Chapter Text
School just let out and Chrissy was walking through the woods behind the school that she was supposed to meet him. She was a little on edge to say the least. Every noise had her turning to look behind her, but she eventually found the old picnic table. The wood was darkened by years out in the elements. It was certainly an eerie sight. She looked around the trees surrounding her and called out “Hello?”
She was never one for dark and scary places. All of her nerves were buzzing. Where is the other man? He should be here by now. Something in the atmosphere was weighing. She thought she heard something coming from the trees ahead of her. She was starting to think this was a bad idea. Her mom would be furious. She should leave. She should leave now. As she starts to walk backwards, unable to turn her head from where she’s stuck looking. She doesn’t notice the force blocking her escape until her back collides against something hard. She doesn’t think before she lets out a small scream and whirls around.
“woah woah woah, hey hey” when she turns it’s Eddie, the reason she was out here in the first place. He was still in his hellfire shirt and the black ripped jeans he was wearing During lunch. He continues to speak, holding up a single placating head accompanied by a smile, “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
His smile dropped and his face changed to concerned, “you okay?” Chrissy was trying to calm her racing heart as she glanced around the trees and her eyes fell to the same spot as earlier, but all of the previous eeriness and dread seemed to have disappeared once Eddie showed up.
~~~~~
Eddie sits down and sets the metal box on top of the table. He flicks open the lid and he put’s his chin in his palm, resting his elbow on the table. Chrissy’s mind is still racing and she figures that she needs to say something or the silence will drown her, “So, how does this work exactly?” She does stop looking at the table until the end of her sentence. This is the first time she’s ever done something like this.
“aah, just like any old sale. Except cash only and, for obvious reasons. no recites.” he ends with a close lipped smile. She only makes eye contact for a short amount of time before she looks away. Eddie continues to talk after it’s made clear that she won’t. He grabs one of the bags out of the box. “I do a half ounce for” he hesitated a moment while thinking and then continued, “twenty. What do you say? It’s pretty bang for your bucks, it should last a while.” Chrissy looks up at him and then she hears something behind her. Her breath gets caught in her throat as she turns around, only for it to be a squirrel climbing the tree.
She turns around as Eddie sighs, closes the box, and looks off to the side, “hey, we don’t need to do this. Just give me the word and I’ll just walk away.”
Chrissy speaks before he can get up and walk away, “No. it’s not that. I don’t want you to go.” He moves his box to the bench beside him and turns to her as she continues, “Do you ever feel like… you’re losing your mind?”
For a second she thinks that he’ll think she’s crazy or laugh at her. He tilts his head to the side and looks at her, But he doesn’t. “Uuhhh you know, just on a daily basis,” he smiles at her. She deflates a little. It feel’s patronizing. “I mean I feel like I’m losing my mind right now doing a drug deal with Chrissy Cunningham. The queen of Hawkins High.” It drops back to uncomfortable silence before he starts talking again. “You know, this isn’t the first time we’ve ,um, hung out.”
“No?” she sounded just as confused as she knew she looked.
“You don’t remember?” he was fidgeting with his rings.
“I’m sorry” she felt bad about not knowing.
“It’s okay.” Suddenly both his hands flew up to his chest and he fell back off the bench. Chrissy jumped and yelped at the sudden movements. Eddie rolled up off the ground and stood up, “I wouldn’t remember me either Chrissy! Honestly. um, do I have stuff in my hair?” She laughed as he tried to brush the leaves off.
He walked forward and crossed his arms. “You don’t remember me?” he asked a little incredulously.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized again, still laughing a little.
“Middle school. Talent show. You were doing this cheer thing. The thing.” he did a mock piece of a cheer routine and Chrissy laughed again. “It was pretty cool actually. And I. I was with my band.”
Chrissy cut him off mid sentence, “corroded coffin!” Eddie minced her and clapped his hands walking in a circle. “Oh my God! Yes! No! With a name like that, how could I forget!”
“I don’t know. You’re a freak.” Eddie chuckled a bit.
“No, It’s just you looked so…”
“Different? Well, uh, my hair was buzzed and I didn’t have these sweet old tatties.” he pulled the collar of his shirt away from his neck showing some of his tattoos.
“You played guitar right?” She hoped she was remembering correctly.
“Uh hu. still do.” he nodded his head and continued to walk around, “Still do. You should come see us. We play at the hideout on Tuesdays. It’s pretty cool. W-we actually have a crowd of about five… drunks.” Chrissy laughed again. It felt good to have a real simile that wasn’t forced. “It’s not exactly the garden, but gotta start somewhere right?” He gently pushed a tree and turned back to Chrissy.
“You know. You're not what I thought you'd be like.”
“Mean and scary.” He pulled a lock of hair in front of his face.
“Yeah” Her response was breathy and she was a little too close to crying.
“Yeah well. I actually kinda thought you’d be kind of mean and scary too.” He walked over to sit back down on the table.
“Me?” she couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
“Terrifying,” he grabbed the box again “so, in other good news. Flattery works with me. So, twenty-five percent discount for the half. Fifteen bucks. Robbing me blind here. You know.” Chrissy feels her smile fade as she looks at the bag he tossed in front of her on the table.
“Do you have anything, maybe stronger?” She doesn’t look at him.
“Like how much stronger? What are the results you’re looking for?” he tilted his head as he studied her.
“I just- I just want to be able to breathe. Everything is just too much.” stopping the tears was a lost cause at this point. She just let them run down her cheeks. “My cheer routines need to be perfect! My grades need to be perfect! My mom says I need to watch my weight for cheer and she’s so disappointed if I gain so much as a single pound.” She noticed that half way through her rant Eddie moved around the table to sit beside her. He was rubbing slow circles on her back as she cried. After a few minutes the tears stopped falling down her face.
“Chrissy, listen. I don’t think you need drugs.” he bent over to look in her eyes,”I think what you need is some fun. You need to live your life a bit.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” She sits up and looks at him. Her eyes were red and she still had tears in her eyes.
“Okay so,” Eddie looks light he’s made up his mind about something. “I have an idea but first I need you to meet me out here again tomorrow.”
“I thought you said I didn’t need drugs,” Chrissy was using her cardigan to wipe the tears off her cheeks.
“Not for a deal. Just come out here and we can just talk. Okay?” His hand stills on her back.
She just nods and gives a soft “okay”. She stands up and starts to walk home. She turns and smiles at Eddie who gives her a small wave as she walks away.