Chapter Text
The first time I saw him was at the middle school concert 1979. I was sitting with my friends Infront of the stage waiting for our turn to get called to do the school cheer we practiced. He came out with a buzzed head, denim jacket with spikes that were clearly glued on, flannel around his waist, and a guitar that looked too big for him strung around his shoulders. His friend fumbled with the mic for a second before clearing his throat and all but yelling they were “corroded coffin”. His playing startled me and honestly I was scared it was so aggressive.
“I live my life like there's no tomorrow And all I've got, I had to steal Least I don't need to beg or borrow Yes I'm livin' at a pace that kills Ooh, yeah Runnin' with the Devil,” His friend sang. He looked at the instrument with such focus making sure he didn’t miss a beat. I was mesmerized. I put all my attention into it, not looking away even when I felt a tap of my shoulder.
“Dude, Chrissy and the other girls are backstage now you’re up next you need to warm up,” your brother whispered in your ear shaking you out of your trance. You shook your head and looked back at them nodding before scrambling up and slinking towards the back entrance.
That was years ago before all the monstrous chaos of high school. You fell into the popular crowd as you joined the cheer team freshman year becoming close friends with Nancy and Chrissy. They had great hearts and you just clicked with them. It’s the first day of Senior year and you swung by Nancy’s house to pick her and Mike up.
“Look at my little freshman,” You said pinching his cheeks he slapped you away huffing. You giggled but hopped back in and were off.
Pulling into the parking lot you spot Chrissy hopping out of Jason’s car and after giving a hug to Nancy and letting her take a picture of you for the school paper you ran towards them. You ran into Chrissy’s arms squeezing her with all your might. Pulling back you heard Jason chuckle.
“It’s like you guys haven’t seen each other in years,” He jokes.
“It feels like it, I can’t believe you only got back two days ago,” You smiled and then turned to hug Jason.
Chrissy had gone on a family vacation to Oregon the last two months of summer and as much as you got to hangout with Nancy, Steve, Robin, Jason, the boys you missed her so much. There is only so much you can practice flying and cheering with people who don’t cheer before they can’t stand it. As walk into school Jason rants about basketball tryouts and how he can’t wait for the fresh meat he gets to teach his last year.
“Lucas Sinclair made it right,” you looked up at him with hopeful eyes. Lucas, one of Mike's closest friends and Ex boyfriend to your favorite kid of the Freshman four, had expressed interest in joining basketball for freshman year and so you and Steve had helped him practice all summer when you weren’t working at the pool or fighting monsters. It also helped that you put many good words into Jason's ear.
“Yes he is, how could he not when all summer long you have told me how amazing he is and how you would be crushed if he didn’t make it,” He grinned at you. You clapped, bouncing up and down before swinging him into a hug.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, You're amazing i love you,” you said all but hanging off his neck. Chrissy giggled and after you were done expressing how happy you were. You spent the rest of your time before classes telling her everything you couldn’t put into your letters.
You fell back into your normal swing of things after a few weeks of school although it was odd not having the Byers or El here you knew that being here after all the disasters of the past year was too much for them and California made them happy.
It also worried how much Max secluded herself. You know things haven’t been good and her mom has gotten a second job to support them. You had helped them move into Forest Hill this summer and you stopped by at least every week to have a picnic with her or take her out. You would sleepover and snag movies to watch from family video because well it was fun to piss off your brother. Nothing was working and it hurt that she was in so much pain.
You and Chrissy were cheering the football team recently and practicing flying a lot more. Mike, Lucas, and Dustin had found a group to play dnd with although it scared you a bit. It was called Hellfire and Eddie Munson was the leader which wasn’t inherently bad but he was known to cause trouble loudly for everyone to hear.
Like currently Eddie and Jeff were circling the cafeteria in a dance as Gareth and the rest of the group were singing at the top of their lungs.
“I left my baby and it feels so bad
Guess my race is run
She's the best girl that I ever had
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the,” they sang.
You sighed, grabbing your food from the line and keeping your head down. As you were walking to where Chrissy sat someone crashed into you. You and the person slammed down spilling food all over both of you and slamming your head into the cold tiles. You heard gasping and when you felt the weight off of you and your head hurt less you looked up. Eddie towered over you, hands on either side of the tile next to your head.
“Hey, sorry Sweethe-,” He was saying as someone grabbed him and threw him off.
Chrissy appeared asking if you were okay and if you could sit up. You nodded not saying anything and as you sat you saw Jason rolling on the floor punching the living daylights out of Eddie. Hellfire was trying to pull Jason off and Eddie away but it wasn’t going well. You stumbled up with the help of Chrissy and now Nancy.
“Jason, Jason, JASON,” You yelled trying to move towards him. You stumbled and swayed a bit but you managed to grab his shoulder and he turned to look at you.
“Oh my gosh, you’re- you're, are you okay,’ He let go of Eddie and Jeff pulled him away and up.
You nodded but moving fast like that made you sway a bit more and Nancy wrapped an arm around your waist and you up yours over her shoulders.
“Apologize please,” You said.
“I’m so sorry I didn't mean to scare you. you know i don’t like making you witness this,” He said. You shook your head which was not a smart decision but then there was Mike helping your other side.
“Not to me you didn’t do this to Eddie, He didn’t mean to right,” You looked over at Eddie his nose bleeding shirt stretched. He nodded quickly and added a fast sorry. “See he didn’t mean harm but you did. apologize violence is never the answer,” You spoke.
Jason huffed and gave a very fake apology but you couldn’t deal with this now. You mumbled that Nancy and Mike would take you to Mrs.Cally to make sure everything is going to be okay and to not fight anymore.