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ambrossart · 6 months

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Out of the Loop

summary: eddie went home with someone after prom, and gareth is determined to figure out who it was.

pairing: eddie munson x dwm!reader word count: 11k warnings: language, new relationship, eddie's girlfriend is gareth's arch nemesis, silly childhood rivalries, eddie being happy and stupidly in love, jason being an overprotective ass, chrissy being an adorable little cupcake, the reader is chrissy's best friend, the unnamed freak is named grant in this series

series masterpost | series playlist | fanfiction masterlist

On Monday morning, Gareth peddled to school like a man on a mission.

Nothing was getting in his way today, not his mother, who had accidentally washed his Hellfire Club shirt with all his little sister’s dance clothes,

“You know what, honey, I think it looks better this way…”

not his sister, who had been hogging the bathroom all morning because she couldn’t get her hair right,

“Look, you don’t understand the pressure I’m under right now. Becca Singer is finalizing her birthday party guest list today. I have to look my best if I wanna make the cut.”

not the weatherman, who was painfully misinformed when he called for clear, sunny skies today…

and certainly not the piece of crap Chevy that just cut him off in the middle of the crosswalk.

Gareth swerved out of the way and kept on peddling. The rain pelted his face in a spray of ice-cold bullets.

Behind him, the driver yelled, “Hey, watch where you’re going, you little shit!”

It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Because Gareth was sitting on a goldmine of information right now. It was truly the scoop of the century. Eddie Munson—that’s right, Eddie “the Freak” Munson—had gone home with somebody after the senior prom.

Who was this mysterious (not to mention incredibly lucky) woman? A curious cheerleader desperate to defy her clique? A rich girl trying to piss off her dad? A shy bookworm who wanted to act out the plot of her favorite romance novel? Who? Who? Gareth’s head was spinning! The question hungrily devoured the rest of his weekend (something Gareth wasn’t too proud to admit, of course, but hey, Sundays were always uneventful days for him). He had to get to school quickly and consult his most trusted sources.

He found Jeff and Grant sitting at their usual table in the cafeteria. Grant was eating the school’s hot breakfast while Jeff sat with his head in his hands, lamenting the sorry state of his love life.

“Tara’s still not talking to me. I’m pretty sure she’s gonna dump me for Patrick McKinney.”

Grant put down his fork. “Wait, you two were dating?”

“No…” Jeff heaved a quiet sigh. “But if we were, she’d definitely dump me for Patrick.”

Grant frowned, sympathetic yet envious of his friend’s plight. “Man, I wish Meg would stop talking to me. She had me on the phone all night yesterday. I think she wants me to be her boyfriend or something.” Grant cringed at the thought. He didn’t have the strength to put up with her. He’d barely survived prom.

“You don’t like her?” Jeff asked.

“Not really,” Grant answered. “I mean, yeah, she’s pretty and all, but as soon as she starts talking—”

Gareth slammed a wrinkled piece of notebook paper onto the table. The loud bang echoed through the entire cafeteria, making a few students gasp and flinch in their chairs. Jeff and Grant didn’t move in the slightest. This was typical Monday morning behavior for Gareth.

“What’s with the pink shirt?” Grant asked, unfazed.

“Doesn’t matter,” Gareth said. They had more pressing matters to discuss. He sat down and folded his hands in front of him, his blue eyes clear and focused. He wasted no time getting straight to the point: “Who’d Eddie go home with after prom?”

Jeff and Grant exchanged a subtle, secret glance.

“How do you know Eddie went home with someone after prom?” Jeff asked.

“Because I called him that night.”

“Why’d you call him?”

“Because I’m a good friend, unlike some people.” Nobody had called him asking how his night went. Gareth sat home alone on Saturday night, eating popcorn and watching old sci-fi movies in his basement, while the rest of his friends had a blast at prom. It wasn’t fair. “I wanted to check in on him because I figured he might be a little depressed after getting rejected by Chrissy. Because let’s be honest here, there was no way that Chrissy was ever gonna dance with him. You all agree with me, right? I’m not just being a dick here. Like, yeah, I know Eddie’s riding high right now because he thinks this year is his year and everything, but… yeah, he was aiming a bit too high with that goal.”

“Can you get to the point, please?” Grant said. “My breakfast is getting cold.”

“Well, multitask, man!” Gareth grabbed Grant’s fork and threw it back onto his tray. “What, you can’t listen and eat at the same time?”

Grant rolled his eyes and went back to his breakfast. Gareth carried on with his story:

“So anyway, when I called him on Saturday, I expected him to sound all mopey and depressed, but he wasn’t. Yeah, Eddie wasn’t depressed at all. In fact, he sounded oddly… happy, but also a little bit distracted. You guys see where I’m going with this, right?”

“I hate that I do,” Grant said, struggling to enjoy his food.

“Well, that’s when I started getting suspicious. See, I could tell I didn’t have his full attention, and that’s just so unlike Eddie because he’s normally really good at maintaining proper phone etiquette. Weird, right? So then I got curious and I started listening, and… and I can’t be sure, but I think I heard a girl talking in the background.”

“Maybe it was just the TV,” Grant said.

Gareth shook his head. “No way… I know the difference between a TV voice and a live human voice. Someone was definitely with him.”

“Well, did you recognize the voice?” Jeff asked.

“No, I couldn’t hear well enough.”

Grant’s eyes narrowed. “And yet you’re sure it wasn’t the TV…”

“Oh come on, it wasn’t the TV, you guys. Wake up and smell the coffee! Eddie brought a girl to his house. He brought a girl to his house. She was with him in the room while he was on the phone with me. I could hear her talking. Then Eddie started acting really weird, said he had to go, and rushed me off the phone.”

“Gross,” Grant muttered, sickened. “Yeah, these are details I did not need.”

Gareth’s mouth fell open in a silent gasp. “Wait, do you guys think he slept with her?” and that was more than Jeff could handle.

He buried his face in his hands and said, “Please stop. I don’t wanna go to class with these images in my head.”

Grant shrugged. “Maybe it was just a one-night stand.”

Jeff threw him a sharp, side-eyed glare.

“Just saying,” Grant finished, smirking.

“No, I seriously doubt it,” Gareth went on, completely unaware. “Eddie’s not really a one-night stand kinda guy… not by choice, anyway. No, I think this might be the real deal, you guys, ‘cause listen to this: I went to go see him yesterday. Eddie wasn’t home.”

“So?”

“So I think he was with her. I called him last night and asked him where he was all day. He said he was out running errands.” Gareth scrunched up his face at that, doubtful. “Since when does Eddie run errands? So I said, ‘What sort of errands were you running?’ He said he had to swing by the drugstore. I said, ‘Well, what did you need at the drugstore?’ but he wouldn’t answer that. Yeah, he was being awfully mum.”

“Mum?” Jeff repeated to himself, mystified by his friend’s bizarre word choice.

Grant said, “He was probably annoyed that you were digging around in his business. I know I would be.”

“Oh yeah, he was definitely getting annoyed,” Gareth said. “Then he cut the conversation short and told me he was stepping out for the night. That’s when I knew this was serious. Eddie doesn’t just ‘step out’ on a Sunday night. He hardly goes out any night. If he’s not with us, he’s sitting at home and playing songs on his guitar. Yeah, he was definitely with her last night.”

Grant sighed, hoping they’d finally reached the end of this long-winded story. “Well, I guess you cracked the case then, Gareth.”

“But that’s just it, I haven’t!” Gareth said. Grant let out an exhausted moan. “I still don’t know who this girl is. You guys swear you didn’t see Eddie go home with anybody after prom?”

Another secret glance.

“Nope,” Jeff said. “I didn’t see him go home with anyone that night.”

Gareth nodded, disappointed but not yet defeated. “Yeah, I thought you might say that. That’s why I made this.”

He gestured toward the piece of paper on the table. Jeff picked it up and read it over. Then he passed it to Grant so he could do the same.

“Okay, what exactly am I looking at here?” Grant asked.

“It’s a list of suspects,” Gareth said, a proud smile on his face. “Yeah, last night I compiled a list of every girl I’ve ever seen Eddie interact with at school, and then this morning I whittled that list down to what I think are the most likely suspects.”

“Not a very long list,” Jeff said.

“Really?” said Grant. “I was gonna say it’s too long.”

They shared a little chuckle over that. Gareth glowered at them, unamused. He didn’t appreciate them making little jabs about their Dungeon Master’s love life, stagnant as it was.

“You know,” Grant began with ominous deliberation, “I can’t help but notice there’s a name missing from this list.”

Gareth's head snapped back in surprise. “Who?”

“You know who,” Grant said. Beside him, Jeff was holding in a grin.

A disturbing chill crept up Gareth's spine. Then—

BAM!

Your name cracked down from above like a fiendish lightning bolt, striking Gareth and making all the little hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. For a second, he could see your name so clearly. It loomed before him, ugly and terrible, festering with puss and crawling with maggots, getting pecked savagely by vultures and other scavengers. It made him retch with disgust.

“Oh, very funny…”

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Grant said, “there’s no denying that she’s a likely suspect.”

“In fact,” Jeff continued, “some might say she’s the most likely suspect.”

“Yeah, maybe back in middle school,” Gareth said, “but Eddie hasn’t so much as looked at her in years.”

Except for that one time, he thought, remembering the mournful look on his friend’s face that day.

They were all eating lunch when your laughter suddenly sprang up from the other side of the cafeteria, obnoxious and shrill. Eddie glanced your way and his eyes darkened with such hollow sadness. It was as if someone had died.

But that didn’t mean anything, Gareth decided, so he shoved the memory away.

“All right, look, I’ll admit we lost him briefly for that one summer. I dunno how she did it, but somehow she got her claws in him real deep and he was completely under her spell. I won’t deny that. But then Eddie woke up and saw her for what she really is—an ugly green hag! At first, she appears as this beautiful, enchanting woman, but underneath that guise, she’s a wretched old witch who thrives on torment. Yeah, Eddie got over her a long time ago,” and Gareth refused to waste another thought on it.

He snatched the paper from Grant and laid it out in front of him. “Now, here’s what I’m thinking: if we split this up among the three of us, we can get through this list by lunch and then confront Eddie with our findings.”

“Yeah, we’re not doing that,” Grant said.

Gareth frowned. “Why not?”

“Because we already know who it is.”

Gareth’s eyes widened in surprised anger. “I KNEW IT! I FUCKING KNEW IT! I knew you two were messing with me this whole time. Sitting there with your smug little faces. Making your little jokes. You know what, screw you guys, I don’t even want your help anymore.”

He stuffed the paper back into his bag, climbed to his feet, and stomped off.

Over his shoulder, Jeff said, “Shoulda gone to prom, man.”

Gareth paused, dejected. “Well, no one would go with me…” He pushed through the double doors and was gone.

Afterward, Grant picked up his milk carton and took a few slow slips.

“You know what,” he said thoughtfully, “Gareth should’ve asked Y/N to prom.”

Jeff chuckled to himself. “Well, she did need a date… Shit, should we have just told him?”

“No,” Grant said. “No, this is something Gareth needs to see with his own eyes.”

Now Gareth, his resolve reignited and burning brighter than ever, was prowling the senior locker area with his suspect list in hand.

Let them keep their secrets, he thought. I don’t need their help. A lot of help they would’ve been, anyway. Yeah, I can solve this mystery all on my own.

And he would.

Gareth was a fantastic investigator, you see. He could win a game of Guess Who? in less than five turns and had a lifetime record of fifty-three wins and only fifteen losses (such losses were unavoidable when you drew an easily guessable character like Anita. Ugh, Anita… with those rosy cheeks and annoying blonde pigtails. His little sister beat him in only two moves after that unlucky draw). Now Gareth would apply those same deductive reasoning skills to this. Ask careful, complex questions. Gather information. Cross those ladies off one by one.

There was only one problem: the girls at Hawkins High weren’t exactly forthcoming about their personal lives, especially when it involved Eddie Munson. In fact, most girls denied ever having spoken to the guy.

Claire Dunnock, the most recent inductee into the popular clique, was being especially difficult.

Her blue eyes shifted back and forth anxiously. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, and then leaned forward to make sure none of her new friends were eavesdropping. Claire had to be very careful. One misstep and she would slide all the way back down the social ladder. She couldn’t afford to let that happen.

Gareth sensed her unease. “Hey, relax,” he told her, “I’m not here to ruin your reputation, okay? This conversation stays between us. You have my word.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Claire said. “I wouldn’t be caught dead with that freak.”

“Hey, that freak is my best friend,” Gareth said. “And you and I both know that’s not true, Claire. I saw you get into his van that one—”

Claire seized him by the arm and hissed, “Shut up!” Her eyes blazed with fearful, self-protective rage. “Look, that was a year ago, okay? I was a stupid junior who didn’t know any better. Eddie and I had a class together. I guess I got a little curious, but that’s it. We hung out once and I never spoke to him again.” Loosening her grip, she said, “Besides, he was nothing but a big disappointment, anyway.”

Anger flared in Gareth’s chest. “All right, that's it. I’m not gonna stand here and listen to you slander my friend.”

“It’s not slander if it’s true,” Claire said.

Gareth didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Look, just answer my question, okay? Did you go home with Eddie after prom or not?”

“Of course not,” Claire answered, practically cackling at the thought.

(Why were high school girls so needlessly cruel?)

“I went to prom with my boyfriend. I was with him all night. Ask anyone.” Claire swung her locker door closed, put her hand on her hip, and raised her eyebrows impatiently. “Are we done now?” She walked off to join the rest of her friends.

Gareth glared at her back, his insides boiling with indignation and righteous fury.

You got curious and Eddie got his heart broken. Again.

He crossed out Claire’s name with his pen.

Two suspects down. Eight more to go.

He tucked his pen behind his ear, turned, and suddenly the hallway froze over! Okay, that didn’t actually happen, but a bitter wind did blow. Gareth felt it on his face as soon as he saw you step out from around the corner.

Coincidence?

Doubtful.

You were wearing blue jeans and a Fleetwood Mac shirt. Yeah, you would like Fleetwood Mac, Gareth thought, scoffing. As usual, you were walking side by side with Chrissy Cunningham, your best friend since elementary school. She was smiling and laughing at one of your jokes. Laughing out of politeness, probably. Why you two were friends, Gareth would never know. Chrissy was sweet like cotton candy and you were so… so…

(evil, pure evil)

rotten to the core, like moldy fruit.

“I swear,” you said with a groan, “it’ll be weeks before your mom lets me into the house again. God, she’s such a prude. How was I supposed to know she was gonna invite the whole family over for Sunday brunch? At least I was dressed up for the occasion.”

Chrissy looked at you in baffled amusement. “You were still wearing your prom dress.”

“And it was a very nice prom dress. Your grandma even complimented it. She said it made me look like Madonna.” You weren’t too thrilled about that comparison, but who were you to pass up a free compliment? “Now your mom, on the other hand… man, if looks could kill… I probably would’ve choked on one of those blueberry scones she was serving, which were a tad overbaked if I’m being honest.”

Chrissy went to her locker and fiddled with the padlock for a second before opening it. You stood patiently beside her, the wall clock barely within view.

It was a quarter past eight, you noted with a frown. Was Eddie here already or…?

While hanging up her pink backpack, Chrissy said, “Yeah, she definitely had some colorful words to describe you last night.”

You turned your attention back to her. “Your mom called me a slut, didn’t she?”

Chrissy didn’t answer at first. She was busy unloading her homework. While she was doing that, one of her fellow cheerleaders snuck up behind her, tapped her on the shoulder, and gave a cheerful, heartfelt hello. Chrissy hugged her and asked how her weekend was. The two chatted casually for a minute and then the girl went on her way. Never so much as glanced at you.

“Umm, I believe she used the word harlot,” Chrissy said to you afterward.

“Oh, she got biblical, huh?” Great, you thought, as if that woman didn’t despise you enough already. “You know, I don’t understand your mom. First I’m too fat to be your friend. Now I’m too much of a slut. That lady needs to pick a lane and stay in it… and then drive herself right off a cliff.”

Chrissy threw you a friendly glare.

“Just kidding,” you said. “You know I love your mom. She keeps me grounded. Without her, I might develop a healthy self-esteem, and we all know how dangerous that is. Yeah, that might lead to confidence and success… perhaps even lifelong happiness.”

Ignoring you (or pretending to), Chrissy started digging through her backpack again. “Dammit,” she said under her breath, “I think I left my pencil case at home.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Jason has a pencil for you.” You smiled inwardly—a willful, wicked smile. “Then again…”

Chrissy pushed her locker closed, grabbed both your hands, backed you up against the lockers, and brought her face really close to yours. “Shut up,” she whispered in half-hearted anger, a rosy blush blooming on the apples of her cheeks.

You took one look at her and busted out laughing. Chrissy started laughing, too.

“I hate you so much,” she said, and released you.

“I know,” you replied affectionately. “But see, this is why the whole situation with your mom is so funny to me. I’m the one who’s still a virgin, yet somehow it’s me who gets labeled the…”

You spotted a familiar face down the hall.

“Gareth?” You leaned toward him, squinting. “What are you doing in the senior locker area?”

The sound of your voice made him flinch. “Nothing,” he said, acting strangely defensive for some reason.

That’s when you noticed the piece of paper in his hand. You gestured toward it with your chin and said, “What’s that you got there? Is that a love letter? You finally asking someone out on a date? Will you go out with me? Check yes or no. Who’s the lucky lady? Wait, aren’t you a little young to be dating?”

Gareth hid the paper behind his back and glared at you. “We’re the same age.”

“And yet I’m a senior and you’re a junior. Hmm, how did that happen?” You tipped your head and smiled at him. “You’ve got company, by the way.”

“Huh?” Gareth stepped back and—

A hand landed on his shoulder, closed around his flannel shirt, and spun him around. Gareth jumped back, swallowing a scream. He was now standing nose to chest with Ben Jabruski, outside linebacker and two-time defensive player of the year. Eric Kordell stood beside him, smaller but no less intimidating. His brown eyes gleamed with feral, territorial aggression.

“Get outta here, freak,” Eric said.

Gareth squared up to him, unafraid. “Last time I checked this was a free country.” He wrenched his shirt out of Ben’s grip, careful not to tear his favorite flannel. It was a Christmas gift from his mother.

While he was distracted, Eric reached out and ripped the paper out of Gareth’s hand.

“Hey, give that back!”

“What’s this?” Eric asked. He opened the paper and studied it for a minute. His expression went from amused to curious to downright furious. He crushed the list in his fist. “Why’s my girlfriend on here?”

“Oh…” Panic shot up Gareth’s spine. He took a step back and let loose a nervous chuckle. “Oh… you must be Claire’s boyfriend. You know, I heard you two had a lovely time at prom.”

He turned on his heel and took off running down the hallway.

“Bye, Gareth!” you said, fluttering your fingers as he passed. Then you looked back at Chrissy with a smile. “God, I love that kid…”

You went to your locker after that, ignoring all the busy little voices, the occasional odd glance and stifled giggle you received from the other students. Chrissy followed with her first-period textbook cradled in her arms.

“Just ignore them,” she told you.

“I already am,” you said… but then you saw Sarah, Sally, and Stacy huddled around Stacy’s locker. Talking about their hair. Talking about their clothes. Stirring their black cauldron of boiling bones and animal guts. Sarah looked at you, whispered something to Sally, who passed the same message on to Stacy, and all three of them tittered gleefully at your expense.

“Just ignore them,” Chrissy said.

“I will,” you said, but first—

You whipped around and burst out: “So which one of you got knocked up after prom? My money’s on you, Stacy.”

Chrissy, dismayed but secretly delighted, tugged gently on your right elbow. Before going with her, you tossed Satan’s mistress (AKA Stacy Raab) a snide little wink. Stacy rolled her eyes in disgust.

“Stop it,” Chrissy said.

“They started it.”

“I know… but stop it. You’re better than that.”

At the end of the hallway, you spotted Chance Gallagher standing in front of his open locker, wearing the same green letterman jacket that he wore when he asked you to prom six weeks ago. Chance closed his locker and caught your eye for a moment. Then he gave you a small, apologetic smile.

What was he apologizing for? For asking you to prom, getting your hopes up, and then humiliating you in front of the entire senior class? You weren’t sorry he did it. In fact, you were glad he did it. Yeah, you wanted to go up to him, shake his hand, and thank him for being such a spineless little worm. If he were a decent guy, your night might have gone differently, and you were quite pleased with how your night went. So thank you, Chance. Thank you for being a complete scumbag. Maybe I should write him a thank-you note.

Smiling, you turned back around. As you did, you stole another quick glance at the clock on the wall.

Eight-nineteen…

You sighed.

… and now eight-twenty.

“He’s running late, huh?” Chrissy said. You looked her way and she flashed you a sweet, teasing smile. “I know you’re waiting for him.”

A small flush of heat tickled your cheeks, threatening to set your whole face on fire. Resisting it, you grabbed your padlock and started spinning the dial: three turns to the right, one full turn to the left, another quick turn to the right, and

“Are you nervous about seeing him?”

you missed the last number and had to start all over again.

“Kind of,” you admitted. “Is that weird?”

Chrissy shook her head, her smile growing brighter and brighter. “Nope, it’s totally normal and absolutely adorable.” Giggling, she hugged her book tightly to her chest. If her hands were free, she probably would have hugged you instead. “I’m so happy for you. I really, really am. I swear, I feel like my heart’s about to burst right now.”

“Well, you should probably see a doctor about that.”

Chrissy stuck her tongue out at you. You did it right back, popped off your lock, and pulled on the handle. The locker door swung outward, squeaking on its hinges, and almost smacked Chrissy in the face. “Hey!” she said, laughing. She stepped back, skipped around you, and planted herself comfortably on your left side.

“So did you see him last night?” she asked, practically beaming.

“Nope.” You slipped off your messenger bag and hung it on the hook.

Chrissy squinted at you suspiciously. “Why do I feel like you’re lying right now?”

“I’m not lying,” you told her, only to be betrayed by your blushing face. “I didn’t see him last night… technically it was this morning.”

Twelve-o-two, to be exact. That’s when you saw the headlights flashing through your bedroom window blinds.

“Oh my god,” Chrissy said.

“What? He just stopped by to say goodnight.” You smiled softly to yourself. “It was kind of romantic, actually.”

“Uh-huh,” Chrissy said, laughing at you. “And how long did you two say goodnight?”

“Only for an hour… and a half.”

It was raining last night. You couldn’t invite Eddie into the house, so you two hung out in his van for a while. A very long while. W.A.S.P. was playing on the stereo. Eddie had found the cassette tape while cleaning out his van that afternoon. He was very proud of this accomplishment. It was adorable. He had you listen to a few of his favorite songs, asked you about your day, told you about his, and during “Cries In the Night,” he leaned over the center console and kissed you. Everything after that was a bit of a blur. The last thing you remembered was the horn blaring. You had accidentally pressed it with your elbow.

“Oh my god,” Chrissy said.

“Stop saying, ‘Oh my god.’ You sound like my mom.”

She had said the exact same thing after confronting you about it in the kitchen this morning. Turns out, the car horn had woken her up. Then she caught you creeping back inside through the front door. It was an awkward breakfast, to say the least.

Chrissy poked your shoulder playfully. “That’s how it starts, you know. Late-night visits. Long, drawn-out goodbyes. You two are gonna be inseparable this summer.” She breathed a long, lovesick sigh. “Jason and I used to be like that.”

“You’re still like that.”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling.

“Speaking of…” You saw Jason Carver coming down the hallway, his pants ironed and creased, white collared shirt tucked in, a brand new Rolex glinting on his left wrist (an early graduation present from his father, apparently). He looked like a Ralph Lauren catalog model. “Is it weird that I’m picturing him naked right now?”

Chrissy hid her face in embarrassment. “I swear to God, if you say anything…”

“What am I gonna say to him? ‘Thank you for deflowering my best friend’? ‘I heard your penis is rather pleasing’? I don’t wanna talk to him about that. I don’t even wanna think about that.”

Prior to this weekend, you couldn’t even imagine Jason Carver having genitals. You always figured he was like a Ken doll down there. Nothing but smooth plastic.

Chrissy looked at you, mortified. “Why do I tell you anything?”

“I have no idea,” you said. Then you checked the clock again.

Eight twenty-three.

Where the hell’s Eddie? you wondered, starting to get a little worried.

Jason’s arrival reclaimed your attention.

“Hey, guys,” he said in that smooth drawl that made all the girls swoon.

You expected to find him standing with his million-dollar smile, but he wasn’t. No, today Jason seemed different—humble, approachable, perhaps even a little shy. It was as if he’d reverted back to his ten-year-old self. Little Jason Carver, who could barely dribble a basketball. The boy who stammered when he introduced himself to the rest of the class. The boy who sat down next to you, smiled, and said he liked the character on your favorite shirt. The boy who talked to you every day. Encouraged you. Defended you. The boy you caught staring at your best friend way too many times to be a coincidence.

Then you looked at Chrissy and she seemed younger, too. A blushing, fidgeting ten-year-old who always forgot to stand up straight. She got so excited when Jason offered to walk her home from school. He even carried my books!

Back then, your happiness for them had been counterfeit, complicated, but not anymore. Yeah, now you could say you were genuinely happy for both of them.

This was still awkward as hell, though.

“Hey, Chrissy needs to borrow a pencil,” you blurted out, breaking their amorous trance.

A soft pink flush rose to Jason’s cheeks. “What?”

“Just ignore her,” Chrissy said, struggling to keep a straight face.

Meanwhile, you punched Jason on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t forget about our deal, buddy.”

“I haven’t,” he told you. “I’ll buy your lunch, as promised. It’s the least I can do.”

“What if I want two lunches? And a whole plate of cookies?”

“Then I guess I’m buying you two lunches and a whole plate of cookies.”

Jason smiled at you… but then his demeanor changed, hardening like armor.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

You blinked at him. “Am I okay?” you repeated slowly, a little taken aback. “Well, I did wake up with a strange tattoo on my wrist. It’s like a crucifix, except it’s upside down. Weird… Also, I can’t be sure, but I think I might be dealing with a Rosemary’s Baby scenario. Yeah, I’m definitely gonna be giving birth to the Antichrist in about nine months. Buy something black.”

Jason’s eyes widened in confused horror.

“Oh my god, I’m kidding!” you said. “Eddie was a complete gentleman. He even asked for permission before he impregnated me with his hellseed. Naturally, I gave him the green light because… well, have you seen his face? It’s kinda perfect.”

Chrissy put her hand over her mouth and giggled. Jason didn’t appreciate your joke.

“Come on, be serious.”

“I am being serious. Believe it or not, I actually find him insanely attractive. He’s like a discount version of Eddie Van Halen, and I can’t afford the real thing, so…”

“So you actually slept with him?” Jason sounded disappointed and ashamed. He reminded you of your father.

No, worse than your father.

“Well, no, I was kidding about that. I mean, I did sleep with him, but not in the way you’re assuming. And are you seriously gonna judge me for having sex? It’s been a while since I’ve been to church, but I’m pretty sure the bible condemns hypocrisy. You might wanna reread those sections. I think you’ll find them very enlightening.”

Jason ground his jaw in irritation. “Stop making jokes!”

“I don’t want to,” you said finally, your voice breaking, “because then I’m just gonna get really, really mad like I’m doing right now, and I don’t wanna be mad at you, Jason. I was having a really good morning until you showed up.”

By now, Chrissy had stopped laughing. Her shoulders drooped and she looked at you with a sick, sorry expression.

Jason said, “Look, I just think you’re undervaluing yourself, okay? You can do so much better than that—”

“Oh, please don’t do that. Don’t try to talk to me like you’re my friend.”

“I am your friend.”

“Then be my friend, Jason. Stop trying to ruin my happiness!”

The school bell dinged and students began making their way to class. Jason went, too. Didn’t even bother saying goodbye. Chrissy told you not to worry about him. “Jason’ll come around eventually.” Then she smiled, waved goodbye, and ran to catch up with him.

You weren’t half as optimistic as she was.

This is gonna be a huge problem, isn’t it?

You groaned, dreading it.

Behind you, another wave of students came rushing down the hallway. Brittany Wirth was among them. You knew because you could hear her shrill voice piercing through the dull chatter around her. She was ranting about prom, complaining about the flowers, complaining about the food, about the music, about—

“YOU!”

You flinched and turned around, thinking she was talking to you.

What you saw made your eyes light up with glee. Brittany Wirth had Eddie Munson pinned up against the lockers, and she was jabbing him in the chest with her index finger.

“You, sir, are a total asshole! Do you have any idea how hard I worked on that event? I was planning it for months, planning it to perfection, and then YOU had to go and make it all about yourself, as usual.” She stepped back and huffed, exhausted. “I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

“I’m a little proud of myself,” Eddie replied candidly.

Brittany shot him a deadly glare. “Oh, shut up!” She swept her hair off her shoulder and walked away.

You stopped her as she passed. “You know what, Brittany, all things considered, I thought it was a very successful night.”

Brittany’s jaw dropped and got stuck like that, locked in befuddled rage. Not a single sound came out, but you could tell she was trying to speak. Was this it? Had it finally happened? Did Brittany Wirth actually crack? She worked her lips unsuccessfully for a minute and then closed them again, steaming in her hatred, screaming internally like a boiling teapot. She brushed past you and continued on her way.

Then you heard Eddie approach you.

“Did I really make the night all about me?”

His question made you giggle. “A little bit.” You turned around with a smile, glad to see him, relieved to see him. “I still had a good time, though.”

“Well, that’s all that matters,” Eddie said, but there was something in your eyes that made him frown with concern. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” you said, and blinked that silly little worry away. “Jason’s just being… well, Jason.”

“I take it he doesn’t approve of me.”

“Yeah, you’ve really got him clutching his bible. He thinks you’re gonna drain my blood and sacrifice me to the devil.”

“Really?” Eddie said, his eyes widening in false astonishment. “Well, he just spoiled our next date.”

“Oh, really?” you replied, giggling. “Well, I guess that explains why I’m still a virgin.”

Eddie winced, looked down at his shoes, and grinned bashfully. “Okay, I walked right into that one.”

“Yeah, you did,” you said; and God, it drove you crazy seeing him get so flustered.

Kinda like last night, you thought, startling yourself, and immediately shooed that dangerous thought away. Now was not the time for that, young lady. You still had a full day of school to get through. Somehow.

“You’re late,” you said.

“Yeah, I uh…” Eddie brought his hand to his face and started rubbing it. “I got pulled over for speeding.”

You gasped. “No, you didn’t.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Prove it.”

Eddie pulled a folded-up piece of paper out of his back pocket and handed it to you. You opened it and immediately busted out laughing.

“Oh, wow… going fifty-five in a forty-five.”

“Eh, they went easy on me… I was going at least sixty.”

“Wow…”

“Yeah…” Eddie said, tilting his head. “The one time I’m in a rush to get to school.”

His brown eyes sought yours and settled there for a moment, his lips curling into a tender, captivated smile. You smiled back helplessly, feeling girly, feeling giddy, feeling like you were probably grinning like an idiot right now. Embarrassed, you pressed the paper to your mouth in a vain attempt to hide it. When that didn’t work, you thrust the ticket back into Eddie’s hand and turned away, pretending to pull books from your locker.

You felt along the spines like someone fumbling around in the dark. What class were you going to again? History? English? French?

No, you weren’t even taking French.

You spoke to Eddie in a frazzled voice: “Well, since you’re not in handcuffs right now, I’m assuming they didn’t find anything when they searched your van, huh?”

“Luckily, no…”

“Good thing you cleaned out your van yesterday.”

“Mhm…” Eddie said, his voice seeming much closer than before.

Your roaming fingers slowed, then stopped, sliding all the way down the stack of books. With one more step, his presence had consumed you, making you blind and deaf to everything else, everything except Eddie. You could feel him standing next to you, leaning into you, his left hand outstretched and resting against the locker beside you. His voice sent a pleasant shiver down your spine.

“Find what you’re looking for yet?”

You gazed into his eyes and got lost in them. “… I can’t remember what class I’m going to.”

You laughed at yourself sheepishly, senselessly, and saw Eddie crack a small smile: half amused and half… something else, something that brought you back to last night—that quiet, rainy night. Sitting in the dark and listening to music. Eddie humming softly beside you, drumming his right hand on the steering wheel, watching the tiny droplets race down his windshield. You sitting in your seat nervously. Fidgeting restlessly. Running your fingers over the plastic cassette case on your lap. Pretending to take interest in it while secretly watching Eddie out of the corner of your eye. Waiting for him to kiss you. Hoping he’d kiss you. Catching him staring at you with that smile… the same smile he was giving you now… right before he leaned in and…

“Ahem.”

Another student appeared behind you, tapping her foot impatiently. “Uhh, can I get to my locker, please?”

Eddie drew away from you, embarrassed and a little frustrated, and took two giant steps back.

The girl assumed his place without a word, opened her locker, hung up her backpack, her jacket, grabbed her textbook and notebook, snatched a few pens from her bag, and closed her locker again. Before leaving, she motioned between you and Eddie and said, “So is this like a thing now?”

You caught Eddie’s eye for a second. “Uhh, yes,” you said while he fought back a huge smile.

The girl shook her head as if dizzy. “Weird,” she said, and left.

Afterward, you turned to Eddie with a puzzled frown. “Wait, is it weird that I’m dating you or that you’re dating me? I need to know where I rank in this relationship.”

“Maybe you should ask her.”

“Maybe I will…”

Giggling, you stepped past him, spotted your locker neighbor at the end of the hallway, cupped your hands over your mouth, and shouted, “Hey, Carmen!” but you never got a chance to finish. Eddie had grabbed your hand and dragged you back to him, pulling you into his arms, putting you right where he wanted you, intending to pick up exactly where he left off.

The second bell rang before you could even feel his breath on your lips. Eddie closed his eyes tightly, as if pained.

“I really hate that I have to be in school right now.”

“Me too,” you said, staring up at him, your heart still pounding in your chest. “We should probably get to class.”

Eddie wrapped his arms around your waist and held you tighter against him. “Or we could just, y’know, skip first period altogether… since you don’t know where you’re supposed to be anyway.”

He swooped down and placed a few chaste kisses along the side of your head. Blushing, you buried your face into his chest.

“Are you trying to get me to cut class, sir?”

“No, just giving you options.”

“Mhm,” you said, giggling.

While you contemplated his offer, you traced your hand over the button pocket of his denim vest, feeling the fabric, flicking each of his treasured pins one by one: Judas Priest, Accept, Mercyful Fate. You found the W.A.S.P. pin last and focused on it, teasing it with your finger.

“And then what?” you asked, lifting your head to look at him. “We go back to your van and finish what you started last night?”

Eddie’s eyes brightened in surprise. “Finish what you started, if I remember correctly.”

“Was I the one who started it?” You frowned, pretending not to remember.

Meanwhile, your hand had drifted up to the collar of his leather jacket. You nudged it out of the way and started tugging along the neckline of his shirt, revealing a faint pink bruise on the base of his collarbone. Eddie winced as your finger brushed over it. You smiled softly, remembering how his breath hitched when your lips made the first budding mark, how he cursed and moaned while you planted all the others, his hands slipping underneath your shirt and sliding across your skin.

“I may have gotten a little carried away…”

“Yeah, you definitely did,” Eddie said, smiling at you.

“I just really like W.A.S.P.”

“Do you?”

“Mhm…”

Eddie’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he laughed. “Well, I still have the tape in my van. We can go listen to it right now if you want.”

You bit your lip hard, unable to answer right away. God dammit, what had you gotten yourself into? You weren’t seriously considering his proposition before, but now…

“Go to class, please.”

Now Ms. Kelley had come out of her office and was sweeping away the last few stragglers, you and Eddie included.

“I know we’re all a little sluggish this morning, but let’s start this week off strong, okay? There’s still another month before graduation. Don’t lose your focus now.” She looked at you and Eddie tiredly. “You two. Class. Now.”

You sighed as you saw your window of opportunity close. Eddie peeled himself away from you and started down the hallway.

“See ya later,” he said over his shoulder.

“Bye,” you said back, hiding your disappointment behind a smile.

Upon returning to your locker, you grabbed your textbook—the right textbook—and wedged it in the crook of your left elbow. While hunting around for the matching notebook and folder, you heard Eddie’s voice behind you again, catching you completely by surprise.

“Oh, wait,” he said hurriedly, “I forgot to tell you something.”

“Hmm?”

You turned around and felt Eddie’s hands cup the sides of your face, drawing you in for a soft, sweet kiss. You closed your eyes, savoring it. A moment later, he broke the kiss and pulled away.

“See you in third period,” he said, departing with a smile.

It took you a second to recover from that. When you finally did, you clutched your textbook to your chest and smiled uncontrollably, tears brimming in your eyes, your heart racing, stomach fluttering, face glowing with pure, radiant joy.

Under your breath, you whispered, “I hate so much that I have to be in school right now.”

Gareth, on the other hand, was glad to be in school today. Admittedly, his morning had gotten off to a rough start, but things were finally starting to look up for him, and now he felt like he was on the verge of a major breakthrough.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

But he didn’t wanna jinx it.

In first period, Gareth snuck into the library and talked to Matilda Gunn: salutatorian, captain of the debate team, and the third name on Gareth’s list (his new list, of course; the original list was long gone, probably lying in a trashcan somewhere).

Matilda, anyway, was sitting at the back table and studying for her upcoming physics test. Matilda preferred studying in the library over her study hall class because she couldn’t stand the sound of her neighbor chewing and slurping his nails. She wasn’t too happy when Gareth pulled out the chair across from her and sat down. She was even less happy when he brought up Eddie Munson.

“First of all, I’m offended that you would even think I would associate with that moron. I hate the guy. He ruined my GPA. Stupid group projects… God, I hate them!” Enraged, Matilda tore a random leaf out of her notebook and ripped the poor thing to shreds. Gareth watched her do it, horrified, and hoped there was nothing important written on that page. “You know, if I’d known he was gonna slack off like he did, I would’ve just done the whole thing myself. But no… I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I gave him the easiest task and he couldn’t even do that. He said he forgot about it. Said he was busy working on a campaign or something.”

“Yeah, he gets like that sometimes,” Gareth said. “Like last month, he spent the whole weekend learning ‘Master of Puppets.’ Have you heard that song?”

Matilda shook her head, her eyes glazed with boredom.

“Well, doesn’t matter. It’s a very hard song to play. That’s all you need to know. And Eddie became obsessed with it. He locked himself in his room all weekend and practiced over and over and—”

Matilda pressed her hand to her temple and hissed, “Listen, junior freak, I don’t give a shit about Eddie Munson and his fucking guitar. Okay? Second of all, I didn’t even go to prom on Saturday. I was studying all weekend, studying for this test, and if I don’t get an A, I’m gonna hold you personally responsible. Now get lost.”

Gareth lurched back in his seat and felt his mouth go dry.

(Once again, why were high school girls so needlessly cruel?)

“Okay,” he said in a small voice. “I’m, uhh, sorry for bothering you.”

He got up to leave.

“Wait,” Matilda said with a sigh; then after a moment of careful, painful deliberation, she put out her hand. “Gimme your stupid list.”

Gareth held the list against his chest, protecting it. “You’re not gonna rip it up, are you?” he asked, observing the tattered remains of her last victim. “Because I’m getting kinda tired of writing all these names out.”

And some of those girls had really long names.

“I’m not gonna rip it up.” Matilda’s voice was strained with frustration and fatigue, but there was still some warmth hiding in there, dimly glowing beneath the cold black coals of her heart. “I’m gonna help you narrow it down, okay? Otherwise, you’ll never figure it out.” She motioned impatiently with her hand. “Come on, hurry up.”

Gareth handed her the list and she looked it over for a minute, vaguely amused.

“Not a very long list,” she said while uncapping her highlighter with her teeth.

“Well, Eddie’s very picky.”

As he should be, Gareth thought. That man deserved the best.

(much better than you)

Matilda snorted under her breath. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.” She rolled her eyes, bent her head, and began marking up the list with her highlighter. Her hand was calm and controlled, each movement deliberate, precise, as to be expected of an advanced test taker. “Okay, she has a boyfriend… she, I’m pretty sure, has a girlfriend… boyfriend… boyfriend… boyfriend… she’s been out of town for a funeral… and she… doesn’t even live in this state anymore.”

She crossed off the last name and slid the paper across the table.

Gareth gaped at it, speechless. “You just eliminated everyone.”

Matilda shrugged. “Like I said, not a long list.”

It was a major setback, the kind of setback that made you want to tear the whole thing to pieces, cut your losses, and give up. Gareth seriously considered it. He almost did it while sitting in his second-period class.

But then an angel appeared. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed angel named Olivia Kent.

She peered over his shoulder during class. “Whatcha doin’?” she asked, sitting with her chin on her palm.

Gareth considered lying, saying he was working on his assignment or something, but in his current state, he didn’t have the heart to deceive anyone, especially not Olivia, who was so innocent and kind.

“I’m trying to figure out who my friend went home with after prom.”

“Oh? Who’s your friend?”

“Eddie Munson.”

“Oh...” Olivia giggled a silly, unaffected giggle. “Yeah, he had quite the night.”

Gareth turned around in his seat. “You were at prom, Livvy?”

“Mhm! It was a lotta fun.”

“And you saw Eddie there?”

“Sure. I saw him lots of times.”

“Did you see him leave with anybody?”

“Sure did�� I saw everything.”

“You saw everything?” Gareth sat back, awestruck, and felt tears come to his eyes. This was it. This was finally it. This was the breakthrough that Gareth had been waiting for. An eye witness—a star witness—had emerged at last, willing and eager to cooperate. “Oh, Livvy, you beautiful, beautiful, heavenly creature, tell me everything.”

“About what?”

“About prom, Livvy.”

“Oh, you wanna hear about prom?” Olivia shrugged, smiled, and said, “Okay! Philip Cuthbert asked me. I didn’t think he was going to, but then he totally surprised me! I wore a frilly pink dress and matching pink heels. Phillip wore a dark blue tux and a black bowtie. I think it was black, but it might’ve been blue, too. Then Philip got me one of those really pretty flower bracelets… What are those called again? Oh, right, corsages! Anyway, we took pictures on the front lawn of my house, then we took pictures at his house, and then we took more pictures in front of City Hall. I don’t normally like taking so many pictures, but I didn’t mind so much in this case. It was a special occasion. Phillip said I looked very pretty. He was really nice to me all night. He held my hand. He bought me dinner. He got me some cake. I actually ate two slices of cake that night, but don’t tell anybody, okay? I was only supposed to have one. And then we danced and drank punch and we danced again—”

Gareth put his hand on top of hers, making Olivia blush and look at him in doe-eyed wonderment. “Livvy, I’m glad you had such a fun time at prom, but since class is gonna be ending soon, do you think you could speed things up and get to the part where you saw Eddie? Is that okay?”

“Sure,” Olivia said, smiling. “I saw him talking to Chrissy.”

“Yeah, he went there to ask her to dance. I told him it was a terrible idea, but he refused to listen to me.”

“Yeah, that was a bad idea. Why would he do that?”

“Because Eddie’s a hopeless romantic.”

“Really?" Olivia frowned, considering it. “He doesn’t seem like one.”

“He hides it behind a mask of cynicism, and he hides it very well.”

“Oh,” Livvy said, mystified by the concept. “Well, I guess that explains why he got up on stage then.”

“Wait, Eddie got up on stage?”

Damn, Gareth thought, that’s actually really impressive.

“Mhm! He gave this long speech and everything. My friends said it was really weird and embarrassing, but honestly, I thought it was kinda sweet. Super embarrassing, but sweet. It was kind of like a… hmm… well, I guess you could call it a love confession. I don’t remember what he said exactly, but it was really adorable, and normally I wouldn’t use that word to describe Eddie—you know, ‘cause he’s so mean and scary-looking—but at that moment, he really was adorable. Kinda like a puppy. And then he played Journey and—”

Gareth’s head rocked back. “He played Journey? Eddie played Journey? Eddie doesn’t like Journey. Nobody likes Journey. Nobody except…”

(you)

Gareth’s eyes widened. His stomach plummeted to the floor. Then he shook his head and the thought was gone.

“Okay, maybe it’s just a coincidence,” he said. “Maybe the DJ suggested Journey. Do you remember what song it was, Livvy?”

“No, I don’t. Sorry, I’m not very good with song titles.”

“Was it ‘Separate Ways’? ‘Any Way You Want It’? ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’? ‘Faithfully’? ‘Open Arms’?”

“You know, for someone who doesn’t like Journey, you sure know a lot of Journey songs.”

And for someone who seemed like such an airhead, Olivia Kent was shockingly observant. Gareth was rather impressed. He couldn’t help but tip his head to her. Touché, fair lady.

“I think it was the last one,” Olivia said.

“‘Open Arms’?”

“I think so.”

“So Eddie played a sappy love song,” Gareth concluded while rubbing his chin. “Makes sense.”

“Mhm… and it must’ve worked ‘cause she left with him right after.”

“You saw the girl who left with him?”

“Yep.”

“You saw her face?”

“Of course I did. She walked right past me.”

“And did you recognize her?”

“Uh-huh!”

“YES!” Gareth pumped his fists excitedly. He almost leaped out of his chair and kissed her, he was so happy. “Who was it, Livvy? Tell me who it was!”

Olivia sighed. “I don’t remember.”

“What?” Gareth’s heart shattered. “But you just said you recognized her.”

“I did recognize her face, but I don’t remember her name… Sorry, Gareth, I’m not very good with names.”

“You’re not good with names,” Gareth repeated softly, beside himself. “She’s not good with names. She’s not good with names. My star witness isn’t good with names.”

He laughed madly to himself, feeling dizzy and delirious, feeling like the whole room was spinning like a turntable. A turntable playing Journey. Journey! Of all the bands in the world, Eddie, why Journey? Why? Why?

Meanwhile, Olivia rested her cheek against her palm and smiled at him. “You have really pretty eyes. Do you want my number?”

Gareth paused, considering it. His face turned bright red.

“Yes, Livvy. Yes, I’d love to get your number.”

“Cool!” She scribbled it on a piece of notebook paper and handed it to him. “Call me sometime, okay?”

So now Gareth was strolling away from his third-period class with a laminated hall pass in hand, Olivia Kent’s phone number in his pocket, a massive pit in his stomach, and Steve Perry’s annoying voice in his head.

Journey.

Eddie had requested Journey.

It wasn’t a coincidence, was it?

Gareth walked past Mr. Prichard’s math class, stopped, and backpedaled a few paces. He pressed his face against the glass and peered inside.

Eddie was sitting at his desk with his assignment out and textbook open in front of him. He had his pencil in his hand, but he had yet to write a single answer. He was just tapping it against his notebook while he stared absently at the chalkboard, stared with a faraway look in his eyes. Gareth knew that look. It meant Eddie was lost in thought, usually about D&D or whatever new song he was learning, but today Gareth had a sneaking suspicion that Eddie was thinking about something else—or rather someone else.

But not you. Please, God, not you.

You were sitting behind him and quietly working on your assignment, just working on your assignment, and that caught Gareth a little off guard. If you had gone home with Eddie (as Gareth begrudgingly suspected now), shouldn’t you have been acting a little… happy? excited? Shouldn’t you have been staring at the back of his head with a dumb, lovesick expression? Daydreaming and doodling about him in your notebook? Naming your future children and planning your destination wedding?

Gareth expected to feel something when he peeked into that classroom. A change in energy. A shift in the natural balance of the universe. Call it whatever you want, but there should have been a noticeable difference in the air, right? Right?

But there wasn’t.

Everything was totally normal.

You and Eddie were acting totally normal.

And that filled Gareth with an exhilarating sense of relief.

It wasn’t you. Thank God, it wasn’t you.

Gareth backed away with a smile. If he had stayed a minute longer, he would have seen the exact change in energy he had been waiting for. If he had stayed a minute longer, he would have seen Eddie turn around and start talking to you. He would have seen you smile and blush and tell him to go back to his assignment (even though you didn’t really want him to go back to his assignment). Then he would have seen Eddie turn back to the front, try to do his work, give up, and turn around again five minutes later.

But Gareth didn’t stay. Instead, he continued down the hallway in blissful ignorance, pulled out his list, ripped it up, and tossed the pieces into the trash.

If it wasn’t any of them and it wasn’t you, there was only one logical conclusion.

“She doesn’t go to school here, does she?”

Gareth forced this treasonous charge onto Eddie as soon as he arrived at the cafeteria. He had found his target sitting at his usual place at the head of the table. The seat of high honor. Eddie’s chair. The king’s chair. Gareth, a once-honorable and faithful soldier, slammed down his tray, leaned forward, pressed his palms into the table, and looked Eddie Munson square in the eye. Unblinking. Unflinching. Unyielding against his Dungeon Master’s powerful, intimidating aura.

A moment of tense silence passed. Jeff and Grant looked at each other and immediately stopped eating. Jeff put down his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Grant screwed on the lid of his soup thermos and set the container aside. There was no telling how long this would take. Gareth had a talent for prolonging his inevitable demise. It was like watching a slow hanging.

Oh, but what a show it would be.

“Who is she, Eddie?” Gareth thrust out his finger accusingly. “Huh? Is she a teacher? A townie? Some drunk chick you picked up at the bar while drowning your pathetic sorrows away?”

“Yikes,” Jeff said, cringing.

And Grant said, “That is quite the allegation.”

Indeed it was, and Eddie didn’t seem to appreciate the open assault on his character. His brown eyes sharpened into a steely glare. They reflected Gareth’s destruction like a black crystal ball. Doom. Doom. Doom.

“Get your finger outta my face,” Eddie said, and that was all he needed to say.

“I’m so sorry,” Gareth said, and fell back into his chair with a thump. His heart thudded in his chest while the color slowly returned to his face. That was as close to death as Gareth had ever come. It was a miracle he’d survived. He bent his head and capitulated: “I sincerely apologize for my previous statement. It was malicious and rude, completely unbecoming of my position.”

Grant squinted his eyes curiously. “And what is your position, exactly?”

“I’m Eddie’s best friend, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Jeff echoed, snickering.

Grant, wryly amused, said, “Uhh, I’m pretty sure Scottie’s his best friend.”

Eddie, having dropped his tyrannous facade, was pretending to listen while absentmindedly picking through his snack bag, his thoughts elsewhere, eyes elsewhere. But where, Gareth couldn’t say. He had strained his neck to see who Eddie was looking at, but it was impossible to tell with so many people in the cafeteria. He could have been looking at anyone, anyone, anyone except you.

“He’s right,” Eddie murmured. “Scottie’s my best friend.”

Gareth shrugged, unconcerned with such trivial technicalities. “Well, then I’m your second best friend, Eddie, and since Scottie’s in prison right now, I have to step in and assume the role in his stead.”

“Ah, the interim best friend. So that’s the imaginary position you gave yourself.”

“Oh, shut up and eat your soup, Grant.”

“I will eat my soup,” Grant said, “and I’ll enjoy it while you continue to embarrass yourself.”

“You’re embarrassing yourself,” Gareth grumbled nonsensically. He stabbed a piece of broccoli with his fork, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. It tasted like dirt. “I’m having a really horrible day.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” Eddie said, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “Mine’s actually going pretty well.”

Another cryptic response. Gareth simply couldn’t take it anymore.

“You know,” Jeff began, “speaking of Scottie—”

Gareth flung down his fork angrily, sending a spear of broccoli whizzing past Grant’s left shoulder.

“Oh, come on, just tell me who it is already! Enough with the hints and the coded language. I swear to God, you’re driving me crazy, Eddie! You’ve been torturing me for days with this mystery. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I can’t think about anything else. As your friend, I’m begging you to stop. Please, for my sanity, stop.”

Eddie popped a pretzel into his mouth and chewed. “I’ve been torturing you?”

Grant said, “He’s been torturing himself, honestly.”

Jeff nodded, seeming on the verge of laughter. “Yeah, he made a list and everything.”

Eddie grimaced. “Wait, there’s a list? Why is there a list?”

“Because you’ve driven me to madness, Eddie!” Gareth blurted out in blind white rage. “I hope you’re happy because you’ve driven me to complete madness! Who were you with on Saturday? Don’t even try to deny it because I heard a girl talking in the background. It wasn’t the TV. It was a girl. A living, breathing girl. I know you were with her that night, and I know you were with her yesterday.”

“I wasn’t with her yesterday,” Eddie replied, his eyelids heavy with annoyance. “I already told you, I was out running errands.”

“Oh, you’re sticking with that story, huh? Okay, Eddie, let’s assume you were out running errands. Let’s assume you spent your whole Sunday exactly as you said. You got up bright and early, stopped by the drugstore for God knows what, and then spent the rest of the day by yourself at home, cleaning out your van.”

“I did clean out my van yesterday. That’s how I found my lost W.A.S.P. tape.”

“Oh, which album?” Grant asked.

“The Last Command,” Eddie answered, a soft smile touching his face.

Wait, was that another clue?

“Nice,” Grant said. “That’s a solid album.”

Eddie nodded, agreeing, but now there was a distant glimmer in his eyes that wasn’t there before. Gareth couldn’t take his eyes off it. It was as if his friend was lost in a cherished memory.

What significance did this W.A.S.P. tape hold?

Was there any significance?

These questions twisted Gareth’s mind into a pretzel.

And speaking of pretzels, Eddie had set down his snack bag and stopped eating. Weird. He now sat with his arms folded over his chest, fingers drumming impatiently against his right bicep. His wandering eyes kept going back to the clock. Counting down the minutes. What had him so restless all of a sudden? What was he waiting for? His next class? English? Was that significant? Eddie hated English. He dreaded English. He complained about it every day because it meant he had to see—

Eddie pushed off the table and stood up. Gareth climbed up from his chair, too.

“Where are you going, Eddie?”

“Dude,” Jeff said, looking up at him. “You need to calm down.”

“Otherwise,” Grant went on, “you might get demoted to third best friend.”

The two of them dissolved into laughter. Gareth didn’t even hear them.

“It’s happening,” he muttered. “Something’s happening.”

“Yeah, you annoyed Eddie so much that he had to leave to get away from you.”

But that wasn’t it. Eddie wasn’t fleeing for the exit like a coward. No, he was marching straight through the middle of the cafeteria like a lone soldier charging through the battlefield. Charging to victory or to death. He was infiltrating the enemy’s stronghold, impervious to their hostile glares and raised eyebrows. Even Jason Carver himself, who had begun to get out of his chair, could not stop him today. Eddie was a man determined, a man determined to get to

(of course)

you.

He wedged himself between two basketball players, pushed his palms into the table, and greeted you with a charming smile. You gazed up at him in sweet surprise.

“Hi,” you said.

“Hi,” he said back. “You wanna skip next period?”

Chrissy’s jaw dropped. “Oh my god,” she said while you blushed, buried your face in your hands, and giggled.

Gareth, dumbstruck, slumped back into his chair with the bitter taste of defeat in his mouth.

That bitch, he thought. That Journey-loving bitch, she actually did it.

Grant regarded him with an impressed frown. “You know, you’re handling this a lot better than I thought you would. When did you figure it out?”

Gareth sighed. “Second period.”

Eddie just had to play Journey.

There was a moment of solemn silence after that. Then Grant unscrewed his soup thermos and lunch resumed as usual. Jeff took a bite of his sandwich. Gareth, now resigned to his grim fate, stuck his fork into his meatloaf and cut himself a modest slice. The meat looked dry and grey. What a horrible new world he lived in.

But, he supposed, there was something to look forward to.

“I got Olivia Kent’s number today. I think I’m gonna ask her out this weekend.”

SERIES MASTERPOST

FANFICTION MASTERLIST

unfortunately, i no longer do taglists. if you want to stay updated on my fics, you can follow me and/or subscribe to my posts. thank you!

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson x fem!reader #stranger things #stranger things 4 #hellfire club #gareth stranger things #jeff stranger things #jason carver #chrissy cunningham #chrissy x jason #eddie munson x dwm!reader #dancing with myself #dwm #dwm short #ambrossart

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fruitmins · 9 months

Text

For You | yoongi

➭ summary: Yoongi is the son of a big business man and is now the CEO of the million dollar company so naturally he grew up distant and stern. But suddenly, his attitude changes when he meets you, a local kind hearted stripper that catches his curiosity. He finds himself lost in your smile and warm spirit, despite him being the opposite. But he’s willing to let down his walls for you..

➭genre: oneshot, strangers to lovers, stripper reader, slowburn-ish, fluff

➭warnings: mentions of alcohol, mentions of violence & blood, tsundere-ish tbh, didnt check the spelling, yoongi is stalker-ish but that’s ok, daddy issues

➭note: don’t ask me why this takes place in winter💀 senior year of high school + writers block + I’m lazy. i like half of this and i hate half of this. omg yoongi going to the military I’m gonna cry & throw a fit

Yoongi put his cold hands in his pockets, small snowflakes falling from the sky as he stepped out of the dirty and vulgar parking lot. He ignored all of the horny thugs who were making out with hookers outside as he headed to the dimly lit building.

SEASAW

The word was lit on top of the building and for some unknown reason, Yoongi had been drawn to it for weeks. He knew there were better clubs than this one, and he’d most likely be seen and on some headline by the time he stepped in the door but tonight, he didn’t care.

His mind went back to the fight he had with his dad on the phone as he stepped through the door, some terribly made whiskey in mind.

A breeze washed over him as the door closed with a loud thud, it was at least a little warmer than the cold air outside. Yoongi glanced around taking in the symphony of multicolored lights illuminated the air, casting a vibrant palette across the dance floor. The room throbbed with an infectious energy, resonating with the beat of the music that reverberated through every corner.

Soon, his eyes found the bar, a couple of nicely dressed men sat at the stools. Without another thought, Yoongi strutted to a seat, leaving an empty space to separate himself and another man.

“Whiskey.” He said in a deep raspy voice despite how the woman working was already in the middle of making another drink.

“Yoongi!” A older sounding man suddenly called out of him, making his head turn to the man on the stool next to him. He recognized the man as one of his dad’s friend.

Perfect. He scoffed to himself, hoping his drink would came faster.

“Now what are you doing in a bar like this?” The man asked with a scratchy laugh, hitting his shoulder.

Yoongi tried to let out a small chuckle that ends up sounding dry. “Same as you.” He spoke, turning back to the bar when he hears the bartender loudly slam his drink on the counter.

He goes to take a large swig as the old man continues to chat and laugh with him, his reeking odor hitting his face as he turns to look back at him.

Behind the old man, Yoongi notices the dance floor. Bodies moved in sync with the rhythm, twisting and gyrating, surrendering themselves to the intoxicating melodies. But one soul figure seemed to catch everyone’s attention on stage.

Slowly, he started to tune out the annoying old man the more closely he watched. But unlike the other men in the bar, he watched with curiosity rather than lust. Your movements were elegant and graceful, your tight crop top and glittery skirt making every sway of your body seen.

Your hands played in your hair and caressed your body as your body moved, painting a mysterious story about you with help of the music. Your eyes closed and a bright warm smile on your face as if no one else was there.

Despite dancing in a shabby club probably to make ends meet, you were dancing as if this was your long time dream.

“Her?” The old man’s itchy voice suddenly came back to him, pointing to you on the stage. “That’s Y/N. She’s kinda a favorite here.” He said and this made Yoongi even more intrigued.

“Has she worked here long?” Yoongi asked glancing back at the old man as he nodded. “Almost a full year.” He said and everyone clapped and whistled as you suddenly came down from the stage with a warm smile.

Yoongi just hummed before quickly finishing his drink before paying the bartender and leaving, deciding to dismiss the thought of talking to you.

But at weird hours of the day Yoongi would think about you, so every time he happened to pass the club he went in and watched you perform.

This happened for weeks. He never said a word to you, he never went further than the bar. Until one day when you had stepped off the stage, looking cheerful as usual, only to be met with two men meeting you half way.

Yoongi watched, his blood starting to boil as the man surrounded you, complimenting you and touching your hair. It didn’t take them long before they got more physical, grabbing your arm to stop you from walking away as they started to trail closer to you so that their body touched yours.

Yoongi can see the panic and fear settle in your face before his vision was blocked by the taller men.

Without thinking, Yoongi practically sprung up from the stool, furious as he made his way over to where the men had circled you.

“Move.” He said, his voice deep and hoarse as the two men slowly turned around to face Yoongi.

“Mind your business, hot shot.” One man spoke, obviously trying to spook Yoongi which only wanted to make him laugh.

“I’m not going to waste my breath telling you again.” Yoongi said simply, remaining calm as he watched the two turn irritated.

��You wanna get jumped punk?” The man said, raising his voice as he stepped closer to Yoongi.

Instantly and without warning, Yoongi’s right arm swung in the air. His already clenched knuckles that were in his coat pocket suddenly flew out and connected to the guys face, all of his pent up angry unleashing.

Before anyone can react, he punched him a second time, this one making him stumble to the ground with a yell of pain.

The other man quickly backed away with his hands in the air, “I don’t even know that guy.” The man claimed before quickly rushing off.

Yoongi looked up from the ground where the other man was laid, his nose now bleeding heavily as Yoongi stepped over the body, ignoring his groans when he did so.

“You alright?” Yoongi spoke, his expression softening as he meets your eyes. His eyes glazed around your face as he inspected you, trying not to get lost in your gorgeous and unique features as he looked for any sign that they had touched you.

“I’m fine.” You muttered back, out of breath from shock as you looked at the man on the group and then up at him with wide eyes.

“Thank you.” You say with a polite bow, taking a moment to collect yourself before a small smile appears on your face.

“What?” Yoongi asked, curious on why you were suddenly smiling and chuckling despite everything.

“Well, I was wondering when you were going to come talk to me.” You say with a teasing smile only making Yoongi more confused. As if reading his expression you chuckle. “You think I haven’t noticed you always coming in here and watching me?”

Yoongi bit the inside of his cheek, shrugging lightly as he looked away. “I don’t care if you noticed or not.” He spoke in a defensive tone, harsher than intended. He saw the smile on your face drop slightly in disappointment and he bit the inside of his cheek harder out of frustration. He didn’t want to be responsible for a frown on your face when you always wore a smile.

Wordlessly, Yoongi took out his wallet, taking out three hundred dollar bills and holding his hand out for her to take.

Your eyes widen in shock, chuckling nervously as you shake your head, denying it. “Why..?” You start to question, getting a little suspicious.

“For the inconvenience, and all the dances I’ve watched without tipping.” Yoongi states with a serious expression, trying to cover up any other intentions he might of had.

“You just have that much on you at all times? That’s risky.” You respond, still hesitant to take the money. Yoongi lets a smile crack at the irony, “I’ve been watching you for weeks and that’s what your worried about?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Do you want a favor in return or something?” You ask him, still skeptical as Yoongi rolls his eyes. “I guess we’ll never know if you don’t take the money.”

With a sigh, he watches as you slowly take the money out of his hands and put it in your pocket. “Thank you.” You mumble as he turns around and heads for the door. “Wait!” You call for him in confusion, putting a hand on his shoulder to stop him as he turns around slightly.

“What’s the favor?” You ask in confusion but Yoongi just looks at you before continuing to walk out without a word.

It doesn’t take Yoongi long to wonder back into the club days after that. Despite the weird exchange it only made him want to get to know you more. But something in him grew colder when he walked in the club only to see you not onstage. Usually around this time you had already started and had a small crowd of men watching you.

“Whiskey.” He ordered in a lower tone as he sat down, tapping impatiently on the counter as he waited. “This was stupid.” He mumbled to himself, ashamed of how he had gotten caught up with this stripper and was just about ready to leave it all behind.

“Min Yoongi! You’re back!” He heard your familiar voice right next to him, causing his head to turn to the side in confusion.

“What are you doing here?” He asked his finger slowly stopping as he looked at you, sat next him in the bar.

“Aren’t you going to ask how I know your name?” You reply instead, wiggling your eyebrows playfully. “I assumed you already knew.” Yoongi spoke calmly, lightly shrugging even.

“Cocky much?” You reply, jokingly rolling your eyes with a smile. “How did you find out, if not the internet?” Yoongi asked curiously, as the bartender slams his whiskey on the counter.

“Well when the son and CEO of a million dollar company starts to take notice to the best employee in the club, word gets around.” You reply with a slight grin and Yoongi can’t help but chuckle a little.

“Cocky much?” He echos your words as he sips on his whiskey and this only widens your grin further. Yoongi stares into your smile, feeling a weight being lifted off his shoulders when he realizes it’s been a while since he actually genuinely smiled for once.

When he finishes his drink he takes out his wallet and pays for the bad alcohol before taking out another three hundred and handing it to you, not waiting for you to take it this time.

“This has to be your way of flirting with me.” You mumble in disbelief as you stare at the bills before reluctantly shoving it in your skirt.

Yoongi scoffed, shaking his head in disagreement. “I don’t have time to flirt.” He mumbled firmly while looking at his empty glass.

“You have time to come here.” You differed causing him to bite the inside of his cheek, standing up and dusting himself off. “Wait that didn’t mean leave!” You state quickly getting up with him and Yoongi can’t help but glance at the sudden look of displeasure and sadness on your face as your hand brushes against his as you attempt to stop him.

“I..actually like having you here. You make me feel safe.” You mumble sheepishly as Yoongi stood there, completely frozen as he took in your words. How had he, of all people, made you feel safe? In a run down place like this?

“Then your standers are low.” He said in a low voice, a hint of playfulness in his tone as you look back up at him, snickering at his comment.

“You say that, but under that frown and sharp eyes is a warm hearted gentleman.” You speak causing him to look away from you, not wanting to take your words seriously. He didn’t want to show any signs of vulnerability, he’d never be ready for anything heavy.

“You don’t believe me?” You challenged him, seeing his silence and he heard the heard an underlying tone in your voice when you asked. “If I asked you to walk me to my car, you’d hundred percent do it.”

Yoongi scoffed and rolled his eyes at you, but quickly knew not to didn’t deny it. “See! You would.” You grinned at his sour expression, knowing you were right.

“Whatever, do you want to be walked to your car or not?” He asked trying to dismiss the fact all together. He had never seen himself in a situation like this, feeling embarrassed and maybe bubbly.

You laughed at the question but nodded, grabbing your nearby coat that was filled with stains as you attempted to squeeze your shoulders in the coat.

Yoongi rolled his eyes, walking in front of you as he leaded the two of you out of the door and to your car. Yoongi sighed as he looked at the state of it, effortlessly taking out his wallet and starting to count some bills.

“If you’re going to give me more money don’t bother.” You quickly said as the two of you made it to your car, stepping in front to him and holding onto his hand so he would stop rummaging through his wallet.

“I don’t need it, I’m fine!” You tried to convince him and he simply raised an eyebrow at you, before going back to counting, taking out a couple hundreds as he did so.

“Then consider it flirting.” He mumbled in a flat tone, taking out five hundreds and getting ready to hand it to you.

As he looked back up from his wallet he felt something soft touch the corner of his lips, eyes widening in shock when he realizes how close you were to him and before he could stop it, you had planted a gentle kiss on the corner of his lips.

Your lips lingered on his skin for a couple seconds before finally pulling away from him, taking a step back.

“Come back tomorrow, okay?” You say with a warm smile, practically glowing in front of him as you spoke to him in a soft low tone.

Silently, Yoongi watched you chuckle at his reaction before getting into your car and slowly driving off, his heart thumping as he watched your car drive off onto the road.

He slowly started to move again when your car was far away enough that it was out of view, as if snapping him out of a trance.

Yoongi could feel himself getting lighter, warmer. He could feel his muscles relax as he took his hands out of his coat pocket.

#bts fanfic #bts ot7 #bts x female reader #bts x reader #bts one shot #bts imagines #bts scenarios #bts fluff #bts reactions #bts x you #yoongi x you #yoongi x reader #suga x you #suga x y/n #yoongi oneshot #bts stranger to lovers #bts ceo au

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jamsandsuch · 9 months

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advice for first year uni students from a uni senior

the roommate(s) will always be more important than the room

+ for roommates, SET. CLEANING. EXPECTATIONS. EARLY. don't wait until you're uncomfortable with how much mess is in the kitchen for you to start thinking if you should bring it up or not. set standards and make them clear.

put your key on a lanyard and hang it from your doorknob when you’re at home so you don’t forget it on the way out

if your dorm has a shared laundry room, set your timer for when your laundry finishes ~5 mins early to give you time to walk from your room to the laundry - especially during weekends/evenings/finals people wont have the patience to wait for you - even if your load just finished

If you have noodle arms like me, buy yourself one of those collapsible grocery carts you drag behind you like a luggage - best purchase i've ever made

Or if you're lazy, order online - but order on a free day because even if you schedule a time they're always gonna come stupid early and you dont want any frozen items to get spoiled or have your groceries stolen

DONT BUY ANY TEXTBOOKS/MATERIALS UNTIL THE FIRST WEEK/CLASSES ARE OVER. sometimes you’ll have early access to the booklist or syllabus and go ahead and start buying textbooks, but increasingly often you’ll buy the materials and show up to class just to find your prof has uploaded scanned copies of everything. *save your money*, wait!

BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS - look at your class schedule and walk around campus to find each classroom. you will probably get lost on day 1 and so will many other students so this will save you a lot of walking around bumping into other lost first years

trust me after a few weeks you won’t be waking up for that 8am class. i know you did it 5 days a week in high school, but there’s a reason uni students are allergic to morning classes. know your natural energy/attention levels and take advantage of the freedom to build your schedule around your energy fluctuations

compress/stack your class schedule as much as possible. if you absolutely do need breaks, make them at least 1.5-2 hours long or you probably wont get anything productive done and minimize these long breaks as much as you can so you can just get your day over with sooner

work smarter, not harder - when school starts note each course’s assessment type by quizzes/finals/essays. if i ever have a course thats just essays, i only do lecture notes + write my own annotations about readings rather than taking notes on them which saves time i can dedicate to textbook notetaking for courses with frequent quizzes + finals

if your school has benefits/discounts/insurance - know what it is and USE IT.

most clubs wont be like high school where there are regular meetings you attend. unless youre in the exec team the membership fee you pay/when you sign up for membership it’s just for access to their events when they happen. if you want to be involved in a club in a way thats as involved as high school, look at their social media pages for hiring.

+ as someone who has had to hire before - if you’re nervous, literally just do it. i was in an exec position for our student union services and once only had like 3 applicants to pick from

if you want to be noticed by a professor, sit in the front row. and always answer/ask questions - it doesn’t matter if you said anything of substance or not, they will remember that you contributed

that and also always make the point to say hello and goodbye! eventually (in my experience) if you come early enough and are just waiting for class to start, a conversation will happen - make these regular enough and you could have an important connection!

disclaimer: of course, not all of this might be something that resonates with you/possible for your course or school, so in the words of my cousin - take what resonates

+ anyone else is free to add on!!

#studyblr #studyspo #college life #academia #university student #aesthetic #college student #university #college #study #mine

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asimpforyagami · 2 months

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light yagami as a yandere (headcanons)

↷ A/N ─ my first time writing headcanons! i might write a story based on this because yandere light is so daddy ugh like he defines yandere

★ COUNT ─ 1k words, 50+ hcs

!! TAGS ─ gn!reader, yandere!light, stalking, manipulation (it's light so of course that's there), blackmail, death threats

★ TOPIC ─ light yagami as your yandere senior at to-oh university

✩ ok so light yagami is literally the worst character you could have as a yandere

✩ omg so i 100% can imagine light getting interested in a junior in his uni

✩ at first, he just doesn't care about you because he mostly keeps his feelings to himself

✩ but slowly he either felt threatened by your intelligence or felt that you were "too pure" for the cruel world

✩ he's stalked you around a few times, sure, following you to events, parties or get-togethers you may be at

✩ he keeps a safe distance at all times in case you become suspicious of him popping up everywhere you're at

✩ he gets your friends to talk to him about you

✩ but he first makes sure they won't rat him out to you

✩ he slowly gathers info about you, from your daily routine to your favourite chocolate - he has to know it all

✩ he strategically places himself in clubs and events you're a part of, inserting himself into your world without you knowing

✩ he even starts sending anonymous letters and gifts

✩ but of course, this is light we're talking about, so there's no way he's stopping at that

✩ he eventually talks to you and befriends you

✩ he tries to get your thoughts about kira too in your convos

✩ he keeps an eye on you both when you're in and out of the uni, constantly trying to find ways to talk to you in the form of study dates or something else where the two of you are alone

✩ he tries to find a secret about you, something he can use to blackmail you into staying with him without giving away his identity

✩ if he finds something like that, something you don't wanna reveal to others, he'll blackmail you with that in those anonymous letters, alright

✩ but if he doesn't, he'll reveal to you in those letters that he's kira and force you to stay with him so he doesn't write you and/or your family's name(s) down

✩ when he sees you so worried about something, he'll approach you asking what's wrong, acting like he's not the one writing the letters because the bastard's such a big fat liar

✩ you eventually tell him that yea there's this dude who's obsessed with me, expecting him to help you

✩ but he's just gonna play his concerned friend role really well, being all like "oh yea? i'm so sorry about that"

✩ while internally overjoyed at the fact that he has so much power over you

✩ he comforts you whenever you're upset, manipulating you into thinking he's trustworthy

✩ light will constantly put you in situations where you'll be alone both physically and emotionally, and he'll be your knight in shining armour, and help and comfort you

✩ he even pretends to look for the anonymous letter sender who claims to be kira with light being a part of the task force and all

✩ speaking of which he will absolutely flaunt his status in the task force - not as a suspect of course lmao

✩ probably trying to get you into thinking he's oh-so-trustworthy

when in reality literally everyone in the task force is suspicious of him at one point or another

✩ talking to him is like talking to tom riddle's diary from harry potter - the more you reveal your secrets, the worse the manipulation is gonna become

✩ so now there are two light yagamis in your world - one, the caring sweet friend, and two, the unknown sender of the ominous letters you're receiving

✩ but when you tell him you're gonna inform the police about this anonymous guy, he reveals to you that he's kira and continues the blackmail

✩ any attempt at retaliation and one of your family members dies, of course

✩ in the rare case that you hate your family (relatable) he's gonna find someone you care about and kill them off instead. and believe me, he's light yagami - he will find someone

✩ he won't hesitate to kill off any other guy who even dares to look at you. he wants no competition

✩ even though he's not insecure, he feels satisfied at the way you don't have anyone in your life except for him. it feeds his ego

✩ and he won't stop until he's the only one you're depending on.

✩ he won't kidnap you - he's way too good for that

✩ no, he'll lock you out emotionally

✩ he'll make sure you have to beg him before even talking to someone who's not him

✩ he'll torture you every single day. he'll make every single minute of your life a living hell

✩ but he won't harm a hair on your head

✩ his threats are never physical

✩ unless you count the death threat from the death note

✩ he will berate you if anyone notices the changes in your behaviour, forcing you to act normal as if nothing's happening

✩ when in reality you're trying not to fall apart every time he takes you out on another "date"

✩ that is, if you dislike him.

✩ needless to say you're gonna have to get used to his presence either way because he's gonna be around a lot

✩ and if he can't keep a watch on you himself he'll send ryuk

✩ and obviously, it's light yagami, so he already has pre-installed cameras everywhere around you - your bedroom, your bathroom, heck even some of your clothes

✩ expect to be either shown off like a trophy or hidden away - there is no in-between.

✩ shown off because he's proud he's gotten his hands on you.

✩ hidden away in case someone kidnaps you to threaten him, in which case he's gonna have to kill you, sorry not sorry

✩ but who knows? if you like him it's a blessing, isn't it? a win-win situation for both of you.

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genjv4rse · 1 year

Text

𖥻 ( 尤も ) HYPE BOY ! — @/NMR ⋆ ࣪

syn ; in which your crush declares his love for you !

you enter your class with a bright smile plastered on your face. It was truly a wonder why suddenly you were so enthusiastic about coming to school. well it all started in last year when a cute and cool transfer student from japan became your classmate. he's been popular ever since he stepped foot in this school. both senior and junior girls will fawn over him, boys will die to befriend him or either be like him. his popularity rose up more after he joined the dance and basketball club and drastically secured his position as the ace. nishimura riki he was. soon you also found yourself extremely interested in him.

today was a basketball match and you were gonna cheer for ni-ki to the fullest. not to mention the fact that you've literally spent the whole night praying for his victory. the ringing of the bell snaps you out of your daydream as your eyes fall on the entrance of your classroom and there he is, nishimura riki in all his glory entering the classroom with his signature swag as the girls and boys flee towards him but amidst of all his eyes meet with yours as you quickly avert your gaze down from the embarrassment that you just got caught gawking at him. but you fail to notice the adorning smirk lingering on his plump lips as a light pink hue decorates his bread cheeks.

time flies faster than ever with you constantly stealing glances at ni-ki and getting caught oh so embarrassingly. but you can't stop i mean how are you supposed to? when he looks so dreamy? everyone quickly rushes towards to the school's basketball court as the game's about to start in a while. you rushed to take a seat at the front row where the view is nice with your bestie tailing behind you. the game starts and your nervousness takes over you as if you were the one playing on field. but your anxiety quickly subsides as you take a notice of the dirty blonde mullet's charming smile. the rest of the game was you cheering at the top of your lungs for ni-ki. ni-ki successfully does the last dunk as the victory of ni-ki's team is announced through the microphones. everyone breaks out in a chaos of celebration and some in shame of loss. you were most definitely on the celebration's side.

you rush out your way towards the field where ni-ki is to congratulate him with a beverage in your hand but suddenly you halt in your footsteps not daring to take step forward towards him. there ni-ki stands with girls surrounding him like beehive and suddenly you feel so small and meek compared to them.

does he even know who you are ? do you even have any chance ? will he ever be yours ?

wary questions like this filled your head afterall you weren't the best. you were insecure. but deep inside you always believe your love will reach him and that you'll have your happy ending with him. ni-ki excuses himself from the girls as he takes notice of your zoned out figure and marches towards you. "boo !" he exclaims as you let out a squeak. all he does is laugh at your cute expression and you cannot help but blush at how melodious his laugh sounds. "sorry, btw is thar for me ?" he chirps pointing at the beverage can in your hand. "y-yes!" you reply as you shove that in his hands. he happily mutters out a thanks and proceeds on chugging down the beverage. you take this as a chance to admire his beauty. the way he closes his eyes, his lips attached on the can, his perfect side profile and his prominent adams apple that bobs up and down as he drinks the beverage. seriously how can someone drink so handsomely ?

your quickly pulled out of your lovesick thoughts as ni-ki pulls you by your hands in a empty classroom and that's when you notice your probably gonna die from heart attack caused by him. he locks the classroom door and steps towards you. you notice the way his growing muscles highlight by the sleeveless jersey he's wearing with quarter high jersey pants that compliment his long slender legs. he comes closer, pining your hands on both sides of your head, your back pressed against the blackboard. his face so close to yours you can easily count each and every moles and blemishes. his sweat drenched long hair sticking at the back of his neck as long strands of wet hair fall over his eyes. they tickle your face from the close proximity. his plump lips just few centimetres away from you, your eyes travel from his lips to the mole decorated right under the corner of his lips as you gulp out of nervousness. "did you think I wouldn't notice, princess?" the nickname makes your knees wobble and suddenly you are unable to utter out words as he continues. "it might not be the best occasion but I couldn't control myself anymore y/n. I love you, I really do, I've been in love with you for so long." you couldn't believe what was happening right now. is this a dream ? "I-I love you too" , you reply with a shy smile and blush painting your cheeks. before you can say another word you feel a pair of soft plump lips crash on yours. you flutter your eyes shut in contentment and kiss back. the kiss was so passionate and filled with love.you both broke apart as you two smile resting each other's foreheads together.

"i love you my chemical, hype boy ! "

taglist ; @solarwoniii @shiningstar-byulxx @wtfhyuck @ichiibunztwt

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abilouwrites · 6 months

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LOVE STORY

Taylor swift szn y’all

Mat Barzal being in love w his neighbor

The day she moved in Mat was smitten. Filled with Californian sun and those long legs and dusty light brown hair. She’s got a little pep in her step but a shuffle as she slides into her flip-flops and grabs a box.

She’s followed by an older man and a younger boy. The girl still holds his attention; she seems a little disoriented. Not in a drunk way, but in the way that makes her wonder if this is actually her new life.

“Matty” He hears his mother shout out, “be a nice strong boy and help our new neighbors”

Although he wants to meet her; it’s not under these circumstances. That’s an awkward meet cute. And not one that he wants with her.

“Mom— I don’t know.. they seem to handle it” he groans out, “Shit woman ok” he sighs hearing her stop up the stairs

“Oh mat you’re such a baby. Go on. Be a good neighbor. I’m bakin them some muffins” She tsks smacking his back as he jogs down the steps.

“Fine fine I’ll give them a hand” the brunette grumbles out.

He shuffles a little, tucking his hands into his pockets. He tucks his shoulder in and looks a little bashful through his shaggy brown hair.

The girl looks over her shoulder at him, her hair swishes back as she looks at him. All wide eyes and new to this street.

“Hey, I’m uh. Mat.. Barzal I live next door” He introduces reaching his hand out for her to shake. She shakes his hand and nods at him. Eyeing him up and down

“You’re not wearing a Shirt” She points out, before she meets his eyes again, “I’m y/n” she smiles a little. Lip turned up a little and he can see her teeth. But just a sliver.

“Yeah.. I my mom. She made me come out an help. And I haven’t done laundry yet so” he shrugs a little and smiles nervously, “how can I help?”

“Uh. Just some boxes. They’re all labeled with like kitchen and bathroom n stuff” y/n shrugs as she reaches for a box with her name, “I’m just trying to get my room set up”

“Oh, ok. Yeah let me help you” he offers taking another box with her name on it. She nods and leads him inside.

“Are those your parents?” He asks; attempting to make small talk as she walks upstairs.

“Just my dad. She’s my stepmom.” The blonde rolls her eyes a little, “this is my room” she kicks the door open a little and he uses his shoulder to open it the rest.

“Oh. Ok. Uh is that all the boxes?”

“Yeah. Just for my room. Thanks” she mumbles a little taking a knife and ripping through the tape.

“I could help you get set up..” he offers

“Oh. Yeah actually that would be nice”

The two of them unbox and rebuild plenty of her furniture. She makes idle conversation and he replies, he makes conversation and she responds.

Mat watches as she ties her hair back, “so.. you play any sports?” She asks; he nervously looks down and nods, “what?”

“Yeah. I play hockey. With my dad” he purses his lips nervous from the Californians response

“Cool. Does this Highschool have a team or is it club?” She asks

“Both. What about you?” He inquires. Shaking his head a little

“Soccer. So does VHS have a soccer team? Is it good?” She asks leaning foreword a little

“Yeah. They’re good.” He shrugs, “will you try out this fall?”

“Yeah. I’ll try hopefully. I don’t know how willing they’ll be for a junior just barging in for varsity”

“Were you on varsity at your last school?”

“Yeah, I was”

“As a sophomore?”

“Yeah”

When school starts the two had grown closer, her hair went back to its soft brown color. And that natural curl was coming back.

Mat drives her to school and nervously looks at her, “I think I’m gonna try out for captain this year. Because I’m a senior” he confesses. Leaning back into the car seat.

“I think you would be a good captain” she tells him, leaning over a bit as the two sit in the parking lot.

“I hope. Would you come to any games?”

“Hell I’d wear your jersey” she teases. Her face smooshed against the car seat, “you’d be a good captain Matty”

“I hate when you call me that” he sighs softly, inching just a bit closer

“Why?” She inquires responding to his closeness

“It just..” he sighs and looks down, “my mom calls me that. And so does this girl”

“Which girl”

He leans a little closer to the glossy lipped teen, he looks at her lips then up at her eyes, “you”

“Why is it a bad thing?”

“It’s bad.. because when ever you say it. It makes me want to kiss you” he faintly whispers.

“So kiss me”

His hand reaches for her chin and tilts her head up bringing her in for a kiss.

She groans a little into it as his hand wraps around her neck and her arms bring him closer.

#hockey #nhl #nhl fanfiction #nhl blurb #louiseabilenewrites #mat barzal my beloved #mat barzal #mat barzal x reader #mat barzal edit #mat barzal fic #mathew barzal imagine #mat barzal fluff #mathew barzal x reader #mat barzal smut #mat barzal imagine #mathew barzal #mat barzal social media au

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apomaro-mellow · 9 days

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Family Planning 1/?

Steddie; omegaverse; omega!steve x alpha!eddie

It's time for the ole flour baby project and who should Eddie get paired up with but none other than high school royalty Steve? They both need this grade to graduate but can they get through it without tearing the bag to shreds?

Read on AO3

Steve woke up to his alarm, rushing out of bed. His morning routine, however, was not rushed. The radio sounded as he stood in front of his bathroom mirror. Guitar riffs filled his head as he washed, brushed, and dried. He put on a red sweater, fall was finally kicking in and he felt it. With a quick goodbye to his parents, he got in his car and drove off to pick up his friends, Tommy and Carol.

Carol walked out of her front door. Tommy scaled down from Carol’s window. Steve only shook his head as they both got inside.

“How do your parents not know?”, Steve asked Carol.

“She knows how to keep things quiet”, Tommy winked at her from the front seat.

“Yeah, I just gag him every night. He loves it”, Carol pinched his cheek and withdrew her hand before he could swat it away.

They pulled up to the school as other students were arriving. There was still five minutes until homeroom which meant they had about twenty minutes before they had to get to class. So they took their positions, leaning against the car, talking about whatever drifted to their minds.

“Davidson is already staring me down like he knows I’m gonna fail”, Tommy said.

“Maybe he wouldn’t glare so much if you didn’t put a thumbtack in his chair”, Carol pointed out.

“He shouldn’t be such a buzzkill, right Steve?”

“His punishment fits the crime”, Steve agreed. “Davidson can’t touch you anyways.”

Carol smirked. “Yeah, your solid D streak makes you untouchable.”

“Why’s this woman always gotta give me grief Steve? Why can’t we just ditch her?”

Steve rolled his eyes but was smiling. “You forget, Carol came first. If anyone’s getting ditched, it’s you.”

Before Tommy could retort, a van roared into the parking lot, chaotic music playing too loud to discern most of the melody. It stopped abruptly and the driver excited just as quickly, slamming the door.

“Desperate for attention, much?”, Carol remarked.

Eddie Munson. A guy with all the bad markings of an alpha: loud, brash, hard headed, and just a general nuisance. Not wanting to cross paths with him, Steve led the way inside. He went out of his way to avoid Eddie’s van but unfortunately, the rest of his weird club was at the door and suddenly, Eddie was there, shouting at the rest of the members, causing Steve to wince. And that little movement was all it took to get his attention.

“My apologies, your highness, for inconveniencing your ear drums”, he gave a deep bow.

Steve rolled his eyes and went past. Steve had been one of the first of their senior class to present, doing so literally the first semester of freshman year. When he returned to school, smelling of cinnamon and vanilla, he had been dubbed ‘princess’ and the nickname stuck to senior year.

Living in a big house with parents who gave you everything you wanted didn’t help matters. Steve took it in stride. His classmates were willing to do a lot for their princess. Like Tommy shoving Eddie so they could get through the door.

“God, what a sleaze. What’re the chances of him actually graduating this year?”, Tommy wiped his arm like it was actually dirtied.

“As likely as you making it above a C average in Davidson’s”, Steve snarked.

—-----------------------

Eddie held the grin, even through the comment about his graduation status. Last year wasn’t it but second time was the charm, as they said. Still, it didn’t mean he was going to become a model student. Which was why he never went to homeroom. He skipped English on occasion too. But Home Economics, he usually tuned in to. There was a 50/50 chance they’d be cooking something and Eddie would get to poach tastes from his partner’s cooking.

He burst in just as Ms. Engels was in the process of getting the class to settle from their pre-lunch antsy-ness. He took his seat in the back, feet propped up on the back of the chair in front of him.

“Alright, children, listen! Today we are beginning a project that will take not just the rest of this semester, but also into the next”, Ms. Engels began, starting a wave of groans.

Steve was only half paying attention. Whatever project, he was sure he could lean on his partner to get it done. Home Ec was definitely still in the dark ages of family planning, putting most of the home-oriented things on the omega, but it was the 20th century. Omegas could go into the workplace, get high profile jobs, and didn’t need to just sit at home and pop out babies.

Then Ms. Engels put a sack of flour on her desk. With a little pink beanie on top. Steve’s stomach dropped.

“It’s time class, for the ‘family’ part of family planning.”

She went into detail about the assignment. That they would be paired appropriately according to their secondary gender and that they would need to keep a detailed log of when they fed the baby and changed it and who watched over it.

“Take note of how much formula and diapers cost. And the more in-depth you report, the greater chance of a high grade. As a couple, if you would like to give any updates during class, I would encourage it.”

Then she took out a list, announcing the couples and gesturing for one to come up and grab one of the many sacks of flour set in a box and to grab a beanie in either blue or pink. As she went down the list and choices got eliminated, Steve felt a sense of dread. The same feeling was coming over Eddie as he realized the same thing Steve did.

This was one of the few periods he didn’t share with Tommy or Carol. Dammit, as incessant as Tommy might’ve been, him being a beta meant they could’ve been paired together. But that wasn’t the reality right now.

“Aaron Hall and Cathy Mansley. Steven Harrington and Edward Munson.”

Steve was frozen in place. There was no way. No way in hell that he had to pretend to be a parent with Munson of all people. Eddie was frozen too, but only for a second before he shot up and strutted up to the teacher’s desk. He hefted a bag of flour into his arms and stretched a hat across its head, a pink one.

“She’s got your eyes honey bun~”, Eddie winked at Steve, causing snickers and giggles.

Steve scoffed but ignored him otherwise as Ms. Engels directed them to fill out the first form she gave them about name, sex, date of birth, the weight of the baby, as well as the names of the sire and the dame. Eddie pulled his chair right up to Steve’s desk, determined not to be ignored.

“So what are we gonna name our precious gift from above?”

“You decide. I don’t really care”, Steve said, barely sparing him a glance.

Eddie gasped dramatically and covered the pretend ears of their offspring. “How can you say something so cruel? And after she came from your own loins.”

Steve cringed. “Don’t talk about my loins Munson.”

“Okay, fair. In all serious though, I need to get a good grade on this project”, Eddie said.

The bell rang, saving Steve from another second of this. “Sounds like you better buckle up, pops. Can’t be a good example if high school takes you three times.”

Steve stayed long enough to watch the alpha’s face drop and then walked out of the room to his next class. Steve thought he’d made it clear that Eddie was on his own with this assignment. What was the point in playing pretend? Steve wasn’t having kids for a long time.

So he wasn’t impressed when Eddie stepped right up to his lunch table, that bag of flour under his arm like he was carrying books and not a child.

“I don’t think I was making myself clear back in Engel’s”, Eddie started.

“What’s he talking about?”, Tommy asked.

“Oh holy shit”, Carol’s face broke out in a smile so wide, “You’re doing that project with Eddie Munson?”

“You want the whole cafeteria to hear?”, Steve hissed. It went unbidden as Carol laughed and Tommy snickered. “I figured you could handle it. This isn’t your first time, right?”

Eddie set their unnamed flour pup onto the table. “Last year she did the nutrition diary, so I’m new to fatherhood. And you’re gonna need to shape up, mother dearest.”

“Ugh, don’t call me that”, Steve groaned.

“Father dearest, then?” There was a new wave of male omegas who preferred to be called dad over mom, and Eddie could respect that.

“Gag me.”

“Tempting, but I think Engels will have a problem if only one parent reports. And I have no problem telling her I did the brunt of the work.”

Steve raised a brow. “Is that a threat?”

“It’s a warning, Harrington.”

Tommy stood up then. “Back off trash!”

He shoved Eddie and multiple things happened at once. Eddie tried to grab for the table or something and instead grabbed the flour. He fell backward into someone, making them dump their lunch on his head, and the bag of flour flew, landing heavily on Principal Woolsley in a spectacular explosion of white.

“MUNSON! MY OFFICE! NOW!”

If Steve thought he was off the hook, he was sorely mistaken. While Eddie was hauled off to the office, he was able to keep his head down for a while. But Eddie must’ve snitched because Ms. Van Dorf in the office called his name on the intercom to come to the principal’s office.

Eddie was still sitting in one of the chairs, unidentifiable foodstuffs in his hair. Mr. Woolsley had gotten most of the flour off of himself, with only a light dusting on his shoulders. Ms. Engels was also present.

“I’ve been informed of the project your class is undergoing. Bags of flour don’t grow on trees”, Woolsley said, hands folded on his desk.

“Hey, even I can afford a bag of flour”, Eddie said. “What’s the damage? A dollar?”

“That’s not the point, Mr. Munson. What happened in the lunch room was a flagrant display of irresponsibility”, Ms. Engels said.

“I’m not the one being irresponsible”, Eddie looked to Steve who was still standing by the door.

“You two are going to show Ms. Engels that you deserve another chance at this project”, Woolsley started. “You have until the end of the week to show her your dedication and earn another sack of flour.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”, Steve asked, arms crossed.

“Get creative. Oh and detention for you both today. They need help in the theatre department”, Woolsley said before dismissing them.

Eddie shoved past Steve to get to a bathroom and wash his hair. Steve spent the rest of the day talking off his friend’s ears about the whole ordeal and by the time detention came, he was ready to rip him apart and let them both flunk this class. But unfortunately, Steve needed this grade as much as Eddie. He was only taking senior year one time, thank you very much.

He walked into the storage room as directed by the head of the department and found Eddie already there, sorting fabrics. Steve was determined to ignore him, getting right to work rifling through a box of paints and tossing ones that were either empty or bone dry.

Eddie spoke up after a whopping five minutes of silence. “So, any ideas on how to earn the favor of our warden?”

“We were told to get creative. I figured that was more your speed”, Steve said.

Eddie grinned. “I’ve been known to dabble in the creative arts. But I admit, my mind is drawing a blank. How to appear as a responsible parent? To be quite honest, I don’t have a lot of experience with those.”

“What about your uncle?”, Steve asked.

“...How do you know my uncle?”

Steve looked up from his box. “It’s a small town, Munson.”

“Yeah, well, you got me there.” His Uncle Wayne was a pretty nice role model. Decent, hard working. If Eddie was half the caretaker he was, any future kid or bag of food would be in good hands. “What about you?”

“Me?”, Steve said before shrugging. “My parents are fine. Kinda assholes sometimes, but what parent isn’t?”

“Do they dote on you like the rest of the royal court?”

“The wha-stop, I’m not the princess everyone thinks I am.”

“You’re avoiding the question”, Eddie pointed out.

“I don’t know if doting is the word, but they’re parents. They give me what I want sometimes. And what I need.”

“Well, that’s what we have to prove if we want another chance”, Eddie sighed. “But how the hell are we supposed to be doting parents to a kid we don’t have?”

Steve shrugged when just a half second through the motion, he had an epiphany. “Wait! We don’t have a kid yet!”

“Uh, yeah, that’s what I just said. Keep up Harrington.”

“No, we don’t have a kid yet”, Steve repeated, getting to his feet and moving closer to Eddie like proximity would make him easier to understand.

“I feel like I’m not high enough for this conversation we’re having.”

“What if-hear me out-what if we put on like we’re expecting parents?”, Steve suggested.

Eddie wasn’t sure where he was leaning on that idea, when he looked past Steve at something that had to have been put there by fate. A fake stomach for when someone had to act as a pregnant person during a school play.

“Oh this is either gonna be really stupid or really funny.”

Steve followed his sight and blushed a little, then turned back to Eddie. “I don’t see why it can’t be both.”

Part 2 coming soon

#apo writes #stranger things #steddie #omegaverse #a/b/o

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kairismess · 3 months

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⋆｡♪ ₊ haikyuu boys as band members.

HINATA SHOYO, rhythm guitarist.

hinata would love to play the electric guitar more than any other instrument, it always caught his eyes and ears, and he's always wanted to master playing it. he's never played an instrument before in his life, though he is quite good with his hands and fingers, and is a fast learner (when he gets it). and he also keeps great timing and rhythm with his bassist. he did struggle at first when learning the chords and simple songs to practice playing on the electric guitar, and forgetting to plug the damn thing into an amplifier, but after a lot of practice, he got way better; and in his first year, he joined the band club, impressing his seniors with a guitar lick he managed to pull off on the first try. up to this day, he can't believe he pulled that off, yet has forgotten how to recreate it...

KAGEYAMA TOBIO, bassist.

kageyama's first encounter with the bass would be when he was in kindergarten. miwa used to play the bass for after school gigs with her friends at their place, and little tobio was so enamored with how the bass sounded as a young toddler that the sounds and vibrations of the bass were usually what put the young blueberry boy to sleep. his grandfather also taught him how to play the bass, he taught miwa how to play when she was his age, though the only difference between the two of them was that tobio took it much more to heart than his sister did. he believed the soul of a song lay with its rhythm, its timing, and without the bassist, the song wouldn't flourish; it couldn't pulsate with life. he became hinata's bassist, and he constantly criticizes hinata for his careless strumming when he senses he's off-beat. he probably has a sixth sense that knows hinata's gonna be off-beat at a certain point during a song or practice, it's like his superpower, apart from being a pro bass player.

TSUKISHIMA KEI, drummer.

tsukishima had only recently learned how to play the drums, he had always observed his older brother playing them when he would practice in his room; it felt like little kei was in the world's most exciting concert every time his older brother would play a segment of a song he really liked. though now that he plays the drums, he looks back and thinks about how easy it must've been to impress him as a child, because now, he realizes that it wasn't too big of a deal to sit there, listening to these bickering simpletons while yamaguchi helped cease tensions between the two. he doesn't like the fact he has to announce their band's stupid and constantly changing names, it makes him feel frustrated every time he introduces the band, only to learn the two have changed the band name again to something more ridiculous. he has impeccable rhythm and timing, though, but he feels pissed off whenever kageyama sends a glare his way, signaling that he's lagging a bit behind on the timing.

KOZUME KENMA, DJ + keytarist.

kenma didn't originally want to be part of a band, but when kuroo kept urging him to use his talent at the piano to help him put together his dream band. if it weren't for kuroo, kenma would've abandoned his talent at the piano long, long ago. kenma has experimented with other instruments throughout their time as a band, he got into DJ-ing during middle school, which kuroo thought was the coolest thing ever. a lot of the audience members sometimes judge him for having inconsistent instruments during some shows, but he never fails to impress them with his skills at both instruments. after a show, kenma is beat, he lays down on a bench, just trying to sleep, but kuroo and the others try to get him to come get dinner with them to celebrate their successful show. and as much as it inconveniences kenma in many ways... he doesn't mind being appreciated for his efforts, though it is quite obnoxious.

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loveronlineee · 2 years

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The Metal Head and the Material Girl Part 2 (Eddie Munson x Reader)

Masterlist All Parts

Eddie Munson x Reader (She/Her)

Warnings: swearing

Synopsis: As Y/N settles into her new school and her new group of friends, the boys prepare for her first D&D session

ITS HERE ITS FINALLY HERE YALL CAN STOP REQUESTING NOWWWWW.

Okay I’m really fuckin scared to post this one because I can feel the expectations for it to be as loved as part one but I tried my best!! Thanks again D&D peeps for helping me out. I cleared out my DMs cuz they were getting messy but y’all know who you are!

Also uh, this.

Okay okay I’ll shut up now. Go read.

- Willow x

Wanna be on the Eddie Munson tag list? Look here!

Wanna request something? Look here!

Two weeks in, Y/N had fully settled into Hawkins high. She had established herself as part of the outcasts and the window of opportunity for her to be one of the popular kids had officially closed.

The jocks and the cheerleaders tried multiple times to get her away from the Hellfire club, but every glare and mean comment they threw at her friends cemented in Y/N’s mind that they were not people she wanted to be around.

Eddie and Y/N seemed to be inseparable. Eddie would pick her up and drop her home despite the location of Y/N’s house being in the opposite direction of the school. They’d walk to classes together, sit together at lunch… it was uncommon to see one without the other.

The weird looks from most were slowly turning from a look of surprise to a look of oh, them again.

Eddie noticed it more than Y/N. Of course he did. He was used to being looked down upon, he knew all the signs. But he could feel the slight shift too. Y/N was like a buffer for all the hate.

People seemed to have backed off a little since Y/N joined their ranks. Seeing a pretty girl with Eddie made him seem less threatening, less of an outcast. Others didn’t know what to do when Eddie did something weird and Y/N would just laugh, like it was completely normal.

She was disrupting the social hierarchy without even knowing it.

The metalhead spotted Y/N walking into the lunch hall from his table. She waved enthusiastically at him before pointing to the queue for the school lunch. Eddie waved back and gave a thumbs up.

“So when are you gonna ask her out?” Eddie whipped his head around at Dustin’s unexpected question.

“What?” Mike rolled his eyes.

“Dude. You two are pretty much already a couple. She links her arm with yours when you’re walking, she plays with your hands, she laughs at everything you say even when it’s not funny.” The younger one complained.

Eddie wasn’t blind to these things. He felt himself going giddy every time Y/N touched him or beamed at him. But a part of him wouldn’t believe that a girl like her would actually be interested in him.

He shrugged it off.

“She’s just friendly. Y/N’s like that with everyone.”

“She doesn’t act like that to us.” Dustin argued. He looked around the table to see the other boys agreeing. Y/N was always nice to them and enjoyed being their friends but they could all see the difference between that, and how she acted with their dungeon master. “Listen Eddie, I love Y/N. She’s great. She’s like the older sister I never had. I love Y/N. But I don’t love Y/N.”

He raised his eyebrows up, seeing if Eddie understood. He did, pulling a face. He didn’t like his use of that word.

Love.

Eddie thought he didn’t believe in love up until very recently. But Y/N decided to come into his life and completely destroy that ideology.

He hated that Dustin used that word because it was the only word that accurately described what he was feeling. And it made him feel stupid.

Two weeks. This girl had been in his life for two weeks and he was head over heels for her.

But how could he not? She was beautiful and bubbly. She actually listened to him when he rambled on about his interests. She didn’t look down on him for repeating senior year. She genuinely enjoyed spending time with him. And every once in a while, Eddie would let himself believe that she loved him back. Just a little.

Before the boys could say anymore, Y/N dropped her tray on the table. She took her usual seat next to Dustin and Eddie.

“Hey guys. What’d I miss?” She looked around with a smile as she tucked her chair in. Eddie reflexively put his hand out in front her. Y/N liked to see what rings he decided to wear every day. She slid her own hand underneath his and began straightening out the jewellery.

“Uh we were just… taking about your first D&D session coming up!” Dustin saved. He gave Eddie a nod which the dungeon master returned.

“Oh right! Have we decided on a date yet?” Y/N looked up. Eddie huffed a little in annoyance, pulling his hand away from Y/N to fold his arms. This had been a problem for him since Y/N joined Hellfire.

“We can’t decide on a date until we decide what we’re actually doing for it!” He slammed his hands on the table, looking around at everyone “We can’t just do any D&D session! This is Y/N’s first. We gotta do it right.” He stated, tapping his pointer finger on the lunchroom table.

“I’m sure it’s gonna be amazing no matter what Eddie. I sat in on last week’s session and that was so fun already!” Y/N reassured. Eddie made a frustrated whine, leaning back.

“Yeah but it’s gotta be something special!” He stood up on the chair. “We are in the presence of a PRINCESS PEOPLE!” He shouted, before jumping back down. Y/N laughed.

“Hey don’t some people dress up like their characters?” She asked. The boys looked at each other, liking the idea.

“We haven’t done that before.” Dustin commented. “Right Eddie?”

“Yeah. Yeah I like that.” A smile slowly creeping on his face.

So it was decided. On Friday, Hellfire were gonna take their immersive fantasy experience a step further.

———————————————————————

The boys ran down to their club room the second the bell rang. Setting everything up and taking putting on their costumes. Eddie sat in his throne and looked through his notes as the others scrambled around.

Dustin noticed the dungeon master’s leg bouncing up and down. He chewed the end of his pencil, eyebrows furrowed as he read what he had written.

“Eddie, you okay?” Dustin called out. Eddie didn’t look up.

“Yeah yeah I’m fine Henderson just keep doing what you’re doing.” Dustin could tell he was nervous. But it wasn’t like he could ask for anyone’s help, everyone else was a player. It would ruin the game if they knew what was gonna happen ahead of time.

There was a knock at the door.

“Hey guys? Am I allowed to come in now?” It was Y/N.

“We’re not ready!” The chorus of boys replied. Y/N giggled.

“Okay let me know when I can come in.” Eddie ripped the piece of paper he was looking at out of his book and stuffed it in his jean pocket. He frantically flicked to another page and looked back up. All the others had taken their seats and everything was ready.

“Princess you may enter!” Eddie’s voice echoed around the room as Y/N slowly pushed the door open. He could feel the excitement of everyone building and building. Eddie rose from his throne, coming into his dungeon master persona. “Today you will officially join us as part of the Hellfire club! Are you-“

Eddie’s train of thought stopped as Y/N came into view.

She had put glitter and gemstones around her face. Elf ears added onto her actual ears. A dainty tiara on top of her head.

If she was ethereal before, now she was celestial. Seemingly otherworldly.

Eddie gulped as she floated over and took her seat at Eddie’s right.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” She replied with an angelic smile. She noted the look Eddie was giving her. “You okay Eddie?”

“Fucking hell Y/N you coulda warned me.” Eddie mumbled as he rubbed his hands over his face. She didn’t quite hear him. He composed himself. “Never better. Let’s get started, shall we?”

———————————————————————

The session was a massive success and Y/N had a great time. She managed to keep the princess alive, with Eddie giving her hints he probably shouldn’t have.

“I’ll pack up guys. See ya on Monday.” Eddie said as the others got up. The boys said their goodbyes and left the club room. “You still need a ride home?” He asked Y/N with a smiled.

“Yes please.” Y/N smiled back, beginning to help Eddie clear up. The dungeon master breathed in then out slowly before speaking again.

“Uh hey why don’t we do a quick little epilogue, just before we go?” Y/N frowned a little in confusion.

“But the others have already left?”

“Y-Yeah just- just us two.” Eddie began to feel his nerves building.

“Okay then.” Y/N agreed, sitting back down. Eddie composed himself once again and sat down too. Y/N watched as he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it, putting it down flat on the table. The pair stared at each other. Y/N in anticipation.

“Princess, you find yourself walking around town that night. After the harrowing journey you had been on, you wanted some quiet time to yourself to reflect on all that had happened. The streets were almost silent, only the occasional villager still out, making their way home from the tavern. You turn a corner, heading towards your horse. Walking through the stables you spot the stable boy, hard at work.”

Y/N smiled. The princess had met the stable boy before, early on in the adventurers’ quest when they needed horses. She managed to charm him into letting them borrow the horses with the promise of retuning them, which they did.

He was the only character Eddie didn’t put on a voice for. The stable boy was surprisingly charismatic and charming himself, seeming to favour the princess out of the group of adventurers.

Eddie tilted his head to the side, still smiling. “What do you do?”

“Hello again stable boy. You’re up late.” Y/N said, being the princess.

“Your highness. He bowed in respect at your status. My day is just starting actually. I heard about your quest and I thank you for saving us and keeping your promise. He patted one of the horses.”

“Of course. What kind of a princess wouldn’t keep her promises?”

“Not one as good as you your highness.”

Y/N watched Eddie as his smile faltered for a moment. He took another deep breath in then out. She leaned forward slightly, awaiting whatever was to come next. Eddie stood up and came to kneel on one knee, on the left side of Y/N’s chair. He kept his head down, unable to look up at her as he spoke.

“Princess. I know I am nothing more than a lowly stable boy, and I’ve got some nerve asking someone as high and honourable as you anything… but I must ask you.” Eddie gulped as he slowly lifted his head. He found comfort in Y/N looking at him. Of course he did. She always made him feel at ease. It was silly to think she would fill him with fear, even in this situation.

He continued. “Would you find any pleasure in accompanying me one night?” Y/N’s smile grew wider and wider. Giving Eddie more and more confidence. “We could go to the tavern. Or perhaps a walk around the town? It doesn’t matter much to me, as along as I am in your company.”

Y/N didn’t answer in game. Her hands went to the sides of Eddie’s face as she crashed her lips onto his. Eddie slowly stood up, making Y/N stand too. He found is hands wrapping around her waist and hers moved to the back of his neck. The two could feel the other smiling against the other. Y/N began giggling which ended the kiss, their foreheads touching.

“Did you plan that all out for me?”

“…maybe.” She giggled again, finding his lips.

“My silly stable boy.”

“Princess.”

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#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #reader x Eddie Munson #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fluff #st eddie munson #eddie munson imagine #stranger things #stranger things x reader #stranger things season 4 #stranger things season four #stranger things imagine #reader x stranger things #st

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kamikazii · 1 month

Text

Choso Kamo x f!Reader

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The club was packed tonight, sweaty drunk bodies pressed against each other vibrating from the beat of the music roaring in their ears. You were amongst the crowd, not yet shit faced but very drunk. You smiled largely at your friends, a small bit of drool coming out of the corner of your mouth. You loved every second of feeling the music, feeling like nothing mattered outside of dancing with a room full of strangers. Were they really strangers at this point? This club was your favorite, you were a Friday night regular. As were all the other college students there.

Your friend came up to you, swaying against you as she pushed a shot glass to your lips. You gladly gulped down the terrible tasting liquid, swallowing as fast as you could and grimacing at the taste. Like a child would with cough medicine.

Suddenly it felt like all the contents of your stomach were threading to come back up. You politely pushed your friend away, frantically looking for the bathroom. Pushing bodies out of your way wasn’t easy, but you made it nonetheless. As soon as the toilet was in your eye sight it happened. The terrible taste of alcohol and appetizers coming right back up. You gagged and wretched, feeling absolutely disgusted with yourself. Well, that was a buzzkill. Time to head home.

You pulled out your phone, sending a quick text to the group chat with your friends letting them know you were heading home for the night. The ladies sent back a be safe text and that was all you needed. You exited the bathroom and looked for the exit.

As you made your way through the crowd and past the bar a hand landed on your shoulder.

“Hey baby let me buy you drink.”

A man that looked double your age said in a slur. You pushed his hand off, “No thanks, I’m heading home.” You said, not interested in a man that could be the same age as your father. He persisted, “I could come with, show you a good time baby.” He was now standing, trying to pull your body to his. You looked around frantically for help, no one was paying attention to you. Of course they weren’t.

Until your eyes locked with his. Your eyes lit up, acting on impulse, “My boyfriend is going to beat your ass if you don’t get the fuck off.” You yelled at the stranger, pointing to the man you were referring to. The man walked over, seemingly knowing what was going on. You looked distressed after all.

The older man let go thankfully not wanting to stir anything up, you grabbed the dark haired man’s hand and made towards the exit. He happily went outside with you, how could he not?

You breathed heavily, feeling sobriety slowly making its way to you. You looked at the man you’d brought with you, shit he was so fine.

“I’m sorry, old bastard wouldn’t let go of me.” You apologized, feeling defeated. Total buzzkill now; puking up everything you ate and drank in the last two hours and some creep trying to follow you home. Gross.

“Hey it’s okay, are you going to be okay going home?“ He sounded sincere, placing his hand on your back while you heaved fresh air into your body.

“Uh yeah I think, I’ll just Uber home. It’s only like fifteen minutes away.” You said, pulling your phone out. Shit, it died. He watched as you tried to turn it on, smacking it and whining when it didn’t.

“I can give you a ride if you want, I’m sober so you don’t have to worry about getting into an accident.” He started rubbing the back of his head, hoping that didn’t come off as weird or creepy.

“You’re not gonna stalk me if I tell you where I live are you?” You half joked, raising an eyebrow at him. He shook his head no, laughing.

“I’m Kamo Choso, I promise I’m not creepy, I’m just a senior in college.” He said, the faintest bit of pink danced on the tips of his ears. You told him your name, defeatedly walking with him to his car. It was blacked out and honestly kinda hot. You made small talk with him on the way to your apartment, feeling a little embarrassed a stranger had to take you home.

You found out you attend the same college but never stumbled across each other, probably because he was a senior and you were only a sophomore. Upon arriving at your apartment you invited him in, it was late after all. It would be rude of you to not finish the conversation that was flowing between the two of you. Right? It would be rude to not offer him something to eat or drink.

And it would be rude to not notice the slight bulge in his pants as he sat on your sofa.

You pushed that thought out of your mind as soon as it entered, mentally berating yourself. He was a total stranger. Well not really, after the conversations you had you knew a few things about him. Like that he lived across town from you, so naturally you offered him to stay here at your apartment. It was very late after all. And he accepted gratefully, the idea of driving being a hassle for him. You found out he liked horror movies just as much as you did so of course you put one on and cozied up next to this man on your couch. The man you’d known for a whole hour and a half now. Happy way through the movie his arm wrapped around your shoulder, inviting you to lean against him. Leaning turned into laying in his lap. His arm around your shoulder turned into resting it in your hair, playing with it.

You felt it. A twitch. In his pants. It immediately made blood rush to your face, but you didn’t move. What were you doing? This strange man is in your apartment somehow with his dick pressed to your face and you’re just okay with that? Yes, yes you are.

You nuzzled against his growing hard on, making an almost inaudible moan slip from his throat. He grabbed a fistful of your hair, tightly.

“Don’t tease me.”

He was rather rough, which surprised you. The grip on your hair made you wince a little but you continued, ghosting your mouth over his growing erection. The crotch in his jeans were getting too tight to be comfortable, he had to slip them off. You happily helped him push them down past his knees, his cock springing free. His tip was pink, leaking precum from your teasing. God he was so big, he has the type of cock you fantasize about while fucking yourself. You drooled at the sight of him, licking his tip and slowly lowering your mouth down. His grip on your hair loosened only for him to grab the back of your neck to help guide you on how he liked his cock sucked.

A guttural moan escaped his throat as you tried to take him fully, he’d never felt a throat as tight and wet as yours. The very thought made his cock twitch. He pulled you off suddenly, he wasn’t going to last long from fucking your throat. He so badly wanted to eat you out and fuck you hard.

So he did just that, he pushed you back onto your back and gathered the fabric of your dress, pushing it up to rest as your waist. He grabbed the waistband of your panties and slid them down, you lifted your lower half to help him. He stared at your cunt, the sight was heavenly. You were already so wet for him your juices leaking out of you in anticipation. Heat stuck to your cheeks in embarrassment as he stared at you. He made eye contact with you before lunging down to your pussy, not wasting any time and lapping fat stripes up from your entrance to your swollen clit. The sensation made you hiss grabbing onto his messy buns to help steady yourself.

“You taste s’good, can’t wait to fuck you.”

He said, your juices flowing into his mouth and dripping down his chin. Your nectar alone could make him drunk, he wanted to savor how you tasted but he so badly wanted to plunge his cock in you already. You felt the buildup deep in your core, your orgasm making its way to you. He pulled away, “I promise next time I’ll make you cum all over my face but I have to fuck you now.” He said desperately. He gathered the wetness from his mouth and chin and smeared it over his tip, groaning at the feeling.

You were ready to feel him, ready to be filled to the brim with this strangers cock. The thought was exhilarating. You’d never had a one night stand or fucked a stranger. Wait, he said next time. Is he planning to fuck you again?

You came back yo reality as he pushed his tip in, your pussy trying to suck him in. You both let out a groan, wanting more. You reached your hand to him, which he grabbed and placed back into his hair.

“Fuck your pussy feels s’good. She’s sucking me in.” He breathed out. He slowly sank himself all the way in, your cunt trying to accommodate his size. It only stung a little bit as soon as the initial shock subsided it felt so good.

You tugged on his hair motioning that he could move, and he wasted no time. He pulled out leaving just his tip inside you and thrusted back in hard. The squelch of your pussy made him moan loud. His hips found a rhythm shortly, thrusting in and out and in and out..

The sensation made you throw your head back, eyes rolling back and almost seeing stars. Your gummy walls clamped down on him, he didn’t know if he could last long. It had been awhile since he’d been with anyone, he was trying to focus on his studies rather than relationships or women but god the way your body took his cock was too damn good.

You felt your orgasm coming back, the knot in your core building up. He snaked a hand down to rub your aching clit, eliciting a moan from you. He leaned down to your ear, “Say my name baby, tell me who’s fucking you.”

His voice was dark, breath hot and heavy on your earlobe.

“Cho-Choso,, fuckk. I’m so close, pl-please don’t stop.” You breathed out. It was becoming so hard to talk, all you could do was let noises fall from your mouth. His thrusts became sloppy as his orgasm came close, he swirled his fingers faster to get you closer to finishing.

It hit you like a wall, vision going white and body hot. So so hot. All you could do was lay there and squirm, toes curling and moans leaving your throat. Choso pulled out and let his release on your stomach. He fucked his fist until he was empty, moaning your name.

Your brain was fuzzy with euphoria, watching his cum all over you from above. You smiled in your haze, wiping yourself with your dress after you slid it off of you. You grabbed his hand and walked him to your bathroom, turning the shower on and adjusting the water.

“You can sleep with me in my bed tonight, okay?” You said as you helped him slip the rest of his clothes off. Man you were so ready for bed.

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#choso smut #choso kamo #choso x you #jjk choso #jjk x reader #jjk smut #jjk #jujustsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen #smut #jujutsu kaisen choso #spicy content #spicy creator #jujutsu sorcerer #jjk x you #kamikazii

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ambrossart · 6 months

Text

Out of the Loop (Preview)

summary: eddie went home with someone after prom, and gareth is determined to figure out who it was.

pairing: eddie munson x dwm!reader word count: -- warnings: language, new relationship, eddie's girlfriend is gareth's arch nemesis, silly childhood rivalries, eddie being happy and stupidly in love, jason being an overprotective ass, chrissy being an adorable little cupcake, the reader is chrissy's best friend, the unnamed freak is named grant in this series

series masterpost | series playlist | fanfiction masterlist

On Monday morning, Gareth peddled to school like a man on a mission.

Nothing was getting in his way today, not his mother, who had accidentally washed his Hellfire Club shirt with all his little sister’s dance clothes,

“You know what, honey, I think it looks better this way…”

not his sister, who had been hogging the bathroom all morning because she couldn’t get her hair right,

“Look, you don’t understand the pressure I’m under right now. Becca Singer is finalizing her birthday party guest list today. I have to look my best if I wanna make the cut.”

not the weatherman, who was painfully misinformed when he called for clear, sunny skies today…

and certainly not the piece of crap Chevy that just cut him off in the middle of the crosswalk.

Gareth swerved out of the way and kept on peddling. The rain pelted his face in a spray of ice-cold bullets.

Behind him, the driver yelled, “Hey, watch where you’re going, you little shit!”

“Tara’s still not talking to me. I’m pretty sure she’s gonna dump me for Patrick McKinney.”

Grant put down his fork. “Wait, you two were dating?”

“No…” Jeff heaved a quiet sigh. “But if we were, she’d definitely dump me for Patrick.”

“You don’t like her?” Jeff asked.

“Not really,” Grant answered. “I mean, yeah, she’s pretty and all, but as soon as she starts talking—”

“What’s with the pink shirt?” Grant asked, unfazed

Jeff and Grant exchanged a subtle, secret glance.

“How do you know Eddie went home with someone after prom?” Jeff asked.

“Because I called him that night.”

“Why’d you call him?”

“Because I’m a good friend, unlike some people.” Nobody had called him asking how his night went. Gareth sat home alone on Saturday night, eating popcorn and watching old sci-fi movies in his basement, while the rest of his friends danced and had a blast at prom. It wasn’t fair. “I wanted to check in on him because I figured he might be a little depressed after getting rejected by Chrissy. Because let’s be honest here, there was no way that Chrissy was ever gonna dance with him. You all agree with me, right? I’m not just being a dick here. Like, yeah, I know Eddie’s riding high right now because he thinks this year is his year and everything, but… yeah, he was aiming a bit too high with that goal.”

“Can you get to the point, please?” Grant said. “My breakfast is getting cold.”

“Well, multitask, man!” Gareth grabbed Grant’s fork and threw it back onto his tray. “What, you can’t listen and eat at the same time?”

Grant rolled his eyes and went back to his breakfast. Gareth carried on with his story:

“I hate that I do,” Grant said, struggling to enjoy his food.

“Maybe it was just the TV,” Grant said.

Gareth shook his head. “No way… I know the difference between a TV voice and a live human voice. Someone was definitely with him.”

“Well, did you recognize the voice?” Jeff asked.

“No, I couldn’t hear well enough.”

Grant’s eyes narrowed with skepticism. “And yet you’re sure it wasn’t the TV…”

“Gross,” Grant muttered, sickened. “Yeah, these are details I did not need.”

Gareth’s mouth fell open in a silent gasp. “Wait, do you guys think he slept with her?” and that was more than Jeff could handle.

He buried his face in his hands and said, “Please stop. I don’t wanna go to class with these images in my head.”

Grant shrugged. “Maybe it was just a one-night stand.”

Jeff threw him a sharp, disapproving glare.

“Just saying,” Grant finished, smirking.

“So?”

“So I think he was with her. I called him last night and asked him where he was all day. He said he was out running errands.” Gareth scrunched up his face, doubtful. “Since when does Eddie run errands? So I said, ‘What sort of errands were you running?’ He said he had to swing by the drugstore. I said, ‘Well, what did you need at the drugstore?’ but he wouldn’t answer that. Yeah, he was being awfully mum.”

“Mum?” Jeff repeated to himself, mystified by his friend’s bizarre word choice.

Grant said, “He was probably annoyed that you were digging around in his business. I know I would be.”

Grant sighed, hoping they’d finally reached the end of this long-winded story. “Well, I guess you cracked the case then, Gareth.”

Another secret glance.

“Nope,” Jeff said. “I didn’t see him go home with anyone that night.”

Gareth nodded, disappointed but not yet defeated. “Yeah, I thought you might say that. That’s why I made this.”

He gestured toward the piece of paper on the table. Jeff picked it up and read it over. Then he passed it to Grant so he could do the same.

“Okay, what exactly am I looking at here?” Grant asked.

“Not a very long list,” Jeff said.

“Really?” said Grant. “I was gonna say it’s too long.”

They shared a little chuckle over that. Gareth glowered at them, unamused. He didn’t appreciate them making little jabs about their Dungeon Master’s love life, stagnant as it was.

“You know,” Grant began with ominous deliberation, “I can’t help but notice there’s a name missing from this list.”

Gareth's head snapped back in surprise. “Who?”

“You know who,” Grant said. Beside him, Jeff was holding in a smile.

A disturbing chill crept up Gareth's spine. Then—

BAM!

“Oh, very funny…”

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Grant said, “there’s no denying that she’s a likely suspect.”

“In fact,” Jeff continued, “some might say she’s the most likely suspect.”

“Yeah, maybe back in middle school,” Gareth said, scoffing, “but Eddie hasn’t so much as looked at her in years.”

Except for that one time, Gareth thought, remembering the mournful look on his friend’s face that day. They were all eating lunch when your laughter suddenly sprang up from the other side of the cafeteria, obnoxious and shrill. Eddie glanced your way and his eyes darkened with such hollow sadness. It was as if someone had died.

But that didn’t mean anything, Gareth decided, so he shoved the memory away.

“All right, look, I’ll admit we lost him briefly for that one summer. I dunno how she did it, but somehow she got her claws in him real deep and he was completely under her spell. I won’t deny that. But then Eddie woke up and saw her for what she really is—an ugly green hag. At first, she appears as this beautiful, enchanting woman, but underneath that guise, she’s a wretched old witch who thrives on torment. Yeah, Eddie got over her a long time ago,” and Gareth refused to waste another thought on it.

“Yeah, we’re not doing that,” Grant said.

Gareth frowned. “Why not?”

“Because we already know who it is.”

He stuffed the paper back into his bag, climbed to his feet, and stomped off.

Jeff said, “Shoulda gone to prom, man.”

“Well, no one would go with me,” Gareth replied, dejected. He pushed through the double doors and was gone.

Afterward, Grant picked up his milk carton and took a few slow slips.

“You know what,” he said thoughtfully, “Gareth should’ve asked Y/N to prom.”

Jeff chuckled quietly to himself. “Well, she did need a date… Shit, should we have just told him?”

“No,” Grant said. “No, this is something Gareth needs to see with his own eyes.”

⏩ preview #2

SERIES MASTERPOST

FANFICTION MASTERLIST

unfortunately, i no longer do taglists. if you want to stay updated on my fics, you can follow me and/or subscribe to my posts. thank you!

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x fem!reader #eddie munson fanfic #stranger things #stranger things 4 #fanfic #jeff stranger things #gareth stranger things #hellfire club #fic preview #eddie munson x dwm!reader #dancing with myself #dwm #dwm short #ambrossart

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edsloveydove · 2 years

Text

I Have Always Seen You

pairing: eddie munson x chubby female reader

summary: of course the boy i've known since 3rd grade, the one i've loved since 7th grade, would be the one to break my heart. i never thought he would be the one to fix it too...

warnings: bullying, fatphobia, use of the word pig towards reader once, falling off a bike, blood and cut knee from falling off said bike, self-doubt and sort of self-hate i guess, cursing, mentality that reader wouldn't be 'missed' (idk if thats a warning but just in case), no use of y/n, underage drinking, reader has an older brother for sake of the story (i gave him a really basic/common name), thoughts and flashbacks are in italics!! nickanames/pet names (shortcake, princess, honey, sweetheart), reader is at least a bit shorter than eddie, very poorly edited, talks of the demobats and upside down, again like very badly edited, lemme know if i missed anything, i'm sure i have!

word count: 9k+

notes: my first fic guys and it turned into this 9,000 word monster! wild! anyway, this might be trash i honestly don't know, i have no perception of it, pls let me know what you think!! also, this story is told in first person point of view so it uses 'i, me, myself' and all that, idk how i feel about it though tbh. uuuuh, enjoy!!

DON'T REPOST MY WRITING OR SHARE IT TO OTHER PLATFORMS (including mentioning it in tiktok comment sections and stuff like that pls) THIS IS MY WRITING, DON'T STEAL IT PLEASE!

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The sweltering midwestern heat was hitting Hawkins, Indiana early this year. School had only been out for a few weeks and it was already hot enough to have the city pool passing the max capacity damn near every day.

Luckily for me, I had been able to successfully avoid going every time my friends have asked me to join them. Until now.

“C’mon, it’s gonna be so much fun! Steve’s parents are gone again, like usual, so it’ll just be us and a few other friends!” Robin tries to convince me through the phone.

“Robin, I never believe ‘just us and a few friends’, because it is ne-”

“It’s never just a few friends, I know. But this time it really will be just a few people. Like, actually just a few people. After everything that happened during spring break and all that, Steve really just wants the main guys there. There’s not gonna be any crazy partying, we’re gonna swim and relax, that’s it.”

“I don’t know, I might be busy tomorrow,” I attempt an excuse.

“Then we’ll move it to when you’re free. We really want you there, you haven’t gone to any of our movie nights or other hangouts yet,” Robin points out while saying my name softly. “Is it something else? Is there someone you don’t want there?”

Robin isn’t entirely wrong, there is something else that’s keeping me from joining my friends. And technically it does have to do with someone, but not in the way she thinks. And that someone happens to be none other than the Eddie Munson.

I’ve known Eddie for many years. My older brother was one of his best friends while growing up having met in elementary school. James was in the grade above Eddie, and the one to introduce him to D&D, eventually passing on the title of Hellfire Club President to him as well. I was always in the background, hoping my brother would let me learn how to play just so I could impress him and his friends.

While they were occupying the basement, getting pizza and bottles of Coke every other Saturday for their stupid role-playing game, I was in my room reading trashy romance novels and out riding my bike to the library in hopes to seem cool when I came back late at night.

By the time I got to high school, it was James’ second to last year before he went off to college in Chicago on his big-shot football scholarship he managed to snag before he was even a senior. And yes, James was a Hellfire nerd and a star-athlete, so no one messed with their little club while he was there. Eddie was in his sophomore year, already antsy to graduate and move on to greater things.

I was just the outcast that didn’t even have a group. It didn’t matter that I was the captain of the football team’s little sister, I never made any friends because I never tried to.

Needless to say, yeah, Eddie and I had some history and maybe things got brought up when Vecna was trying to take over the world that might have been better left untouched. And maybe the idea of seeing him again brings butterflies to my stomach while also making my gut sink.

“No, it's not that. I just…I guess I just haven’t been feeling it since…since yanno,” I say, half heartedly.

Robin voices her understanding and tells me to just call back when I make a decision on if I would go or not. I promise her I will and hang up the phone. It’s not like I didn’t want to see them, because truly I did but it also wasn’t a complete lie when I told her I hadn’t been feeling quite right since the Venca situation.

It was a really traumatic and horrible experience for everyone involved, and really astonishing that everyone made it out alive.

‘Maybe I should just go…but what if it’s horrible? I know none of my lovely friends would ever say anything to me about it, but I just can’t stand the thought of them seeing me in a swimsuit, especially Eddie.’ I shake my head at the thought. ‘What a stupid thing to think, god, we all nearly died and I’m worried about my stomach in a swimsuit, how shallow is that? I guess some things just never change, no matter the life threatening situation…’

I go about my nighttime routine, washing my face and making sure no lights have been left on around the house. I say goodnight to my mother and fall right asleep. Or, I try to at least.

But my mind keeps me up for much longer than I would have hoped.

‘It would be a good time, though. Have a couple of beers, spend the night in one of Steve’s nice guest bedrooms. I wouldn’t even have to swim, I could just say I’m on my period or something. Ugh, but Robin knows that I always swam even on my period when we were younger. I’ll just wear a suit under my clothes and pretend the water is too cold even though it’s the peak of summer? Yeah, that should work. I can’t imagine anyone will care that much anyway if I’m not in the pool with them. I really do miss my friends.’

The next morning I call Robin and tell her I’ll be there tonight. She squeals in delight and tells me how happy she’ll be to see me.

Now it was just time to pick out an outfit, should be simple enough, right?

Well, after leaving it to the last second and now only having about 15 minutes to get to Steve’s when it’s already a five minute drive, having half of my closet strewn about my room doesn’t seem like a very good place to be at.

I finally sigh and opt for a swim suit from the summer before that I never wore, a green one piece with a wrapped sort of style for the top portion, and black cut off shorts and an old t-shirt that fits comfortably loose over it.

I grab my keys and kiss my mother on the forehead, reminding her I wouldn’t be back till the next morning.

Several shouts of my name reach my ears once I reach Steve’s backyard, it does bring a small smile to my face knowing I’ve been missed just as much as I’ve missed them.

“You’re actually here, I’m so happy to see you!” Nancy says pulling me in for a hug, Robin joining on top, squishing us all together.

“Yeah, yeah, I know it’s been a while. I’m sorry.”

“No, you don’t have to be sorry, it’s been a really hard year,” Nancy says sincerely.

Steve comes up for a hug next, squishing me for dear life, I could feel him about to try to lift me up and spin me around so I pull away rather abruptly.

“Alright, alright, it’s nice to see you, too, Steve.”

He answers with a kiss to the cheek and makes me promise that I’ll come to the next hangout and every one after that. I see Jonathan and he waves with a small awkward smile.

Finally my eyes meet Eddie’s.

“James! James! C’mon, come outside and play with me!” It was nearing the end of summer before James would go back to school for his 8th grade year and I would be going into 6th grade.

“Not right now, can’t you see that I’m busy? I’m too old to play outside anyway,” my brother rolls his eyes.

I hop down the stairs so I can see the basement fully now. Spotting all of my brother's friends huddled around our dinky old card table while he has books and notepads sprawled on his end.

“Well, can I at least play your game with you guys? I’m sure I can learn it fast!” I beam, faking confidence in hopes to sway them.

“No offense, shortcake, but it’s probably too confusing for you. Besides, we’re right in the middle of a campaign, it would be too hard to add in another character out of the blue right now,” Eddie says with a chuckle, like the idea that I could play is too amusing to even consider.

Naturally, I take full offense.

“Fine! You’re all so annoying, I didn’t even want to play with you anyway. Especially not with someone who has a buzzcut!” I stick my tongue out at them and run away, but not before I can hear them laughing.

Sitting alone in my room I know it was childish of me, especially for my age. James was probably right, he was too old to be outside playing tag with his sister. I was too old to be throwing a tantrum like this over some friends wanting to spend time with each other without one’s little sister hanging around.

“Hey, Munson.”

Eddie nods his head in greeting and goes back to talking with Jonathan. Well, that’s honestly about as much interaction as I expected to get from him tonight.

“Alright, let’s get this party started!” Robin exclaims, dragging you toward the cooler filled with ice and drinks, I grab a Sprite to start with.

2 hours later and my Sprite is still mostly untouched and it’s now gone lukewarm. The others are in the pool splashing and playing chicken, I sit on the side with my feet dangling into the shallow end, watching as they fool around and laugh. Giggles and quiet laughs leave my lips on occasion with them.

“You should get in, the water’s really nice!” Nancy says.

“Yeah! Strip for us and get in here,” Robin adds, making everyone laugh.

“You guys just want to get me out of my clothes, don’t you?” I play it off, shaking my head slightly. Giggles erupt again. I excuse myself to the bathroom after pulling my legs out of the pool.

Closing and locking the door behind me I look at myself in the mirror.

‘I should just get in the pool, shouldn’t I? I do feel like I’m missing out on what could be a lot of fun. And it wouldn’t hurt to wash all this sweat off of me. I could just keep my shirt on, I have an extra change of clothes as backup anyway.’

I finish my business and leave the bathroom.

After turning the corner to go back to the pool I run straight into something firm, nearly being toppled over before hands are at my forearms to keep me from doing so. Seeing dark curls fanning across this “something’s” shoulders and several patches of dark ink on its bare skin, I immediately know I have just run head first into Eddie. Great.

“Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” I murmur, keeping my eyes pointed down.

“It’s alright, shortcake. No harm done right?” he says, adjusting his head to try to catch my eyes.

I nod my head and pull away from his hands that still rest gently on my arms.

“Hey, hey, what’s up? You’re so quiet tonight, is everything okay?”

I nod again and pull away harder, rushing out the door to get back to the pool, ignoring his call of my name and a request to “just hold on a second.”

Pulling my shorts off quickly, I step up to the pool and begin to wade into the water before Robin stops me.

“Your shirt! You don’t want the chlorine to ruin it!”

My heart thumps, thinking of how I can handle this. My mouth opens to say something but before I can, Robin cuts me off.

“Just take it off, no one’s gonna make fun of you for being in your swimsuit and if they do I’ll beat them up for you and then we’ll all collectively agree to throw them out of the group. And don’t try to tell me that’s not what it is, I can see it all over your face. You’re allowed to have fun and go swimming, I don’t like to see you excluding yourself, no matter the reason,” she says.

Of course she would see right through any lie I could throw her way. That’s just how Robin is. No matter how clumsy she can be, she really is observant. Not only that, but she’s right. Nobody cares and if they do, that’s their problem.

I rip off my shirt and dive into the pool trying to minimize the time in which people could see me without it. Immediately finding Steve’s legs I yank his ankles so he falls backwards into the water with an unnecessarily loud screech.

It makes the rest of us laugh loudly until Steve comes back up for air with a thirst for vengeance. He chases me around the pool, not for long considering he’s such a strong swimmer and I’m really not trying very hard to get away from him, and catches me easily. His arms wrap around my waist and I cringe as his hands nudge my stomach, scolding myself for the action right after. Steve doesn’t care about my stomach, if he did, he wouldn’t be my friend.

“That really wasn’t very nice,” Steve says and starts lifting me out of the water.

“Steve, hey. Steve! Steve, no, I’m too heavy! Stevie, no! Bad Stevie! Bad!”

I’m thrown in the air as far as he can get me and I splash back down.

I come up spluttering for breath, “Oh, you are so dead, Harrington!”

All at once the rest of us are splashing and dunking him over and over, until he pleads mercy. Shrieks and squeals of glee and what might be considered laughter fill the air as everyone gets their turn being thrown into the water.

Eddie comes back out from the house and cannonballs in the middle of our ‘hate on Steve’ fest.

Eventually I end up back on the side of the pool in my shirt with just my feet in, this time so I can enjoy a fresh soda and mellow out a little, not to make myself smaller. Nancy and Jonathan have called it a night already, leaving Steve, Eddie, and Robin in or by the pool with me.

“I never noticed this scar? Where did you get it?” Robin points to my knee.

The nice old librarian put a hand on my shoulder gently to get my attention, telling me the library would be closing soon and it was best I head home, I hadn’t realized how late it already was. I pack everything together as fast as I can, quickly saying goodnight and unlocking my bike, trying my hardest to race home before the sun sets.

The wheels of my rickety bicycle pump faster and faster and in my haste I bump over a high curb without realizing, flying off and onto the pavement.

Tears spring to my eyes as air is sucked in through my teeth. I take a look at my knee and see a small dribble of blood seeping down it, my hands have little scrapes all over, spotted with little beads of red.

Not the worst I could have gotten from a bike incident, but bad enough to keep me from being able to ride the rest of the way home. It’s not far, but so much for getting back before the street lights turn on.

About 15 minutes later I make it into our backyard, dropping the two wheeled contraption from hell into the grass and stumbling through the door, all while sniffling back sobs.

“Oh hey, shortcake! James was starting to get worried about you, you really shouldn’t walk alone at night yanno? Next time ju-” Eddie cuts himself off after seeing the state I’m in. Of course he had to be the one to see me like this. Anyone else could have been sent on snack duty tonight, but it just had to be him.

“Oh my god, what happened?” He walks up to me.

I shrug my shoulders and look away. I catch a glimpse of how bad my knees and hands have gotten on the walk home. Blood drips down both knees, my left knee looking significantly worse than the right. Dirt and pebbles cover my palms along with streaks of crimson.

“Don’t do that, sweetheart. Tell me what happened? Please?”

I still don’t say anything, fresh, hot tears welling up and already spilling out. I refuse to let stupid Eddie Munson see me like this, all it would be is more leverage to make fun of me with.

He pulls my hand gently until I’m sitting down. Eddie appears in front of me with a first aid kit a few seconds later, carefully cleaning the gashes on my knees and scrapes on my hands with alcohol wipes.

“Did,” he lets out a shuddering breath, “Did someone hurt you?”

“No, god no Eddie, I just-, god this is so embarrassing, I just fell off of my bike is all,” I mutter, not really wanting him to hear the words as they come out.

“S’ not embarrassing, stuff like that happens. I just wish you would have told me, here I was thinking the boys and I were going to have to band together to cause hell for our favorite little goblin,” he says.

“You’re just trying to make me feel better, you guys wouldn’t really do that, I guess James might. Most of you guys don’t even really like me that much anyway, you don’t have to lie,” I whisper.

“That’s not true! Of course we would stick up for you!” he says like he’s shocked that I would think the opposite.

I just shrug my shoulders again and wipe my eyes, still avoiding looking him in the face.

“Here, let me help you up to your room. That can’t feel good to walk on,” he pulls me up from the chair and goes to lift me into his arms. I jump out of his reach before he can.

“It’s okay, I got it. Just- you better get back downstairs before they start worrying. I’ll take care of myself.”

“What? No, you’re basically limping just standing here, shortcake, let me carry you, it’ll only take a minute?” He phrases it like a question. Asking but also sort of demanding.

The idea is actually really nice, and I want to say yes to it. It would be like when the prince finally gets the princess in all those books I’ve read. Eddie could sweep me off of my feet and whisk me away.

But I know better, I know that he wouldn’t be able to lift me. Even if he could he wouldn’t so much as glance at me, again, I’m just his friend's little sister. Here only because this is where she lives.

“No thank you, I’m okay. Go ahead and go back to your game, I’m sure they miss you already. Nobody would even notice if I were gone, but they’ll practically riot without you,” I try to cover how deeply I believe those words with a laugh as I wobble away and halfway up the stairs before he can stop me.

“Um, I guess I don’t really remember. It’s probably just one of those super old scars you forget are even there,” I say, even though I recall the night I got it vividly.

Eddie’s eyes meet mine from the other side of the pool and they look almost…hurt at the possibility that I might not remember that day. Well, he didn’t get to feel hurt about it. He made it clear that he doesn’t care how I feel when we were in the upside down.

“Hmmm, yeah, I have, like, tons of those actually,” Robin says, “This one is from my cat, Steven, and this one-”

“You have a cat named Steven?” I cut her off. She gives me a look that says ‘duh’.

“But what about Steve? Like human Steve? Was this before or after you became friends? And how has this never come up before?” I practically shriek.

“Believe me, it has come up before. And yes, before she tells you otherwise, it was after we became friends,” Steve says, settling down beside me while throwing his arm around my shoulders.

“That is not true! I found him outside the mall before we became friends! We may have been working together at that point, but we were not friends yet!” Robin shouts.

“We were friends, she’s just embarrassed that she named her cat after me,” Steve whispers in my ear, making me giggle like a schoolgirl.

Even though I’ve never seen Steve romantically, he still had the ability to reduce me to feet kicking and hair twirling.

“What’s wrong with you, Munson?” Steve asks, noticing the scowl covering his face that usually carries a bright smile.

Eddie shakes his head, “Nothing man, just thinking about how I don’t have a beer in my hand right now.”

A call of my name breaks my gaze away from the mirror.

“You almost ready? It’s time to go!” James yells, entering my room. “Hey! You look great! It almost feels like I’m sending you off to prom already,” he says wiping fake tears from his cheeks.

I shove him in the chest and readjust my hair and the straps to my dress for what feels like the millionth time. It was a rather simple looking thing considering I had to sew it myself since the only dresses even near my size were too far out of theme for the 8th grade Winter Snowball or they were simply just ugly.

Light blue and white fabric lays delicately across my shoulders and down to my knees, matched with white slip on shoes and silver snowflake jewelry.

“You look really nice, seriously. I know how nervous you are, but it’s gonna be okay, I promise,” my brother assures me, slapping my shoulder much harder than necessary to push me towards the door, “Now it’s time to get your butt moving, let’s go!”

When we arrive at the dance I immediately catch eyes with Robin and speed walk to her. James goes wherever he's needed for volunteering.

After about 45 minutes the first slow song of the night comes on as I sit contently by myself at the far end of the bleachers. I wasn’t sad to not be dancing with anyone, I was honestly sort of relieved that I hadn’t had to dance all night. But watching all the couples on the dance floor does make my heart ache just a little.

“I haven’t seen you dance all night, what’s that about?”

“Why are you here?”

“Ouch, shortcake, I don’t even get a hello? And what, I can’t come volunteer with your brother?” Eddie says, fake hurt painting his face.

“It just doesn’t seem like you, I guess.”

He sits down next to me leaving at least enough room for another person to sit between us. He hands me an unopened juice box.

“Seriously though, why aren’t you out there? You don’t have someone you wanna get cozied up with on the dancefloor?” He wiggles his eyebrows at me in his typical annoying Eddie way.

I roll my eyes, as my stomach twists with shame. He’s mocking me, isn’t he?

“Nope. I’m okay with it though. Honestly I was perfectly happy just sitting here. Until you showed up that is,” I say with a shrug.

“Oh really? Well, gosh, who made you such a sour fart?” he laughs as I push him in the arm.

“Alright, c’mon then. Pity party is over, let's go do this,” Eddie holds out his hand and raises a brow when all I do is look at it confused. “Let’s go dance, shortcake, you should at least once before it’s over.”

“Um- I-” I’m at a loss for words. There’s no way he’s being anything but friendly but my stupid heart skips too many beats to count.

“Here, I need to go check on James and see how the other volunteers are doing. While I take care of that, I want you to sit here and decide if you want to dance with me or not. Of course, I won’t make you do anything you don’t wanna, but if you’re up for it, I’m here,” he says, bouncing back to the drinks and snacks table. I smile giddily at his back and stay sitting.

By the time the last song of the night played I was still in the exact same spot I had been for nearly 2 hours, waiting for Eddie to come back.

Immediately after he left, I knew I wanted to dance with him. Of course I would. I’ve known him since I was in 4th grade and have had a crush on him for a year now. All I had to do was wait a few minutes and I would get to live out a fairytale dream. Dancing across the room in a flowey dress with the guy I liked. Of course it would be strictly platonic on his end but it could mean something more to me silently.

So there I sat, with my empty juice box, tapping my foot in excitement. The first slow song ended and there was no sign of Eddie, but I was sure he just caught up with volunteer work. After the next 3 songs played I began to doubt myself slightly.

‘Maybe he hadn’t actually wanted to dance like it had seemed. But he looked really sincere when asking me. Yeah. And even if Eddie is just a regular teenage boy, and he can definitely be a jerk sometimes, he’s much sweeter and kinder than most. He wouldn’t leave me hanging like that. He’ll be back any minute now, I’m sure.’

By the time 11 more songs had played, I knew he wasn’t coming back. Tears were smearing my mascara while I sat as still as possible on the bleachers, not wanting to draw any attention to myself.

Of course he wasn’t being serious. He just wanted to tease me like usual, the only difference was this time it went too far. This time he was cruel about it. He could have just told me he didn’t mean it. Instead he strung me along and had me sitting here like a lovesick puppy for an hour straight.

Who was I kidding? Eddie couldn’t be interested in me. He was my brother's best friend and had seen me grow up. I was just his friend’s chubby little sister. Wearing a dress that doesn’t sparkle and shine like all the others’, sitting alone and pouting like a baby.

He probably thought I would crush his feet if I accidentally stepped on them.

After persevering through another hour of horror, James finds me in my corner ready to head home.

“All ready to go?” he asks jovially like he always seems to be.

“Yes.”

James picks up on my mood right away, but I’m already halfway to the car before he can say anything.

“Okay, uh, I gotta clean up some stuff still but here,” he throws me his car keys when I turn back around, “Go get the car started yeah?”

I nod and head out to the car when I see Eddie jogging up to the doors after me. My steps speed up hoping for all hell to avoid him. He calls my name but I don’t look back or slow down, in fact, the only thing it succeeds in doing is making me walk faster.

My hands shake as I try to slip the key into the driver’s side door handle. Warm hands settle on my wrists.

“Holy shit, I am so sorry, shortcake. I was so excited to dance with you, I really was, I just got caught up in helping another volunteer with something and lost track of time. I didn’t mean to forget you there all alone, I swear on everything. I know how excited you were for tonight and I am so sorry. I didn’t realize how long I had been gone until everyone started leaving and then I saw you get up and realized what I’d done, please forgive me,” he rambles off almost too quickly to understand.

I expect tears but all I get is a deep rooted feeling of shame and anger. Ashamed by the fact that I thought he would come back and angry at myself for sitting there hopelessly when I could’ve danced with Robin at least.

“Please, look at me. Please tell me you at least got to dance with someone else, right? You had a good time? Please tell me you at least had fun,” he pleads.

A scoff escapes me as I whirl on him.

“No, I didn’t dance with someone else, I sat there and I waited for you. I waited for you the whole time, and I guess that was my first mistake wasn’t it, huh? I believed you. I really thought you meant what you said to me.”

I rip my arms out of hold.

“You know what’s funny, too? I was actually having a really good time before you showed up. I told you as much earlier, even. I was perfectly happy to sit by myself, considering that’s how I spend most of my time anyway. I was really enjoying just watching the lights and the twirl of dresses, alone. I was overjoyed to just sit and watch Robin dance with her friends. And you had to come and- and lie to me! You made me feel special for fuck’s sake.”

His eyes flash with guilt and he must have finally realized how much he hurt me.

“I get that I’m not the prettiest and skinniest girl and I know that most of those kids don’t even know my name, but you do! You know me. You know me and you still forgot about me,” I pause and take a deep breath, “Do you remember what I said that night when I fell off my bike?”

Eddie shakes his head.

“Nobody would even notice if I were gone. Nobody, not even you, I guess. You forgot about me not even 5 minutes after making me feel like the most special girl in that whole damn room. And that was really mean, Eddie. I hope you, at least, have a good rest of your night,” I step into the car and start the engine.

Steve plops down next to me holding 4 cans of beer, one for each of us.

“I’m really happy I came tonight, thank you, for inviting me and not forgetting about me after I kinda disappeared,” I say quietly.

Steve pats my back while Robin says something along the lines of ‘duh, of course we would never forget about you.’

Eddie stays silent, watching me closely.

I put my drink on the ground beside me and lay on my back, pulling my shirt down to make sure it covers me still. I start to count the stars, just to keep my brain occupied. My eyes drift shut, my mind choosing to visit yet another memory tonight.

It was James’ graduation party. All we had were a couple tables set up with snacks in the backyard and a bonfire, nothing too fancy. I made a simple ‘Happy Graduation!’ banner to hang across the gate for everyone to see, too.

I’m wearing a plain white sundress and converse, I knew I would be running back and forth from the backyard and the kitchen too much for heels to be sensible. Making sure there’s enough drinks and food and ice for everyone was my job tonight. The sun is still up, melting the ice and warming every drink out here.

James calls my name softly, “You can quit running around and tending to every little need. Come hang out with everyone for a little bit. Please?”

I set down the metal tub where drinks are kept and walk over to sit around the fire with him and his usual friends. New faces have popped up over the years, but many stayed the same. Danny Williams, a junior who may or may not have been my first kiss when we happened to both show up at the same party and ended up playing spin the bottle together, Jason Carver, a freshman who appeared promising on the football team before switching to basketball instead, Michael Brown, a senior who’s been in the little Hellfire Group since the beginning. There are several others I don’t recognize and even more that I do.

Of course, Eddie is there too. I just haven’t really…acknowledged him in…in a really long time.

I haven’t necessarily been giving him the silent treatment, but I stopped entertaining the conversations he always seemed to start with me.

Danny greets me with a smile as he sits down next to me. He even pulls his lawn chair a little closer towards mine, grinning slightly while doing so.

“What can I do for you Danny?” I say.

“Oh nothing. I just wanted to come sit by you, is all.” Huh. That…that sort of stumps me.

I didn’t think Danny would even recognize me at the party, and I’m honestly even more surprised that he wanted to talk to me after kissing me. We make small conversation, butting into the rest of the group's discussion once in a while to add an opinion.

Night had fallen and marshmallows and graham crackers were brought out for s'mores, as well as a couple of 12 packs of beer that someone had brought with them.

I knew James had gone to several parties to celebrate winning a football game where there had been alcohol, or even just little get-togethers where it was provided. I guess now that it was only soon-to-be seniors and high school graduates, minus myself, left at the party it was time for that portion of the night to begin.

I stand up to go in and let the others have their fun.

“Where’re you going?” Danny asks, grabbing my hand lightly, looking up with wide puppy dog eyes. His eyes are a pretty green color. Brown eyes have always been my favorite, though.

“Oh, I was just going to head in and call it a night. That way you all could have your fun without worrying about me dragging you down.”

My comment makes his brows furrow, his mouth opens to say something, but he’s cut off.

“You can stay out here, you know. No one minds having you here and I’m sure dear old James doesn’t care if you partake in a little drink, do you?” Eddie states. When did he get so close to us?

“Even if I did care she gets to do what she wants, man. As long as you're safe about it, go for it,” James says, patting my back and taking one for himself.

I’ve never drank before, but what the hell? James was leaving in just a few weeks now and this might be my only chance to try it. It’s certainly one of my last chances to hang out with everyone like this, at least for a while.

After just 2 cans my tongue had already loosened significantly. Danny and I had been talking and giggling the whole time until he had gotten up to go home since his designated driver was ready to leave.

“So, you and Danny seem pretty close suddenly?” Eddie phrases it like a question, wanting more information on the subject.

Usually I would just hum in what could be taken as agreement or disinterest but my mind was running a little slower than normal.

“Yeah, he and I kinda ran into each other at a party that I kinda crashed with Robin and we ended up, like, kissing and stuff,” I giggled. “But shhhh, don’t tell anyone else.”

Eddie’s eyes widened, but that could have been a trick of the light.

“What, uh, what do you mean by ‘and stuff’?”

“Oh nothing. We just had one teensy tiny kiss because we were playing spin the bottle,” I say, not really thinking about it.

Now I really know my brain is playing tricks on me because for a second I think Eddie looks pleased with this new knowledge that it didn’t really mean anything.

“I feel like we haven’t really talked in a long time. What’s, uh, what’s been up, lately?”

The question itself is awkward, but the way he struggled through it made it even more awkward.

“I’ve been regular old me, Eddie. Nothing new or exciting. Although I did finish a book last night that really threw me through a loop. Oh! Actually there is something exciting! Do you wanna hear it?”

He smiles, “Of course I do, shortcake.”

“Well,” I take another sip of what is now my third beer, “William Gillar and Stacy Johnson have finally graduated!” I let out a squeal.

Eddie just looks at me confused.

“Do you have any idea what this means, Eds? I am finally free of those two asshats for the rest of my high school experience! Isn’t that amazing! I mean, it was easier to ignore this year than last year, but god I am so thrilled! No more mean notes from them calling me a pig in my locker and book bag, I can even finally find a table to sit at for lunch instead of hiding in Mr. Steerwell’s class,” I sigh happily.

“Do you wanna know what else they did? This is so silly! They used to catch me on my walk home from school and steal my library books. How stupid is that? Why would you steal someone’s library books, right? They would run around with it so I would chase after them and then laugh at how my body would jiggle. How funny, right? I am so happy they’re gone, Eds, you have no idea.”

Eddie has his mouth halfway open, anger flaring in his eyes. But that couldn’t be right, why would he care about a couple of high school bullies.

“No, that’s not funny or silly. That’s been going on this whole time? And you didn’t tell anyone? God, why wouldn’t you tell someone, sweetheart? That’s horrible,” he says.

“Meh, it’s just normal high school bully stuff.” I wave my hand in dismissal.

“No, it’s not. Bullying shouldn’t even be considered normal anyway, but what they did to you? That goes far beyond normal, shortcake. I wish you would have said something. You know James and I would’ve taken care of them for you, right?”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter now, does it. It’s too late,” I dismiss him and his misplaced worry. Honestly, it was nothing I couldn’t handle. He must have sensed how much I didn’t want to talk about it anymore because he dropped it.

The night moves quickly after that, people say their goodbyes as James takes over clean up duty, considering I can barely stand up without nearly falling asleep.

“Eddie, will you take her in and make sure she gets into bed okay?” James asks.

That’s how I find myself being semi-dragged up the stairs to my bedroom and thrown on the mattress like a sack of potatoes. I don’t think Eddie was half as rough as my brain made it seem, to be honest.

“Eds?” I whisper looking down at Eddie who’s kneeling by feet, gently taking my shoes off.

“Yeah?”

A couple beats of silence pass where I try to figure out how to word what I’m thinking.

“I forgive you.” His movements stop. “I hope you know that. It’s probably such a silly little thing to even remember but I forgive you for forgetting to dance with me. I probably would have forgotten me, too. And…and I am sorry. I really am, for pushing you away so hard after. It was really stupid of me and I wish I hadn’t. Robin is a good friend, but you’re kind of the closest thing I’ve ever had to a best friend, I think. And I threw that all away over hurt feelings. Puberty, am I right?” I giggle.

“S’ not silly to remember that. And you weren’t being stupid, sweetheart. You were hurt, you were protecting yourself and I don’t blame you for that. I should never have even walked away from you that night, but I did. And I don’t deserve your forgiveness for it,” Eddie says.

More words mumble out of his mouth but none of it registers. Soon the noise stops and I feel Eddie’s warm hands pull my shoes all the way off, pushing my legs onto the bed and turning me to lay comfortably on my stomach.

He must remember that’s my favorite way to sleep.

My mind must really hate me because I swear, right before I fall asleep, I feel lips pressing gently to my forehead while a guitar calloused hand pushes hair away from my eyes.

Of course, that didn’t actually happen because that’s not something Eddie would do. Right? Yeah, he wouldn’t…

A timid shake to my shoulder pulls me from my dozing.

“Hey, shortcake, it’s time for you to go in.”

There’s only one person who’s ever called me by that nickname.

“Hm, it’s been a while since you’ve called me that…Eds.”

I don’t know what made me decide to use his nickname. It never seemed right to use it after we drifted so far apart when James left.

Eddie helps pull me to my feet.

‘Hmmm, he’s always been a lot stronger than he looks. I barely even lifted myself up for him.’

“Oh, now you wanna be all friendly again? Using a nickname and everything? What’s this all about, huh?” Eddie says, steadying me with his calloused hands when my legs wobble.

My brows furrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Earlier, when we were in the house. You practically ran away from me. I mean, it’s just that we…we haven’t seen each other since we went into the upside down. I thought maybe,” he lets out a long breath. “Maybe things had changed or something, I guess. I was hoping we could talk about it after we all got out but you’ve been avoiding everyone.”

“And why is that? Why do you think things would have changed Eddie?”

“No! No, no, no! Edward Munson, if you cut that rope, so help me god!”

“You know I always love when you use my full name.”

And the bastard cuts the rope.

The next thing I know, he’s out of the trailer doing something entirely too heroic and the exact amount of stupid he always is.

Before I can think I shove Dustin out of the trailer, the one not in the upside down, and send him to go help Lucas.

“No! We need to help him! Can’t you see that he needs help!”

“I know Dustin, I know. That’s why I’m staying here. But I need you to go find Lucas and Erica and check on Max. There are others who still need our help, Henderson. Please, listen to me and go help them.”

I turn back into the trailer before he can disagree again, locking the door to make sure he doesn’t follow. Without second guessing, I jump through the portal, landing somewhat safely on my side.

I manage to find a bike and just a few minutes later I’m riding as fast as I can towards the bat tornado that Eddie stands in the middle of.

“Eddie you dumb jerk, you better not be getting yourself killed!” I scream at the top of my lungs. His eyes catch mine as a look of horror crosses his face.

“Why the hell did you follow me? I specifically told you not to!”

“Yeah, well I specifically told you not to cut the rope!”

We fight off the bats as best we can until they all suddenly drop to the ground.

Eddie and I stand breathing hard, our brains trying to catch up with all of what just happened. Eddie turns to me, a grin beginning to form.

I punch him as hard as I can in the chest. And then I do it again, and then again and again, until I’m pounding my fists against his chest over and over again.

“What the hell?! Honey, stop, you’re gonna hurt yourself!”

I choke on hiccupping sobs as hot tears overflow past my lashes.

“Don’t you ever do something like that again! Ever!”

Eddie grabs my wrists to keep me from hitting him anymore. I keep trying until I realize his hold on me is too strong.

“Princess, you gotta stop. I don’t want to see you hurt anymore, please stop.”

He wraps his arms around me, stroking the back of my hair, pressing soft kisses to my forehead.

“It’s okay, sweetheart, it’s okay. We’re okay, I promise.”

“That was not okay, Eddie. Not okay!” I tell him looking up into his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I really am. But look, we did it!”

He looks down at me thoughtfully. His eyes flit down to my lips. My breath catches.

He couldn’t possibly be…

His lips are on mine. And Eddie Munson is kissing me.

Both of his hands are on the side of my face, rubbing his thumbs softly across the apples of my chubby cheeks.

I pull away, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Kissing my shortcake,” he says with a smirk while I grimace at the phrase. He laughs at the face I make and kisses me again.

I kiss back harder this time, getting lost in all things Eddie. The way his hair feels soft even despite being so dirty. His lips are somehow minty. He smells like smoke and old books.

My heart soars. This has to be proof, then. Eddie must think of me the way I think of him. I can’t imagine ever kissing someone with this much passion if it didn’t mean something more. I smile into the kiss.

Footsteps sound behind where we stand and Eddie pushes me off of him, placing several feet between us. I look at him confused and hurt by his sudden change in behavior. He refuses to meet my eyes. He even wipes the back of his hand across his mouth, looking straight ahead at Steve, Robin and Nancy appearing in front of us.

Oh.

He’s too embarrassed to let his new friends see him with the big girl? Is that what it is? Does he suddenly regret kissing me? Was it just a heat of the moment type of deal, then? I was the closest human thing, so he settled on me for a little ‘yay the world didn’t end’ kiss?

In my whole life, I don’t think anything has hurt as much as that did.

An uncomfortable amount of silence fills the air..

“Things got weird after James left, but you know that. We both felt it, even though we tried to ignore it. Jason started to act like he ran the damn school even though we were friends at one point. I never saw you because we were never at your house anymore. Then I got held back and we basically had every class together. Then I got held back again and you graduated. I missed you. I really, really missed you,” he says the last part quietly. Almost like he was afraid for me to hear it. I hold back a scoff.

“I missed you so much, it’s ridiculous. I just wanted my shortcake back. My sweetheart, my princess, my honey,” he laughs to himself, I stay quiet. “God, I was such a jerk to you growing up. And not because ‘I had a crush on you’ because that’s bullshit, guys shouldn’t be allowed to be mean to girls with the excuse of it being ‘romantic’. I wish I had treated you better, been a little friendlier. I never realized how much you meant to me until your brother’s graduation.”

He takes his eyes away from his feet to glance at me.

“Do you remember that night? It was your first time drinking and you got so sleepy I had to tuck you into bed. You had told me about you and Danny at that party and it made me jealous. I’d never really felt jealous before, certainly not like that at least. It made me realize how deep my feelings for you went.”

I remain silent, partly because I didn’t want to interrupt him when this is the most honest and vulnerable he’s ever been, out of respect, and partly because I was utterly confused and angered by what he was saying and claiming.

“You forgave me for leaving you alone at the dance, even though I never deserved to be forgiven for that. I didn’t even know how badly you were being bullied at school until you told me, that’s not a person who deserves to be forgiven.”

A soft laugh and a pause. “I guess what I’m saying is…is I wish things had, in fact, changed after Vecna. And I know, that’s probably not something you want to hear because I know it’s not the same for you but I figure if you’re not gonna talk to me anyway, I may as well tell you, right?”

He takes a step towards the house but I don’t let him get far.

“What do you mean it’s ‘not the same for me’?”

“Well obviously you’ve been ignoring me since I kissed you so, clearly it wasn’t something you wanted.” He shrugs his shoulders. “And that’s okay. I’m not saying you have to be with me or anything, I’m just saying…I don’t know what I’m saying.”

“I’ve been ignoring you?” I ask, dumbfounded by his idiocy.

“Well, yeah. You haven’t even been answering the walkie.”

“And you think that was because I didn’t want to kiss you? Not because, oh, I don’t know, maybe the fact that the second Nance and the others showed up you shoved me away from you? It couldn’t have been because it was obvious you couldn’t stand the thought of being seen with me?”

Eddie’s face drains of color.

“I can’t help but see now that this is all you think I deserve. A quick kiss when no one can see, right? A little making out before someone can figure who you’re with, huh?”

“No! That is not at all what that was! I can’t believe you would think that. I pushed you away so you wouldn’t be seen with me!” he shouts, cutting me off.

“What?”

“The whole town wanted me for murder! Murder! They thought I was running a cult that killed my friend as a sacrifice! My friend! I didn’t want you to be tied to that anymore than you already were, so I pushed you off before the others could see. If someone, somehow went yapping about a girlfriend of mine and things went sideways when we got out of the upside down, you might have gone down with me and I couldn’t let that happen. I just couldn’t. I was going to tell you all of this as soon as I could but you never let me get the chance, and I see why now. I am so sorry it looked like I was embarrassed to be with you, but that will never be the case with me.”

He takes my face in his hands and looks me directly in the eyes.

“You are single-handedly the most beautiful person I have ever met. Inside and out. You have always cared for me and the old Hellfire Club. Don’t think I didn’t know it was you sending cookies on our campaign nights, even after graduating. I remember when I showed up at your house looking for James because some older kids had taken my lunch money in middle school, little you went after them yourself and did one helluva job doing it. You sat me down and cleaned me up. Gave me peas to put on my forehead.”

It was like a forgotten memory was just pulled up by his words, I did remember that.

“I could never be embarrassed by you, ever. I don’t care what people think. I…I love you. And I love your hair, and I love your eyes, and I love your laugh, and I love your stomach and your thighs, and I love your mind. I love you and I hope you can see it. I hope…I hope you can see me,” he finishes off in a very quiet whisper, tilting his head down and away from my eyes.

I place my hands over his that still hold my face.

“I have always seen you, Eddie Munson. Always.”

His head jolts up to look me in the eyes once more.

“God, Eddie, I’m so sorry. I know you’re not a horrible person, I should have known, I’m so sorry. God, you were literally being hunted for murder and I was crying about you being embarrassed by me? I’m so fucking sorry.”

I shake my head and take a deep breath.

“I love you, I have for so long. I love the way you smile, I love the way you’re not afraid to take up space, I love the way you’re there for Dustin, the way you were there for me countless times. I love you and your horrible music.”

“Hey, now. Watch it.”

I laugh, “I love you and I see you and I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re forgiven, I promise. You didn’t even really need to apologize in the first place.”

“Yes, I did. Because none of that was fair to you.”

“And none of that was fair to you, shortcake. It’s okay.”

I look at his lips, and that’s all the cue Eddie needs to kiss me. Finally. We put our hearts into it, getting lost in each other. Getting lost in our sudden understandings of the other.

“We’re both really kinda stupid aren’t we? Stupid and oblivious,” I say, chuckling quietly.

“Oh, definitely. I mean, we’ve known each other for, what, at least ten years and we couldn’t figure this out without a bunch of drama?”

“It seems very on brand for you actually, you’ve always been one for the dramatics.”

“I love you.”

“And I love you.”

#eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x chubby reader #eddie munson x plus size reader #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #stranger things #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson angst #my boyfriend eddie #my writing

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leasstories · 6 months

Text

Opposites attract

Eddie Munson x bookworm!reader (GN but at some point reader wears a skirt)

WC: ≈ 6K

Trigger Warning : SA, mention of grief

"YN YLN, thank you so much for coming to my office. I'd like you to tutor Mr Munson. He's been a Senior for 3 years now and I think he could benefit from tutoring by our brightest student." Says the headmaster.

"Of course, I'll do what I can. When will the tutoring take place?" You ask

"You and Mr Munson can choose when, I'd like you to tutor him at least twice a week." The headmaster answers.

You nod and then politely salute the headmaster before heading out. On your way, you cross path with Eddie who is probably heading to the headmaster, you smile at him. He seems surprised but give you a huge smile back.

You head to the cafeteria and sit on your own as everyday. You unpack your lunch and take your book out of your bag. You start reading while eating. You are so much into the story that you don't see Eddie sitting across from you. You notice him after a few minutes and hear him say. "Earth to YN"

You raise your head and put your book down before saying "Oh sorry. What brings you here?"

"To be honest, the principal" Eddie answers.

"Oh !” You say, your mouth forming an “o” shape “you want to talk about the tutoring. Listen I won't do your homework for you, I am willing to help you, not work for you." You say with much assurance.

"Wow, YN YLN I don't recognize you" says Eddie giggling before continuing "No I want you to tutor me for real. This year, I'm gonna graduate. This is my year, I can feel it. '86 baby." He says in a very theatrical way.

You smile at his goodwill and motivation.

"So when will our tutoring take place?" Eddie asks, grinning

"I'm free on Tuesday and Friday nights and on the week-ends" you answer

"'Kay, well Friday won't be possible because I play with my band but Tuesday and Saturday sounds good to me."

"You are in a band?" You ask intrigued

"Don't you remember, junior high ? You wrote a beautiful poem and I played with my band..."

"Corroded coffin!" You cut Eddie off

"Corroded coffin" he confirms

"This band still exists?" You ask intrigued

"Yeah, we're playing at the Hideout on Friday's. We have a huge crowd... composed of five drunk middle aged men" Eddie giggles before continuing "you should come see us once"

"If tutoring works well I'll think about it" you say in order to motivate Eddie for tutoring.

"It will" Eddie says motivated

"Where will I tutor you?" You ask

"DnD room on Tuesdays and my secret spot or my trailer on Saturdays?" Eddie asks

"Works for me, you just have to tell me where exactly is your secret spot" You answer

"Meet me on the parking lot on Saturday. And tomorrow we'll meet in my Hellfire room" Eddie says

"See you tomorrow!" You say

"See ya Sweetheart" Eddie answers

You blush at the nickname and feel all flustered. You're thinking : 'He called ME Sweetheart.'

You've always found Eddie attractive but to be honest he scared you a bit. But after this encounter, you noticed that Eddie was nothing like you imagined, he is funny and sweet and for the first year ever he really seems motivated to graduate.

Tuesday, 5pm,

You're waiting for Eddie inside the Hellfire room, you look at the posters from the previous campaigns. DnD really makes you think of your fantasy books. You read with attention all of the campaigns pinned on the wall when a voice pulls you from your thoughts.

"What are you doing here?" It is Gareth, one of the Hellfire club members who always hangs out with Eddie.

"I'm waiting for Eddie, I was supposed to meet him here." You answer

Gareth looks at you shocked "You YN YLN are going to buy from Eddie?!"

You see Eddie arrive behind Gareth, he stops and say "No idiot, YN is tutoring me"

Gareth turns around and look at Eddie confused "Tutoring you?"

"Tutoring me." Eddie repeats before adding "Told y'a, this year is my year and I'm gonna graduate."

Gareth smiles at you and then at Eddie "Cool" he answers before adding "I'm letting you work" he then gets out of the room looking back multiple times.

"Sorry about that" Eddie says rubbing his neck.

"It's fine" you answer smiling before asking "What do we start with? Maths?"

"As you wish Sweetheart" Eddie answers. Again, you blush at the nickname.

Eddie takes a all used up notebook with "Math" written in the cover. You go to flip the pages when Eddie stops you

"Sorry sweetheart, there is no math in there, just drawings and ideas for DnD campaigns." He explains.

'Tutoring him won't be easy' you think.

"But I'm willing to work and make this tutoring work" he adds after seeing your panicked expression.

You take your math notebook out, it is the opposite of Eddie's : all clean and full of notes. You open it to your last lesson and hand it to Eddie before saying "Okay, we're gonna start by you reading and re-writing the lesson and then I'll explain it to you" you say, full of confidence. Eddie smiles at seing you like this, confident. Usually you look really self-conscious, lonely and shy, seeing you tutoring is a real changement, you are confident in what you're doing and that makes Eddie happy.

"What ?" You say when you see Eddie staring at you

"You're just... different from what I had imagined" he says

"In a good or bad way?" You ask shyly, a bit afraid by the answer

"In a very good way" Eddie says while taking his pencil case in his bag "I thought you'd be less talkative, more shy"

"I thought you'd be different too" you add

"Mean and scary?" Eddie asks

You get up from your chair to go read Eddie's previous campaigns "Mean and scary" you repeat in a hush tone.

Eddie starts writing the lesson in his notebook while you read Eddie's previous campaigns. They are really well written which is surprising coming from Eddie, he has a true potential, reading how he wrote his campaigns, seeing all of his imagination made you believe in him. While reading the campaigns you can hear Eddie sigh, getting up and sitting back down all over again.

"You don't seem to be focused" you say with a joking tone

"First of all I don't understand what I'm writing, second of all, I don't see the point of maths, of school to be honest." Eddie answers honestly but also frustrated.

You reach for his hand because he can't stop fidgeting, before saying "Hey, it's okay, you can do it".

He smiles at you but doesn't seems convinced so you add "I can explain the lesson to you now, if you want"

"Sure"

You start explaining the lesson to him but he still doesn't seem 100% focused so you stop and gently ask "What is on your mind ?"

"Everything except maths" he answers while looking in your eyes

You blush when you notice.

After several hours of you trying to explain and Eddie being un-focused every five minutes, you call it a night.

"Want me to drop you off at yours ?" Eddie asks

"Sure" you answer.

You head to Eddie's van, he open the passenger seat for you before saying Your chariot awaits" while gesturing for you to climb on the passenger seat.

You give him the directions to your home, once you are about 2 minutes away from your home he stops the car before saying "Do you want me to drop you off here so the neighbors don't ask too many question on why the 'Freak' is bringing back home the 'Brain of Hawkins'"

You wince at the nickname "Eddie, I'm not ashamed of being brought back home by you, besides, for me you're not a Freak." You take your stuff and open the door, once you're out of the car and add "But apparently to you I'm only "the Brain" or the "bookworm" of Hawkins High" you slam the car door and run towards your house, tears in your eyes. You can hear Eddie get out of the car, following you and screaming apologizes, but you can't look back, he hurt you bad.

Eddie's POV:

Once you slammed the door shut, Eddie gets out of the car. Once out he sees you running and that's when he understands he messed things up. He didn't mean it like that, you're more than "The Brain" as he said. To him, you're a beautiful, smart and kind person. Eddie really likes you. Eddie cares about you, he even maybe have a crush on you. That's why he decided to run after you and scream "YN, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that, please wait YN" he stops running after a minute, out of breath. He hears the door to your house shut and mumbles "shit shit shit". Eddie goes back to his car and drives back home, thinking about how to make it up to you. He thought about buying you his favorite book, the only book he ever read in its entirety, but he was afraid you'd take it as an insult too. Instead he wrote you a letter.

Your POV:

You get in the house, you live alone since last year, when your dad passed away. Your mom is the total opposite of you, she is a model and always has to travel, that's why you live alone. You run upstairs, in your room and slams the door shut. You lay down and take a pillow, you squeeze it, close to your chest and start crying. You wonder why Eddie said that, you wonder what he really thinks of you. Are you really just a bookworm? Usually you don't care about being called like this, but from Eddie, it hurts. You thought he'd never do that to you, you thought he'd understand what it's like to be an outcast. But it also hurt beyond that, you like him, you really like him. You end up crying yourself to sleep.

The next morning, you wake up late, when you see 7:20 on the alarm clock you mutter "shit shit shit!"

You put on a shirt and a skirt and head out of your house. You practically run to school as you have no car. Once you arrive, you see Eddie put something in your locker, it looks like a note. You wait for him to leave before heading to your locker. Once he left, you open your locker and see a small note all folded in your locker, on the back of it Eddie wrote 'Read it please'. You take your stuff, put the note in your pocket in order to read it in between this class and your next class. As you are the last one to arrive in class, the only desk left is next to Eddie, in the back of the class. You sit down and see Eddie smiling at you. 'What should I do? Smile back? If I smile back he'll think I forgot what happened yesterday which is not the case, but if I don't I'll seem rude' and you keep overthinking for a few minutes until you feel Eddie gently hitting your shoulder. You raise your head and see the teacher looking at you, surprised that you didn't answer to the question.

"Sorry" you say "May I go to the toilets?"

The teacher look at you concerned before answering "Yes, yes of course. Do you need someone to come with you? Are you alright?"

Eddie also looks at you with concern but his eyes soften when you answer "No, I can go all alone, I'm okay"

You get up from your chair and go to the bathroom. You lock yourself in the toilet and take Eddie's note from your pocket. You unfold it and read it. It says :

I'm so sorry for yesterday, I didn't mean what I said, what I meant was that I don't want you to be in trouble because you hang out with me. I really like the person you are and it wasn't in my intention to hurt your feelings. I know I can't take back what I said but I hope you can forgive me. If you're willing to talk about it, meet me at the bench in the forest during lunch break. Hope to see ya

Eddie M.

You sob at Eddie's words, yes he hurt you bad but at least he didn't mean it, this brings you joy and you're willing to talk things through. You go back to class but spend the hour un-focused, thinking about Eddie, what he said yesterday, what he wrote in the letter.

For the first time ever in your life, you're un-focused all morning long. Once the lunch bell rings, you hurry to the forest. You know this conversation with Eddie won't be the most pleasant one, but you need it. You need it if you want to build a friendship (or more), you need it if you want tutoring to go well.

You arrive to the forest and sit on the bench, you take your comfort book out and start reading it to appease your nerves. You're so much into the story that you jump when you feel someone sit next to you. You start to say "Hi” when you realize it isn't Eddie.

"What is the bookworm of Hawkins High doing all alone in the forest, furthermore where drug deals take place?" Says Jason while looking at your skirt. You didn't notice it but you put on one of your mom's miniskirt.

"First of all get your eyes off of her." You hear Eddie say from behind. His eyes are far from the soft eyes he has with you.

"The pariah defends another pariah" Jason says, chuckling while getting up.

You see that Eddie's about to take him by the collar so you get up and take his hand, in order to calm him. It works until Jason speaks again.

"What was the bet ? Deflower Hawkins high very own solitary and boring bookworm?"

This time, it is too much for Eddie, he let go off your hand and take Jason by the collar. "Never, ever again talk about YN like that" Eddie says, angry.

Jason laugh, unimpressed by Eddie's sudden change of behavior. You go to Eddie and put your hand on his shoulder, you can sense he is tensed. "Eddie, please, let him go. He doesn't worth it" you say.

Eddie releases Jason after two minutes of thinking. Jason leaves, hands on his pockets.

You and Eddie sit on the bench, in silence. You can see Eddie is still tensed and pissed off by your encounter with Jason, probably by what he said. It warmed your heart to see Eddie take your defense, even though you were scared, not of him, but for him. Nobody ever won a fight against Jason.

"I'm sorry if I scared you" Eddie says

You smile and put your hand on his.

"Thank you, for defending me" you say

"I couldn't stand him talk shit about you like this. And when I called you 'The Brain of Hawkins High' I didn't mean it like it was all you were. It is not. You're a beautiful, strong and kind person YN." Eddie says, smiling while he compliments you.

"I'm not ashamed of you, I'm not afraid of people picking up on me because I'm your friend" you say

"So we are friends?" Eddie says with a grin

You become really self-conscious of what you said, maybe he doesn't see you as a friend, maybe he only sees you as the smart person who is tutoring him.

"Sorry, forget what I said, it was dumb of me, we only have been talking for 2 days and... I'm sorry Eddie, it's just..." Eddie cuts your rambling.

"I want to be your friend" he says, putting a reassuring hand on your shoulder. You smile.

Eddie lights up a joint before saying. "I have a gift for you, but please don't take it the wrong way and before you say anything let me explain why I chose to offer you this"

"Okay..." you say, a bit of worry in your voice.

Eddie rummages through his bag before handing you a book, it is all used up but you don't mind. You look at the title, it says 'The Hobbit'

"I saw you reading through my campaigns and you seemed to like it... so I decided to give you a book from my favorite saga. It is all used up because it was my copy, there are even funny annotations I wrote... I hope you'll like it. Tolkien's books are the only ones I managed to finish" he says with a chuckle at the end.

You're tearing up at the small attention and manage to say "I'll read it as fast as possible so you can have it back as soon as possible"

"No, no Sweetheart, this is a gift" he answers

"But it is your favorite book, I know what it is to have a favorite book... I don't want you to miss it" you answer

"If I miss it too much I'll buy it again, don't worry" he answers, shrugging.

"But-" Eddie cuts you off

"No buts, I want you to have it" Eddie says

"Then thank you" you say with a smile

You get up and go hug Eddie, you can't see it but Eddie blushes while hugging you back.

Then, the both of you head to class. You have math and decide to sit next to Eddie. While you seat you tell him.

"If you need help, don't hesitate to ask me"

"Thank you" he whispers back.

Eddie spends the whole class un-focused and you can see it. Sometimes, you try to draw his focus back to the class, but it doesn't really work because 5 minutes later he is un-focused again. Sometimes, you can spot him glance at you, but you pretend you never saw it, Eddie and you will never be more than friend, right?

The bell rings and you go to your locker, you take your stuff, close your locker and head out of the school when you feel arms around your shoulders, you turn to the person and see it is Jason. You know he is taking interest on you just to piss Eddie off, besides, you've never liked the guy, he and his friends have been harassing you since middle-school.

Jason takes your hand forcefully and leads you to a janitor closet. You're shaking, understanding what he wants to do. His words from earlier 'Deflower Hawkins high very own solitary and boring bookworm' run through your head. Jason's hands goes under your miniskirt and he starts putting his hands under your panties. "Dirty mind, that's what you wanted. Look at how you are dressed" he says. You're shaking hard. Behind the closed door you can hear Eddie's voice, close to the janitor closet, that's when you decided to scream and bang at the door.

Eddie's POV:

After class, he went to the bathroom. He wanted to spend time with you but when he got out, you were nowhere to be seen.

He spotted Gareth and Jeff and went to them. They were talking about DnD and how they can win the current campaign.

Eddie stayed silent the whole time which is totally unusual for him. His friends look at him, concerned.

Gareth is the first one to speak "Is everything okay Eddie?"

"Sorry man, I was thinking about... nothing" Eddie can't tell his friends about you, he would sound stupidly cheesy which is the opposite of who he is. He was never one to be interested in being in a romantic relationship before. Of course he happened to fuck with people sometimes, but he never thought about anyone the way he thinks about you. He doesn't only wants to have sex with you, he wants to get to know you, to make you smile and laugh. He wants to take things slow. He wants to take you out on dates.

"You're falling hard man" Jeff says

"What?" Eddie says. They approach the janitor closet and right before any of the guys could answer, they hear a scream and banging at the door. Eddie would recognize this voice at any time. His heart starts racing at the thought of you in danger and he runs to the door and open it. When he opens the door, he finds Jason pinning you to the wall, his hands under you skirt. Tears are falling down your cheeks.

Eddie doesn't think twice before taking Jason by the shirt and throwing him to the ground. He wants to make him pay, he is about to hit Jason when his eyes land on you.

Your POV:

Jason had his hands under your panties, when you feel him being pulled away from you, you don't even bother to put your skirt back in place, you slide down the wall, your knees close to your chest and your head on your knees as you sob. You don't even know what's happening around you, you just sob. At some point you feel arms wrap around you and flinch. The pair of arms leave from around you and you keep sobbing. Eddie looks at you, clueless of what to do. Eddie motions to Jeff and Gareth to leave them alone. He kneels next to you and tries to find the right words before speaking.

"Hey, hey it's okay sweetheart, you're safe now" Eddie reassuringly tells you, careful of not getting too close to you but not staying too far either.

You manage to say in between sobs "He... he touched me"

Eddie's anger is building up but he stays as calm as he can for you.

"Shhh, it's okay now, you're okay" he says, he is tempted to take you in his arms and hug you, but he remembers that right now you are traumatized and it would be a pretty bad idea. He sees how your miniskirt is pulled up, so he approaches you before saying "can I?"

You start shaking but nod 'yes'. Eddie pulls your miniskirt back and hand you his hand. "I'm gonna bring you back home sweets" he adds.

You're still shaking hard and sobbing. Your eyes are red from all the crying. You take Eddie's hand before managing to say with a very shaky voice "I... I don't want to be alone".

Eddie doesn't have to think twice before saying "Then I'll come home with you, if your parents allow me"

"I live alone" you say while Eddie leads you to the school's exit.

You're still shaking a lot and Eddie can feel it, that's why he helps you climb in his van. He is lost, he doesn't know how to react in this kind of situation, and seeing you suffering is pure torture for him. The drive is spent in silence, only your cried, muffled by your hand, can be heard. You don't even notice you arrived home, you zoned out until two strong arms picked you up "I'm sorry Sweets, if you want I can let you walk" Eddie says when he sees you shaking even more when you are in his arms.

"No... don't drop me please" you say shaky but also needy. Even though it is contradictory you both fear and need Eddie's physical touch.

He unlocks the door and open it, he then sets you on the couch. You burry your face in the couch, ashamed.

"I'm gonna run you a bath" Eddie says before remembering he has never been there and doesn't even know where is the bathroom. "Where is the bathroom?"

"First door on the first floor" you manage to mumble.

Eddie's POV:

He climbs upstairs and start running a bath for you. He puts a bubble bath he found in your bathroom inside and sits next to the bathtub while the water is filling up. He needs to think. He really doesn't know what he is supposed to do to help you but he can't stand to see you like this, broken, suffering. He rubs his face with his hands in frustration. He promises himself that he'll do his best to make you feel better. And that's when a thought crosses his mind. He feels guilty. It is his fault if Jason went after you. Jason probably made a bet with his friends, a bet to deflower you before Eddie. Eddie wonders what he should do. Should he stop seeing you outside of tutoring? Wouldn't that be safer for you? Why does everyone around him either leave or gets hurt? Is he a bad person?

The bathtub was all filled and Eddie stops the water and goes back downstairs

Your POV:

When Eddie left guilt took over you. You are convinced it is your fault. If you hadn't hurried up that much this morning, you wouldn't have accidentally put on your mom's miniskirt and nothing would have happened to you. You also curse your mom for having so revealing clothes, other people's mom wouldn't have this in their dresser. As Jason said, you felt dirty, you disgusted yourself. You did feel dirty, you needed every inch of Jason off of you. Your face is even more buried on the couch as shame and guilt swallow you whole. You keep crying and shaking even more. After some time, you feel a gentle hand on your shoulder, you don't want to turn around, you don't want Eddie to see you like this. About that, what is he thinking of you? Are you a slut to him? Do you disgust him as much as you disgust yourself? After a few minutes, Eddie rubs your arm in order to remind you of his presence, a way to tell you that he is here both physically and emotionally. You turn around to face him and before you can think about it, words slip out of your mouth "I'm disgusting" you say.

Eddie looks at you with compassion in his eyes before cupping your face "Hey darling, it is not your fault. The blame is on Jason, you did nothing wrong"

You start crying even more while saying "He said I was a dirty girl"

Eddie approaches you, carefully, and open his arms as an invitation for you to hug him if you want to, which you do. You hide your face in the crook of his neck and soak up his shirt with your tears. After a few minutes, Eddie says "I'm gonna pick you up and bring you to the bathroom before the bath gets too cold." He picks you up and climb the stairs with you in his arms. He then put you down, sitting you on the sink, he kisses your forehead before heading out. He stays in front of the bathroom.

You undress, look at your body in the mirror, disgusted by what you see, but at the same time you can't take your eyes off of your body. After agonizing minutes, you climb in the bath You scrub your body so roughly that you draw blood. You couldn't care less, you need to get Jason's touch off of you. You keep scrubbing hard on your body for long minutes, until you hear Eddie's voice behind the door "Is everything okay"

You manage to say yes after trying to calm down your breath and sobs, which is not really successful.

Eddie's POV:

He can hear you scrub at your body, and it hurts him, you are probably hurting yourself. You feel dirty and Eddie wants to take this feeling off of you. After a few long, agonizing minute of hearing you probably hurt yourself, Eddie decided to ask if you are okay to which you answer 'yes' but he doesn't believe you one second. He can hear your difficulty to breathe and your sobs. He wonders what he can do more when an idea pops in his head. He's gonna make you dinner. Eddie is really not a good cook, every time he cooks, it either ends up burnt or it doesn't turn out as it should have but he wants to try, for you, to make you feel better. He tells himself that if what he is going to cook turns out bad he'll order pizza.

Eddie goes to the kitchen and opens the cupboards as well as the fridge, to find that there is nothing to make a proper dinner, which worries him. Do you even eat a proper diner at least once a day? Why isn't there anything in the fridge? Aren't your parents taking care of you? While wondering the last question he remembers that you told him that you were living alone. He felt a surge of anger at life, at your parents for letting you leave here alone, and promise to himself that he'll be taking care of you from now on. Eddie finally decided to dial the pizza place number. He orders 2 medium pizza.

After you spent around 20 minutes in the bathroom, you finally get out and Eddie finally sigh in relief, even though he can see the red of your skin, on your bare arms, he refrains from making any comment about it, instead he motions for you to sit on the couch before saying.

"I ordered pizza"

Your POV:

You are really moved by the gesture, but after everything that happened earlier, you disgust yourself so much that you aren't hungry.

"Thank you Eddie, it means a lot, you didn't have to" you say sincerely before continuing "but I'm really not hungry"

"You must eat Sweets" he says apologetically "promise me to at least try and eat something" he says, smiling at you.

Some minutes later, you hear ringing at your door and Eddie goes to open the door, he pays the pizza and comes back with 2 medium pizza, he put them on the coffee table in front of the sofa and sits back down next to you, keeping a bit of distance between you two which you are grateful for. How can a man be so understanding? Why did he stay? Does he really care about me that much? You wonder. Eddie pulls you out of your thoughts by speaking.

"Sweetheart, please eat at least one slice" he says gently while handing you a slice.

You nod and take the slice, still shaking a bit. You bring the slice to your mouth and eat a small bite.

After a few minutes, Eddie breaks the silence again.

"I'm sorry for asking but... how can your parents let you home all alone?"

You turn to Eddie, surprised but also destabilized by his question, you take a deep breath before saying

"My mom is a model, her career was always more important than family, besides... I was... an accident" you answer

Eddie feels so much anger towards your mom, but he doesn't say anything, you don't need to hear that from him now.

He braces himself before asking "What about your dad?"

"He passed away a few month ago, in a car accident, it was my fault" you say with teary eyes.

"I'm sorry I brought that up, we can stop talking about it, but I need you to know that I'm sure it isn't your fault"

"It is, I fell asleep in the school library and he got worried so he went to pick me up, and on the way to high school he..."

Eddie opens his arms in case you want a hug which you gladly accept. You stay like this for a little while and end up falling asleep in his arms.

Eddie's POV:

Eddie looks at you, sleeping in his arms. He wonders why life has been so unfair to you, letting you all alone. But you're not alone anymore, he is here. And he'll be whatever you want him to be : boyfriend (which would be his absolute dream), friend, best friend. He promised himself that he'll be whatever you need because god he loves you, he is even in love with you. And his love grows stronger with every passing hours.

Eddie carries you to your bed and put you under the covers before closing the bedroom door and heading downstairs. He throw away the pizza boxes and lay on the couch. After a long while of overthinking, he fall asleep.

—

A few hours later Eddie is woken up by screams, your horrified screams. He heads upstairs and open your bedroom door, to find you sweating asleep, probably having a nightmare. He sits on the edge of your bed and put your head on his laps, caressing your hair and whispering in your hear "shhh, it's okay, you're safe".

Your POV:

You were having a nightmare about what happened earlier with Jason, you were experiencing what happened there over again, until you suddenly opened your eyes, sweating, out of breath. It took you some time before realizing your head was on Eddie's laps. you clutched to his arm, shaking and he kept reassuring you, whispering words of reassurance in your hear and telling you that everything's fine and that you're safe. He doesn't let go of you and after long minutes of silence you manage to mutter a shaky "Sorry for waking you up"

"Hey, hey, hey don't be sorry Sweets, don't be sorry" he answered.

"C-can you stay here, for the rest of the night ?" you ask, making some room for him in the bed.

"Anything you want" he answered smiling.

You put your head on Eddie's chest and fall back asleep, feeling safe.

The next morning you wake up alone in your bed, you tell yourself that Eddie probably went back to his trailer, you're a bit disappointed he left but also scared to be alone. But then someone cursing is cutting you from your own thoughts, you carefully go downstairs, to find Eddie, in the kitchen, trying to make breakfast. You find him with burnt toast next to him and giggle.

"Oh ! you find this funny" he says grinning and chasing you around the house. You end up cornered by Eddie who throws you over his shoulder. He then gently puts you down on the kitchen countertop. You're really close and you're breathing heavely. You want him to kiss you. You both lock eyes together and in a split second, he's lips are on yours. They are really soft and warm. It is a soft, comfortable kiss, much wanted by both of you. You can't believe that you're kissing Eddie Munson, that's why you break from the kiss and ask him.

"What does this kiss mean to you?"

"Yn, I really like you, God I probably even love you. Please believe me Sweetheart, I'll show you"

You put your hand on his chest before answering "I believe you Eddie... I think I love you too" you answer

"I know what just happened to you, and that's why we are gonna take thing slow. What about a date, we're going to the diner, tonight. Picking you up at 8pm?" Eddie asks

"Sounds perfect" you say before asking "does that mean we're dating"

"Of course we are ! Didn't we just confess our feelings to each others?" Eddie answered

You smile and kiss him passionately as an answer.

The most traumatic experience of your life, led you to the most beautiful thing that could happen, you found the love of your life.

#eddie munson comfort #eddie munson x yn #eddie munson x reader #sweet eddie Munson #mutual crushes

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