GO TIGERS!

It's only now that Eddie realizes that her choice of refuge from the nightmarish visions is perhaps a strange one. He would have thought his place was the last place she wanted to be. The worst possible thing happened to her right here, but she came running without hesitation.

Don't overthink it Eddie, it doesn't mean anything.

Shoving all of those thoughts aside and stuffing them deep deep down in the depths of his mind never to be seen again, Eddie focuses on the here and now, with the practicalities of the situation rather than whatever elaborate scenarios he could concoct in his high as fuck brain. "shit... Yeah, you're gonna need.." dry clothes. All he has to offer are his clothes. "Uhh, fuck.." he squints at Chrissy for a second, trying to force a practical solution to present itself. Does he just let her have free reign in his room, or does he go and choose something for her to change into, either way Chrissy Cunningham is going to be in his bedroom, and something about that seems absolutely insane.

Fuck it.

"come with me" he says as he grabs Chrissy's hand and tugs her up from the ugly couch and towards the short hallway leading to his room. "No funny business, I swear. But uh.. you can borrow some of my shit while yours is in the dryer." It's not a big deal, it's quite a small deal actually, so why does he feel like he's about to have a heart attack.

His room is a perfect representation of Eddie, it's messy and chaotic, but jammed full of everything that made him, him. Posters of metal bands covered the walls, his guitar taking pride of place amongst them all. On every available surface there are books, in addition to the bookcase bursting at the seams, but well hidden under a pile of mostly black tshirts and random ephemera dumped there and forgotten about. Despite the chaos it takes Eddie only a few seconds to grab an old pair of school gym sweatpants cut up into shorts and a handful of clean tshirts which he bundles into the arms of a rather overwhelmed looking Chrissy. "I'll be right outside.. take as long as you need." Then as quickly as his stoned limbs would allow, he ducks out of the door to wait and silently have a minor mental breakdown.

Was that weird?

She fights the urge to apologize, to bury herself into the blankets he'd wrapped her into and hide there, never come out. God, why did she say something? Why is she here? Well, that last one is easy, that she knows the answer. Eddie Munson makes her feel safe. He makes her feel at peace, warm. She's not sure how he does it, but the last thing she wants is to inconvenience him and risk losing that. So when he gets up, Chrissy opens her mouth to speak, to finally give in and say sorry for bothering him, but instead he reaches for her hand and guides her to his bedroom.

“No funn-- okay,” she laughs, squeaky noises coming from her slippers as she leaves a trail of wet steps behind, like a puppy who's gotten into trouble. “I wasn't thinking that you would try anything, by the way, don't worry.” He wouldn't. Firstly, because despite popular belief, she's come to learn that Eddie is quite a gentleman. He's nothing like the other boys in school, surely not like Jason's friends. And second, most importantly, why would he? She's just Chrissy. A popular cheerleader, a jock, probably everything he hates. Sure, he doesn't hate her, that much she knows, but she's so not his type. Boys like Eddie Munson don't try to woo girls like her, they probably don't even think about it.

Standing in the middle of his room, she steps out of her bunny slippers and watches as he moves around. She'd been here before... kind of. Only half of this room looked like his when she ran towards him last time, it is nice to see the other half. Smiling, green eyes inspect every poster, every book, every drawing, only pausing with surprise when she sees handcuffs hanging from his closet door, a loud gasp coming out of her lips before she looks away as quickly as she possibly can, just in time for Eddie to pile clothes onto her arms. “Oh! That's a lot of... I don't think I need so many...” Chrissy starts joking, watching as he hurries out of the room.

At least she liked the song. The compliment is enough to have his smile turning genuine. "Maybe when we get out of here you can get the full experience. Cause unless you're right there, close enough to feel it in your chest and shit, then it's not the full experience."

God, he could fucking cry. He won't, definitely not in front of Chrissy. But he doesn't want this, doesn't have to worry about getting his hands on his next feed like some kind of animal. Sure, he and Wayne were poor. But they never had to scrounge for food. Not really. And fuck, her offer breaks his heart a little. She's too good, too selfless, to be stuck down there with someone like him. Despite the fact that he hadn't helped her, hadn't done anything other than run away when she needed him, she was offering up her life source to him. Literally.

Her lips press together, trying to think of a plan, a way out of here-- no matter how fuzzy and confused her mind feels. There has to be one. If he could get in, then they could get out, right? She thinks back to what happened to her and how she got here, there are gaps in her memory, but she remembers enough.

Clocks ticking, rooms changing, her mother's voice... no way out, a monster, and then nothing. Darkness, for a while, then vines trapping her, then music. His music.

“Tuesdays at the Hideout, right?” Chrissy smiles. It would be nice to go. Had she not been so worried, so busy with her own problems, she would've made plans with her girls to go see him and cheer for him from the sidelines. Just like she did all those years ago.

CHEERSCOOPS WEEK 2023 day one: king & queen