Chapter Text
"Chrissy, wake up."
Soft blue-green eyes blinked open, and the owner moved to rub the sleep out of them.
If anyone knew that Eddie 'The Freak' Munson had the queen of Hawkins Chrissy Cunningham over at his beat-up trailer, people would probably flip.
But what no one, bar Eddie and Chrissy, were privy to was the fact that this wasn't, in fact, an uncommon occurrence.
Since they were kids, the pair had been each other's best friends and closest confidants. From the moment Eddie moved to Hawkins when he was 7 years old - just weeks from his 8th birthday - and was greeted with the honey blonde curls of the girl next door as she waved via her golden teddy bear (whom Eddie later found out was named Mr. Cuddles and whom Chrissy still owned to this day) through her bedroom window, Eddie Munson's life hadn't been the same.
It was a coincidence when they first played together. His shit-for-brains dad was still pretending he wasn't a raging alcoholic and psycho - between showing his boy how to hotwire cars, and him and Eddie's mom nearly OD'ing like the junkies they were, the older Munson had managed to land a high-paying job (that he was currently trying to run a long con on) and a decent little house to boot.
His dad had today demanded that instead of tapping out a rhythm with his pencils like a pretend drumkit that Eddie should 'play outside like a normal child would', so he had been banished to the hot summer air of Hawkins.
Eddie kicked up the dirt in his backyard, his head itching as his newly buzzed hair did nothing to protect him from the scorching Indiana heat, his previous shoulder-length locks had been too feminine for his dad's tastes and after deciding enough was enough had marched him to the barbers that morning.
It was one of those sticky sorts of summer days where you could practically taste the cloying moisture.
He tried to ignore the sounds from inside their shitty house. His mom had come back, the door slamming violently, and then began the screaming. Eddie had learned early on that it was apparently 'all his fault' they were like this - that his very existence had become a fissure in a totally healthy relationship and that he was a disgusting mistake.
He grabbed two sturdy-looking sticks off the ground in front of the overgrown apple tree in their yard, a little vindictive as he began banging out a rhythm on their beat-up metal trash can.
A giggle stopped his beat midway. His head snapped up to see two big blue eyes peering at him through the knotholes in the fence.
Eddie grinned, throwing a little wave to the girl. This earned a squeak as she ducked down out of view. Now he knew he had an audience, Eddie was more flamboyant in his movements, ramping up the speed of his drumming and throwing in his own sounds for when he would be missing an instrument in the tune.
After he was finished with his impromptu performance, he heard tiny hands clapping from the wings. He threw himself down in an exaggerated bow. When he stood up from it, the girl was back, and in full view this time. Ringlet gold curls and bright blue eyes, she looked like a porcelain doll (a non-creepy one, not like the ones his Auntie Eunice had).
"Hi." He said softly, moving over to the small fence and leaning on it. He could just about peer over top, the wood ending at his neck.
The girl grinned up at him. She must have been a little younger than him if her height was anything to go by. She still had a little baby fat on her cherub-like cheeks.
"Hi, I'm Chrissy!" She waved at him, before running to the back of the garden. Curious, Eddie followed her, unable to see where she'd gone.
"Psst! Down here." He heard, looking down to see a panel of the fence where it had loosened, Chrissy's little hands had managed to slide it across and he could see her sitting down on the other side of it. "You're new here, right?"
She spoke with all the unabashed curiosity of someone her age, and Eddie just nodded. Throwing a quick glance to make sure his old man wasn't watching him, he replied, "Yeah I'm Eddie."
He stuck his hand through the gap in the fence and was thrilled when a dainty hand shot out eagerly to shake his.
That afternoon, they talked. He found out Chrissy was a child pageant Little Miss Hawkins runner-up, she wanted to be an actress when she grew up and that she could be as pretty and talented as Barbara Streisand - at least that's what her Mama told her, she wasn't too sure what that meant. She loved her teddy bear so much, he was her afternoon tea partner, because Mama never joined her in the garden, she was always drinking funny drinks and sleeping.
In turn, Eddie told her that his dream was to become a musician, that he played the toy guitar in his kindergarten playroom every recess and how much he missed it when he got into grade 1, and that he had saved up all the pocket money he earned doing odd jobs for his uncle Wayne and would continue to save until he could afford a real one. He told her how cool his uncle Wayne was, and that when he was around the man's house he felt happy. How he wished uncle Wayne was his real daddy, because then he wouldn't have to listen to his parents yelling all the time. While he was telling Chrissy this, he shifted a little self-consciously to pull his sleeve down, trying to hide the bruise that was peeking through, she just beamed at him even after he had to pause to take a shaky breath.
Chrissy became his best friend that summer. Every time things got too much, he would go out into the garden and throw stones at her room, hoping she'd be able to sneak outside to their fence. He ended up dipping into his 'Awesum Guitar Fund' to run down to Radio Shack one summer day, his uncle trailing behind him with a smile as he excitedly perused the beat-up, crappy walkie-talkies he'd come in for. Uncle Wayne had promised to try and fix them up for him when they got to his house, which the man did after a beaming Eddie handed his money to the cashier.
He'd stolen a small tin of paint from his Aunt's house, a baby pink that he carefully brushed onto the case of one of the devices. He attempted to make a small flower pattern on the case, which came out looking more mushed and wonky, but it was worth it when he presented it to Chrissy and her face lit up like a super pretty firework.
After that, they spoke every single night. Even when they went back to school, which was cool. Eddie had never been able to talk to people 'like a normal person'. His dad spat at him often enough that he should like ordinary things, that he was an abomination and didn't deserve everything they gave to him.
But Chrissy, she made him feel better than normal. She made Eddie feel special like he meant something. Where Eddie was all dark clouds in a storm, Chrissy was the light streaming through the clouds, breaking them back to a beautiful white.
He was there when she got her first participation ribbon in a pageant, watching her grin and wear it proudly for the next week after the competition. She was there when he finally got his first guitar, giving him feedback on his performances when his Dad was out of the house and supporting him when he met and became a part of Corroded Coffin (borrowing a guitar from Gareth to play). He was there when she finally joined the cheer squad in middle school, grinning at how proud she was of herself.
Chrissy was there when, at 14, in the same year she got through the cheerleaders, he came home from school in tears, upon the realization he truly wasn't normal. While all the boys in his grade were getting girlfriends and dating, his eyes lingered on the boys. He finally clocked on to what that meant one fateful gym class, the summer heat forcing a 'shirts vs skins' match.
He was trembling as he climbed the drain that led to her room, shimmying in through the window she left open and immediately running to her arms. She listened through everything, rubbing his back as he sobbed through his confession. At 11, she couldn't really understand too much - to her, boys were still icky and the only exception to that was Eddie.
"What.... what if my old man finds out?" He asked her, both of them leaning against her bed.
She smiled, patting his knee. "He won't, Eddie. It'll be our secret."
Famous last words.
That winter break, his mom died. And after that, it was like the floodgates were open for his Dad to stop pretending to be a normal human and not treat his son like his own stress-punching bag.
And on Christmas day, he gave Eddie the worst present of all. He had heard Chrissy over their walkie-talkie system, teasing him about how he'd stared at Johnny Garcia at the community basketball game.
Eddie had ended up in the hospital during the first half of his freshman year in high school. His piece of shit father had fled town, running from the cops for the aggravated assault of a minor, but not before letting his entire family know that Eddie was a fairy.
Being ostracized by his entire family bar his uncle Wayne was isolating. He moved into the trailer park, fumbling as his crutch slipped.
"Whoa kiddo, slow down," Wayne mumbled, slipping an arm around his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. "Last room down the hall on the right is yours."
It had been his kids', before Eddie's cousin had passed away ten years ago. He couldn't remember him, but his dad had always spoken in slurs when it came to the mention of his nephew. Not that his opinion really mattered to Eddie anymore.
Chrissy was coming to visit him later, and he wanted to try and unpack his room so he could show her how cool it would be for him to live here even if they couldn't talk on their walkies anymore. Eddie could always try and bike to where the frequency reached and chat to her from there.
It was at the threshold of his room that Eddie became glued to the spot, jaw-dropping and eyes welling with tears. There, hung on the bare mirror before him, lay the most beautiful guitar he had ever seen. If he wasn't so banged up, he would have pinched himself.
"She's all yours, Eddie. I know it's late, but happy Christmas"
Wayne had appeared behind him, hugging him with one arm (so careful of Eddie's injuries that it makes his heart sting) and bringing him close to the man. He smells of motor oil and old cologne, and Eddie has never felt more at home.
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Time flowed like a rushing river, and Eddie is 18 before he knows it. He had formed and was the leader of the Hellfire Club, Chrissy the captain of the cheerleading team. They were still best friends, which sometimes Eddie had to convince himself was real.
No one in Hawkins would believe that Jason Carver's precious girlfriend was besties with the resident freak. But they'd been together through thick and thin at this point, even through Chrissy's freak-out last month that she may have been noticing band geek Robin Buckley a little too much in that cute little uniform of hers. Eddie had just grinned, and pulled her into a hug, mirroring the action of an 11-year-old Chrissy, and coaching her through it.
Some fucked up shit had been happening in Hawkins recently, and everyone was on edge. And he wasn't even talking about how he'd flunked the year again.
In the summer, Chrissy dragged him to Starcourt whenever she could. They sat at separate tables in the mall, close enough that they could talk but split up so no Hawkins High passers-by would associate them with each other.
"It's like we're spies." Chrissy had whispered to him at their position in front of Scoops Ahoy. She was sitting on one of the planters, while Eddie sat perpendicular on the bench and tried to make it seem as though he was looking elsewhere.
She was staking out Scoops Ahoy, for like the fortieth time this summer. She'd bought so many ice creams for Eddie now that he was certain he was going to join her in her dairy allergy just from overexposure. He didn't even like sweet crap, and it would entirely ruin his image even being caught dead in freakin' Scoops Ahoy.
The only benefit, apart from being able to hang out with Chrissy on the regular, was that he had his own eye candy. While he spent the better part of his high school career (so far, a bitter little part of his brain supplied) hating jocks and everything they stood for, he has to admit the King of Hawkins High, Steve Harrington, looks so damn fuckable in his Scoops uniform.
The outfit hugs the boy in all the right ways, and Eddie swears the cute little hat and blue and white clothing make his pretty pink lips pop. And did he always have such lovely long eyelashes?
He gawps like an idiot the first time he spots Steve, and Chrissy grins an evil little smile that is nothing like her angelic personality when he notices what Eddie is looking at. He shoots her a look that anyone else would find threatening but just made her laugh. She raised an eyebrow at him, looking between him and the former star of Hawkins.
He gets to return the sentiment when Robin rolls her eyes at Steve, bending down to pick up the box he'd managed to drop and then had abandoned in the walkway of the parlor. Chrissy turns the most fetching firetruck red as she watched the girl slowly pick the box up, which Eddie receives a raised middle finger for when he points it out in a stage whisper.
He blows her a kiss in response.