─ ❛ 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 / 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋

“I’m not sure, but… I do need to return this.” You smile, gesturing to the tape in your hand, and she bounds towards you, leaving behind her trolley of returned tapes. 

you tried to avoid them, but they were good. when the last bell rang, you were already out the door and speed-walking to your car. you don’t wanna see him, his minions, or anyone even distantly associated with him. but you don’t even have the key in the ignition before their little hands use your window as a drum. you crank it down to give them a clear view of the irritation on your face. “did he send you?”

“no, but (y/n), you can’t break up with eddie today, you’ll totally throw off his game!” you glare at dustin, who immediately clamped his mouth shut.

mike shushes his friend and shifts to the center of your vision, “what he meant to say is that eddie didn’t mean to hurt you by scheduling the end of the campaign on your birthday—”

“and 2-year anniversary.”

“really? wow,” the raven-haired boy shook his head back into focus. “well, it’s not like he did it on purpose, y’know?”

“yeah, he forgot.”

“yes! exactly!” your frown deepened. “oh.”

“edward doesn’t understand how exhausted i am, and so, we’re done. report back to him or don’t, he’ll get the message.”

“yeah, okay,” they sigh simultaneously before walking towards nancy wheeler’s car with their shoulders slumped.

when you arrive home, no one’s there, per usual. your parent (s) left a little birthday note on a small cake, apologizing for being out of town on your day. you can’t help but smile at the contrasting colors on the dessert. your favorite, you’d told them, when you were about 9 or 10.

it was big enough for four to six guests. maybe they imagined you’d invite eddie and his gang over, or some of your supposed other friends. what your parent (s) don’t know is that you don’t have any other friends, and eddie was no longer permitted in the walls of their home.

as you cut a slice, you curse yourself for thinking about how much fun you’d be having if you just forgave him and let him come celebrate now. but it wasn’t a matter of bad scheduling.

he’d forgotten entirely.

you weren’t even that upset that he forgot. eddie forgot his own birthday for fuck’s sake, but he didn’t even try to make it up to you. he dismissed you with a wave and a half-hearted kiss, redirecting his full attention to some scratches on his throne.

“birthdays come every year, sweetheart, we’ll do it up real big next time. i promise, okay?”

you just feel like he could’ve put down the goddamn paint can, looked you in the eyes, and apologized for forgetting. maybe offer to get a pizza, or to play you the rest of that song he wrote about you, or to just hang out alone at your house—just anything!

so, you told him, “no, eddie, i’m done.”

“whoa, whoa, slow down,” he finally looked away from the stupid chair. “done? as in with me? like break up?”

“yes, i—”

“over a stupid birthday?”

“what!”

“you’re really throwing away 2 whole years because what? because i didn’t lay out a red carpet and throw 4 dozen fucking roses at you?”

“i don’t care about shit like that you dickhead! you didn’t even say it when i reminded you! you made another one of your pathetic, empty promises—”

“my promises are pathetic?”

“my birthday is stupid?”

“you know what, (y/n), i thought you understood me and understood that i’m not like all those other guys. i can’t do all the things they can for their girls—”

“jesus christ, not this again! you’re the one that doesn’t understand me,” you dug your finger into his chest. “i don’t want whatever the hell they have—ugly heart necklaces, and disgusting fancy food, and expensive cars that cost a small fortune to put gas in. you always bring up money, but eddie, i just want you.”

he didn’t say anything, only fiddled with with rings trying to come up with something. you sniffled, “i understand that i came around after dnd and after the band, but i just want you to pay attention to me.”

his eyes softened, and he tried to hold the hand that was starting to hurt his skin, but you pulled away. “baby, i—”

“i was angry when i said i was done, but i actually think a break would be good for us.”

after that, you ignored all his pleas and left the club space. when the door closed, you heard him grunt and something crash, but you didn’t go back in. you went straight to your last class, then tried to go home, and that’s when the kids interfered.

while you spent a moment thinking about how adorable henderson and wheeler were when they tried helping eddie, the kitchen phone rang. you sigh, not really wanting to fake a perfect day to your parent (s) but letting the phone ring would get them back on a plane to hawkins within the hour.

“hello?” you answered sweetly.

“what do you mean ‘exhausted’?”

“it’s you,” your voice deadpanned when eddie’s came through the receiver. “so, they did report back.”

“of course they did, i chose loyal successors. what does exhausted mean, angel?”

“it means i’m tired of putting in all the effort.”

“hey, i put in effort! effortlessly, in fact.”

“ed, i plan all our dates, do your homework, schedule times at the hideout for your band, recruit freshman for your club—i do a lot for you, but i don’t even mind because i love you.”

“if you don’t mind and you love me, why aren’t we together anymore?”

the tears finally started to drip from your eyes, “because i don’t think you love me back.”

“now, you hold on a damn minute,” he snapped. “i do love you, alright? i’m not so good at showing it all the time, but i love you, (y/n).”

“you can say it all you want, eddie, that doesn’t change how you made me feel. we’re over, okay?”

“no, not okay! (y/n)!”

“i’ll see you around,” you place the phone back on the hook and race up the stairs to your bedroom. you were beyond glad there was no one to scold you for the slamming the door, and no one to ask what was wrong as you sobbed into your pillows.

you don’t know when you fell asleep, but when you lifted your head from your now stained pillows, it was dark outside. it had to have been past midnight for the moon to be bright and for the wind to be so cold.

before you went to close it, you grabbed your, well, eddie’s jacket from your closet. but while facing your chaotic expanse of clothing, a loud thud and a deep groan came from the open window. you didn’t waste a second before screaming and hurling shoes at the intruder. your vision was still blurry from your sleep, and your screeching drowned out his own cries for mercy.

you did run out of shoes and had enough to grab the old bat you kept for instances just like this. when you got close enough to the dark figure, you could finally hear him.

“(y/n), baby, it’s me! it’s eddie, please, it’s me!”

“eddie?! you moron, i could’ve hurt you! what are you doing climbing through my wind—” he put his hand over your mouth to temporarily shush you, but you got hold of one his fingers with your teeth.

before you could verbally chew him out some more, you took notice of the wild look in his eyes, like an animal being hunted or something. you saw the sweat dripping down his face and felt his hands tremble as he tried to grab yours.

“what happened to you?”

“something bad,” he breathed. “i can’t explain.”

“is someone after you? i’ll call the chief—” his hold on you became a vice grip when you mentioned the police.

“no. they’re the ones after me. at least, they will be.”

“eddie, what did you do?”

“i didn’t do anything! i didn’t hurt her, i just wanted to help her, and she—” his voice broke. “i don’t know what happened to her, (y/n), please believe me.”

“i believe you,” you repeated as you embraced him. you did everything you could think of to calm him until he was ready to speak again.

this time, he was gravely serious when he took your face in his hands. his ringed thumb ran over your cheek as he spoke, “i need you to get out of here.”

“what?”

“call your folks, tell them you’re scared and don’t wanna be in hawkins anymore. go meet them in whatever city they’re in.”

“eddie, you can’t just say—”

“what happened to that girl will never happen to you if i can help it, so get your bag ready and go now.”

“come with me then,” you plead. “these people are so close-minded, they’ll crucify you before even asking what happened.”

“no, we can’t be seen together anymore. soon enough, they’ll come around asking about your freakazoid ex-boyfriend.”

“where will you go then?”

“if i tell you, you’ll follow me,” he let a small smile lift his lips upwards. “sweetheart, i have to go now.”

you nod, which unfortunately released the tears you were holding back. “be careful, eddie, please.”

“and you be safe, okay? when i see you again, i want you in one pretty piece, alright?” you exhale a laugh as he presses his lips against your temple. “i love you.”

“i love you,” you whisper back. one more kiss and he’s gone through the window.

you really wanted to take his advice and run. run far away from this cursed town and never look back, but the look in his eyes was burned into your memory. you’d never forget how scared he was and how similar he looked to will two years ago. as much he wanted you safe, you wanted the same, if not more for him. although, you did pack a bag and make a call.

“(y/n), do you know what time it is?”

He wondered what kind of character you would create. A halfling rogue, a half-orc barbarian. He wanted to see the parts of yourself you portrayed in your character, the way you would shine through each adventure.

Little did he know that all it would take was the help of a sassy freshman.

Dustin was a clever one, who claimed to know all things in the world of ‘romance’ thanks to his girlfriend, Suzie. And to be fair, he was able to quickly pick up on the way that Eddie’s eyes kept gravitating toward you, and the unique smile you would give him whenever you looked up to find him staring.

“Hey, Y/n! Ever play DnD?”

Dustin’s character got inspiration their next game for that one.

Of course, you had never played before, so Eddie generously volunteered to meet you after school at a local coffee shop to help create your character.

The moment you said you wanted to be a bard - his favorite class - he couldn’t help the smile that threatened to split his face in two.

And he couldn’t help bring up why he loved bards, because he was a musician.

You smiled at that, asking him to tell him about his band and Eddie swore he saw an angelic glow form around you. He invited you to one of his gigs and you said yes immediately.

You were nervous when you showed up to your first game, still not entirely sure of what you were doing. Eddie made the guys scoot over so that you could sit next to him, insisting that you could ask any question you had.

“I mean, I won’t tell you how exactly to slay a manitcore or whatever, but I can tell you which dice you need to roll and when.”

You frowned, and Eddie felt his heart sink, as if he had finally revealed too much of his nerdy self to you. That it was too much, and you were no longer interested in the game he loved so much, in him.

“I just realized I don’t have any dice to play with,” you murmured, eyes scanning the table as you watched the rest of the Hellfire Club bust out their own dice sets.

Eddie’s brows raised, a small smile curving up his face as relief flooded through him. “Not to worry at all, dear adventurer,” he said in his exaggerated DM voice. “I can help you out with that.”

He gestured for you to hold out your hand, resting a set of dice in them. They were black with gold numbers, and gold shimmers swirling throughout. They looked like embers glistening through the darkness. 

As his fingers rested on your palm, he marveled at the smoothness of your skin, suddenly overcome with the desire to know how soft your hands would feel upon his lips.

He blinked a few times before widening his smile and winking at you. “May these math rocks help you slay all your enemies and woo all the NPCs I can throw at ya.”

You bit your bottom lip as you admired the beauty of the dice in your hands. When you looked up, your eyes were filled with an excitement that made Eddie’s head spin.

“Thanks, Eddie,” you said. “I promise I’ll give them back to you when we’re done.”

He shook his head, scoffing at the idea. “No way. These are a gift to celebrate your first night as an adventurer. Keep them.”

Later, as your head rested on his shoulder and he strummed a soft tune on his favorite guitar in his room, he would finally admit to you that that was his favorite set. The one he used in every game he played. 

His new favorite set was one you had gifted him on his birthday. Gold dice with black numbers and black shimmers swirling throughout. A perfect pair to the one you had gifted him that very first night you played.

When he finally admitted the weight of that gift, all you could do was smile. And when you placed a soft, familiar, loving kiss to his lips, all Eddie could think was that a life with you would be his greatest adventure.

~~~~