Chapter Text
“You know, we thought you were going to do more than this once you graduated,” Your dad speaks around the food in his mouth, looking towards your mom who nods along with him. The message is the same every time he speaks, that you’re doing nothing with your life, that you’re wasting all of what they gave you, their disappointment in you goes on and on. You’ll take this to yelling, to screaming, but it sours your appetite nonetheless. Your bitterness chokes up your throat, overflowing before you can stop it.
“I think if I didn’t know before, you guys reminding me every single day would make sure that I know now.” Your eyes are glued to the table, too scared to see the reaction to your words. You can hear the rough clink of silverware hitting a dish, your chair screeching in its movement as you stand suddenly. “I’m not hungry anymore.”
Long strides carry you across the house towards the stairs, gaze on your feet, unwilling to meet your mom’s horrified look or see the red creep its way into your dad’s face until he explodes. You’re halfway up the stairs before either one of your parents can respond, stomping on the carpeted path to your room. Your throat is tight and you can feel the impending tears threatening to spill, the familiar weight that carves into your chest. The door swings open under your rough shove but the tears that have welled in your eyes stop the moment you see what’s in your room. Or rather who.
Eddie is laid out on his side, one knee in the air, and hand holding up his head with a grin plastered to his face. A watery laugh works its way out of you and the relief at even just the sight of him is visceral. Eddie sits up and whips a backpack off your floor, pulling out his lunch box full of weed and a walkman with two sets of headphones. You can hear the clatter of tape cassettes filling the bag, shifting as he tugs things out.
“What are you doing here?” You sigh, crossing the room until you can collapse onto the bed next to him, pushing your shoulder into his chest. The weight on your chest dissolves away in his company, nothing but the soft haze of his incorrigible happiness left behind.
“I broke in through your window. Thought you might need a break from all that down there, turns out my timing was pretty good.” Eddie winks, arm wrapping around your torso to pull you further into him. He waves towards your door, rolling his eyes as your dad starts yelling downstairs. For a moment you’re concerned he’ll make his way upstairs but you hear the slam of the basement door instead, and you know he won’t be seen again until tomorrow.
Eddie pulls you back from your worries, with a tight squeeze of his arm around you. He croons, leaning down over your face to make eye contact with you. “Plus, it’s my job to take care of you, I’m a workin’ man haven’t you heard?”
His hair hangs over you tickling the skin of your jaw and for a moment you think about moving up, connecting your lips with his smiling mouth and kissing every ounce of love you have into him. But he moves, digging through his bag for the right tape and the moment passes.
“ That sounds like rotten work. ” You complain, letting your head fall into his lap and laying your legs out across the bed in front of you. Eddie pauses to look back at you, tape clutched in his hand and his eyes are so intense you’re worried you must have said something to upset him.
“ Not to me. Not if it’s you. ”
His words are barely more than a whisper and yet the conviction in them could move mountains as easily as they move you to tears. There’s a quiet sniffle in the silence as you tuck your head into his shirt, no longer able to handle the emotion in his stare. Eddie’s hand moves to cup the back of your head while you cry, not shushing you or rushing you through it. Just comfort.
When you finally pull back there’s a soft smile on his face and he’s holding up the walkman, having already popped the tape in while you weren’t paying attention. Eddie gently shifts your head out of his lap, crawling around on your bed until he can lay next to you before placing one set of headphones over your ears. He dons the other set and presses play, settling down with his hand just barely touching yours.
You bridge the gap without hesitation, grabbing his hand into yours and lifting it until the silver rings glint in the last remaining light of sunset that pools into your room through the still open window. You twist and turn his rings as the music plays, so thankful for his apparent and unending knowledge of when you need him most. Eddie flexes his fingers as you go, hand otherwise limp as you move it back and forth relishing in the warmth of his touch.
Turning to look at him you find that Eddie’s already looking at you, studying your face. It’s all too much, the wave is back and this time it finally drags him under, water filling his lungs and he can’t breathe without you, can’t think without you. The decision is made for him when your mouth ticks up into a smile in reaction to his eyes widening as you catch him staring. Blush dusts across his cheeks but before you can open your mouth to speak he pulls his hand from yours and grips the back of your neck firmly, surging forward to kiss you.
It’s perfect .
The cool breeze floating through your room, the quiet music of a new tape Eddie’s made for you, and his soft lips on yours. It’s passionate and dizzying and everything you could have ever dreamed of, all those nights in his bed at a newly shared home. All those mornings that you’d tortured yourself over ‘what if’s’, bending your memories to fit your hopes in a way you weren’t too sure aligned with reality. His love for you pours out of him with every passing second until you’re both gasping for air, foreheads still pressed together. Eddie laughs softly, too much joy inside him to keep it all under wraps.
“I love you,” you breathe, hand resting on his chest, feeling his heart thump erratically. A drumline to your favorite song, a sound that’s tattooed across your chest just over where your own heart is.
Eddie beams , hand cradling yours to him. He leans in closer, lips brushing against yours as he responds. “Hey, that’s my line.”