#cunningham!reader

Y/N felt something was off with Hawkins, she didn't believe in the whole Devil occupation bullshit, but there was a darkness there. It started when the Byers kid went missing. She felt it then, and that's why she was so excited to get out. Y/N Cunningham could have gone to any Ivy she wanted, but stayed close enough to have a clear get away for her sister. She prayed she wasn't too late.

The signs on the highway were beginning to blur as she drove, the intense feeling of panic settling in her bones. Not even the soothing melodies of Tears for Fears could calm her down. She saw the Hawkins exit as the song switched to Black Sabbath. Usually she’d belt out the familiar lyrics to “Paranoid”, but not today. It was a shame, Y/N always listened to this well loved mixtape on her drive to Hawkins. She'd gotten it as a thank you from an old classmate she used to tutor, not much good her tutoring did in the end. Last she heard, Eddie Munson was still at Hawkins High as a repeat senior.

As she drove down the familiar roads to the high school her mind wandered to Eddie. A welcomed distraction in her panicked state. He was failing almost everything except English and Arts classes when they were in school together. The Hawkins High guidance counselor had asked Y/N if she could tutor Eddie once a week in between cheer practice and student government. Y/N didn’t mind the extra work load, despite his grades in school he was always attentive during their sessions.

After awhile Y/N figured out that the way the teachers taught the school's material was causing Eddie to fail, not his lack of intellect. Despite what people thought, Eddie was smart. He was creative and analytical and a natural public speaker. In the real world, Y/N had no doubt Eddie would succeed if he applied himself, he was just a shit test taker. Towards the end of her senior year she begged the school to have a different mode of testing for Eddie, because she believed he could do it if they gave him the chance. But despite being student body President, they shut her down. Y/N crossed that stage with her diploma, on her way to Notre Dame with early decision, and Eddie Munson stayed behind, doomed to repeat his senior year.

Her mind continued to wander, thinking about the boy, now a man, who gave her this mixtape. Does he still play with his band? Is Hellfire still up and running? Did he go to any of his senior proms? With who? She wasn't sure why her mind decided to be occupied with Eddie Munson. Y/N hadn't spoken a word to him since graduation day, the day he gave her the mixtape. While she was in her cap and gown walking towards where she was supposed to meet her parents and Chrissy, Eddie shouted her name on the other side of the parking lot. Next to his van that always smelled of weed and motor oil. It was a hot day in early June, and all Y/N wanted to do in that moment was take off the graduation gown that trapped heat like a sauna, sit in her parents Audi with the promise of AC and dinner on the horizon. But she didn't do that, she went to Eddie instead.

"Congrats Grad!" he shouted as Y/N walked over to his beloved van.

"Thanks Eddie, wished you could have walked the stage with me though." He must have stayed to watch the outdoor ceremony, the beginnings of a sunburn forming on his reddened face.

"I uh wanted to give you something, ya know, as a thanks for helping my sorry ass throughout the semester" He was shifting his weight on each foot. Y/N frowned, feeling bad she couldn't do enough to help him. He was clearly embarrassed for not graduating on time with the rest of his class.

"It's not your fault, the teachers here are stuck in their ways. When it was just you and I you did well! I wish I was more helpful to you. You probably feel like you wasted your time with me."

"You could never waste my time!" It was a near shout when it left his mouth. " What I mean is... It wasn't your fault at all. I'm a lost cause ya know. You did everything you could."

Y/N didn't like that at all. She wished she could have told him in that moment that he wasn't lost. Just hit a little stumble. She wished she could have told him that high school isn't everything. That being a good person was more important than a GPA, that he had more human decency than most of the guys in her class. But she didn't say that. What she said instead was..

"You mentioned you had a gift for me?" Y/N tried to cover her awkwardness with a smile, it's what her mother always taught her to do. 'Smile and look pretty girls, even if you're uncomfortable. We can't have people thinking the Cunningham girls are rude can we?' It was always the same photo ready smiles Y/N planted on her face when she was with her parents social circle and their children. She hated the idea of Eddie thinking the smile directed towards him wasn't genuine though... a thought she never had before in these situations.

"Oh right! Um.. yea just a second!" He opened the van, a couple of busted cans falling out of the door. "Sorry about the mess, my chauffeur has been lax with the clean up lately." Y/N giggled as she patiently waited for Eddie to find what he was looking for.

"Ah Ha! Found it!" Eddie jumped out of the van, slamming the door behind him. A triumphant smile on his face as he handed her the delicately wrapped package.

"Here you go my fair lady, a gift" He slipped the present into Y/N's waiting palms, fingers staying a moment too long before quickly returning to the pockets of his denim vest. She looked at the small box in her palms, brown paper folded neatly at the corners with a wax seal at the top. There was writing in a language she didn't recognize in the top corner in black ink, the letters swooping and interloping in a beautiful style of calligraphy.

"It's just uh.. something I made. As a thank you for putting up with me, I know you probably had a ton of other shit to do but I uh.. really appreciated it" Y/N couldn't stop the large smile that spread on her face. She had never received a hand made gift before. Her parents would just buy whatever was popular for her Christmas and Birthday presents.

"What's this writing at the top?"

"It's your name! In Quenya, it's from uh.. The Lord of the Rings. One of the languages the High Elves speak. Um.. in the book they're um really into academia and shit and kind of reminded me of you.. it's stupid.." Eddie stammered out, fumbling with the ends of his hair he'd been growing out since junior high.

"No it's not stupid! That's very sweet of you, maybe I'll stop at a bookstore by Notre Dame and pick it up. From J. R. R Talkin right?"

"It's um Tolkien but yea.. you should! It's a great book, I think you'd like it." She could tell Eddie was fumbling now, nervous about what she'd think of his gift.

"Can I open my present now?" Y/N asked, attempting to put Eddie out of his awkward state.

"Oh yea of course! Go for it." She gently undid the wax seal connecting the paper together, not wanting to risk ripping Eddie's hard work. Inside was a cassette tape, the cover decorated with Notre Dame's leprechaun and clovers throughout the background. She flipped the other side to find a list of all the songs on the tape, a wide variety of artists. Some she had heard of, like Tears for Fears and Billy Joel, and some she didn't know.

"It's a mixtape, I thought you could listen to it while you drive to Notre Dame. Both sides equal the drive there and back to Hawkins in time so you don't have to worry about not having anything to listen to on the radio. You said once during one of our tutoring sessions that you like power ballads and um.. love songs.. so I made a list of the songs you liked. I threw some of the stuff I listen to, can't have my favorite tutor limit her music taste to just REO Speedwagon."

Y/N's jaw dropped when Eddie finished speaking. She remembers the conversation vividly, at the time Eddie gave her a bit of shit for her music taste. It was all in good fun. 'Of course Hawkins High's sweetheart is a hopeless romantic. You can't always listen to love songs, you have to have SOME variety!' they had laughed at the time. The conversation was brief, and yet he remembered all of the artists she listened too.

"Eddie... I don't know what to say..." She was touched. In that moment she felt that they understood each other. A part of her hoped that the time they spent together meant something to him. That this mixtape meant something more than just a thank you gift, but she shook the thought out of her head immediately. Eddie Munson didn't particularly care for her crowd, and not without good reason. The cheerleaders on her team were kind girls, but the boys they hung around were a judgmental, rowdy, stuck in the social hierarchy of high school. Eddie was outside of that, and tensions often rose between his group and hers. The most she hoped for was that he didn't see her like that.

"It's really nothing! Just something for you to pass the time, honest!" He quickly stammered out. A seed of disappointment grew in her chest, of course it wasn't more than she thought it was. Eddie's type must be some cool metal chick. Who smokes spliffs and hangs out at motorcycle bars. Not some cheerleader who doesn't have enough of a backbone to confront the image her mother placed on her. The girls Eddie would like wouldn't care about what people have to say about them, just like he does.

"Thank you Eddie, I love it. I'll listen to it on the drive to school."

"Sounds good, um hey maybe next time you're in Hawkins..."

Y/N never got to hear the end of that sentence. Her mother's shrill yell interrupting their conversation. She was getting impatient with her daughter talking to who she considered "undesirable company," waiting to drive to Enzo's for dinner where she would force the girls to eat like birds as if they weren't sitting in the sun all day. Y/N walked away from Eddie with a quick apology and wave, not knowing this was the last conversation they would have.

She had seen him around town when visiting her parents over the holidays, barely making eye contact before her mother dragged her to whatever errand she hand next on her list. Y/N opted to take summer classes to avoid spending unnecessary time with her family, but as she made her way to the parking lot of Hawkins High she regretted the decision. Maybe she could have caught up with Eddie at some point, without her helicopter mother present. Tell him how much she listened to his mixtape, how it was her go too for every drive and study session. That she was nervous she would break it from how much she played it. Maybe once she was done checking on Chrissy she'd make a point to visit him. Her parents didn't know she skipped cheer practice that day to see her sister, it would be a perfect time.