Falling for the Freak - Eddie Munson Fix-It Fic Chapter 06
Ok, first off, I just have to say a major thank you to all the people who have been showing so much love for this fic. I never thought anyone would read this let alone like it or reblog it so seriously thank you so much. You all are wonderful, gorgeous human beings. <3
CHAPTER SUMMARY: It’s Halloween and the reader is freaking out after her previous experience with Eddie. There’s no way she could be falling for the town freak could she?
WARNINGS: Fluff. Fluff. Fluff. And I guess like mild spoilers for both the book and movie versions of The Shining. Also, I’m taking a few liberties with how I think Eddie ended up living with his uncle. I hope it makes sense to you all.
I didn’t have a crush on Eddie Munson. No. I didn’t have a crush on Eddie Munson. That would be ridiculous. He was a dumbass metal head who sold pot. I most definitely didn’t like him. Besides all that, he was one of my kid cousin’s best friends. I couldn’t like, date him. That would actually be crazy.
Yet, as I tossed and turned in bed after Eddie left, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. If I focused enough, I could still feel his hands on my waist. I could feel the heat of his finger tips on my skin. I could feel his body moving closer to mine. And my heart raced and I got all sweaty.
Needless to say I did not sleep much that night. When my alarm clock went off the next morning, I smacked at it angrily. Once I had stopped its incessant beeping, I pulled my blankets over my head and groaned. I did not have any classes on Thursday and somehow ended up with the day off from work. I planned to spend my day holed up in the public library researching and writing my paper. Nobody had invited me to do anything for Halloween, so I figured it would be a fairly quiet day.
I got dressed quickly, pulling on faded blue jeans and a dark orange sweater. I slipped my feet into a pair of leather combat boots and packed up my backpack. As I stepped out of my room, I caught up with Dustin in the hallway.
“Hey,” I said, ruffling his curly hair. “You doing anything fun tonight? Do you still trick or treat?”
Dustin sighed and I could tell there was a story coming. “Lucas says we’re too old to go trick or treating.”
“Are you guys doing anything?” I asked as we entered the kitchen.
“Lucas is going to some Halloween party with his girlfiend, Max, I think,” he replied. “And Mike has to take his little sister, Holly, out trick or treating,”
“So, do you wanna do something? Like maybe we could watch some scary movies?” I asked. “That is if it’s not too lame to hang out with your cousin,”
“That would be great,” Dustin smiled. “You don’t have plans?”
“None whatsoever,” I chuckled. “I was going to spend some time at the library doing some school work, but I was thinking maybe I could swing by Family Video and get us some movies. Maybe some popcorn too,”
“Y/N that would be awesome,” Dustin said, “Make sure you get Poltergeist though,”
“Ok, will do,” I said, giving him a thumbs up.
“Honey,” Aunt Claudia said to me, entering the kitchen, “if you’re going out, could you please stop at the store and pick up some extra candy. I forgot I volunteered for the Halloween party at the school tonight and they need me to bring the treats,”
I grabbed a banana and headed for the front door. I pealed the banana and took a bite as I climbed aboard my bike in the driveway. It took me about fifteen minutes to get into town. By the time I had parked myself at a desk in the library, it was about nine in the morning. I set my bag down on the table and started to unload it. I pulled out notebooks and pencils and my copy of Dracula.
I spent the next hour looking through the library’s stack of books on different legends and folklore. I found a few research articles about the representation of vampires in different cultures. Once I had found a collection of resources, I set to work, reading through each of them and taking notes of interesting information.
It felt like I had spent half my life at that desk by the time I left. I had filled at least ten pages full of notes, quotes, and ideas from my resources. I still didn't have a thesis, but at least I had a fountain of knowledge about vampires.
When I finished checking out my books from the library, it was almost two in the afternoon. I peddled my way over to Family Video and parked my bike outside. When I stepped inside the store, Steve greeted me with a surprised expression on his face and wave.
"Aren't you supposed to have today off?" He asked.
"Yeah," I shrugged, heading towards the horror section. "Me and Dustin and gonna watch a bunch of scary movies tonight. I guess Mike and Lucas weren't really into trick or treating this year,"
"Lame," Steve said rolling his eyes. "Make sure you pick up Poltergeist."
I smiled and grabbed a handful of tapes, making sure to include Poltergeist. Once I had paid for my rentals, I rode over to the grocery store. I grabbed a couple boxes of microwave popcorn and several variety bags of candy. By the time I had checked out and paid, my backpack was fit to burst.
By the time I got home it was a little past four o’clock. Dustin was in his room doing homework and Aunt Claudia was putting together a last minute costume. She was dressing up as her and Dustin’s late cat Mews, which I thought was both sad but incredibly adorable. Aunt Claudia left the house around five, promising to be back before we went to bed. The phone rang around six and Dustin picked it up. I was busy doing some revising for my math midterm when Dustin burst into my room a few minutes later.
“Hey,” he said, “how bad would you feel if I changed our plans?”
“Depends on how you change them,” I said, looking up at him from my desk.
“The Wheelers decided to take Holly to the party at the school and Nancy is going out with some of her friends so Mike has to stay at home to pass out candy. He asked if I wanted to come over,”
“You mean you’re ditching me?” I asked.
“I’m so so so so sorry, Y/N,” Dustin said, “But do you mind?”
I sighed. “Fine” I said. “I guess I’ll just eat all that popcorn myself,”
“Can I take Poltergeist?” Dustin asked.
“You’re going to take one of my movies too?” I complained. “That seems unfair,”
“Come on it’s like the best one,” Dustin said, “Please?”
“Fine,” I said again. “But you’re leaving The Exorcist here,”
“That works,” Dustin said. “Oh and Mike said I could stay over tonight,”
“You stayed over last night,” I said.
“And I’ll stay over again tonight,” Dustin said.
Then I heard the doorbell ring. I figured it was the pizza I had ordered and got up to answer. Dustin went into his room and quickly packed an overnight bag. By the time I was walking down the hall with my wallet, he was in the living room gathering up Poltergeist. Dustin was just about to head out the side door while I opened the front door.
“You better call when you get to Mike’s!” I yelled at Dustin as I pulled the door open.
I was instantly startled as a tall figure with big sharp white teeth and blood oozing down the sides of its mouth jumped at me.
“Ahh!” I shrieked and then took in the sight before me.
Eddie Munson stood on the front porch dressed head to toe in black. In his mouth was a pair of fake fangs. Painted on either side of his lips were thin red lines of sticky fake blood. He started laughing as I realized what had just happened.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked. “And why are you dressed like that?”
“It’s Halloween,” he chuckled, “And Dustin invited me. Aren’t you guys watching a bunch of movies or something?”
“Dustin!” I yelled as I heard the side door slam.
I peered out the front door and watched as Dustin jumped on his bike and sped down the driveway.
“Bye Y/N! Hi Eddie! Bye Eddie!” Dustin shouted before hitting the sidewalk.
Eddie watched as he went and then turned back slowly towards me. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “What just happened?” he asked as he pulled the fake teeth out of his mouth with a grimace. “Man those things hurt,”
“Dustin bailed,” I said. “Apparently Mike invited him over. He didn’t tell me he invited you to join us. I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing,”
“Who said it has to be nothing?” Eddie asked. “I came here to watch scary movies and watch scary movies I will do,”
“Dustin took Poltergeist,” I said, “but I’ve got Halloween, The Exorcist, and Nightmare on Elm Street,”
“Darn it,” Eddie sighed, leaning against the door frame. “You’re missing the best one,”
“I know,” I said, “but Dustin was insistant that he take Poltergeist,”
“No, I mean The Shining,” Eddie smirked. “Good thing I brought it with me,” he added, reaching into his leather jacket and pulling the tape out.
“You brought a movie,” I said, a smile turning the corner of my lips up.
“Still haven’t seen it?” he asked.
“Well then what are we waiting for?” Eddie asked, stepping past me and into the house.
I didn’t know exactly how it happened, but I found myself sitting in my aunt’s living room, eating pizza and popcorn with Eddie Munson. We started with The Exorcist as I had seen it about two hundred times and was half busy with passing candy out to the trick or treaters that were flooding the porch.
“Ugh,” Eddie groaned as Linda Blaire threw up pea soup on screen. “I forgot how nasty this movie actually is,”
“Oh it scarred me as a little kid,” I said. “One of my friends showed it to me when I was way too young and I couldn’t sleep for weeks,”
“And now?” Eddie called from the couch as I got up to answer the call of candy hungry children.
“Oh it’s one of my favorites,” I laughed, handing out a few pieces of candy to each kid.
We plowed through the candy within two hours. I turned off the porch light after I had passed out the last piece and shut the door. It locked behind me with a sharp “click”. I joined Eddie on the couch, grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bowl in his lap. We were on to Nightmare on Elm Street. I had never seen it and was surprised at just how terrifying it was. I found myself a little worried about falling asleep that night. As it was coming to an end, I heard the front door unlock and Aunt Claudia stepped into the house.
“Oh, hello,” she said when she saw me and Eddie on the couch.
I explained the situation to her in between the end of Nightmare on Elm Street and the start of our next movie. Aunt Claudia announced she was going to bed and told us that we were welcome to stay up as late as we wanted.
“Hey,” I said to Eddie once my aunt was gone, “don’t you have a curfew or anything?”
“Not really,” Eddie shrugged. “My uncle works nights at the plant, so even if he cared when I come home he wouldn’t be around to yell at me about it,”
“Yeah,” Eddie said, fiddling with one of the rings on his fingers. “Mom passed away when I was little. Dad wasn’t all that great. Haven’t seen him in a while. But Uncle Wayne’s pretty cool. He’s helped me out a lot,”
There was a brief silence between us. I was surprised at how open he was suddenly being with me. I didn’t know what to say in response. But then Eddie snapped his head up at me. “I think it’s time you see The Shining.” He said, a big smile appearing on his face.
“It better be as good as you say it is,” I said.
“Oh it is,” Eddie said, settling deeply into the couch cushions.
I got up and replaced the tapes in the VCR. As the previews played on the new tape, I made a new bowl of popcorn.
“IT’S STARTING!” Eddie yelled from the living room.
“I’m coming!” I said, “Popcorn is almost done!
I yanked the hot bag of popcorn out of the microwave, burning my fingers all the way back to the couch. I tore it open and dumped its contents into the bowl as the film opened with a wide shot of a mountain range. The music that scored the scene was deep and haunting. I felt a twinge of fear in my stomach. I tugged a pillow close to my body as Eddie turned his head to face me with a wicked grin.
“I love this movie,” he said.
“I can tell,” I chuckled, waving my hands back and forth to dispell the heat burning them.
Without a word, Eddie grabbed my right wrist and held it up to his face. He gently started blowing on my overheated fingers. I felt my entire face go red, but Eddie didn’t seem to notice. Once he had spent a little time on my right hand, Eddie took my left hand and did the same thing. After he was done he let me go and asked “All better?”
After all that it took me a moment to focus back on the film. Once I got into it, I I was riveted by it. It was intense and disturbing - especially that bit with the guy in the dog costume - and I felt unnerved by it. However, I couldn’t help but feel a bit cheated by the ending.
“That’s it?!” I shouted as the screen went black.
“What do you mean that’s it?” Eddie asked, surprised by my sudden outburst.
“He dies in the snow?” I questioned. “And why was his face in the picture?”
“He was always a part of the hotel!” Eddie said.
“No!” I said. “That’s not the ending!”
“What are you talking about??” Eddie asked.
“The Overlook explodes!” I said. “Hallorann lives! They fight topiaries! That is not how that story ends,”
“It is in the movie,” Eddie said.
“Well it’s not how it is in the book,” I grumbled.
“How does it compare to the book?” Eddie asked.
“It’s good,” I said and then paused.
“But the book was better?” he asked.
“Yup,” I said. “Always is. You really should read it. I have it if you want to borrow it,”
I got up and started walking towards my bedroom. I opened the door and started to scrounge around for my copy of Stephen King’s book. I was looking under my bed at a box of books I had neglected to unpack when I heard Eddie step into the room. I was strangely anxious knowing that Eddie was in my bedroom. I shook away the thought before it could go too far.
“So this is your room,” Eddie said.
“Here it is,” I said, pulling my tattered book out.
“It’s so cozy,” Eddie said, as I handed him the book. Then his eyes wandered past me to land on the stack of library books on my desk. “Except for the massive pile of demon and vampire books on the desk of course. What the fuck is this for, Y/N?” he asked.
“School, believe it or not,” I explained the class and its midterm paper to him.
Eddie shrugged and nodded. “Now that’s a class I could get into. What’s your paper on?”
“Vampires,” I said, “but I don’t really know what else. I think I want to write about Dracula but I don’t know what to say other than it’s a really sexist book that makes all of its women into helpless damsels in distress and punishes them for being sexy,”
Eddie paused. “Why don’t you write about that? Make it a comentary on female representation in horror or something?”
I stared at him with wide eyes. “Holy shit,” I said, “That’s brilliant! Munson, good lord, you have no idea how stressed I’ve been about this paper. That’s literally the best idea I’ve ever heard,”
“I’ve been known to have good ideas from time to time,” he smirked.
“Seriously,” I said, “Thank you so so much,”
“You’re welcome, m’lady,” Eddie said, with a small bow of his head. “Think of it as my payment for you teaching me how to dance yesterday,”
“You don’t need to pay me back for that,” I said. “That was just fun,”
“Yeah?” Eddie asked, looking down at me, his eyelids fluttering slightly. I was suddenly aware of how long his dark eyelashes were.
“Yeah,” I said. “Come on, you looked like a dork trying to dance to Blondie and I got to see you admit you like Foreigner,”
“And there was that bit near the end,” Eddie said, quietly.
“Remind me, how did that go?” I asked.
Eddie started to step closer to me and then I heard Aunt Claudia’s bedroom door open. We jumped apart and I crashed into my desk while Eddie tripped onto my bed.
“Wow your aunt really is a professional mood spoiler isn’t she?” Eddie muttered from his place on my mattress.
I picked myself up from where I stumbled and my eyes landed on the clock. It was nearly two in the morning. “Shit,” I said. “I didn’t realize it was so late. I have class tomorrow. And I have to work,”
“Are you officially kicking me out?” Eddie asked, standing up.
“No, it’s ok,” Eddie said, waving his hand. “Thanks for letting me stay and watch movies.”
“Of course,” I said as we exited my bedroom. I felt a rush of relief hit me as we made our way out of my room.
Eddie collected his things and headed towards the front door. I opened it for him and he stepped out onto the porch.
“Hey, do me a favor and call once you’re home?” I asked. “Just so I know you made it home in one piece,”
“Has Dustin given you our number?” I asked.
“Yeah he did,” Eddie replied. “I’ve got it written down somewhere at home.”
“Just in case,” I said, rifling through a drawer in small table Aunt Claudia kept near the door. I found a pen and pulled it out. “Here it is again,” I took Eddie’s right hand and scribbled our phone number onto his palm.
“Thanks,” Eddie said, “And thanks for the book,”
“Please read it,” I said. “I think you’ll actually really like it.”
“I’ll read it,” Eddie confirmed, a soft smile appearing on his face. He paused and watched me for a minute. By the look on his face it seemed like he was contemplating something. “Oh fuck it,” he muttered and then leaned forward. Eddie pecked my cheek quickly and then turned away to leave.
“Goodnight!” he called as he walked towards his van.
“G’night,” I said weakly, feeling a burning sensation on my cheek where his lips touched my skin.
I watched him drive away and then sat next to the phone waiting for his call. Around two forty five, the phone rang and I heard Eddie’s voice on the other end.
“Goodnight,” Eddie said and I could almost hear a smile in his voice.
“Goodnight,” I said, hoping he could hear the smile in my voice.
“Let me know if Freddy Krueger is stopping you from getting to sleep,” Eddie said. “I can come fight him off for you,”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said. “Bye, Eddie,”
I hung up the phone and then headed towards my bedroom. As I passed by my aunt’s room, the door opened and a very sleepy Aunt Claudia stood in the doorway.
“You going to bed, sweetie?” she asked, rubbing one of her eyes.
“Yeah,” I said. “Eddie just called to let me know he got home,”
“Good,” She replied. “What’s that on your face?”
“Hmm?” I wondered and touched my cheek where she was pointing. I felt a slightly damp spot on my skin. When I pulled my hand back I saw a stripe of fake blood on my fingers. It must have smeared on my skin when Eddie kissed me goodbye. “Pizza sauce,” I said quickly. “God that’s embarrassing,”
“Rude of Eddie not to tell you it was there,” Aunt Claudia said.
“Yeah,” I said, “quite rude of him,”
As I lay in bed that night it wasn’t Freddy Krueger who was keeping me awake. It was Eddie. For the second night in a row, I was going to lose sleep thinking of him. It didn’t help that my cheek was still on fire from where his mouth had made contact.
I had a crush on Eddie Munson. It was crazy. But I had a crush on Eddie Munson. Damn it.
Previous Chapter: Chapter 05
Next Chapter: Chapter 07
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