“No, I’m afraid not. You just missed him,” he answers, concerned about her frazzled and breathless state. 

“Oh,” she wheezes as she puts her hands on her hips and doubles over. 

“Are you alright, darlin’?”

Y/N nods. “Yeah… I just… I biked over from my house… and car rides… they make the distance… seem a lot… shorter.”

“Uh huh,” Wayne nods cautiously, “Well, I’m Wayne, Eddie’s uncle. Come on in. Let me fix you up a glass of water.”

Y/N stares blankly as Wayne turns over his shoulder and heads into the trailer. She cautiously considers the offer for a millisecond, before instantly taking him up on it, too thirsty to even really care.

“Thanks Mr. Munson… It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Please, Mr. Munson was my father, call me Wayne,” Wayne roars a laugh and smiles at her as he pulls a glass cup out of the cupboard. “And it’s nice to meet you too.”

“Take a seat,” he gestures to the dining table. 

Y/N catches her breath as Wayne fills up a glass with water. He sets it down in front of her and takes the seat across from her.

“Thank you,” she whispers before beginning to chug.

Wayne crosses his arms over his chest and leans back in his chair, “Listen now, Eddie didn’t tell me where he was going so I couldn’t really tell ya when that boy’ll be back. But you’re more than welcome to stay until then if ya like.”

Y/N’s eyes widen as she jerks her head forward. For all they know, he might be out all day. 

Wayne looks at her dismayed demeanor and sighs.

“May I ask,” He looks at her curiously, “What exactly brings you over? I know my nephew wouldn’t make a young girl like you come all this way by bike. Or leave if he was expecting you.”

Y/N looks up at him, “Oh, no, he wasn’t. I’m sorry to show up unannounced like this. But I came to surprise him. I was really hoping I could, um, talk to him, and maybe-maybe even apologize.”

“Apologize? Shoot, must be something serious I reckon. I love my nephew to pieces but I know he ain’t exactly a saint. Usually the one giving the apology, not gettin’ it.”

Y/N inhales through her nostrils, feeling the tension in her shoulders as they climb upward, “Yeah, I’m not usually the one apologizing either, but… I think I might’ve messed things up.”

Wayne nods and looks at her in understanding, silently inviting her to go on if she so wishes.

“You see, the thing is…I really like your nephew. A lot. More than I’m allowed to. Boys are sort of… off limits at home.”

“I see,” Wayne nods.

“We’ve been working together on this assignment at school and it was surprisingly a lot of fun. We would spend a lot of time together and I didn’t even get the chance to realize just how strong my feelings for him were before my parents caught us together, and I got in a lot of trouble for it.” 

Wayne lifts a hand and strokes the stubble on his chin with his thumb and forefinger, “Eddie’s no stranger to trouble, but I reckon you are, aren’t ya darlin’?”

Y/N nods sullenly. “Yeah, it’s awful. And now, I just feel stuck. Like I’m in this game of tug of war and on one side is being with Eddie and on the other is not letting my parents down but I can’t have both.”

Wayne looks at Y/N, worried she might start crying on him. Barely accustomed to Eddie’s own emotional waves after so many years, he’s ill-equipped to handle this.

But then, Y/N takes a deep breath and looks up at Uncle Wayne. “Hurricane Eddie came into my life with no warning and turned it all upside down,” Y/N nervously jokes.

Wayne chuckles, “Believe you and me, I see the aftermath of Hurricane Eddie everytime I walk into his room.”

“I know right? I love Eddie but that boy is such,” Y/N laughs before pausing a moment and quietly adding, “a mess.” 

Love?

Her heart skips a beat and she looks up at Uncle Wayne with puzzled eyes as he warmly smiles at her.

She shakes her head, “Anyways, I just… I don't know what to do. At first, I thought, if I had to choose, I would choose my family. I would always choose them, even when it meant being under house arrest for a month and cutting Eddie out of my life. But after all was said and done, it didn’t seem to change much. In fact, it only made me more miserable.”

Wayne nods as he processes her words.

“And no matter what I choose, there’s no going back. All my life, I’ve been the good girl with good grades who never misbehaves. And after what happened, I know I’ll never be that girl again. Not to my parents and not to myself. But I don’t know who else to be.”

Wayne sighs and smiles at her, “Take a load off sweetheart, you don’t have to worry about carryin’ the weight of the world on your shoulders ‘round here.”

Y/N nods patiently and makes a show of exhaling and dropping her shoulders. 

“Have you ever heard the sayin’, Rome wasn’t built in a day?”

Y/N frowns and cocks her head to the side, “No, not really.”

“Well, it wasn’t. Took the Romans years to build everything they write about in them history books.” “Okay?” Y/N responds, not entirely sure why he’s bringing this up.

“What I’m tryna say is, there’s things in life that you just gotta take day by day. You won’t solve the conundrum of forbidden love by tomorrow.”

Y/N nods and blushes, feeling sheepish that she hadn't made the connection sooner. 

But even still, it feels like if she doesn’t figure this all out now, she never will.

“Yeah, that makes sense. I guess it just feels like we’re running out of time, you know. We only have so long before we graduate and I go off to college.”

Wayne nods contemplatively.

“And what about my parents? Am I just supposed to accept the fact that they may not be happy with me right now, but as time passes, their anger will just fade?”

“That’s exactly it,” Wayne smiles.

“Now that’s science fiction if I ever heard it,” Y/N mutters.

Wayne laughs. Yeah, this girl’s been hanging out with his nephew alright. 

“Believe me, if you’re anything like Eddie says, I’m sure your folks know just how great of a daughter you are, they just wanna keep you safe. I wanna do the same for Eddie sometimes, but I know I gotta let him be a kid and make his own mistakes. It’s the only way to learn.”

Y/N pouts as she nods and looks into her lap. “I know, but I don’t like making mistakes. It feels awful.”

“It’s a part of life sweetheart. You’re gonna fall. But the real question is, are you gonna stand back up?”

Y/N’s shoulders loosen and her eyes soften, “I want to, I just don’t know how.”

Wayne examines the puzzled look on her face. It oddly looks like the same one Eddie has when he’s off in his room, frustrated with a chord he just can't seem to get right or he comes across a roadblock in that D&D game he loves so much.

Wayne sighs and places his hands on the table and clasps them together. “Listen, how ‘bout I tell you a story?”

A story? Isn’t Y/N a little too old for story time? What’s next, a bit of milk and cookies too?

Despite biting her tongue, her thoughts must be evident on her face.

“Don’t deny an old man one of the few pleasures he has left in life,” Wayne says in a joking tone, but Y/N’s immediately softens her shoulders and gaze, almost apologetically.

“I see how you kids these days seem to carry a lot of burdens on your shoulders and I ache for ya’, I really do. You’re too young to be this cynical.”

Y/N shrugs, not sure how to respond.

“Sometimes I worry about what this world is coming to, but at the end of the day, I know I can only control so much. And what I can control is having a loving home for Eddie and his friends. And that includes you too darlin’.”

Once Wayne’s put it into these words, Y/N immediately understands what Wayne is building up to. He’s about to share some generational wisdom with her.

There wasn’t a whole lot of that to go around in her own family, so there’s something to be said about the subtle buzz of excitement Y/N’s feels. Perhaps, her situation is just a tale as old as time. One she’ll never be alone in because generations of people before her have also been in her shoes.

“Now, I know things are different these days, but you remind me an awful lot of someone I used to know. Someone I met back when I was about your age.”

“Who?” Y/N cocks her head to the side and furrows her eyebrows.

“Well, back in the fall of 1837,” Wayne starts, making Y/N chuckle. 

“My parents had just moved my sister and I to Hawkins. We’d spend the better years of our youth growing up down south but then my daddy went and got a job at one of them new automobile factories up here.

I had just graduated high school and without fail, my mama and daddy made it loud and clear, I was to work and work only. Anything else was a waste of time and money. 

Now, for a while, I firmly believed in this. I figured it was more important to help make ends meet than run around with some girl or go out partying with the big boys.

So I went and got a job at the local lumber yard. It wasn’t nothing fancy but it was good work. Pay was decent. For a while I could focus on that. Helped having enough food on the table, newer clothes, a few more presents at Christmas time, things like that.

I had a duty to my family, and I had no problem fulfilling it.

I’d spend all my hours at the lumber yard and was content with it. I’d made friends with some of the other boys that worked out there. We’d horse around on the job, but after work was done, I’d go home to my family like I’d always done.

Sort of like a routine for me. Safe and reliable.

But then one sunny June day, I met this girl. Mind you, I wasn’t even looking for her or nothin’ like that. But she sorta just found me. And my life was never quite the same after that summer.”

Y/N’s eyes widen. She gazes at him curiously, imploring him to go on. 

“Her name was Sally. She was a beauty, I’ll tell you that. I can still see her pretty golden hair and big brown eyes. 

On our first date, I had learned that she came from a good family. A real good family. She was a descendent of some of Indiana's first settlers. Her daddy was a big shot in local government, and her mama an heiress. She lived in a big house with some of the finest china you ever did see. What’s more, she was set to go off to Yale for college, just like her parents did. It’s where they met, after all.

But you never woulda really guessed by the way she carried herself. She was beautiful without letting it go to her head. She was sharp as a wip but never held it against ya. And she was the kindest person in the whole world. She was unlike any girl I’d ever met before,” Wayne says wistfully.

Y/N clutches her empty glass, “What happened?” 

Wayne sighs longingly, “We fell in love. She made me laugh and she opened my eyes to a whole world I never even knew existed. She was a wild card, that one. I was always in for a surprise with her, but I could never seem to get enough. For the rest of the summer, I went and saw her anytime I wasn’t working. We talked on the phone all night. We even thought about running away together, starting a new life.”

“Really? Why?”

“Our parents didn’t approve of us being together. Hers said I didn’t come from the right kind of family. Mine said I was wasting time.”

Wayne pauses for a second, but a look of pain never crosses his face.

“What did you do?”

“All we could do,” he shrugs, “She’d be off to Connecticut in the fall, so we made the most of what little time we had left together that summer. ”

Y/N furrows her eyebrows in confusion. She was almost expecting him to say he stood up to their parents and fought tooth and nail to be with her.

“What?”

“Listen darlin’, I knew I couldn’t change her folks’ minds and I wasn’t gonna kill myself trying. I knew I could either spend the summer with her and nothing more or I could simply leave it at that.”

“What about her parents? And yours? Didn’t they still object to you spending the summer together?”

“They did at first, but then they got over it when they realized how temporary it was. At the time, I wasn’t even thinking of marriage. All I knew was that I was young and in love. I didn’t know how long it would last and I wasn’t very interested in planning it all out. I just wanted to enjoy it for what it was. And I promised myself I wouldn’t let things get in the way of taking care of my family.

As for her parents, well, they never liked me or even respected me, but they came around to tolerating me. I was like a stray dog that made their little girl happy, coming around sparingly but one they would never come to call their own.”

Y/N frowns at the thought. It breaks her heart to hear Uncle Wayne refer to himself like that. And if that’s what she and Eddie are going to be like, she doesn’t want her parents to just tolerate Eddie… but would that be better than nothing?

“Were you happy? Even though you knew it was short lived? And neither of your parents supported it?”

Wayne takes a moment to think about it, reflecting on the long lost memory. 

“I don’t think we thought about it that much. We were just a couple kids trying to have fun. Life’s too short to take it so seriously. We had the rest of our adult lives to do that.”

Y/N frowns, not too satisfied with his answer. How is any of that supposed to help? The only reason she’s gotten this far in life is by thinking about things too much.

“But to answer your question, we were happy. We were happy the whole time, but it helped not having so many people breathing down our necks by the end.”

Y/N nods contemplatively, a bit more content with that answer.

“What happened after the summer was over?”

“Well, just as you might expect. We said goodbye and went our separate ways. She went off to start her first semester of college and I stayed here. I kept working at the lumber yard for a while, taking care of my family.”

Wayne looks away, slightly forlorn and Y/N feels slightly guilty for making him relive some of these memories.

“Was it hard? Saying goodbye?”

“The initial time apart was tough. I’m not gon’ lie to you. I could hardly look at any other girls ‘cause in one way or another they never compared to Sally.”

Y/N frowns. To her knowledge, there’s never been a Mrs.Munson in the picture. She wonders if Sally was his first and only love.

“We wrote to each other for a while, but after a certain point, the letters stopped. Years later, I found out she had gotten married to some senator and started a family out in Virginia.”

“Wow,” Y/N says painfully, “I’m so sorry.”

Wayne shrugs, “That’s life darlin’. It keeps going on whether you want it to or not. But it’s important to not let the tough stuff like pain and heartache keep you from living it.”

Y/N nods and fidgets with her fingers.

“I knew it’d be worse to let my life pass me by just because things didn’t turn out like I’d hoped. So once my sister had gotten older and my family was in a better place, I picked up and left town for a while. Sorta like my daddy, I thought the change of pace might help.”

“Did it?”

Wayne nods, “I held odd jobs in different towns across the state. It wasn’t much, but enough to get me by. What’s more, I got to meet a lot of new people. People from all walks of life with all sorts of different problems. And somehow it made my problems at home seem a lot smaller, more manageable to deal with.”

“Did you ever fall in love again?”

Uncle Wayne squints his eyes for a moment before opening them again and shaking his head.

Y/N exhales and slumps in her seat.

“Alright now, don’t you go on and worry about me darlin’. I’m still alive and that’s one of the greatest gifts of life.”

Y/N nods, feeling as though her foot has been caught in her mouth.

“I’m sorry Mr.Munson, I mean… Wayne. I just, I hope you can experience love again someday.”

“Listen sweetheart, I’m gon’ be alright. Ya hear? I’ve got all the love I need right here in this home.”

Y/N nods sheepishly.

“The world works in mysterious ways, but don’t you ever be mistaken, love is always there.”

Y/N nods again, reflecting on the ways she finds love in her life. Her parents, in their own weird way, come to mind, and even her friends.

“As for your predicament with Eddie. Well, if you two are anything like me and Sally, then all I can really tell ya is that relationships are either a lesson or a blessin’. Period. You don’t get to choose which one it is. The only thing you can choose is whether or not you want to experience it.”

Y/N thinks about the new choice laid out upon her: She could choose to be with Eddie.

It would be hard. It would mean defying her parents. It would even mean having her heart broken when she leaves for college. 

But, it would also mean she could be happy. It would mean he could be happy too. It might even mean truly and deeply falling in love.

“It all just seems so risky,” Y/N huffs as she crosses her arms over her chest.

“That’s life darlin’, always gonna be a little risk for something you love.”

“Wow, I’ve never thought of it like that.”

“It’s all about perspective, sweetheart.”

At the mention of the word sweetheart, Y/N’s mind runs to Eddie, and suddenly, it clicks.

She gasps. 

“That’s it,” she scoots her chair back and rises, smiling at him triumphantly. “I know just what I need to do! 

Before Wayne can even say something, Y/N moves away from the table and pushes the chair back. “I need to go! Thanks… Wayne!”

“Uh, glad I could help,” Wayne replies with an earnest smile and a chuckle. 

Y/N nearly races out the door and Wayne follows her, standing in the doorway. “Wait, do you want a ride?”

“No, it’s ok,” Y/N calls out as she mounts onto her bike. “I’ll be fine. Thanks for all your help!”

Wayne yells something back, but Y/N is too lost in thought about her course of action, so she just waves him off as she rides her bike into the distance, fueled by adrenaline.

She pedals and pedals and pedals, preparing to make her mighty rebel yell. 

She has one big decision to make and only seven miles to figure out how she’ll spend the rest of her senior year without any regrets.

***

 Y/N pedals down the same roads she came through no more than an hour or two ago. Halfway along her route, a random thought pops up into her head that she should stop by Michelle’s house before she goes to speak with her parents.

She’s not sure why. Maybe Michelle could give her a pep talk. Or maybe it would help to talk to someone about how she’ll convince her parents to let her date Eddie. Even then, it’s not like either of those things seem dire, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that she has an inexplicable gut feeling that she needs to go to Michelle first.

As she makes her way through the neighborhoods of Hawkins, she mulls it over and figures that it wouldn’t hurt to run things with Michelle. Facing her parents is a daunting task and maybe a friend who can lend an ear will help.

But as she reaches Michelle’s street, her house visible in the distance, she finds an unfamiliar car in the driveway. Perhaps it’s an illusion and the car is in the neighbor’s driveway.

But as Y/N’s pedals and comes closer, she begins to recognize the big beige van that is definitely in Michelle’s driveway.

No, it can’t be.

But as soon as Y/N approaches, she knows for sure that that is Eddie’s van.

The shock of seeing that Eddie is at Michelle’s house is enough to make her sharply press on the brakes with a death grip that sends her jolting to a stop, propelling her to fly off her bike, into the air, and onto the pavement. 

She whines at the screeching noise and a loud thump can be heard when she hits the pavement. Her palms dig into the street to break her fall and she curses aloud.

She slowly pushes herself up to sit on her bottom and brings her palms forward. Her knee is throbbing and her palms are all scratched up and swelling, blood threatening to burst at the seams.

She didn’t even realize she was crying till a few hot tears slip from her cheeks and onto her asphalt dusted, very scratched up hands. 

“Are you okay,” an authoritative male voice asks.

Y/N avoids looking at whatever good samaritan has approached her. She’s about to graduate high school and she's sitting in the street crying after falling off her bicycle like some child.

Y/N waves him off, “I’m okay sir, I just fell off my bike.”

“Sir? Don’t give me any ideas now sweetheart,” the same voice replies, somehow sounding younger and much snarkier.

Just as he lays a warm hand on Y/N’s upper back, between her shoulders, Y/N looks up into the sweet pair of big brown eyes she loves most in the world.

“Eddie,” she cries out as she wraps her arms around him, pulling him close to her.

Eddie lets out a yelp as though the action knocked the breath out of his lungs. But as he processes the feeling of her body against his, he instinctively returns the gesture and kisses the top of her head. 

“C’mon, smartypants, let’s get you inside,” Eddie whispers in her hair as he keeps one arm wrapped around her midsection and the other under her knees as he picks her up and carries her to the house.

It’s all happens so fast  that Y/N can barely keep up as Eddie walks across the lawn, carrying her bridal style as the rest of her friends come pouring out the front door.

“Y/N!”

“What happened?”

“What’s going on?”

Eddie explains that he saw her fall off her bike as he takes her inside, leaving the other girls to bring her bike inside and turn the bathroom into a full on operating room.

Michelle goes to grab the first aid kit while the other girls find something in the freezer to use as an ice pack while Y/N sits helplessly on the bathroom sink.

“I’m fine really, it’s just a scratch,” Y/N mutters as Eddie inspects her hands, feeling somewhat exposed as she sits on the counter of the bathroom sink, despite the layers of clothes she currently has on.

Eddie cups her cheek, wiping away the remaining moisture from the tears that had slipped away only moments ago. Even in an emergency, he can’t help but sarcastically say, “Mhm, I’m sure it is.”

Once the girls have brought in the supplies, Eddie politely asks them to wait over in the living room, leaving some privacy to complete his very important medical procedure. Y/N can’t tell if he’s being serious or just joking, but the girls follow his order and give them their space.

“Seriously, you guys are overreacting. It’s just a few scratches and probably some bruises. I’ll be okay.”

Y/N hisses as he tenderly applies antiseptic treatment to the cuts on her hands.

He glances up at her through his eyelashes, giving her a knowing look only for her to stare blankly back.

Y/N watches him as his eyes are lost in focus, in the zone of caring for her.

“Why are you so good at this?” Y/N softly asks. 

Eddie smiles and chuckles, “What? Being your little nurse?”

Y/N pouts but nods.

Eddie looks up from her hands and into her eyes and in a low voice says, “Well, let’s just say I’ve had a lot of practice.”

Y/N frowns at his answer and Eddie could just kiss the little wrinkles in her forehead away, but he can’t. Sure Y/N is at least talking to him and smiling in his presence, but there’s still a wall between them, one he wishes he could just break down with a wrecking ball.

“From what?” Y/N whispers.

Eddie carefully wraps her hands in bandages. He holds Y/N’s hands in his, palms up so his thumbs can gently brush across them.

Eddie shakes his head and forces a smile trying to say in the most light-hearted way possible, “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart.”

“Eddie,” Y/N softly whines, bringing her right hand up and gently cupping his face with her fingertips,”I’m going to worry about it.”

Eddie looks at her with a hardened face, but in his eyes, Y/N can see the softness. She can see the struggle in them.

She gently pulls away as she realizes her mistake. 

The two look at each other for a moment, wanting to say so much, but afraid of saying the wrong thing.

“Let’s just worry about your recovery, huh?” Eddie jokingly diagnoses as he places a gentle hand on Y/N’s knee for comfort. But instead, she winces in pain. 

He immediately grabs the frozen bag of peas wrapped in a dish towel and he instructs Y/N to hold it on her knee to ease the swelling.

After an awkward moment of silence, Eddie decides to diffuse the tension by teasingly saying, “So was that your first time riding a bike or something?” 

Y/N huffs and rolls her eyes, “No, Munson.”

Eddie can’t help the small smile that forms at hearing her call him by his last name.

“In fact, this is all your fault!”

“My fault?”

“Yes! I just came to see Michelle and then I saw your car in her driveway. I almost thought I was hallucinating.”

“Well fear not sweetheart, for it is I, the humble Lord Munson, here in the flesh,” Eddie dramatically says in his D&D voice as he bows in front of her. 

He peers up at her through his lashes, finding her to only glare at him. 

He stands back straight and leans forward to whisper in her ear, “If you really want to make sure you’re not hallucinating, feel free to touch as you please, princess.”

“Eddie,” Y/N scolds as she uses her fingertips to push him away. 

Eddie snickers and smiles at Y/N, heart warming to find her smiling at him too. 

Even Y/N can feel a warmth in her chest despite squirming under his gaze. 

For a moment, she looks away. But when she looks back at him, she properly takes him in for the first time that day. 

Now that the adrenaline of the moment has passed, suddenly a million questions overcome her.

What are Eddie and her friends doing here? And why is Eddie dressed like that? 

 He’s wearing a maroon cable knit sweater and a cream colored carpenter’s jacket over it. It’s sort of weird seeing him out of his normal clothes, but, unsurprisingly, he still looks hot. 

It’s like he’s unlocked a new superpower to her. He could pull off any look besides the rocker type if he ever wanted to.

And his hair! She’s never seen it like this before. When his hair is pulled back in a low ponytail, it feels like she can see his face in a way she never has before. Maybe it just looks more complete now that she can see his ears too.

But the question still stands: what is happening right now?

It takes everything in her not to just reach out and grab his hand or something when she asks, “Seriously Eddie, what are you doing here?”

Eddie exhales and looks her square in the eyes. There’s no use in even pretending, is there? 

“I’m here… for you.”

“For me?” Y/N asks simultaneously, surprised and confused.

Eddie looks down and nods as he begins twiddling his fingers, lacking the chunky metal rings he usually fidgets with.

“We, uh…” Eddie momentarily looks up at Y/N and his breath gets caught in his throat. 

Y/N doesn’t understand what’s making Eddie so nervous. 

“You can tell me, you know that right?”

Eddie looks down and Y/N reaches forward and gently twiddles her fingers with his. It should be reassuring. And Eddie shouldn’t even be afraid to tell her this. But for some reason, actually saying his plan out loud suddenly feels ridiculous.

Eddie gulps, “Your friends and I- We were supposed to go over to your place.”

Y/N smiles and her eyes widen in amusement, as if Eddie had just told her a joke. 

Eddie looks at her with a sense of guilt written all over his features. 

“Eddie, why?” Y/N asks as she realizes he’s being serious.

“We were gonna talk to your parents.”

“Wh- My parents?!”

Eddie takes a deep breath and interlaces his fingers with hers. He squeezes her hand and tries too hard to make a joke of the words, “We thought we could try talking some sense into them.”

He offers her a lopsided grin. Y/N’s eyes widen as she squeezes his hand bone-crushingly tight. 

“Eddie, what are you talking about?”

Eddie looks down at their hands and loosens his grip to withstand the near pain hers are causing. 

“Eddie!”

“I know, I know,” Eddie winces and Y/N loosens her grip. “We were all just worried about you. Your friends told me you won’t even talk to them. That you haven’t been not acting yourself. Not ever since that night.”

Y/N avoids his all encompassing gaze. 

“It’s not right what they’ve done to you,” Eddie mutters under his breath.

Y/N looks at him blankly and shrugs sullenly. 

“No offense, but, we just thought your parents ought to know the hell they’re putting you through.”

Y/N snorts and Eddie looks at her in alarm having never heard her make a noise and startled by the unnerving reaction.

“Is that why you’re dressed like this?” Y/N asks teasingly as she reaches forward and grabs the collar of the jacket. 

Eddie huffs and nods albeit displeased. 

“C’mere,” Y/N whispers as she lightly tugs him toward her by the fabric of his jacket. Eddie obliges and shuffles forward as Y/N spreads her legs wider for him to fit between them. 

Y/N locks eyes with Eddie and leans forward. She brings her arms to the back of his neck, gently taking out the elastic band holding his hair back. She removes it and places it around her wrist before fluffing his hair back out. She drapes a few strands over his shoulders and smiles at him. 

“There.”

Eddie looks at her cautiously, unsure of her actions. 

“I have to admit, this look is definitely doing something for me. But Eddie, you should know, I don’t care what you wear. You look hot either way”

Eddie crinkles his eyebrows and laughs at the sentiment. 

“Were you really going to barge up to my parents house like this?”

Eddie looks at her sheepishly, suddenly embarrassed at the idea that seemed so fool proof only moments ago. 

“With a huff and a puff you were gonna glow the house down?”

Eddie rolls his eyes and places his hands along her thighs for leverage. “Again, what else was I supposed to do?”

“Let me handle them,” Y/N says as she runs her hands over Eddie’s. 

“You don’t have to handle them alone. You know that right?”

Y/N bites her lip, unsure of what to say. 

“Hey,” Michelle pops by and leans against the doorframe. 

Eddie immediately retracts his hands, as if it were Y/N’s parents he was being caught by. 

“What’s the verdict, doc?”

He recovers by putting on a solemn face and placing a hand to his heart. “I’m afraid I have bad news… She only has six hours to live!”

Michelle dramatically brings the back of her forehead and cries “Oh God, why?”

Eddie and Michelle proceed to crack up at each other's silliness leaving Y/N to watch in nothing but utter confusion. It’s sort of nice but mostly foreign to see her best friend and her… Eddie to be bonding like this.

“Nah, she’s just a little scratched up on her hands and bruised on her knee, but she’ll make it out alive.”

“Thanks Eddie,” Y/N squeaks as Eddie helps her off the bathroom sink and leads her to the kitchen and dining room where all the other girls are milling about snacking on chips and soda.

“Hey,” Y/N awkwardly waves as she walks in the room. “You guys having a party or something?”

“Basically,” one of the girls says jokingly.

“We were just about to take it to your house too,” another adds.

Y/N looks over to Eddie and Michelle, “So I hear.”

“Eddie ‘Blabbermouth’ Munson told you how we wanted to go ambush your parents, didn’t he,” Michelle asks as Eddie shoves a handful of chips into his mouth. 

“Hey!” He grumbles with his mouth full.

“I love you guys, but that was a murder-suicide mission waiting to happen,” Y/N jokes as she reaches into the bag of chips Eddie is holding. She looks pointedly at Michelle, “And you! I told you talking to my parents wouldn’t do anything.”

Michelle sighs, but before she can say anything, Y/N adds, “Seriously, I appreciate the lengths you guys would go to do something like this for me. And I’m sorry about the way I’ve been acting these past few weeks. It wasn’t very cool of me. But, a wise man once told me that relationships are a lesson or a blessing.”

Y/N looks at her friends, “You guys are my blessing.”

“And you,” Y/N looks over at Eddie and takes a few steps towards him. She points a finger to the middle of his chest, “Well, I’m still trying to figure out which one you are. But I know now that I can’t choose which one you’ll be. I can only choose to find out. And I do. I want to find out.”

Eddie’s eyes gleam as he looks at Y/N. He could just kiss her, but he can't. There’s still a wall. Sure she’s knocked down a few cinderblocks already, but it's still there.

Before he can even decide, Y/N turns on her heel and walks back to the table where she grabs a bottle of coke, “I’ve been thinking a lot about it and I got some good advice from Eddie’s uncle-”

“You talked to Wayne,” Eddie asks as he places a death grip on his bag of chips, resulting in a pronouncing crackling noise.

Y/N takes a swig from the bottle, “Yeah. You weren’t home, and he was. He ended up having a lot of good advice to give.”

“When did you go over to the trailer?” Eddie asks firmly as he takes steps in Y/N’s direction, unnerved by her casual demeanor.

“This morning. That’s actually where I was coming from before I fell off my-”

“Why didn’t you call?” Eddie asks with shock and frustration.

Y/N scoffs, “Because I wanted to surprise you. And don’t even be mad at me Munson because it looks like you had the same idea.”

Eddie opens his mouth to say something, but closes it. Too many questions whirl around his brain for one to get out. But he knows that she’s right. He can’t get mad at her for having the same idea as him.

“So what did he say,” one of the girls asks.

Eddie looks over from her to Y/N, awaiting the answer to one of his many questions.

“He told me a story about his first love. How they were sort of like Eddie and I.”

Eddie looks at Y/N as if she had just said the same sentence in fluent french. He’s never been one to pry when it comes to his uncle. They had this unspoken rule where the less they knew about certain things, the better. 

But Y/N must’ve done something special to make him open up like that. The thought makes even more questions come to mind.

“His was more of a summer love, but talking to him made me realize that I was putting too much pressure on myself and what this relationship could be. And that it doesn’t have to be that way. I don’t know how long it’ll last but for the time that it does, it makes me happy and I’m not hurting anyone, so why should I deny myself.”

“So what are you going to do now?” Michelle asks. 

“Well, for one, I have a very important question to ask,” Y/N says before turning to Eddie and reaching forward to grab one of his hands in both of hers. 

Y/N looks into his eyes and says, “Eddie, I know I haven’t been very nice to you. I said some things and did some things I’m not proud of. I know it was just because I was scared and angry, but that doesn’t make it okay. And I’m sorry. But if you’ll have me, I’d really like to see what this could be.”

Eddie stares at her for a moment, trying to convince himself this isn’t just a dream and that he needs to say something.

But when he takes a moment too long to respond, Y/N casually turns around to face her friends and say, “And secondly, you all have given me the confidence I need to do what’s right. So now, I’m going to talk to my parents. I’m not sure what I’m going to say. If I'm just going to ask them or tell them, but all I know is, I’m not going to be their puppet anymore. Starting today, I’m gonna start pulling the strings in my own life.”

***

Later that evening, Y/N sweatily stands in the kitchen at her parent’s house, laboring over the stove with a variety of pots and pans in her wake.

Back at Michelle’s house the girls and Eddie helped Y/N come up with a plan to make the grand declaration to her parents. 

Y/N was adamant that this was a conversation she needed to have alone. And that when the time was right, she would bring Eddie into the same picture as her parents. 

They figured if Y/N buttered them up a bit by doing some extra chores around the house and making dinner, they might be more receptive to her decree.

And by the end of the night, she promised she would call Eddie with the news of how things went and that the girls would all go out to the diner for breakfast tomorrow whether or not it was a celebratory meal or a time to comfort her if things didn’t work out.

So here she was, blasted with the heat of all the burners on and multiple aromas swirling around her nose.

Y/N hoped and even prayed that things would all go well, it was that serious. She braced herself for her parents to be mad or to not understand, but she didn’t know what she would do if they punished her again.

She prayed she wouldn’t have to find out either.

By the time dinner was ready, Y/N’s stomach was clenching and her heart was racing. Her parents were delighted by the surprise, blissfully ignorant to the request Y/N was about to make as they all sat around the table.

Dinner started with compliments by her parents on how delicious the food came out. Y/N just meekly smiled and thanked them, gathering up the courage to ask for what she wanted. 

Her parents talked about menial things like their plans for the next day and some of the errands they would have to run. But it all just became noise before Y/N couldn’t take it anymore.

Her silverware clanked against the plate as she loosened her grip, “I have something to say.”

Her parents and sister looked at her blankly. Her parents looked at each other in confusion when Y/N opened her mouth but nothing came out.

“What’s wrong Y/N?”

Y/N looked at the three sets of eyes glaring at her and instantly chugged from her glass of water.

She set the glass down and cleared her throat, “Um, there’s something I wanted to, um, say.”

“Okay,” her mother said earnestly.

“I…I just, um…”

“Just spit it out Y/N,” her sister said before returning to her own plate.

Y/N glared at her before remembering the task at hand.

“I, um, I got an acceptance letter from Purdue in the mail earlier this week. And a waitlist letter from Notre Dame.”

That is not what Y/N meant to say, but for some reason it felt like she needed just a bit more ammunition.

“That’s great honey,” her mom said with a smile.

“Your mother’s right. We’re very proud of you,” her dad added.

“Thanks mom and dad. It’ll still be a while before I hear from U Chicago, but it’s good to have other options till then.”

Her parents nodded. And now, she has them right where she wants them.

“But in the meantime, there’s something I wanted to…”

Ask? Say?

“What is it sweetie?”

Y/N gulps, “I, um, I wanted to talk about, um, the house rule… about boys a-and dating.”

Her dad quirks an eyebrow at her as he brings a forkful of food into his mouth.

“Oh, well, what’s there to talk about?” Her mom asks casually.

“Um, I just wanted to say that I see the logic behind the rule, but, um, would like to counter with the proposition that even though I’m not in college yet, I will be in a few months. I’ve already gotten accepted to one and my grades are still good. And-”

“Y/N, we’ve talked about this,” her dad dismisses.

“I-I know, and I-I’ve learned my lesson but I think I’ve proven that I can be mature and not let boys distract me from my educational goals.”

Y/N’s dad chuckles, “Don’t be so naive, Y/N.”

Y/N’s stomach turns. “B-but I’m not. I-I know I’m capable of handling the demands of both school and a relationship on top of my family, friends, and everything else.”

“School comes first in this house, always. Relationships come and go, but no one can ever take your education away, you know that Y/N,” Y/N’s mom says.

“I know, but why can’t I have both? Why does it have to be one or the other?”

“Y/N this is about establishing priorities. We want you girls to place a high value on your education. For any young woman, it should take high priority over some short lived high school sweetheart.”

“I know. School i-is important. I’ll never lose sight of that. I’m just saying that, yeah, school will always come first, and family comes after that but, don’t you think third or fourth place are up for grabs on the ol’ list of priorities,” Y/N nervously smiles, feeling like she’s some kind of stand up comedian hoping the joke lands.

“Y/N, you know our decision was final. You made a mistake and you learned from it. Now it’s time to move on and focus on graduating,” Y/N’s mom counters.

Y/N presses her lips together and silently fumes in her seat.

It’s not a question about whether she will graduate or not. She’s on track to graduate as third in her class. What gives?!

Y/N’s parents look at her blankly and Y/N turns to her sister, pleading with her eyes to help defend her.

Her sister gives her a blank stare, but she can see something going on behind those eyes. Y/N can’t tell what it is or if it will even break the threshold of their dinner conversation. But she has to keep trying.

She didn’t want to have to resort to this, but she has one last card to play. She’s practiced this speech for a while now, but she never thought she’d have the chance or courage to ever actually deliver it. 

“Well, if I’m being honest, I think you should know that I love you both and I care a lot about what you think. But the truth is, for the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling like-like I can’t breathe. Like nothing in life even matters besides getting into UChicago. A-And that’s no way to live. 

And I know, there were things I did that weren’t okay, but I’m sorry. I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry I went behind your backs. And I’m sorry I broke the rules. 

But… But I’m not sorry about my feelings for Eddie. I like him a lot and I’m tired of hiding it. Eddie’s a good person. He makes me happy.”

Just thinking of Eddie makes Y/N’s lips quirk up slightly and she sits up straighter in her chair.

“I-I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, and I’m well aware of what the consequences might be. I know the likelihood of heartbreak. But I'm willing to take that risk. And I know that longevity may be an issue, but I’m not too concerned about that. Whether this relationship lasts till the time I go to college or not, I think I’ll be okay–”

“Y/N, I know you must–”

“I’m not finished,” Y/N declares, looking her parents square in the eye despite the tremble in her fingers or the red hot fire flowing in the blood in her veins. Instantly she knows she’s set off a bomb in her parents by the look on their faces, but she has to deliver the rest of her speech before it goes off and demolishes everything in their wake.

“A-and I’ve made my decision. I-I’d rather take my chances and take months to recover than to spend years regretting what could have been. I’m determined to explore what this could be. I say this with all the love and respect in the world, but at the very least, I hope you can trust the daughter that you’ve raised. I know I’ve proven time and time again that I have a good head on my shoulders and that I’m on the right track, so I hope this choice doesn’t make you think any differently. Because I’m still the daughter you raised to be trustworthy, responsible, and a good judge of character.”

For a moment, all Y/N’s parents can do is look between each other and her. The smoke coming out of their ears has seemed to fade, so now, Y/N can’t tell if they’re only fuming inside or if the ice coating their hearts is beginning to crack. 

The silence continues as her parents ruminate over her proposition. But the silence is threatening to slowly kill any dream Y/N might have had about being with Eddie.

Right when Y/N’s parents are about to say something, Y/N’s sister clears her throat and the attention of everyone around the dinner table turns to her.

“I had a boyfriend in high school,” Y/N’s sister says casually before bringing a forkful of food into her mouth.

Y/N’s mom nearly chokes on her drink and Y/N’s dad bursts into a hearty laughter.

Y/N’s eyes widen as she looks at her sister in awe.

“I’m serious. It was Daniel. We dated for almost two years.”

“Daniel? Your friend Karen’s brother?” Her mom asks irately.

“Why is this the first we’re hearing of it,” her dad asks as he drops his silverware onto his plate.

Y/N’s sister shrugs and briefly makes eye contact with them, “Because I knew you and mom would act just like this. And unlike Y/N, I don’t need your approval to live my life.”

Her parents look from one daughter to the other.

“Did you know about this?” Y/N’s mom asks.

Y/N looks at her sister then at her mom but doesn’t say a word.

Y/N’s mom raises a palm to her face, “Oh, dear God, where have I gone wrong? What did I do to deserve such disobedient daughters.”

Y/N sighs while her sister rolls her eyes. 

Her dad softly calls her mom by her name and places a hand on her arm. Not as distraught, but newly concerned by all these skeletons making their way out the closet.

“Mom, please,” her older sister scoffs, “I may not be at UChicago but I’m at least in community college, I don’t do drugs, and I’m not pregnant. Y/N’s on a much better path than I am. I’m pretty sure you’re doing just fine in terms of parenthood.”

Y/N’s mom drags her palm down her face and looks between Y/N and her sister. She looks over at Y/N’s dad who subtly nods and shrugs.

“You’re right,” he says before Y/N’s mom can. “Perhaps your mother and I have been…”

Her dad pauses and looks over at Y/N’s mom, his own pride getting in the way of admitting his faults.

“We’ve been too hard on you girls haven’t we?” Y/N’s mom asks, as though the thought is revolutionary. But Y/N’s just relieved that her parents have come to this conclusion on their own.

Y/N’s eyes widen as she looks between everyone at the table, unsure if she’s dreaming or if the moment is just unfolding at light speed in front of her.

Her mom sighs and her dad grabs her hand.

“We just didn’t want to see you girls have to go through the same struggles your mom and I went through. We thought you'd be better off for it,” her dad says.

“But we didn’t realize how much it was affecting you. We never wanted you to feel like you had to lie or suffer in silence,” her mom adds.

Y/N squeezes the napkin in her hand. There’s no way this is real life. Her parent’s apologizing? Admitting their shortcomings?

Even Y/N’s sister looks at her in concern.

“We swore we’d never be like our own parents, yet here we are,” her dad says in a teasing tone.

Y/N feels a pang of guilt hit her chest, even though none of what her parents just said is her fault.

She always thought that her parents were so strict because that’s just how they are. Parents are supposed to be hard asses. But it never occurred to her that they act that way because of experiences they had in the past. That they had fears and dreams beyond parenthood too.

“It’s that MTV rockstar looking boy you want to date, isn’t it?” Y/N’s mom asks with no hint of disappointment or anger, only wanting to understand.

Y/N wishes she could shrink to the size of a mouse and just crawl in the cupboard, but now is her moment.

Even then, all she can do is meekly nod, but it seems to be enough when her mom says, “Well, if that’s the case, then you’ll need to bring him home so we can properly meet him.” 

“We’ll need to see if he’s good enough to date our little girl,” Her dad says and pauses before adding, “But if he can manage to get in our good graces, then we might just see about you two dating.”

What?

Is that what Y/N thinks it is?

Is this her in?

Sure she’ll have to bring Eddie over and he’ll have to meet her parents. Face to face. And make a good impression. 

But her parents are theoretically almost okay with her dating Eddie! And somehow that was more than she was expecting.

“Really,” she squeals as she clasps her hands together.

Her parents nod and Y/N practically shoots out of her seat and runs over to give each of her parents a kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She yells in their ears as she wraps an arm around each of their necks, pulling them closer to her.

“Slow down, honey,” Y/N’s mom says.

“We’ll have to lay some new ground rules,” Her dad adds.

She squeezes them tight and holds on for a second before letting them go, resulting in a loud and exasperated sigh from both of her parents.

She pulls away and looks between them, “May I be excused from dinner, please?”

Her dad looks at her in confused amusement while her mom also amusedly asks, “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I need to make a phone call,” Y/N says cautiously, trying to subdue the excitement bubbling in her stomach. “Pretty please?”

“You can call after dinner okay, missy, we need to discuss new ground rules,” her dad orders.

Y/N pouts and reluctantly returns to her seat. As she finishes the rest of her plate, her parents begin throwing around ideas like how Eddie won’t be allowed upstairs, how they’ll need to meet Eddie’s parents, to which Y/N has to correct them and say they’ll meet his uncle, how her sister will have to chaperone their first few dates, and something about a new curfew.

It’s not music to her ears, but it’s waayyyyy better than a big fat NO.

After dinner, Y/N runs to place her dishes in the sink and zips her way up the stairs and runs to her room. She softly closes the door behind her and practically gets carpet burn from sliding across the floor and over to her nightstand.

She picks up the phone and dials Eddie’s number before flopping onto her bed and sighing as the phone rings.

Eddie picks up on the first ring and frantically answers, “Hello? Y/N?”

“Eddie, baby, it’s me,” she answers in a honey sweet voice

Y/N doesn’t know where that came from. She’s never called Eddie, baby, before. She’s never called anyone that before. Before Eddie, she might have thought it cringey or grounds to throw up on whenever she heard anyone else say it to their significant other.

But, now, it’s like the word was invented for her and Eddie. Like no one was ever anyone’s baby till Eddie and Y/N were.

And if Y/N’s not mistaken, she hears the sound of a muffled groan over the receiver before Eddie’s gruff voice says, “What happened?”

Y/N pauses for a moment, not to give Eddie any further anxiety from the anticipation but to figure out how to describe what just transpired.

“Th-They said yes. They’re letting us date!”

“Fuck! Are you serious? They really said that,” Eddie asks and Y/N can hear the excitement in his voice.

“Yeah, well, on one condition though.”

“What is it,” Eddie asks in alarm.

“They want to meet you.”

“They… what?”

“They want to meet you and get to know you. You know, properly interrogate you to make sure you’re good enough to date me,” Y/N says in a naive attempt at a joke, making fun of her parents words and easing the tensions from the daunting proposition. 

But it doesn’t land, and all she hears is silence from the receiver.

“Eddie,” Y/N asks in concern.

“Yeah,” Eddie responds neutrally.

“Doing alright over there?” Y/N asks as she twirls the cord of the phone with her fingers

“Mhm, juuuust trying to figure out how I can spontaneously transform myself into whatever Prince Charming your parents want me to be,” Eddie sarcastically responds. 

“Michelle and the girls seemed to do a good enough job of that this morning,” Y/N teases again, but it’s as though she can hear Eddie gulp over the phone.

“Baby, it’s gonna be okay,” Y/N says, surprising herself with how natural it feels to say the term of endearment but also hoping he’ll like it enough that hearing her say the word will help soothe him. “Look, we both know that you’re the perfect guy for me. There’s nothing you need to prove to them, you know that right?”

 “Kinda feels like the opposite if we’re being honest here princess,” Eddie says teasingly, hoping it hides the nervousness he’s feeling.

“I know Eddie, but I promise it’s not. My parents just want to know you. I know you, but to them, you’re still a question mark, you know?”

Eddie barks out a laugh which takes away the tension in Y/N’s shoulders.

“And besides, I wouldn’t change a hair on your head. If they have any shit to say, they’ll have to get through me first, okay?”

Eddie makes a noise between a laugh and a sigh before tauntingly saying, “Yeah tough girl? Gonna talk back to your parents for me?”

And sure, the words Eddie says aren’t meant to be menacing but by the way he says them? They are most certainly a threat. And Y/N can feel their impact in the sudden fluttering sensation in the pit of her stomach.

Now it’s her turn to audibly gulp over the receiver. “I think my good girl wants to bring her bad boyfriend home, doesn’t she?”

“E-Eddie,” Y/N asks as she clutches the phone in both of her hands, her mind entering a haze. She takes a breath and Eddie can hear the shakiness over the phone.

He hadn’t meant to turn the phone call in this direction but by god is it sweet sweet music to his ears to hear her react this way, just for him.

It’s relieving to know that even after all this time, it didn’t have to take much to know he still stands right where he wants to be.

But as much as he wants to be the biggest tease in the world right now, he knows he has time for that. 

He’ll have plenty of time to find out how to make Y/N’s skin crawl in the best possible way or discover just what makes her tick. 

Little does he know, he’s giving Y/N plenty of material to report back to the girls over brunch tomorrow.

***

May 3rd, 1986

Y/N looks at herself in the mirror, swiping on a coat of lip gloss on her lips and adjusting the wisps of hair framing her face. She takes one last look, searching for any other imperfections.

Tonight's the night. If she plays her cards right, something very big could happen. 

This sort of thing used to frighten her, but for him, she welcomes the possibility. She wants it to happen with him. There’s no one else she’d rather do it with than him. They’ve even gotten close, but it hasn’t happened yet. And it very well could… tonight.

Ding dong.

Y/N hears the front door open and a series of muffled voices.

“Y/N,” her mother calls out from downstairs, “Your date is here.”

Y/N takes a deep breath in and smooths out her puffy light pink gown. The smooth satin above layers of tulle run under her soft fingers. 

Y/N smiles at herself and takes one last look around the room, making sure she hasn’t forgotten anything. Her eyes land on her shimmering silver heels set out next to the door and she walks over to put them on.

She leaves the room and slowly descends the stairs, clutching onto the railing so as not to trip and fall. She’s too lost in concentration to focus on the party’s reception of her below.

As she makes the final step, she looks up into a familiar pair of warm brown eyes who look like they’ve just landed on an angel, sent straight from heaven.

Y/N’s eyes meet his and her smile widens from ear to ear.

He’s wearing black jeans and a soft white dress shirt with a black bow tie to match. The ensemble is complete with his signature leather jacket sans jean vest, chain hanging from his hips, combat boots, and silver jewelry adorning his skin.

His hair, as beautiful and long as ever, with wispy bangs covering his forehead, is organized in loose neat curls falling down his back.

“Hi,” Y/N says breathlessly as she takes the final step on the ground floor.

“Hey,” he whispers, simply gleaming at her. 

Y/N slowly walks toward him and stands arms length away. She could just kiss him or hug him, but she isn’t quite comfortable doing that sort of thing in front of her parents. 

Even though they’ve been dating for almost six months now, Y/N doesn’t think she’ll ever feel comfortable enough to put on a public display of affection in front of her parents.

But for now, the two smile and gaze into each other's eyes until a bright flash and the sound of a snap can be heard from the polaroid, Y/N’s mom is nearly shoving into their faces.

“Agh, mom,” Y/N whines as she brings a hand up and blinks to regain focus from the dizziness of the bright light.

Eddie takes this moment to also snap out of his gaze. “I, uh, I brought you this.”

Eddie holds up a plastic container with a rose the color of her dress.

“Is that a corsage,” Y/N smiles and cocks her head to the side. Her eyes land on the boutonniere placed on the lapel of his jacket, matching the corsage in the box. 

She smirks, as if to taunt the freak for going so conformist on her. And sure, it isn’t very metal to be doing the tux and prom thing in front of mommy and daddy, but love has made him do stranger things.

Eddie nods sheepishly, unaware of the subtle pink tint to his cheeks as he shakily reaches for her wrist and places the corsage gently along the soft delicate skin.

Y/N gleams at him, feeling like an absolute princess, “I love it! Thank you, Eddie.” 

Eddie sighs and smiles in relief.

“Alright you two,” Y/N’s mom coos from the side, “Let’s get some more pictures.”

Her mom whips out the trustee Polaroid camera and begins snapping a few more photos. The unexpected flash startles them.

“Mom,” Y/N complains.

“Okay, now Eddie, put your arm around Y/N,” Y/N’s mom smiles while her dad supervises from her side.

Eddie awkwardly places his arm around Y/N and the two forcibly smile. The flash nearly blinds them again.

“Ok, another one!”

Y/N and Eddie resume their smile as the flash pops again.

“Okay, mom we gotta go,” Y/N grabs Eddie by the wrist and nearly drags him out the door.

“Wait,” Y/N’s mom calls out and Y/N and Eddie freeze in their spots, hand just about to touch the doorknob.

  “Here you go, Eddie,” Y/N’s mom says as she hand’s one of the polaroids to Eddie and smiles at him, “For a night to remember.”

Y/N’s mom hugs Eddie and then turns to hug Y/N. Before she pulls away fully, she raises her thumb to Y/N’s head and does the sign of the cross while saying, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” in Spanish.

“Mom,” Y/N whines as she flushes underneath, knowing her mom only ever does the gesture before any major life event or if she does something risky like when she took the SATs or went off to summer camp for the first time.

“You two be safe out there, okay,” Y/N’s mom pleads.

“Have Y/N home by midnight, you hear,” Y/N’s dad orders and Eddie straightens his posture, nodding profusely. 

Eddie opens the front door and ushers Y/N to walk through first.

“Bye you two, have fun,” Y/N’s mom calls from the front door as Y/N and Eddie make their way over to his van.

“But not too much fun,” her dad forcefully adds.

“Bye,” Y/N turns over her shoulder and waves.

Eddie opens the passenger door for her and helps her into the van before closing it and jogging over to the other side.

He puts the key into the ignition and turns it on, making the van roar to life. He’s just about to lean over the edge of his seat to give her a kiss when she gently nudges his shoulder and pushes him away.

She shakes her head and looks over to the open doorway where her parents are waiting for them to drive off, “Not till we’re out of sight.”

“Afraid we might get caught?” Eddie teases her.

Y/N rolls her eyes, “No, it’s just weird. I don’t want them to see me kiss a boy.”

“What about kissing, a man?”

Eddie closes his eyes and leans forward, puckering his lips to a comedic extreme.

“Shut up,” Y/N shoves him away harshly and laughs. “Just get us out of here and then we’ll talk.”

Eddie backs out of the driveway and turns onto the street, pausing to wave to Y/N’s parents who are still waiting in the doorway.

Eddie smiles and leans close to Y/N’s ear to huskily say, “Oh trust me sweetheart, we won’t be doing much talking if I can help it.”

Y/N tenses and her smiles fades, arm frozen mid-wave.

And then Eddie drives off and before they know it, they’ve arrived at the Hawkins High School gym.

Trust a town as small as Hawkins to have an event as big and extravagant as prom to be held in the town’s only high school’s gym.

But as Y/N and Eddie meet up with Y/N’s friends and their dates, they enter the gymnasium and are welcomed by a space absolutely decorated to the nines.

There’s no way this is the same place that’s home to sweaty jockstraps and musty basketballs. 

Instead there are dozens of lights strung about the ceiling, twinkling like stars above them, with a disco ball as full as the moon in the center of it all, reflecting light onto the blue and cream colored streamers hung in waves all around them.

Y/N and all her friends' dates run off to get them punch while the girls find a place to sit. They find a table at the edge of the dance floor and gush over how pretty they all look in their dresses or how well their dates, especially Eddie, cleaned up.

When Eddie arrives with a cup for Y/N, he takes a seat next to her and Y/N looks at him as if he hung the moon up in the night sky.

Eddie smiles in confusion as he settles in and wraps an arm around her, “What?”

Y/N smiles and shakes her head. Without warning, she leans forward and presses a loving kiss to his lips. And for the first time that night, she can smell the cologne he’s wearing. She’s used to him smelling like cigarette smoke and irish spring soap, a scent she’s come to love, but something about the cologne ignites something animalistic in her.

When she pulls away, it’s the second time tonight Eddie’s blushing. He lightly chuckles and squeezes the hand placed on her shoulder, “What was that for?”

Y/N leans forward and chastely kisses him again, “Nothing.”

“Feels a little more than just nothing,” Eddie innocently teases, attempting to read the look in her face or gleam in her eyes.

Y/N places a hand on the top of Eddie’s thigh, close to his knee, and gently runs her fingers along the fabric. 

Eddie knows whatever it is, she must be feeling good. It took him almost three months to get her to initiate any sort of PDA and even then, she only ever does it first whenever she’s really in the mood, always preferring for him to lead the way.

Y/N shrugs but the grin never leaves her face, “I'm just really happy we’re here. That I get to share this moment with you.”

Eddie almost wants to give her some smug look and tease the hell out of how gushy she’s being right now, but he can’t even properly make fun of her because he feels the exact same way.

So his only natural response is to lean forward and let his lips do the talking, and by talking, they practically give a speech dedicating his devotion to her, even though it means he’s gotten some of her lipstick on him. But it’s okay, he’ll be sure to give her a good amount of hickies later tonight to get even.

Midway through practically making out, the DJ plays Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” and Y/N breaks away from the kiss and shrieks.

“I love this song,” Y/N squeals and shoots up from her chair.

Eddie, still lost in the haze of the kiss, looks up at her in confusion. Y/N grabs his hand and drags Eddie to the dance floor. 

Eddie stumbles along with her, wondering how the moment got away from him.

As they make their way across the waxed wooden floor, Eddie leans close to Y/N’s ear and yells so she can hear him say, “Uh, I don’t dance.”

“Well, sweetheart, you are tonight,” Y/N smirks back at him as she continues to lead the way to the pit of students smushed together moving their bodies to the beat of the song. 

And now he really knows she’s so far gone. This is Y/N’s night now and the last thing he wants to do is get in her way. 

As they find a spot on the dance floor with her other friends and their dates, Y/N faces Eddie and starts swaying her body to the rhythm.

“Uh,” Eddie says under his breath but it’s too loud for anyone to hear. He looks at her and forcibly smiles while mechanically trying to mimic her movements. He figures that if he can focus on her, maybe he can forget about the many pairs of eyes staring at him right now.

“You’re too stiff,” Y/N huffs as she places her hands along his biceps and squeezes them.

Eddie tries to loosen his limbs but the apparent lack of alcohol or THC in his system is making itself a problem right about now.

“I told you babe, I don’t dance,” Eddie says apologetically. 

“Edward I’ve seen you dance, you just didn’t know it,” Y/N says with attitude. It should be annoying that she’s calling him out like this, but it’s kind of hot when she gets feisty, especially since it doesn’t happen so often.

“Just pretend you’re doing a set with Corroded Coffin. Move your body to the rhythm. Let the music flow through you,” Y/N says as she guides the movement of his arms to the guitar solo at the end of the song.

Eddie starts to loosen up a bit and then the song transitions to “If You Leave” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and that’s when things really click for Eddie.

Y/N loved that Pretty in Pink movie so much, she made Eddie watch it with her in theaters three times. Against his will, he knows the song like the back of his hand. But it’s proving to come in handy right now as he slowly starts to loosen up and match Y/N’s energy as she dances along to the beloved song.

Months ago, he never would’ve expected to see Y/N like this. Back then, he never would have thought it possible for her to be able to just let go and have fun, but he likes to think her ability to do it now is partially his own doing.

Even as “I Melt With You” by Modern English comes on next, Eddie can’t help but laugh and smile as he terribly dances along with Y/N and her friends.

Never in all his years did he think he would ever even go to prom, let alone have fun at it. But Y/N seems to be his lucky charm in that way.

He thrashes around with Y/N as “Blue Monday” by New Order comes on next and the rest of the crowd has been long forgotten at this point.

Y/N does zany silly moves to make Eddie laugh, not even caring what anyone else thinks. And Eddie does the same, knowing there’s only one person he would be willingly looking like an idiot on the dancefloor with. 

From “Rio” by Duran Duran to “Come On Eileen” by the Dexys Midnight Runners, Eddie would never admit to any of his friends just how fun it is to dance to stupid Top 40 stuff. 

In a way, he’s sort of relieved that none of them came because they’re too young or didn’t have a date. This is a side of him that he isn’t ashamed of, but is much more comfortable showing knowing he won’t be teased.

But another part of him knows he and the boys would absolutely demolish the dance floor without a regard for what anyone thinks. It would have been so much fun to show up to prom with his boys and prove high school didn’t break them.

He hopes that no matter what happens, his younger friends can have the time of their lives like this too. That they can experience more joy than what Eddie’s had over the past six months. 

High school was a shit show for him, but it’s ending on a pretty high note. But the night isn’t over just yet. 

When the DJ plays “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins, a song that apparently annoys Y/N for some reason, as though it isn’t the same flavor of bubblegum pop as the other songs, at least to Eddie’s ears.

But Y/N tells Eddie she wants to take a break and get some punch so Eddie walks her over to the refreshments table.

The chaperone behind the table, undoubtedly some member of the PTA, smiles at Y/N and hands her the cup of punch.

“Hey Munson,” someone calls over from the other side of Eddie.

Eddie turns in the direction of the voice, leaving enough room for Y/N to see a face that’s familiar but she doesn’t exactly remember why.

“Carver, to what do I owe the pleasure,” Eddie asks with gritted teeth.

Y/N doesn’t know the blond boy or how Eddie knows a guy who would wear a varsity jacket to prom, but the tension in his shoulders and grit to his voice say it’s not for a good reason.

Y/N takes the opportunity to snake her arm around Eddie’s waist and hold on to him, leaning into his side as she gazes at the boy across from them, hoping to comfort him from whatever is unfolding.

The sudden motion catches the boy’s attention and his eyes move from Eddie to Y/N. If Eddie’s not mistaken, Jason’s eyes seem to widen a bit and linger on Y/N for more than he’d like, so instinctively, Eddie wraps his arm tightly around Y/N, pulling her into him even more.

“This your girl,” Jason asks as he juts his chin out in Y/N’s direction.

The motion isn’t threatening but something about it makes Y/N want to crawl out of her skin. 

Y/N and Eddie look at each other before looking at Jason.

“Yeah, what’s it to you,” Eddie asks menacingly. 

Jason throws up his hands in mock surrender, “Nothing man, she’s just pretty is all.”

Jason continues to oogle a bit longer at Y/N but she can’t even figure out what to say to make him stop.

“How’d a freak like you manage to get a girl like her?” Jason asks with a sense of genuine curiosity. Like their relationship is the big bang theory and he needs to ask questions to make any sense of it.

And then it hits Y/N that she does know him. It’s Jason Carver and she tutored him before basketball season in junior year. He was struggling with physics but would spend half the time flirting with her even though he had a girlfriend on the cheer team. It always made Y/N uncomfortable, no matter how nice it was to hear that she was so smart and pretty.

“Doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out, Jason. But for you, maybe a little tutoring might help,” Y/N says with a smirk.

Eddie looks at her in confusion while Jason looks just about like he’s been caught red-handed, realizing just where he knows Eddie’s girlfriend from. All the embarrassment from her rejection comes back to him in waves.

“Newton doesn’t have any laws of physics to explain it, but I’m sure it can’t be that hard to believe a smart girl with a pretty face could be into such a hunk with a heart of gold like Eddie,” Y/N adds before innocently taking a sip of her punch.

Jason’s jaw drops and is rendered speechless as Y/N smirks at him confidently. 

Eddie has so many questions but more than anything he just wants to take Y/N to the back of his van and have his way with her, but there’ll be time for that later. For now, he kisses the top of her head and smirks back at Jason.

The instrumentals to “The Promise” by When In Rome begins playing from the sound system, prompting Y/N to let her fingers drag behind Eddie’s back down to his hand. She holds his hand but walks forward to Jason

“If you’ll excuse me,” She says as she hands the cup to Jason, “I’m gonna go have the time of my life with, the freak, out on the dance floor.”

Jason looks at her as if he’s frightened by any move she makes. 

Y/N takes another step and whispers into his ear, “And by the end of the night, he’ll probably take my virginity too. And I don’t know if that’ll make me a freak or not, but all I know is that if you ever have a word to say about Eddie Munson, I can promise you, I will hunt you down and make you regret ever using your tongue against that boy. Am I clear?”

Y/N pulls away slightly, just enough to be within earshot and still look into Jason’s blown out dark blue eyes. 

“Say you understand,” She yells at him authoritatively, still close enough to hurt his eardrums.

“I-I I under st-stand,” Jason says as he winces.

“Now apologize to Eddie,” Y/N commands.

“I-I’m sorry man,” Jason blinks nervously.

“Say it like you mean it, Carver. I know you can do better than that,” Y/N goads.

“I-I’m sorry Munson. For everything. Really.”

It’s taking every fiber of Eddie’s being not to bust out laughing at the sight of a flustered Jason Carver. It’s not even like he’s dreamed of this moment either. He wasn’t exactly banking on ever seeing remorse from one of his bullies, but he sees the effort Y/N is putting into getting justice for him and he couldn’t be more head over heels in love with this girl.

 Eddie tries to hide his smile and nods but he can’t even bring himself to thank Jason or accept the apology. 

Y/N’s the one to thank here. He does so by leaning forward and capturing her lips in his.

Y/N kisses him back before pulling away and saying, “C’mon baby, let’s go dance.”

Y/N takes his hand and leads him back to the dance floor where the DJ has now transitioned the set to play “Hold Me Now” by The Thompson Twins.

Y/N and Eddie join the other couples slow dancing and Eddie is grateful the positioning is hiding the front of his pants. The scene back there kind of awakened something in him.

Y/N wraps her arms around Eddie’s neck as Eddie wraps his arms around her waist before slowly dragging them to her hips and landing on the softness of her behind.

“Goddamnit sweetheart, I don’t know what’s gotten into you tonight but I’m fucking obsessed with it,” Eddie groans in Y/N’s ear.

She can feel something hard against her leg and the resulting heat it brings to her cheeks. She nervously giggles, unsure of how to acknowledge his words or his body’s reaction.

Eddie moves his head back to look into Y/N’s soft eyes. Y/N smiles shyly at him and he wants nothing more than to make her smile like that for the rest of his life.

But now that the heat of the moment is over, Eddie’s mind won’t let him get past the thing we’re all wondering: What the hell was that? How does Y/N even know Jason?

So as they slow dance, Y/N explains everything. She even mentions how she remembers Jason teasing Eddie in the cafeteria at lunch. She always knew Jason was a dick, but at the time she never knew Eddie and now that she does, she wanted to do what was right and stand up for him.

“It was fuckin’ hot baby. I’m pretty sure you either made him jizz or piss in his pants. I was trying so hard not to laugh”

Y/N rolls her eyes and smiles, flushed at Eddie’s crass words, but agreeing with them nonetheless. 

“I love you Eddie,” Y/N says as she holds him tighter, “And I told you, I won’t let my parents or any high school dickhead get in the way of that.”

Eddie chuckles and holds Y/N tighter against him, firmly squeezing her ass in the process.

Y/N lets out a small yelp in surprise as Eddie smirks at her. 

It’s not long before one of the chaperones, Eddie’s English teacher, scolds him and commands the two to be “arm’s length apart.”

But as soon as she’s out of sight, Eddie resumes their position and Y/N lays her head against his chest. 

Eddie and Y/N hold each other and sway in silence till the song ends and “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper is played next.

Y/N stiffens slightly and pulls away to look into Eddie’s warm brown eyes.

“What?” Eddie asks in concern.

Y/N lets out a small breath. The first few notes of this song always take her back to when she was grounded for going out with Eddie. The Dark Ages.

She would listen to this song and think about him. She would imagine what it would be like to ever talk to Eddie again. What she would say or how she could ever move forward from the time they spent together. 

But in the end, she always had hope that she could have a somewhat happy ending. That with time, things would get better, even if it meant not being with Eddie in the way she wanted.

And then it played on the radio that one day he gave her a ride home. And just like the song said, Y/N was lost but Eddie looked and he did find her. Time after time, Y/N fell but Eddie caught her and waited for her to return home.

Time after time, Y/N never would have thought she could make it to this moment. After all the sleepless nights and headaches and puffy eyes. She can’t believe she’s here with Eddie at prom. They’ll be graduating in a few weeks. And in a few months, she’ll be headed off to Chicago.

“Baby, what’s wrong, why are you crying,” Eddie asks as he cups Y/N’s cheek and wipes away the stray tears slipping down her cheek.

Y/N leans into his touch and closes her eyes as a few more sobs escape her.

“I’m sorry Eddie,” is all she can manage to choke out.

“Don’t be sorry princess. What’s going on?”

“I’m just,” Y/N sniffles, “I’m so happy. I can’t believe I get to be here, with you. It feels like a dream come true. I love you so much, I can’t handle how happy I feel.”

Eddie smiles, feeling that same wave of unbridled emotion wash over him. Now, it wouldn’t be very metal of him to be crying in front of all these people, at prom no less, but when the girl he loves is crying before him because she’s so happy to be with him that it feels like a dream, well he’ll be damned if that isn’t enough to make a grown man cry.

Eddie pulls away slightly and looks Y/N the eye, “Let’s get out of here.”

Y/N pauses for a moment and looks around. Some of her friends have started to leave and a few couples are walking out the gym doors.

Y/N looks down at her wrist and realizes she left her watch at home.

“What do you say, Cinderella, it’s only 9:30,” Eddie adds.

Y/N looks at him and wipes a tear from her cheek and nods.

Eddie wraps his arm around her waist and leads her to the doors of the gymnasium. Before they walk out, Y/N looks over her shoulders and looks at the room one last time.

A night to remember.

And then Eddie whisks her away to his van and the two go for a drive. Eddie puts in a tape and Y/N is sure he must have made it for tonight. It isn’t playing the normal zany stuff he likes. It’s slow and melodic. Borderline sensual but still with that rock edge.

Plus, there’s a bit more Journey and Foreigner than she imagined Eddie would have listened to.

Among the myriad of questions in her mind, “Where are we going,” is the first to come out of Y/N’s mouth.

Eddie briefly looks over at her from the driver's seat as “I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner comes on next.

“I thought we might make a pit stop at the trailer,” Eddie says casually as his gaze returns to the road before him. “Wayne’s got the night shift, so it’ll be just us.”

Y/N looks at him nervously. This isn’t the first time she’s gone over to Eddie’s place at night when Wayne wasn’t there. But none of those nights ever had the kind of possibility tonight has.

Before she can even begin to think or overthink the events of the night, Eddie pulls up to the trailer and turns off the ignition, effectively killing the song before it has the chance to reach its prophetic chorus.

Eddie gets out of the car and walks over to open the door for Y/N. He holds his hand out for her to grab as she carefully steps out of the vehicle. 

He cautiously leads Y/N to the front door and nervously fumbles with the keys before unlocking the door and holding it open for her to go in first.

Y/N steps in and awkwardly stands in the kitchen, watching as Eddie closes the door and locks it before mechanically taking off his jacket and hanging it on the nearest chair.

He walks over to Y/N and gently caresses the skin of her cheek before leaning forward and kissing her.

Y/N feels stiff against him and he can feel her try to loosen up, but something won’t let her so he pulls away.

“Sorry Eddie, I-”

“Shh, it’s okay,” Eddie reassures her as he runs his hands up and down her arms.

He looks into her eyes and says, “This is just like any other night, okay? I’ll only go as far as you let me.”

Y/N looks away and nods.

Y/N and Eddie hadn’t exactly planned to have sex for the first time on prom night. Neither really acknowledge the possibility in the weeks leading up to it. Eddie has been respectfully going at the pace Y/N is comfortable with, but the tension has been running high. 

Y/N wants to and he knows it too. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t want it either. But in Eddie’s mind, tonight may be the night, or it may just be another night. If she feels up for it, that’s great, but he doesn’t want her to feel any pressure just because it’s prom night.

“C’mon,” Eddie says as he grabs her hand softly and slowly guides her to his room. He flicks on the light of one of his lamps and motions for her to sit on the bed.

Y/N follows his silent command and watches as he puts in a tape in the sound system in his room. It has the same tape from the car and is now playing “Fluff” by Black Sabbath, one of their favorite songs.

Eddie smiles shyly at Y/N and walks over to her. He kneels on the ground before her and gently takes her left foot in his hand. He slowly undoes the strap of her heel and removes the shoe. He lightly massages her foot and Y/N softly groans.

Eddie smiles and moves on to repeat the process for her right foot.

“Thanks Eddie, my feet have been killing me,” Y/N says appreciatively.

“Anything for my princess, so pretty in pink,” Eddie teases and Y/N blushes.

Eddie rises to his feet and proceeds to undo the bowtie around his neck. He moves down to unbutton the buttons of his dress shirt when Y/N rises to her feet and makes a closed-mouth noise. 

He looks at her in confusion but she just waves away his hand and starts undoing the rest of the buttons herself. Her nimble fingers shake as she breathlessly undresses him.

Eddie can sense her nervousness as says, “It’s okay baby, you’re doing great.”

Y/N slightly chuckles and whines, “Eddie, this isn’t…”

This isn’t some marathon race she needs to be cheered on for. It’s just a normal night at Eddie’s trailer. She’s been here hundreds of times. She’s made out with Eddie on his bed hundreds of times before. 

Why is tonight any different?

“C’mon, let’s just lay down for a bit and cuddle,” Eddie offers.

Y/N weighs the proposition and decides to accept.

“Should I take off my dress?” She asks as she looks down at the layers of fabric.

Eddie shrugs, “If it’s more comfortable.”

Y/N looks at him and nods. She turns around and asks him if he can undo the zipper. As he does, he can feel shivers run down her spine as the skin of his fingers brush against her back.

The dress pools down to her ankles, revealing her in a matching white lace bra and panties.

Eddie hisses at the view from the back, trying to contain himself knowing it’ll be even better from the front.

“C’mon,” Eddie’s voice cracks as he closes the door to the room and walks over to the bed.

Y/N mechanically mimics him and the two get under the covers. Eddie shimmies off his jeans and moves closer to Y/N. He wraps an arm around her, pulling her close to his side. Y/N snuggles him, but stiffly drapes an arm over his warm and bare stomach.

“Did you have fun tonight?” Eddie asks as he draws small circles into her arm.

“Mhm,” Y/N responds with her cheek pressed against Eddie’s chest.

“What was your favorite part?”

“Seeing you dance,” Y/N giggles.

Eddie scoffs and rolls his eyes even though she can’t see from her vantage point. “I told you sweetheart, this body was not made for dancing.”

“No, but it was so good. I don’t care if you’re a good dancer or not. It was so much fun. All my favorite songs were played. All my favorite people were there. Tonight was perfect,” Y/N says and then shuffles to look up at Eddie. 

Tonight has been perfect and it’s not over yet. And as she looks into his eyes, she realizes she has nothing to be afraid of. It wouldn’t be the perfect end to a perfect night without the perfect boy to be a part of it.

So she grins from ear to ear and leans forward to kiss him. Eddie is slightly taken off guard, so it takes him a moment to readjust to her lips, but when he does, it’s like nothing he’s ever felt before. Like he’s kissing her for the first time all over again.

He brings a hand up to cup her cheek and kisses her passionately back. Without breaking the kiss, he gently nudges her to lie back. He rests his forearm against the mattress for leverage and leans over her. 

As Y/N lies back on the mattress with her head resting against the pillow, she brings her hands forward to cup Eddie’s cheeks, his soft lips never leaving hers.

Eddie uses his other hand to gently trail from Y/N’s shoulder to her arm, and lowers down to her waist. He moves his touch to her lower back and firmly presses her body against his.

Y/N gasps in the kiss and Eddie smiles, using the moment to slip his tongue past her lips, wanting to taste every bit of her he can.

Y/N whimpers, quickly turning into a puddle of goo at the lightest touch. She lowers one of her hands onto his shoulder and uses the other to slide past his scalp and run through his hair, tightening the hold on particularly pleasurable moments.

Eddie continues to touch along her skin and feels a sense of pride whenever her body reacts to it. The squirms and moans all rev his engine to the point where Y/N can feel him against her.

Without breaking the kiss, she reaches down and touches him, making him groan and fall out of the kiss.

He hovers over her breathlessly, his curls hang in a curtain over her head. 

“Hold your horses there princess,” he says in his theatrical D&D voice making her giggle. “We’ll have time for that later, but tonight is about you.”

“I want it all Eddie,” Y/N replies simply. It’s simultaneously a plea and a command. “I want to feel it all with you.”

“Yeah,” Eddie asks incredulously. 

Y/N nods underneath him and pulls him in for a chaste kiss.

“If at any moment you ever want to stop, just say the word and-”

“I know,” Y/N smiles at him shyly, grateful that he’s being so careful with her. 

“I love you,” Eddie whispers before moving down and kissing her with more passion and fever than he even knew was possible. Y/N returns the kiss in a similar manner, as though she were in a desert and Eddie was her lone source of water.

But the warmth of the soft touches and loving kisses doesn’t nearly compare to the heat of Eddie’s touch as it migrates south. Touching her in places she’d dare not let anyone else go. Pushing buttons only he knows exist. Loving her body the way only he can.

Eddie’s tongue and lips move expertly as he gives her the pleasure he knows she deserves. With Eddie’s head between her thighs, Y/N’s almost certain this must be heaven on earth.

That is until he begins using his fingers and the feeling is just too good, but she knows she wants more. No needs more.

She needs Eddie unlike anything she’s ever needed before. 

And as the night progresses to where Y/N and Eddie are joined at every possible place, she knows she’ll never get enough. To feel so full and complete with Eddie like this is a feeling unlike any other. 

Eddie’s own body is electric. Red hot blood pumping violently throughout his veins. 

He sloppily kisses Y/N between thrusts and Y/N can barely think or breathe. All she can focus on is Eddie and how good he feels and how much she loves him. 

Y/N’s arms are wrapped around Eddie’s neck and her legs lock around his hips, holding him closely to her. As though any inch spent apart is too far.

Something primal overcomes both of them as they consummate their love for one another.

With no one around to hear, they cry each other's names out with each rocking motion. The slapping of skin and sounds of haggard breaths fill the air. 

It all just feels too good, like unearthly good. Eddie’s never even felt this way before. Like he was just made for loving Y/N.

​​“It’s okay, let go for me baby,” he coaxes. Y/N is on the verge of tears. The pain and pleasure become all too much for her. 

The coil of tension within her snaps. She cries out Eddie’s name in release and soon he’s crying out hers too. 

“You’re so fucking perfect,” he whispers into her neck. 

Y/N whimpers and shudders under his touch as she sees stars. He rocks her through her pleasure as she comes down. 

She breathes heavily and as the sensations slowly subside, she lays down blissed out with Eddie and his heavenly body lying next to her.

After a moment to catch their breaths, Y/N and Eddie turn to face each other. Eddie pulls her body against his. He wraps his arm around her waist to hold her close. 

Y/N closes her eyes and smiles in bliss. Eddie places soft kisses on her lips and ends on her forehead. 

Y/N hums contentedly and nuzzles her head into his chest. 

While trying to catch her breath, Y/N manages to say, “Oh Eddie, that was-that was so good.”

“Yeah? You liked it?” 

You run your fingertips along the plane of his shoulder, “Mhm. Did you?”

“Every second of it. You did so well, baby.”

Y/N’s heart flutters at his words. “I love you Eddie.”

“I love you too baby.”

Eddie says he loves Y/N all the time. It’s not like it’s the first time he says it at all. But after what just happened, Y/N feels like it has a whole new meaning. Like he loves her for the first time in a way that is much deeper than any other time he has ever said it before.

She looks over at him and admires his full lips or soft cheeks. She can’t believe she gets to be here with him like this. 

Far from her mind are the thoughts or what happened months ago or what will happen months from now.

All she can think about is how happy she is and how much she loves the boy lying next to her.

***

You wave him off as you walk towards him, “Oh, it’s just me, no need to get up.”

“It’ll help to stretch the legs,” he smiles.

As you approach him, he opens his arms and you greet him with a hug. He holds onto you more tightly than you expected and you know it must be bad.

When he pulls away, you smile weakly. “How’s he doing?”

Wayne sighs and runs a hand over his head, “Oh well, you know the boy, never not doing anything that won’t give me a heart attack.”

You manage to let out a laugh, “Yeah, that’s Eddie for you.”

“He missed you something fierce. Was counting down the days till you’d come back from your spring break trip.”

Your lip quivers and you press them together to keep from shaking even more. “I never should have left.”

“No, don’t say that darlin’. You couldn’t have known what would happen.”

And how could you? How could you have known that an innocent trip to visit a high school friend in Boston planned months in advance would happen at the same time that your best friend would become wanted for a crime he didn’t commit and get sent into a coma from some weird monster bats in an alternate dimension that apparently exists right underneath your hometown of Hawkins, IN?

You take a moment to catch up with Wayne before he excuses himself to go take a walk and give you some space to be with Eddie.

When he leaves, you sit in the chair next to the bed and look at the boy lying before you.

He’s unrecognizable. 

He lies there, skin a ghost white. His curly brown hair is the only things standing out from the drab white walls and white hospital bed linens. 

His eyes are closed and there’s an oxygen tube draped across the middle of his face. An IV is inserted in the veins of his wrist. A heart monitor beeps incessantly from the other side of the bed.

You sniffle and lean forward to grab his hand. You look at his face now covered in red splotches you can only identify as what are probably bat bites.

“Hey Eddie,” you whisper, smiling despite his condition. You can’t help smiling whenever you’re around Eddie. Even if he’s not conscious.

You bring a hand forward and push the bangs hanging over his forehead back. You caress the skin and let your fingers trail to the side of his face. 

“I leave you for one week and look at all the trouble you got into,” you scold him. “I don’t think I can ever leave Hawkins in good conscience after this. There goes the trip to Europe I’ve always dreamed of.”

Eddie’s body lies still and his eyes remain shut. The only sign of life is the heart monitor still beeping.

You run your fingers along his arm and it isn’t cold, just still. You lean forward and place a soft kiss to his skin.

“I miss you Eds,” you whisper. “Please wake up soon.”

You almost want to say something else, anything else, but you can’t. You can’t say anything without wanting to cry. 

Eddie would hate to see you like this. He wouldn’t ever want you to shed a tear, least of all not like that. 

The thought alone makes you miss him even more. You’re never leaving his side again. 

You sit with Eddie like that for a while. If there’s ever anything that comes to mind that you want to say, you tell him. You hold his hand and talk to him as if he’s awake to hear it, hoping the sound of your voice really could wake him up.

After some time has passed, Wayne comes back to the room. You thank him for letting you see Eddie and promise to be back the next day. 

Before you leave, you see Dustin and the other boys are still there. And it looks like they went and got some food. Dustin hands you two bags, asking if you could give one to Wayne. 

“Why don’t you go and give it to him,” you say with the affection of a big sister.

Dustin shakes his head, “I don’t think I can.”

You jerk your head back slightly, “Oh, why not?”

“I don’t think I’m ready - to see him.”

“You mean you haven’t seen Eddie?”

Dustin meekly shakes his head. 

You look at him, wanting to know why, but can tell he probably won’t be up for explaining why. 

The look on your face must convey your thoughts because Dustin looks at you and whispers, “I was there when it happened. I saw him. I saw it all. To this day, I still see it. I can’t stop seeing it.”

You look at Dustin and frown feeling an ache deep inside your chest. You engulf him in what has to be the fifth hug since you got here. But what else can you do? 

There’s nothing you can say that will make the situation better. It’s bad enough you were gone when it all went down. You hope as much conveys in the warm embrace as you gently stroke the curls atop his head.

“I’m sorry Dustin,” you say as you pull apart. You cup his cheek and add, “For what it’s worth, I think Eddie would like to hear your voice too, whenever you’re ready.”

Dustin meekly smiles and nods. A moment of comfortable silence passes between you and the rest of the boys. When it passes, Dustin reintroduces you to Mike and introduces you to Steve.

You recognize him from school. Even though he was in the grade below you, you vaguely remember seeing him and his infamous head of hair roaming the halls.

You converse with the boys and soon, the events of the evening turn into a daily ritual.

Every day for almost a month, you come to the hospital to visit Eddie and spend time with his friends and Uncle Wayne. Some days it’s your turn to bring food or card games for the group. Other days it’s someone else's turn. 

You’ve also fallen into the habit of bringing Eddie things. One day, you brought the cassette to Judas Priest's new album Turbo. You knew it came out just before you had left but you didn’t know if Eddie had gotten to listen to it, so you bought the tape and your portable radio and listened to it for the first time with him.

For a moment, you could swear you saw a twitch in his lip, but just as soon as it happened, it went away and nothing like that happened again, but it felt promising enough.

You told Dustin about it and felt triumphant when you saw his eyes light up about it. For a moment, he thought he wanted to, and you encouraged him to, but as soon as he put his hand on the doorknob and looked through the little window on the door and saw the lower half of Eddie’s still body covered in a thin white blanket he froze.

“I-I can’t,” he muttered.

You placed a hand on his shoulder, “It’s okay. Don’t force yourself. If you’re not ready, you’re not ready. Eddie would understand.”

As each day passed on, you thought it would be harder to see Eddie like this, but it wasn’t. After a while, you almost got sort of used to it. The hardest part about it all was seeing the toll it was taking on his loved ones. 

You tell Uncle Wayne was trying to keep a brave face, but you noticed the look on his face whenever the nurses spoke in hushed whispers about the wanted boy. 

And you definitely noticed the weariness and fatigue take over the faces of his friends who came by to see him every day.

You wanted to be strong for them all. For him. But deep down, you were scared. You feared he might never wake up. 

Your fear ran so deep, it even had you turning to church, a place you hadn’t been in years, but by god you needed a miracle. Eddie deserved a miracle. 

Every day as you trekked to the hospital, you would stop by the hospital chapel and pray for Eddie’s recovery before making it up to his room. 

The days all seemed to blend into one another and before you knew it, it had been two months since the tragic accident.

Deep down, you were growing frustrated and helpless.

“Goddamnit Eddie if you don’t wake up soon, I’m gonna kick your ass,” you had muttered next to his bed one night when no one was around. You could almost hear his laugh and that’s when you knew this whole thing had been going on so long your mind was beginning to play tricks on you, but what else could you do? 

This is just how things between you and Eddie are. You’d stick by his side every day for a hundred years.

By the time June rolled around, the hospital became a sweet relief from the sweltering heat outside.

Midnight snacks with the gang turned to ice cream runs and milkshake pickups. And now that most tv shows have ended their seasons and the tv program was taking a break for the summer, you were running out of things to update Eddie on.

To fill the silence, you decided to read him the Lord of the Rings books he loved so much. Despite being his best friend, you’d never really taken a liking to them and didn’t get around to reading them, but you supposed now was as good a time as any.

And pretty soon, you had someone to help you.

“Hey Eddie, guess who’s here,” you said cheerfully as you walked Dustin into the room cautiously, making sure to keep your arm comfortingly wrapped around the young boy.

“It’s your favorite little prodigy, Dustin,” you cooed as you smiled at Dustin. Dustin looked blankly at Eddie’s body lying on the hospital bed.

“Hey,” Mike whined. Steve nudged him and shook his head. The boys followed you and Dustin as you neared Eddie’s bed.

“H-Hey man, it’s me. Your little shrimp? Henderson?” Dustin weakly said.

You gently squeeze his arm, encouraging him a bit.

“You’re doing great,” Steve said as he clapped a hand to Dustin’s back. Dustin nodded and sat down in the chair next to Eddie.

He stared at him for a moment. Much of the scar tissue in his skin had healed compared to the state you found him in months ago. But the evidence remained. Eddie was hurt bad.

“We can’t wait till the next campaign,” Dustin said in a much more normal tone than you had expected.

Dustin looked over to you, Mike, and Steve who all gave him a reassuring look or thumbs up.

Dustin began to read. At first, his voice would shake and a few tears had even slipped out, but the more he read, the more confident and comfortable he became. 

And for the rest of the week, it became second nature for Dustin to join you in spending time with Eddie.

Back in May, the doctors said his vitals looked good and that it was just a matter of time before he would wake up. But the Fourth of July was in two weeks and your birthday the week after that.

If somehow Eddie could wake up on your birthday, you would never ask for another birthday present ever again.

But when your birthday passed and Eddie still hadn’t woken up, you’d started losing hope again. 

It was almost August and time for the kids to go back to school but they weren’t ready. They weren’t ready to say goodbye. 

Even though they would still visit Eddie, it would be harder to go every single day with homework and sports.

Hellfire club wouldn’t be the same. But it had to go on. Someone had to carry out Eddie’s legacy.

By the time September rolled around, the temperatures started getting lower and the leaves on the trees were starting to change colors. 

Part of you didn’t know how much longer you could take, but a bigger part of you knew you had to be there for Eddie. You loved him too much not to.

When Iron Maiden and Megadeth’s new albums came out, you bought the tapes and listened to it with Eddie along with a few other mixtapes you had made. 

You could have sworn you’d seen his finger ever so slightly tap, but you knew it was probably just all in your head. 

You didn’t understand, but you knew something had to be going on for Eddie to keep kicking as long as he has and that started to recover any hope you had lost.

You kept praying and visiting Eddie and doing it all over the next day.

By now, all the nurses knew you as the very sweet and dedicated girlfriend to the boy in the coma. It wasn’t your favorite label for Eddie but better than freak or any other crude thing some of the people in this town would call him.

It somehow always sort of broke your heart to hear them call you his girlfriend. You barely had the chance to be before this all happened. What you wouldn’t give to be his proper girlfriend when he does wake up.

On a cold and rainy October day, after begging the hospital staff to put a TV in his room and them finally granting your request, you brought a few VHS tapes of his favorite horror movies. Halloween, Eddie’s favorite holiday, was only two weeks away and he deserved to celebrate. 

It was your day off from work, and there was no better way to spend it than with a movie marathon with your favorite boy. 

It was a Thursday night and you had just finished Nightmare on Elm Street 2. The rain relentlessly pelted against the hospital room windows. You walked over to close the blinds when a clap of thunder and flash of lightning bright enough to light the room through the window struck. The unexpected sight and sound made you jump, letting out a small shriek. 

You clutched the fabric of your shirt over your chest and let out a shaky breath. You were glad no one else was in the room or else you probably would have startled them. 

You close the blinds shut and turn around to take your seat when you see Eddie’s eyelids flutter before slowly opening.

You were frozen in place, not sure if your eyes were deceiving you. 

“Eddie,” you called out in a voice barely above a whisper. 

Eddie’s eyes were now fully opened as he stared at the television in front of him.

“Eddie,” you called out a bit louder this time as you took a cautious step forward. 

The rest of Eddie’s body remained still, but his head slowly turned to your direction. He slowly looked up at you and a weak smile formed across his lips.

“Hey,” he croaked.

“Eddie,” you exclaimed as you rushed by his side.

You gazed into his eyes lovingly. His beautiful big brown eyes. Ones you feared you would never get to look into again. 

You could just kiss him and hug him and tell him everything, but all you can do is grab his face in your hands and inspect his wide open eyes, tired but full of life.

“Nurse,” you cry out. When no one arrives, you run to the hall and find Eddie’s nurse on her way over.

A few of the other nurses come in and start attending to Eddie. They swarm around him like diligent worker bees. 

One of them asks you to wait in the hall while they take his vitals and perform a few other tasks to assess his health, so you take the opportunity to call everyone and tell them that after months of waiting in agony, Eddie has finally woken up.

You don’t expect many people to show up, given that it’s past midnight on a weekday, but sure enough, Wayne, Dustin, Steve, Mike, and a few of Eddie’s other friends all show up.

The nurses instruct them all to enter two at a time or else all the excitement will tire Eddie out. 

Wayne was the first to show up. He got off his shift as soon as he could. But as the other kids arrived, he let them have their time.

He spent the rest of the evening with you in the hall crying tears of joy and rejoicing at the fact that Eddie was alive and awake again.

After all these months, your prayer has finally been answered. 

After the chaos of the night unfolded, Steve took the kids home so they could get ready for school in the morning leaving you and Wayne in Eddie’s hospital room.

Once the boys had left, it seems the excitement did tire Eddie out as he was on the verge of sleep.

“Why don’t you go on home and get some shut eye,” Wayne offered. 

As much as you wanted to stay with Eddie, you had to admit, you were exhausted, and you knew it’d be best to let Wayne have some time alone with his nephew.

So you went home and slept for hours. You didn’t even know what day or time it was when you woke up, but all you knew was that you had to see Eddie.

For the next couple of days, you continued your daily hospital visit routine. Despite finally having reached the point of consciousness, Eddie’s recovery continued to prove rather slow. He was still very weak and often barely able to speak at all. But you could tell he was listening. The ghost of a smile on his lips or gentle tap of a finger on your hand let you know he was almost there. 

Each day had its own little victory. And over the course of a few weeks, Eddie had started improving significantly. He could eat solid food, reach out for his own cup of water, hold up his worn copy of Lord of the Rings, and even carry a conversation.

You knew he was recovering well when he finally had the energy to pester Dustin and his other friends whenever they came around. Laughing so hard it hurt him.

“You okay,” Dustin asked.

“Yeah man, just hurts so good,” he’d joked.

The boy stuck around for a bit longer before Eddie sent them off on a journey to McDonald’s. You all had started getting hungry, but Eddie insisted they sneak him some fries because if the demo-bats didn’t kill him then the terrible hospital food probably would.

When you two were finally alone, you snuck a quick kiss to his cheek. If laughter was enough to have him aching, you were sure anything more than a chaste kiss would be lethal. And yet, you couldn’t help yourself.

“I think you missed a spot,” Eddie said, pointing to his lips.

“Did I now?” You teased as you held his hand.

“Yup, doctor's orders. I need 10 cc’s of kisses from you right this very second,” Eddie said as he moved over to the side closest to you and leaned forward with pouty lips and puppy dog eyes.

“Is that so? I don’t think that’s the right  prescription,” you teased as you leaned ever so slightly closer, challenging his pleading look.

“Leave that to the professionals, sweetheart. Don’t you want me to get better?” Eddie dramatically pleaded.

You leaned forward and quickly kissed his lips. You pulled away and rolled your eyes, “There, that better?”

“Nuh uh,” Eddie whined. In a husky seductive voice, he added, “Don’t you know baby? You’re my cure.”

“Oh god,” you cringed and laughed, “Okay, James Dean, does that line work on all the girls?”

“You tell me,” he challenged as he leaned forward, practically off the edge of his bed.

You rose from your seat and grinned at him. You pushed him back on his bed and said, “Alright Cassanova, don’t hurt yourself.”

Eddie made an incoherent noise that could only be described as a whine followed by a pout on his lips.

You leaned down, close enough to his face and locked eyes with him. They asked a question and you answered by leaning down and pressing your lips to his. 

He reached his arm up to cup your cheek and hold you by the back of your head as he deepened the kiss. You allowed him to take what he needed, knowing he deserved it after all the trouble he’d been through. And selfishly, you wanted him to.

But when you heard the heart rate monitor beeping increasing in volume and speed you pulled away and laughed, gently patting him on the left side of his chest.

“Okay, that’s enough for now. Don’t think the 10 cc’s will account for your heart exploding as a side effect,” you smiled.

Eddie laughed and put his hand over yours as you sat back down in your chair.

You smiled at him and could only thank god or the universe or whatever higher power brought the love of your life back to this earth to be with you.

“What are you thinking about,” Eddie asked.

“Nothing,” you shrugged despite feeling a warmth in your chest at the sight of the light in his eyes. “It’s good to see you like this.”

He grabbed your hand in his and squeezed tightly. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” you said as you brought your intertwined fingers and kissed the knuckles of his hand. 

“Wayne tells me you came here every day.”

“Yeah,” you chuckled, “We were both here. Usually he came during the day while I was at work and then I would come at night while he was at work so there was at least someone here with you.”

“I can’t believe you did that,” Eddie replied as he rubbed circles into the skin of your hand.

“What are you talking about?”

“I was out for months, baby. And you still came. I don’t know who else would do that.”

“Someone with no life,” you joked and Eddie rolled his eyes.

You sighed, “Some days were harder than others, but… but you can’t get rid of me that fast!”

Eddie chuckles and it felt good to hear him like that. You could spend the rest of your life trying to make that boy smile.

“Remember what I told you that night, back at the trailer?” Eddie asked after a moment of comfortable silence.

“Oh gee, yeah, that night. Out of the hundreds of nights we’ve spent together, yeah I remember that one,” you sarcastically respond, poking fun at his vague words.

“Shut up,” Eddie smirked and shook his head. “I’m talking about that night after Gareth’s party. With the truth or dare and you blowing chunks and–”

“Okay, okay, yes I remember now,” you squeezed Eddie’s hand bone crushingly tight.

Eddie laughs, “Do you remember what I said?”

“Kind of, that night was a bit of a blur.”

“Oh, my little lightweight,” Eddie coos as he rubs circles into your skin.

He breathes in and exhales. 

“You’re my northern star, you know that?” Eddie said offhandedly as he gazed down at your joined hands.

“What?” You ask in confusion.

“There’s been a lot of darkness in my life. Never seems to stop following me. But as long as you’re by my side, I can see the light. I can find my way back home.”

You looked at Eddie and squeezed his hand reassuringly. You looked at him, and saw a boy, who was much weaker and broken down than the boy you knew before this all happened. But compared to that dreaded April day, there was a light in his eyes and color in his skin and softness to his features. 

The boy you always loved and was always full of life never went away.

You leaned forward and gave Eddie a kiss. A dramatic, take your breath away kind of kiss to show him just how much you loved him and how much he meant to you.

When you pulled away, Eddie’s eyes had become glossy. 

“You know, for a long time, I think I just tried to run away from it all, but I always ended up running back to you and I don’t know if I ever want to stop.”

A soft tear rolled down his cheek and you kissed it away. “Shh, Eddie, it’s okay,” you softly said. 

You cupped his cheek as more tears began to fall. “I love you and believe me, and I never want you to stop either.”

And without fail, tears started falling down your own cheeks. 

You were grateful it was just you and Eddie in the room. You two could finally let go of all the stress and anxiety that had been building up over the past several months.

“Don’t you ever leave me like that again Munson,” you tried to joke as yours and Eddie’s faces were growing splotchy.

Eddie weakly laughed and leaned forward to give you a kiss.

“You know, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and it doesn’t have to happen now, or anytime soon really, but I think I’d like to have you by my side like this for a long time,” Eddie said as he pressed a kiss to your knuckles.

“How long are we talking about Munson?”

“Long enough to not be the only Munson between us two,” he said quietly before peering up into your eyes.

Your eyes widened at the implication of his words. “You mean that?”

Eddie nodded and smiled giddily. “Figured after everything you’ve done for me, the least I could do is give you a ring and my last name, maybe a little Munson or two to run around our future place with.”

You returned his smile and leaned forward to kiss him again, warmly and passionately. Eddie deepened the kiss and it took everything in you not to jump on the hospital bed with him and get a jump start on that plan.

“Oh Eddie, you don’t know the things I have planned for you when you get out of this hospital,” you sighed as you pulled away from him.

Before Eddie could reply, the boys returned from their McDonald’s adventure and Eddie practically jumped out of his hospital bed at the sight of his beloved french fries.

You two spent the rest of the night like that till the boys left to go home. The night nurse came in one last time to check on Eddie before going on her break. And once she left it was just you and Eddie alone again.

You smiled at him and let out a yawn.

“You tired, baby?”

“Little bit,” you nodded sleepily.

Eddie began scooting to the side of his hospital bed, “C’mere.”

You looked at him skeptically, unsure you would fit, but realized you didn’t even care. You wanted to be pressed to Eddie as closely as possible anyway.

You shuffled next to him and climbed under the blanket.

Eddie wrapped his arm around you and pressed a kiss to your forehead. “Get some sleep, sweetheart.”

You sighed as you pressed your head to his chest and draped an arm over his stomach, “Goodnight Eddie.”

“G’night baby,” Eddie whispered as he caressed your hair and wrapped his other arm around you.

In the morning, Wayne walked into the room to find you and Eddie sound asleep, lying peacefully in each other's arms. 

You laugh aloud, surprised the boys hadn’t dared him to give the room a strip tease or something.

“Yeah,” You hiccup, “Kind of a mild dare Gare, I was expecting more from the so called freaks of Hawkins High-ah!”

You lightly gasp, feeling your eyes widen and back arch slightly as Eddie’s rough hand gently smooths over the top of your thigh, dangerously close to your hips and settles down on the inner side, right at the apex of your soft thighs.

A warmth spreads through your cheeks as you blankly look from Eddie’s ring clad hand up to his face and scan the faces in the rest of the room, praying to god nobody noticed that.

“Alright, now that that’s settled,” Jeff says tauntingly before the rest of the eyes of the room land on you.

“Truth or dare?” Gareth asks. 

You gulp. All of a sudden feeling like the room has gotten really hot. All too aware of the piercing stares and the ironclad grip of Eddie’s hand on your thigh. He’s looking at Gareth as he begins to rub slow circles in your skin with his thumb and you swear, if it weren’t for the alcohol in your system, surely his touch would be enough to make you pass out.

“Um, truth,” you croak out, trying to sound as normal as possible. It takes the strength of a thousand suns to keep your eyes from closing and your mouth from letting out a noise very inappropriate for a crowd of what is more or less strangers.

“Who was your childhood crush?” Jeff asks.

Your eyes widen and you jerk your head back a bit. That’s it?

You sigh in relief, worried you might’ve gotten a harder or more embarrassing question.

You inhale and shrug. With a shy smile you say, “That’s easy: Eddie.”

Eddie’s eyebrows furrow and his grip on your thigh tightens. His thumb stops rubbing circles as his fingers dip deeply into your flesh. He looks at you over his shoulder, “Which Eddie?”

You shake your head and laugh, “Uh, Munson? The only Eddie I know?”

Eddie shakes his head and turns to face you, never letting his hand move from your leg, “But your childhood crush could be anyone. What about Tom Cruise? Or all those John Travolta movies you made me watch.”

“Why do you think I made you watch them?” You answered perhaps a little too casually for Eddie’s ears. 

“Huh,” is all Eddie seems capable of saying with a curt nod of his head. 

How could he have missed it? All these years and he never would have thought you ever felt the same. 

He instantly sobers up and his mind starts running through all the memories he had of you over the years. 

Why is this news to him? Did you drop any hints before and he was just too dense to read them?

The long phone calls, notes passed in class, and joints shared in the back of his van. The bicycle races, shared mixtapes, and times at Skull Rock. All the little nothings that were perhaps everything. 

But it all seemed to point to one moment. The day that’s been seared into his brain for the past 8 years, a memory so vivid it’s as though it happened only yesterday.

All it was was a stolen kiss between two kids. On one of the darkest nights of his life, she was his shining northern star.

He knew he was pushing his luck. That he’d gotten caught up in the moment. A moment he knew he’d never have again. But did it mean to her what it meant for him? 

All these newfound questions and feelings come flooding in, taking his world and turning it upside down to–

“Earth to Eddie,” Gareth calls his name.

“Eds,” You whisper as you tap along his forearm.

“Huh?” Eddie shakes his head.

“It’s your turn again man,” Jeff says in an annoyed tone.

“Oh, my bad,” Eddie mumbles.

“You don’t have to keep holding her leg either,” Gareth adds.

“Oh,” Eddie says as he looks down and notices his hand still tucked between your legs. “Forgot it was even there.”

He makes a show of removing his hand, leaving an empty feeling between your thighs and the warmth of your legs, gone from his hand. It might be Eddie’s imagination, but after he removes his hand, you slightly shuffle closer to him.

“Let’s do truth,” Eddie says with a slight edge to his voice.

You’re mid sip when you nearly choke on your drink. When was the last time Eddie didn’t choose dare?

“Have you ever cheated on a test?” Jeff asks.

Eddie makes a face of disgust. What kind of bullshit question is that? 

“Yeah man, who hasn’t?”

When the rest of the group looks to you for your choice, you pick truth.

“What’s the sexiest song you’ve ever heard?” Gareth asks.

Without hesitation, you answer, “I Was Made for Lovin’ You by Kiss.” 

Eddie has to refrain from letting his eyes pop out of his head.

“Eddie actually showed me that song,” you goofily smile at him, not realizing the impact your words have on him and the growing heat in his veins.

“Really? Kiss?” Gareth’s girlfriend asks amusedly.

“Yeah, I know, kind of weird, but I don’t know, something about it just… gets me going for some reason,” you explain.

With every word you say Eddie swears he might just burst. It’s all too much to handle.

When the moment passes and he’s sure everyone is already focused on the next person, he excuses himself to go to the bathroom. 

When he gets back, he finds you pouring yourself another drink in the kitchen.

“Hey Eds,” you smile at him as he stands beside you, You lean your head against him shoulder, “Having fun?”

Eddie watches as you take a swig from your cup. He forces a smile, “Yeah. You?”

You nod, letting the rest of your body move with each shake of your head, “I am now! Cheers.”

You look up at him and hold your cup out before taking another gulp. 

“Alright thirsty girl, let’s get you back to the couch,” Eddie says as he lays a gentle hand on your lower back and guides you back to the living room. You almost trip over an empty beer can and Eddie’s sure he’ll have to take you home pretty soon.

The next round of truth or dare makes it’s way back to you and Eddie. Eddie uncharacteristically chooses truth again and is asked if he’s ever gone skinny dipping.

“Can’t say that I have Gareth the Great,” Eddie replies earnestly, just ready for this stupid game to be over with.

“You haven’t,” You asked, words slightly slurred as the alcohol in your system starts catching up to you. “Why not? It’s fun.”

Eddie looks at you incredulously. You’ve gone skinny dipping? Why is this the first he’s hearing? And more importantly, why wasn’t he there? He has a sneaking suspicion it was probably that one year you went to summer camp though.

He shrugs it off, “I don’t know. Guess the opportunity hasn’t really presented itself.”

You nod as the group proceeds to the next person.

“Give me a good dare, okay?” You say giddily, gleaming next to a very concerned Eddie. You hardly ever choose dare, especially not around people you don’t really know well.

But you’ve got adrenaline and alcohol flowing through your veins. Nothing else really matters

That is until your dare is to give someone in the room a lap dance. 

Without hesitation you turn to face Eddie. The lust blown look in his big brown eyes doesn’t completely register with you. In fact, you’re not so much focused on Eddie, but on completing the dare as though it were just another part of your daily routine. 

Without thinking, you place a hand on his shoulder and wobble as you move from sitting on your butt to sitting on your knees. You slip, but Eddie's strong hands catch you, grasping onto either of your arms. 

“Easy there,” he whispers as he steadies you. He looks up at you and gulps, heart beating wildly in his chest. 

“You know you don’t have to do this, right?”

You nod and shrug as if to say, “It’s just a game, isn’t it?”

You take your hand and gently brush away some of the stray hairs by his face. You smile at him and place a hand on the hard muscle of his shoulder.

Pretty soon, Eddie is going to be a goner. He’s not going to last very long if you keep this up. And if he can help it, he refuses to let his friends see him like this.

As you prepare to drag your leg over his hips, you stumble again, even harder, forcing Eddie to grab you by the hips to steady you. 

“That’s it, I’m calling it,” Eddie mutters.

“What’s wrong,” you ask, your face close enough to his that no one else in the room can hear your voices. 

“You’re drunk, and I’m taking you home,” Eddie whispers into your ear as you feel his strong hands grab a hold of you.

Before you can say anything else, Eddie picks you up and rises from the couch.

“Sorry guys, Y/N’s not feeling too well anymore. I think we’re gonna call it a night,” Eddie apologetically waves to the people in the room.

“C’mon, the party was just getting started,” one of the boys goads.

As soon as Eddie sets you on the ground, you cling onto him, resting your now panging head onto his arm.

“Eds, the room is spinning,” you whisper.

“I know,” Eddie says as he wraps an arm around your mid-section.

Eddie says his goodbyes to the group as Gareth walks you two to the front door. He whispers something to Eddie. He’s close enough that you probably could have heard it if it weren’t for the pounding in your head.

Eddie slowly guides you to his van and sets you in the passenger seat. He buckles you in and makes his way to the driver's side. 

He keeps the music low as he drives you to his uncle’s trailer.

“Eddieeeee, I don’t feel so good,” You whine as you struggle to keep your eyes open.

“I know sweetheart, we’re almost there,” Eddie says as he looks briefly in the rearview mirror.

“My head hurts,” you add.

“I know it does. When we get to the trailer, I’ll get you some medicine and it’ll make you feel better.”

You groan and let your head fall back against the seat. “Eddieeeee.”

Eddie hasn’t seen you get this drunk in a while. He almost forgot how cute you were or how much he secretly enjoyed being needed by you like this. Even if it included holding your hair back as you puked up your intestines back at the trailer.

“Eddie,” you softly sobbed as you clutched the rim of the toilet bowl, knees hurting from the tile, “It hurts.”

Eddie rubbed comforting circles along your back while his other hand kept holding your hair back. 

“I’m never drinking again,” you huffed.

Eddie chuckled and stayed with you until everything had come out.

When you were sure you had nothing left to throw up, Eddie gave you a painkiller and a glass of water. He even offered you some crackers in case you could stomach it.

“C’mon, let’s go lie down,” Eddie whispers as he guides you to his room. 

“Eds,” you call out with grabby hands. “What’s up?”

“I need pajamas,” you whined.

Eddie grabbed a band shirt and plaid pajama pants and handed them to you. Like most nights whenever you had slept over, you settled into the routine of facing away from each other to change, but this time, Eddie could see you from behind in the reflection of his mirror.

As he took off his shirt, so did you. Those little black lines of bra straps outlining your back felt like tiny magnets pulling him toward temptation. They wouldn’t go away even when you put the shirt he gave you on.

As he changed out of his jeans into pajama pants, he had to will himself to keep his eyes off you as you did the same or he knew he might get himself into some kind of trouble.

“Done,” you announced as you climbed into his bed. Eddie watched as you pulled the covers up and nestled your head on the pillow, heart warming at how comfortable you were around him.

A very shirtless Eddie climbed into bed with you and you instantly gravitated toward him, wanting for every part of your body to be touching his.

You entangled your legs with his, wrapped your arm around his torso and pressed your cheek along his chest, nuzzling your nose slightly.

You inhaled the scent of his skin and it brought a smile to your face.

Eddie was frozen for a moment, slightly taken aback by your clingier than normal behavior, but welcomed it anyway.

“You’re my best friend in the whole wide world, did you know that?” You asked with your eyes closed as you dragged a finger haphazardly across his chest.

“You know, I had a feeling you might,” Eddie teased.

“I love you Eds. Thanks for taking care of me.”

Eddie brought a hand up to the side of your head and gently caresseses it, combing through your hair and finishing with a kiss to the crown of your head.

“Anything for my favorite girl.”

“Yeah?” You ask with the biggest puppy dog eyes known to man.

“Yeah,” He shrugs, "you don't have to say it all surprised.”

“No,” You whine as you shuffle closer and cling your limbs around his, breathing in the scent of him in his chest, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

You peer up at him, “I just - I don’t ever want you to stop.”

“I couldn't even if I tried.”

“Really?”

“Yeah really, you’re my girl, been my girl for a long time. I’d do anything for you”

You smile, eyes looking like stars. “I’d do anything for you too Eddie.”

“Oh, I know princess, you’ve been doing it since we were kids.”

“What do you mean?” You cock your head.

“I mean exactly what I said, you’ve always been there for me, been one of the few rock solids I've had in my life.”

“Well of course Eddie, you’re my best friend.”

Eddie fights the volcanic smile forming on his lips and the tears welling in his eyes

He cradles the back of your head with his hand and pushes your face deeper into his chest so you cant see the tears beginning to escape

“The darkest night never felt so bright with you by my side,” he whispers in your hair as you drag your finger along the base of his spine

You pull away and wipe away some of the tears that have fallen on his cheeks, “I love you Eddie.”

You and Eddie tell each other you love each other all the time, before you hang up the phone, whenever he drops you off at home, but something about the way you said it just now feels different.

“You… love me?”

“Yeah… one might even say, I’m in love with you.”

That can’t be the alcohol talking, right? 

And here's his moment, he could finally say it, make it come true.

“I-I love you too, I’ve loved you since the day I saw you in first grade. You were wearing those cute little pigtails and ridiculous purple overalls as you were running around on the playground.”

You lightly smack his chest “Eddie, how could you? Those were my favorite.”

“Yeah well you're my favorite, how about that,” Eddie smugly teases as he mockingly gets in your face. He’s so full of love and joy, he could just kiss you. But despite the fact that you quite literally confessed your love for him, first, he might add, Eddie is suddenly self-conscious. You may love him, but would you even want to kiss him?

You sense his energy, absorbing up whatever confidence he seemed to just lose.

Even as his eyes soften and fall to your lips, you can’t help but do what you knew, even as a kid, to do: show him how much you love him.

“Eddie,” you whisper, as you place a finger under his chin and tilt his head up to look at you.

“Yeah,” he whispers back in confusion. 

“Remember how you were my first kiss,” you ask in a soft voice, gazing at his eyes and lowering to his lips.

Eddie doesn’t nod. He always kind of assumed he was. You were his. Even if neither of you said it, till now.

“You never let me go for seconds.”

Eddie makes a noise, somewhere between a laugh and an exhale, “What? What are you talking about, crazy girl?”

You rolled your eyes, “You kissed me, and then pulled away. I wanted another, but then you kind of just cockblocked me.”

“What,” Eddie roars into laughter, “We were 12! You can’t, cock block anyone when you’re 12.”

“Eddie,” you laugh in frustration as you cup his cheek, “What I’m trying to say is, we’re long overdue for another kiss.”

“Are we,” Eddie shakily asks as your index finger drags from his cheekbone to his bottom lip.

“Mhm,” you hum, leaning forward slightly. You look up into his eyes, as if to ask, “Is this okay?”

“Please,” Eddie murmurs as he leans in the rest of the way, reigniting at the way your lips feel on his. A perfect fit.

In a similar way, Eddie’s lips are a warm refuge for yours. As he moves his lips with caution in a sweet rhythm against yours, they’re still just as slightly chapped as you remembered them to be. 

And something about the thought of comparing your kiss to Eddie now, adults, to the one you shared as kids, makes you groan. 

Eddie takes the moment to slip his tongue between your lips. He didn’t get the chance to taste you, and he doesn’t know if he ever will again, but he’ll be damned if he wakes up the next morning with any regrets.

Exploring each other's mouths is something new entirely. You’re in uncharted waters. But it’s okay, because you know that as long as you’re with Eddie, you’re okay.

Even though the technique is new, Eddie’s lips feel like you’re home. 

“Eddie,” you gasped and looked down at him. His head hung down and his gaze was cast somewhere in the nearby distance, as if the pile of leaves a few feet away were that captivating.

“Eddie,” you dropped down to your knees, “Where the hell have you been?”

You instinctively wrap your arms around his stiff body, engulfing him in the tightest hug humanly possible. You held him like that for a few moments, softening your grip as any anger at having spent the whole day looking for him dissipated.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” you whispered into his neck, feeling the pricking of buzzed hair at his scalp against your skin.

You pulled away slightly, if just for a moment, to see his face. His chin was turned down and he avoided your gaze. For a split second, he bit his lip and looked up at you, frazzled and afraid.

You didn’t say anything. You just returned to your position with your head in the crook of his neck.

As you held him, neither of you said anything. All you can hear is the deep breath he takes, inhaling the comforting scent of your hair.

He slowly slithers his arms around you and holds you back, increasing the tightness of his hold till you can feel him holding on for dear life.

If something wasn’t wrong before, you could absolutely tell it was now.  

“Eddie,” you whisper as you pull away from his grasp, wanting to look at him face to face again.

“Hmph,” he grunts under his breath as he tightens his hold on you, not letting you get away so fast.

So you sit there and hold him. The sounds of birds chirping and the two of you breathing the other in, audible in the air. You stroke his head, with hair buzzed short, or rub circles along his back.

You’ve never seen Eddie like this. If you weren’t so worried, you might even be afraid.

“Eddie,” you softly ask after minutes of silence. “What happened to you?”

You can feel him shake his head next to yours.

“Eddie, I need you to talk to me okay?”

Eddie’s lip quivers, but he doesn’t say anything.

“I just want to know what happened.”

He shakes his head again.

“Please, Eddie,” you whisper and furrow your face in the crook of his neck, feeling the slow and steady stream of hot tears beginning to flow down your cheeks.

“Why weren’t you at school all week? And why are there a bunch of reporters at your house and your uncle’s trailer?”

Eddie winces and makes a noise signaling pain. But then he begins to feel the warm wet tears on your cheek smear into the skin of his neck and pulls away slightly.

He looks at you incredulously, in shock to see you cry over him.

You take a moment to look him in the eye. His big brown eyes are red and slightly puffy. He sniffles and you smile at him painfully.

“It’s bad,” he whispers and looks away.

You grab his hand and give it a tender squeeze. You don’t expect him to say too much after that. Even though it doesn’t satisfy your curiosity, you wanted an answer and he gave you one. He doesn’t seem well enough to do much more than that.

So you nod and look at him.  

“Really bad,” he adds under his breath.

“I’m sorry,” you respond, at least hoping he might be able to tell you when he’s ready.

Eddie doesn’t say anything for a while, but you continue to gently touch him by rubbing circles along his back or squeezing his left hand which hasn’t let go of yours since you first grabbed it.

“Who do I have to fight?” You asked, finally breaking the peaceful albeit confusing silence.

“What,” Eddie grumbles into your neck. You pull away and find a small smile on his perplexed face.

“Who do I have to fight? Whoever it is that made you feel this way, tell me their address so I can go and give them a piece of my mind. No one messes with my best friend and gets away with it,” you explained triumphantly. 

“Silly girl,” Eddie chuckles as he tucks a stray strand of your hair behind your ear.

“I’m serious Eds. I’ll call backup too.”

“What? You and Raggedy Ann and Andy gonna take on the man?” Eddie asks sarcastically as he absentmindedly drags his fingers along either side of your arm.

“Eddie,” you scoffed as you lightly smacked him in the chest. You made a show of looking around, as if there was someone to hide from, “I told you that in secret.”

Eddie giggles at your reaction, always loving the way he could push your buttons like teasing you about still playing with dolls. Any other moment it would have annoyed you, but now, it puts the biggest smile on your face.

“But if it comes down to it, then yes. We’ll do whatever it takes to fight for justice.”

Eddie’s hands fell defeatedly to your thighs and for some reason it made a weird shiver go down your spine. Before you could even think about why it happened or what it meant, a hardened look fell upon Eddie’s face.

“No need, sweetheart,” Eddie said tensely. 

Even though Eddie was your best friend, he sometimes called you “sweetheart”. He almost always only used it as a joke. Like if you said something goofy or made fun of him back, he’d say something like “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say sweetheart.”

Sometimes the other kids at school would hear you two talk to each other like that. A lot of them would ask if you two were dating. You could have sworn that even some of the teachers started to think so too because they would sit you two next to each other in class.

Even though it wasn’t true, because Eddie was just your best friend, you didn’t mind the special treatment from your teachers.

Otherwise, you had never really given much thought to the name before. It was just one of Eddie’s signature quirks.

But the way he says it now feels strange. There’s more weight to it. The way he says it. The way it feels in your chest when you hear him call you that. It’s all sort of different now.

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t think Raggedy Ann and Andy have the power to defeat the darkness that is the Hawkins Police, or worse, my dad,” Eddie says as though he’s just told a hilarious joke.

Your head jerks back slightly from his abrasive words and casual tone. Eddie’s dad? And the police? What happened?

“What? Didn’t you hear, sweetheart?” Eddie grins at you in a way that makes your insides crawl. “Daddy’s dancin’ to the jailhouse rock.”

Your eyebrows scrunched together. Eddie wasn’t making any sense. His dad? Jail? And yet the thinly veiled Elvis reference wasn’t even the most surprising part.

“Your dad’s going to jail?” You say when the pieces finally come together.

Eddie never really had any great stories to tell about his dad. They had a… different kind of father-son relationship. Eddie once told her that he’d wished his dad could have taught him how to fish or play catch instead of teaching him how to hotwire a car.

“Looks like the cats out of the bag,” Eddie says with such casual confidence.

“Eddie, I don’t understand,” you grab his shoulders and try to find some sort of understanding just from the look in his eyes.

“Looks like little Eddie Munson’s an orphan now,” Eddie shrugs, still mysteriously smiling.

“Eddie, don’t say that,” you whine as you throw yourself against him in another bear hug. You don’t understand how he’s being so calm and casual about this right now. Or how he could make jokes at a time like this.

“It’s true,” he whispers as he gently tightens his grip around you.

“What about your Uncle Wayne? You could stay with him, right?”

Eddie loved his Uncle Wayne. He’d constantly tell you about the movie marathons in his trailer or the memories of Wayne taking him and his mom to Benny's Burgers on Sundays.

“Yeah, I moved in yesterday.”

You pull away and look into his puffy eyes. The brown of his irises a pool of pain and longing. Too much for any twelve year old boy to handle.

But that explains why Eddie’s been gone. 

Your parents watched the 6:00 news at dinner every night. They started talking about some high profile criminal case but with not many details able to be released just yet. You were sure Eddie and his family would make breaking news tonight.

“What do you say we just run away?” You asked.

Eddie scoffs, “Yeah? And go where?”

“I don’t know,” You shrugged. “Anywhere.”

Eddie took a moment to think about it before saying, “Let’s go to London.”

“London? Why London?”

“It’s far enough away from here,” Eddie sneers.

“It wouldn’t be because it’s home to all your favorite bands, is it?” You ask teasingly.

“Well, it doesn’t hurt to be in the home of the greatest rockstars to ever live,” Eddie says giddily.

You giggle and extend your pinky finger out, “Okay, pinky promise?”

Eddie smiles at you warmly. For the first time all day, he looks happy. He hooks his pinky finger around yours and says, “Pinky promise”.

You and Eddie continue to hang around his favorite hiding spot, Skull Rock, for a little while longer before heading back to his uncle’s trailer and your home before dark. 

When you get home, your parents engulf you in a hug and wail about your absence. 

“Where have you been?”

“We’ve been worried sick?”

“Don’t you ever leave without telling us where you’re going again!”

“We heard about what happened with that Munson boy?”

“It’s not safe for you to be out with him!”

But after a while it all just turned to noise.

You made it home safe and sound. No one got hurt. What were they so worked up about?

And you didn’t understand why they would say things like that. They had known Eddie for years now. He’s the same boy he always was. Eddie wasn’t the one who did the crime, so why was he getting punished?

The thought of all that happened that day kept you well up into the night. As you stared up at your ceiling, you couldn’t help but wonder about Eddie.

What was he doing? Was he sad that his dad was going to jail? Was he relieved to at least be with his Uncle Wayne? You bet he misses his mom now more than ever.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

You turn your head toward the window and climb out of bed, your cotton night dress swooshing as you walk over to it.

You draw the curtains and look out the window to find Eddie down on the front lawn. He mouths something, but it’s too dark and he’s too far away to really see.

But you know what it is. This isn’t the first time Eddie’s done this. 

You see him climbing along the side of your house and up to the second story. You open the window when you see his figure come closer.

“Eddie, it’s one o’clock in the morning,” you whisper as he climbs through the window. He enters the room and stands before you. The streetlights outside illuminating his pale skin, white t-shirt, and plaid pajama pants.

“I know, I couldn’t sleep,” Eddie smiles at you, replying in a voice much louder than a whisper.

“Eddie shh!” You shush him and turn over your shoulder, worried the noise might wake your parents.

Eddie’s smile drops and you frown. 

“I know, I’m tired but I couldn’t sleep either,” you say as you wrap your arms around him. His muscles relax and he returns the gesture. 

“What’s keeping you up?” Eddie asked. Obviously the weight of the week’s events were heavy on his mind, but what could be on yours?

“I’ve been thinking about you. Worrying and hoping you’re okay,” you replied earnestly. There was nothing you had to hide. Not from him.

Eddie pulled away and looked at you incredulously. Stunned to think anyone could care enough to lose sleep over him. 

“C’mon,” you sleepily jerked your head to the side in the direction of your full size bed. It was about the same size as the bed in Wayne’s trailer. It’s funny how he had never really made that connection till now.

You don’t say a word as you pull back the covers and climb into the warm bed with soft pillows. You even make a show of scooting your Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls over for him. 

“Can you put those away,” Eddie cautiously asks as he hesitantly walks over to the other side of the bed, “I feel like they’re watching me.”

You roll your eyes and get up to put them in your closet. For a boy who loves scary movies, he sure does have a weird fear of dolls. Not that you would ever understand since you were too afraid to watch said movies with him.

You make your way back to the bed and see Eddie kicking off his shoes and moving to lie down with you. You get under the cover and he does the same. You face each other and in your borderline sleepy state, you smile at him, feeling much more at ease with him here.

“Does Wayne know you’re here?” You asked.

The few times Eddie’s gone to your house like this was usually when his dad was on one and Wayne was out at work.

“No, he’s got the night shift.”

“Oh,” you reply. You wonder if Eddie felt scared being in that home all alone. If it was still hard to sleep even though his dad was gone now.

Even though you secretly liked when Eddie snuck into your room at night, you always worried that you might get caught or Eddie would hurt himself on the way down or something.

But tonight, you’re glad he’s here without pretense of worry.

You snuggle closer to Eddie and rest your cheek against the cotton fabric barricading you from the skin of his chest. You can hear his heartbeat. The rapid rhythm like music to your ears.

Eddie wraps an arm around you and leans down to press a kiss against the top of your head. 

Eddie’s never done that before. But the act makes you feel warm and like your insides have turned to goo. You tilt your head up to look at him. His soft smile and sleepy eyes visible in the pale moonlight. 

For a brief moment, you smile back. 

There’s so many things you wish you could say but don’t know how. Eddie already knows that he’s your best friend. It’s obvious to anyone that you love and care about him. You don’t want to seem like you pity him, but you worry about how he’s doing with all the changes that are going on in his life. You want him to know that no matter what happens, you’ll be by his side. But how?

The only way you know how, the only way you can possibly sum up all of those feelings is to grab a hold of his shoulder, and reach up to bring your lips to the side of his face, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Not too soft but not too firm. One that lets him know you’re there. Warm and alive and together.

Your hand on his shoulder slides back down to his chest, where you can feel the vibration of his heart beating even faster than it did before. 

Eddie looks down at you and you look back up at him but you can’t quite read his face. His eyes are a little wide, but the rest of his expression is neutral. Not sure if your action was received the way you intended, you start to worry. Did he not like it? Was it a mistake? You think you should probably apologize…

But then Eddie cups your cheek and leans forward and before you can even do or say anything, Eddie’s lips are brushed against yours. His chapped lips press a soft kiss to your smooth ones. His lips linger as he applies pressure to yours. And somehow your body knows just how to respond. Your lips return the same pressure as you kiss him back, feeling him smile against you.

You didn’t even realize your eyes were closed till he pulls away and they flutter open. He smiles at you shyly and you gleam back at him. 

Eddie just gave you your first kiss. The first girl Eddie’s ever kissed is now you. 

Your mind is racing with thoughts. You can’t believe Eddie just kissed you! On the lips! It was weird and unexpected, but you kind of liked it, maybe even enough to want more.

For a moment, you contemplate kissing him again. Like a fool, rushing back in for seconds. But before you can, Eddie uses the hand along your cheek to pull you close to him, letting your head rest against his chest again. 

You’re lying breathless pressed against Eddie’s warm body. Perhaps it should be a relief that after an amazing yet unexpected first kiss, you don’t have to worry about what comes next. You could just enjoy it for what it was: a beautiful moment with the boy you love most.

But that’s just it. The boy you love isn’t the same boy anymore. He’s gone through some hard things. He’s changing right in front of your very eyes. And the love you once had for him isn’t the same kind of love you’re starting to have for him now. 

I carefully pour out the sugar into the measuring cup and toss it into the bowl. 

Today we’re making sponge cakes. Should be easy enough. 

It’s nice having a class like home ec right before lunch. I always get hungry eyes looking at all of our delectable creations and am rewarded by getting to eat them soon after. 

Today is no different. But what is different, is Eddie’s energy. He’s always playful and teasing like this, but today he’s somehow… a bit more revved up about it. 

“I’m so fucking hungry,” Eddie mutters as he bounces on his tippy toes, “can’t wait to demolish this thing when class is over.”

I smile and exhale through my nose, feeling the same way. 

The word sugar in Eddie’s voice keeps buzzing around my head like a swarm of bees, and I wish for something to distract it. 

And sure enough, Eddie begins to hum the words:

Pictures building in my head

Nothing done and nothing said

Talking to me with your eyes

What they say is no surprise

Things are so much different now

But nothing lasts forever

He bops his head back and forth and taps his fingers along the table. Then he looks at me and smiles, shaking his head to the rhythm as he sings the words:

You, looking at me, looking at you

I wanna talk to you

You, looking at me, looking at you

I look at him and awkwardly smile, intermittently looking between him and the bowl of dry ingredients that is much less uncomfortable to be looking at because it doesn’t have the same big brown eyes that look deep into your soul if you make eye contact long enough.

“Mr. Munson,” the teacher calls out from a few tables behind us, “Let’s keep it down a bit, shall we?”

Eddie looks over his shoulder and gives her a stellar albeit sarcastic grin, “Sure thing Mrs.P!”

He turns back at me and rolls his eyes. I chuckle. 

“Practicing some new band material, are we?”

“Yeah,” Eddie scoffs as he dips his fingers into the sack of flour and quickly flicks it in my face, “Maybe. Do you like it?”

I screw my eyes shut and tense my body up as my hands fly upward, as though that’ll block any of the flour.

“Ugh,” I scoff. “What the hell Eddie? Did you even wash your hands before sticking them into the flour?”

I open my eyes to see him grinning at me. He’s lucky his smile is so damn infectious. 

I smile back, “And no, I don’t like having flour thrown in my face.”

“I was talking about the song,” Eddie says as I grab a bit of flour and flick it at his face, a few particles landing in his hair as the rest float around him. 

It’s kind of fun being cheeky with Eddie like this. He brings out a playful side of me that I often forget exists. 

“There, now we’re even. And yeah the song was good.”

It was good, if metal music is your thing. It was alright if the cutest boy in your class was singing aloud rather obnoxiously. 

I’d confidently fall in the latter group. 

“So Corroded Coffin’s adding new stuff to the set list?” I ask as I read out the next step in the recipe. 

“Maybe you should come and find out for yourself,” Eddie nonchalantly smirks. 

I turn to look at him, and he winks, again. 

What the hell does that mean?

Before I can shyly turn away and avoid his penetrating gaze, he places a hand on my shoulder. 

“Wait,” he says as his hand falls, as though it weighs a ton of bricks, onto my shoulder like this is where it calls home, giving him a much needed break.

Without moving my head, I freeze and look down from his hand on my shoulder up to his face. His eyes don’t meet mine. They're deep in focus looking at something below my own.

“You have some flour on your cheek,” Eddie says in a low, quiet voice as he leans closer. I tense up even more and close my eyes, unsure if I even want to bear witness to what is happening to me.

But then I feel heat in the form of Eddie’s rough hand as it cups the side of my face. His thumb slowly strokes against the now burning skin of the apple of my cheek. I could just melt. 

And then he softly blows a whisper of air onto my cheek and it’s game over.

My eyes shoot open, but just as quickly as it started, Eddie ends it. And soon, I only feel the ghost of his hand lingering against my skin. 

I make the mistake of looking into his eyes and he smiles at me. As if to say, there we go, no longer a smudge on this beautiful oil on canvas.

I clear my throat and turn back to our work station. I attempt to give the recipe a once over, but the words look shaky.

“Hey, um, could you go get some vanilla extract,” I ask. Eddie nods and leaves the table. 

That was a close one.

Eddie gets distracted pretty easily, so I usually end up having to set us on course, or give him things to do, like grab whatever ingredient or go ask another table for their measuring cup. 

But today, it’s because I’m the distracted one. 

I’ll be the first to admit that I make a good effort to resist the charms of Eddie Munson. He’s cute, funny, and an overall fun person to be around. But, that? What the hell was that?

I’m usually good at not being too distracted by him in this class. Even in an elective class like this, I have to take things seriously. Wouldn’t want my gpa to take the fall for it. But today he’s coming in at full force. 

If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was taunting me. But that can’t be, right?

I somehow manage to calm myself down enough by the time Eddie comes back. He sets the small dark bottle on the table. I take it and pour out a teaspoon. 

“Seriously, you should come see us sometime. You could use the study break.”

“What,” I ask. I can’t remember anything that happened before Eddie… touched me.

“Corroded Coffin. You should come check us out. Or check me out,” Eddie cheekily says as he grins and shakes his head from side to side.

“Oh,” I say breathlessly and sigh.

Eddie’s been bugging me for weeks about seeing his band play at some dive bar outside town. I’ve tried telling him that I’m busy, usually with studying, or that my parents would kill me for being out that late on a school night because for some god forsaken reason his band has to perform on Tuesday Nights.

But he won’t seem to take no for an answer. But he should, because I have no reason to be there. 

God knows what spell he’d have on me after I saw him perform. Fingers flying along the guitar. Body moving to the rhythm of the song. Lips so close to the head of the microphone. Sweat gleaming off his skin. 

It would be a disaster. 

But, more importantly, it would be weird if I was there, because she is the one that’s supposed to be there, not me. 

“Maybe next week,” I offer, not even feeling the slightest bit of remorse at the empty promise. Because it’s more than just that. It’s me covering my ass. 

What would it say about me to be going through all the effort for a boy who is only really my friend for one class period a day. For a boy who already has a girlfriend, one that is very much not me. 

I continue to add the rest of the ingredients before I pass the bowl to Eddie to stir. 

I don’t know why, but mixing the ingredients is his favorite part. He genuinely gets a real kick out of it. 

He says he hates measuring the ingredients because he always somehow fucks up and adds too much or too little. But he enjoys mixing them all together. He loves mixing as fast as he can and trying to beat his own personal record of how long it takes to whip the batter. We have a journal with documented scores and everything. 

“How long was that,” he asks me as he shows me the bowl of yellow batter. 

“I counted 15 seconds,” I say. 

Eddie balls his hand into a fist and tucks it to his side, “Yes!”

“Better than last time,” I say encouragingly. 

“Alright, let’s put this bad boy in the oven,” Eddie exclaims. 

Letting the thing we’re making in class bake in the oven is usually the part where Eddie and I really get to talk. 

Some days it’s ranting over what happened in one of our previous classes. Other days it’s learning about each other’s taste in movies and music. Today its–

“So how’re things going with Chrissy?” I blurt out nervously. One of us has to bring her up, right? Like somehow, I need us both to remember, he has a girlfriend. 

He can’t be doing the things he does when he has a girlfriend. And I can’t enjoy those things when they come from a boy who has eyes for someone else.

He gingerly cupped my face and touched my cheek. And maybe it’s because that sort of thing doesn’t happen to me very often, but that’s the sort of thing reserved for boyfriends and girlfriends, right? 

Maybe I’m just reading into it too much, but why did he do that? He really did not have to do that. He could have pointed out where the flour was on my face and I could have taken it myself. But, no. He didn’t.

“They’re good,” Eddie shrugs, as if he couldn’t be bothered to care, “She’s just been bugging about finding a dress for the homecoming dance.”

Oh, yeah. Just like I thought.

“Oh,” I gulp. “Finding the perfect outfit can be tough,” I say, trying to somehow empathize or just respond with something sensible because I don’t know what else to say. 

Or, what I’d really rather say is, “If it were me going to the dance with you, I couldn’t care less what I wear.”

“Yeah, but she gets so worked up about it for no reason. Like really stressed about it. So I just end up telling her, babe you’d look good in a garbage bag. I don’t care what you wear. It’s just a dance.”

Do you hear that? Oh, no? Not to worry, it’s only the ice crystals on my heart crackling.

My brain keeps going in all different directions. It makes a pit stop at the sound of Eddie saying the word “babe” and imagining a brief scenario in which he might call me that. But then it continues traveling into another direction.

“Yeah,” I nod. “I’m sure it just feels like a lot of pressure to wear the right thing, you know? Being a girl and a cheerleader no less.”

“What do you mean?”

I glance at him, and he genuinely looks clueless.

“Um, I mean, it’s just that, as girls we, um, we’re often judged for what we wear. And I think in cheerleader culture or whatever, there’s like a big expectation to basically be a Barbie doll.”

Eddie shakes his head, “Yeah, but I don’t care about any of that stuff.”

I nod, “Yeah, but, I don’t know. Maybe she still does. Old habits die hard, as they say.”

God, I don’t even know why I’m defending this poor girl, but… I don’t know. She seems nice enough. And a weird, almost selfish part of me guesses I kind of want Eddie to be a good boyfriend, even if it’s not to me.

Eddie looks lost in thought as he contemplates my words. I’m starting to feel uneasy, so I try to slightly change the subject.

“So, anyways, do you think you’ll try to match whatever she ends up wearing.”

Eddie shakes his head. 

“Oh, yeah, for sure. I know, it’s corny, but she likes it, so I do too,” Eddie replies as if it’s a given, like anyone would know. 

I nod back and smile. And as he changes the subject, I’m grateful he doesn’t ask me if I’m going to the dance. I can barely stomach hearing about his perfect relationship with the most beautiful girl in school. If I had to tell him I’m not going because no one has asked me yet, I think I’d pass out. 

“What about you? How’s honors math? Anything cool go on in honors gym? What’s your grade in honors lunch again?”

I roll my eyes and fight the smile wanting to form in my lips at hearing his cute laugh. 

I should’ve never told Eddie that all the other classes in my schedule this semester were honors classes. He hasn’t let me live it down since.

“Actually yeah, today in honors gym, they took all the honors students and made us play dodgeball but instead of balls we threw textbooks,” I smile performatively.

Eddie snorts and erupts into a boisterous laugh, “God, I know you’re being sarcastic, but that is so fuckin’ hilarious. I would pay money to see that.”

I roll my eyes and glance at the timer. Still got 15 minutes to burn.

“Bet your little honors boyfriend would too.”

I bite my lip, “Eddie, how many times do I have to tell you, he’s not… my boyfriend. Just a boy who’s a friend.”

At least, that’s all I want him to be, now. After I’ve gotten to know Eddie.

“Does he know that too,” Eddie asks as he theatrically places an elbow on the workstation and rests his chin on his closed fist.

I press my lips together and exhale. “Yes, Eddie, I’m pretty sure he does.”

At the beginning of the semester, there was a boy in a few of my classes that I’d started having a crush on. And after a while, I could have sworn he might have felt the same. There were a lot of moments where it felt like he might be flirting with me. At the time, I was still getting to know Eddie, so when it inevitably came up between us during class, I would ask him for advice about what to do.

But somewhere along the way, I got to know Eddie better and things changed. Soon, I’d forgotten all about the boy in my classes. I had eyes for someone else.

A boy in the grade above me, who was in zero honors classes, but somehow smarter than anyone I knew. A boy who was so messy and ruggedly handsome, but in a refreshing way compared to my clean cut way of life.

Eddie was the only boy who really saw me, as I was. Not just the honors student with good grades and a shoe-in for college. But as a girl who was wise beyond her years and wanted to explore the world, even if she didn’t really understand it. 

And before long, he ended up becoming the only object of my affections. Even if that object was a forbidden fruit, never to be eaten, and only admired from afar. 

As for that other boy, well, it’s safe to say he moved on.

“Ok, just checking,” Eddie replies. 

I nod and look away awkwardly. I bend down to look through the glass door of the oven to check the cake. It’s starting to rise.

I rise and find Eddie looking at me, almost studying me. His gaze is calculated. For a moment, I match his gaze. 

He’s a very expressive guy. If he doesn’t say it with his words, he’ll say it with his face. But right now, his expression is unreadable. His eyes, a dark cloud of mystery.

For a split second, something in his hair catches my eye. I break from his gaze and notice the flakes of flour still caught in his hair.

“Hey, um,” I say pointing to my own hair, “You still have some flour stuck in your hair.”

Eddie tilts his head and looks to the side opposite of where I’m pointing. “Oh, where?”

“Um,” I keep pointing, “Kind of by your cheek.”

Eddie runs a rough hand through his hair, “I don’t see it. There. Did that do it?”

I shake my head. He tries running his fingers again, but he doesn’t get it.

“Here,” I mutter as I hesitantly reach out and gently shake the bits of flour clinging to the curls by his face, “Um, kind of… like that.”

I dust off the remaining bits, gently raking my fingers through the loose ringlets. I can feel Eddie’s piercing gaze, like a laser burning through my skin. I ignore it and softly put the curl back into place, making sure his hair doesn’t look all mussed up.

When I retract my hand, I make the mistake of looking into Eddie’s eyes. He’s already smirking. Smirking like his lips wants to form a shit eating grin but he’s too pleased with himself.

“What?” I innocently ask as I let my hand fall to the wooden surface of the work station. 

I look away, worried my eyes will say something my mouth will never have the courage to say. I’m sure the blazing heat I feel in my face will give it away, but let’s keep up the illusion that it won’t.

“Nothing,” Eddie sighs, “It’s just cute, you know?”

I scrunch my eyebrows, “What is?”

Eddie shrugs and then looks me square in the eye as he says in a seductive voice, “My hair looks sexy like this, doesn’t it?”

Yes.

“What?” I blurt out. I shake my head and scoff, “You’re crazy Munson.”

I look away and pretend to check on the cake again.

“You can pretend all you want,” Eddie replies cheekily, “But your eyes sure didn’t.”

“My eyes? Seriously? You’re seeing things,” I brattily say.

Oh my god. Am I that transparent?

Then, our home-ec teacher makes an announcement and points out the five minutes of class remaining. We all start to clear our workstations and take our assignment out of the oven and let it cool on the cooling rack. 

Lunch can’t come soon enough. I’m feeling a lot like that sponge cake right now and I really just need some space to cool down from this conversation that has me way too heated.

Ding! The school bell rings, signaling the end of class. I end up letting Eddie keep the cake.

Eddie and I usually walk out of class together, today being no different. He’s moved past the whole hair incident, but I haven’t. 

I feel so many things I can’t even begin to understand or explain.

But Eddie goes on about something Hellfire Club related as we walk through the halls. He says something and I don’t understand the reference, but it had the cadence of a joke, so I laugh. 

As we walk to lunch, I see a girl from one of my classes come out of one of the rooms we pass.

Her name is Janet and I’m pretty sure she has band class before lunch. She looks at me and smiles while raising her eyebrows. I stare at her blank-faced as she makes her way down the hall and to the cafeteria like the rest of us.

“Hey princess,” Eddie greets as a cheerful blonde girl magically appears at his other side.

I nearly freeze in my tracks. 

“Hey baby, I missed you!” She says as he leans over to press a chaste kiss to her lips.

I sharply turn my gaze forward. 

I could almost throw up. I’m stunned with how open either of them are to such public displays of affection. I feel like I would be too aware of how many other people are seeing me engage in such a vulnerable act and get self-conscious.

Eddie starts talking to her, and suddenly I feel like a third wheel. Like I don’t need to be here. I’m intruding. 

Eddie continues walking with Chrissy by his side.

I’ve never even properly met the girl. I’ve seen her around, and obviously know who she is because of Eddie. But face to face is new. 

Does she even know I exist? Does Eddie talk about me to her? Probably not, right? That would be crazy.

I speed up my pace and weave through the crowd of students making their way to the lunch room. I continue my pace before turning over my shoulder and seeing them far back in the crowd. 

I’d rather not meet her today. Not like this. Not after what happened in class.

I need to drill it in my head. Eddie has a girlfriend. There’s no way things could happen between us. Even if she wasn’t in the picture, Eddie would be graduating next year while I still have another year to go. It would never work. It’s impossible.

I keep having this internal debate as I wait in the lunch line and eat my food in tense silence as my friends rant about their fourth periods.

By the time I make it to fifth period, I’ve cooled down. I ran through our conversation about a hundred times. But I’m over it now.

“Hey,” Janet greets as she walks over and leans a hand on my desk.

“Hey,” I reply hesitantly. Janet and I are cordial in class, but not exactly someone who sits at my table at lunch.

“Who was that guy you were walking with earlier? He was really cute!”

I open my mouth and for a millisecond, nothing comes out, “What? Oh, him? That’s just a guy from my home-ec class?”

“How come I’ve never seen him before? Is he new?”

I glance around and notice the rest of the desks around me filling as students arrive to class.

“Um, no but he’s a senior.”

“Ooh, an older man,” Janet teasingly coos. I smile, albeit uncomfortably.

“Do you like him?”

Yes.

“What? No! He-He’s not my type, a-and besides, he has a girlfriend.”

“It sure didn’t look that way.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I saw the way he looked at you.”

The way Eddie looked at me.

I’m at a loss for words. What way did Eddie look at me? Why do I even care so much?

“What a shame? You guys would be really cute together.”