet and positioning its opening in front of the oscillating blades, so it ballooned out around him, his own fort full of chilled air. Hours were whiled away alone in that sheet, Eddie’s nose buried in a book, or his rough fingertips plucking at the strings of his old acoustic guitar.
Eddie wipes his now sweaty palm on his boxers. He should take a shower, but it’ll be a pointless effort, given that by the time the afternoon rolls around he’ll be slick and musty again. He decides to save it for later, he can wash off the day before climbing back into bed, so he’s at least somewhat fresh for work tomorrow.
Tipping his head forwards, groaning at the throbbing pressure in his skull, he scrapes his hair up to the top of his head, pulling on the elastic around his wrist and wrapping it around his wild curls in a loose bun. A pair of sweatpants is plucked from the top of the pile on the floor, and giving them a quick sniff he decides they’re not offensive enough to warrant a wash just yet, stepping into them and letting them hang loose on his hips, the band of yesterdays boxers poking just above. He yanks a t-shirt over his head, the extra material only adding to the unbearable warmth he feels, but he’s not about to set foot outside of his home with his shirt off.
The slam of a car door comes through the window, followed by laughter. A bright, airy noise, carried on the breeze to fill Eddie’s room. He strains his ears to catch more of the foreign sound.
“Damn it’s hot.” A man drawls, his ‘o’ elongated into an ‘ah.’ Chicago, Eddie guesses. He shuffles over to the window, peering out to the vacant trailer next to his. A rented moving van is parked out front, next to a silver Honda Civic. Illinois plates. He watches the man make his way up the steps of the porch to the open door, followed by a woman a similar age and a young girl.
Eddie turns away from the new neighbours, shuffling through into the kitchen. He fills the coffee pot, grabbing a packet of pop tarts from the back of the cupboard while he waits for it to heat. He doesn’t bother toasting them, just takes a large bite of the stale pastry, sweet artificial strawberry on his tongue. A few crumbs fall to the floor, and he sighs, nudging them aside with his bare foot. He’ll tidy them later. Probably. Two aspirin are swallowed down next, in an attempt to dull the throbbing ache in his skull.
With his breakfast scoffed and a fresh coffee in hand, Eddie wanders to the living room, finding his leather jacket thrown haphazardly over the back of the couch. He pulls his Camels from a pocket, digs around in the other until he finally locates his lighter, then slips out the front door to the porch.
The man outside was right. Damn it is hot. The slight breeze offers some movement at least, even if it’s not particularly cooling it’s better than the still air inside. Eddie spies the splash of vomit splattered across the dirt by his porch, and his stomach churns at the bleary memory of stumbling out of a cab, spewing expensive tequila and cheap beer before he’d even paid the fare.
“Hey Eddie!”
The boy turns, squinting in the sun when he tries to locate the owner of the voice. Lizzie, the young girl from a few trailers down sits in a long patch of grass, her baby brother balanced on her lap, a too large sun hat on his bald head. It keeps slipping down, covering his face, and he squeals with laughter each time Lizzie pulls it back up, just for it to happen again.
“Mornin Elizabeth.” Eddie grins, unlit cigarette clamped between his teeth.
The girl’s smile disappears, replaced with a deep scowl.
“Don’t call me that Edward.”
Eddie chuckles, sticking his tongue out at her, a gesture that she quickly returns.
“You meet the new people yet?” She asks, nodding her head in the direction of the trailer next to his.
“Nah,” he says. “Have you?”
Lizzie nods again, her whispy blonde hair falling into her face.
“They seem nice.” She comments, giving him a smile so wide he can see the gap left by her missing front teeth. She turns her attention back to the baby cooing on her lap.
Eddie retreats back into the shade, lumping down on the old couch. It groans and protests at his weight, but it’s always done that in the sixteen years he’s known it to be out here. It hasn’t broken yet.
From his new position he has a clear line of sight to the trailer, the front door still wide open. That high laugh rings out again from inside, louder now. He rolls a calloused thumb against his lighter, getting enough of a spark to light his cigarette. He’s exhaling a billowing grey cloud when you step out into the sun.
Eddie sucks in a sharp breath that he should be letting out, his lungs burning in his chest. He clutches his palm to his mouth, trying to muffle his splutters, cheeks glowing crimson at coughing like the first time he’d tried a joint.
You don’t seem to have noticed his gasps for breath, hopping down the steps from the door and skipping around the back of the van. Eddie watches you lean inside, your tank top shifting up your lower back, exposing the softness that spills over the top of your shorts. And those shorts, goddamn. The denim strains tight over the swell of your ass, roughly cut off just beneath, indecently short. Eddie’s eyes are locked on the plush of your thighs, the way the smooth skin sticks together from the heat. When you turn he spots a scar on the outside of your left thigh, the skin raised in pale swirls. He swears he can feel his own scars prickle under the thin cotton of his shirt.
Tearing his eyes away from you, Eddie takes a swig of his coffee, the porcelain mug clinking against his teeth. His nose wrinkles in disgust, he’d bought the cheap stuff, and the three heaped teaspoons of sugar he’d stirred in weren’t enough to mask the bitterness.
“Careful Honey. Let me take the heavy ones.” The older man from before jogs across to you, taking the cardboard box from your arms. He struggles back up the stairs, shifting his weight to keep hold of it. When he squeezes through the door way, the woman and girl step aside to let him through.
“Come on then Baby, make yourself useful!” You call, balancing a crate filled with records on your hip. Eddie cranes his neck, attempting to see what’s inside, but he has no luck from this distance. They must be yours, he thinks. The trailer is a carbon copy of his own, just one bedroom, bathroom, a small kitchenette and living room. Not big enough for the whole family, and the other girl, your sister Eddie assumes, looks too young to be living alone.
As you pass out more boxes from the van Eddie stubs out his cigarette in the overflowing ashtray, and pushes up from the couch, making his way back inside.
The heat in the trailer is suffocating, the air thick with humidity, pushing back against him with every step he takes. Eddie drains the last of his coffee, adding the mug to the pile in the sink, another job for later. In the bathroom he brushes his teeth, then flips open the cupboard to grab his deodorant. Lifting his shirt just enough to reach under and spray himself, he winces at the sight of the marks littering his sides, faded with time, but still painfully obvious, smooth patches of grafted skin jagged at the edges. He turns away from the mirror.
Back in his bedroom the alarm clock now reads 11:16. He’s still got hours before he needs to leave, heading to Wayne’s for their weekly Sunday dinner. It was a tradition Shannon had been quite insistent on, even when her kids had grown up and left the house they always returned on Sundays, 6pm sharp, for a home cooked meal and conversation. Eddie hadn’t been too thrilled initially when the invitation, the expectation, was extended to him, but now he actively looked forward to it. Shannon was nice, and her cooking was far better than anything Eddie could sort for himself. He always left with a couple of Tupperware's tucked under his arm, leftovers to keep him going for a few days.
He decides to get dressed properly, leaving his shirt but shrugging off the sweatpants and boxers, pulling clean underwear from his drawer and a pair of jeans. The denim wasn't ideal in this weather, but at this point they were almost a part of him, a constant uniform he wore daily.
With little else to occupy his time, Eddie makes a start on tidying his room. It essentially involves shifting piles of stuff from one place to another, rearranging clutter until the room is no less full, but a little easier to navigate. At least he can see the floor again. The worst of the dirty laundry is dumped into a basket, and Eddie balances it on his hip, his other hand collecting the various coffee mugs and cereal bowls, fuzzy green congealed mess in the bottoms.
The laundry tumbles from the basket into the drum of the ancient washing machine, followed by a generous shaking of Tide. Eddie closes the lid, placing a heavy brick on the top, the only thing that stops it from popping open midway through its cycle. It groans and creaks to life, and he leaves it thundering noisily, shaking the shelves on the wall above.
Another twenty minutes is killed by tackling the dishes in the sink, his skin crawling when a lump of what he assumes was once Honeycombs floats in the soapy water and brushes the back of his hand. With the draining rack piled high, a precarious mountain of mismatched porcelain and plastic that threatens to topple at any moment, he finally sweeps up the mess from his breakfast, long brown strands tangled in the brooms bristles.
“Might as well have a pack of dogs living here. Would be the same amount of hair laying around. Wayne used to grumble.
“You’re just jealous because most of yours fell out years ago.” Eddie would tease back, ducking to avoid a playful swat to the back of his head.
Eddie stands in the kitchen, his hands on his hips, surveying his mornings work. He rewards himself with another coffee, dumping in a fourth sugar in the hopes it’ll be enough to make it tolerable. Cigarettes in hand once again, he heads back outside.
You’re stood at the back of the van, your hand hovering over your eyes to shield you from the sun. Eddie takes in the crinkles at the corner of your eyes from your squinting, your warm smile causing the apples of your cheeks to swell. The corner of Eddie’s lips twitch around the cigarette, your smile so infectious his mouth itches to curl into a matching grin, despite the fact you're not smiling at him.
Lizzie’s mom Janet stands barefoot in the dirt opposite you, her chubby baby boy, now without his sun hat, balanced on her hip.
He knows he shouldn’t, but lowering himself onto the couch Eddie strains to eavesdrop on your conversation.
“Lizzie’s quite a handful, at least this one doesn’t give me much trouble.” Janet grins, hopping in place to scoot the baby further up her hip.
“He’s a little cutie. Aren’t you? You’re gorgeous.” You coo, extending your hand to take hold of the baby’s. He wraps his tiny fingers around your pinky, and you giggle, tracing your thumb across the back of his hand.
“Do you need a hand with anything?” Janet offers. “My husband worked last night, but he should be up soon. I can send him over?”
“That’s very kind of you. But we’ll be fine. We’ve not got much left to do now.”
“Okay. Well if you change your mind just knock, that’s us over there.” Janet says, turning to point at her trailer, colourful plastic toys littering the grass out front.
“Thank you. It was nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
You pretend to shake the baby’s hand, making Janet and you laugh, and the woman turns away with a small wave, bouncing the boy on her hip as she heads home.
You turn back into the van, pulling out another box overflowing with kitchen supplies as your family head back out to you.
“This is the last one.”
“So just the bed and the couch left?” The older woman asks.
You nod, passing the box to your sister, hand snatching down to catch a falling whisk before it hits the ground.
“Yep. Dad feeling strong?”
“Of course I am!” Your father says, curling his slim arms up, showing off muscles that aren’t there. Eddie takes in his skinny legs, the paunch of his stomach, his grey shirt clinging to him marked with dark patches of sweat. He doesn’t like his chances.
You’re back in the van now, holding one end of a tattered couch, a hideous floral pattern that would clash with just about anything. Your cheeks glow red with exertion, brows creased. Your Dad is holding the other end, staggering backwards to step down to the ground, your mom calling to him to be careful.
Eddie can hear Wayne’s voice in his head.
Son, you better get off your ass and go offer to help.
He shakes his head to shut Wayne up, flicking his cigarette butt away and heading back inside.
In the living room he can hear your Dads grunts through the open window. Looking out he watches the two of you attempt to force the couch through the narrow doorway, struggling to turn it on its side so it will fit.
“To the left Honey. The left!” He says, and Eddie catches you rolling your eyes, a playful grin on your lips despite the struggle.
“My left or your left dad?”
“Mine obviously!”
Eddie knows he should go offer a helping hand. If Wayne were still here they’d have both been out there as soon as the moving van rolled up. His Uncle might have always been a fairly quiet man, keeping to himself, but he wasn’t one to sit by and watch others struggle. It was the way things worked in Forest Hills, the trailer park etiquette. None of these people had much, most of them living pay cheque to pay cheque, scraping by on the skin of their teeth each month. But everyone was in the same situation, they all had the same struggles, and so it bred a culture of giving up what little extra you had to help your neighbours. It was rarely cash, no one here had enough of a surplus to help each other financially, but there were other ways to offer assistance. Eddie had spent many a weekend checking under the hood of some banger, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, forearms smeared with grease. Wayne had taught him how to fix wobbly cupboard doors, leaking pipes, even patching up Mrs Goddard’s roof when a torrential rain storm brought it down above her kitchen.
So yes, he should be helping you move in, he was more than capable. But Eddie didn’t know you, he hadn’t grown up around your family like he had with the other trailer park residents. They knew him, they knew Wayne, and he was comfortable around all of them. He was used to judgment from the rest of Hawkins, but here, in his own little community he was treated like a normal person. Everyone here knew what it was like to be judged, to be looked down on by those more fortunate, and so they banded together to take care of one another. Even after the events in that fateful spring of ‘86, when Eddie was terrified to leave the park, he never had to worry about his neighbours. They knew him well enough to know that wasn’t capable of hurting anyone.
Eddie was wary of new people, he always had been. He’d dealt with enough shit over the years from people taking one look at him and deciding he was trailer trash, a satanist, a freak. He was terrified you’d take one look at him and jump to the same conclusions.
As Eddie lowers himself into the armchair, a loud cheer comes from outside, the couch must have finally made it into the trailer. His mind rolls back to the bare skin exposed under your top, the round globes of your ass in tight faded denim. He feels a swelling in his jeans, heat flushing his cheeks in embarrassment, although of course there’s no one around to see. He swallows, shifting on the edge of his seat and willing his body to calm down. He was sure he’d feel flustered enough seeing your pretty face around without the memory of jacking off to you replaying in his head.
With noon fast approaching, the heat in the trailer is reaching an unbearable peak. The leather of the chair, cracked and worn from years of Wayne throwing himself down into it after shifts at the plant, sticks to Eddie’s skin, peeking away from the back of his arms whenever he moves. His legs jiggle restlessly, the chain hanging from his hip clinking in time with the quiet ticking of the clock above the front door. He glances around the room for inspiration, something to pass the time and kill the mind numbing boredom. He could call Steve, maybe drive over to his house. He’s sure the boy and Robin are probably making the most of the pool, and the thought of dipping into that cool turquoise water sounds like heaven. He stands, about to head into the kitchen to pick up the phone, when he hears your mothers frustrated hiss from outside.
“John, seriously?”
“Just give me a minute treasure, I know they’re here somewhere.”
“Well you must have had them to take the bed apart.”
“I did. And I know I put them in the car!”
When Eddie steps over to the window, he sees you and your sister stood side by side, giggling at your parents bickering. Your mother has her arms folded across her chest, foot impatiently tapping on the grass.
Your dad emerges from the back seat of the car, looking sheepish.
“I think I left them at home.” He grumbles.
“John-“
“I know. I’m sorry! There must be a hardware store or something in this town.”
“Will they even be open on a Sunday?”
“Mom, stop, it’s fine.” You say, waving your hand dismissively. “I can sleep on the couch tonight and go get a screwdriver tomorrow.”
“Honey, you won’t be able to put the bed together by yourself.”
Eddie chews his bottom lip, listening to the four of you bounce potential solutions back and forth, your mom throwing irritated glares in your dads direction.
Wayne’s voice pipes up in Eddie’s head once again.
Boy, I raised you to help people out where you can.
“Jesus H Christ.” Eddie mumbles to himself, dragging a calloused palm down his face. He grabs his cigarettes, the perfect excuse for slipping back outside, and walks out to his porch once again. Ignoring the couch, he moves to rest his forearms on the rotting wood panels that line the porch. He plucks a cigarette from the small card box, but doesn’t light it, just spins it between his long fingers. He clears his throat as your parents continue to argue.
“You uhh.. you guys need a hand?”
Four sets of eyes swivel to Eddie. He gulps, feeling a bead of sweat roll from his hairline down his cheek.
“Uh yeah, actually we do.” You dad says, taking a step in Eddie’s direction.
“I need to put my daughters bed together, but apparently I uh.. left my tools at home.”
“Whatdya need?”
“Flat head screwdriver ideally.”
“Not a problem, give me a sec.” Eddie says, pushing back from the wood, wiping a splinter from his arm.
“Thanks, appreciate it.”
Eddie nods, ducking back into his home. His work kit is sitting by the front door where he’d dumped it yesterday. He grabs the handle, lifting the heavy plastic box with one hand and heading back out.
He jogs down the steps from his trailer, padding across to you and your family. The scorched grass is warm, scratching the soles of his bare feet.
“Should have what you need in here.” Eddie says quietly, holding the box out to your dad.
“Thanks.” He repeats with a bright smile. He extends the hand not holding the tools out to the boy, and Eddie takes it, the silver chains around his wrist jingling with the firm shake.
“Name’s John.”
“Eddie.”
“It’s actually Edward.” Comes a high pitched call from behind. Eddie glances over his shoulder, seeing Lizzie now sitting back out in the grass, a collection of Barbies keeping her company. She raises her brows and sticks out her tongue, and Eddie bites down on the muscle in his mouth to keep himself from doing it right back again.
“It’s Eddie. Just Eddie.”
“Nice to meet you Just Eddie.” John laughs, letting his hand drop back down to his side.
Your sister leans up on her tiptoes, whispering something in your ear. You giggle again, your eyes roaming across Eddie’s body, and he feels a rush of heat over his skin, more intense than the blazing sun that beats down on him.
“Well thanks again for these.” John says, slapping his palm on the lid of the toolbox.
“We’ll bring em back when we’re done with em.”
“Sure. N-no rush.” Eddie nods, turning back to home.
“Bye just Eddie!”
He’s halfway up the steps when your sister calls goodbye. He looks back over his shoulder to respond, stubbing his big toe on the edge of a step. It sends him stumbling forwards, body half turned the wrong way as he staggers, trying desperately to keep himself upright.
“Fuck - I, s-sorry. Bye.”
Crimson faced he limps as fast as he can, doing his best to ignore the giggling behind him.
“Girls! Stop it.” Your mom chastises.
Eddie slams the door closed behind him, resting his back against the wood, his sweat soaked shirt sticking to his skin.
V! This is so cute already - I’m so intrigued on what Honey’s story is going to be since we didn’t get much of a glimpse beyond that it’s her trailer….
Summary: After moving to Hawkins to take care of your ailing grandma, you end up spending a wild night with Corroded Coffin's lead singer, Eddie Munson. When you uncover his true intentions, you have no desire to ever see him again, but fate--and his son, Harris--has other plans.
Warnings: smut (18+ only, minors DNI), fingering (f! receiving), oral (m!receiving), slowburn, strangers to enemies to lovers, angst, Eddie is 30, Reader is 28, no use of y/n
WC: 7.5k
Chapter 1/?
Scruffy!Eddie edit credit to @eddiemunsons-missingnipple
Divider credit to @saradika
Late August, 1996.
July had come and gone so quickly, and you could sense it in the muggy air as the daylight dwindled away on the horizon of an orange colored sky. Your heels click along the parking lot pavement as you make your way into the dingy bar. Everyone told you that your twenties would be full of surprises, but no one warned you that those twists and turns would land you in Hawkins, Indiana.
The neon sign reads The Hideout; well, really, it reads Th H deo t, and the “o” is starting to flicker. You’re not the only one who notices the building’s crumbling exterior.
“Huh,” Jess says, crossing her arms over her chest. “This place seemed a lot cooler when I was in high school.” Still, she pushes open the door, where you’re immediately hit with the stench of cigarettes and beer. The floor is sticky with what you can only hope is spilled liquor, and you take a seat on a rickety barstool.
“How did you even hear about this place?” you ask your new friend, tugging your dress so it covers a bit more of your thighs. You had one night out to yourself, and Jess was insistent on you making the most of it.
“Used to come here all the time when I was, like, sixteen?” She wrinkles her nose. “They’re dirt cheap and they never card, so my friends and I used to get super wasted. Thought we were hot shit.” She flags down the bartender with a wave and a smile. “Anyway, you can’t live in Hawkins and not come to the Hideout at least once. It’s a tradition.”
The bartender, a woman who looks to be in her mid-forties, leans on the counter. “What can I get you ladies?” she asks. Her voice is raspy from what sounds like decades of chain smoking.
You’re about to order a Bud Light, but Jess cuts you off. “We’ll each have a Hideout Special,” she says confidently. “Make hers a double.”
“Jesus Christ, are you trying to kill me? And what the hell is a Hideout Special?”
She waves off your concern. “Honestly, I have no idea. But it’ll get you buzzed fast.”
You reluctantly agree, sipping on something that tastes vaguely like a mixture of rum and vodka, with the pungency of rubbing alcohol. “That’s awful,” you grimace, and Jess just laughs.
“Yeah, they’re pretty rough going down. But you only have one night to yourself, and you’re gonna make the most of it.” She links her arm through yours, using her free hand to tilt the drink back up to your lips. “Now, drink up. The band’s gonna start playing soon, and you’ll need all the liquor you can get. Trust me.”
Corroded Coffin, the band in question, is warming up in the back room. Tuesday nights has been their slot since high school, and if their lead singer and guitarist has his way, it’ll be their slot until they’re too old to play. He’s tuning his ax, tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration, only looking up when he hears a faint “oh, shit,” come from his bandmate.
“Y’good?” Eddie asks, strumming gently to play a perfect A-chord.
“Yeah,” Jeff says, holding up a small black box. “Forgot I had this in my pocket; almost dropped it when I took off my jacket.”
Eddie rolls his eyes. “That’s what you get for wearing leather in fuckin’ August, dude.” He squints at the object in Jeff’s hand. “What is that, anyway?”
“A ring,” Jeff proudly announces. “I’m gonna ask Viv to marry me.” The big, goofy grin on his face makes Eddie’s stomach churn. He looks at Gareth and Danny, expecting similar disgusted reactions from them, but they’re both smiling, too.
“Way to go, man!” Danny says, and Gareth claps Jeff on the back. “Our little Jeff is growing up.”
“Oh, fuck off, man,” Jeff says, but he’s laughing as he accepts the congratulations. He glances expectantly at Eddie, waiting for him to chime in.
“You two’ve been together for a million years,” Gareth jokes, twirling a drumstick in his free hand. “What made you decide to take the plunge?”
Jeff’s eyes dart around the room. “Okay, I wasn’t supposed to say anything,” he starts, voice hushed, “but Viv’s pregnant!”
“Holy shit!” Danny sputters. “Dude, you’re gonna be a dad!”
“Yeah,” Jeff agrees incredulously. “Fuckin’ wild, isn’t it?” His gaze falls to Eddie. “Does the seasoned professional have any words of wisdom?”
An uncharacteristic silence fills the room. Eddie can feel their eyes burning a hole into his head. He knows what he should say, what Jeff wants to hear, but he can’t bring himself to feign happiness. “You don’t have to marry someone just because you knocked her up.” It comes out with a snarl, meaner than he’d intended.
“Crazy thought, but have you considered that I actually want to marry her?” Jeff shoots back, crossing his arms over his chest. “We’re not all content being miserable hermits like you are.”
“Whoa, break it up,” Gareth tries, stepping between the two guitarists, but the conversation’s already too heated.
“I’m not miserable, and I’m not a hermit,” Eddie counters. “I’m just not about to limit myself when there’s plenty of pussy in the sea.”
Jeff rolls his eyes. “Whatever, dude. Thanks for the well wishes.” Eddie can’t help but notice the flash of hurt in his eyes as he walks away. A small part of him feels bad, but he can’t shake the anxiety that unexpected change seems to bring.
“So, what does this mean for Corroded Coffin?” he asks. “Should we consider this our farewell show?” He tries to ignore the irritated glares he’s getting from Gareth and Danny. It’s like the words fall from his mouth before his brain can process the damage they can do.
“Obviously, once the baby comes, I’ll have to take a step back,” Jeff shrugs. “And I’m gonna try to work some overtime before it’s born. Save some extra money, y’know.”
The room had been zapped of joy, and Eddie feeds off of the sullen atmosphere. “Nice commitment to the band,” he sneers. “Glad to see how easily your priorities change.”
“Yeah, man, you should try it sometime,” Jeff snaps. His fists clench, and he looks angry enough to throw a punch. “Maybe you’ll stop acting like an overgrown teenager.”
Eddie’s about to fight back, jaw locked in place and eyes seeing red, but he’s temporarily grounded by the sound of the manager’s tired voice echoing from the ancient sound system.
“Put your hands together for Corroded Coffin!” A smattering of applause signals their cue to enter. Eddie tries to shake off the conflict; it can be resolved after they play. The show must go on, or whatever it was that his high school drama teacher always said.
A balding man with a gruff voice introduces the band as Corroded Coffin. Jess’s eyes go wide; she’s already a few Hideout Specials deep and definitely feeling it.
“Oh, shit!” she laughs with a hiccup. “That’s my sister’s boyfriend’s band!” She motions to the bartender to pour her another drink, but you shake your head and just mouth water. The bartender gives you a knowing nod, probably grateful that she won’t have to be the one dealing with Jess tonight.
“Yeah, that’s Jeff!” Jess continues, pointing at a tall guitarist with tight curls. “He’s the one who knocked up Viv!” She cackles like she just made the most hilarious joke. “I totally forgot they were playing tonight.” She frantically waves at him, and he gives a small head nod in acknowledgment.
Your eyes are drawn to someone else: the lanky, ring-clad man who takes center stage. He grips the mic with black polished nails, smirking out into the crowd as he yells, “Hawkins, how’re we doin’ tonight?” The loudest cheers come from Jess, and you join in, letting out an obnoxious “woooooo!” in response.
The noise draws his attention, and you watch as his smirk shifts to something needier, hungrier, even. His big brown eyes land on you and Jess, leaving you momentarily breathless. He’s absolutely gorgeous, light stubble on his cheeks and above his plush lips. He’s wearing a white V-neck that shows off a dusting of chest hair. His torn black jeans hang low on his hips, accentuated with a studded belt. A gleaming pair of silver handcuffs are clipped to one of the loops.
“All right!” he calls back. “Well, this first one goes out to the pretty girl in the blue dress at the bar. Wait for me after the show, Sweetheart.” He counts out to four, and they launch into a cover of Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me.
It doesn’t even register until Jess nudges you, more forcefully than necessary, and says, “Hey, you’re wearing a blue dress!”
Oh.
Oh.
“Who…who is he?” you ask, feeling a warmth spread through your core that you’re sure isn’t from the alcohol.
“That,” Jess says, leaning on you for balance, “is Eddie Munson. Total freak back in high school, but now he’s just got a reputation for being a freak in the sheets.” She throws you a clumsy wink and adds, “looks like you’ll get to find out for yourself tonight.”
“I’m not really a one-night stand kind of person,” you counter, internally cringing at the memories of your feeble attempts at hooking up, all of which inevitably ended with you pining after them pathetically.
Jess rolls her eyes. “Come on,” she whines, taking note of the way you and Eddie can’t seem to tear your gazes from each other. “Your dad leaves tomorrow, and then you’ll be spending your nights taking care of your grandma. You gotta live a little!”
Plopping back down onto the barstool, you consider her sentiment. It’s true; once your dad goes back home, you’ll be the one helping out in the evenings. And the new school year starts next week, leaving you with little time for yourself.
Your whole life has been spent helping others. You became a teacher to shape young minds and provide them with a safe place to learn and express themselves. You moved to a tiny town in the middle of Indiana to look after your grandma. Even now, you’re babysitting Jess and ensuring she doesn’t dehydrate instead of letting loose and ordering another drink.
“Fine, but only if he brings it up,” you concede. “I’m not gonna be the one to make the first move.”
The band moves on to their next song; it’s either an original or one you’re not familiar with, but you find yourself dancing to the beat. Jess joins you, writhing her body in some kind of drunken jig that has you cackling. You’re having such a great time that you don’t even notice Eddie tripping over a few chords as he watches you sway your hips back and forth.
Corroded Coffin plays for another forty minutes. You recognize some Metallica and Black Sabbath songs, headbanging along until you’re dizzy. The bartender slides you another drink—on the house, she insists—and you sip it eagerly, trying to quell your nerves. Eddie shouts out, “thank you, Hawkins!” and disappears backstage with the rest of the band.
You can’t ignore the dejected pain in your heart, but you muster up a smile and turn to Jess. “Ready to get out of here?”
She shakes her head, putting her palm on the bar to steady herself. “You still have to wait for Eddie,” she teases. “You promised.”
You cock your eyebrow in amusement. “First of all, Drunky McWasted, I didn’t promise anything,” you say, “and second, show’s over and, uh, he’s not here.” You swivel around for emphasis.
“Give him a fucking second, would ya?” The comment doesn’t come from your friend, and you turn around to see Eddie standing behind you. He’s got a towel around the back of his neck, mopping up the sweat from his performance. His hair is pulled back into a low ponytail, and you can see the remnants of kohl eyeliner smudged around his lash line. “Had to clean myself up a little bit, damn.” He smiles, and you feel like you’re going to melt.
Jess interrupts, pushing you closer to him. “Eddie, this is my neighbor.” When you still don’t say anything, too awestruck to introduce yourself, she tells him your name.
Eddie nods, letting his fingers graze yours. “What’d you think of the set?” He grins at the bartender, who gives a small head bob and hands him a whiskey, neat.
“It was good,” you manage, finally finding your voice. “I especially liked the song you dedicated to the pretty girl in the blue dress.” There. You flirted. The rest is up to him.
“Yeah?” He rests his forearm on the bar and leans over to take his glass. “Was kinda hopin’ you would. Soon as I saw you, I knew I had to shoot my shot.” His eyes flit over the low-cut neckline of your dress before he drags his gaze back to your eyes. “You new to Hawkins?”
“Mhm,” you say, watching as he fumbles with a pack of Newports. “I moved here to take care of my grandma.” Good going. Nothing turns a guy on like talking about your elderly relatives.
But Eddie’s unfazed. “Hot and nice? A lethal combo, if I do say so myself.”
“What about you?” you blurt out. “I mean, have you always lived in Hawkins?”
He shrugs. “Been back and forth. Came here when I was nine, left when I was twenty-two, then came back about four years ago.”
“What brought you back? Missed all the excitement?” You laugh and he gives a small smile, but an emotion you can’t pinpoint crosses over his face.
“Somethin’ like that,” Eddie mutters, popping a cigarette between his lips. “Wanna go outside an’ have a smoke with me?”
“I’d love to,” you say with an apologetic tone, “but I really don’t wanna leave her alone.” You motion to your friend, who is currently trying to convince the bartender to let her have another drink. But as soon as she hears you using her as an excuse, she waves you off.
“Go,” she insists. “I’ll be fine. ‘M gonna have Jeff take me back home.” She stands on her tiptoes, nearly falling over, flailing both her arms wildly when she spots Jeff in the crowd and shouting, “Jeffy! Jeffy, can you drive me home so these two can have sex?”
You feel your face heat up at her words as Eddie shakes his head incredulously, lips twisting into a cocky grin. The last thing Jeff wants to do after Eddie’s earlier tantrum is help him get laid, but he knows there will be hell to pay if he doesn’t watch after his inebriated sister-in-law-to-be.
“Yeah, sure,” he grumbles, carefully looping his arm around her waist and helps her to his car. He appears to deliberately avoid making eye contact with Eddie, though you don’t know why. The two of them seemed to be getting along just fine on stage. The rest of the band leaves with them, carrying various instruments. No one even acknowledges Eddie’s presence.
“Uh, everything okay?” You can’t not pretend you didn’t notice; the tension is far too obvious.
Eddie brushes it off with another shrug. “Guys all got sticks up their asses, I dunno.” He pulls a black Bic lighter from his back pocket and motions towards the door, signaling your cue to walk out with him and drop the conversation.
Chirping crickets and a rowdy group of drunks shouting obscenities at each other punctuates the otherwise quiet atmosphere. Eddie looks at you expectantly, holding out his lighter, and you realize that he’s waiting for you to take out your own pack of cigarettes. A pack of cigarettes that you do not have.
“Oh, I, um, I don’t smoke,” you stammer, biting your tongue in irritation towards your own awkwardness. “I mean, I’ll smoke, like, socially, but I don’t carry cigarettes on me. Sorry.”
“Wanna bum one?” You pluck one from the pack and lean in as he lights it for you. The crisp inhale of tobacco lingers in your lungs for a moment before you breathe out, grateful that you didn’t cough like a middle schooler stealing cigs from her mom’s stash. You take another drag, watching as he does the same. You’d thought that there would be some level of conversation, but Eddie seems perfectly content smoking in silence.
“So,” you finally say, “how long have you been playing guitar?”
He chuckles and pushes his hand through his hair, stopping where it’s gathered into a hair tie. The perspiration on his forehead is starting to dry, but his bangs still stick to it. “Shit, gotta be twenty years now. Damn, I’m fuckin’ old.”
“How old are you?” It comes out more accusing than inquisitive, and you sharply inhale more nicotine to shut yourself up.
“Turned thirty last month.”
“Oh, that’s not old,” you reassure him. “I’m twenty-eight, so…not far behind.”
He doesn’t say anything in response to this. Maybe you’d misread his intentions. Or maybe he’d lost interest after just a few moments alone with you. The pretty girl in the blue dress quickly becomes the lame girl in the blue dress, and you both return home unsatisfied.
You try again, this time saying something that warrants a response. “I just moved here last week, if you have any recommendations of places to go. Restaurants or something?”
Eddie shakes his head. “Nah, ‘s pretty boring around here.”
End of conversation.
“Well, I should probably get home,” you say, shifting your weight onto your other foot and stubbing out your cigarette in the nearby ashtray. There’s no sense in wasting anymore time, and the nighttime chill is biting at your bare legs.
“Wait, what?” Eddie practically does a double-take. “I thought…didn’t Viv’s sister say something about…”
Or maybe you’d read the situation correctly after all.
“You still want to?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” He ashes his own cigarette, and the smirk returns to his face. “Your place or mine?”
Considering the fact that your place is currently housing an eighty-year-old woman with declining cognition, and your father, you quickly jump at the offer to go to his home.
You walk with him to his car, a beat-up blue sedan. He opens the passenger door, and you thank him with a tight smile, still not sure what to expect. Maybe he’s just not into small talk, but he seems awfully closed off for a man who’s trying to get laid.
A tangle of tree-shaped air fresheners hang from the rearview mirror; they sway slightly as the two of you plop in your seats. Instinctively, you look behind you as he turns the key in the ignition. Nestled into the far left side of the backseat is a carseat. Cheerio crumbs are wedged in the crevices, and an empty sippy cup leans up against it.
“Is that a carseat?” It’s a dumb question; of course it’s a carseat, but you can’t bring yourself to be more blunt and ask if he has a kid. I mean, the guy couldn’t even tell you a single restaurant to go to.
“Oh. Yeah.” Eddie reaches around, placing a ringed hand on the back of your headrest as he backs out of the spot. He doesn’t elaborate on the matter, just speeds out of the parking lot, so you don’t push it.
The words, I love kids; I’m actually a preschool teacher, linger on your lips, but you bite them back. This is supposed to be casual, a one-night stand; you’re not trying to be anyone’s stepmother.
Eddie flicks on the radio to a metal station–of course–and you sit back and try to enjoy the ride. You can faintly hear him humming along to the music. The fingers on his left hand drum on the steering wheel, while his right hand finds its way to your upper thigh. Fuck, it feels good. He gently squeezes, and the sensation of his cold metal rings combined with his hungry touch makes you involuntarily press your legs together.
“Just wait, Sweetheart,” he laughs. “There’s more where that came from.” It’s probably the most he’s said to you all night, and you consider it a small win. You lean in and gently nip at his earlobe, grinning as he shivers at the contact.
“There’s more where that came from,” you echo, shifting back in your seat. Eddie looks at you, brows raised and forehead creased in amusement, but–big surprise–says nothing. He pulls into an apartment complex parking lot, swinging into the nearest available spot, and kills the engine. Without the music or the steady hum of the ignition, you’re suddenly plunged into complete silence. Are you really doing this? Going to a stranger’s apartment to have sex with him? What if he’s some sort of serial killer? But Jess knows him–sort of–and vouched for him, so he can’t be all bad, right? Although, Ted Bundy had friends, too…
Eddie clearing his throat disrupts your inner monologue, and you glance up at him shyly. “Sorry,” you mutter, though you’re not quite sure what you’re apologizing for.
“No biggie,” he says, like he’s used to women just spacing out in his car before they fuck him. “Um, y’ready to go inside?”
You nod, opening your door and carefully stepping out onto the uneven pavement. You wobble a little in your high heels, but you feel a hand on your lower back, steadying you. “Lemme help you,” he mumbles, lacing his fingers through yours and guiding you to the front door of the building.
The two of you only make it to the stairwell between the first and second floors before he’s pouncing on you, your back against the cold concrete walls. His hands start on your waist, traveling upwards and lightly grazing your breasts before he’s cupping your face. His kisses are hungry, but not sloppy; when his tongue breaches your lips, you let him in without a second thought. He places his knee between your legs, just barely nudging it against your lace thong. “Fuck,” he hisses, pulling away from you and running his tongue over his teeth, “I need you, pretty girl.”
You pout, wrapping your arms around his neck and kissing him deeply. “Can’t get naked until we’re in your apartment.” You pause before whispering in his ear, “and if you thought this dress looked good on me, wait till you see it on your floor.”
Eddie’s eyes widen. “‘S just another flight of stairs after this, yeah?” He doesn’t wait for a response, just takes your hand again and leads you to apartment 3C. There are a few Hot Wheels cars scattered on the ground, but he kicks them under the couch without further explanation. He sits down, adjusts his body on the soft beige cushion, and pats his lap. “Your throne,” he says cheekily, exposing tiny dimples on either side of his lips.
Wordlessly, you climb on top of him. Your dress bunches up as you straddle his waist, though that won’t be a problem much longer. You greedily grind your clothed pussy over the rough denim of his fly, sucking on his neck as his strong hands clasp the back of your thighs and pull you closer.
“Needy thing, hmm?” Eddie smirks, chuckling when you feign offense. “Where’re you going? ‘M just teasing you.” He sits up a bit, tugging one dress strap down and kissing the flesh between your neck and shoulder. “Maybe I read it wrong, but…y’look like a girl who likes to be teased,” he says, voice muffled by your skin.
“N-No, I do. Like it,” you stammer, fumbling with the frayed hem of his shirt and lifting it over his head. You run your hands over the expanse of pale skin, admiring his tattoos. There’s one of a red guitar pick right above his left pec; without thinking, you kiss it gingerly. He lets out a quiet moan, unzipping your dress and helping you shimmy out of it. You’re not wearing a bra, and he nearly chokes on his own tongue when he sees you on display for him.
“Christ, baby,” he groans, “got the most perfect fuckin’ tits I’ve ever seen.” He kisses them and runs his thumbs over your pert nipples before briefly sucking on them. The nickname baby isn’t lost on you, but you try not to read into it.
Still, there’s a sense of satisfaction at the way he’s crumbling literally beneath you, though you can’t help but snarkily say, “bet you say that to all the girls you bring back here.”
Eddie throws his head back and laughs, sending vibrations through your core. “Only the ones with perfect tits.”
You hate yourself for wondering how many perfect-breasted women there have been.
“Bedroom?” It’s all you can manage, already breathless from dry humping like a goddamn teenager on prom night.
Eddie hesitates before shaking his head, a curl falling loose from the hair tie. “Let’s just, uh, stay out here. Room’s kinda a mess.” The unsure expression on his face hints at another reason, but he quickly distracts you by pushing your panties to the side, slipping his middle finger into your aching cunt. “Holy shit. S’fucking wet already. I knew you were needy.”
“Y-Yes. Need you. Need more.” You’re already stretched out by one finger, but you’re dying to know how a second one feels. The more of him inside you, the better. He obliges, fucking you with his pointer and middle fingers while his thumb makes tiny, hurried circles against your clit. “That’s it, right…right there. Don’t stop; please don’t stop!” He brings you to your orgasm, smirking as you finish all over his fingers.
Your rocking slows, and you reluctantly pull yourself off of him and sink to your knees. He’s unbuckling his belt as fast as he can, and you can’t help but notice the wet spot on his jeans right where you were grinding on his thigh.
Eddie’s pants and plaid boxers are around his ankles in a heartbeat. His hard cock rests against his stomach; a pearly bead of pre-cum leaks from the tip. “Let’s see what that cute little mouth can do, Sweetheart,” he muses, leaning back into the couch with his hands behind his head.
You bite your lower lip. “First I gotta clean you off, yeah?” you ask before licking the tip, tasting him. His length twitches at that minimal contact, which makes you giggle. “Just relax. Let me take care of you.” There’s no protesting, so you grasp the base of his shaft with one hand and cup his balls with the other. You suck on the head, circling it with your tongue, before taking as much of the rest of his cock as you can fit into your mouth.
“Mmm, baby, yes,” he growls, inhaling sharply when you gently tug on his balls. “Thas’ a good girl. Play with my fuckin’ balls, just like that.” He bucks up his hips, bringing his cock even further down your throat. “Gag on it, baby. Gag on my big fuckin’ cock.”
He’s not wrong; at least, it’s the biggest of any guy you’ve ever been with. Hollowing out your cheeks, you increase your pace, letting your nose brush against his patch of dark curls. Saliva drips down your chin; you swipe at it clumsily and keep your focus on him.
“Shitshitshitshitshit–FUCK!” Before you can even process what’s happening, Eddie pulls out of you. Thick, hot ropes of cum trickle down his right hand, and he buries his face in his left. You reach for a tissue and hand it to him, and he angrily wipes off his spend.
“Gimme fifteen minutes, and I’ll be good to go,” he says, tossing the used tissue in a nearby wastebasket. He finds the remote tucked behind a couch cushion and clicks on the TV. An episode of Seinfeld comes on. “You’ll do,” he mutters, plopping down next to you and poorly stifling a yawn.
“Sleepy?” you tease, wrapping your naked chest in an itchy wool blanket and curling up. He doesn’t put his arm around you, or make any attempt to cuddle, so neither do you.
“Nah, ‘m fine.” But nearly five minutes later, while Jerry and Elaine argue about God-knows-what, you can hear Eddie softly snoring next to you.
“Eddie,” you whisper. No response, so you try a little louder. “Eddie!”
“Huh? What?”
“I can, uh, I can go now. I’ll call a cab. Just need your address.” You start to get up and head for the phone hanging on the wall, but he puts an arm out to stop you.
“‘S’okay. Stay for a bit, baby.”
Stay for a bit, baby.
It almost feels like you’re taking advantage of him; his curt conversations and closed-off demeanor earlier in the night indicated that he was not looking for someone to sleep over. But now he’s asking you to stick around, resting his head on your shoulder and letting one tattooed arm drape over your waist. You let him stay there, trying your best not to wake him, but you’re forced to reach over him to grab the remote when an infomercial starts blaring.
“C’mere,” he mumbles, half-asleep as he lays down and scoots himself as far back as he can. You follow his lead, pressing your back against his bare chest. Your eyelids flutter shut, and you find yourself drifting off while wrapped in the warm embrace of this handsome stranger.
RRRRIIIINNGGG! RRRRIIIINNGGG!
You’re startled awake by a loud, unfamiliar noise that doesn’t sound like your alarm clock.
RRRRIIIINNGGG! RRRRIIIINNGGG!
Eddie jolts up, almost knocking you off the couch. “Shit, didn’t think you were still…” He turns towards the ringing sound, still confused. “What time is it?!” His eyes widen as he gets a look at the clock, which reads 7:19. “Shit, shit, shit! Son of a bitch!”
He practically flies off of the couch, sprinting to the phone and bringing the receiver to his ear. “Wayne? Yeah, I’m sorry…overslept. I can be there in ten…no, you don’t have to do that, I’ll just…okay, okay, fine. See you soon.” He hangs up with a clank, turning back to you.
You’re just sitting on the sofa, still wearing nothing but your underwear and the blanket. “Everything…um, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says, but he lets out an overwhelmed sigh. “Let me help you find your dress.” He doesn’t say it aloud, but the real meaning behind his words seeps through: you should leave.
You nod, feeling the all-too recognizable lump in your throat. It happens any time these shared intimate moments come to an end; the realization of just how temporary you are in someone’s life is a punch to the stomach.
You find the bunched blue garment behind the couch and slide it over your head. The fabric feels stale and cold against your skin, like it doesn’t belong to you. Eddie’s only wearing his boxers, and you catch yourself staring at the collection of tattoos that trail down his arms and torso.
“Like what you see?” He laughs when you duck your head, scratching at the stubble on his cheeks as he walks towards you. “C’mon, don’t be shy. Not after that little show you put on for me last night.” He leans down, tilting your chin up to him and kissing you softly. “Before you go, leave your number, yeah?”
That makes you roll your eyes. “Oh, please,” you scoff, crossing your arms over your chest.
“What?”
“Don’t ask for my number if you’re not gonna call,” you say. You sling your bag over your shoulder as you walk to the door. “We don’t have to do the whole song-and-dance. We can just, y’know, leave this as a one-night stand.”
Eddie chuckles incredulously. “You wound me, Sweetheart,” he says. “‘Course I’m gonna call you. How could I not wanna see a girl as beautiful as you again? ‘Sides,” he adds slyly, “We didn’t even get to the best part.”
Begrudgingly, you write your number on a nearby notepad. The phrase don’t get my hopes up for nothing sits on the tip of your tongue, but you bite it back.
You’re halfway down the stairwell when you remember that you never called a cab. There’s no way in hell that you’re going to clamber back up to the third floor and ask Eddie to use his phone–and get his address–so you continue down to the lobby payphone and dial Jess’s number.
“H-Hello?” a man’s sleepy voice picks up on the third ring.
“Uh, Jess?” It’s clearly not your neighbor, but you have no idea what else to ask. Did she find some skeezy guy to bring home from the Hideout last night?
“Nah, it’s Jeff. Who’s this?” When you say your name, he hums in acknowledgment. “Oh, yeah. From the bar, right?”
“Yeah…is Jess there?”
He yawns into the receiver. “Last I checked, she was asleep. Finally. She spent half of last night puking her guts up. Everything okay?”
“Mhm. I was just wondering if she could pick me up from…um, from Eddie’s.” You cringe at your admission; the last thing you want is for Eddie’s bandmates to think that you’re some kind of pathetic groupie.
But Jeff seems unfazed. “I’ll be right there.” Before you can protest, he hangs up.
You catch a glimpse of yourself in the glass-door reflection. Your hair is a mess, and there’s smudged makeup around your eyes and lips, like a billboard for the walk of shame.
Jeff pulls up a few minutes later, and you bashfully climb into the passenger seat. “Thanks,” you mumble, trying not to let your humiliation show through.
“Yeah, well,” he shrugs as he pulls onto the main road, “it’s a special occasion.” When you pinch your eyebrows together in confusion, he laughs. “Ed never lets a girl stay over. Not sure what you did–don’t wanna know, to be honest–but you must’ve made quite the impression.”
“Didn’t mean to,” you say quietly. “We both fell asleep after…yeah. We only woke up when we did because some guy named Wayne called.”
Jeff nods knowingly. “That’s his uncle. He watches his son on Tuesdays when we have our gigs.”
His…son?
Jeff must notice the stunned expression on your face, and his cheeks flush pink. “Shit, he didn’t tell you about Harris?”
“We didn’t do much talking,” you reply wryly. “I’ll have to ask him about that when he calls.”
“Christ,” Jeff shakes his head. “Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but he’s not gonna call. Never does. Calls it the ‘Cat-and-Mouse.’”
“The what?” Your throat goes bone-dry. You should’ve trusted your intuition, denied giving him your number, left it as a one-time thing.
“He brings a girl back to his place, has sex with her and asks for her number, but doesn’t call. When she shows up to the bar the next week, all insecure and wondering if he’s still interested, he acts like he’s been so busy, apologizes profusely, and strings her along until she catches on. Then it’s onto the next one.”
You feel like your heart’s been ripped out of your chest. Bile burns at the back of your esophagus, and you have to blink back tears. How could you be so stupid, so naive? Didn’t you know by now that guys like Eddie Munson are only after one thing?
The two of you sit in silence until he pulls up to your building. “Thanks,” you say finally, “for the ride and for the warning.” Jeff just nods, watching to make sure you get inside before driving off. As soon as he’s safely down the road, you burst into tears. Angry at Eddie, but mostly angry at yourself.
Eddie watches from his window as you get into a car–Jeff’s car–and leave. Great, he thinks, I’m sure I’ll get my ass handed to me at our next practice for fucking around with his sister-in-law’s friend. If we even still have a band, anyway.
Throwing on a pair of dark gray sweatpants and an undershirt, he makes his way downstairs just as Wayne and Harris arrive. His son is leaping out of his carseat to get to him.
“Daddy!” Harris flashes a gigantic smile. His dark brown curls are a tangled mess atop his head. Eddie unbuckles him and wraps him in a giant hug. He’s losing the chubbiness of his baby fat, but he’s still sweet and cuddly.
“Har-Bear!” Eddie laughs. “Did you say goodbye to Grampa Wayne?” Harris encircles Eddie’s waist with his legs, reaching out his arms to give Wayne a hug through the window.
“Sorry again,” Eddie says sheepishly. “Fell asleep and forgot to set the alarm.”
“Got a job yet? A real one?” Wayne asks stoically, ignoring his nephew’s apology.
A storm cloud washes over Eddie’s face. “I’ve told you a million times: nothing’s going to pay the bills as well as working for Rick.”
Wayne rolls his eyes. “Get a job,” he says pointedly, pressing a kiss to Harris’s cheek before lowering his voice and growling at Eddie, “and wipe the damn lipstick off your neck, for Chrissake.”
Jeff’s right: Eddie never calls. The home health aid that takes care of your grandma during the day informs you at the end of each shift that week that no one named Eddie called for you. And while you can’t say you’re shocked, it doesn’t do much to quell the hurt.
You spend as much time as you can preparing your classroom for the new school year. By the time you’re finished, the room is decorated to look like a jungle. Stuffed animals of lions, monkeys, and different birds line the shelf tops, which are packed with various books and art supplies. Your walls are decorated with different posters, all of which encourage kids to be their best.
The hustle and bustle of the first day of school helps keep your mind off of your personal life. With a thermos full of hot coffee, you happily introduce yourself to your teaching assistant, Will. He’s a sweet guy, a few years younger than you, and he’s practically bursting with games to teach the kids.
“Before I forget,” he says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a folded piece of paper, “I picked up our roster from the office on my way in. Looks like we have ten kids this year.”
“You’re the best,” you tell him gratefully, and he starts putting tiny chairs around tiny tables.
Being new to town, you don’t expect to recognize any of the names on the list. There’s an Abigail Carver, a Joshua Harrington…
And a Harris Munson.
“No fucking way,” you muse, apparently a bit louder than you’d intended, because Will’s head snaps up and he swivels in your direction. “Sorry.”
The sounds of bubbly giggles and excited chatter filing into the hallway grab your attention. One by one, parents start dropping off their kids, kissing them goodbye. There are tears–some from students, some from parents–and you’re quick to reassure everyone that school will be so much fun.
You’re just grabbing the sign-in sheet for Mr. Carver to fill out when you feel a small thump against your legs. When you look down, you see a curly-haired boy staring up at you with wide, brown eyes.
“This is my classroom!” he says matter-of-factly, pointing to the number 3 on the door. “My name’s Harris. Like the guy from Iron Maiden!” He jumps up and down as he speaks. “Are you my teacher?”
“I am.” You smile and introduce yourself, peering towards the door. “Harris? Did a grown-up drop you off?” And please tell me his name is Wayne, you silently plead.
“Oh, yeah! My dad has my backpack!” He starts running back to the hallway, only to crash right into Eddie.
“Little dude, you can’t be running off like—” Eddie stops mid-sentence when his eyes land on you. “Oh, shit.”
You set your jaw, willing yourself to stay strong. He’s on your turf now.
“Mr. Munson, you need to watch your language,” you warn crossly.
“Yeah, sorry,” he mutters, handing Harris’s backpack to him. “I packed him a snack, um, and a juice box.”
“Okay,” you nod, crouching down to Harris’s eye level and injecting enthusiasm into your voice. “Can you find your cubby? It’s the one with your name on it!”
The little boy bounds over to his assigned spot, hanging his bag on the hook before running over to play with blocks.
Forced to interact with Eddie, you press up on your knees and say, “Pick-up is at two.”
“Can I say goodbye to my kid before you kick me out? Jeez,” he grunts, calling out to Harris with his arms wide open. Harris hugs him, half-heartedly promising to be on his best behavior before starting to race back to the toys.
“We walk in the classroom,” you tell him sweetly. “That way, people don’t hurt each other!” You make a point to look over at Eddie when you say the last part, though his gaze is trained on the classroom posters. Harris, innocent and oblivious, walks hurriedly towards the group of kids playing with blocks.
“Didn’t know you were my kid’s teacher,” Eddie remarks, pressing his tongue into his cheek.
You shrug. “Maybe I would’ve told you if you called me.”
Shooting you the wide eyes that he passed down to his son, Eddie lets his lower lip jut out in a little pout. “I’m so sorry; life’s just been, like, crazy lately—”
“Exactly what Jeff said you’d pull,” you bite back. “Two PM, Mr. Munson.” You walk towards your students to begin circle time, leaving Eddie dumbfounded.
After a long day of wrangling ten four-year-olds, you’re ready to go home and take a nap. The kids are gathered around the table, molding Play-Doh and giggling amongst themselves. By 2:10, everyone’s been picked up. Except for Harris.
“Typical,” you mutter, kneeling next to the boy and smiling sweetly. “Whatcha making, Harris?”
He holds up a lump of the yellow clay. “A dinosaur, see? Roar!” You fake being scared, and he laughs. “Don’t worry; it’s just pretend!”
“Oh, phew!” You wipe imaginary sweat off of your brow. “I was afraid that he was gonna eat me!”
Harris reaches over to where one of the other students had been sitting and plucks a handful of blue Play-Doh off of the table. “Wanna play with me?” He’s looking at you adoringly, and you can’t possibly turn him down.
Just as you’re about to join him, Eddie runs into the room. “Hey, buddy! Sorry I’m late. Got, uh, caught up with something.”
Harris just shrugs, unaffected by his dad’s tardiness. “S’okay. Look!” He holds up the dinosaur proudly, giving another ferocious roar.
“That’s awesome! And super scary.” Eddie ruffles Harris’s curly hair before looking at you. “Can we talk for a sec? Out there?” he asks, gesturing to the hallway.
You huff out a sigh. “Fine,” you concede, and Will slips into the chair next to Harris.
Eddie closes the door behind him. “Listen,” he begins, twisting his rings around his fingers, ”about the other night…” He trails off, and for a split second, you think he might offer a genuine apology. “I just don’t want this to affect how you treat Harris.”
You bark out an incredulous laugh. “You really think I treat my students any differently based on whether or not I like their parents?” Crossing your arms, you turn back towards the door, throwing out a pointed, “I think it’s best if you leave now.”
Eddie’s voice draws you back into the conversation. “I’ve never had this problem before,” he snorts.
“Excuse me?”
“Most girls love the thrill of the chase. The will-he, won’t-he. Haven’t struck out yet,” he retorts, a smug grin spreading on his face.
You roll your eyes. “Well, I’m honored to be the first. I don’t know what girls are into your pathetic games, but I’m certainly not one of them. So, please, just go before you say something else ridiculously stupid.”
Eddie bristles at that, standing a bit straighter and clenching his jaw. “Yeah, whatever,” he mutters, twisting the doorknob and punctuating his frustration with, “Frigid bitch.”
He’s just trying to get under your skin, and you refuse to let him get the best of you. You plaster on a well-practiced fake smile. “If you don’t think that this classroom is a good fit for Harris, you can request a transfer with the office.”
“Sounds like a plan, Sweetheart,” he snaps, yanking the door open so aggressively that it smacks into the wall. “We’ll be out of your hair by tomorrow.”
Really really hoping there’s a reason Eddie is being such a douche in this but man I love R and her comebacks. Love a woman who doesn’t take any shit 😘
Excited to see where this goes, Bug! Really really enjoyed this chapter!
Trying to be a focused lil bear but I’m being a distracted bear and online shopping for clothes for a con I’m only partially considering going to what the fuck km write your damn fic
Domestic bliss headcanons, you say? Please share, I'm on my knees right now begging you to post them
JUST SAW THIS. but my pleasure. my bad for how long this is haha, it's going under the cut.
r has to teach eddie all about apps, and he certainly gets payback when he gets tik tok by playing it just as loudly as she did in those first few chapters. while she's trying to study.
whenever they don't respond in the groupchat (once he's finally in it), he loves to just text the gang "sorry we were fuckin'." and r has to immediately say "WE WERE NOT WE WERE AT FUCKING COSTCO." of course, eddie has to correct her and say "we were *fucking at costco." he sleeps on the couch that night.
he loves to take candids of r. for old times sake. has an entire folder on his phone of them all.
they still bicker all the time. the group almost misses when they 'hated' each other because then at least they'd try to avoid each other. now it's just 24/7.
anytime one of them has to stay up and pull an all nighter for their school work, the other joins them, using the excuse 'we already did it once before, we can do it again.'
eddie constantly sneaks into r's dorm, until they get caught one too many times and she gets into serious trouble. he then devises an entire plan to convince her to just move into his apartment with him. has a powerpoint and everything.
if they ever managed to scrap together the money for disneyland, they'd be sure to save the extra cash to build lightsabers and battle each other in the middle of galaxy's edge. steve has to scold them when they nearly hit a kid, and eddie brags he totally won. r wacks him on the arm with her saber and nearly breaks it, making eddie cry laughing because now her saber "sits to the left" because it's bent.
they can always tell when the other had a bad day, and to not bicker like normal. usually results in soft naps and cuddles. if either's phone rings during it, the other immediately denies the calls or puts it on silent. it's their time to just... be.
eddie definitely goes out to all the girls nights and 100% puts those scary dog privileges to work for the girls.
girls night is actually a weekly occurrence, and the one week the girls decide for a night in, eddie is still invited. he ends up sitting there in a face mask, hair thrown into a ridiculously sloppy bun, gasping at all the groups latest gossip. even let's r paint his nails to match hers. it's adorable, and when the other guys try to tease him, he just smiles, no longer affected by their words because he got the girl. there's a selfie with all the girls, but he also takes one with just r, and it becomes his lockscreen. any time he's having a bad day, he looks at it, and everything's immediately okay.
Oh yes! More virginEddie! Maybe his gf gets jealous since he's selling to a cheerleader and decides that from now on his going to associate that picnic table with her, giving him a BJ first so that he won't cum as soon as he enters her and then lets him fuck her on it. And Eddie is like "how am I going to do business here now? I'm going to think of your tight cunt whenever I come here." "That's the point, handsome"
The Virgin!Eddie Chronicles
Virgin!Eddie x experienced best friend fem reader
Summary: Reader gets a little jealous and decides to claim her man. Can be read on its own but probably best to read this first
Content warning: smut mdni pls or I will hiss at u, p in v sex, unprotected (kinda) sex, oral (m receiving), creampie, public sex
Jealousy flooded your entire body as you watched Chrissy Cunningham walk off into the woods after school.
Perfect, pretty, sweet, tiny Chrissy Cunningham with her flawless ponytail and short ass cheerleading skirt was bouncing into the woods to meet your best friend to buy weed. Or pills. Or whatever.
Her. Him. Alone. Undisturbed. In a secluded spot.
Chrissy fucking Cunningham, who Eddie had admitted to you he'd had a crush on for the longest fucking time, but then she gravitated towards guys like Jason fucking Carver. And rumors were now circulating that Chrissy and Jason were no more, so what was to stop something happening between Eddie and Chrissy? If Chrissy wanted to seriously piss off her ex, fucking his enemy would definitely do the job.
Your palms felt sweaty as you watched her green and white clad frame disappear into the trees. You'd told Eddie you would wait for him in his van, you had some reading to do for English class anyways before your weekly 'date' with Eddie at the arcade
About a month had passed since you had first sucked Eddie off. Since then, any time you were alone together turned into heated make out sessions, more blowjobs for him and he'd even asked you if he could eat you out, obviously to return the favour. You'd taught him how to touch you, or a girl in general, to get you off, and after a few honestly terrible minutes of him placing his mouth on you, he'd picked up exactly what you liked and it ended up being the best head you'd ever gotten, ever. He'd even made you squirt on his 3rd attempt of eating your pussy.
You'd done pretty much everything short of actually fucking. Eddie was still a virgin in that sense and you didn't want to pressure him into anything, especially when he had eyes for someone else. You were just helping him get some practice in so he didn't completely embarrass himself the first time he was with a girl he actually liked.
It was great at first, a nice convenient way of relieving any pent up tension you had from your current dry spell. And Eddie was hot, you'd always thought so, and he made you feel so fucking good about yourself. The way he looked at you whilst you were blowing him, or when he was buried between your thighs, it was like you were fucking Aphrodite or some shit. You weren't really sure how to describe it, but it made your heart flutter. Then your feelings got in the way.
You knew it was a bad idea when it began, you knew your previously harmless little crush on your best friend would probably get worse once orgasms were involved, and plus Eddie was so sweet to you during your time alone. Well, he was sweet to you all the time but here he was calling you baby, and angel, and showering you in praise and soft kisses and in your tiny Eddie infatuated brain it was almost like he liked you back.
But in reality, he didn't. You were his best friend, someone he felt safe with and you were offering him orgasms with no strings attached….what guy is going to turn that down?!
So now, as you watched the Queen of Hawkins High bounce off into the woods, you couldn't help but feel like you'd been punched in the chest and gut. Of course Eddie was going to fuck her. It didn't matter if she'd never spared him a glance before now, never even bothered with him until she needed something from him, she was easily the most beautiful and newly single girl in Hawkins, and Eddie was a natural flirt, a charmer. She'd be putty in his hands.
You felt sick as you thought what if she conveniently 'forgot' to bring payment and offered to pay him another way-
You slammed your textbook down and threw your head back against the head rest.
If there ever was a chance to stake your claim on your best friend, it was right fucking now.
You grabbed the keys, hopping out of the van and locking it before sprinting over to the woods. You practically stamp to the picnic table where Chrissy and Eddie are sat, facing each other. Chrissy's hand is on his arm and she's laughing, too loud and too fake, at something he's said. Her back is to you, so Eddie sees you first, a mild look of panic spreading over his face.
"Y/N? What's wrong? Do we need to bail?"
You don't answer him, but simply march over to him and kiss him, straight on the mouth, your hands fisted in the denim battle vest he wore. Eddie makes a noise of surprise and you take the opportunity to flick your tongue against his. Eddie's body relaxes into the kiss, his hands coming to your hips as you are practically full on making out in front of Chrissy. You couldn't have been more clear about marking your territory if you'd have pissed on him whilst maintaining eye contact with her.
She clears her throat and Eddie breaks away from you, panting.
"Uh, clearly this is a bad time…" she says, and you smirk at her, your head nuzzled against Eddie. She shoots you a subtle glare that you don't miss.
"Uh, here," Eddie practically tosses the baggy at Chrissy. "$20."
"I only have $15." Chrissy pouts and you roll your eyes. As if money was a problem for her.
"Fine, yeah, okay," Eddie grunts; you can tell he was irritated. She hands over the money.
"Buh-bye, Chrissy," your voice is sickly sweet as you waggle your fingers at her. You didn't feel bad. Chrissy and her minions had been nothing but vile to you since middle school. So, you don't even think twice about whether or not she's left the area before you're grabbing Eddie and kissing him again, even harder than before.
"Woah, woah, woah, Y/N…wait," Eddie pants as you break away from his mouth to push his lower half against the picnic table and you sink to your knees, fiddling with his belt buckle. "What's going on?"
"I'm gonna blow you, and then you're gonna fuck me." You look up at him through your lashes. "Right on this shitty picnic table where you almost made out with Chrissy fucking Cunningham."
"W-what?! I didn't almost make out with her!"
You roll your eyes, unclasping his belt and unzipping his jeans. "Sure, Eds."
"N-no, I really didn't, sweetheart! I mean, she was putting the moves on me for sure but I…fuck-" his train of thought evaporates as you mouth at his cock through his boxers.
"But?" You ask, your breath hot against the damp material.
"But…I…I'm not interested." Eddie says quietly. You cock your eyebrow, sitting back a little to look up at him.
"Wait a minute. You, Edward Munson, are telling me you're not interested in the newly single girl you've had the hots for since 7th grade?!"
"Not when I realised she literally only acknowledged my existence when she wanted something from me. All those years we sat next to each other in history, and chem, and she never once even bothered to make small talk. And when her dick boyfriend was giving me shit, she just sat there with her little peroxide clones and laughed." His gaze drifts back to you and he smiles softly. "Guess I'm more interested in someone else."
Your cheeks flush a little. "I've heard she's interested in you too."
"Well, that's good, because she gives one hell of a blow-"
"I beg you not to finish that sentence otherwise you will not be getting one." You laugh, shoving his leg gently. Eddie laughs with you, pulling you to your feet.
"We've been kinda stupid, haven't we?" He says, softly tucking some of your hair behind your ear.
"A little," you agree. "It's mostly my fault though. I started this whole thing."
"Well, I didn't exactly say no did I, sweetheart?" Eddie chuckles. "But, I'm glad I didn't."
"Yeah, me too." You smile and he leans in for a kiss that's soft at first, but soon grows fiery and deep. "I believe I wanted to blow you."
"Shit, yeah, go ahead baby." Eddie groans as you sink down once again, your heart and pussy fluttering at his pet name for you. "Such a good girl f'me."
You pull down his boxers and immediately take his cock into your hand, stroking him slowly. Foreskin pulled back, you wrap your lips around his soft, pink head and suck gently. His hand tangles itself in your hair, the other gripping the edge of the picnic table so hard his knuckles are turning white.
"Fuck, baby, that mouth of yours…it's fucking perfect. Can you take some more, pretty girl?"
You nod and take more of his cock into your mouth, slowly, slowly until the head is nestled in your throat. You gag softly but regain control of your reflex, and Eddie is moaning above you, spewing out curses and inane babbles. You hold him there for a few seconds, before pulling off, his cock glistening with a mix of your saliva and his precum allowing your hand to glide over him with ease. You flick your tongue against the mushroom tip of him, making his legs shake.
By now, your underwear is completely soaked. Ruined. You clench your thighs together for some sort of relief as you watch Eddie, who is watching you, his beautiful face flushed and his jaw slack.
"Do you wanna fuck me, Eds?" You ask, your voice a little raspy from having his cock wedged down it.
"Is that…is that even a question sweetheart?! Of course but…here? Are you sure?" Eddie's eyes widen as you stand up, slipping off your shorts and underwear and pushing him back to lie across the picnic table.
"Here." You say. "If you're okay with that?"
"Babe, we could fuck in a dumpster and I'd still be beyond stoked that you're fucking me." Eddie grins and you can't help but giggle as you straddle him, both of you naked from the waist down. Your dripping pussy brushes over his cock, making him inhale sharply. "Fuck-don't we…don't we need a condom?"
"Birth control, big boy. Thought for your first time you should feel…everything." You say, punctuating your last word by slipping the head of him into your cunt. Shit, he's a stretch, even with how turned on you were. "Oh, fuck!"
"Shit, are you okay? Did I hurt you?!" Eddie's eyes turn from glossed over in pleasure to pure panic. You shake your head.
"No, no, I'm okay, just…shit, you're really big Eddie." You whimper as you slowly sink further down on his cock, your pussy already feeling impossibly full.
"Fuck, Y/N, baby…you're s-so tight and warm-" Eddie cuts himself off with a guttural groan, his eyes rolling back in his head and fingers gripping the shit out of your hips. When he eventually bottoms out inside you, you both moan in unison, clinging to each other. Eddie pulls you down to him for a messy kiss. "Don't move, Christ, don't fucking move-"
"Eddie it's okay-"
"No fuckin way, sweetheart. No chance in hell I'm gonna be the virgin who busts in five seconds without even getting his girl to cum. Just…give me a minute, okay?"
His girl.
You smile and nod, kissing him softly. His pillowy soft lips move against yours perfectly. Over the last few weeks, Eddie had really gotten to be an incredible kisser, so good that it makes your pussy flutter around him and he groans, fingertips biting into your hips. You give an experimental rock of your hips, your clit brushing against the coarse hair at the base of his dick.
"Fuck, Eddie," you whimper. "I…can I move?"
"Yeah, yeah, shit, m'sorry if I cum super fast baby, your pussy feels like fucking heaven," Eddie grits out and you hum in response, moving your hips in slow circles at first, before lifting off of him and slamming down. "Jesus Christ!"
"Feel good?" You pant, moving faster, slamming your cunt down onto his cock in a way that sent shocks through you, bubbles of an orgasm beginning to rise.
"Are you…are you fucking kidding me?! You…you feel…fuck, I cant-" Eddie can't even form words. Your impossibly wet, warm heat was causing his brain to flatline.
"Me too, god, Eddie your cock is…so fucking good," you grind against him, desperate to feel some friction. "Touch me, make me cum."
Eddie obeys, his thumb finding you clit and rubbing in fast circles, his eyes flicking between where your bodies were joined and your face. He knew your orgasm cues by now, how your breath started coming out in uneven pants, how your eyes struggled to stay open, your mouth hanging open-
"Look at me when you cum on my cock, baby." He commands, and that does it. You cum, screaming out his name as you do, barely able to hold yourself up on him. He catches you, holding you close as you ride it out, capturing your mouth in a sloppy and messy, quite frankly filthy, kiss as you whimper and twitch. "Baby, I'm sorry, I cant-"
"S'okay, baby, cum for me. Fill me up." You whisper against his lips, and he groans, slamming your hips down on him once, twice before he cums, moaning just as loud as you as his cock twitches and he unloads in you, the warmth making you shiver in pleasure.
"Fuck, fuck, fuckin'...God!" He pants, and you know he's leaking out of you now, the mixture of you both pooling beneath you. "Jesus…I…Holy shit."
"Yeah," you giggle against his chest, post-orgasm haze setting in. "You sure you haven't done that before?"
"Positive princess, and, holy shit, if I only ever get to do that with you for the rest of my life I'm gonna die a happy, happy man."
You laugh, placing kisses to his Hellfire shirt covered chest.
"I'd be down for that." You mumble, kissing up to his plush lips. Eventually you climb off of him, and you both redress between giddy giggles and sweet kisses.
Eddie lights up a cigarette and the two of you sit on the now sullied picnic table, passing the cigarette between you, fingers linked. Eddie's thumb brushes over your knuckles.
"You know, doing business here now might be a problem." Eddie smirks and you exhale the smoke up towards the sky.
"Why's that?" You grin, squealing as Eddie pins you down onto the rickety old table, the wood creaking beneath you as he grinds his hips into yours.
"Cos I'll be thinking of that perfect pussy every single time I'm out here now."
"That's the point, handsome. Had to mark my territory, didn't I?" You brush your nose against his and he nips at your bottom lip, growling playfully.
"Baby, you can mark me all you want, I'm yours. Always have been. Always will be."
summary: set after the events of season four, Steve has disappeared and is presumed dead in the upside down. broken and now left to deal with your pregnancy alone, Eddie takes it upon himself to support you to the best of his abilities in Steve’s absence.
chapter summary: emotions reach a fever pitch, resulting in some unexpected revelations
content warnings: fem!reader, adult language, adult themes, unplanned pregnancy, angst, hurt/comfort, some canon divergence/au, mentions of death, reader is 19, anxiety, angst, fluff, no use of y/n, slow burn, mentions of a fight and wounds
word count: 8.4K+
a/n: here we go guys, gals and non-binary pals! shoutout to my zoom bestie @dickfics69 for beta reading. hope you enjoy, this chapter was a labor of love!
Oooo I’m so glad there’s more coming! Interested to see how the Steve thing plays out (I love Stevie but I NEED Eddie to be happy since the duffers did him dirty)
Prompt: enemies-to-lovers, “the employee of the month gets a free dinner to a fancy restaurant and you both fight to win it until it goes too far and oh shit, I think I love you but everything is falling apart.”
wc: 24K (don't even ask)
tags: miscommunication, cursing, misunderstandings, idiots in love being idiots in love, female reader
Masterlist
YOU groaned the second you walked into the store and heard the sounds of Nightmare on Elm Street playing on the television. “Isn’t it my turn to pick the movie?” You asked, walking past the counter and into the back. Precariously balancing your coffee and breakfast sandwich on the ledge of the lockers, you started pulling your jacket off.
“Well, if you arrived on time, your Grace, you’d have been able to,” Eddie’s grating voice filtered in through the swinging door.
Gritting your teeth, you closed your eyes and counted to ten. It’s illegal to murder. You’d go to jail. Your mother would cry if you went to trial. His body would be too heavy to drag into a ditch. The blood would stain your favorite shoes. Dustin would never forgive you. You hadn’t helped stitch his body back together only to turn around and kill him now.
“I am on time, shithead, you’re just always early,” you hissed.
“It’s been literal seconds and you two are already fighting?” Robin groaned from where she had her face buried into her elbow at the counter. You shrugged on your vest, put your backpack into the locker and slammed it shut.
“He started it,” you said defensively.
Eddie turned, hair flipping like he was some goddamn heroine in a movie, and shot you an incredulous look. “Did you not just come in, metaphorical guns blazing?”
“It’s my turn to pick the movie!” You insisted. And it was. You always picked the movie on Mondays. Always.
His brows furrowed, as if confused by your genuine anger. “Then pick the movie! The TV has an eject button or did you need me to help you learn how to use it?”
A small ember lit in your chest like it always did when you were around his infuriating presence. “Need I remind you that I’ve worked here longer than you have, Munson?” You huffed, grabbing an armful of the returns without looking and walking around the store. “Some of us graduated the first time around.”
Eddie snorted, the barb falling short. “You’ll need to find a new insult, Lightning.”
The condescending tone rung throughout the air. “Do not call me that,” you hissed, whipping your head around to glare at him.
He held up his hands and didn’t even try to hide his smirk. “I didn’t give you the nickname Superstar.”
You hated it when he called you that. It always sounded so patronizing. “Have I ever told you how much I hate you?” You grumbled, making sure to clip his shoulder with your own as you passed him.
“On a daily basis,” he retorted, whirling his arms in the air to keep his balance.
Steve sighed as he walked in and saw you both glaring at each other. “It’s been less than an hour, how are you both already arguing?”
“He started it,” you grumbled again, turning around and started to shelve the returns.
“He started it,” Eddie mimicked, yelping when Robin smacked him. You started in the far back left-hand corner and did what you always did when you were on shift with Eddie – you ignored him.
A half hour into shelving, and only midway through your coffee, you heard Steve groan loudly. Robin’s head popped out from the aisle behind you and she sighed. “Keith incoming,” she alerted you all, everyone rolling their eyes. “Oh shit, he’s coming with a suit.”
“What?” You asked, hurrying around the corner to join her. Catching sight of the senior supervisor, one of the execs in suits who show up once a few months – if that – you frowned. “You think we’re being shut down?”
“I hope not, this place is a shithole but it’s a paycheck,” Eddie grumbled, starting up the computer and pretending to look busy.
“Good morning, everyone,” Keith said, uncharacteristically polite as the entrance door swung open.
Hiding a laugh behind a cough, Robin and you nodded. Keith looked like a small child who’d gotten dressed in his parent’s working clothes.
“We’ll be in my office,” Keith said through his teeth, shooting you all a look as the suit disappeared through the door.
Robin turned to you instantly. “Oh shit, do you think we’re actually getting closed down?”
“Honestly, at this point, that job down at the grocery store is looking more appealing,” you sighed.
Steve, on the other hand, sputtered. “I don’t! This might be a shit job but I still need the money,” he huffed. “Driving you people around is expensive.”
Robin rolled her eyes and you shot him a look. “I drive the other half of your kids, so don’t even look at me.”
“They’re not my kids!”
“Well, they became mine through you so, what’s that say?” You asked, joining him behind the counter.
“That you and Robin wouldn’t leave well enough alone at the mall,” Steve huffed.
Robin whipped her head around. “If it wasn’t for us, you and Henderson wouldn’t have cracked the code!”
“I took a punch for you,” you said, elbowing him.
Steve shook his head but you saw the smile building. Much like Robin’s entrance into the party, you’d been hired at Scoops Ahoy when Starcourt opened as a part-time employee. Also, like Robin, you’d been hesitant to trust the self-proclaimed reformed Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington. You’d known Robin, your next-door neighbor, for years. Despite the suspicion, you’d become pretty close friends. There was something about surviving a near apocalypse that bonded you all together. Especially considering his band of kids had welcomed you in with open arms.
“Demobats ate chunks of my skin off, you aren’t special,” said Eddie, tone – once again – grating on your skull.
Grinding your teeth, you ignored Steve’s pointed look and did what you did second best – shot him a withering glare and pretended he didn’t exist.
Unfortunately, your newfound friendships had led you back to Eddie Munson a few months ago. Despite fighting off those demented demobats with him in the Upside Down, and the way your heart had dropped to your feet when you fought to save his life, your distrust for him had only deepened.
“You both have to get over it eventually,” Steve grumbled under his breath. You reached out, quickly, and pinched his bicep. He yelped, brown eyes widening pitifully, and you glared at him.
Eddie and you hadn’t always had this…animosity. Steve had managed to break you down eventually, pulling the reason why from you after a summer party when you’d gotten plastered.
You had never thought of yourself as a spiteful person, but some things weren’t easy to get over. And what Eddie Munson had done to you was one of them. The worst part, was him acting like it had been your fault. That dumb, big-eyed, stupid son of a –
“Nice to see you all,” the suit said, coming out Keith’s office suddenly. You all mumbled incoherently, straightening when Keith glared, and watched as they walked out.
Not five minutes later, Keith sauntered back in with a smug look on his face. “Apparently, we’re the best performing Family Video in all of North Indiana.”
“Cool,” Eddie said, the nerd actually looked interested. You’d already known the store was doing better – considering Family Video was the only video store around for miles after the earthquake. The three of you had struggled enough to warrant bringing Munson into the mix.
“What does that mean?” Robin asked, always voicing the question on everyone’s mind.
Keith snorted. “That means, ducklings, we get to reap some perks.”
“Perks?” Steve asked, eyes brightening. Keith ignored him and turned to the rest of you.
“For starters, the suits are instating a best employee of the month,” he said, “excluding me of course because it wouldn’t be fair otherwise.”
You coughed, putting a hand up to your chest to really sell it, and attempted to hide your laughter within the sound.
“And what do we get if we win?” Eddie asked.
Would Family Video shell anything out? You wondered. They barely managed to replace your vest for free after you’d shredded it to shit from your adventures during spring break.
Keith leaned in, failing spectacularly at building tension, and smiled. You only just barely refrained from flinching back at the sight. “Get this, the first employee of the month gets a free dinner to Osteria da Fortuna. I get a free dinner obviously, because I’m the senior manager…”
His voice trailed off in your mind, your eyes widening and back straightened. Osteria? The fancy ass Italian restaurant downtown? Holy shit, you’d been dying to go there ever since Heather went with her boyfriend and told you about the desserts. She’d said it was the best tiramisu she’d ever tasted in her life.
By the time you’d snapped out of your daydream buffet, Keith had gone into his office again.
“Oh my God, I need that dinner. It’s the only thing that’ll help recover this month – shit, this year,” you said to Robin, her eyes softening. She’d been well aware of how shitty your life had been of late. “I’ve always wanted to go there!”
“Uh, everyone wants to go there, sweetheart,” Eddie said, his voice patronizing, “it’s the best restaurant for miles.”
You glared at him but he did what he did best, continue to annoy you.
“Besides, we’ve all had a shitty year.” He flipped his stupid hair again and you clenched your hands. Why did he always have to twist your words around? You hadn’t meant that yours had been worse than anyone else’s. You were well aware of how shit of a spring break ’86 had been for a lot of you.
“How no one has ever choked you is a mystery to me,” you said, matter of fact. A brief image of your hands around his neck made you smirk.
Eddie turned to glance at you over his shoulder. “I won’t say no if you’re offering Princess,” he winked.
Your heart slammed against your ribcage. Ignoring his jab, and the sudden rage in your chest, you walked into the breakroom to grab your cold breakfast sandwich. Heating it up in the tiny microwave you grabbed your bottle of water before stalking out again.
Keith leaned against the counter, reprimanding Steve about something, and his nose twitched. Eyes drawing towards you, they narrowed and you felt nervous. Shit. Keith had never cared when you ate and worked but you definitely didn’t want to piss him off as you started the race towards that dinner.
“Holy shit I haven’t eaten since last night I’m starving,” Keith said instead of admonishing you.
The idea popped in your head and before you could think twice, you offered Keith the wrapped breakfast sandwich. “Do you want it? I’m not that hungry,” you said, begging your growling stomach to stay quiet for a while.
You saw the appreciative glint in Keith’s eyes when he took his first bite – and by the scowl on Eddie’s face, he had too.
“Thanks Lightning, you’re a lifesaver,” he said, “you always were my favorite. I’ll be back later losers.”
With a flurry, Keith was out the door and the only noise for a few moments was Freddy Kreuger killing Glen. Then, your stomach roared to life.
“Not hungry?” Eddie echoed flatly.
Robin, however, stepped in before you could start another fight. “Well played you, well played,” she said, offering you a high five.
“If I give you my entire paycheck, will you take me with you when you win?” Steve asked, eyes pleading. It didn’t take a genius to know there was no way Keith was choosing Steve.
“As if,” Robin snorted, “she’s taking me.”
You watched them bicker amicably, laughing when Steve gaped at Robin after a low blow and barely registered Eddie next to you.
“I’m gonna win the dinner,” he said, nonchalantly.
Eyes darting up to his, ignoring his cologne wafting over to you, you glared at him. “Whatever, Munson.” Jesus, is that all you could come up with? What the fuck was in that cologne?
Eddie, however, just smiled. “Let the games begin.”
Where the hell was everyone? You mused, walking into an open, but empty, store. Considering the schedule posted yesterday – Eddie, Robin, and you were set to open today.
Spinning your keys on your finger, you walked back into the locker room and tossed your stuff inside. Pulling your vest out, you shrugged it on and went to fill up your water. Once you were by the cooler you realized the back door was propped open.
What the?
You quietly stepped forward, eyes darting around looking for who was out there when you heard Keith’s voice.
“Dude, are you sure?” Keith asked, voice tinged with excitement.
Eddie’s soft voice filtered in through the crack. “Absolutely. I had extras and you know we’re cool right? I thought – why not ask Keith if he wants to take them off my hands.” Narrowing your eyes, you crossed your arms. You knew that tone – that was Eddie’s ‘I’m a bad liar but no one can tell,’ tone.
Keith stepped into view and you watched him take the Ziploc bag from Eddie’s hand. You bit your cheek to keep from cursing.
Joints.
Of course Eddie was going to start sucking up too. Because there’s no way he couldn’t let you have this – why would he? He’s been a pain in your ass from the start. What the hell could you give Keith that one upped free weed? Fuck, you needed to get creative.
There was no way in hell you were letting Munson win this fucking dinner. At this point, it was a matter of pride.
Scrambling to the front of the store, you started your morning to-do list with fervor. Robin stumbled in, looking still half asleep, she motioned to the back and you barely nodded in her direction.
A few minutes later, Eddie sauntered out. Grinding your teeth, you shifted your shoulders away from him so you didn’t have to look at him directly.
“It’s rude to eavesdrop you know,” Eddie said eventually, hopping onto the counter to your left.
You felt a flash of embarrassment at being caught but you carefully stomped it down. Without flinching, or hesitation, you lifted your eyes to his and quirked your brow. Leaning in slowly, you watched his eyes widen and his mouth part. You waited a moment to speak, eyes drawn to the way you were sure his brown ones had flashed down to your own mouth. Just a little closer, the tiny – stupidly intrusive - voice in your head echoed.
Blinking away the thought, you smirked. “It’s illegal to sell drugs, you know,” you said. Eddie gaped at you, clearly not expecting that, and huffed a moment too late.
Swiveling in your chair you turned to the computer, indicating that you were done speaking and you’d taken it as a win.
Not one to ever let you have the last word, “It wasn’t a sale, it was a gift,” he said.
You hummed, just as petty. “I’m sure Hopper would love to hear that explanation,” you said agreeably. Everyone knew that after El and Joyce, you were Hopper’s favorite.
Eddie grumbled and slinked off towards the returns. Internally pumping your fist, your win was quickly extinguished when Keith came out. “Alright I’m off until tomorrow. Don’t forget to tell Harrington to make sure the box is shut this time,” Keith said, with a weird grin on his face, and turned to Eddie. “Thanks again man, I really appreciate it.” He winked and you had to practically bite a crater into your bottom lip to keep from gagging.
“No worries,” Eddie said, smug expression radiating from the back. You could hear his stupid unsaid words. Your turn, Lightning.
You scowled. God, even imaginary him was unbearable.
“What the fuck?” You muttered to yourself as you opened up the store. “Where the hell is everyone?”
This time, the entire store was dark. You went around quickly flipping the lights on and checked the time. I’m on time, you thought, checking the backrooms. Your morning shift was scheduled as it usually was, an hour after opening, but Eddie was nowhere to be found.
Shit – that never happened. Eddie was always on time.
For a brief second, you wondered if something had happened to him. Anxious fingers already reaching for the phone, you realized you didn’t know his number. Keith would have it, right? Were you ever allowed to look at employee records? Where the hell did Keith keep employee information anyway? Spiraling, you glanced around you one more time like you’d accidentally missed him in the store.
Calm down, you told yourself, Eddie was probably just lazing around like he usually did.
He’s never been late to work, your mind reminded you, especially not your Tuesday morning shifts. Tuesdays were Steve’s day off – Robin always joined you after school at 4PM and helped you close. The both of you would bicker the entire morning about his movie pick, argue about who was shelving returns faster, and usually eventually draw a tentative truce with the shitty coffee from the kitchen.
Despite your vow to never say it out loud – you knew Eddie took work seriously. He was a massive asshole but he was weirdly earnest about this stupid video store. Yanking the phone to your ear, you dialed a number you did know quickly.
“Hello?” A groggy voice answered.
Without preamble, and with a pitch high enough to rival Robin’s, your words stumbled out your mouth. “Steve, I need you to call Eddie. It’s ten thirty and I just came in and had to open the store and he’s always here on time Steve. Always. It’s the most annoying fucking thing on the planet how punctual he is. Something had to have happened on the road or like, I don’t know but-”
“-wait, wait, I just woke up, what are you talking about?”
Annoyance surged through you. “Eddie didn’t show up for his shift!” You hissed into the phone.
“Shit, really?” Steve asked a little shocked despite the sleep clinging to his voice.
“Yes, really! I had to open the store when I showed up a few minutes ago.”
Steve suddenly went quiet. “Fuuuuck,” he said, now sounding completely awake, “is today Tuesday?”
“Yes?”
“Fuck, I totally forgot,” Steve groaned, “Munson asked me to cover his shift.”
You chose to actively ignore the relief that bloomed in your chest. “Jesus Christ Steve,” you sighed, the worry draining out of you and making you feel lightheaded.
“I know, I know, I’m so sorry! I can be there in like five minutes-” a loud crashing sound made you wince and lean away from the receiver. “Ouch,” Steve groaned pathetically.
Biting back your laughter you shook your head. Steve Harrington was undoubtedly, not a morning person. “Hey, it’s fine. Tuesday mornings aren’t exactly rush hour over here. Take the morning off, I’ll be fine until the afternoon.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, Harrington, I’m sure. I owe you one anyway,” you rubbed a hand down your face, suddenly exhausted.
“Thanks dude, I’ll be down in a few hours, I’ll bring you coffee,” Steve said gratefully.
“From the good place!”
Steve laughed but promised to bring you the largest cup of coffee they had.
The morning, predictably, was slow. You spent the first half of it shelving returns and the second half of it assisting the odd customer that made their way by. Right as the latest man walked out the door, you caught sight of Keith leaning against his car. Groaning, you straightened and tried to look like you weren’t bored out of your mind.
Right as he started towards the store, you watched him chuck the butt of a joint towards the side. Keith had a dumb smile on his face and yesterday’s interaction slammed into you. Scowling, you smacked the enter button on the keyboard a bit too hard.
“Morning,” Keith drawled, the scent of weed wafting over to you. Grinding your molars, you could practically see the dinner slipping from your fingers.
“Hey,” you greeted, trying and failing to sound upbeat.
“Where’s Munson? I need to thank him again for – a favor he did me,” Keith ended lamely.
You opened your mouth to let him know what had happened but you hesitated. Shit. As of last year, the suits had established a new rule about swapping shifts. They all needed the manager’s approval. If Keith was here asking for Eddie, he hadn’t approved the swap. Steve was on thin ice considering the rule was put in place because of him.
An idea sprouted in the back of your mind and you chewed on your bottom lip. Was it too far? Eddie’s smug expression taunted you for a moment before you shook your head.
“I don’t know actually, he hasn’t called and wasn’t here when I came in,” you said, making an exaggerated notion of checking your watch. Gasping a little dramatically, you put a hand up to your chest. “Oh wow, I hadn’t even realized he’s two hours late! I’ve just been so busy here with customers,” you added, smiling dutifully and completely ignoring the empty store.
A small frown formed on Keith’s face but he shot you an appraising look before nodding. “Good job, thanks for keeping us in shipshape. You’ve always been reliable.”
Shipshape? You cringed at his wide, and weirdly sincere looking smile, before offering a weak one yourself. “Yes sir.”
Yes sir? Jesus you were laying it on thick.
Keith preened at the term and sauntered out the store without another word.
You really should’ve known better than to assume Eddie wasn’t going to try and get back at you.
“Are you fucking kidding me Munson?” You screamed, kicking the front door open so hard that the frame rattled.
Eddie stood behind the counter, eyes glinting, and you could practically feel his skin underneath your hands as you smothered him with a plastic bag. Smug fucker.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did you forget to see the change in schedule?” He asked with his stupid smirk on his face. Seeing red, you had a brief moment where you considered launching forward to actually kill him.
Picking a happy medium, you picked up a nearby box of Twizzlers, you launched it at his head and he ducked, shooting you an incredulous look. “I just got yelled at for thirty minutes by Keith,” you said, launching another box of candy. “I didn’t give you a fake schedule making you miss your shift, Eddie. You’re the one who swapped without telling anyone.”
“I told Steve! Who told you!” Eddie argued, eyes flashing.
Putting your hands on your hips you shot him a glare. “Yeah, which is still not allowed!”
“Oh,” Eddie said, his tone dripping with incredulity. He huffed and stomped over to you. “Get off your pedestal, Lightning, don’t act like you give a shit about store rules.”
Stepping closer, you felt your arms brush as you poked his shoulder. “I’m not saying I do, but what did you want me to do? Get you both in trouble?”
“Not lie would be a good start!” Eddie shouted, poking back at you. God, he was infuriating. And why the hell did he always smell so good? “You saw an opportunity and you went for it! I was just evening out the playing field.”
You laughed incredulously. The audacity of this idiot. “Right, and you giving him your weed was what? You being kind?”
Sputtering for a second, you crossed your arms to avoid the visceral instinct to smack him.
“Whatever, the point is we’re even now!”
Even? How the hell were you even? “Munson if you think we’re even, you’re even more of an idiot than I thought.”
At that, he raised his brow. His eyes darted over your face, a ghost of a smile twitching on his lips. “Yeah? Alright then Superstar, you want a war?”
“Bring it on,” you hissed, stomping off into the backroom.
Flipping the sign on the door around to closed, you sighed in relief when the last customer drove off.
“I’m going to go change!” Robin called out, disappearing into the backroom. Steve already had his Westley costume on, black mask and all.
With a twirl and outstretched arms, he asked you what you thought. “You look great Steve,” you said with a smile. “Is Robin Buttercup?”
Steve snorted. “No, that really wouldn’t help the dating rumors. She’s wearing something with Vickie I think,” he said. “Nina is going in the red outfit.”
A soft knock to the front door had you both scowling and you walked up to the glass intending to wave away whoever it was. “Oh, it’s Nance!” You called out. She beamed at you as you opened the door and handed you a small bag. “Ugh, thank you. You’re a life saver!”
“Of course!” She grinned, her Grease costume looking great. “Jonathan’s in the car.”
You waved towards his car and smiled when he waved back. “What are you supposed to be?” Eddie’s voice behind you practically echoed. Steve started his explanation and you rolled your eyes when you saw that he was dressed like Tommy Lee. Predictable.
“So, how’s that going?” Nancy whispered, nodding towards Eddie.
“It’s fine,” you said, avoiding her eyes and shifting your weight to your other foot.
Nancy’s eyes narrowed at him, her loyalty coming off her in waves. “It’s okay, really,” you assured her, “we have an unspoken pact not to bring it up. It makes everything easier. Besides, we all basically went to war against Vecna together.”
“Yeah,” she said, hand going up to play with her hair, “have you…told anyone else about what happened?”
Glancing back at Eddie, your eyes darted down to the bag in your hands and you shook your head. “Only Steve.”
“Why-”
“It’s mortifying, Nance. He’s made how he feels about me abundantly clear,” you said, gritting your teeth and trying to ignore the old hurt that bloomed in your chest. “I’m going to go change before we’re late, okay?”
Slipping past everyone, you found Robin messing with her hair.
“Vickie isn’t going to know what hit her,” you said, smiling when her anxious hands stilled.
“Really? I don’t look stupid?”
“Definitely not,” you assured her. “Help me into this?”
Robin grinned as you quickly changed. The one piece was easy enough to slip into. “You’re going to blow Blake’s socks off,” she said, helping you tie the back of your costume as you pulled the wrist pieces into place.
You shivered a little as you pulled the pantyhose up higher, the cool air quickly causing you to break out into goosebumps. “Remind me why we chose this again?” You asked, already shivering a little. You’d all been invited to Halloween Party by a mutual friend of yours – costumes required. It’d been a stroke of good luck that you had all been scheduled for today’s closing shift. You were actually pretty sure that Keith was still locked in his office after his impromptu visit this afternoon.
“Because Jenna’s house is going to be really hot and you said you’d rather be cold than sweating,” she reminded you, “besides, Blake said he was dressing up as Batman, right?”
You nodded, wiggling into your red boots and wincing when the zipper caught your skin.
“Maybe you’ll win the costume contest,” Robin waggled her brows and you knew she was thinking of the bottle of tequila Jenna had promised to the winners.
Blake, one of your neighbors, had asked if you had any plans for Halloween last week. He was quiet, sweet, and had eyes so blue they almost looked violet. So, you’d taken the chance and invited him along to the party. Checking the time, you winced. “Shit, he’s going to be here soon,” you pulled at the bust one more time before turning around to face Robin. “How do I look?”
Robin’s eyes widened. “Whoa, holy boobies,” she said, hand going up to your chest. You swatted her hand away and rolled your eyes.
“I’m going to assume that’s a good thing,” you laughed when she grinned mischievously. “What?”
“Oh, this night will be fun,” she said, adjusting her cape motioning towards the front door. “Please, Princess Diana of Themyscira, you first.”
Grabbing your hoodie and bag, you made sure to double check that the back doors were locked and shut off the lights. You had barely stepped out when you heard a choking sound. Glancing up, you saw everyone’s eyes on you. Feeling a little self-conscious under the attention, you froze.
“I told you,” Robin said quietly and you barely resisted the urge to turn and swat at her. Your eyes, of their own traitorous volition, shifted to Eddie. His eyes were wide, a little awed, and were trailing down your body. You couldn’t help but smirk when you realized he was checking you out.
“Holy shit, you look great,” Steve said, drawing your attention away from Eddie’s expression, his eyes on the rope you’d attached to the belt, “I’m glad the belt worked out!”
“Thanks,” you said, remembering how Steve had helped you spray paint it gold, “I owe you one.”
Everyone talked amongst themselves, double checking that they had everything before leaving. Feeling someone’s eyes on you again, you glanced up to see Eddie standing a few feet from you. “You look good,” Eddie said, his voice soft, “the costume looks just like her.”
Fighting the pleased, slightly giddy, smile that wanted to break out into your face at his compliment, you shot him a small smile instead. “Thanks, Steve and Robin helped me pick it out,” you said, eyes darting down to his chest and only now realizing that he was shirtless underneath his vest. Suddenly, you felt your mouth dry up and you crossed your arms to keep from coughing. “Uh, your costume is pretty good too.”
“Thanks,” he said, hand coming up to scratch at the back of his neck, “Dustin and Steve helped me paint on his tattoos.”
You couldn’t help it, your eyes glanced down at the new tattoo across his stomach. “Did Tommy Lee have a demon tattooed onto his chest?” You asked, leaning forward to get a better look. “It looks really well drawn.”
“That’s uh,” you watched, transfixed, as his Adam’s apple bobbed the closer you got, “my real tattoo actually.” His eyes caught yours and the both of you froze, having gotten much closer than you realized. For a brief, insignificant moment, you couldn’t help but think how much nicer brown was than blue.
“What the hell is going on?” Keith’s voice silenced the rest of your group.
Stepping forward, you automatically went on damage control before Steve or Robin sputtered out something that got you all more in trouble. “We’re just leaving, Keith,” you assured him, “I double checked the back and made sure everything was locked and cleaned.”
You continued to prattle on about your closing checklist, including a few admin tasks that needed his sign off on that you’d left on his desk for next week. Glancing up at him, hoping you’d saved your asses from a reprimand, you realized Keith wasn’t listening. His eyes were south of your face and you barely resisted the urge to gag on sight.
You need this job. You all need this job. Don’t break his nose, don’t do it. If you punch him, you’ll all but hand Eddie that free dinner. You’d probably break your hand. Hopper might be called. Inhale. Exhale.
Fucking pervert, your mind screamed one last time before you buried the thought and your discomfort. Using his distraction to your advantage, you crossed your arms and motioned to the front lights. “Are you okay to close the front on your own?”
At Robin’s cough, he sputtered back to life. A splotchy, disgusting, blush rose on his face and you fought the need to snap. “Of course,” Keith answered eventually, his leering grin making you immediately uncomfortable. “You always think of everything, good job. I’ll take a look at those forms on Tuesday.”
Nodding, you took a few steps back before being stopped by Keith’s voice. “You look good, by the way.”
Spine stiffening, you forced your customer service smile onto your face before nodding. “Thanks, have a good night?” Your voice sounds so fake you knew your friends could feel it radiate off of you.
“Yeah, yeah,” Keith said, gawking at you one last time before disappearing back into his office.
You spun around, ready to smile triumphantly at your friends for avoiding the lecture, when you’re thrown off by Eddie’s sour expression. What the hell crawled up his ass?
“God, I feel like I need a shower,” Nancy said, gagging. Robin and Steve shot you grateful looks, knowing that you’d taken one for the team.
The sound of the front door opening again caught everyone’s attention, your eyes all turning towards a sheepish Jonathan. “Sorry, just wanted to let you know Blake just pulled up.”
You rushed forward, looking out into the parking lot and seeing the familiar red car parked by the front doors. Smiling, you ran a nervous hand down your hair before turning to your friends.
“Meet you guys there? I think Blake wants to stop by for some burgers first,” you said, not able to keep the excitement out of your voice.
Robin rolled her eyes and pushed you towards the doors. “Yes, we’ll be fine. We’ll see you at the party, go say hi to your date, I’m sure his eyes will fall out his head when he sees you. Just like Keith’s did.” You shot her a glare and she laughed like the bully she was.
“Low blow Buckley, low blow.” You pulled the hoodie on and shot everyone one last wave before pushing the front door open.
Seeing you, Blake stumbled out his car. He was dressed as Batman, with a beaming smile, and you waved excitedly. You ran out to meet him but before you got too far, you heard Eddie grumble: “Who the hell is Blake?”
“Good morning,” Eddie said as he walked in, the bell above the door slamming against your skull. God, why the hell had you listened to Steve about the tequila last night.
Robin groaned next to you, her body slumped over and her hands on her head. “Please stop screaming.”
You caught a flash of amusement on Eddie’s face before he disappeared through the back. “This is your fault,” you mumbled to Robin, who grunted.
“Keith said that we were scheduled to have a half-day! How was I supposed to know that his idea of opening the store late the day after Halloween was going to be only two hours later?” Robin said, her skin turning green, her eyes closing as she gulped audibly.
Hands coming out to smack against her, you pointed her in the direction of the bathroom. “Don’t, please, if I hear you then I’ll start,” you said. Robin sped off towards the employee bathroom and you dropped your head back into your arms.
“Someone clearly enjoyed the party,” Eddie’s voice echoed in the quiet front room. Wincing, you turned to him and glared. He wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t need to sound so smug about it.
Eddie raised his brows, as if reading your thoughts, and you huffed. “I don’t have the energy to deal with you today,” you informed him, willing the two Tylenol you’d taken earlier to start working.
“That’s a first,” Eddie muttered, puttering around the store. “So, you seemed to have fun with Blake.”
The tone of disdain in his voice made you blink at him. From your, admittedly patchy memory – Blake had managed to get along with everyone. He was like the human version of a puppy; he made friends with everyone wherever he went.
You opened your mouth to defend him when a loud voice greeted you both. Fighting the urge to grab at your head, you pulled energy from deep – deep – within your reserves and smiled up at Keith. He had a scarf wrapped around his neck and two different colored gloves on. “Good morning, Keith,” you greeted warily. He never came in on holidays or the day after, having a Keith sighting twice this week was never good.
“I’m just passing by,” he said, eyes trailing down your body. Confused, you looked down at yourself to make sure you hadn’t accidentally tossed your cookies and hadn’t noticed. Your usual t-shirt and jeans looked in place and you only glanced back up with you heard Eddie scoff. Maybe he was just being normal gross Keith?
Keith reappeared, keys and a folder in his hand, walking back out towards the door. He stopped, eyeing the two of you before his gaze landed on you. Straightening reflexively, your spine cracked as you did. “Your costume yesterday…was really good. It helped – uh, give the store some seasonal cheer.”
Seasonal cheer? You thought, confused. Wasn’t that usually Christmas? Eddie seemed to be thinking the same as you were because his brows dipped.
The poignant silence seemed to echo and Keith cleared his throat. “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you’re doing good work and…keep it up.” With another gross smile, he disappeared. Ugh, ew, you groaned.
“What the fuck?” You muttered, encounter already being pushed away by your pounding headache. Another scoff caught your attention and your eyes drew towards the source.
Eddie’s face was turned towards the horror section, his brows furrowed and expression pinched. “Do you have something you’d like to say out loud?” You snipped, not at all in the mood for his emotional whiplash.
“If I had something to say, sweetheart, I’d say it,” Eddie snapped back.
Surprised, you blinked. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Whatever,” you said, the pounding in your head getting worse.
The entire morning went along the same way, Robin dashing to the bathroom, and you barely holding it together up front with Eddie. While you were used to sparring with him, and would admittedly normally find it comforting, this was more than his usual annoyance. He seemed…genuinely angry at you and you couldn’t understand why. To be perfectly honest, the constant nausea from the moment you’d opened your eyes wasn’t really letting you care much about the why as long as he long as he left you alone for two fucking seconds.
Whatever it was, you were tired of it. “I’m taking my break,” you announced, needing space and maybe a coffee now that your stomach had started to settle.
“Uh, no you’re not,” Eddie said, stopping you from moving to the backroom for your wallet. “My break is scheduled before yours.”
How many times had you all taken a break whenever you wanted? Was he really going to be a stickler for this now? “Dude, are you serious right now?” You asked, about two seconds from whining and stomping your foot like a toddler. Holy shit, all you wanted was peace and quiet and a coffee the size of your head.
“Yeah,” Eddie grumbled, crossing his arms, “remember that time it was my break and I was about to pass out from my hangover but you just left the store-”
This again? You fumed. “I didn’t know you were hungover!” You defended yourself for the millionth time. “If you would’ve asked for help like a normal person instead of sulking, I would’ve gotten you something! Or I would’ve let you go first!”
Robin’s head popped out, eyes squinting, and a frown on her face. “Are you guys serious?”
“Ask him!” You threw your hand out towards him. “He’s the one being an asshole today, I don’t know what the hell I did!”
“Isn’t it obvious? Clearly, you’re taking the cheap shots with your fucking costume with Keith. If his eyes had gone any wider than they would’ve popped out his head,” Eddie fumed.
What? “Are you trying to say that it’s my fault Keith is a pervert?”
“No! I’m saying you’re using it to your advantage!” His words hit like a physical blow.
Robin stepped out, hands out to both of you, eyes sharp in his direction. “Dude, too far.”
Feeling like you’d been punched, and more than mildly wounded at the fact that Eddie clearly thought you were willing to lower yourself so that Keith of all people would notice, you blinked at him. In the silence, and to your utter dismay, Eddie seemed to notice that he’d actually hurt you. The apology in his eyes made you dart yours to the floor.
“I didn’t-”
“Don’t,” you said quickly. The last thing you wanted was an apology, especially from Munson. “I stopped expecting apologies from you a long time ago,” you said, not able to keep the hurt and barb out of your tone.
Eddie cleared his throat. “What the hell does that mean?”
Of course. “Right,” you snorted, hating that you’d peeled at your own scab. What the hell did you need to go through to learn your lesson with him? “I’ll be out back. You’re right, it’s your scheduled break and you can go first.”
“But-”
You made sure the door slammed as you stepped out and fought the pressure you felt behind your eyes.
Deep breaths, deep breaths, you reminded yourself. After grabbing a few tentative swings of your water, you splashed some onto your face and nodded at your reflection. You weren’t going to let Eddie get one over on you again.
When you came out a few minutes later, he was gone and Robin had an inquisitive stare.
“It’s nothing,” you said, not even believing yourself.
“Sure.”
The next time you were on shift with Eddie left you wondering if an alien had inhabited his body and was parading around as him.
“It’s weird, right? That he’s being this polite?” You asked Steve as you both got ready to leave after the morning shift. After your pseudo-fight with Eddie two days ago, he’d been stiffly polite and you didn’t know what to do with that.
Steve rolled his eyes and shot you a knowing look. “What? Do you miss the sexual tension you had during your fights?”
Sputtering, you reached out to smack him and he dodged your hands. “I’m joking!”
“I’ll choke you,” you told him.
Steve winked at you and you huffed, hurrying out towards the back exit like you did after every Thursday afternoon. Instead of your usual sight, you froze when you saw Eddie standing by the dumpster with a cigarette.
“Uh,” you said, taken aback. You thought he’d left the second it hit three considering how quickly he darted out.
“Hey?” Eddie said, making it sound like a question.
With an awkward wave, you cleared your throat and said, “Hey.”
Checking your watch, you realized you still had a few minutes but now you didn’t know what to do. Eddie, clearly feeling the tension, broke the silence. “I’m just, smoking…as the car heats up,” he motioned to his van that he kept parked out back in the employee lot. He’d gotten special permission because the van didn’t fit in the regular parking lot.
“Right,” you said, rubbing your hands together for warmth. You pulled your beanie tighter against your head and chewed on your bottom lip.
“What, uh, why do you always come out here after your shifts Thursday?”
Not able to help your smile, you saw his eyes light up with interest. Before you could answer, you heard the telltale sign of a gate being opened. With your hand, you motioned for him to follow you as you rounded the corner to the building.
As always, there was a big, furry, dopey, smile waiting for you. From this angle, you could see his golden tail wagging happily at the sight of you.
“Thought he was gonna cry when he didn’t see you,” Maggie, the owner of the bookstore and the adorable golden retriever who was currently jumping in excitement at the sight of you.
Reaching over the fence, you scratched at his ears and chin. “Hey Fitz, who’s a good boy?” Fitz leaned his big head into your palms and you looked over your shoulder at Eddie. The sight of his wide smile smacked into your chest so intensely you felt off balance. Gripping the fence, you waved for him to come over.
Fitz, sensing another potential hand for head scratches, let his tongue loll out and tilted his head in a desperate attempt to look cuter. Your heart melted at the sight and Eddie’s soft murmurs didn’t help. After a few minutes, and a lot of attention, Fitz jumped off the fence and you waved to Maggie before pulling Eddie back towards Family Video.
“The shift change today always coincides with Mags letting Fitz out for a bathroom break. It’s nice, to see them before I leave,” you shrugged, “Fitz is always happy to see me.”
“Yeah, dogs are great,” he said, “especially big ones with dopey smiles.”
You thought of Maggie’s other dog, her shy little elderly chihuahua and you grinned. “The small ones are cute too.”
“It’s definitely a blanket understanding that dogs are all great,” Eddie said, smiling.
Wait a fucking second, were you getting along with Eddie Munson? As if realizing the same thing, Eddie’s hand came up to scratch awkwardly at the back of his neck. “Uh, I’m gonna go-”
“-yeah, me too, uh, bye,” you said, not letting him finish and darting back inside.
Still a little dazed by the weird, almost normal, conversation – you didn’t realize Steve is practically drooling until Robin turned to shoot you a desperate look.
“What now?” You sighed, picking your bag up.
“One of Harrington’s crushes is here,” Robin said, “he flirted, she responded, they’re going out for coffee, and he’s acting like an idiot over, what number is she again?”
“Number three, Robin, three,” he hissed.
Scrunching your nose, you turned to slap Steve in the head. “What the hell is wrong with you, are you rating girls on a scale?”
“Ouch!” Steve hissed, turning to try and discretely check to see if the blonde had noticed. “I am not rating them on a scale, they’re numbered by how often they come in. Three is three times a week!”
Oh. “Woops, thought you were being a weirdo again.”
“I’ve had considerable growth, I’ll have you know,” he said.
Robin snorted and Steve shot her a wounded look. He then turned his big brown eyes to you. “So, remember how you usually catch a ride with me today because your dad uses your car?”
With a big, dramatic, sigh you pretended to think about it. “What you’re saying is, you’d ditch your friend for a girl? Your best friend who fought Russians and Vecna with you?”
Steve’s eyes turned down, a little sheepish, and he shook his head. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I wouldn’t do that to you. Let me go tell her-”
“Oh my God,” you shoved his shoulder, “you really do love me Harrington. I’m messing with you, go have fun. I’ll catch a ride with Robin when her mom comes by. I’m literally her neighbor.”
“Are you sure?” He asked, the light flush returning to his face.
You laughed and pointed to the door. “Go on Romeo, have fun.”
“I owe you one dude, you’re the best!” He said, straightening his jacket before running a nervous hand through his hair. Robin elbowed you and you grinned as he walked out but managed to slip on a pile of wet leaves. He recovered before she noticed but both of you couldn’t help but snort along with Robin.
She turned to you and leaned onto the counter. “You sure you want to wait? I’m on until closing.”
“Yeah,” you glanced at the low sun. While you loved the fall, you definitely weren’t keen on walking home in the dark – not after what you’d seen. Robin knew – shit, you all knew – and usually was your buddy in the system Dustin rigorously implemented. “I’ll grab a late lunch at the coffee shop and be back in an hour? Want anything?”
“Can you grab me a coffee?” She asked, eyes widening as she plead.
You grinned and squeezed her elbow before pushing the door open. “Be back soon!”
The second cup of hot coffee had quickly gone lukewarm while you walked back towards Family Video two hours later. The sidewalk was littered with fallen leaves and you stepped towards a particularly crunchy pile of leaves when you heard it.
“Lightning?” The voice called out while your foot was mid-air.
“Jesus Christ,” you clutched your chest, pulling your headphones off. Eddie looked mildly amused, head leaning out his van.
“You can call me Eddie, no need to be formal,” he said. You rolled your eyes, resisting the urge to chuck a fistful of leaves at him.
“Do you make it a habit of driving up to girls in the dark?” You asked, gazing at him. Eddie rolled his eyes and you realized. “Also, stop calling me that.”
“I’m not the one that gave you the nickname!” He said, like he always did.
You fought the urge to leave him there, not wanting to be the first to ruin the precarious peace you had. He wasn’t wrong – but it wasn’t about the nickname per say, it was the tone he used to say it. Kicking the leaves by your foot, the memory of your high school coach floated to the surface. He was kind, intense, but a huge believer of everyone on the girls’ soccer team. He’d been offered the chance to coach the boys’ varsity team but had stuck with the girls.
He'd dubbed you Lightning as a freshman, claiming that you’d win a scholarship to college with how fast you could run the field. The moniker stuck.
Eddie shifted, eyes going over your shoulder towards the store. “Why the hell are you still hanging around here? Our shift ended two hours ago. Keith isn’t around to kiss his ass,” he said, fiddling with a cigarette.
“Pot, kettle,” you said with a snort. You motioned to the store. “Robin is on until closing. Harrington had a date and I don’t have a ride. Why the hell are you still hanging around here?”
“Was at the arcade with the kids. What about you? Your legs broken?” He asked, his stupid tone rubbing you the wrong way.
You glared at him. “My house is like an hour walk away and it’s freezing outside. I’d rather not freeze to death walking in the dark by the forest.”
“Scared?” He teased, and you could see a faint smile building.
“Yeah,” you answered honestly, eyes falling to the visible scars on Eddie’s hands. You knew what hid in the shadows in Hawkins. You weren’t risking shit.
Clearly not expecting your honesty, he blinked at you. After an awkward moment, he nodded. “Alright, hop in.”
“With you?” You said eyeing his car.
Eddie rolled his eyes at you and you saw hurt flash across his face. “I know it’s not a sports car like you’re used to but-”
You held up a hand. “I drive my dad’s old car, Munson. Steve is the one with the BMW. I wasn’t doubting your car, I was doubting your driving skills.”
The defensiveness melted off to give way for comical indignation. “How dare you?” He asked.
Weighing your options, you sighed. You were pretty hungry and hadn’t wanted to spend so much money on food in the café when you knew you had perfectly good leftover pizza at home. Besides, you’d woken up early and desperately just wanted to shower and get out of your jeans. “Alright,” you said reluctantly and Eddie snorted.
“Don’t sound too excited there Lightning,” he said.
Ignoring him, you motioned to the store. “Just let me go tell Robin.” Without waiting for a response, you jogged up to the door and empty storefront. “Hey, Munson’s giving me a ride home. See you tomorrow?”
Ignoring her wiggling brows, you waved off her teasing jabs and jogged back to his van. Pulling yourself into the passenger seat, Eddie had closed his window and blasted the heating.
“Heating takes a minute to get going, you want a blanket? I’ve got some in the back,” he asked, cheeks a little flushed.
“I’m okay,” you assured him, tucking your hands under your thighs. “Thanks.”
As he nodded, pulling away from the curb, you were struck by the scent that enveloped you. It was a mix of smoke, laundry detergent, and something woodsy. Inhaling deeply, you hated how much you seemed to chase after it.
Shit, you thought, the scent was going to sink into your clothes and it’d drive you insane every time you wore this jacket. You vehemently tried to ignore the reasoning behind why it’d drive you up a wall. Nope, not touching that one with a ten-foot pole. You buried that part of you back into the dirt where it belonged.
Clearly uncomfortable with your sudden silence, Eddie hurried to put on music. “Sorry for the mess,” Eddie said, oddly earnest. He tossed a few wrappers into the back and you reached out to stop his fumbling.
“Seriously, it’s fine, my car looks the same. Well, not exactly the same but I’ve been there. I’m not…” you trailed off as Eddie headed towards the direction you’d pointed.
Eddie glanced at you, hands on the wheel. “You’re not?”
“I’m not that type of person,” you muttered, your fingers burning where they’d touched his, and stared at the window, “I wouldn’t make fun of your car.”
“Oh.”
The radio station announced a change in song and by the first few chords you’d already started bobbing your head along to the music. Your brother had been playing this non-stop all month and it’d grown on you.
She's got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky
You hummed along and watched the trees flash by. Eddie cleared his throat mid-chorus and you startled. “Uh, I just…I wanted to say I’m sorry.”
“For what?” You asked, shooting him a suspicious glare. “Is this the part where you murder me and toss my body in the woods? I helped clear your name Munson. I hauled your unconscious ass through a hole in the roof of your trailer.”
Eddie, surprising you both, laughed. You blinked, unaware you were even capable of making Eddie laugh and stared at him a little disbelieving.
“No, I’m not the smartest kid in this town but even I’m not dumb enough to think I can take you on,” he said.
You grinned, feeling a little pleased at the compliment and nodded. “I’m glad you recognize my superiority.”
Snorting, Eddie shook his head and sighed. “No, I meant, about the comment I made about – about the implication that you’d dress a certain way to gain Keith’s favor.”
Completely floored at the fact that Eddie fucking Munson was actually acknowledging that he’d crossed a line and apologizing for it, you nodded dumbly. “It’s okay,” you heard yourself say faintly.
“It’s not,” he insisted, eyes a little too sincere for you as he looked over at you while at the red light. “It was uncalled for and I was annoyed you’d…gotten one over on me. It was immature and shitty and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. Besides, no one wants Keith’s attention that badly. No one.”
It was quiet for a few before you broke it with a small smile. “I didn’t know you were capable of emotional maturity.”
The tension snapped when Eddie registered what you’d said with a scoff. “Ha, ha,” he said dryly.
“Thanks,” you said quietly, looking at the familiar houses as you drove past, “I appreciate it.”
Eddie nodded, his grip on the steering wheel tight. You itched to ask him something, anything, but the awkward silence had descended again.
It became suffocating the longer you sat silently but you didn’t have it in you to say anything. You thought of the tentative truce you had for the past few days, and his apology, and something soft unfurled in your chest.
Whoa, oh, oh
Sweet child o' mine
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
Sweet love of mine
The music curled around you, eyes peeking at him discretely and you couldn’t help but smile at how he mouthed the words to the music. Suddenly, an old memory steamrolled you, bubbling up unbidden.
You were so excited, you couldn’t believe you’d found the dress you wanted at such a discount – and it was the last one – in your size! Anne said it was definitely a sign. You carefully applied your mascara and the last bit of hairspray into your hair.
“Do I look dumb? I don’t want him to think I’m trying too hard,” you said, nervous beyond belief.
Anne beamed at you; eyes soft. “You look beautiful and trust me, he won’t be able to keep his eyes off of you.”
The guitar solo broke you from the memory. Oh, you were here.
“The blue one at the end?” He asked. “Robin’s is the yellow one, right?”
“Yeah,” you said, voice coming out too shaky.
Eddie shot you a confused look but your eyes darted down to your bag at your feet.
While you’d never admit it out loud - your attraction to Eddie had never fully been stomped out but…as you glanced at him from the corner of your eyes, you couldn’t help but remember.
The memory of that night slithered back to the front of your mind and your nails dug into your palms. The feeling of your dress under your fingers, the smell of hairspray, and the memory of the butterflies in your stomach.
Eddie came to a stop and you jumped out like you were a bat out of hell. Inhaling deeply, you felt your clammy hands unclench as clean air filled your lungs.
“Thanks for the ride, I owe you one,” you said, not bothering to look back.
Eddie’s confused voice followed you as you slammed the door behind you. “Oh, uh, sure-”
You jogged towards your front door, quickly shutting it and dropping your bag onto the floor. Eddie Munson was not to be trusted, you reminded yourself, watching through the blinds as he idled in your driveway before pulling out. No matter how nice he smelled or how deceptively beautiful his stupid eyes were. Those had been the same things that had pulled you in before and he – he’d…
Wiping your face with the back of your wrist, you ripped the dress off your body and climbed into your bed. Crying until your chest hurt from heaving, you still couldn’t help but wonder how you’d read him so wrong.
That’s what you’d gotten for trusting Eddie Munson and no matter what truce or bond you had, you weren’t making that mistake twice.
You had spent the entire night replaying the painful memories in your head like some sick twisted version of your own personal hell. So, when you woke up bleary eyed and cranky for your shift the next morning, you weren’t totally surprised.
“Good morning,” Eddie said, early as always, when you walked in.
Grumpy at having to work the morning shift on little to no sleep – thanks to him no less – you grumbled incoherently. A ghost of a smile flashed across Eddie’s face before he handed you a to-go cup.
Narrowing your eyes at it, you watched as his lips twitched before he wiggled the cup at you again. “It’s not poisoned, I swear. I got it from the coffee shop two streets down.”
“Oh,” you said, realizing you did know the design on the sleeve. You took it from him and sipped it cautiously. “That’s my favorite coffee shop, the baristas are so nice.”
“I know,” he said, ears turning red as he whirled around.
You blinked at him, confused. “Thanks,” you said, not sure if it was a statement or question.
He waved his hand in the air and you tossed your things into your locker. Coming back out, you hopped onto the counter and watched Eddie reshelve as you rubbed the sleep from your eyes. Suddenly, you realized he had put on The Breakfast Club – one of your favorites. Hadn’t he given you shit for how many times you liked to watch it?
Your eyes darted towards him to find him already watching you. “What?” He asked, startled at your sudden attention.
“Interesting movie choice,” you said, shrugging.
Eddie’s molten eyes seared you as his mouth curved into something resembling a sheepish smile. “It’s a good movie,” he said, chewing on his bottom lip.
The quiet of the store, the one only a Friday morning could conjure, echoed loudly. You both blinked at each other, unsure. You did know, however, that he was extending a metaphorical olive branch. And you didn’t want to be the asshole that rejected that. No matter how much you didn’t trust him.
“It is a good movie,” you agreed, taking a swig of your coffee and realizing that Eddie had gotten your coffee order correctly. How did he know how you liked your coffee?
Eddie’s voice pulled you out of your thoughts. “Let me guess, you’re Molly Ringwald.”
You snorted so hard, you almost felt coffee come out your nose. Thumping your chest, you coughed until it cleared. “Dude, what the hell?”
Eddie looked bewildered.
“I wish I was Molly,” you said, looking up at the television again. “I’m definitely Brian.”
“What?”
“Oh, don’t look so surprised,” you said, waving him off. “Mr. Bateman’s AP Chem lab is the reason I lost the full ride to Indie State. The only reason I kept some of it was because of the soccer scout. My mom didn’t care, she’s happy I was top of the class but, whatever. Mr. Bateman can fucking suck it.” Alright, maybe you were still a little bitter about it.
Eddie’s contemplative silence only made you more nervous.
“That’s why I’m in this shithole,” you added, picking at the coffee cup cover. “I can’t afford college yet; I’ve got money from the grants I did get – and my soccer scholarship but…I still needed some more. My mom said she’d get it somehow but, I barely see her enough as it is.”
“I didn’t know,” Eddie said quietly.
You looked at him over your shoulder and shrugged. “I know you didn’t. That’s why I like to remind you that your trailer park and my neighborhood are only a few blocks apart. I didn’t grow up like Steve. I don’t know what image you have of me but, just because I hung out with cheerleaders and jocks at the end of high school didn’t mean I had the money they did.”
Before Eddie could say anything else, you switched the subject. No matter how nice he was being, you’d learned the hard way that Eddie Munson had two sides and could flip between them with enough speed to give you whiplash.
“Let me guess, you’re Bender,” you asked, grabbing the next stack of tapes. You needed to do something or you were going to end up biting off all your nails.
Eddie sighed. “I’d like to prove you wrong and tell you definitely not but, yeah – we’re just a cliché in the end huh?”
There was something about the way he’d said it, numb – like a bunch of people had told him he wouldn’t amount to anything until he’d started to believe it himself. A flash of Bender’s face while Vernon yelled at him crossed your mind. A surprising wave of protectiveness surged in you.
“No, Eddie,” you said, finally meeting his eyes. You let your eyes roam around his wild hair, curls jutting out like they had a mind of their own, his Metallica long sleeve t-shirt was faded and looked incredibly soft underneath his Family Video vest. Why couldn’t you just let the idea of him go? A pang of old hurt shot through you. Your eyes fell back to his and you felt your stomach summersault at the look in them. “You are anything but a cliché.”
The smile that grew on Eddie’s face reminded you of a gar den. It was warm and welcoming as it split his face nearly in two. After a moment, you turned back to the computer, hands clammy, and tried hard not to focus on the new comfortable silence that had settled.
You couldn’t help but feel embarrassed at how much you’d revealed with your answer but also wondered if that had been the metaphorical white flag to finally wave between you two. Either way, later on in the day when Robin skidded into the store, she shrieked.
“Did you finally kill Munson? I knew you’d crack one day.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s too quiet in here! Where’d you hide the body? Actually, don’t tell me, I don’t want to accidentally sell you out.”
Eddie walked through the swinging doors and smiled when he saw Robin. “Oh, hey, I didn’t hear the bell. How was your midterm?”
Ignoring his question, Robin looked between you two nervously. “I don’t know what’s worse, the bickering or the truce.”
Eddie leaned onto the counter and you used every ounce of willpower you had not to dart your eyes towards the exposed sliver of skin at his waist. “What’s she talking about?” Eddie asked, eyes sparkling with humor.
You eyed him, the small voice that usually warned you away from him mysteriously quiet. After a beat too long, you offered up your own white flag. “I don’t know,” you said, playing along, “you know how she is.” Surprise and relief flashed across Eddie’s face before melting into a small smirk.
People could change, you’d seen it in Steve. And while it didn’t change your opinion about the past, and what’d he’d done – you didn’t need to fight him for the rest of your lives.
Robin’s eyes almost bugged out her head. “No, no, no you can’t gang up on me! Where’s Harrington when you need him?”
Wincing as the group on stage screamed their goodbyes, you sipped your beer and wondered if you’d taken the metaphorical flag waving a bit too far.
It was a combination of Eddie’s complete one-eighty change in personality, the hopeful look in his stupid Bambi eyes, and Steve answering for you, that landed you in a crowded bar downtown waiting for Corroded Coffin to take the stage as the final act. According to Dustin, their pseudo-manager, it was a huge night for them. They were the main band, and had managed to get a full house.
“Hey everyone,” a voice echoed and your eyes shot up to the stage.
Dustin shushed everyone, Nancy and Robin sharing an eye roll – and you muffling your laugh – as he stared up at the band.
“We want to thank everyone for coming out,” Eddie said, looking completely at home up on the stage. You couldn’t help but be a little…well, shocked. He’d transformed completely as he strummed his guitar, his head banging as he made the stage his home.
It was clear now, compared to the other bands, why Corroded Coffin was the main attraction. They played well off each other, the other three members balancing out Eddie’s energy and ramping it up when they needed to.
“Now, I know you guys are here for the classics but we did get one request and I promised him I’d play it before the end of the night. So, Harrington, this one’s for you,” Eddie said with a wink.
Your group turned to gaze at Steve who grinned. At the sight of all the stares, Steve grinned sheepishly. “We made a bet last week at the store. If he lost, he had to play a pop cover,” Steve said, grinning victoriously. Despite the shift, the crowd still ate it up.
Steve pulled your hand up to his and twirled you around. Shrieking at the sudden, unexpected, movement, you laughed when Steve herded you onto the dance floor. His head bopped, one arm around yours and you jumped along to the tempo. Nancy and Jonathan joined you both, in their own world, and you opened your arms to beckon Robin over.
Soon, the set came to an end and Steve had led the group back over to the bar. A little out of breath, and sweaty, you ordered another beer and pressed the cool bottle to your cheek. “Damn Harrington, you’ve got moves,” you said, impressed.
Steve winked at you and for a brief moment you could see what girls saw in him. Robin, however, just rolled her eyes and sipped her drink. “Oh, look, it’s Eddie!” She waved, greeting him with a hug. Your little group cheered for them, offering up their congratulations. Feeling a little awkward, the peace between you two still too new, you focused on getting your pulse back to normal.
“So, I saw you dancing,” Eddie said, sliding into the bar stool next to yours.
Biting back a smile, you shrugged. “You weren’t atrocious,” you said nonchalantly.
Eddie, recognizing the compliment hidden underneath, threw his head back and laughed. “High praise from you, Lightning.” The echoes of his laughter flittered around you.
“Don’t say I never said anything nice,” you said, teasing back. The electricity between you both yawned awake and you chewed on your cheek. This new development had you avoiding Eddie recently, unsure on how to handle it. Glancing at him, you saw his stare already on you. Not wanting to flinch away like you normally did, you sipped your drink, eyes still on his. You licked at your bottom lip, catching a stray drop of beer and your stomach summersaulted when you saw his eyes follow the movement.
“I didn’t think you’d come,” he said quietly, almost inaudible under the music blaring from the speakers.
Not knowing what to say, you shrugged. “Technically, you didn’t invite me,” you said, “Steve just pulled me along.”
Eddie’s head reared back, his eyes flying back to yours and he only dropped his shoulders when he realized you were joking. “I’ll invite you personally next time,” he said, knocking his beer bottle with yours.
More than a little surprised, you shot him a look and he just ducked his head to smile. Your heart skipped and you wanted to reach down and beat it back into submission. This wasn’t the time to forget.
“Although, I can do you one better,” he swirled in his stool, his knees bumping into yours and leaving them there. His warmth seeped into your skin, like he was branding you, and you quirked your brow in a last-ditch effort to seem unaffected.
“Do you want to go to an afterparty? Jared, one of the guitarists, lives out by the lake and has a bonfire after. It’s got shitty alcohol but good people,” Eddie added when he saw you scrunch your nose.
Dropping your hand to his, surprising you both, you winced. “Lover’s Lake?” You asked quietly.
Understanding bled into his expression and he shook his head. “Opposite side of town, I promise,” he said, his finger tracing a small circle onto your skin. “I…can’t really go by that lake either now.”
“Are the others going?” You asked, glancing around for a familiar face.
Eddie smiled. “Why? Scared to be alone with the Satan worshippers?”
Not able to help yourself, you snorted. “Eddie, I could sucker punch you into next week without blinking,” you said.
With a dramatic gasp, hands going to his chest, you watched amusedly as Eddie sputtered. “How dare you? I fought demobats for you.”
“I’m still the better fighter,” you said, laughing when he feigned hurt.
“I can’t believe you’d say that completely true fact right to my face,” he said, huffing.
Before you could tease back, a scruffy haired guy popped up by Eddie’s shoulder. “Eddie, Mark wants to talk to you. Said something about payment and next week’s schedule.”
Eddie looked almost remorseful but he tapped your arm. “I’ll be right back and then we can all drive out to Jared’s.”
“You’re coming?” The newcomer asked, surprise tinting his expression.
Feeling a little defensive, you felt your shoulders rise and were suddenly almost thrown from your seat when Eddie stood up. His back was to you but you managed to catch his death glare towards his friend. You placed an stumbling, desperate, hand on his hip for balance and Eddie jumped. His eyes dropped to yours and they softened. “Sorry. Lightning, Gareth - Gareth, Lightning. I’ll be right back.”
You nodded, lifting your bottle in a semi-salute and Eddie smiled before disappearing into the crowd. Nancy, a little disheveled and out of breath, leaned against you and sighed. “It’s so loud!” She said, a little too loudly for how close to your ear she was. She swayed a little and you knew by the flush in her cheeks that she was tipsy.
“Come on Wheeler, park it,” you said, bumping her into your stool. She beamed at you, pushing hair away from her face.
“Hey, Gareth, right? You played really well.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Completely forgetting Eddie’s bandmate, you glanced at him to find him watching you. Feeling awkward again, you steadied Nancy as she chatted with the bartender. “Um, I know who you are by the way,” you said, shifting your weight. “We were in English and Biology together during junior year.”
Gareth smiled, making him look younger, and you watched him as he became a little flustered. “Yeah, you always helped me out with the pop quizzes.”
Snorting, you glanced at him. “By helping out do you mean letting you and Jeff cheat off me?”
Laughing, he nodded and you grinned. “Not a lot of people would’ve helped,” he said, “but you were always nice to us. You never let Tommy pick on us either.”
“He wasn’t as much of a bully without his leaders,” you said with a scoff, remembering Steve’s old friends. “Besides, he knew from experience not to fuck with me.”
Clearly that had been the only thing Gareth needed to break the ice because conversation flowed easily after. At one-point, mid-sentence, you glanced over at the dance floor and caught sight of Eddie.
Voice drying up, you watched as he wrapped his arms around a girl a good head shorter than him. She leaned back, eyes sparkling in clear adoration, and you felt your stomach drop to your feet. She had long, beautiful, black hair that you knew was something she was born with – hair that nice had to be genetics. Her entire outfit screamed effortless and grunge in a way you’d never in a million years be able to replicate. She looked like the girlfriend of the guitarist of a band, like someone who fit in, you thought, annoyed.
Whoa, where had that come from? You straightened, realizing you’d completely ignored Gareth. His eyes shot you a knowing look. “That’s Mark’s daughter – the owner of the bar. She’s cool-”
“-I’m sure she is. Um, I’ll be right back,” you said, rushing towards the exit. The cold November air stung as you took a shuddering breath. You watched it evaporate into the air and you frowned.
What the fuck was in the air in that place? Had you gotten jealous? Over Eddie? You shook your head, leaning against the brick wall and placing a hand to your forehead. Get it together, you scolded yourself, get it the fuck together.
“Hey.”
Nearly jumping out of your skin, you whirled around and came face to face with Eddie. He was rubbing his hands together, clearly cold. “You’re shivering,” he said as your mind whirled with an excuse to just drive home.
Before you could tell him you were fine – you hadn’t worn a thick enough coat since you knew you’d be driving to the bar – Eddie had unzipped his hoodie and wrapped it around your shoulders. Clearly, your body was certifiably insane because your arms tucked themselves into the sleeves and latched onto the warmth. Hello? You mind screamed. This is the opposite of getting it together!
“You’ll start to shiver now,” you said, brows furrowing at the sight of his thin long sleeve. Eddie just waved off your concern and tucked his hands into his jean’s pockets. His eyes were wide as you burrowed into his hoodie, his brown ones stuck on your torso. Did he want it back?
“I’ll be fine, I’ve got my leather jacket inside,” he said, voice sounding a little strangled, and his eyes darted over your head, “I just came out to see what the hell had you thinking you could pull an Irish goodbye.”
You hadn’t been aware he was watching you. Mind coming up blank, you looked down towards your hands and immediately regretted it. The motion brought your nose closer to the collar and a waft of Eddie’s stupid smell just wrapped around you. “Uh, I was just getting a bit too hot,” you lied, poorly.
“Right,” Eddie said, “so this would be the right moment to tell you Jared’s party is mostly outside?”
Well, fuck.
“Hey Munson!” A group of guys from one of the earlier bands waves towards the road. “We’re gonna go help Jared set up. You coming?”
“Yeah!” He called out waving them off and turning back to you. “I let Harrington know he could leave his car behind in the parking lot but he said he’s giving a Robin a ride. I don’t mind giving anyone a ride. Byers said he’d take the kids home with Wheeler. She’s a little-”
“-drunk already?” You finished for him with a smile. “Nancy is a certified badass in every way but her alcohol tolerance.” Wrapping your arms around yourself, you tried your best to ignore the waft of cologne that threatened to pull you under.
Eddie laughed, stupidly pretty eyes trailing down to your torso again. His cheeks flushed and you frowned. “So, you want shotgun?”
And like the complete, and absolute mess that you were, you felt yourself nod. “Sure, can’t let Steve have all the fun.”
There was absolutely no way in hell you were telling anyone how absolutely fucking freezing you were. How the fuck did everyone look warm enough? On the ride over, Eddie had the heating blasting and it still didn’t feel like enough.
As Eddie pulled the van into a spot by a house in the woods, everyone in the back piled out and you groaned internally at the gust of air that came through the open side doors.
“Here,” Eddie said, rummaging around the back and pulling out a purple blanket. He tucked it under his arm and motioned to the fire that had already been started. “It’s much warmer in front of the fire, I promise.”
Not needing to be told twice, you sped over to the empty logs by the fire and plopped down. Curling your arms around you, you let the warmth of the flames sink into your skin. “Jesus that’s good,” you said, extending a hand out towards the fire.
Something soft dropped into your lap and Eddie took a seat on the wooden log next to you. “Here, I’ve got a few blankets in the van if you want another.”
Your fingers were curled into the soft material and you blinked up at him. Eddie Munson had warm fluffy blankets in his van?
“I remember that blanket,” Gareth said as he passed you both on his way towards the food. He wiggled his brows at Eddie who looked like he was turning purple.
Car blankets…ew! “Oh my God, is this your sex blanket? Eddie, did you just offer me your hook up blanket?” You asked, staring at the purple cloth suspiciously.
Clearly not expecting that answer, he choked, eyes wildly turning to you. “No, Jesus, Lightning – no it’s not my fucking sex blanket,” he hissed, voice lowering towards the end.
You took in his mildly offended expression and snorted. “Oh, stop looking like I pissed in your cheerios, you’re telling me you’ve never hooked up with a girl in your van? With all that space?”
Eddie’s cheeks turned suspiciously pink and you couldn’t help but grin. “I haven’t hooked up with anyone on that blanket!” He insisted.
Giving it a tentative sniff, the same Eddie scent drifted out and you deemed it suitable. Wrapping the fleece around your shoulders, you tucked yourself into it and almost cried at how warm you felt. Beaming up at Eddie, you leaned your shoulder onto his. “Thank you, Munson.” Jesus, clearly the cold was interfering with your common sense.
Despite your mind screaming into the void, your heart skipped when he smiled softly. “Yeah, yeah,” he said, eyes on the fire.
“Someone’s a little cold,” a voice said, an enormous man sitting onto the log next to you. For a moment, you swore the ground shook.
“Jared,” Eddie greeted, fist bumping against his. “This is-”
“-I know who you are,” Jared said with a grin and you raised your brow. He laughed, eyes scrunching when he did. “You went to school with my little sister. She was on the junior varsity team.”
A flash of Mariah’s face came to the forefront of your mind and you grinned. Mariah had been a freshman right as you’d graduated. Her determined expression, box braids tied neatly back, and wide smile came to mind.
“No shit, I didn’t know she had a brother,” you straightened, smiling up at the giant. “She’s like five feet worth of anger and determination on the field. I helped coach the JV team my last year.”
Jared smiled, his teeth incredibly straight and white. “Yeah, she idolizes you man. Said she wanted to be just like Lightning,” he said, “she told me how you worked with her after practice to get her drills better. Thanks.”
You waved away his gratitude. “No thanks needed; she’s got a great career ahead of her. She’d get scouted in a second – last I heard she wanted to go to Brown?”
“Yeah,” Jared said, clearly proud, “she got the brains.”
“I’m assuming that means you got the brawn?” You asked. Eddie sputtered, trying and failing to hide his laugh.
Jared, amused, shook his head. “Everyone’s gotta mention it,” he said, “if you ask me what the weather is like up here, I’ll kick you out.”
“No, you won’t,” you said, burrowing back into your blanket and smirking up at the man who clearly adored his sister, “or I’ll tell Mariah and she’ll never let you live it down.”
Jared’s laughter echoed around the trees and illuminated the forest. It was the kind of laughter that you couldn’t help but join in on. “Munson, I like this one. How’d you manage to bag Lightning of all people?”
You opened your mouth to tease Eddie but instead he turned a bright red and said adamantly: “We’re not dating, we work together.”
It took everything in your soul to not let your face show how stung you were at how quickly and fervently he said that. Jesus. Alright, he didn’t want to date you – that was crystal clear. “So, you’re single?” Jared said, wiggling his brows. Having known him for exactly five minutes, you could already tell he was joking.
“Keep playing your cards right and maybe I won’t be,” you teased back.
Jared laughed, utterly delighted, and Eddie huffed. “You wouldn’t want Batman coming after you,” he said.
Completely confused, you turned to him and lowered the blanket. “What?”
“Blake?” Eddie said, tone equally confused.
“Oh,” you said, shaking your head, “he’s just a friend. He’s one of my neighbors – he just broke up with his girlfriend and didn’t want to go to the party alone. He knew I…well, I needed the night out so we decided to go together. Then we won the contest and the tequila…”
Eddie’s face went blank and Jared chuckled. “Sounded like a hell of a party.”
“It was, so was the hangover the next morning,” you said, shivering when a strong gust of wind hit you.
“Well, the weather down there looks cold if your teeth chattering is anything to go by,” Jared said, eyes mischievous. “Hey Eddie, why don’t you give her some of my special blend? It always warms people right up.”
Eddie snorted and you turned to glance at both of them. “Is that euphemism for something? Because I may not be as tall as you but I’m scrappy and I’ll kick both your asses.”
Jared’s laugh boomed again and a few people turned to glance at your curiously. “You’re funny, I really like her Munson,” he said, tone suggestive.
Not wanting to go down that particular road – something told you that an older brother like Jared would be ruthless in teasing – you hopped to your feet. “Come on Munson, let’s get this infamous drink.”
You followed Eddie’s lead towards the tables set up by the lone house near the lake. Glancing around, you watched as a few people smiled at you and greeted each other warmly. You had no idea there was such a big metalhead scene in Indiana.
“They like you,” he said, handing you a red cup filled with what smelled like paint stripper.
“A lot of people finding my presence to be scintillating, not everyone despises me the way you do,” you said, quirking a brow at him, you took a sip and almost spat it out into the dirt. What the- “Holy shit what the fuck is that?”
Eddie laughed, eyes turning towards Jared. “He makes this gross moonshine concoction that he swears is great.”
Not able to scrub the taste from your mouth, you shouted: “Jared this tastes like acetone! If I die from ingesting this shit, I’m haunting your ass!”
Jared and his bandmates laughed, waving away your grievances and you rolled your eyes. “A beer, please, I’ll even take some shitty vodka.”
Snorting, Eddie snapped the cap off your bottle with his keys and handed it to you. It was cold but you instantly swashed it around your mouth, trying to get your nerve endings to return.
“I don’t despise you,” Eddie said after he’d opened himself a beer.
“What?” You asked, practically drooling at your attempts to wash down the moonshine. God, your mouth was on fire. Eddie smiled but handed you the bag of chips he’d swiped from the table. Digging into them with gusto, you looked up at him curiously.
“I said, I don’t despise you,” he echoed quietly, his eyes darting down to his beer bottle. You froze, mid-chew and followed his eyesight. Eddie’s thumb was picking at the label relentlessly, the sticky paper peeling as his nail grated at it.
Hating the light awkwardness that had settled in, you shrugged, bumping his shoulders with your own. “High praise coming from Eddie Munson.” Your eyes flittered around the woods and you stood, nodding towards Jared. “Come on, I need to go give him more shit for that drink. I don’t know if I’ll ever taste anything normally again.”
You took off, Eddie’s footsteps and laughter following close behind.
“Did you know that the Harvest Festival opened last week?” You asked Eddie, words slurring.
Eddie nodded, the movement distracting you. “Yeah, Lightning, you’ve told me like six times tonight. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Have I?” You hiccupped, chest shuddering against your permission. “I really want to go.”
“Oh my god, me too!” Robin said, leaning her entire body weight onto your side. Falling over, you stumbled into someone’s lap.
“Liam!” You said, greeting Eddie’s newest bandmate excitedly. Oh my God, you’d found Liam!
“You did find me, I was sitting right below you though,” Liam said, amused, “you okay?”
Not moving an inch, you stretched towards the fire and nodded. “Yeah, totally!” You realized he’d been mid conversation with a blonde girl and you thrusted your hand out. “Hi!”
Her green eyes crinkled with amusement and she shook your hand. “Nice to meet you again,” she said.
“You’re so pretty,” you told her.
Her cheeks went pink and she ducked her head, her leather jacket rustling with the movement. Robin, who’d ended up sprawled next to you nodded enthusiastically. “So pretty,” she agreed. “I love your fishnet tights.”
“It works really well with the outfit,” you added. “I would date the shit out of you.”
“Me too!” Robin laughed, falling half into you.
The girl, looking pleased and amused, laughed. “Munson, I like your friends. They’re good for my ego,” she said, helping you sit back up onto the log and squeezing your shoulder.
Eddie popped out of nowhere and you squealed. “Eddie!” You wrapped your arms around his and tugged him down towards you. God, he was so warm. “Where’d you come from? Have you met Liam and his pretty girlfriend?”
“Yeah,” he said, laughing lightly, “I have met Liam and Alianna.”
“I missed you,” you said softly, leaning your head onto his shoulder and closing your eyes. The fire had begun to spin and you felt the faintest nausea roll through your belly.
A few soft fingers danced across your cheek and pushed the hair out of your face. Eddie’s big brown eyes swam into your vision, steady and a little amused, and you grinned. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he said, fingers still at your cheek, “I missed you too.”
“That’s an understatement,” Liam laughed, his eyes on the two of you, and you watched Eddie lean down to punch his shoulder.
“Shut the fuck up, she’s drunk,” Eddie hissed.
You weren’t drunk, you thought, you’d barely had a cup of that acetone. “Good,” you said when his eyes were back on yours, “I’m a very miss-able person.”
“You are,” he nodded, eyes darting away from yours and glaring towards the man at your feet. “I was gone for about five minutes and it’s because I needed to grab you two these.” With a flourish, a pair of water bottles appeared from thin air.
Stumbling up to your feet, you felt your eyes widen as you gasped. “Oh my God, you’re magic.”
“Something like that,” Eddie said, helping Robin open hers.
“Where’s Steve?” You gulped down your water and managed to spill a bit onto your chin.
“Right here. Jesus, are you two drunker than when I left fifteen minutes ago? I found a few bags in case they puke on the way home.”
“I drank Liam’s beer,” Robin declared and you cheered, liking the beaming smile she sent your way. “Holy shit. Lightning look!”
Whirling around to follow her finger, Eddie’s hand came up quickly to steady you. Not able to find what Robin was clearing gasping at, you blinked at her. “What?”
“A bunny!”
You clasped your hands in front of your chest and shrieked. “A bunny!?” You loved bunnies! And dogs. And clouds. And snow!
Steve snorted. “I highly doubt-”
“Race you!” You screamed, shaking Eddie’s hand off and darting out into the trees.
Robin’s laughter and heavy footsteps followed you but she’d quickly veered to the left. You hesitated, hearing Eddie and Steve shout out your names.
“Fuck, they’re both fast. I’m closer to Rob – just, go – she can run across the field in a minute, hurry!” Steve’s voice echoed.
You gasped. They wanted to find the bunny first. Grinning, you felt the strength in your legs as you pumped your arms and sped off through the trees. You could see the field in your mind, feel the ball at your feet and the wall of defense you needed to get through before you got the goal.
With a well-practiced kick, a zing of pain shot through your leg when the rock cracked in two against the tree a few feet ahead.
“Holy shit,” Eddie said, hand clamping down painfully tight on your wrist. “You – you run really fast.”
“I’m a center forward,” you said, still jumping up and down a little at your successful goal, “did you see that? I scored!”
Eddie blinked at you. “What the hell are you talking about? Jesus you should’ve stopped after the fourth cup.”
You pouted, crossing your arms. “Eddie, didn’t you see me score?”
“Of course I did, who’d you score against? The bunny?”
Bunny? “What bunny?” You asked, tilting your head and stumbling when the motion made the world spin.
Eddie’s arm pulled you towards him so your back was to his chest and his arms cradled you.
“It’s dizzy in the woods,” you mumbled, rubbing your eyes. “You have a bunny?”
At your wide-eyed look, Eddie tossed his head back and laughed. “You’re kind of hilarious, you know that?”
Obviously. “Duh.”
“Maybe we should walk back and tell everyone how you scored,” he said gently, tugging you forward.
That was a great idea! You thought, letting Eddie tug you back towards the flickering warm light. “Can you help me take off this jacket?” You asked him, feeling warm.
“Let’s keep it on,” Eddie said quickly, “it’s cold and you could get sick.”
“But I’m hot,” you whined, stomping your foot.
Eddie groaned. “Please? For me?” Ugh, those stupid eyes.
Conceding, you resumed walking and remembered. “Hey, the quarter is almost over,” you said, “the best employee is going to be picked soon.”
“I promise to bring you back some leftovers,” Eddie teased and you grinned.
Thinking on the cake you’d been dreaming of, you nodded. “If you win, bring me some cake okay? Pinky promise?”
Surrounded by Eddie’s laughter and his fingers hooked in yours, the lights from the party still swam in your vision, the ground felt more solid beneath you.
Suddenly, a memory shoved your smile aside and you frowned.
“It was all a joke.”
Eddie wasn’t to be trusted. He’d left you. He broke promises. He wasn’t going to bring you cake.
Upset, you stopped walking and looked to him. “Why?” Because that’s all you’d ever really wanted to know. Why had he done that to you?
“Why what? Why am I half carrying you back to the clearing? Because knowing you, you’d get lost trying to drunkenly run after a bunny in the woods,” he said with a laugh.
“No,” you grunted, pulling your arm out of his. The bubbly feeling in your chest was replaced with a soft, familiar, hurt. It radiated outwards, your skin crawled with it. “Why’d you do that to me? You really…hurt my feelings.”
“What are you talking about?” He asked, ducking his head to catch your gaze.
The way he softened his tone, his eyes warm and inviting, lured you in like a moth to a flame. “I hate that I still like the sound of your voice,” you said, annoyed at yourself and scrunching your nose. “You’re so pretty and it’s not fair. In math class I’d stare at you the whole period. Did you know that you stick your tongue out when you concentrate really hard?”
“What?”
“I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to kiss you.”
Looking stunned, Eddie blinked. “Am I?” He asked, looking confused and pleased. “Do you? Exactly how much have you had to drink?”
Ready to tell him all the ways you thought he was beautiful; you were interrupted by Steve’s voice. “What the hell is wrong with you guys?” He panted, out of breath. “I got Robin shoved back into my car. I think it’s best if we just crash at my place, it’s the closest. A few others need rides though.”
“I can drive her to yours,” Eddie offered quickly, hand coming up to your elbow.
Steve shrugged. “I can take her or you can just stay over too.”
Eddie frowned, looking unhappy. You poked at his cheek and giggled when he smiled down at you. “Are you…sure?”
“Dude, I helped keep your skin together while you bled out in her lap. Crashing on my sofa at almost five? in the morning,” Steve groaned and you giggled, “isn’t crossing any lines.”
Eddie turned back to you. “Come on Superstar, we’re going home,” he urged you forward. “We have a lot to talk about tomorrow morning.”
“Let’s take some more of the m’shine,” you whispered to Eddie, stumbling over roots. “That stuff is good.”
His laughter echoed in your bones and you smiled up at him. “I’ll make sure to tell Jared you said that.”
Fuck, you groaned, sharp pain digging into your skull and slapping your brain like the little bitch it was. “There go my corneas,” you hissed, clutching at your head.
Where the fuck were you? You glanced around and caught sight of a snoring Robin on the bed next to you. Steve’s house.
Flashes of last night came back to you and you groaned. What in the hell had possessed you to drink a whole ass cup of moonshine? You were going to kill Steve. Just come out with us, what’s the worst that could happen?
It took you about five minutes to talk yourself up to standing. You felt like you had the equilibrium of a baby deer as you darted into the bathroom across the hall. Locking the door and hurrying over to the toilet you realized you’d managed to change into the pajama set you kept in Steve’s guest room. Smiling, a fuzzy memory bubbled up and you remembered laughing so hard you cried when Robin had gotten her head stuck in her sweatpants while trying to change.
A loud whirring sound startled you to attention. As quickly as you could, you splashed your face and brushed your teeth to get the taste of last night’s events out your mouth.
Feeling mildly better, you grimaced when the light from the hallway reawakened your migraine. Squinting your eyes, you tried to stumble towards the noise coming from the kitchen in the hopes that someone was brewing coffee.
You were a few feet away from the swinging door when you heard your name. Freezing in place, you peeked through the circular window and watched Steve hand Eddie a mug.
“I don’t know dude…” Eddie said, “she looked pretty sad but I don’t understand…she said some stuff. I just want to talk to her.”
Steve sighed. “Listen, I promised her I wouldn’t take sides but you have to give her some space. She’s not good at – this wasn’t easy for her. Working with you, you gotta understand that right?”
You winced. What the fuck Steve? What the hell was unclear about ‘don’t speak about this ever?’
“Right…” Eddie said, still sounding unsure.
“I’m not judging you, it was a long time ago now, and people change but, she’s still hurt. She tries to hide it but-”
“She’s hurt?” The indignation in Eddie’s voice confused you. What the hell did he have to be mad about?
You heard Steve’s soft laughter. “Besides, you both looked pretty cozy to me last night. I see the way you look at her. She might be blind to it, but we’re not. Dustin definitely isn’t.”
Eddie sputtered, and you heard the nerves in his tone as he stumbled over his words. The instinct to defend yourself, to deny it, was so strong you had to grab the doorknob to keep you steady. You wanted to hear what Eddie had to say. Blind to what?
“That’s-”
“Dingus!” Robin’s voice cried, “Is that coffee I smell? God my head feels like fucking lead!”
She bumped into you, jarring your heads, and you both groaned at the same time.
“Sorry,” she moaned, “I didn’t hear you come out the bathroom. My brain is pounding.”
You did your best to look like you weren’t just eavesdropping on them and waved away her apologies. Robin shoved the doors and you followed suit.
Steve grinned, his eyes teasing over his mug of coffee and you knew you were going to pay for the shit you’d given him the last time you had to pick up him from a bar.
“So, let’s recap the night, shall we?”
Robin groaned and you stood in silence, sipping at your coffee, taking each teasing jab with a smile or scowl. Eddie’s arm brushed against yours as you sat at the kitchen island next to him and you jumped. He smiled, making room for you, and you mumbled your thanks. The memory of his arms wrapping around you in the woods flashed through your mind and you stiffened. Shit. Had you said anything embarrassing? Just be normal, be cool, you snapped at yourself.
Despite everything, you still felt Eddie’s eyes on you the whole morning.
This was weird. You were being weird.
And yet…you had still shrugged Eddie’s hoodie on over your shoulders this morning. The worn material was soft and warm.
There was absolutely no reason, aside from your clear temporary insanity, for you to be wearing it. In fact, you should’ve returned it to him the next day. But here you were. In your car, panicking about Eddie seeing you in it and scrambling to take it off. You had reached for it that morning without realizing that you had a whole shift with him.
“What the actual fuck is wrong with you?” You muttered to yourself, pulling on your outer coat on and checking your hair.
In your defense, everything between you two seemed to have shifted after that night – after the party. Despite the fact that you couldn’t remember half of the night. Eddie had done a one eighty and spent most of his time being…well…nice to you. You were both still trying to win the dinner but, it was about making yourself look good rather than making Eddie seem lacking.
It’d been a whole five days and you hadn’t had a single homicidal thought once. That had to be a record; something of that caliber had to be documented.
So, because of all this – you’d yet to give back the sweater. He hadn’t asked you for it and you’d possibly taken advantage of that. Last night, you’d had a nightmare about Homecoming and it had been enough of a wake-up call that you’d become resolute in returning it to him today.
While you’d laid down the metaphorical pitchfork, your suspicion still lingered. You couldn’t help it at this point, it was in your nature.
“Hey,” you said, walking into the store.
Eddie whipped his head around to you and smiled. “Good morning, Lightning.”
You rolled your eyes but smiled when he shot you one of his stupid soft smiles. You weren’t sure if it was guilt from hoarding his sweater or a genuine effort at peace, but you pulled out the breakfast muffins you’d baked last night. Coming out to the counter, you hopped into the high chair and placed the second muffin onto the far left.
“Would it be presumptuous of me to assume that the second one is for me?” Eddie’s voice drifted over from the sci-fi section.
“It would be actually, that’s my second helping,” you said, hiding your smile as you turned to check the returns bin.
Eddie gripped his chest and pretended like he’d been shot. “You wound me, m’lady.”
With a light laugh, you shook your head and waved to the muffin. “You never eat breakfast and I made too many of them…”
His brown eyes softened, his hand coming out to cradle the baked good in his hands. “I can’t believe I’m finally worthy of a Lightning Special.”
Quirking a brow, you watched him take a big bite. He moaned around the food, your heart tripping over itself, and shook his head. “What the hell is a Lightning Special?”
“It’s what I call whatever you’d cooked. You’d always bring Steve or Robin some extras and I’d never admit it, but they always smelled amazing.”
“I would’ve given you some if you’d asked,” you mumbled, smirking when he shot you a disbelieving look. “I don’t know why you’ve got this idea I’m a gremlin or something. I’d like to think most people think I’m polite.”
Eddie snorted and you crumpled up your napkin to chuck at him. “Eddie! Fine, see if I ever bring you something else.”
“Oh, come on,” he said, rolling his eyes when you crossed your arms. With a dramatic flourish unique to Eddie, he walked over to your chair, bowed, and pressed a hand to his heart. “I’m so sorry your highness, can you ever forgive me?”
“Buy me a coffee on break and I’ll think about it.”
With a wide grin, he snapped his fingers. “Done!”
You hopped off the chair, your stupid vest getting stuck on the arm, and stumbled forward. Eddie’s hands steadied your arms and the both of you froze. Noses a few inches apart, you blinked up at him. “I-I’m stuck,” you stuttered, wincing when you heard your own voice. Mistaking your wince for pain, Eddie’s hand darted to the garment and freed you.
“Thanks,” you said, not able to look at him in the eye. Both of you awkwardly took a few steps back – Eddie’s hand coming up to the back of his neck.
“Right, yeah, no problem,” he stammered, walking back to the discarded muffin.
Not wanting the awkwardness to linger, shit – maybe you had gotten used to the ceasefire, you reached for his forearm and were struck by how warm he was. “I promise to bring you some of the baked stuff when I make them,” you said. Eddie’s eyes softened and you watched as they dipped, for a millisecond, down to your lips. Suddenly, it felt too hard to inhale properly.
“I’ll hold you to that,” he said eventually.
The bell on the door rang and you both jumped apart. “Hi, welcome to Family Video,” you both said, a touch too loud. Amused, you shot him a look that he laughed at.
“Hi! I’m looking for Eddie – oh, hey Eddie,” a soft voice said. You glanced up and realized you faintly recognized the girl standing by the doors.
Eddie’s cheeks flushed and you blinked, surprised. The girl he was dancing with at the Hideout, your mind supplied. You watched her tuck a strand of inky shiny black hair behind her ear and you fought the urge to scowl.
Without any prodding, you pointed to Keith’s office. “Oh, I totally forgot I need something from there, right now,” you said, ushering yourself into his office before anyone could say anything.
Unsure of what to do, and definitely not wanting to touch anything, you sat on the edge of the chairs by his desk. God, Keith really needed to clean this room. Ew, was that a moldy sandwich?
Keeping the door ajar, you tried your best not to listen in but your mind wouldn’t shut off.
“Gareth said you wouldn’t mind, I swear I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t desperate,” she said, her voice too soft for you to hear anything after.
Eddie’s mumbled something. “-I owe you one.”
“Thank you so much! Can you pick me up around eight? I’ll wear the blue dress from the bar.”
“It’s a date.”
A date? Your heart stilled. Of course they were dating – she looked like his perfect match. Trying your best to ignore the sudden pressure in your chest, you looked around for something you could use as an excuse.
The bell to the front rang again and you shot up to your feet, anxiety ricocheting. Grabbing the first thing you saw, an empty folder on Keith’s desk, you walked out with your eyes on the ground.
“Oh, you just missed Clara,” Eddie said, “you met her at the bar last week.”
“Yeah?” You said, disinterested.
“She said to tell you that she’ll sell you her kidney if you give her the recipe for the muffins,” he said, smile growing.
Your eyes, however, darted to the muffin wrapper crumpled up on the counter. He’d given it to her? The knot in your throat grew and you nodded. “Yeah, sure, whatever.”
Eddie’s brows furrowed and you just turned to the shelves. “Hot date?” You asked, like the masochist you were.
“You overheard?” Eddie asked with an anxious smile. Jesus, you cringed internally, did he need to be so in your face about it? “I’m a little nervous to go but, you know, at least this time I know I won’t be stood up. It’s all a joke anyway.”
Your blood froze. “What’d you just say?”
The front door rang again, Robin’s face coming into your peripheral as she yawned. “Hey guys,” she said, eyeing your clenched hands. “What’s wrong?”
“Did you really just say that to me?” You asked, a little disbelieving.
“Say what? That I might not be stood up?” He asked, confused.
It was getting hard to breathe, the anxiety bubbling up in your chest. You really couldn’t believe it - Eddie could be mean, rude, loud - but he was never cruel. You both had an unspoken rule never to talk about it, and he broke it.
Not able to keep the words down, they spilled out with vengeance. “Wow, you’re going to throw Homecoming back at my face now? After all this time?”
Eddie’s face morphed into confusion. “Homecoming? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Right,” you snorted, the painful memories floating to the surface. “I can’t believe I thought you’d changed. That you were actually going to be nice to me.”
“I am nice to you! What the fuck is going on?” He hissed.
Robin stepped up between you both, her hand coming up to you. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“He’s what’s wrong!” You blurted out, the tension of the last few weeks spilling out. “You know what you did to me – I thought we agreed never to talk about it. Wasn’t it embarrassing enough?”
“What I did to you?” Eddie half-shouted.
Robin shot him a hard look. “Everyone, let’s calm down for a second-”
“Good morning,” Keith’s voice boomed in the empty store. Steve walked in behind him, brows raised, as he caught onto the tension in the air.
Oblivious, Keith strode towards his office. “I just need to grab something I left. I will let you both know -- I’ve submitted my notes to the senior supervisor and we should have our first employee of the month by tomorrow!”
Feeling like you were underwater, you grounded yourself with Robin’s touch. “Hey, look at me, what happened? What did Eddie do?”
“Nothing! I’m the one who looked like an idiot that day!” Eddie hissed.
You stepped back, as if he’d struck you, and you realized Steve’s expression had turned thunderous.
“Hey, dude, that was uncalled for. I thought we talked about this,” he said, moving to stand by your side.
“Talk about what?” Robin asked again.
“Ask him,” you said, pointing to Eddie. Turning to the back room, you scrambled to get your things, tears making your vision swim.
As you stalked back out, you saw Robin holding Steve back by the arm. Bypassing them both, you turned to Eddie, anger coming off you in waves. “I can’t believe you,” you snapped at him, “you - you can’t just joke about that night. Wasn’t it enough that you just fucking left me there? You knew how much I liked you. I can’t do this anymore. Hey Keith? I don’t want the dinner. Eddie and his date deserve it.”
Without looking back, you slammed the door open and all but peeled out the parking lot. The grip on your steering wheel was so tight you were sure you’d have bruises. As you made you way home, you let your mind wander back to that night.
“Just go ask him!” Anne urged you, her eyes sparkling. “Look, he’s alone right now!”
Your fingers fluttered nervously around the hem of your shirt. “But what if he laughs at me?”
“He won’t!”
“You don’t know that!”
Anne huffed exaggeratedly. “Oh my God, just go ask him!” She shoved you into the room and darted away like the traitor she was.
Eddie looked up, surprised at the sound of someone else in the room. When he saw it was you, his smile bloomed. Your stomach fluttered, anxiety doubling. You’d only recently started talking to each other, after your biology project together last semester.
“Hey you,” Eddie said, dropping the papers in his hand onto the table. “What are you doing here?”
Sputtering, you stumbled over your words. “Hi. I – uh-”
“Are you joining the dnd club?” Eddie asked incredulously.
“No – hey, wait why’d you say it like that?” You crossed your arms, nervousness forgotten for a moment.
Eddie’s hands shot up, brows smoothing. “I didn’t say it like anything!”
“I could be here for dnd,” you insisted, not sure why you felt so indignant about it.
“Are you?” Eddie asked after a beat.
Clearing your throat, you tried to hide your embarrassment. “Well, no…”
“I knew it!” He said, grinning smugly. “What can I do for you fair maiden?”
You watched Eddie go back to setting up for his campaign. Glancing at the time, you realized if you were going to ask him – you had to ask him now. Before any of his friends showed up. Besides, if he rejected you then you had all weekend to sulk about it.
“Um, are you going to the Homecoming dance?”
Eddie snorted and your heart sunk. “It’s Sadie Hawkins this year. Who’s going to ask me?” He said, completely unselfconsciously.
“Oh.”
His eyes turned towards yours and he blinked, surprised by what he found. “Are you...wait, are you asking if I’m going or asking if I’ll go with you?”
“I-I…” You wrung your hands together, anxiety bubbling. Maybe you should just leave…you could lie and tell Anne that he said he wasn’t going. Surely the girls wouldn’t force you to try again.
Something shifted in Eddie’s gaze and you suddenly felt a surge of courage in your chest. Squaring your shoulders, you nodded to yourself.
“Eddie Munson,” you said, “will you go to the Homecoming dance with me?”
After a beat of silence, Eddie’s blank expression morphed into a wide smile. “Really?”
“I…I really like you,” you admitted, mortification softening at the sight of his grin growing even wider. “I’d like to go with you. If you want to go with me.”
Eddie blinked.
“Eddie?” You asked, stepping closer when he didn’t answer.
He jolted, as if he’d been shocked and bobbled his head furiously. “Oh, yeah – definitely, like fucking absolutely.”
You brought your hand up to hide your laughter at his half-screamed reply. “Okay, um, cool,” you said, scuffing your cleats onto the linoleum floor.
“Do you wanna meet in the parking lot?” You asked. “Before the dance?”
“Yeah,” Eddie said, still staring at you a little incredulously. You smiled at him and watched as the red flush traveled down his neck.
“Okay, um, so I’ll see you later?” You asked as you heard faint footsteps coming towards the room.
Eddie straightened. “Yeah, I’ll see you Monday.”
With a grin, you waved awkwardly and darted out the room. Before you could fully let the door close, you heard Eddie’s loud ‘yessss!’
Not able to keep in your laugh, you rushed over to the doors and saw Anne leaning against the frame.
“So?” She asked, perking up.
Grinning, you threw an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. “I owe you a milkshake.”
Anne squealed and you laughed, following her towards your bikes.
--
“I don’t understand, you talked to him two days ago right?” Anne asked, her hands fluttering nervously. Her date, Mark, looked just as anxious. The dance had started an hour ago and upon not seeing you inside, Anne had come looking for you.
“Yeah,” you said, swallowing around the lump in your throat. “He kissed me on the cheek and said he couldn’t wait. I told him what color my dress was going to be – h-he said his uncle told him that was important.”
“Maybe something happened,” Mark added, eyes wide. “Like an emergency?”
Not having thought of that, you straightened. Anne’s hand almost knocked you in the face as she pointed towards a couple walking towards the doors. “That’s his friend, right? The one he plays with? Go ask him! Aw shit, I forgot my bag on the table. I’ll be right back.”
You whirled around to look at where she’d pointed and hurried over to him. His date, a pretty girl in red, tugged on his hand as you made your way over.
“Hi, um, Jeff right?”
“Yeah,” he said gruffly, eyes glaring. “What do you want? He’s not here.”
Confused, you took a few steps back. “I know – I wanted to ask you if you knew where he was? I’ve been waiting-”
“He knows, okay?” Jeff said with a sneer. “He knows what you did.”
“What I did?” You asked, not sure what he was talking about. Jeff’s eyes drifted over your shoulder to where Mark stood at a distance.
Jeff’s eyes hardened. “It was all a joke – a stupid joke. I can’t believe you even showed up.”
Your heart plummeted to your feet. A joke? He’d accepted as a joke? But Eddie…he couldn’t have…
“Go back to your real date and do us a favor and stay away,” Jeff warned, walking past you and heading inside.
Frozen to the spot, you felt the tears spill over as a hand wrapped around your wrist. Anne’s frown swam into your blurry vision and she shook you. “What happened? Mark, what happened? What’d he say?”
“I need to call…I need to call your sister. Would she come pick me up?”
“Jesse? Yeah, she would. But what happened?”
Not able to speak past the lump in your throat, you burst into tears and Anne’s nervous hands fluttered over you. “Okay, okay – Mark, go call my sister. Tell her she needs to come back now.”
It was all a stupid joke. Of course, he didn’t want to come to some stupid dance. Not with you.
You called out of work for the week. At this point, you didn’t care if Keith fired you.
For the first few days, like clockwork, Steve and Robin took turns calling your house. Your sister had made it her job to speed to the phone before your mom, letting them know that you were sick and couldn’t come to the phone. She’d been too little to remember your middle school Homecoming but, you promised you’d make it up to her.
On the third day of your self-imposed quarantine, your mom brought you up some lunch midday. “You know,” she said quietly, her hand coming out to rub your calf. “The supermarket was looking for someone to work morning shifts. It’d give you enough time until you start your semester next year.”
“Thanks mom,” you said quietly, still wrapped in your comforter. “I’ll check it out.”
With a soft sigh, she pressed a kiss to your forehead and nodded. “I’m here if you want to talk.”
On the fourth day, you finally decide that you’ve moped for long enough. This was something you needed to move on from. How pathetic to still be upset over something that had happened in middle school?
Except it mattered to you, your mind added helpfully, because you really like him.
“Shut up,” you hissed at yourself.
“We didn’t say anything yet,” a voice behind you said.
Squealing in surprise, you instinctively threw the socks you’d been folding at the sound. The cotton bundles bounced off Robin’s chest and you brought your hand up to your face. “Jesus fucking Christ, you scared the shit out of me.”
Robin rolled her eyes and walked into your room like she always did. Steve, a little sheepishly, waved and sat by your desk.
“How did you get inside?” You asked, crossing your arms.
“Your mom when she was leaving for work,” Steve said, shooting Robin a look.
“I live a house down, I can see that you haven’t left yet,” Robin huffed. “Keith has us all on double shifts until you’re back Sunday, the least you could do is look happy to see us.”
“Well,” you grumbled, “I’m busy.”
“Super busy,” she said, motioning to the laundry on your bed.
“Robin…”
Her indignant expression softened. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you both hated each other over some stupid high school clique stuff.”
“To be fair I didn’t tell anyone.”
Robin’s arm shot out too fast for Steve to avoid it. He grunted as her knuckles hit his sternum. “You told Dingus!”
“To be fair, I was drunk and a little stressed post-Vecna win,” you turned to Steve for corroboration and he nodded.
“She was,” he snorted, “she puked in my mom’s rosebush.”
A flash of that night echoed in your mind. You winced. Jesus, you really needed to stay away from tequila. “I don’t want to talk about it,” you told Robin, “I asked Keith to keep me on closings. Just for a while.”
“You both can’t avoid each other forever. Eddie-”
Not wanting to hear his name, you put up your hand. “I don’t want to talk about it!”
Robin huffed. “But he said-”
“I don’t care what he said! He can date whoever he wants to date! This is such a stupid thing to be upset over anyway. I’m over it. It’s ancient history.”
You could see Robin turn to Steve. Catching his gaze with yours, you watched his eyes soften at whatever he found. God, you must look really pathetic if Steve looked like he wanted to wrap you in a blanket and hide with you. He shook his head. “Leave it alone Rob.”
She sighed, exasperated. “We can’t let this go on like this Harrington. They have to talk it out!”
“Robin.”
She sighed and flopped down onto the bed. “Fine. You’re both idiots.”
“Thank you,” you said, reaching out to squeeze her hand. Robin frowned but let you change the subject to Keith’s newest blubber.
You’d made it an entire week of shifts without running into Eddie. Robin still grumbled when his name was brought up but she kept her word and let it go. Or so you’d thought.
Honestly, you should’ve known better. She was like a dog with a bone.
“Hey,” Robin bounded up to you as you locked the front doors. “Wanna see if we can catch the last of the festival?”
Checking your watch, you frowned. “We’re not going to make it. Doesn’t it close at eleven?”
“Yeah, but some rides stay open a little later. It takes a while for everyone to clear. Besides, it’s only in town for a few more days!”
You turned to Steve, who was swinging his keys around his fingers. He shrugged, his expression a little too casual. “We could pass by on the way home. I don’t mind.” Considering he was your ride, you nodded.
“Sure?”
It took you three another thirty minutes before you were all in Steve’s BMW, cruising down towards Waverly.
The entire park was dark, only a few rides lighting up what was clearly a deserted clearing. Robin, not one to ever be deterred, hopped out the car. “I think the Ferris Wheel is still on! Let’s see if we can grab some funnel cake.”
“Go ahead, I’ll follow,” Steve said, motioning towards a quickly disappearing Robin.
Wincing at the dark. “Am I the only one who’s retained a healthy fear of what hides in the dark after all our escapades?”
Steve huffed a laugh. “I don’t think Russians are hiding in there. Go on, you’re gonna lose her,” he nodded towards a bouncing Robin.
Hopping out the car, she beamed and immediately started towards the rides.
“Robin, I think the festival is closed now,” you huffed, trying not to lose her from your sight. She barreled forward, quick, and you were struggling to keep up.
“They said some rides stay open late,” she insisted, turning a corner.
Grunting, you jogged to catch up. “Jesus, what is the hurry-” your voice trailed off as you caught sight of the only illuminated ride. Robin was standing off to the side, her expression apologetic.
Eddie stood by carousel, his hands tucked into his pockets and his shoulders up by his ears.
“No,” you said, already turning around to head back towards Steve’s car. Robin’s hand caught you quickly, her grip surprisingly tight. “Is this a prank? Do you guys think this is a joke?” You asked Robin, feeling beyond hurt this time.
“Hey, no,” she said quickly arms coming to yours. “I wouldn’t do that to you, I swear. You know me.”
You did. Robin didn’t have a mean bone in her body.
“Just, hear him out? You don’t need to forgive him but he’s got an explanation. A stupid one,” she said loudly, and you watched as Eddie winced, “but I think you need to hear it to move on from all of this.”
“Robin…”
“Yeah, I’m not buying your whole – it was middle school, I’m over it, bullshit. Please? I’m going to be over there with Steve probably eavesdropping if you need me or want to leave at any moment,” she said, “Steve said he’s open and ready to punch anyone you need him to.”
“I punch harder than Steve,” you said, crossing your arms.
“Dustin punches harder than Steve,” Robin said, “it’s the thought that counts.’
You rolled your eyes, tears building at the corners. Glancing back to Eddie, you nodded. “Okay.”
Catching sight of Gareth, he waved weakly at you. Lifting a hand back, you ignored Eddie’s hand and climb up the steep stairs by yourself. “What’s he doing here?” You asked Eddie, your first words to him since that day in at the store.
“He’s doing me a favor and keeping it open for a little while later. I know you said you had wanted to come here,” Eddie explained, nodding towards Gareth who had moved towards the control station. You climbed into a carriage instead of a horse and sat.
Eddie, for a moment, looked like he was going to sit next to you but the withering glare you sent his way gave him pause. Instead, he made his way towards the horse next to your carriage and awkwardly stood by the pole.
“How long is this ride?” You asked.
“Three minutes.”
You checked your watch. “You’ve got three minutes Munson. What the hell is so important you orchestrated all this to get me here?”
He opened his mouth and you felt your anger flare all over again. “You know you really have some nerve,” you huffed, not letting him speak.
Eddie sighed. “Lightning-”
“-don’t call me that! I can’t believe you’d-”
“-I’ve been in love with you since middle school!” He shouted over you, chest heaving.
Shocked into silence, you felt your eyes widen and watched Eddie as his skin flushed.
“You were the nicest seventh grader I had ever met,” Eddie started, his voice straining to be louder than the music. “You were the star of the soccer team, fast as lighting. Anytime someone was mean to me, or my friends, you were always the first to come to my defense. You never said anything about my nail polish, our club, about the band t-shirts, or the shaved head.”
Eddie took a deep breath. “When we were sophomores and they announced that the Homecoming was going to be a Sadie Hawkins theme, I was crushed. It was the first dance we were allowed to attend and I had spent the entire first semester determined to finally ask you to go,” he said and ran a hand through his hair.
“I thought, there’s no way you’ll ask me. We’d done that project together but after all that time, I didn’t even think you knew my name. Then, that day afterschool, you came up to me and asked me to the dance. I couldn’t believe it. I think I must’ve told Wayne about it like a hundred times that week. He’d worked a few extra shifts to get me my first suit. I wanted everything to be perfect. Then, a week before the dance, Gareth and Jeff had overheard the soccer team talking about you betting over your dates to the Homecoming dance.”
Your brows furrowed and Eddie pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’d decided I was going to confront you – because, there was no way you’d made a bet. You were nice – you wouldn’t do that. I had barely gotten to the field when I heard your friends mention how it was all a joke. ‘I can’t believe she took the bet to ask Eddie out to the dance,’ they all laughed and I got pissed. I wanted to find you and call you out on it.”
What? Why the hell would your team say that?
“Eddie, I-” He held up a hand and you frowned.
“Before I could find you, I ran into Brittney. Who, after realizing I was looking for you, told me that you’d never meant it. That it had all been a joke. So, as a completely and utterly heartbroken fifteen-year-old, I avoided you after that. You’d slipped that note into my locker about meeting me in the parking lot before the dance and I couldn’t believe you’d be so…well, cruel. I stayed home the entire night, playing video games with Gareth and Liam. You never said anything the next day after the dance, Jeff didn’t either – he says he’s sorry by the way - then you started dating the men’s soccer captain so I assumed…”
What the fuck?
“Wait Brittney?” You asked, confused, he nodded. You briefly remembered how much she’d hated you. “Brittney Johnson told you I had been joking? That bitch.” Oh my God, you were going to fucking strangle her the next time you saw her. Eddie looked more confused at your outburst but you urged him to continue.
“While I managed to avoid you successfully, you were always in my peripheral and you’re so fucking beautiful it hurt. So, when you popped up in the shack at Rick’s house with everyone else, it was just the safer option with what was going on to fall into the constant arguing. You argued back so I thought, this was safe. We could both let stupid high school shit go?
Then…well…you believed me. When I told you about Chrissy – when we went back down there, you fought next to me. You were there when I woke up,” Eddie cleared his throat, eyes flashing.
“Then the whole best employee thing happened and uh, then it became apparent to me that maybe you had a different recollection of that week.”
Holy shit. You rubbed your temple as a headache bloomed at the base of your skull. You’d realized that the ride had long been over, both of you facing the lit Ferris Wheel.
Rubbing the tension building in your temples, you nodded. “Uh yeah. My friend Molly - the only other freshman on the team, had been bet by the other junior girls on the team that she wouldn’t ask out her crush, Teddy - a junior. She asked and he accepted but everyone was worried he’d find out it was a bet because they actually liked each other. That had nothing to do with me. Brittney was a jealous bitch because I'd managed to get captain over her and she knew how much I liked you,” you thought back to all those times in the locker room you’d spent with Jessica urging you to ask Eddie to the dance. “I'm going to rake her fucking eyes out,” you said to yourself.
Eddie blinked, looking dumbstruck. “So what you’re saying is that I stood you up for no reason. Because I’m an idiot?”
“An eavesdropping idiot,” you said through a disbelieving smile. “Although, to be fair, having Brittney confirm it for you probably didn't help. You should've...come to me. I don't - I didn't think you thought I was capable of something like that.”
“Right,” Eddie said faintly.
A little hurt, you kicked at the edge of the carriage you sat in. “I wouldn’t have done something like that – to anyone. I don’t… know why you thought I would’ve. I always saw how people treated you and hated it. I never let anyone on either soccer team mess with you or your friends. Even after...I was so excited to go with you - I thought you were really cool and sweet.”
“Sweet?”
The memory of the first time you’d talked to Eddie floated up to the front of your mind. “Yeah. After what you did in seventh grade…”
“What?”
You sighed. “I tripped in gym class and smacked my head into the goal post. I was mortified but you took me to the nurse’s office and stayed with me the entire period. You told jokes and made me laugh. I don’t know, I always sought you out afterwards. Besides, you know,” you said pointedly. You didn’t want to say it – he had to know.
He took a step forward, as if that would draw it out of you. “I really don’t and even if I did, I’ve had enough assumptions to last a lifetime.”
Not able to keep it to yourself, and tired of the misunderstandings, you shrugged. “You’re beautiful Eddie, how could I not have a crush on you? I thought…you did too until I was standing at the dance, in my new dress, with your friends letting me know you weren’t coming. That you’d never taken my offer seriously. Because who would want to go with some stupid jock?”
Eddie smiled before groaning and clutching at his temple. “Oh my god, I’m a fucking idiot.”
You shrugged, the lump in your throat growing. What a fucking mess. “Listen, its history, at this point. We had a massive misunderstanding, for years, and now we’ve cleared it up. I promise to try and stay out of your way-”
“No,” Eddie said quickly, “I don’t - I like being friends.”
“Is that what we were? Have we ever been?”
Hurt flashed across his face before he ducked his head and scuffed his shoe against the metal. “Do you think we could-”
“No,” you said quickly, your walls coming back up.
You had officially given up on this. This, whatever this was, between you two was too difficult to try and make work.
“Right,” Eddie nodded, eyes on the horse to your left, “that was a stupid question, sorry.”
Feeling the urge to comfort him, you clenched your hands into fists. “I’m not - I’m just, it’s a lot to process. I need to get my head on straight for Spring semester. I’m starting school and it’s been a lot with everything going on. I just…I need time. Maybe we can be friends for once.”
Eddie nodded dumbly, his eyes following you as you stood and made your way towards the steps. You turned to him and ask. “Why the festival?”
A ghost of a smile twitched at his lips. “You said you’ve been dying to go but had closing shifts almost all month. I thought, I might as well.”
“Oh,” you said softly. “I’ll…see you later.”
“Yeah, right,” he ducked his head and waved his hand. You stumbled towards the red BMW waiting for you in the parking lot.
“So…” Steve started. He grunted when Robin smacked him. “What? We're just going to sit in silence and pretend we didn't all hear that?”
Robin turned to look at you. “I'll egg Brittney's house with you if you want.”
Steve perked up. “Holy shit yeah, her brother is a piece of shit.”
You smiled, touched by their offer. “Let's just go to your house Harrington, you promised me a movie night.”
Steve huffed. “Does this mean you two are finally going to stop attacking each other?”
“Or that maybe you'll go on a date with him?” Robin perked up.
“Robin.”
“What? Like you weren't wondering the same thing!”
“I always knew he liked you,” Steve said.
“Yeah okay,” you snorted, finally joining in the conversation.
Robin laughed with you. “I did!” He insisted. “You should see the way he looks at you. It’s like he comes alive when you walk into a room.”
Your heart stumbled and you sighed.
“Dingus! You’re not making this any easier!”
“She asked!”
You let their bickering fade into the background, your conversation with Eddie swirling around in your mind.
“So,” Steve said, dragging out the vowels.
You glanced at him from where you were using his mom’s fancy mixing bowl for the cake you were baking. El had shyly asked you for the chocolate cake you’d made last year for Max’s birthday. Not one to ever say no to El, you’d set up camp at Steve’s.
Watching him struggle to figure out what to say, you sighed.
“Spit it out, Steven.”
“That’s not my name,” he grumbled, running a hand through his hair, “now that we’ve all sort of put this whole Homecoming business behind us – I was thinking-”
Steve’s voice faded out as you thought back to the past week. It’d been incredibly awkward for the first few days, both you and Eddie avoiding each other as much as you could. On the third day, your regular shared morning shift, he’d brought you a coffee from your favorite bakery. The ice hadn’t completely melted, but it was warming up.
“Hey, are you even listening to me?”
Blinking away your busy thoughts, you shot Steve an apologetic look. “Sorry Steve, what’d you say?”
“I was saying,” he huffed, “since we’re all over this now, how’d you feel about going on a date?”
“What?” You said, completely taken aback.
Steve shrugged. “The girl I’m seeing asked me if I was interested in a double date. Her best friend, Sam I think, said he was up to it. I was going to say no but…thought maybe you’d want to?”
“I don’t know Steve,” you started.
“I just wanted to ask, especially considering that it’s been almost two years since you broke up with that meathead,” Steve snorted.
Rolling your eyes, you shot him a look over your shoulder. “You were friends with that meathead. It makes you a meathead adjacent.”
“I- don’t appreciate having my past drudge up that way,” Steve said, crossing his arms. You huffed a laugh.
“Where are you going?”
“Osteria da Fortuna,” Steve said, shrugging. “You and Eddie forfeited the dinner. I’m pretty sure it’s going to Robin who said she’d give it to me if I would go with her to a band party. I think her and Vicki might finally be going somewhere. Did she tell you about-”
You waved your wooden spoon in the air, effectively stopping Steve’s rambling. “What?” You said, some of the batter splattering onto the kitchen counter. “Did you just say Eddie forfeited the dinner?”
Steve frowned. “Yeah, like a week ago.”
“What.”
Why the hell would he do that? You know why, a tiny voice inside your head said.
With a narrowed glance in your direction, Steve groaned. “Are you really not going to give him a chance?”
Not this again. “Steven.”
“Okay, hear me out,” he put his hand up, “I know. I know you’re hurt that he thought you’d be the type of person to prank him over Homecoming. I know you’re annoyed at this whole mess that could’ve been cleared up if both of you had managed to get your heads out of your asses earlier. But you didn’t.”
“I-”
Steve waved his hand. “Eddie was…is not everyone’s favorite. You know that. You’ve seen how the people we thought were our friends treated the people they thought weren’t worth it. He was fifteen. Are you that stubborn that you’re going to hold onto this from over five years ago? We’ve been through so much since then.”
“I don’t know,” you said, uncertain.
“Don’t kill me but, I think you’re holding on to this hurt because you’ve realized it’s easier. It’s always been easier to hate him, to do your little bickering thing. It’s easier to keep him at a distance because if you never let him in close again you won’t get hurt. But it’s been this long, you’ve both dated other people, and you both haven’t moved on. What does that say?”
You frowned. “That we’re stubborn immature idiots?”
“Yes and?”
You blinked.
Steve sighed. “You’re both so obviously into each other. Even when you’d fight, it was like foreplay or something. You both believed you had the right reasons to hate the other but you’ve both been hung up on each other. That means something. That’s not nothing.”
Letting Steve’s words sink in, you realized that he was right. Even when Eddie thought you’d pranked him, he’d always stuck by you. In the Upside Down, after every earthquake, he’d reached for you – arms steadying you as you fought your panic attacks.
He’d let you use his leather jacket when you were shivering from the lake water. He made sure you went through the gate first, his steady hands on your hips as you climbed. He’d made you eat a sandwich while you were all waiting for the party to get back from the gun store.
“Coming down from adrenaline is a bitch, trust me,” he said, nudging the milkshake in your direction.
He dove for you when the bats attacked, his body curled around yours as you both tried to buy your friends more time.
You thought of Eddie in the hospital bed, your hands interlocked. The way the dread in your chest wouldn’t lift until you saw his eyes open. Until you knew he’d make it through.
Jesus Christ, you still liked him. And you were doing what you always did. You were pushing him away. Even after he’d apologized and you hadn’t. Even after everything.
“Fuck you Harrington,” you said, standing and grabbing your keys off the table.
Steve’s eyes widened at your sudden departure. “Where are you going?”
“To the store!”
Barely taking a moment to lock your car, you stomped into Family Video. As usual for Thursday mornings, it was dead. Eddie was draped across the counter as Jeff and Eddie talked to him animatedly.
Slamming the door open, all three of them jumped and turned in your direction. Dustin, seeing your thunderous expression, darted away from the counter as you stormed up to it.
“What the fuck Munson?”
Eddie blinked at you, eyes wary. “Um?”
“Why the fuck would you forfeit the dinner?” You hissed, seeing Robin’s head pop out from behind the Comedy shelves.
“Because it wasn’t right,” Eddie stammered, “I didn’t want you to give it to me.”
“Are you serious?”
Eddie’s nervous expression morphed into indignation. “What did you want me to do? Go and enjoy it when you basically handed it to me?”
Throwing an arm out, you felt a headache starting. “Isn’t that what we’ve been fighting over? For almost two months!?”
“It didn’t feel right!” Eddie insisted.
What the hell did that mean? “Munson.”
Annoyance flashed across his expression. “I’m not – I don’t – I wanted to go with you. Okay? Every time I picture the stupid fancy Italian restaurant all I do is think of you. Everything all the time always reminds me of you. It reminds me of your stupid smile, the stupid way you give me shit for everything, the way the scent of your stupid shampoo is engraved into my brain,” he shouted, “going alone would be pathetic. At least Steve will get some use out of it.”
Your brain slowed. Your shampoo? Shaking your head, you got back to the point. The idea of that dinner going to anyone but one of you felt wrong. “Go with someone else, the grunge girl.”
Eddie looked like he wanted to throw something at you. Livid, his eyes flashed. “She doesn’t matter. That ‘date’ we were going on was her ex-boyfriend’s wedding. She was invited and didn’t want to go alone.”
Ignoring the way that made your heart flip, you crossed your arms and gave into the petty feeling swelling in your chest. “Well, I saw you two at the bar. Clearly, there’s something there.”
Eddie’s hands shot up into the air, exasperated. “I wanted to make you jealous! She knew, she was in on it. That night at the bar, she was teasing me about how into you I was – because even she could tell. Everyone else besides you is painfully insignificant. Okay? You’re the only one that matters. Since I was twelve. I’m pretty sure the reason me and Amy broke up junior year is because even she could tell I was gone on you. Give me more than a week to try and get over that.”
Taken aback by his sudden confession, and unable to ignore that, your arms dropped to your sides. “Are you…trying to get over me?”
Eddie shot you contemptuous look. “Well, considering that I didn’t realize I was the asshole that stood you up all those years ago and you’ve hated me since then and the likelihood of you ever loving me back is close to nothing, yeah, Lightning, I’m trying to get over you. So, excuse me, if I don’t want to go to a stupid fucking restaurant and think of you the entire time.” His chest heaved like he’d just run a race and all you could think of is how much you wanted to kiss him.
“You love me?” You echoed, like a broken record.
“Oh my god, is that all you heard?” Eddie started a verbal rampage, his arms flinging around for emphasis. As you watched his animated speech, you realize how stupid this whole thing was. Steve was right. You were so used to being guarded, to the traumatic events that seemed to never end after Starcourt, that you were pushing away something important. Something that could good, and you were risking it over your own stupid fear.
This was it, you thought, the second chance you’d always secretly hoped you’d get despite your anger and hurt. You weren’t going to let this one slip away too.
Before Eddie could start on another tirade, you grabbed the edges of his vest, hauled him across the counter, and towards you.
For a beat, you could feel his confusion radiating off of him. You pulled him tighter to you, your tongue tracing the seam of his lips. As if struck, he surged forward to meet you, his own arms coming up to your forearms. He whined as you softly bit into his bottom lip before pulling back.
“Fucking finally!” Dustin cheered. Jeff shushed him.
Eddie, on the other hand, looked dazed as his eyes darted around your face. “Please tell me you aren’t messing with me.”
“I don’t know about love just yet,” you said quietly, “but, take me to dinner and we’ll talk.”
Eddie blinked twice before a slow grin grew on his face. “Italian restaurant? Tonight at eight? I heard some place called Osteria something is meant to be great.”
“I thought you forfeited it to Keith,” you said, laughing when he vaulted over the counter and settled his arms around your waist. He pulled you into another kiss and, this time, snipped at your lip. You couldn’t hold back the shiver it caused. The mischievous glint in his eyes let you know that he’d noticed. “Shut up.”
“I’ll give it back to you two!” Robin said eagerly, her eyes lighting up.
Eddie, without taking his eyes off of you, pointed in Robin’s general direction. “I’m naming my first born after you Buckley.”
Robin snorted. “Hear that, Lightning? Your first kid’s my namesake.”
Eddie flushed, his neck turning a little splotchy. “That’s not what I meant.”
With a swift, quick kiss, you couldn’t help but place a second kiss to his neck. You watched in fascination as his jaw clenched. “I mean, there’s no harm in practicing,” you teased, smiling when Eddie groaned and dropped his forehead to your shoulder.
“You’re killing me Superstar.” Eddie lifted his head after a beat, his eyes catching yours. “So, what do you say?”
You watched his eyes dart around your face, as if committing this moment to memory, and you let your own hand trail a line across his stubble. He leaned into your touch, his lips coming to kiss your palm. Your heart fluttered, threatening to break free from your chest. Steve was never going to let you live this down. But, as Eddie ducked down to catch your gaze, you raised yourself up higher to catch his lips a third time. That was going to get addicting quick.
“It’s a date, Munson.”
AN: I am so sorry the ending is so weak lmao but I had the first 75% of it in my drafts for months. It was starting to haunt me.
Eddie was right and he never lets the doubters forget it. I know it’s probably what everyone expected considering the general consensus of the fandom that Eddie would be a wonderful girl-Dad. But Karmen’s Baby Girl and certain elements of her future have been planned since before I met Eddie and decided he was the perfect person to be her Daddy. It’s coincidence and some fantastic writing from others that has seen everyone jump on the baby girl train.
Of course there is no real gender reveal party in this story. The concept didn’t exist in the 80s and in the canon of The Karmenverse, they don’t get a chance to find out baby’s gender until birth. They go old school with it, not by choice.
ǁ summary: Since coming back from the Upside Down, Eddie has slowly been changing. Each week seems to bring something different and he finds himself doing things he never thought he would.
ǁ tags: gender neutral reader, no pronouns, no y/n. nickname used (sweetheart). mentions of season 4 final episode and what occurred. canon divergent (every one lived). it's not smut, but smut adjacent. it's sexy
ǁ word count: 2k
ǁ notes: i sat down and wrote an entire one shot in one sitting again. and i am also not going to edit this one. and i do not feel bad for lowercase hozier title, so don't even try me like that. if y'all really like it, i can add a part 2 with smut, but this is it for now
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There are still a lot of things Eddie is having to come to terms with since the night his heart stopped.
That night in the Upside Down, laying in Dustin’s arms, he had died. Without a doubt. Dustin had felt his pulse and there was nothing there. And though he didn’t know CPR, had no idea what he was doing, Dustin had laid him down on the ground and started to beat against his chest. Like maybe if he hit hard enough and in the right place, his friend would come back to life.
Somehow it worked. No one bothered to ask why.
But they all knew something was wrong two days later. Eddie, barely breathing and with a weak heartbeat, had been dragged back to the surface and hidden away in the RV they had stolen. Someone watched him round the clock as they debated what to do. If they should try to get him to a hospital, how they’d be able to explain it. But then something miraculous began to happen:
Eddie started healing. All on his own. Way faster than any person should have been able to.
His skin stitched itself back together faster than should be possible, leaving less scar tissue than it should have behind. His chest began to rise and fall in more steady breaths, his heart beat getting stronger, bones resetting themselves with slow and quiet creaks as he laid in that RV bed and slept. He’d been asleep since they brought him back.
The day he woke up, his body had almost entirely healed itself. From the brink of death, having even stepped over to the other side, and now he was almost back to before it ever happened. It had only been a week.
Everyone rejoiced, refusing to question anything weird that may have happened in the Upside Down and just thinking they finally won for once. Max had casts on both her arms but was otherwise unharmed, Steve had recovered from his own injuries at the rate of a normal human and now sported a scar around his throat that he sometimes felt self conscious about. Dustin was on crutches with his broken leg for another month at least. Eddie was alive and whole and back to himself. They’d made it, everyone had made it.
He began to notice more and more things that were different as the days went on.
The first thing he caught on to was that he had the capability to be strong. Way stronger than someone who had recently been bed ridden should be. It was like in the comic books with the Hulk – if he wasn’t paying attention or if he got too emotional, he could easily break anything. A walkman destroyed, a ceramic bowl reduced to shards, a metal pipe bent beyond fixing, the wooden handle of a hammer shattered in his grip. The boys were all present for the hammer incident and sighted it as one of the coolest things they had ever seen. They swarmed him, asking him how he did it, what else he could do, how strong he really was.
Only the other teens, Steve, Nancy, Robin, you, started to look a little bit closer.
When the next few changes became apparent, it was clear something unnatural had happened to Eddie that night in the Upside Down. He could feel other people's feelings. They brushed against his consciousness like ghosts whenever he looked at someone. Happiness like warm rays of sunshine, fear like a shuddering gust of wind, anger like hot coals pressed to his skin. It wasn’t a conscious effort – in fact, there were a lot of times he wished he could turn it off. Whenever he looked too hard at someone, it’s like his brain adjusted to a different frequency and their emotions reached out to him, no matter what they were. And he didn’t struggle to make sense of the sensations like he thought he might, his brain completed the dots easily at first, but then he began to recognize them consciously. It was certainly useful sometimes, especially when it came to you, but it still felt a bit invasive. When he’d explained it to a few people, he assured he tried to ignore it whenever he could, but sometimes he couldn’t help but react. The icey spike of terror he felt when you woke up next to him from a nightmare. The velvet comfort that enveloped you and him when he held you after.
The first time he spoke into someone’s mind it was an accident. Steve had whipped toward him, breath catching in his chest, eyes wide and mouth open in a gasp. Eddie felt it like ice down his spine. “Did you… You did that?” He’d asked breathlessly. It had been so shocking, Eddie wasn’t even sure what’d he said, or projected, or whatever it was.
“I - I don’t know.”
Steve stepped closer, suddenly looking determined. “Try to do it again.”
It was a slithering feeling when he dipped back into Steve’s mind. Like sliding his way in between cracks to a place he didn’t belong, seeping into the forefront of his thoughts to plant one of his own. It made him feel dirty, uncomfortable, and wrong. But it worked. Steve explained it as having a thought like his own but it came out in Eddie’s voice instead. An intrusive thought but not an uncomfortable one.
As with all of the other discoveries, a meeting was called. Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Max, Will, El, Robin, Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, and you. Steve did most of the talking while Eddie sat and looked at his hands. These meetings, while he acknowledged were important for everyone to keep track of his progression into… something, it still made him feel a bit like a zoo animal in a cage. A magician with a magic trick. All the boys immediately begged him to do it to them, they wanted to see what it felt like, wanted to see how easy it was for him to do it.
Nancy and Jonathan had shooed them, catching on to how overwhelmed Eddie was, their excitement and curiosity battering against him like a whipping wind of too much. Once it was just the older people in the room, you crossed over to where he was, kneeled down in front of him, reached out to hold his hand.
Pity felt like someone was pissing in his pants.
“Are you okay?”
How could he say no? How could he admit that he was scared, confused, and feeling more and more like a monster with the passing days? “It’s just a lot. To deal with.”
Your smile was pained as you pushed yourself up onto your calves and wrapped your arms around his shoulders. His came around your waist on instinct, the breath feeling like a wheeze in his lungs as he held tight. Face pressed into your hair with his eyes squeezed shut, he inhaled deep in relief.
That was when the next thing changed.
It was a desire. A need. One he couldn’t place a name to. Like he was desperately missing something, desperately craving something and he didn’t know it was. It crawled under his skin like ants and sent him scratching for a feeling that couldn’t be satiated. No matter what he tried: eating, drinking, masturbating, exercising. The feeling wouldn’t go away. It got stronger day after day, his mind focusing more and more on the void it left behind until it was all he could think about.
Steve threw a little get together at his house once a month or so. Just time for everyone to get together, eat some food, listen to music, play board games, maybe watch a movie. This was the first get together since his hunger began.
He was sitting on the couch on his own, decompressing. While normally he was right in the middle of everything, today it was a lot to handle when he was hyperfocused on the crawling beneath his skin. He had his legs spread wide, hands resting on them, leaning deep into the cushions of the couch in Steve’s basement. While he had initially tried to close his eyes, hang his head back, maybe stare at the ceiling – he couldn’t stop his attention from drifting back to you.
You and Eddie had been friends for a long time. Understandably, you’d gotten much closer after the events in March. The two of you had helped each other through hard nights of nightmares, panic attacks in parking lots, flashbacks in public. You’d been a great comfort to him since he came back. But today your laugh sounded like music. The smell of your perfume hit him even across the room. Each emotion crashed over him in waves, pushing and receding like the tide as he tried to get off your frequency, unentangle himself from you before he did something he didn’t mean to do.
I’m starving.
Your back stiffened, the grip on your plastic cup getting just a bit tighter. A moment of fear quickly shifted to mellowed surprise, curiosity. He’d never spoken into your mind before, hadn’t meant to do so now. But you still shifted, your eyes slowly coasting across the room until you caught sight of him on the couch.
A shock of electricity shot down his spine as you made eye contact, his hands tightening over his thighs in reaction. Unsure exactly what to do, he settled for projecting again. Slithered his way into your ears and settled a respectful distance from the area he’d never been brave enough to venture. Sorry, he offered with a wince, didn’t mean to.
What he didn’t expect was the utter flood of feeling that hit him next. Like a drip of warm honey settling into the space between his hips, pooling there in a subtle swirl as the warm from it started to diffuse outward. You realized you’d been staring and your eyes flit away, but the feeling didn’t cease. In fact, it only got stronger. Your lower lip caught on your teeth as you shifted between your feet. Things that would be completely normal to see, wouldn’t have anyone looking twice, but Eddie could. Your desire. The want that poured from you like water when your eyes first met his.
Was this the first time? Had something changed between you and him? Or had he just never caught on before?
The ants beneath his skin began to vibrate as he narrowed in on the feeling, on you. Like the part of him that had slithered into your thoughts was now bearing down, digging in for purchase, wanting to stay awhile and feed on this new feeling, what you were offering. It didn’t even occur to him what he was doing, how invasive it might be, how wrong he normally would have felt. All he knew is that it felt like licking at the thing he’d been craving for so long and he was helpless to chase after it.
Sweetheart. It came easy as breathing now, teeth sunk into your consciousness from where you stood across the room. You whirled on him again, another flood of warmth hitting him deep as you leaned your hip against the counter you were standing next to and focused on him. What’s got you so worked up?
He couldn’t even consider how bold he was suddenly being, the fear that he might ruin this friendship well out of his grasp. Especially when your embarrassment spiked along with the want, the pool of warmth now suddenly coming to life to have a heartbeat of its own. Your eyes widened, shifting on your feet again as you broke eye contact. It only took a few moments before you couldn’t help but look back at him again. The buzzing settled further, now like a purr beneath his skin. It was bearable as long as you kept your eyes on him.
You wanna do something about it?
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thanks for reading, please reblog and leave a comment if you liked it!
So As you wish, older!Eddie, after the things happened.
Reader finds out that Eddie thinks of her in the shower, so one day after she has put the boys to bed, she sneaks in and joins him. And he’s all like “she’s my dream girl”
Love you bye! 😘
An As You Wish Story
Oh, I love this! I had so much fun writing it. Couldn’t resist having Eddie finally get to reveal that he’s been a bit jealous over reader hehe. So, this takes place between parts 1 and 2, just as a heads up!
Warnings: smut, p in v, unprotected (wrap it up), shower sex, jealous!eddie
Words: 4.4k
“Well, shit. Never done that before.” You huff a laugh as you attempt to catch your breath. Eddie looks as wrecked as you feel.
“What?” Eddie asks, his head falling back against the wall with a smirk on his face. “Never used a private study room to have sex? What kind of college student are you?” He swipes his hand across his forehead, wiping off some of the sweat that coats his skin.
The small room—more of a cubicle with walls and a door, smells like sex and is filled with the sounds of labored breathing and clothing being adjusted.
“The kind who’s been going home every night and rubbing one out while thinking about her boss,” you say, bending down to swipe your panties off the floor.
“I’ll take those.” Eddie plucks the panties out of your hand and shoves them in the back pocket of his jeans he’s just slipped back on. He chuckles when you scoff at him. “Need a souvenir, sweetheart.” Cupping your warm cheeks in his large hands, he presses a sweet kiss to your lips. “Gotta have a reminder that this actually happened and I’m not dreaming.”
“If we’re dreaming, don’t wake me up,” you whisper against his lips. It’s only been a few days since the two of you gave into your desires for one another, acting on what’s gone unspoken for so long. But you were both instantly addicted to one another now that you’ve had an actual taste. And knew the other felt the same.
It was hard to find time to be alone with one another. When Eddie came home from work, the kids were there. Then Brittany would come home. But all day, Eddie worked, and you had classes until you had to pick up the boys. This led to sneaking in time for one another when you could. A short and quiet makeout session while the boys took their baths. Eddie leaving for your apartment as soon as the boy’s stepped on the school bus so he could bring you coffee before you left for class. And the latest stolen moment was Eddie taking his lunch break to come see you in between your classes. Originally, it was meant as a lunch date. The plan was to take him to a cute cafe right on the edge of campus. But somehow, the library with its private study rooms lured you two in like a siren song. So, Eddie ended up eating something, it just wasn’t food.
“I really don’t want to go back to work,” Eddie says with a groan.
“I don’t want you to either. But I’ve got class, too,” you say as you redress.
“Don’t want you to put your clothes back on either,” he says with an adorable pout. You can’t help but chuckle as you adjust your jeans.
“You know what I look like underneath them. You can picture it the whole time you’re changing oils or rotating tires if you want.”
“You think that’s all I do?” Eddie asks with a laugh. Now fully dressed himself, he grabs you by your hips and pulls your body flush against his. “And it’s not the same. I’ll get all worked up and hard while I’m putting a new engine in the Subaru that’s waiting for me.”
“Wish I could help you out with that,” you say, running your hands up his chest. The heart necklace he gave you catches the light and makes Eddie smile. It had been the only thing you were wearing while you were fucking.
“I’m used to taking care of it on my own, baby, don’t worry,” he says with a self-deprecating laugh.
Frowning, you fiddle with the pick necklace that’s hanging around his neck. You had never wanted to pry into Eddie and Brittany’s relationship, and the same is true now. But there’s always been a part of you that’s wondered how long it’s been since she let her husband do anything to her—even just touch her.
“Eddie?”
“Yes, princess?” He presses a kiss to your forehead. The nickname makes your tummy all tingly and your head fizzy.
“Um, I mean you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but—I, uh… I was wondering how long since you and Brittany have been…intimate?”
Eddie’s finger hooks under your chin and tilts it up until you’re looking at him. He’s frowning and it causes a knot to tangle in your stomach.
“You don’t think that’s what this is, do you? That that’s all I want from you?”
“No,” you quickly assure him.
“Good,” Eddie says, tension slipping from his face. “Because you make me so unbelievably happy. God, you’re the best thing to come into my life since…well, Luke.” Your giggle has him grinning like a schoolboy. “But you can ask me anything, sweetheart. I’ll always be honest with you.” He tucks a lock of hair behind your ear. “And to answer your question, I’d say about six months or so. Eventually I just stopped trying. Started getting off in the shower so often that now the sound of running water turns me on.” He huffs a laugh, and you join in.
“Guess it’s harder to have porn around with kids in the house,” you say.
“Eh, I’ve got a little bit hidden away, but can’t bring them in the shower and that’s my only alone time.”
“Gotta rely on that imagination,” you say.
“Luckily, I had some great material to work with,” Eddie says. His hands slowly slide down your body until he’s cupping your ass.
“What’d you think of?” you ask, wrapping your arms around his neck.
“Well, uh.” Eddie chuckles, his face turning a light shade of red. “You.”
It takes a moment for the word to process through your mind. “Wait… me? Really?” The way you look up at him with wide, beautiful eyes has him wanting to lay you back down on the study table.
“Yes, you. Is that…weird for you?”
“No,” you say, far too quickly, making your cheeks warm. “I mean, it’s hot. You already know I’d get off thinking about you. What’d you think about?”
“Different things,” Eddie says with a shrug. “Sometimes I’d think about you joining me in the shower. Sometimes, usually when I had a rough day, it’d be me coming home from work and just dragging you to my bedroom and having my way with you. Or think about you visiting me at work. That was a popular one. Um, oh.” Eddie pauses to chuckle. “A lot of the times it would be me fucking you in that plaid skirt you wear. That drives me insane, you have no idea.”
Listening to Eddie talk about the different scenarios he’s thought about you in has you clenching your thighs together to relieve some of the pressure. If you didn’t have to be in class in ten minutes, you’d be getting back on your knees right now.
“Aw no, did I get my girl all needy?” Eddie asks, a devious smirk on his gorgeous face.
“Maybe.” But he can tell he has; you both know it.
“Can you be a good girl and not touch yourself tonight?” he whispers in your ear. “Just wait until I can take care of you, baby?”
“Okay.” It almost comes out as a whimper, your knees going weak at Eddie’s tone.
“That’s my girl.” Eddie presses one last long kiss to your lips, one hand coming up to cup the back of your head. “I’ll see you when I get home, yeah?”
God, how you wish he was saying that in a different context.
“Yeah,” you reply. “I’ll see you then.”
“Bye, sweetheart.” Reluctantly he pulls away from you, reaching for the doorknob.
“Bye, Eddie.”
When Eddie gets home after work, he tells you that Brittany called him before he left and said that she was going out to dinner with some coworkers. There’s a possibility she was telling the truth, but who really cares anymore?
“Want me to make dinner?” you ask.
“I can cook, sweetheart,” Eddie answers.
“Um,” you muse, wrinkling up your nose in a way that Eddie finds adorable. “I suppose…”
“Calling me a lousy cook?” Eddie asks with a smirk. He’s decent, but you both know that you’re better.
“Yeah,” Ryan answers his father’s question that had been directed at you. Ryan giggles and plops into a seat at the kitchen table.
“Hey!” Eddie pouts, walking over to his oldest son. “Whose side are you on?”
“The side of the better cook. Right, Ry?” You throw him a wink and he nods in agreement. “Hmm, now what would you like to eat?” You pull open the fridge and let your eyes gaze over whatever ingredients are inside.
“Chicken!”
“I can do that,” you say. “Why don’t you boys take your baths now? It’ll take a little while to make.”
“Fine,” Ryan says with a sigh. He heads into the living room, where you and Eddie can hear him share the news with his brother. “We gotta take our baths now.”
Once both of the boys are down the hall, Eddie comes up behind you as you’re mincing cloves of garlic.
“Gonna distract me?” you ask. “I might lose a finger that way.”
“Never,” Eddie says, pressing a kiss to your shoulder. “Just watching my girl make dinner for me and my boys.”
A warmth spreads across your body at Eddie’s words. You’d never thought of it that way. Cooking is something you enjoy and have always been good at. Suddenly that skill comes in handy in this domestic setting, and it sets the butterflies in your stomach aflame.
“If you help me, I can get the chicken in the oven faster. And if that happens before the boys are done—.”
“Eddie time?” he asks, making you laugh.
“Yes, Eddie time.”
He grabs a knife and starts to chop the onion on the counter next to you. Firsthand experience told you how talented and deft Eddie’s hands are, but that aspect also applied to chopping vegetables, it seems. Prep time becomes quicker with four hands working instead of two, so you’re able to get the chicken in the oven while the boy’s voices are still far down the hall and muffled by a door.
“C’mere, you.” Eddie pulls out a kitchen chair, sitting on it before tugging you into his lap. One hand wraps around your back while the other rests on your legs. “Missed you after lunch.”
“Yeah?” you ask as you rest your forehead against his. “Think about me?”
“Every second.”
“Me too,” you admit. “Couldn’t focus on the lecture on genetics my professor was giving. I’m glad my lab partner was paying attention so he could answer the questions on our worksheet.”
“He, huh?” Eddie raises an eyebrow at you, making you roll your eyes.
“Yeah, he. I do go to a co-ed school, ya know. And,” you pause, letting out an over-dramatic gasp, “have male friends!”
“So, I’m jealous.” Eddie shrugs and presses a soft kiss to your lips. “Sue me.”
“You literally have a wife,” you remind him with a laugh.
He lets out a pitiful groan and drops his head down to your shoulder. “God, don’t remind me. But you know you’re better than her. You’re better than any other woman.”
“You’re better than all the dumb college boys, Eddie,” you reassure him, running your fingers through his curls. He presses a light kiss to the side of your neck. It brings a smile to your face as you rest your head against his.
“Smells good!” Ryan’s voice sounds from down the hall and you’re quick to hop off of Eddie’s lap. Eddie pulls his chair closer to the table and you open the oven to check on the food.
Both boys walk into the room, Luke shaking out his wet hair like a dog, letting droplets fly around like stray bullets.
“Hey, watch it,” Eddie says, making Luke giggle. He snatches his younger son up in his arms and holds him hostage in his lap.
“Ryan!” Luke calls. “Help me!”
“Nope, I think I need his help with dinner. You’re on your own, buddy,” you say, throwing a wink to Ryan.
Eddie chortles out an evil laugh and starts to tickle the boy’s sides.
“Nooooo!” Luke cries.
“Wait!” Ryan says, hopping over to his father and brother. “Daddy, don’t do that. This is his most ticklish spot!” Ryan grins wickedly as he begins to tickle his little brother right beneath his chin. Luke struggles even more, letting out loud squeals of laughter as he’s attacked.
Chuckling to yourself, you lean back against the counter and watch the three Munson boys being their crazy, usual selves.
Both boys talk up a storm before dinner, but once the food is served, they’re too busy inhaling their meals to talk. Though Luke does chat a bit, sending little bits of chicken flying on accident. You stick around after dinner and Luke begs to watch The Lion King. The four of you curl up on the couch together, the boys between you and Eddie. It warms your heart that the boys like being between the two of you like this, but when the movie comes up on the part where Mufasa dies, you’re wishing you were next to Eddie. It’s one movie moment that’s always made you cry, and you’d love to bury your face in his neck right about now. Ryan sniffles next to you, and you look down to see a few tears running down his face. He looks up and lets out a small giggle when he sees that you’re crying too. One of his little hands reaches up and wipes the tears from your face, so you return the favor.
Once the movie is over, it’s time for the boys to go to bed, but both of them want a shakeup in their nighttime routine. They want you to tuck them in instead of their dad.
“Well, fine,” Eddie scoffs, mocking offense. “I see how it is.”
“Good,” you tease, throwing him a wink over Ryan’s head.
“Guess I’ll go take a shower.”
“Wait! Still want hugs!” Luke attaches himself to Eddie’s leg.
“I guess you can still get hugs,” Eddie teases, bending down to envelop the five-year-old in his arms. Ryan is next, pressing a sweet kiss to his dad’s cheek before pulling away.
You shuffle the boys into their bedrooms and Eddie goes into the bathroom to take his shower. Luckily, both boys are quick to fall asleep, and as you double check on each of them one more time, you can’t help but once again think of how something must be so wrong with Brittany to not want to be here for this.
The water is still running as you step down the hall, and a smirk grows on your face as an idea forms in your head. Making your way to the bathroom door, you slowly inch it open so Eddie doesn’t hear the hinges squeaking over the stream of water. Easing your way in and closing the door behind you, you start to take your clothes off in the steamy bathroom. Your shirt and bra come off silently, joining Eddie’s clothes in a pile on the floor, but as you attempt to take your jeans off, you trip and have to grab the sink to steady yourself.
“Hello?” Eddie calls.
“Thought you might want some company,” you say.
The shower curtain jerks back, and Eddie’s head pops out, hair half shampooed and curls weighed down with the weight of the water. His eyes widen as he takes in your mostly nude figure, a grin spreading across his lips.
“Am I fantasizing right now?” he asks as you shimmy your panties down your legs.
“Nope,” you say as you click the lock into place on the bathroom door. “You said I wasn’t allowed to touch myself tonight, right? That I should be a good girl and wait for you to take care of me?” Raising an eyebrow at him, you stalk forward. “Well, I’m being a good girl and doing as you told me.”
You step into the shower with him, and Eddie instantly pulls you against him, attaching his lips to yours as the spray of water bounces off his back and starts to soak your hair. His mouth devours yours, teeth gently tugging on your lower lip and tongue licking into your mouth insistently the moment you open for him. Soap-lathered hands run down your naked skin until they land on your ass, which he gives a generous squeeze. When you moan into his mouth, he can’t take it anymore. Eddie’s mouth breaks from yours and travels down your neck, licking at the water droplets that cascade down your skin.
“Need you,” he mumbles against your shoulder. “Need you so bad, baby.”
“I’m here for you,” you tell him, breath becoming labored as he leaves a bitemark over your collarbone. “Do whatever you want with me, Eddie. Want it to be like one of your fantasies.”
“Shit, this is already better than all of those,” he growls. You reach behind him and grab his bar of Irish Spring soap. The fresh smell mixed with motor oil is the distinct perfume you think of when it comes to Eddie, and you can’t think of anything better than smelling like him when you go home tonight.
“Wanna soap me up, baby?” you ask.
“Fuck yes,” Eddie says, taking the bar from your hands. He makes sure to take his time, relishing in rubbing the soap over every inch of your body. A giggle escapes your lips when Eddie takes especially long washing your boobs.
“Gotta make sure they’re nice and clean, baby!” he says.
“Can I wash your hair?” you ask once Eddie’s determined your body is as clean as he can get it.
“You want to?” he asks.
“Are you kidding?” you ask, widening your eyes. “God, I always want to have my fingers in your hair.”
The smile that grows on Eddie’s face can only be described as adoring, maybe even a little shy. “Sure, baby. Go ahead.”
Excitement washes over you as you get your fingers in Eddie’s hair. As your fingers scratch at his scalp, he lets out a pleasurable groan. It only adds to the burning in your lower abdomen. There’s a blissful look on the metalhead’s face as he leans back and lets the water rinse the shampoo out, your fingers helping the cause.
“That felt so good, sweetheart,” he says.
“Bet I can make you feel even better,” you tease, running your hands down his chest, over the sparse hair.
“S’that so?” Eddie arches an eyebrow and lets his hands rest on your hips, thumbs brushing over your wet skin.
“Mhmm,” you hum. “Up to you how, though.”
“Fuck,” Eddie groans, squeezing you in his grip. “Would love that pretty mouth of yours. But after washing this perfect body, don’t think I’d be able to take that and be inside of you. And I really, really want that.”
“Can always have my mouth another day, handsome.” Your teeth graze his earlobe before you turn around and plant your palms against the shower wall, arching your back and presenting your ass to Eddie.
His pruning hands run over the smooth expanse of your skin. Letting out an appreciative moan, he gently smacks your ass to watch it jiggle in front of him.
“Fuck,” he mumbles. “How’d I get so lucky?”
“Don’t go getting a big head,” you tease, smirk hidden from Eddie’s view as you face the wall. “I let all the dads I babysit for fuck me.”
The smack of Eddie’s cock against your clit has you gasping, fingers curling against the slick shower tiles.
“Gonna keep teasing me, baby?”
“Y-You know you’re the only family I babysit for,” you say through a laugh.
“Did we not establish earlier in the evening that I have a jealous streak?”
Eddie lines himself up and tauntingly slowly begins to push inside of you.
“Shit,” you hiss, grabbing onto the rack that’s holding the wash clothes.
“Aw, no witty comeback this time?” Eddie asks. “And I’ve barely even started with you.”
You both let out a collective breath when he’s finally seated all the way inside of you.
“So big, Eddie,” you moan.
“Still not used to me, baby girl?”
Letting out a breathy laugh, you shake your head. “Don’t think I could ever get used to this. To you.”
Eddie’s fingers dig into your hips as he begins to pick up his pace.
“Fuck! Right there.” Your knuckles turn white as your grip on the washcloth rack tightens. The fingernails of your other hand are scratching against the tiles, and you swear there will be claw marks embedded there before he’s done with you.
Tongue poking out of his kiss bruised lips, Eddie keeps thrusting into you at the same angle, hitting the same spot that had you crying out. Both of you are startled at a sudden crack echoing within the shower walls. You’re suddenly off balance as one of your hands falls, the washcloth rack snapped in half from how hard you had been holding it. Eddie’s quick though, wrapping an arm around your waist to keep you from falling headfirst into the tile wall. He pulls you up against his body and your fingers grip the arm that’s around you. Taking a few calming breaths, you close your eyes.
“Sorry,” you say, dropping your head back against his shoulder.
“S’okay, baby,” Eddie says before running his nose along your neck. He presses a few sweet kisses against your shoulder. “Easy enough fix. Plus, think it was my fault anyway. Just made you feel too good, huh?”
You can feel him smirking against your skin, but he deserves to; he’s right.
“So, get back to it,” you say, lifting one arm so you can wind your fingers in his hair.
“Anything for you, m’lady.” Keeping his one arm wrapped around your waist, he uses the other hand to wrap around your body and rub circles on your clit. His hips start rocking against yours again, causing you to squeeze your eyes closed and let out a whimper.
The warm water trickling down your skin only adds to the sensation as Eddie brings you closer to the brink. Being surrounded by the scent of his soap on both of you, him holding you so close in the small space of the shower, you feel completely wrapped up in everything Eddie. It’s almost overwhelming and it has you racing towards your release.
“You feel so good, my girl,” Eddie growls in your ear. The endearment that claims you as his has your walls clenching around him. You’re so close and can hardly find the words to let him know.
“Eddie, I—shit, I’m close,” you manage out in between breathy moans.
“I know, sweetheart,” he says, fingers picking up their pace on your clit. “Your pretty little pussy always squeezes me extra tight before you come.” The fact that he knows that after only having sex with one another a few times has you dizzy. “Come for me, baby girl.”
“W-Want you to come, too,” you tell him.
“Mm, don’t worry about that, princess,” he purrs. “M’gonna fill you up so good.”
“Fuck. I’m—fuck. I’m coming,” you say. The way your walls clench around him mixed with your pretty moans, Eddie’s hips are stuttering against yours before he’s spilling into you. Feeling his warm release coat your walls only prolongs your pleasure, fingers tightening in Eddie’s hair.
“Shit, you’re so perfect,” Eddie says as he stills inside of you, his rising and falling chest brushing against your back.
“That puts no pressure on me or anything,” you say with a laugh between your labored breaths.
Eddie chuckles and drops his head to press kisses along your shoulder.
“No, just mean that you’re everything I ever could’ve wanted. Everything I never thought I’d have. Shit, baby, you’re my dream girl.”
A pleasant warmth comes over your body, having nothing to do with the intense orgasm you just had. A whine leaves your lips as Eddie pulls out of you, but you waste no time turning around and wrapping your arms around his neck. He wraps you in his strong arms and presses your bodies flush together, the sweat from both of you mixing with the shower stream bearing down on you.
“Seems fitting since you’re my dream guy,” you tell him. “And I’ve had many, many dreams about you.”
“I wanna hear about all of them,” Eddie says, leaning in to press his lips against yours.
“Could take a while,” you muse.
“Good thing I plan on keeping you then, yeah?” Eddie smirks and presses a kiss to your nose.
“That so? How long?”
“As long as you’ll let me, sweetheart.”
“Sounds nice,” you say, slotting your mouth over his. Eddie kisses you slowly and softly until the shower water runs cold over the pair of you.
“Wanna borrow some of my clothes, baby?” he asks as he turns the water off. He steps out of the shower and hands you a towel before wrapping one around his hips. You’re distracted by the way beads of water trail down his skin, glistening over his pale skin until they meet the blue cotton towel.
“Uh, yeah,” you say, tucking yourself up in your towel. “Can I wear a pair of your boxers home as well?”
Eddie groans and tugs you into his arms. “Please do. God, you really are my dream girl.”
Letting out a giggle, you rest your head against his shoulder. With your hand, you gesture to your pile of clothes on the floor, nestled together with his. “You wanna keep those panties, too? Add them to the collection you started with the pair you took from me this afternoon?”
“Hell yes,” Eddie says. “Those are still in the back pocket of my jeans.”
“Had them there all day?” you ask.
“Kept me in a good mood while I was working, knowing they were there.”
Chuckling, you lean up and press your lips to his. “I’m not sure if having your boxers in my backpack during class tomorrow will give me the same effect.”
Eddie pouts, jutting his lower lip out and giving you his best puppy dog eyes. “You mean you won’t carry them around like a trophy?”
You shrug, trying to appear as if this particular look on his face isn’t absolutely melting you.
“Pick me up after my class tomorrow and find out. Maybe they’ll be in my backpack, maybe I’ll be wearing them.”
summary: set after the events of season four, Steve has disappeared and is presumed dead in the upside down. broken and now left to deal with your pregnancy alone, Eddie takes it upon himself to support you to the best of his abilities in Steve’s absence.
chapter summary: emotions reach a fever pitch, resulting in some unexpected revelations
content warnings: fem!reader, adult language, adult themes, unplanned pregnancy, angst, hurt/comfort, some canon divergence/au, mentions of death, reader is 19, anxiety, angst, fluff, no use of y/n, slow burn, mentions of a fight and wounds
word count: 8.4K+
a/n: here we go guys, gals and non-binary pals! shoutout to my zoom bestie @dickfics69 for beta reading. hope you enjoy, this chapter was a labor of love!
1000??? yaaaaa bestie!! 🤩😍♥️ omg congrats! this is huge and so deserved, so excited for and prouda youuuuu 😙 was thinking about what to send in and woooo nelly i just know you’re gonna make this so damn good.
🌙 fluffy angst 🌙 friends -> lovers 🌙 “i broke my rules for you” & “i want more than this” 🌙 honestly stevie or eddie! which one speaks to you??
thinking these two are BFFs and it’s like raining out and maybe it’s the reader who’s being hesitant cos she’s afraid to ruin their friendship? or is a commitaphobe?? or somethinggg and one of the boys just can’t take it anymore and shows up all soaked and shit and 🥹🫶🏼
OKAY BABE YOU’RE AMAZING ILY! ♥️♥️♥️ CONGRATS ON 1K!
better late than never. here's 1K words of steve being a dingus. warnings/tags: steve harrington x f!reader; mild smut so 18+; some fluff, angst and steve making poor choices.
Maybe it’s because he’s faced death too many times. Stared it down in the eye and lived to tell the tale. Maybe it’s because it’s easier to pretend the feelings he holds for you aren’t deeper than what they presently are. Maybe it’s because the fear of losing you is greater than the desire he has to be with you. But he knows that’s not true. And it feels wrong to even think that; you’re his best friend, he loves you, he might be in love with you.
He’ll never tell you, though. Love scares him. The last time he loved it swallowed him up and spat him back out. Last time he loved, he watched the person he thought he could see a future with run back into the arms of someone who loved her better than he ever could.
Such is life, isn’t it?
It’s been two years since then and you’re a bright spot in his life. Someone he runs to on his worst days, fills it with laughter, fills it with your easy smiles and candor. You’re comfort to a weary soul, a tether when his mind slips away into the past—into visions of swirling red skies and fluttering wings, of monsters that crawl in a world that no longer is.
It starts the way most of these things do: one night you get a little too cozy, hands start to wander, sticky kisses press to exposed skin. He gasps as your mouth slides along sensitive flesh, watches as your eyes roll into the back of your skull as he sinks in minutes after he watches you fall apart on his tongue, writhing with your thighs splayed around his shoulders. It’s meant to be a one time thing, but these things never are.
One time turns to two, and soon it’s every weekend, and before long it’s months of roaming hands in dark alleyways after having a drink at a bar, it’s him pinning you against the door to his bedroom and watching you fall apart around his fingers, and right now it’s your gasps filling the cabin of his car as you fold against his chest, skirt high up on your thighs, his softening cock still inside of you, heartbeats slowing down into a normal rhythm, melting into the steady drum of rain splashing against the windows.
There’s nothing normal about this time, though. It’s different. You lean back in his lap, eyes hazy with your release, lazy lips sliding languidly over his. He sighs against your mouth, tongue licking into you, drawing out the last remnants of your pleasure, before your hands come to rest on his shoulders and you whisper, “I want more than this.”
“You want more than this…” He’s not understanding. And then again, he’s never asked. You’ve never talked about it. These trysts, these moments between you, they’ve never disrupted your friendship. They may have blurred it, blurred the lines of it, but you’d never talked about more. Always some unspoken agreement between the two of you; at least until now.
“I want to be with you, Stevie. I don’t want to hide behind our friends' backs. I…I want this. Us.” Your voice breaks off at the end, and in that he knows he’s already made a mistake. Because his mouth drops open at your words and he can’t find it in himself to speak.
He doesn’t speak for some time. Therein lies the problem. He realizes too late as your bottom lip trembles and you nod stiffly. As you slide your skirt back down over your thighs and climb off of him. As you open the backseat door and slip out of his car and into the pouring rain.
“Where are you going?!” He’s stumbling out of the car, buckling his pants as he raced through the darkened streets behind your trembling form.
You whirl around to face him and the hurt on your features is a lightning bolt to his chest. A knife to the gut he’s not prepared for. “Home!”
“Let me drive you!” His voice is drowned out by the thunderous drops lashing against the ground. Drowned out by the own frantic throb of his heart. “Baby, slow down!”
You do better than that. You stop, and it’s only because your face crumples and you start to cry. The sight alone nearly kills him. Crushes the wind clear from his lungs. His arms curl around your shoulders and drag you close, and he wonders if you can feel him shaking, because he’s terrified when he speaks. When he whispers, “I broke my rules for you.”
“W-what do you—”
“I love you.”
Three words. Three words he’s not said in years. Three words that someone had made him believe he’d never hear. Never earn. Three words with the weight to crush him—to send him crashing like he had so long ago. Three words that have you clutching at the front of his shirt, teary eyes meeting his face. You’re both shivering, both drenched to the bone, but it doesn’t matter now.
None of it matters except for you.
Maybe it’s been that way all along.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I haven’t done this in so long and I’m probably shit at it, you’ll have to be patient, but I love you and I’m…I want this. I want us, too. I’m just—I’m scared and I—”
“I love you, too.” Your lips brush his, soft and delicate, arms curling around his waist to drag him close. “We’ll figure it out together, okay? I just want you.”
And so you kiss under a streetlight, clothes sticky and plastered to your bodies, hair stuck to skin, but neither of you cares.
Pairing: Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader, Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader, Eddie and Steve (Enemies to Friends)
Summary: Eddie thinks that Steve has everything in life handed to him on a silver platter (including his new girlfriend who Eddie has a crush on). And Steve just can't believe that the kids look up to Eddie the Freak, or that he lives his life without giving a single fuck.
Must be nice. But you know what they say, the grass is always greener.
Warnings/Themes: AU with no Upside Down. Angst, body swapping, dark magic/alchemy, unrequited love, mutual pining, fatphobia (if you squint?), Babysitter Steve, unresolved feelings, manipulation/deception, Things That Require Communication (Too Bad There Isn't Any), Reader gets a nickname (Honey), no Y/N if I can help it, Masturbation, Fantasies/Wet Dreams, To Quote JQ "There Do Be Willies"
Note: Guys...ok I tried I really did. First off once again thanks to @ghost-proofbaby, @big-ope-vibes and @trashmouth-richie for being my sounding boards for some things in this chapter. And then because they have been SO amazing with their writing and their big-brainedness, this chapter is dedicated to @myosotisa and @blue-mossbird.
You can find my masterlist here.
Please do not interact if you are not 18+.
Enjoy!
Before Eddie could react at all to Steve's appearance, Steve had launched himself off the bed, crossed the room, and pinned Eddie against the wall with an arm across his neck. The pressure was uncomfortable, but not enough to keep him from breathing or talking.
"How did you get in here?" Eddie questioned.
"It's my fucking house, Freak," Steve spat. "I know where the spare key is. Now, what the fuck did you do to me? To us. How the fuck did you do this?"
"Listen pal," Eddie grunted, trying to shove Steve off of him. Eddie wondered, fleetingly as he stared into his own rage-filled eyes, if he was actually that strong, or if it was just because Steve had better control of his strength. "I don't know what you think I could have done, but I was just as surprised as I'm sure you were when I woke up here this morning. In your fucking body."
"That's bullshit. You did this," Steve insisted. "You...did some satanic ritual—"
"Are you stupid? It's all a joke man," Eddie began. "I don't worship Satan, Hellfire's not a cult."
"Fuck you, you and your devil horns and latin chants during lunc—"
"I just played that shit up so my friends don't get beaten up by meathead jocks like you."
Fed up with being pushed around and accused Eddie went slack against the wall for a second, causing Steve's footing to falter, and with that he threw his whole weight against Steve, causing him to tumble back onto the floor. Eddie knelt over him, gritting his teeth, and fisted the front of his shirt.
"You think if I had some kind of say in my life, some kind of power to change it, I would still be stuck in a shithole like Hawkins?" Eddie sneered. "Stuck in that trailer, stuck being a student at Hawkins high for another day?"
"Except you're not stuck anymore," Steve retorted. "I am."
"Y-you think I would want to be stuck like this instead?" Eddie huffed. "King fucking Steve Harrington. Who has it all handed to him. What kind of life is that?"
"You didn't seem too miserable a few seconds ago," Steve pointed out.
Eddie let go of Steve and he dropped slightly, head bouncing slightly off the plush area rug.
Fucking Harrington can't even have hard enough floors to hurt.
Eddie stood to his full height and looked around the bedroom again—at Steve's desk and his lovingly filled-out calendar, at the plush bed, at the window that overlooked a swimming pool for fuck's sake—and wondered how fair it was that Steve could have anything he ever wanted, but never did.
What would you like me to say to that Steve? That you're right? That I would want your life? That you're an idiot and you don't deserve any of this? That I do instead?
"Where were you just now anyway?" Steve continued as he watched Eddie cross over to the window. "Take my car for a joyride or something? While I'm driving around your rusty old shitbox? Or...or—"
"Took your girl out for a date," Eddie interrupted and glanced back at Steve over his shoulder. "Or did you forget about her?"
"My gir—" Steve paused. "Do you mean...You took her out on our date?"
"I went through the motions today," Eddie explained. "Wake up in someone else's body, go to work at their job, take their girlfriend on the date they had planned."
"For someone who seems to have no idea how this happened," Steve grunted as he pushed himself off the floor. "You seem to know how to handle a situation like this pretty perfectly."
"How do you think I should have handled it? Driving around town screaming about spells and magic?"
Steve had the sense to look ashamed for a minute and Eddie smirked.
"What did you do today then, eh 'Eddie?'"
"I...I went to school," Steve started.
"Sounds like going through the motions to me."
"I went to find Henderson!"
"Wait a minute," Eddie turned to face Steve fully. "You told Henderson?"
"Yeah," Steve shrugged. "What was I supposed to do? He's part of your little band of misfits. Figured he might know some...counter spell and get me back in my body."
Eddie groaned and put his face in his hands.
Great, Dustin was going to actually think Eddie was the devil now.
"Did you tell anyone?" Steve asked dumbly.
"No because I'm not an absolute idiot," Eddie exclaimed, throwing his hands out. "Fuck, no wonder Buckley calls you a dingus."
"Well lah-di-dah, I'm sorry I don't have the mystical body switching handbook memorized like you do" Steve snarked and fell onto the bed, grabbing a pillow to hug to his body for comfort. "What would that even look like? A...a...pentagram with 'shut the fuck up' written in the middle in latin or something?"
Eddie froze.
A mystical body switching handbook.
A pentagram.
Or maybe a sigil?
"God, I can't even believe you went on my date for me. Did you even...how did you know I had reservations at the Club? Wait, is that what you wore? Jesus Ch—”
"Shut up!" Eddie interrupted. "Go back, what did you just say?"
"Uh....The Club?" Steve asked. "The...Country Club up in Marion? My dad plays golf there."
"No before that, you said—" Eddie stopped. "Wait, you were gonna take her for dinner at the Golf Club? Kind of a douche move there, Harrington. Even for you."
"Well where did you take her then?"
"Doesn't matter," Eddie dismissed, smugly filing away the fact that his idea for a date was better than Steve's. Country Club. "You said...a pentagram."
"Yeah? What about it?" Steve asked. When Eddie hesitated to answer, Steve grew concerned. "Please don't tell me you drew a pentagram and asked for...I don't know, better hair or something and now we're stuck like this."
Eddie ignored the dig at his hair.
"Not...exactly."
"Oh!" Mrs. Henderson looked surprised when she opened the door to find both "Steve" and "Eddie" on her doorstep. "What a surprise!"
"Hey, Mrs. H," "Steve" greeted with a smile, causing "Eddie" to roll his eyes. "Is Dustin here?"
"He is. With Will and Lucas. Since someone decided to cancel Hellfire Club," she glared at "Eddie" good-naturedly. "I can go get him for you; come on in. Did you boys have dinner? You hungry? I have plenty of leftover tater tot casserole."
"No thank you," they answered in tandem and crossed through into the living room and took a seat on the couch.
As she made her way back towards Dustin's room, the boys started to bicker.
"Why would you cancel Hellfire? I never cancel. Even when I'm sick."
"I’m sorry was this not a pressing matter? Your little club can’t skip one week?”
Mews jumped up and settled in "Eddie's" lap and Steve froze as she began purring.
Mews was never really a fan of Steve's to begin with, the few times Steve had come over to spend time with Dustin and the kids. It was mutual indifference, actually. She mostly stayed cuddled up in Mrs. Henderson's arms, but when she wasn't they gave one another distance. Steve had no interest in getting near the cat, and the cat had no interest in getting near Steve.
So for her to be comfortable and purring in "Eddie's" lap...it made Steve a little nervous. What if she bit him or clawed him or—
"Well, aren't you gonna give her pets Harrington?" Eddie reached over and started scratching between her ears.
"Uh...I'm not an animal person," Steve explained and Eddie gave him a dull look. "What if it scratches me?"
"Are you kidding?" Eddie scoffed. "First, she's literally the cuddliest cat in the world. Second, she's a she, not an it. And third, if she scratches you, technically she'd scratch me and I've already been scratched several times when I fed the baby raccoons at Forest Hills."
"The—Why are you feeding raccoons?" Steve exclaimed. "They're wild animals, they're feral."
"They're babies, they shouldn't be eating trash. Which reminds me, as long as we're stuck like this, you need to leave a can or two of tuna out for the stray cats once in a while."
Steve watched Eddie for a moment, waiting for the laughter to start or a punchline to come out of his mouth. And it never did.
"What is wrong with yo—"
"Eddie! Steve!" the boys jumped at Dustin and his mother's appearance. Dustin had wide eyes and a strained smile. "What a surprise! Eddie, how was detention?"
Eddie turned back to look at Steve with raised eyebrows and a manic grin.
"Detention?" Eddie asked. "When did this happen?"
"I was late to class. You know, like I am every day." Steve answered, taking a cheap dig at Eddie for putting him on the spot.
"Anyway!" Dustin began loudly. "Why don't you guys come on back. And we can discuss that surprise campaign for Mike's birthday."
Eddie picked Mews off Steve's lap and handed her back to Mrs. Henderson with another last little chin scratch, and then he and Steve followed Dustin back to his room where, indeed, Lucas and Will were waiting.
"Alright dweebs, get lost," Steve announced.
"No way, we're not leaving until we figure this whole body switching thing out," Lucas scoffed.
"You told them too?" Eddie turned to Steve and Steve held his hands up defensively.
"No," Dustin interjected. "I did. I needed Will the Wise's brain and Sinclair the Soldier's tenacity if I was gonna solve this."
"What about Wheeler?" Eddie asked.
The boys sheepishly looked at one another.
"Mike's not exactly the best at keeping secrets," Will began hesitantly. "And if Nancy found out...well..."
"And we do actually need to come up with some kind of surprise for his birthday," Lucas continued. "A quest to reverse a curse on two knights sounds pretty epic."
They all looked to Eddie for his input.
"Could be interesting," Eddie hummed and tilted his head back and forth in contemplation. "I might be inclined to give it a DM stamp of approval if we can actually figure this thing out."
The kids all cheered and started talking over one another, saying that they went to the Hawkins Public Library after school since Hellfire was canceled. They gathered several fantasy books and a folklore book, and when they asked about occultism at the reference desk, there was one book that had recently been checked out.
"Funny you should mention that," Steve piped up and pulled the faded red book out from where it was tucked into Eddie's jacket. "Eddie and I nearly tore apart his trailer trying to find it.
And they had.
After Eddie had dropped the news that he, indeed, might have been the cause of this switch—unintentionally—he and Steve headed to Forest Hills to find the book.
Steve honestly felt a little vindicated that it actually was Eddie who had done this to the two of them, but...he admitted that he might have let all of the mania about Eddie and Hellfire Club fuel his anger.
But as he stood off to the side and watched the boys flip through the pages with Eddie as Eddie regaled them with his campaign ideas and the sigil that had caught his eye, Steve couldn't help but feel that bitter vile jealousy begin to bubble up again.
How long ago was it that he was taking them to the junkyard to ride their bikes and find scraps and bits and pieces for them to use for their...LORPing...LARPing...
And it was fun, yeah, watching the little idiots get excited over hunks of discarded pipes they could use as staffs, and bent and dented garbage can lids they could use as shields.
But he had done all of those things in an effort to make Nancy see he was a good guy, and he had lost her. And he had kept doing those things because the kids were actually fun and like the younger siblings he had always wanted...and now they were arguing about the differences between Latin and Ancient Mycenaean with Eddie.
He just couldn't keep up.
So he took the route he always knew would keep him and his feelings safe: he lashed out.
"Alright, so," he put his hands on his hips." What's the verdict, how soon can we switch back? I don't want to be stuck smelling like weed for the rest of my life. Do you even wash your clothes, Munson?"
All four boys—well, 3 boys and one man—stared at Steve with wide, almost hurting eyes. And Steve realized...
Shit.
...he hadn't made fun of someone like that in front of the kids that way in a long time.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't," he sighed and collapsed into Dustin's desk chair. "It's just been a really long day guys. It isn't easy being Eddie."
"Oh?" Eddie scoffed. "You just realizing that now Harrington? After one day of being me? You have it so fucking easy that it takes one day of...what? Being pushed around or called a freak or driving an old van that is not a rusty old shitbox, by the way. One day without your big house and your notes from your mommy and your neatly pressed clothes and your cute girlfriend doting on you?"
"And what do you know about my life?" Steve argued. "You don't know half of the shit that I go through! And you don't even care. You go around without a care in the world. Everyone you think is your friend is either afraid of you or looking for your approval. I heard from Janie Miller that you offered to give her free weed one time if she flashed you her boobs. You don't care who you're hurting or insulting or shitting on unless it's fun for you."
It was a miracle Mrs. Henderson didn't come to see what the ruckus was about because it just went on. Enough that they started talking over one another. One dig after another, one way their lives were seemingly better or seemingly worse.
The kids tried to interrupt them but they just kept going.
And Steve's breathing got heavy and his throat got tight, his eyes stung with unshed tears as he thought about...
The way everyone left him. The way he was actually alone. The way his dad couldn't see how hard he sought his approval. The way his mom only did nice things for him anymore was because he knew her secrets. The way his high school friends only liked him because of his popularity. The way that Nancy Wheeler never actually liked him at all, just liked the way he made her feel. The way that the kids left him behind for the next cool older brother kind of guy that came along. The way he was sure even Robin only half-tolerated him.
And the more that he thought those thoughts, the more...the more Eddie's body felt like his. The more he could feel every hair follicle on his head, the way every breath rattled his chest a little bit, the way his ears rang a little bit constantly from the loud music he always blasted in his van.
It got to be so much that it was scary.
But he and Eddie kept on arguing, until someone had the good sense to stop them.
"SHUT UP!" Will yelled and everything went silent. The two older boys stared at Will and he shrunk a little bit under their gaze. "I, uh, I think I figured out what happened."
"Well?" Steve snarked.
"...well I don't know for sure..." Will replied hesitantly. "I don't take Latin with Lucas and Dustin. B-but this right here. Alterius Oculos. Another's eyes?"
He pointed to the inscription on the page Eddie had shown them, right above the sigil.
“Ok what about ‘another’s eyes?’” Eddie asked.
“You need to…see through another’s eyes maybe.” Lucas offered. “Not literally. Figuratively. Empathize with them? Ms. Kelly told me about that a few weeks ago. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes.”
“Except, it’s actually literal,” Dustin snapped his fingers. “Because you two are actually seeing through one another’s eyes and wearing each other’s shoes.”
“So I drew the sigil, went to bed and we switched bodies to see through each other’s eyes and…understand each other better?” Eddie huffed. “I wasn’t even thinking of Harrington when I drew it!”
“What were you thinking of?” Lucas questioned.
Eddie quietly picked at his fingernails, and Steve looked down at his own hands—at Eddie’s actual hands—and saw the ripped up skin and closely trimmed nails. Eddie was a nail biter.
Eddie Munson was a nail biter and he was nervous and he was…
“I was thinking that…nothing good ever happened to me. That…I needed to have a reality check or something,” Eddie shrugged.
…Eddie was a loser. He didn’t have it all figured out. He struggled with things…beyond Steve’s understanding. Even because of Steve sometimes.
“Hey, uh,” Steve cut in. “It’s not like I did anything to help things last night.”
“What do you mean?” Will asked.
“I, uh, might have charged you extra for your movie rental just to get you out of my hair for a while.”
“I knew it!” Eddie exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Steve. “I knew you were pulling that shit on purpose.”
“Can you fucking blame me, have you ever met yourself?” Steve asked.
“Well, I certainly can say I have now,” Eddie grumbled. “So how do we fix this? How do we switch back?”
The younger boys all shared another nervous look.
“I guess…” Will began. “Do more things to understand each other. Just…do whatever the other would do…live each other’s lives.”
“For how long? Forever?” Steve scoffed.
“Lucas and I can translate the rest of this page,” Dustin offered.
“I’m sorry, Lucas and who?” Lucas asked. “You’re barely passing Latin.”
“Ok Lucas can translate the page while Will and I can do my best to help ‘Eddie’ navigate Hellfire Club.” Dustin held his hands out as though he was weighing his options. “And ‘Steve’ can just…not fuck up real Steve’s life. Or real Eddie’s life for that matter!”
“Can’t fuck up something that’s at Rock Bottom,” Steve grumbled.
“And maybe you two could work on understanding each other in the mean time?” Lucas asked.
Steve and Eddie stared at one another in a way that felt, to Steve at least, like a challenge. They nodded and Steve felt the unspoken “let the best man win” ring through the air.
Otherwise they were both gonna lose.
Eddie threw his head back with laughter.
"Swing and a miss," he called as you swung the putter at the little purple golf ball, over and over, without actually hitting it. "Honey, are you just letting me win? There's no way you can be so bad at this."
"We can't all be professional mini golfers," you laughed at him.
"Excuse me, that is 'mini golf champion,'" Eddie boasted. "They have my face in the Hall of Fame."
"Oh I didn't know I was in the presence of a celebrity," you bowed to him. "Maybe you could take some pity on a poor peasant and help me get this shot please."
"I supposed I could give you some pointers," he sighed dramatically and sidled up behind you. He wrapped his arms comfortably around you and his hands found yours on the putter. When he tried to get your body into position to make the shot, you pressed yourself back against him and rested your head on his shoulder a bit. "Hmmm, what is this funny business, honey? Trying to distract me?"
You wiggled your shoulders and relaxed, leaning your body further into his, emphasizing the softness of you against the hardness of him.
And it was only getting harder by the second.
"Maybe I'm trying to win?" you turned your head to look at him, breath fanning against his jaw.
"Considering I've made par on every hole so far—"
"I'm not talking about golf anymore Eddie," you muttered, shaking your hands out from below his on the putter so you could turn within his embrace and cup his face softly...reverently. "I...you know I've always had a huge crush on you."
"Honey, why do you have to tell me such sweet things?" Eddie asked. "It's our first date, I'm trying to be a gentleman. We're in public."
"And if we weren't in public?" You tilted your face closer to his, lips practically brushing against his. "Would you be a gentleman then?"
"Do you want me to be?" he asked breathlessly.
He dropped the putter and grabbed at your waist as he crushed his mouth to yours. It was a hungry sort of kiss, like he was a man starved. And when the joyous moan that came from you was as sweet as honey, Eddie resolved that you were, indeed, going to give him a sweet tooth.
Eddie's hands slid easily across the smooth surface of your shiny taffeta dress as he pulled you closer, causing it to rustle as it crinkled under his touch. It got harder to think as he savored your softness but he dreamed of what it would be like to be surrounded by all of you. To be consumed, and suffocated, and smothered by you.
He could have it...he could have you...
You pulled away momentarily and stared up into his eyes, yours glassy with want and adoration, something that he only ever hoped you would look at him with.
"Do you wanna answer the phone?" you muttered.
"W-what?"
"Steven are you up?" There was a knock on the bedroom door and Eddie woke with a start. He groggily looked around the room, at the plaid wallpaper and the tidy belongings.
Damn. The thing that he hoped was a dream was real, and the thing he hoped was real was only a dream.
"There's someone calling for you. Did you wanna answer?" Mrs. Harrington said through the door.
"Y-yeah, uh," Eddie called out and cleared his throat. "M-mom." The word was unfamiliar on his tongue, in his brain. Like a language that hadn't been practiced in quite some time.
He hoped, at the very least, Steve didn't call her "mommy."
He had been well on his way to an early-riser if he hadn't been woken up, but nothing was a bigger boner-killer than thinking of Mrs. Harrington as "mommy."
"Alright, come downstairs when you're ready; I'm making breakfast too. Your favorite."
Eddie pushed himself out of Steve's bed for the fifth day in a row. Threw on some of Steve's clothes for the fifth day in a row.
After the discussion with the kids on Friday night, he and Steve had agreed to go through the motions, make the best of living one-another's lives and actually put in the effort. Eddie told him about the things he did to make things easier around the trailer since Wayne worked nights--the laundry, grocery shopping, bringing home a little extra money by dealing—and Steve told Eddie the things he did—driving Robin to school, working at Family Video, his "health routines."
Although, Eddie would hesitate to call shaving his chest and styling his hair something someone did for their health.
He was also hesitant to maintain Steve's morning run, considering the fact that he hated running, but found that it was easier in Steve's athletic body than in his garbage bag one—Steve's words, not his.
They also set one non-negotiable thing each, that the other must do no matter what.
For Eddie, that was Corroded Coffin and their Tuesday gigs, like the one they had that night.
He had spent the weekend coming up with a plan for them to still play, even with Steve in his body and fully unable to play the guitar. Steve had even offered to learn some easy guitar riffs or chords, but Eddie had standards to keep. It would be his luck that on the night Steve was in his body putzing around that some....record label exec would walk into the Hideout. He wasn't gonna let that fly.
So they figured out that "Steve" would be spending some time with "Eddie" at Dustin's request so they could "reconcile their differences." And in an effort to learn more about "Eddie," he would go to Corroded Coffin's shows.
Since the "stage lights" were so bright and blinding anyway, no one would know that he slipped into the supply closet where his Fender would be plugged into the equipment, while Steve faked playing an unfortunately dead Sweetheart on stage. There was more to the performance than just focusing on the music...so he'd just have to hope that none of the guys gave Steve any cues that he couldn't see.
The singing was an easy fix. Jeff was working on his confidence; Eddie would just let him be the frontman tonight. No need to worry about Steve knowing any of the songs, let alone their lyrics.
He was an optimist when it came to music though. This would work.
For Steve, it was that Eddie did not talk to his parents outside of any quick, cordial conversations. And Eddie wasn't one to pry—he had his fair share of parental issues—it just seemed weird that the mention of Ma and Pa Harrington would cause Golden Boy Stevie to choke up the way he did.
Thankfully for Eddie, the Harrington's had vibrant social lives. Thomas Harrington worked late at the car dealership and then went out for dinner and drinks with his salesmen most nights Monday through Saturday. And on Sunday he got his clubs out of the hall closet and went to the Country Club to play with his other businessman friends for most of the day. Mary Harrington was just...unexplainably gone from the house for most of the day, most days. Eddie couldn't even explain when she was home to do all of the things she seemed to do around the house.
"Steve" had the day off of work yesterday so he was home for most of the day, and short of the few hours he had left the house to take you out on another date, Mary hadn't been home at all. Miraculously, when he returned at the end of the night, his hamper was empty, his bed had been made, his new schedule was written in his calendar, and his lunch was ready in the fridge for the following day.
Eddie wondered why everyone thought he was capable of dark magic when, clearly, Mary Harrington was the town's resident witch.
This morning was the first one that he had even heard her voice, let alone be the first time he would see her as he resided in Steve’s body.
Eddie crept down the stairs and into the hall, peering around to see if Mrs. Harrington was anywhere nearby then approached the little hall table where the phone was sitting off the hook.
"Good morning, this is Steve Harrington," he greeted as he pressed the receiver to his ear. "Fine purveyor of rental videos, microwave popcorn, and movie theater candy. How can I help you?" There was giggling on the other end of the line and he grinned.
"Please don't tell me that's how you answer the phone at Family Video?" you said, instead of a "hello."
"I will now," he promised.
"No!"
"You'll just have to call more often and stop people from actually having to hear it." His smile grew at your skeptical uh huh and he continued. "What's going on this morning, honey. I thought you had class."
He could envision you leaning against a payphone, twirling a finger through a lock of your hair.
"I have a few minutes," you explained. "But I just wanted to call and say I had a really good time last night."
He had taken you to the drive in to see a double feature—House on Haunted Hill and The Bat; Eddie knew you loved Vincent Price but "Steve" just had incredibly luck—but most of the night was spent talking and holding hands and at the end of the night, he got to kiss you again.
Eddie felt triumphant once again, knowing deep down that you would like the dates he had planned over anything Steve could have come up with.
Part of the discussion with Steve about how to go about each other's lives also included you. Eddie had hesitated and asked how Steve felt that someone else was dating his girlfriend and Steve had just shrugged.
"She's a good one, I don't wanna let her get away," Steve shrugged. "You'll just have to keep her warm for me."
"Is that really the best way to build a relationship?" Eddie asked. "Lies? Tricks?"
"She doesn't have to know you're not me," Steve explained. "Just...take it easy, don't do any of the good stuff until we switch back. You wanna know some of my favorite dating spots?"
So Eddie decided...if he happened to be stuck in Steve's body forever he could have you. And if he ever made it back to his body...well...Steve wasn't exactly as smooth as people thought he was. If he couldn't keep up the loverboy act Eddie had started, you would get fed up and dump him.
And Eddie would be right there to pick up the pieces.
"Oh yeah?" Eddie laughed. "Well I'm glad. I did too. What was your favorite part?"
"Uhhh...oh! That part when you—"
The two of you chatted for a few minutes, talking and laughing easily, before you told him you had to get to class. He needed to get going too, so he could drive Robin to school.
His chest ached a little when he hung up the phone.
"It's good to see you smiling, Stevie," came a voice from over his shoulder. He jumped, seeing Mary leaning against the threshold to the living room.
"Uh, good morning," Eddie greets her.
"Were you hungry? Figured we could have a little chat over breakfast," she smiled an obviously strained smile.
Shit, how did she know? What did she know?
"I actually have to get going," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder then put his hands in his pockets. "Take Robin to school...get to work, open the shop."
"Let me get your lunch then!" Her eyes crinkled at the corners and she dashed away. Eddie wondered if he could make an escape before she came back, but before long she was pressing the brown paper bag into his hand. "I put your allowance in there too. Remember Dad can't find out about it, Steve. Please...dad can't find out. Please."
"Oh...kay," Eddie frowned. Was that the reason Steve didn't want Eddie talking to his parents? Because his dad cut him off but his mom was giving him money instead? Well, Eddie could keep a secret, and enjoy the benefits of some extra pocket money. "Sure. Mom. Whatever you say. I've gotta go."
"You have plans tonight?" she asked. "I can leave dinner for you."
"Nah, I'll probably be home late," Eddie explained. "Going out with friends."
Mary's face fell into a neutral expression, then she rolled her eyes and sighed. It was night and day from how it was just moments before, and it was incredibly uncomfortable for Eddie.
"You can't do this forever Steven," she shook her head. "Keep me at arms length. I'm your mother. I'm trying."
"I don't...I'm sorry mom. I've gotta go."
Eddie scooped Steve's keys out of the little dish on the table and headed towards the front door.
"I'm trying, Steven," Mary called after him cryptically. "You can't be mad at me forever."
Tuesdays were your favorite day of the week.
Well they weren't...your favorite; did anyone even have a favorite day of the week?
To be completely honest, they were actually kind of nasty.
Tuesdays and Thursdays were the days you had the heaviest course load at the Community College. Your first class started at 7am—you thought they would be easy thanks to your early starts in high school, but you thought wrong—and aside from a brief, squeezed-in lunch break at 11:45, you had classes straight until 3. Tuesdays also meant Bingo at the Rec center and an early dinner rush of senior citizens at Benny's that started right at the beginning of your shift. So no breaks again until closer to 6? Or 7? Or later if the actual dinner rush ran long.
And Benny was a nice guy, right? He always let you take an extra 5 minutes when he made his rounds about the restaurant to greet the regulars.
But Lynn? The curmudgeonly opening waitress who had been around Benny's before it was even Benny's?! Who had been doing this for longer than you'd been alive? Lynn spent the tiny bit of overlap in your shifts criticizing everything you did.
Every. Little. Thing.
Usually you could ignore her, but on Tuesdays when you were just one...big mass of irritation, it took everything in you not to flip her the bird as she left. Just one big "fuck you, you miserable old bitch" to her back as she retreated to her clunky, old Mercury Monterey.
As soon as her tail lights were out of sight from the diner windows and she was a little too far to turn back and chastise you about something she forgot to earlier—she had done that enough for it to always be a valid fear—you got to breathe.
You suddenly gained a sense of serenity and joy.
Because Tuesday wasn't your favorite day. Tuesday nights were your favorite nights.
Corroded Coffin came in on Tuesdays. Eddie came in on Tuesdays.
You told yourself going into the day...well, now that you were dating Steve...it was going to be different. It had to be different. The date on Friday really felt like Steve had turned a new leaf; he was moving on from Nancy and was actually gonna give this thing with you a chance.
And your date with him the night before? It had been so perfect; you hadn't even thought about Eddie once. Well...actually...
That fleeting thought you had about Eddie on Friday night, wondering how he might kiss you, left a pit in your stomach. And it had returned with a vengeance after Steve had kissed you last night too. Enough so that it practically kept you up all night from guilt and made you call him this morning to tell him...
I really had a good time with you last night but when you kissed me I thought of someone else.
...to tell him what a great time you had, and that you were excited to see him again.
And it wasn't a lie. You were excited to see him. Excited for this change in him. Excited for the attention and affection he freely gave you during these last two dates that he, generally, hadn't given you during the first two.
You owed it to Steve, and to yourself, to give it a chance. And in order for it to be a fair chance, you had to make a clear distinction in your mind that...well...Steve was...your boyfriend now, and Eddie? Eddie was unfortunately just a friend.
A friend you wanted to kiss.
God this was gonna be difficult.
You could still be nice to him, still look forward to Tuesday nights when he and the guys would come in. They were fun nights filled with music and silly arguments and a textbook example of "boys will be boys."
You simply had to remember that all of those little extra things you did—make sure his favorite booth was free, ask Benny for pickles on his patty melt that he always forgot to ask for, or give him extra whipped cream on his slice of pie—weren't because you wanted Eddie to like you. Or notice you. Or maybe ask you out one day.
It was because you were his friend.
You had even come up with some foolproof plan to get the butterflies to stop flapping in your stomach when you did all of those little things for Eddie. Because you certainly couldn't stop doing them; that would be suspicious. Instead, every time your heart would beat a little harder for Eddie, you would just...think of Steve. His smile and his laugh and his kiss...
It would be so easy.
And certainly much easier tonight of all nights, as Steve walked into Benny's with Corroded Coffin, laughing along to some joke Jeff told before they had opened the door.
It would be so easy.
"Hey guys," you greeted nervously and turned to Steve. "What are you doing here?"
“What a lovely greeting Honey,” Steve chuckled and quickly glanced around before he pressed a quick kiss to your cheek. You felt your face heat up in embarrassment as Eddie and the boys watched the interaction, Dave and Gareth giving Eddie pointed looks, which he ignored.
How strange.
“Steve, please,” you laughed nervously. “I’m at work.”
“Well the boss isn’t around,” Steve pointed out.
“Uh…w-well I have your usual booth ready guys,” you greeted Eddie and his friends.
"Harrington's joining us tonight," Eddie pointed out. "Can we get a table or instead?"
"I can just pull an extra chair up to the booth," you offered, knowing Eddie really liked the view out of the window.
"Yeah," Steve agreed. "That booth does sound nice, Eddie. I don't mind a chair."
"No, we'll get a table," Eddie waved a hand dismissively. "Everyone good with that?" The rest of the guys agreed and Steve huffed an agreement beside you.
"Ok, uh," you stammered. "Wherever you guys wanna sit then, I'm the only one here tonight. And Ben. As usual."
It wasn't...terrible or anything, them wanting a table, it just threw off your cadence. If they had sat in the booth, you already had menus, waters, and silverware set out. Now you had to move everything across the restaurant because Eddie had beelined for a round table in the corner.
It was fine.
Steve hung back for a second and pulled you to the side.
"Hey, uh, is it ok that I'm here?" he asked. "You look a little flustered."
"Yeah, no I'm ok," you gave him a small smile. "Just wasn't expecting you. And I've had a bit of a long day. Kind of overdue for my last break too."
"You should ask Benny if you can take your break," Steve offered. "We'll be fine. The guys are hungry but they'll have to wait regardless."
"The...guys..." you narrowed your eyes at Steve. It felt too familiar coming from his mouth. "What are you doing here with them Steve?"
There was a beat as Steve's eyes got a little bigger and he looked down at his feet for a second before he cleared his throat.
"Listen Honey, I took what you said the other day to heart," Steve started quietly, inching a little closer to you. "About Eddie being your friend. I figured...he had something going on with him, I shouldn't have been so quick to judge. So I went to check up on him and...I don't know, turns out the guy isn't half bad when you get to know him."
"Really?" you asked blankly. You had no reason not to trust him but...going from calling someone a dangerous freak who should be in jail to hanging out with him and his friends in just a few days...seemed drastic.
But when you stared into his hazel eyes, there wasn't a hint of deceit in them.
"Sure," he shrugged a little. "I even went and watched his band play tonight."
"You did?" You were sure the craziest music Steve was into was Van Halen, if that. All of the tapes in his car were…rocky and poppy and nothing outside of the Top 40 charts.
"They're pretty good," he grinned. "Very good actually. They did Flight of Icarus and Mr. Crowley."
"You...listen to metal?" you asked with a frown.
"Uh," Steve shrugged again. "There's some good songs. And Ozzy. Who doesn't know Ozzy?"
"You gonna sit there and chit chat all night Harrington?" Eddie called from the table and the rest of the guys all chuckled. Steve's eyes hardened for a second but he gave you a gentle smile before he went to join them.
You didn't always go outside during your breaks; more often than not, you would sit in the kitchen, do some homework, and chat with Benny as he manned the grill. You'd think a middle-aged man and a 19-year old would have nothing in common, but Benny was honestly like an aloof father figure. He just stood there as you talked or complained about this or that, offered advice or lame jokes. It was perfect.
But tonight was just...confusing.
You tried to make the best of it, you really did. You brought the guys everything they needed, you smiled shyly when Steve reached over and held your hand as he ordered...
He even asked for a little kiss and you reluctantly gave him a peck on the cheek.
But it was Eddie.
He was being a real douchebag. Not to everyone else; just to you.
You had gotten their table set up and then went to check on the other customers and get their drink orders. But when you came back, he didn't even want his Dr. Pepper. He said water was fine.
When you asked everyone if they wanted their usuals—Patty Melts all around. No onions for Dave, extra sauce for Gareth, on a bun instead of rye for Jeff, and add pickles for Eddie—Eddie changed his mind and ordered a bacon cheeseburger instead. Ok, no big deal. It wasn't the first time he'd changed it up.
But then he had just been...picky.
The fries were overdone, the bacon wasn't crispy, it wasn't medium well.
You had brought his food back to the kitchen 3 times, and Benny even offered to kill Eddie for you to get you to laugh.
"He's a good kid but maybe it's his time of the month or something," Benny shrugged, urging you to let things slide. "Got bitten by a werewolf. Or turned into a vampire or something. I could even put some garlic powder on the fries, see if it does him in."
He then told you to go take your break, that he would take the burger back out and make sure none of the guys were having any problems with their food.
"Or else," he raised his spatula as though it was a deadly weapon.
Who knows, Benny kept things to himself, maybe he could kill someone with a spatula...
You were leaning against the grey stucco on the side of the building, enjoying the slight breeze, when there was a crunch of gravel off to the side. You turned your head to see Steve standing there with a small smile and his hands in his pockets.
"You doing ok, honey?" he asked.
"Yeah, just a long day like I said," you explained.
"How was class?"
"Stupid. How was work?"
"Stupid." He grinned wider. "I, uh, was really looking forward to seeing you tonight though."
You pursed your lips to stop the smile from making it onto your face.
"You really wanted to see me in my stupid uniform?" you asked, holding your hands out to emphasize the shapeless blue dress. "I look like Hazel."
"Did I ever tell you that I had the biggest crush on Shirley Booth when I was a kid?" You broke out in laughter. "What? What's so funny? Hazel might just be my type, did you ever think of that?"
"You are..." you started, but paused and shook your head dismissively as he got closer to you.
"I'm?" he questioned, leaning over to take one of your hands in his. He pressed a gentle kiss to your knuckles.
"You're not...what I expected Steve Harrington to be like," you muttered. His eyes went wide for a second as they darted back and forth between yours. "You're so much better."
"Of course I'm better, it's because I'm..." He faltered for a moment. "It's because I'm crazy about you, honey."
Your heart dropped into your stomach...
Steve was...crazy about you?
"You just make me wanna dance," he chuckled and took a step back, pulling you with him. He lifted your arm and made to twirl you around, and you laughed as you tripped on the gravel drive. He urged you to try again and you managed to twirl this time, apron flaring.
Round and around until you got a little dizzy and he pulled you to his chest.
"Hi Honey," he whispered as he rocked you back and forth to some unheard tune.
"Hi," you giggled breathlessly.
"Can I kiss you?"
"You don't always have to ask."
"But can?"
"Always."
Then his lips pressed to yours and you closed your eyes and you were surrounded by him again. Noses brushing, his lips softly pecking at yours, his hands tugging you closer as you reached up to hold his face in yours.
He pulled away briefly to drop little kisses on the corner of your mouth, then your cheek. Your eyes opened and you watched your own fingers thread through his hair, seemingly leading him further along to your neck, but instead it was just an unwitting follower because the choice to suck a bruising kiss at your pulse point was anything but yours.
You grasped at him tighter as something between a whimper and a moan exited you, and he chuckled in a husky, smokey way before laving his tongue over the abused spot.
You closed your eyes again, luxuriating in the moment and all things Steve Harrington...then it hit you.
All of the other senses got to you first—touch and taste, and sound and sight—and now it was smell. And it wasn't what you had initially associated with Steve, that bright, citrus scent.
It was musky and sweaty and spicy and a little bit sweet. There was a heavy undertone of tobacco beneath it all.
Eddie.
"Hey kid, break time's over!" Benny hollered into the night and you pushed yourself away from Steve, stumbling over the gravel drive once again. His hands reached out for you, to pull you back or to steady you, you couldn't be sure.
You regained your footing and batted his hands away to quickly fix your rumpled uniform and wipe at your lips with the back of your hand.
"You good Honey?" Steve chuckled. "You need a minute?"
"Uhh, yeah, I'll be in there in just a second," you waved him back inside. He gave you a wink and a smug smile before he turned and headed back to the door.
Your posture went slack for a second as you tried to control your heart rate and your thoughts. And where your head should have been consumed with thoughts of Steve, instead they were filled with—
"Nope! No. No more!" You stomped your feet and gave your face a few light slaps. "No more. Bad."
You took a few deep breaths, regained your composed service persona, and headed back in.
You spotted the guys table had been cleared, so you got ready for the best part of the night.
Benny was a realist who knew how to do burgers, fries, and shakes, and outside of that, didn't push the ticket. Which meant all of the desserts came from the local bakery every afternoon. They even came pre-sliced.
The whipped cream however? Benny was a connoisseur. He boasted to everyone that had the patience to hear about it that it wasn't cool whip, it wasn't from a squeeze can. If there was whipped cream on a shake or a dessert it was fresh.
"Nothing good in life comes without a little effort," he said the first time he handed you the hand-crank-egg beater-turned-cream-whipper that was, most assuredly, older than you.
So you spent the next few minutes plating everyone's desserts, whipping the cream, and getting it all looking perfect. It might have been the end of their meal, but it was the highlight of your night.
You would take a win where you could. Because everything else felt...
"Alright guys, time for dessert?" you asked, bringing the tray to their table.
You went clockwise starting with Eddie at the head of the table.
Cherry pie for Eddie, Apple for Gareth and Dave, Cheesecake for Jeff.
"And I didn't know what you'd like Steve," you told him with a sad smile. "But just let me know what sounds good and I can go grab it for you."
You were about to start putting dollops of whipped cream on everyone's dessert when Eddie pushed his plate further out from him.
"I didn't ask for Cherry," he said with a sniff.
Everything went quiet.
"Uh," Dave looked at the other guys at the table. "Cherry is your favorite man."
"I don't know, I'm not in a cherry pie mood," Eddie dismissed. He looked up at you "Can I get cheesecake instead? No whipped cream."
"S-sure," you smiled.
You were about to grab the cherry pie from the table to bring it back when Steve reached out and pulled it towards him.
"I'll just take this one," he reasoned. "Cherry actually is my favorite, and I am definitely in a cherry pie mood."
Eddie laughed.
"Whatever you say Harrington," he teased with a roll of his eyes. "Guess you have to get an extra long run in tomorrow if you're indulging so much. Mr. Star Athlete over here."
The
"I'm not gonna say no to cherry pie," Steve shrugged then looked at you. "Can I get extra cream on mine honey?"
He winked at you and you felt your face heating up, but you kept your mouth shut. You went around piping the whipped cream on everyone else's desserts, then ran back to the kitchen to get Eddie's.
As soon as the door swung shut behind you, you started to feel sick.
Something was wrong...
It was just off, you'd been feeling it all night. But you couldn't put a finger on it until now.
It was Eddie...
He was still his funny self...for the most part. But just like the other day at Family Video, he just seemed to be operating on a different frequency. And you wondered for a second if maybe it was you...or maybe it was Steve...maybe the fact that Steve was here and he wasn't...being very discreet with his affections. Neither were you, if you were being honest.
Was he...angry? Jealous?
He was the one to invite Steve out in the first place, so it seemed. Something just didn't make sense...
Steve had to admit that he was having fun.
It had barely been a few days of being Eddie Munson, but it was great. He spent most of the weekend with the kids learning the basics of DnD and putting together some things for a campaign.
He still didn't really get the whole game part, actually. But spending time with the kids? He wouldn't say no.
Having to go to school again wasn't...the greatest. Especially when all of the teachers seemed to have it out for Eddie. Steve just...started paying a little more attention, stopped being a general menace during class. He dug deep to remember some of the coursework from last year...and vaguely wondered how much Eddie didn't pay attention in class in the first place. Steve was not a model student and he could still remember this stuff, so he figured Eddie should be getting an A+ in all of his classes he was repeating now for a second time.
He was sorely mistaken.
Eddie's friends were also...pretty nice too, he had to admit. He had never really given the Hellfire Club the time of day when he was still at Hawkins High, aside from the obvious, but they were actually pretty nice guys.
The music though? It had been the highlight of his week so far.
Steve hadn't ever really understood what the big whoop the theater kids got performing but it was an adrenaline rush, something he hadn't felt for months since he was no longer a star athlete. He hadn't even been playing the guitar but the high of being on that raised platform, having the lights in his eyes, having his heart beat in time with the drum. He hammed it up a bit on the stage once he felt confident enough, like he had seen in one concert or another.
It wasn't the kind of music he liked, really, but he could get used to it if only to chase that rush.
And Steve had felt like a king again when Jeff had clapped him on the shoulder at the end of the set and excitedly gushed on that being the first time he had ever fully landed some solo or another.
Except..."Eddie" hadn't nailed the solo. Eddie had.
And as infectious as the celebration was, it made him feel a little guilty that Eddie couldn't even properly celebrate what must have been an exciting moment. Instead he just sauntered out from the little alcove they had set up and watched Steve take the credit for his accomplishments.
Steve went through the motions, just like they had agreed on, for the rest of the night.
They went to Benny's with "Steve" in tow at "Eddie's" insistence—he couldn't be left alone with Eddie's friends, he just knew he would fuck something up and give it all away—and had their late night bites.
And you were there, laughing and chatting and doting on all of the guys, especially "Steve." Even though it sucked watching you kiss his cheek, knowing it was really Eddie inside…it was nice to know that he had something to look forward to once he got back into his own body.
Something real. Something he thought he had with Nancy.
Now that the remnants of dessert were pretty much over and the guys were just shooting the shit until Benny kicked them out, Steve wandered across the restaurant to the old jukebox to pick out some music.
He briefly wondered what the response would be if “Eddie” picked something like Billy Joel. He couldn't give less of a shit though. "Eddie" might not like it but Steve was a little tired of metal after hearing it all night, after all.
"Hey Eddie?" your voice came from behind him and he turned to face you.
"Yeah, hey...uh...sweetheart," he gave you an easy smile. "What's up?"
"I just wanted to make sure you were doing ok," you explained. “You seem…I dunno, kinda off tonight.”
“What?” Steve faltered. He seemed off? How? If you could tell…could the others?
”Yeah you didn’t…want your regular order, you didn’t want pie,” you shrugged. “Didn’t even want whipped cream on your cheesecake.”
Shit.
How was it that he could flawlessly fake his way through a guitar solo, but not this?
"I...uh...," he started hesitantly, wracking his brain for an excuse. He dug deep, deeper than he thought was possible, and he came up with...
Dinner with his parents. His father pushing away a plateful of food. His mother looking tired and bored.
"Sometimes people's tastes change," he finished.
It was a painful answer for him to give...but he didn't think you and Eddie were close enough for your expression to crumple the way it did. It probably wasn't the kind of answer Eddie would give to a friend—he had seen how protective he had been over them even before this whole fiasco—but if it meant getting you off his back, he would easily do something that would push you away.
"You know I've been worried about you," you stared. "The other day, outside of Family Video. It was so incredibly scary. And if you're having a tough time..."
"Uh, yeah," Steve folded his arms across his chest awkwardly. "Sorry about that. It was just...just a bad high. I'm ok now. No need to worry."
"Ok," you nodded hesitantly. Steve thought you would just turn on your heel and walk away.
But you didn't.
“Listen I know we’re not…super close or anything,” you hesitated. Steve raised his eyebrows and nodded for you to continue. “I just…I want you to know you aren’t alone.”
“Thanks, uh, I appreciate that,” he nodded and smiled tightly.
"And if there is something going on, you can trust me."
"Of course."
"You know," you paused and looked down at your hands. It was several beats of you taking deep breaths and looking down at your hands, and Steve wondered if you were waiting for some kind of response...or thinking the right words to say next. You glanced up and frowned. "I had a-a c-crush on you in high school."
His heart dropped in his chest and suddenly it felt like Nancy all over again. Telling him that she didn't love him, telling him that it was over, that their relationship was fake, that she didn't even know she was ready to be in a relationship. Only to show up with Jonathan Byers to the Sadie Hawkins dance a few weeks later.
Steve thought everything was working out so well with you. He watched you...kiss his cheek.
Were you planning on breaking up with him?
He wanted to lash out, like a wild animal, tell you all of the things he wishes he could have said to Nancy.
Except...
Except he wasn't Steve Harrington at that moment, he was Eddie Munson.
And you weren't confessing your feelings in a way like someone with a crush would. You didn't look happy or excited. You didn't even really look like your usual sweet and kind self. You looked conflicted.
Because, he realized, he did watch you kiss his cheek. He, Steve, watched you kiss "Steve's" cheek.
If you weren't here to tell "Eddie" that you were breaking up with "Steve" to be with him, then what were you doing?
"I-I mean, we both did," you backtracked with a little laugh and Steve frowned. "Me and Terry. You remember Terry right? I mean, of course you do."
Steve didn't know who Terry was, but "Eddie" would.
"Of course I do."
""Right," you smiled. "Anyway, we both had a crush on you. And there was this time...I don't know, you don't want to hear about this."
"You're dating Steve now," he pointed out. "Why are you telling me this? Why are you telling me that you—"
"I guess," you interrupted him but hesitated again. "You seemed pretty lonely last year, all the times we talked. Even if they weren't...talks? Just small talk. But...after Mickey left for college and you stayed behind—"
That's right, Mickey Caldwell...and his sister Terry...
"--well you have the band and all...but...no one even wanted to be your partner in class but me. And now...you have to do it again and I'm sure it's even harder now."
Steve was catching on.
You weren't there to tell "Eddie" that you were breaking up with "Steve" to be with him. You were just being a good friend. Because even though Eddie had his group of misfit friends...
He was lonely.
Steve knew the feeling. Aside from Robin and the kids...he really didn't have anyone around either. He had just been thinking about how nice it was to spend time with Eddie and his friends after all.
Steve had been jealous that Eddie was spending all of this time with the kids...taking them away from Steve, when he was just as lonely as Steve was...if not more so.
It gave him an idea...
"So," you broke Steve from his thoughts. "If you ever...want to talk. I'm here for you. You have me, always, if ever you want."
You smiled then. Bright and hopeful.
"Well, thanks, sweetheart," he nodded and placed a hand on your shoulder. "I appreciate it...really...it's very nice of you. You're a really good friend."
He didn't see—didn't notice—how your smile fell as he walked past you to get back to the table with the rest of the guys.
Eddie walked into the familiar darkness of the Harrington house, a good exhaustion settling in his bones as he trudged up the stairs and into his bedroom.
He went through the motions of getting ready for bed. with a peaceful smile on his face. It had been a good day, the likes of which he really hadn’t felt in a long time. If ever.
The show at the Hideout then dinner at Benny’s. Dancing with you, kissing you, and holding you in his arms.
He could see your smile in his mind’s eye clear as day.
He didn’t want to delude himself into thinking it was love or…or happiness…it was just joy. Plain and simple. And it brought him so much comfort, knowing he could be the one to provide that for you.
Once he was in bed though, and he replayed specific moments over again, that comfort soon faded.
He tried to sleep, he really did.
But every thought he had, he thought of you. Looking perfect in your little uniform. Your laugh as you spoke to everyone, the special attention you gave him. You looked at him the way he always wanted you to.
You moaned the way he could only ever have imagined when he kissed your neck. It was filthy and still ringing in his ears hours later.
He’d wanted to touch you, just like he did in his dream that morning and it was even nicer than he had imagined.
The only thing that would have made it better was if he was in his own body. If it was him, Eddie Munson, that you were looking at and feeling things for and moaning for.
It was with all of that and at the reminder of the dream that he had been so rudely pulled from that morning, that Eddie started getting hot under the collar.
It wasn’t about sex, really; it was intimacy. And that’s what he wanted more than anything. The closeness with you. To know you. To be with you.
He closed his eyes and imagined your smile directed at him again, the way you put your hand on his shoulder when you asked if everyone was alright, and then fixed his hair a little bit when you went to leave.
His hair…he’d always been sensitive about it and even in this other body…in his own body…giving it a tug always helped get his motor running.
Eddie reached up and gave Steve’s hair an experimental tug, the short few days not nearly enough for him to be used to the difference in length and texture. It felt crunchy from all the product he had put in and it immediately felt uncomfortable on his fingers.
No touching the hair, noted.
He vaguely wondered, were his nerves on fire because this body was sensitive and aroused and receptive to your attention. Or was it because he, Eddie Munson, resided inside.
Only one way to find out.
He palmed himself over the comforter, then over his sweats, but it wasn’t enough.
Eddie didn’t hesitate to strip himself of his sweats and the suffocating briefs, and he propped the pillows behind him in a more comfortable way so he could…well so he could watch if he wanted to.
Right now he just wanted to imagine. To feel.
The thought of touching himself had vaguely crossed his mind the other day, after he’d jumped into a cold shower shortly after he’d woken up with morning wood. He wondered if that was crossing a line though. Steve’s dick…was just a dick. Just like his dick was a dick. The same but different. And he’d seen different ones before and yeah some were weird or different sized…did it matter?
If Eddie thought about it from a mechanical sense…a car was a car, no matter who the owner was, or how cautious or rough the driver was…and even two cars of the same make and model could have their very unique quirks…
As long as everything worked and you got from Point A to Point B right?
So he closed his eyes and imagined.
You were there, of course, back outside of Benny’s. He was making you laugh and twirling you around, just like he had earlier that night. Watching your little uniform skirt balloon out just the slightest bit. It wasn’t ruffly or anything, just a standard waitress uniform with a straight skirt.
It didn’t take much touching to get him fully hard; he’d spent enough time exploring to know what he liked so he just let the feelings guide him in this new body.
He licked his palm several times then spit in his hand before he held the shaft loosely. He gave it a few loose strokes before he tightened his grip a little and twisted, hissing at the sweet friction.
But this was his fantasy, so your uniform could be anything. Flowier, shorter, enough to see the frilly lace edge of your panties when he twirled you and the skirt flared.
“Didn’t know you were trying to turn this sweet moment into a peep show,” you giggled at him and swatted at his chest as he pulled you into his chest to rock together with him.
“I dunno honey,” he sighed. “I think I would be seeing more than just some lace if this was a peep show.”
“Well, what did you have in mind, big boy?”
The hand that had been resting near his head immediately went down to cup and squeeze his balls, and his throat got tighter as he held in a strangled moan. He wasn’t…too sure if he liked it all that much…but he was positive that he didn’t dislike it. He could make himself grow to like it if he needed to.
He stilled the stroking to run his fingers over the head; a favorite little move of his where he pivoted his wrist, letting the joints in his fingers run over the tip and around the head of his cock, hitting all of his sensitive spots in varying intervals. It wasn’t the same, his fingers weren’t as long now, as he noted while he was playing the guitar earlier.
Regardless, pleasure still surged through him, so it got the job done.
“No peeking,” you whispered against his lips and you covered his eyes with his hands. He’d asked for your panties and you’d agreed without hesitation. If this wasn’t a dream, he would never have been that lucky. He chuckled as your hands pulled away from his and it took everything in him not to look through his fingers at the sound of the rustling of your uniform.
Suddenly your hands were on the waist of his jeans, working the button open and the zipper downwards.
“Honey, what are you doing?” he teased. “You being naughty?” He just about pulled his hands away from his eyes and you snatched your hands away from him.
“Nooo,” you sing-songed. “No looking yet, I’ll tell you when.”
The ache for him to chase his release was different than he was used to. The best way to describe what he usually felt was…dulcet…smooth…it danced along his nerve endings and made him want more. Drove him to do more, to explore more. A siren’s song to tug and twist and tease until he was floating. But now it was almost…primordial. It leached into his skin and deep into his bones; a hefty, cloying need that would grip his entire being whole and drag him into the depths of the earth itself if it could.
It was a delicious contrast, the difference between the softness of your hand wrapped around him and the slight drag from your panties as you used them to help get him off.
You spit on his tip and let it mingle with his precum, let it slide over the sensitive skin.
Eddie spit in his hand again, trying to achieve that feeling that his imagination conjured up but was just outside of the corporeal.
“Do you like it?” you asked and he could hear the feral grin in your voice.
“I like it,” he moaned.
“Do you like me?”
“I love you,” he said breathlessly. “Fuck, I would love you so if you just let me.”
He was close, it was euphoric. His nerves exploding, synapses firing as he twisted his hand around the head just so, squeezed his balls again, and then the base of his cock.
“Ok you can look now.”
And he did, directly into those mischievous, knowing eyes of yours as you looked right back at him.
“Cum for me Steve.”
And…he couldn’t…he couldn’t…
Eddie opened his eyes and stared around the room–a room that wasn’t his–looked down at the hands that weren’t his, touching the cock that wasn’t his.
Because as much as Eddie could simply…compartmentalize and rationalize for however long he had been in his little fantasy…
It was Steve, it was all Steve. All you wanted right now was Steve Harrington and not Eddie Munson. You probably would never want Eddie.
And maybe one day–if he was still cursed to live like this, if he was stuck in this body until the end of his life–he could live with the fact that you wanted Steve because hopefully.
But as his pleasure evaded him and all of the sad thoughts returned, he simply couldn’t escape the simple fact that his honey didn’t want him…she wanted someone else.
The guys had left shortly after your...interaction with Eddie.
Your confession.
The sweet kiss Steve had given you before they had left was...wonderful. But it was like the glue holding together the broken vase on that one episode of the Brady Bunch.
The feelings were building, the pressure too much, and before long...you sprung a leak and the reality of what you had done hit you. It had you shaking. Benny must have known something was wrong; he had asked you all through your closing tasks if you were alright.
"You good kid?" He asked. "Cuz I can finish up if you wanna get home. I know today's your busy day."
Truth be told, he always asked you that, but the extra edge of concern to his voice was a dead giveaway that you weren't doing a good job of holding it together.
“Nah Ben,” you smiled meekly. “I’m ok. Tired. But I’ll make it. Thanks.”
You started hyperventilating by the time you got into your car.
“Stupid, you’re so stupid,” you muttered to yourself. “How could you tell him?”
You weren’t even sure what possessed you to say anything, what compelled you to stop and say those dumb words.
You know, I had a crush on you.
What did you expect him to say...confess that he had a crush on you too?
Declare his undying love for you?
Instead he just called you a friend.
By the time you reached the 5th street intersection, you rationalized that, at the very least, you hadn’t mentioned that you still had a crush on Eddie. And as you pulled into your driveway, you were panicking again because…well what did this mean now that Steve was spending time with Eddie?
Would he say anything? God, did Steve already know?
It really was nice that Steve was hanging out with Eddie...they seemed to get along well enough. And yeah Eddie had the guys but…well, it wasn’t a stretch to say that Eddie could use as many friends on his side as he could get. He always put on a brave face but that didn’t mean he never felt lonely. Or alone. Stuck in a place he desperately didn’t want to be.
You just wanted to tell him it was ok. That he had you if he want—
"God, stop," you slammed your hands against the steering wheel as though it would force the thoughts from your brain. As though it would stop your heart from aching. "Stop thinking about him, you have to stop thinking about him."
Because the more you thought about Eddie, the more you’d want to comfort him.
And the more you wanted to comfort him, the more you’d want to hold him and kiss him.
And he’d made it plenty clear tonight that he didn’t see you as anything more than Mickey’s Kid Sister’s Silly Friend.
Or at least that’s just how it felt.
Another busybody townie who couldn’t mind their own business, who had to offer words of encouragement, who pitied him.
No. Not that. He didn't give people who pitied him the time of day. What if...
Bile rose in your throat as you came to a realization.
What if he didn’t just see you as another silly townie? What if he had known? He had known you had a crush on him all along, and he had taken pity on you. Because you were Terry's friend, he didn't want you to get hurt. And now that you were with Steve...he couldn't let you keep your hopes up anymore? You had a real boyfriend now.
That was it...
He was just...being nice to you all this time.
And that...hurt.
The realization of all that wasted time. Years spent thinking...hoping...
You made it into your house, went through the motions of getting ready for bed, and numbly said goodnight to your mom as your mind raced and raced and your heart broke even more.
It wasn't until you were tucked into bed, head filled with sad thoughts of every time you thought that maybe...just maybe Eddie liked you back, that you remembered.
Your diary.
Some silly old pink think that Terry had gotten you for your birthday years ago. You didn't write in it too often—you hadn't ever really been a diary person—certainly not recently. It was tucked into your nightstand underneath magazines and random junk from your school bag.
You sat up, turned the lamp on, and opened the drawer. You dug through the junk until you found it.
You flipped indiscriminately through pages filled with doodles and random thoughts. Until you came across entries from your freshman year at Hawkins High.
Silly things about class schedules and how mean Mrs. O'Donnell was and how you were not good in geometry.
And then...hearts and stars and flowers and one name repeated over and over and over...
Eddie Munson. Edward Munson. Mrs. Edward Munson.
You ran your fingers over the indentations your pen made in the pages as you read your own silly words.
Eddie invited us to sit with them at lunch.Terry said no, that she wanted to sit closer to the cheerleaders. Maybe they would be nicer to us if they actually knew we existed.
Eddie held open the door for me when I passed him in the hallway.
Eddie got his driver's license. He and his uncle fixed up this van and now he's driving Mickey and Terry to school. He asked if I wanted a ride too, said he would let me ride shotgun on Fridays. He's so sweet.
Eddie called me sweetheart today. I swear my heart stopped. I am dead. I have died.
Terry said she has a crush on someone but she won't tell me who it is. I really want to tell her that I have a crush on Eddie. Maybe if she knew, she could say nice things to him about me.
She likes him too. She wants him to ask her to prom. She keeps asking who my crush is and of course I can't tell her. Because he would obviously choose her over me, who am I kidding?
It's the last entry in the diary and the page is warped from old tears and scribbled over with pen.
After that day, you buried the diary in your nightstand. You kept your thoughts to yourself. Writing them down made them real and scary. Instead you let your secrets fester and grow and rot inside of your heart.
You didn't realize you'd started crying until fresh tears started hitting the already-warped page.
"Shit," you scrubbed at your eyes for a second and then stared at the journal as your throat got tight.
Eddie Munson. Eddie Munson. Eddie Munson.
His name written over and over and over again. Obsessively.
Nancy Wheeler. Nancy Wheeler. Nancy Wheeler.
Just like Steve had been with Nancy. Always talking about her and thinking about her.
All of your wasted feelings. From both of you.
But Steve had moved on. And so could you.
You ripped the warped page out of the diary and tore it to pieces. And then the next page. And the next one. Over and over until your thoughts and feelings were ripped to confetti on your bedspread.
