Mungrove Week

When he put it on, he found that the top of the dress had some corsetting in the top so it pushed his pecs up, as if he had cleavage. The thigh-high socks were a little tight around the tops of his thighs but it wasn’t uncomfortable. He looked at himself in the mirror near his and Eddie’s bed, taking in the sight of himself. He looked hot. No other way to put it. The dress hugged his sides in a way that showed off the work he had put in for his abs, it was like he was a marble statue draped in silk.

He hadn’t realised that Eddie had somehow materialised behind him while he was admiring his reflection. 

“Jesus Eds I didn’t know you were here too,” Billy looked at his boyfriend in the mirror, furrowing his brow a little. Eddie laughed at him and wrapped his arms around Billy, eyes dark. 

“I can’t let you go to the party like that,” Eddie grumbled into Billy’s shoulder. Billy was sure Eddie would be pouting if he could see the bottom half of his face. 

“What do you mean, I can’t? This was your idea!” Billy would play along because he knew the reward if he was a good boy. Eddie’s fingers dug into his sides, if he gripped any tighter Billy thinks he would rip the dress. Billy rocked his hips back a little bit, knowing that this is what Eddie wanted. 

“Babe, if you do that we might not even make it to the bed,” Eddie pulled Billy’s hips back towards him, one hand sliding up the skirt. “Oh? You’re wearing the panties that came with it?” Eddie snapped the lace against Billy’s leg and kissed the back of Billy’s shoulder. 

“Eddie…” Billy whined, he liked this more dominant Eddie, his tone of voice was hitting all the right buttons for Billy and the teasing touches just made him want more. But Billy had something else in mind. 

“What do you want babygirl? Do you wanna go to the party or just stay here?” 

Hard choice when Billy looked this good in the dress, but he also didn’t want to go to Stacie’s dumb party in the first place, and Eddie was offering a very good alternative. He turned around to face Eddie, biting his lip and pulling the beanpole of a man down for a kiss. He could taste the old tobacco and mint chewing gum on his lips. Eddie kissed back harder as if his life depended on it. 

“So I’m guessing that this means you wanna stay?” The taller boy said in between kisses. He thought right when Billy pushed him down against the bed and straddled his hips, grinding down a little, making Eddie groan. 

“You look so good, baby,” Eddie spoke very appreciatively as he reached up and cupped Billy’s pecs in his hands, squeezing just a little. It made Billy whimper, Eddie taking this as his cue to squeeze again. 

Eddie peaked under Billy’s skirt, “Oh you even wore the panties,” Eddie’s voice took on a darker note when he saw the black lace. “You’re so good for me baby.” Billy leaned down and kissed Eddie, a small moment of tenderness before the fun started.

He tugged the panties down, his erect cock springing free. God, he was leaking so much precum already. Eddie started to unbuckle himself, wiggling his stupid skinny jeans down. Billy shuffled himself over to hover over Eddie’s chest and lifted his skirt. He then started to tug at himself, letting the precum dribble onto Eddie’s tongue. He groaned from deep in his chest and tilted Eddie’s chin upwards so he swallowed what he had in his mouth. 

“Good boy.”

Eddie glowed at the praise, body compliant to whatever Billy wished. The latter settled himself between Eddie’s legs, pulling his cock free from his underwear and giving it a couple of pumps. Eddie’s legs twitched around him, whimpering when Billy teased the tip with his tongue. 

“Uh, god Billy your mouth, oh my god,” Eddie was near incoherent, letting out moans and whimpers as Billy sucked him off. Billy felt Eddie’s fingers tangle in his hair, holding him down. 

“Billy please…” Eddie’s voice sounded so wrecked like he was going to blow his load at any point. Maybe he was but Billy didn’t want that just yet. 

“Not yet sweet boy, I wanna ride you,” Billy said after giving one last lick along Eddie’s length. Eddie whined and arched his hips once the stimulation was gone. Billy decided to tease Eddie a little by fingering himself in front of him, showing that it felt good while Eddie didn’t get any pleasure. 

“Billy, you look so good,” Eddie started to jack himself a little, looking a bit confused when Billy stopped him. 

“Did I say you could touch yourself?” Billy growled at him, Eddie’s eyes looked like they were pure black, and his breathing was slow. All of his focus was purely on Billy as he lowered himself down on Eddie’s cock. 

“Eddie… oh fuck, you feel so good. Filling me so well,” Billy groaned, wriggling his hips a little. Eddie wasn’t a shower but good lord he was a grower. Eddie couldn’t even speak, he was just trying to breathe while he was overcome with pleasure when Billy started moving. His thighs flexed as he fucked himself on Eddie’s cock. 

“Ah, Billy… ah…” Eddie’s brain was scrambled from the pleasure. Even forming a thought that made sense was difficult. He just kept bucking his hips to match Billy’s movements.

“C’mon Eds, hard-” Billy cut himself off with a moan when Eddie managed to hit his prostate dead on. Billy ground his hips down to meet each of Eddie’s thrusts, the bed shaking from the movement of their bodies. 

“Billy, I’m gonna… I’m gonna,” Eddie’s hips stuttered as he came into Billy, his eyes rolling backwards in pure bliss. Billy kept moving, chasing his own orgasm, making Eddie squirm just a little from the overstimulation. He stroked his cock as he bounced, giving Eddie a show. 

“Nuh, Eddie, I’m close,” Billy moaned, tilting his head back so his neck was exposed. Doing all the things he knew that drove Eddie wild. The pressure coiled in his belly, and his strokes got less fluid. He bucked into his hand a couple of times and then he was coming over his hand. 

Eddie was still lying in a blissed-out state, mouth slightly open. Billy hissed slightly when he got off of Eddie and lay beside him on the bed. He took his come-covered hand and wiped some with his finger into Eddie’s mouth. 

“Swallow, bats,” he whispered into the other boy’s ear, using the pet name he gave Eddie because of his tattoo. He watched Eddie’s adam’s apple bob as he swallowed what was on his tongue. “Good,” he punctuated the sentence with a kiss on Eddie’s cheek. 

“That was way better than going to the party,” Eddie laughed a little, still recovering from the aftershocks. 

Eddie King ◇ reasoning Cunning Dealer

Billy is Queen ♡ reasoning Beauty in False Command

“God fucking damn it,” he glared at the stained glass window showing the Virgin Mary with seven swords piercing her heart. 

Room 306 was like any of the other dorms apart from one slight difference. It didn’t look like anyone had been in here since the 80s. Seriously, it had old Dio tour posters on the walls from 1986. Although everything had been cleaned and the bed had been made for his arrival, none of the old occupant’s had been touched. Billy flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, it could be worse, he thought. 

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw he had three missed calls from Argyle and some commiseration texts from Max. While Billy was being sent off to a boarding school for ‘troubled kids’, it didn’t say that on the pamphlet Neil had shoved at him before yelling at him to pack his bags but he got the gist, Max was getting ‘etiquette lessons’ on how to act like a proper young lady. Billy had laughed at the idea of rough-and-tumble tomboy Max in a frilly dress and heels. But that was before the reality of his end of the deal hit him. He was being sent away from everything he ever knew. Everyone he knew. Neil even wanted to confiscate his phone but Susan managed to convince Neil to let him keep it. If only to keep in contact with the house.

The texts from Max read;

“They’re making me learn which fork goes with salad… I think I’ll stab someone in the hand with it instead”

“Billyyyyyyyy I’m so bored this sucks so much”

“Can God smite me now? What did I do in a past life to deserve this?”

Billy chuckled and sent her a picture of a cat looking angry with its cheeks puffed out and captioned it “It’s you rn”. Max sent back three middle finger emojis. He then went to his voicemail and tapped the first one that Argyle had sent.

“Yo man, what’s up? I hear you’re being sent to this like, uh, boarding school for criminal kids? Wicked nasty move of your old man to move you to Indiana.” Even though the slightly tinny speaker of his phone, Argyle’s voice sounded like the beach and summer. He missed his best friend already. He could hear the clatter of the pizza shop Argyle worked at in the background. “Call me when you can. Gotta make sure you’re ok man. Gotta go now, boss man’s on the floor.” And then the voicemail ended. 

Billy could feel the prickle of tears at the corners of his eyes, he didn’t wanna listen to the other voicemails just yet, he wanted to savour them, reminding him that this wasn’t forever. But he should probably call Argyle back. He wiped his eyes and cleared his throat, waiting for Argyle to pick up. 

When he did, he sounded like he had been asleep. He probably was since Billy still wasn’t used to the time difference in Indiana vs California. 

“Hello?” The sleep was heavy on Argyle’s voice, and Billy felt a little bad about waking him up but he needed someone to talk to. 

“Hey Argyle, it’s me,” Billy’s voice was small, still the instinct to keep quiet remained. Even if he was far away from Neil. “I, uh, you asked me to call you when I could?” God, he sounded pathetic. 

“Yo! B-man what’s going on dude? You’re in the boonies now, huh?” Argyle still sounded happy to hear from him, even if he probably did wake him up at like 3 am. That was the good thing about Argyle, even if you were kind of an asshole like Billy, if Argyle decided you were one of his brochachos, you were a brochacho for life. 

“Yeah, it's like, this Catholic boarding school for ‘troubled teens’ but they don’t say that. I got this dorm that looks like no one’s been in it since the 80s. No seriously, there’s Dio posters from 1986.”

“‘86? Really? Dude, I bet you’ve got one of the haunted dorms like in horror movies,” Argyle’s laugh was like having a sip of warm hot chocolate, warming you from your belly. Billy didn’t realise how much he missed his best friend until now.  

“Man, you know that stuff’s not real. How much of a dork would a ghost from the 80s be? If they died here I bet they’re still a teenager. God, I’d hate that, being a teenager in the afterlife.”

“How do you know it’s not real? Maybe the ghosts won’t talk to you because you’re always denying their existence.”

Billy laughed, “Yeah that’s why the ghosts won’t speak to me because I’m mean to them.” Argyle laughed with a ‘yeah you’re so mean!’ tacked on. They fell into easy conversation after that, with Argyle catching Billy up with all the antics of their friend group and the new pizza combos he’d come up with at work. 

“Mix a bit of sriracha into the marinara and top with pineapples, it’s so good dude. Like sweet and spicy,” Billy had a warm but strange feeling in his belly listening to Argyle, it was like he had gone on a rollercoaster and had come out giggling with adrenaline. It lasted until Argyle hung up to go back to sleep. Then the loneliness came back, like quicksand sucking Billy in. He stared out of the window, the school was covered with thick forest land as far as the eye could see. This place seriously looked like the setting for a Stephen King novel, he thought. 

He heard a thump from the corner of the dorm, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t jump a little.  He looked over from where he was lying on his bed. It was just one of the paperback novels that were stacked on the dresser falling onto the floor. 

“Sure, this is a fucking haunted school,” he muttered to himself. 

******

Billy couldn’t explain why but weird stuff had been going on in his dorm, and he was running out of ways to logically explain it. The window opens in the middle of the night? Well, it was windy last night. Something brushes against his back while he’s sleeping? Probably just his duvet. 

His classmates had noticed that he was always tired in class, and he knew he couldn’t keep using the jetlag excuse. 

“Are you sleeping ok?” a girl in his history class, Jennie asked him. Jennie was on the girl's volleyball team and she had clocked Billy immediately. She had also decided that they were friends. 

“I’m fine,” Billy turned back to his history textbook but the words were swimming in front of his eyes.

“And you can’t lie to me, Cali.” Jennie poked his shoulder with her pencil until he turned to face her. “You got the haunted dorm didn’t ya?”

Billy rolled his eyes, and it seemed like everyone believed in this alleged haunting but him. “Yeah, the fucking time capsule from 1986.” 

“D’ya know what happened to the last guy who had that dorm?” 

“He died.”

Jennie flicked her eraser at him. “No, but really, there’s a rumour that he got murrrrrrderrrred,” Jennie said the last word in a sing-song way. 

“What? You’re making that up.” Billy hated to admit that he was intrigued, a murder at a boarding school? It reminded him of the thriller novels that Susan read. 

“I’m not!” Jennie said that a bit louder than she intended and got a glare from Mr O’Donnell. “I swear that there was a guy who was killed here! My brother went to this school too and he told me about it.”

“Ever considered that he was pulling your leg?”

Luckily for Billy, Jennie didn’t have anything she could throw at him without causing a scene. “Nah, I’d be able to tell if Nick was lying to me.” Jennie passed Billy her phone under the desk, it had a picture of a guy on it. He had curly brown hair that was shoulder length and a battle vest. And a grin that marked him down as a troublemaker. “That’s the guy that got killed, Eddie Munson.”

“Explains the posters that are still in my room,” Billy looked at the guy’s battle vest, there was a Motorhead patch, WASP and Judas Priest. There was a demon on his shirt and the words ‘Hellfire Club’. 

“Ok so, he was retaking senior year for the second time in ‘86 and he had this club for like, um, DnD,” Jennie spoke quickly as she got more excited. “But there were rumours that he was a Satanist or something? And there was this other guy,” Jennie scrolled to another photo in her camera roll, “Jason Carver. And he’s like this super ultra-Christian guy and the captain of the basketball team. He and Eddie do not get along. Eddie was making fun of him and his cronies for conforming or some shit, in front of everyone in the cafeteria, and Jason is mega pissed, right? So he and his teammates jump Eddie in his dorm and I don’t know if it’s true but they accidentally broke his neck. But everyone thinks Jason killed Eddie on purpose.”

“Sounds like some Satanic panic shit,” Billy said, deducing from the time of the story, and what he knew about the 80s from his dad’s drunken rants about ‘how it used to be’. 

“Yeah probably-” Jennie started to say when she got interrupted by Mr O’Donnell. 

“Miss Park, Mr Hargrove, if you two would return to your worksheets and stop talking about the accidental death at this school, it would be very much appreciated.” They both mumbled an apology and Billy swore he felt a cold breeze go through the classroom, even though none of the windows was open. 

*****

Billy felt like he was being watched. 

It was always in his dorm room but he refused to believe it was the supposed ghost of Eddie Munson. If it was, this ghost is going to have to show himself to Billy. Jennie was convinced that Billy was being haunted. 

“Dude! He is absolutely haunting you and he probably wants you out of his dorm or he wants to kill you,” Jennie told him over breakfast the next morning.  

Billy pushed his scrambled eggs around on his plate, “Little morbid for 7.30 am Jen,” He didn’t tell her that he was maybe starting to believe her because some of the shit that was happening in his dorm he couldn’t explain logically. Like feeling something poke his face while he was sleeping or waking up to his phone ringing with an unknown number but when he answered it, it was all static. 

Jennie stuffed some Cheerios into her mouth and raised an eyebrow at Billy. Like she had read his thoughts or something. She swallowed and said, “But isn’t that what the ghosts of people who were murdered do? They’re, uh, vengeful?” She pointed her spoon at Billy, “Maybe you look too much like Jason for him.”

“The only thing we have in common is that we both have blonde hair. Plus the guy is probably 50 now, the statute of limitations passed a long time ago,” Billy chewed on a bit of toast but it was dry in his mouth. 

“We should try and speak with him.” Jennie sounded very intense suddenly, she was making direct eye contact, which she never did unless it was serious. 

“What?”

“We should try and make contact with Eddie, get his side of the story bc all we have is rumours and Jason’s side,” Jennie passed Billy her phone with an old news article on the screen. 

“Accidental death of a student at Our Lady Immaculate School” was the title of the article, dated 21st of March 1986. The article read:

“An accidental death of a student at Our Lady Immaculate School in Roane County, Indiana has been reported by Christine Cunningham, a senior year student. 

The student in question, Edward Munson, was a 2nd time senior and a noted troublemaker. Having been sent to the school after being caught for defacement of public property in his hometown of Hawkins, Indiana. Munson had also been known to be involved with the game ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ and the heavy metal subgenre of music. He was also known to have a rivalry with the captain of the basketball team, Jason Carver. 

Carver said, “Munson went against everything the school stood for and he was making moves on my girlfriend Chrissy. I told him to stay away but he challenged me to a fight. I was going to scare him away from Chrissy and we did fight but he fell down some stairs and didn’t move when we went to check.” 

Coroner’s reports say that Munson died from a cervical fracture and that the death was accidental. However, some students at the school, who were associates of Munson, say that Munson was deliberately pushed down the stairs.”

In the article, there was a picture of Eddie, with the dates 30th May 1966 - 21st March 1986 underneath. 

“Shit, he died when he was 19,” Billy muttered after he read the article. 

“It’s sad, isn’t it?” Jennie took her phone back from Billy, “But I bet that the Carver dude is covering something up. It’s just a little too convenient that Eddie fell down some stairs when they fought.”

“So you want to contact Eddie to get his side of the story?”

“Yeah.”

“How are you going to do that?” 

“Well, we are going to use an Ouija board tonight,” Jennie pushed her bowl away and grabbed her bag and pulled out what looked like a cassette player, “and if the Ouija board doesn’t work we can use this,” Billy looked at her confused, “It’s called a spiritbox, ghosts can use it to communicate via radio waves.” 

Billy knew he couldn’t say no to Jennie at this point, but goddammit if he wasn’t curious if it would work.

“Ok, meet me at my dorm at midnight. We’ll try this shit and if it doesn’t work don’t say I didn’t tell you so.” 

****

If they said they weren’t nervous, they’d be lying. Not because of the ghost that might be there but in case one of the nuns caught them in Billy’s dorm. There was a strict rule of no couples in each other’s dorms. No one said anything about same-sex couples, but Billy didn’t tell you that. 

Jennie had come to the dorm at about 15 minutes past midnight, she said she would’ve been earlier but she had to take the long way because Sister Franklin was doing a round on the girl’s floor.  

“I had to hide in the bathroom for ages, man, she was just standing in front of the stairs, it was creepy,” she shuddered like she had eaten something sour. She then set the Ouija board on the floor between her and Billy. The spiritbox was off to the side. 

Billy felt a little stupid sitting cross-legged on the floor with his index fingers on the bottom corners of the planchette. Jennie was doing the same on the other side, but she looked like she was a little scared. 

Her voice trembled a little when she asked, “Eddie? Are you here?”

It felt like a force from above moved the planchette under their fingers to the ‘yes’ on the board. Jennie gasped a little, the fear in her voice disappearing. Billy was doing a speedrun through the ‘accepting that ghosts are in fact, real gauntlet’.  The planchette moved around the board to say “I was waiting for you guys to notice me here. Especially you Billy”. 

“Have you been haunting me?” Billy asked before he could stop himself. 

“Thanks for noticing. Have been for the last month.”

This wasn’t real, was it? But Billy was awake, and he was actually talking to a ghost. If you told him he’d be doing this a month ago, he’d laugh in your face.

There was suddenly a blue glow above their heads, both Billy and Jennie looked up to see the ghost of Eddie Munson appear before them. 

“Man, it’s nice to be able to appear in front of people again. Last time I did that, I think the guy had a heart attack,” Eddie talked very nonchalantly like it was no big deal that he had just altered the fabric of reality for Billy. He looked down at the two teenagers gawping at him, “Huh, nice to see you didn’t take down any of my stuff. And the uniform hasn’t changed either,” he gestured at the similar white shirt and black sweater he was wearing as well. Although Eddie had his tie loose around his neck. 

“Why haven’t you moved on?” Jennie spoke first, ever the curious.

“Can’t,” Eddie answered simply. Like he had tried before. Billy had a feeling in his gut that it had something to do with Jason Carver. 

“I’m missing something. I can’t remember what it was now, it’s been so long. Bet that bastard Carver hid it after he killed me,” Eddie floated around the room like he was pacing. 

“Jason Carver really did kill you?” Jennie blurted out, “I thought that was a rumour!” She fumbled with her phone to pull up the article again. But her phone seemed to glitch in Eddie’s presence. 

“Uh yeah? He pushed me down some stairs. Big news in the county,” Eddie’s tone took on a darker note, “and he got away with it.” Eddie’s glow got darker with his words, Billy could see now why they were called vengeful ghosts. 

Billy’s throat felt dry, and a small part of him felt like running. But he spoke anyway, “I don’t know if we can do anything about Carver, he's like 50 now but we could help you find the thing you need to move on.” 

Eddie’s glow went back to the light blue from before, but now it was a little warmer, “Really? You’d do that for me?” He seemed happy. How long had he gone ignored? Billy knew how that felt. 

“Yeah, we would,” Billy nudged Jennie with his elbow, getting her to react too. She nodded quickly. Eddie floated down to be near the floor, almost like he was sitting with them. 

“I could tell you what I remember, it’s not much though.”

*****

From what Eddie told them, it turns out that he was not in fact hitting on Chrissy Cunningham but selling her some weed. And she had broken up with Jason and he was mad about it, Chrissy had a thing for Eddie, and Jason had caught them maybe nearly kissing. And so Jason challenged him to a fight and told Eddie to meet him at his dorm. But Jason was waiting at the top of the stairs and pushed Eddie down them. 

Billy had been thinking about what Eddie said, his bleeding heart went out for Eddie, he knew exactly how Eddie must’ve felt at that moment. Someone blowing up over a small infraction. 

Reading the article again, Jason must’ve used the excuse of Eddie being a social pariah against him. Because how dare you be the social reject and be friendly towards the most popular girl in school?  

He went back up to his dorm on lunch break, saying he wasn’t hungry to the other guys in the gym, Eddie was waiting for him. 

“I thought you could only appear at night?” Billy dumped his gym bag by the desk. 

“It's just harder in the daytime,” he flickered a little bit, “gotta concentrate more to stay visible.”

Billy nodded and opened his desk drawer to get his cigarettes. Technically, he wasn’t allowed in school but the reception lady didn’t bother to check his pockets. He opened his dorm window and lit the end. Breathed in the smoke and enjoyed the feeling of the nicotine buzz. He saw Eddie floating closer in his peripheral vision. 

“Aww man, I haven’t had a cig in years…” He sounded like he was yearning for it. 

“Can you even smoke? Like should I blow some smoke at you?” Would that even work? 

“I dunno, you could try.”  

Billy took another drag of the cigarette, and blew the smoke at Eddie. The other tried to breathe in the smoke before it flowed through his incorporeal body. 

“Did that do anything for you?” Billy tapped the ash away on the edge of the window. 

“Uh, I could feel something. Like when you walk by something that smells good? It’s like that.” Eddie reached out and put his hand on Billy’s shoulder. It felt cold. “Thanks for trying though.”

“If you died with your cigs in your pocket are they like ghost cigs now?”

Eddie looked at Billy like he had just slapped him in the face. Then burst out laughing. As he was laughing he lost control of his floating and he rose up to the ceiling like a helium balloon. Once he could breathe again, he admitted that the ghost thing doesn’t quite work like that.

“We only really keep stuff that meant a lot to us in life,” Eddie raised his hand to show some rings on his fingers, they looked like ones Billy would find at a flea market back home. Billy had a fleeting thought of him keeping his St Christopher’s pendant if he was a ghost. Eddie for a moment, looked like he got an electric shock. 

“My pick!” He looked down his shirt, “My guitar pick! I kept it on a necklace and I think it’s what I need to move on!” 

Billy’s brain was going a million miles a minute, so if Eddie got this guitar pick he’d be able to pass over to the afterlife? He guessed it was something to do with him being very attached to it in his lifetime. But also he kind of didn’t want Eddie to go, it was nice having him around, almost like a really annoying roommate. 

“Helloooooo, earth to Billy, are you there?” Eddie was floating face-to-face with Billy. He grinned when Billy flinched backwards. “Whatcha thinkin’ about?”

Once Billy’s heart stopped jackhammering in his chest he told Eddie some white lie about how he and Jennie were going to try and look for Eddie’s guitar pick tonight. Eddie did some backflips in the air and pumped his fist. He genuinely did seem excited about this. 

“At night I’ll be able to move around more so I can help you guys, I think I might have an idea of where it is,” If ghosts could get a sugar rush, this is how Billy would think it looked like. Eddie was floating around the room again muttering stuff about the Hellfire Club and the theatre room. Theatre room? There wasn’t a theatre room mentioned when Billy came to this school. 

“Uh, one small problem Eddie, there isn’t a theatre room here,” Billy felt like he was stating the obvious but maybe Eddie didn’t know that the theatre room that was there when he was a student might be gone now. 

“Sure there is, they just don’t use it because it’s haunted,” Eddie put the last word in quotation marks with his fingers. 

“You’ve been haunting this theatre room? Jennie is gonna flip her shit when she hears that,” Billy rubbed one eye, sighing in exasperation. “Alright I’ve got to leave for class but here’s the deal. Me and Jennie will meet you by the back door to the school grounds after the nuns have done their nighttime prayers. You show us where this theatre room is and we’ll look for your guitar pick. Sounds good?” 

Eddie was in ghost-sugar rush mode again, Billy thought he kind of looked like a ping-pong ball bouncing around the room. “I’ll be by the stairs ok!” He told Billy just before the other left the dorm again. 

*****

Jennie was just as excited as Eddie was, Billy half-thought that she would start floating around the room. 

“If this actually works, what’s gonna happen to you Eddie?” Jennie was asking a million questions, like she was interviewing Eddie. Eddie floated a few paces in front of Billy and Jennie, leading them to the abandoned theatre room. 

Eddie turned to face them, his glow was a lot brighter in the nighttime. “Well, I’ll just move on. Like, I won’t be here anymore.” 

“You just disappear?”

“Yeah. Think so anyway.”

Billy was quiet as he followed the other two, he was still thinking that he didn’t really want Eddie to go, but if that made Eddie happy, he wouldn’t stop him. It must’ve been kinda sad, seeing everything change around you but you’re still the same. All of his friends must’ve grown up and forgotten about him right?

“We’re here,” Eddie stopped in front of an old side building to the west of campus. It looked like a storage container to Billy, in fact he had seen it when he was dropped off at campus by his dad and he had assumed it was where sports equipment was kept. 

Eddie went ahead and floated through the wall, yelling for the other two to come along with him. Unfortunately for them the door was locked and they couldn’t phase through a solid wall. Jennie rattled the door handle to get Eddie’s attention again. 

“Is the door locked? Oh uh, I figured it wouldn’t be,” Eddie’s head appeared outside of the door. 

Billy crouched at the locked door and pulled some wires from his pocket, sliding the wires in, he started to poke around until he found the locking mechanism. A few more pokes and he heard the click of the door unlocking. 

“Where did you learn how to pick locks?” Jennie blurted out when Billy stood back up. He opened the door to Eddie floating there in amazement. “It’s a long story,” he muttered. “Are we gonna find this guitar pick or not?” he really didn’t want to go into why he got sent to this school right now. 

“Should I uh, lead the way?” Eddie made some grand gestures like he was welcoming them to a grand hotel. 

The only light in the room was the glow from Eddie, with the dark shapes cast by whatever was in the room, it looked like something out of a horror B movie. Billy and Jennie were tripping over stuff, themselves, each other until the were drowned in the overhead lights. 

“That better for you guys?” Eddie called from somewhere in the distance. The room looked like a theatre nerd’s wet dream, there was a fucking throne in the room for god’s sake! Chalets lined the dust covered table, which itself was littered with dice and bits of paper that were scrawled with drawings of elves and some numbers that meant nothing to Billy. Eddie was floating in a sitting position in the throne. Like it was his, it probably was. 

“Was this the- the Hellfire Club?” Jennie sounded amazed by all that was around her, eyes taking in everything. Some of the stuff in here reminded Billy of the mountain hall in the Fellowship of the Ring, maybe Eddie was a fan when he was alive. 

“You’d be right, this was indeed where brave adventurers gathered to take on the wrath of the dark lord Vecna. Where-” 

Billy wasn’t listening to Eddie anymore, he was wandering about the room, looking for anything that might be Eddie’s guitar pick necklace. If he was going to be honest, he just wanted to find it quickly and rip off the bandaid of Eddie leaving. Easier that way. 

Then, he found the photo. 

It was just a polaroid but it was of Eddie and his friends from 1985, they were smiling and the photo was so full of joy. The Eddie in the photo didn’t know that he’d be stuck at 19 while the rest of his friends got to grow up and move on with their lives. 

“That photo huh?” Eddie was now beside Billy, “God, man Gareth was such a goof. I saw him at the ten year reunion in ‘97. He’d gotten married and was gonna be a dad,” he pointed the smaller boy with a flannel shirt in the photo. “And Jeff?” he now pointed to the tallest boy in the photo, “he got into Stanford on a scholarship, always the brains of the operation in here.” Eddie sounded wistfully nostalgic about the time he had with them but Billy didn’t miss the sad note in his voice. 

“Eddie, do you wanna stay?” Billy asked quietly. 

Eddie for once, was speechless. Was his brain short-circuiting? He looked like he was buffering.

“Stay? What do you mean?” 

Billy turned to face Eddie, “I mean stay here with me and Jennie. You’ve probably been so lonely for years, and honestly, I don’t want you to go.” He felt more vulnerable than he had in months, just as much as when he admitted his feelings for that boy back on the beach in California and feeling his stomach rise and fall with the waves. He just hoped that Eddie wouldn’t throw him in the deep end. 

“I never thought about that…” Eddie trailed off, as if he was unsure what to say, “I, I don’t think I wanna go either. Even if I can only hang around with you guys outside of the school building at night.” Eddie chewed his lower lip, waiting for Billy to say something, anything. 

“I uh… maybe…” Billy started to speak again but was interrupted by Jennie holding a leather cord with a guitar pick strung on it. “Found it in the box behind the throne,” she held the necklace out to Eddie. But I um… might have been eavesdropping and I don’t want you to go either Eddie.” Jennie blushed and turned away, like she had just admitted to having a crush.

Compared to some of his peers, Eddie Munson was average. Average in height, build, and also academics. All but in the means of his soulmate. He couldn't remember a time when he hadn't heard their voice. The softly modulated voice was so easy to concentrate on. He would lose himself in the rambles. 

The first time he heard his soulmate's voice was an odd day. His belly was aching and he was bored and his stomach rumbled. He couldn't comprehend why his father was lying against the washing machine, his favorite snack spread across the counter. But he did remember that it was nightfall by the time his mother came home finding him curled up to his father's side playing with his fingers. As he listened to the beautiful honey babble-like rambling that invaded his head. Talk of becoming a mermaid to swim with sharks and orcas and to visit the deep blue and living under the sea. 

He told his mother watching as she smiled tears in her eyes. She told him that the voice was his soulmate. She explained that the voice couldn't hear him yet, it just wasn't time for that sweet child to hear all his wonderful stories. 

A couple of years later he was outside a trailer meeting his new guardian, his Uncle. He didn't tell Wayne everything at first, especially things that deal with his mate. Yet Wayne somehow knew everything about him. To this day he still didn't know how the elder just knew about his mate but he was grateful. Especially the day he heard pure distress in his lovely siren. 

Billy got his first sign that he had a soulmate at the ripe age of nine. It was a cool summer day, he got his first surfboard and couldn't have been happier. He was so excited to learn how to use it the next day. It was also the day he saw his father hit his mom. 

He remembers screaming at him to stop. He remembers jumping in front of her and he remembers watching both parents run out of the house in separate directions. The first word he heard was Smaug, it was muttered softly in a way as if the person wasn't sure it would be heard. It soon became hyper erratic blather about the inconsistent writing to the image drawn in what Billy guessed was a book. The chatter made a quick shift to how amazing it would be to become a wizard. The passionate euphonic wordy nonsense eased his distress so easily. It drowned out all the negativity he felt in his house. The sound of the voice eased his distress and later the next day Billy went to the library to learn more about this amazing fantasy world. 

That day Billy learned that he had a mate and that he could talk to him via his thoughts. They would read to one another, and listen to music every chance they could and how it made them feel. Eddie knew of Billy's abuse and how his father moved him and his step[ family to a small town cross country. He's away from his family, and his friends. All he had now was a voice in his head. 

Eddie was grinning his eyes far off as he leaned against the school wall. HE chuckled listening to the whiny complaints that could all go wrong. 

'You'll be fine.' 

Eddie could feel the eye roll, as he heard the mocking tone of his words. 

'Says you. They'll eat me alive.' Billy groaned slamming his car door, a high pitch whine following. Eddie couldn't help the bright laugh that bubbled up before stating allowed. 

"No one could resist you, Ocean." 

'Whatever you say, Moon.' 

Eddie looked up staring at a blonde male. His bright eyes shined in the sun as he looked around retucking his shirt. Eddie felt his heart race.