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This had to have been the most boring class Eddie had ever experienced. It was only made worse by the fact that it was freshman biology, and he was already a sophomore. Since he failed it last year, he had to retake it and sit through every single lesson for the second time with people he, for the most part, hadn’t seen since middle school.
“Now, as you all should know, photosynthesis requires water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide. But what does this amazing process actually look like inside the plant? Now, it’s actually quite interesting, due to the fact that…” the adenoidal voice of the teacher (who looked like he should’ve retired a decade ago) went in one of Eddie’s ears and out the other as he turned his head to look out the window.
It was a nice day outside, but a bit too hot for his liking. The Indiana sun was brutal this time of year.
He let his eyelids close as harsh sunlight poured over his face, keeping him warm in the otherwise freezing classroom. He put his head down onto the cool desk and felt his mind drift, the droning sound of complicated sciencey words flying right over his head and lulling him to sleep.
“Hey, um, Eddie, is it?” he heard a voice coming from his right. His eyes didn’t seem to want to open, but he forced them to, turning his head to look at where the voice was coming from.
“Uh, yeah, why?” he asked, sounding groggy and uninterested. He hadn’t even been asleep for five minutes, he noticed when he looked at the clock behind the kid’s head.
“Well, Mr. Taylor assigned us to a project together. My name is Steve. Steve Harrington.” He put out his hand like Eddie was meant to shake it.
“Oh, okay,” he muttered and shook his hand, and Steve gave him a small smile. The sunlight that still poured in through the window made his eyes look a deep shade of mossy green.
Despite the circumstances, the two actually got along quite well. Eddie was just a bit older, but he still looked — and acted — a lot younger than most people his age, and with the two of them putting their heads together, they got a surprisingly good start on the project in what seemed like no time.
“…And the chloroplasts are supposed to be green, I think, so I can go buy some paint and bring it to our next class. Is that okay?”
Eddie didn’t answer. He hadn’t even really heard the question. He had been looking at Steve’s face, the side of his own being held up by his palm for the past fifteen minutes or so while he watched Steve talk and sketch and write.
Steve had great hair. It was a lot lighter and shorter than his own, and pieces of it fell onto his forehead as he spoke, but he would always brush them back up with his fingers within a couple of seconds. He had a few dark freckles on his left cheek and a splatter of lighter ones across his nose and just below his mouth. His sweater was a nice soft cream color, like the shade of a good vanilla ice cream, and it looked soft to the touch. If Eddie just reached out, he could—
“Eddie? Are you listening?” Steve interrupted, and Eddie’s head snapped up from his hand.
He definitely was not. “Yeah, uh, sorry. What were you saying?”
.・゜-: ✧ :- -: ✧ :-゜・．
By the end of class, they had pretty much planned out their entire project. The teacher continued to prattle on and on about different parts of the plant he found interesting, but nobody seemed to be listening.
“By the way, my name is spelled with two r’s. H-a-r-r-i-n-g-t-o-n,” Steve said as he packed everything back up into his backpack.
“Oh,” was all Eddie could manage as he erased the name he’d written after his own on his project paper and blushing with the heat of a thousand suns.
He was once again reminded of the fact that he was too stupid for school, and definitely too stupid for Steve to even see him as a friend. He rewrote the surname, correctly this time, before folding the paper in half and sticking it into the depths of his schoolbag, hopefully never to be seen again. He didn’t need another aide-memoire of his lack of genius anytime soon.
The lunch bell rang and Steve was out the door before Eddie could say anything else.
“Eddie? Can you come see me before you go?” Mr. Taylor asked, and the students that were still left in the classroom all turned to look back at him.
Eddie nodded and waited until every one of his classmates was gone before he trudged up to the front of the room.
“Now, Eddie, I know you don’t want to be here again , but I expect better from you this year. I know you have it in you, just try and listen during class this time around, okay?” Eddie had a feeling it would be even harder the second year in the row, mostly because of who he had been sat next to.
“Yeah, okay,” he mumbled, and Mr. Taylor sat down at his desk, excusing him with a wave.
He sighed quietly and turned on his heel, walking out the door as quickly as he possibly could and thinking about what would be for lunch that day. He didn’t get to finish the thought, though, because as soon as the door clicked closed behind him, a swarm of hands grabbed onto his collar and bag, pulling him to the side and slamming him into a set of gray metal lockers.
“Hey Munson, did you miss us?” an unfortunately familiar voice growled. It was Tommy H. and his buddies, the five or so of them all huddled around Eddie like he was a cult sacrifice, or like they were a hyena clan and he was their unfortunate prey.
Tommy Hagan had been Eddie’s mortal enemy since he’d first moved to this shithole town in middle school, beating up on him just because his growth was always a bit more stunted than everyone else’s. Eddie may have been older, but his height and scrawniness made him an easy target for people like Tommy, who refused to pick on people their own size.
He let out a grunt that meant nothing in particular, other than the fact that he was scared for his life.
“What was that, trailer trash? Didn’t hear you,” one of the other bullies, whom Eddie didn’t know by name, said with a nasty smile that showed the dark-mahogany gums of his teeth.
Tommy brought him forward and pushed him back against the lockers again, hard, causing his head to throb on impact. “Uncle’s not here to save you this time, huh?”
The last time they’d jumped him, he’d been on his way home from his first day of summer school. They’d had one of their older friends with them, a junior, who’d been driving them around in her flashy car, just looking for trouble. They’d almost managed to shove him in the trunk by the time his Uncle Wayne showed up and chased them off.
He couldn’t think of any of the snarky remarks he usually could, which was probably a good thing since they usually just made Tommy angrier, so he stood there in silence, held up by the only pair of hands still clutching the collar of his jacket.
When he said nothing, Tommy let go of one of the hands he had on Eddie and put it in a tight fist, bringing it up to hit him square in the nose. Despite his lack of momentum from their close quarters, the blow still made his ears ring, and he felt a trickle of blood pour out from one of his nostrils.
They were making plenty of noise, but clearly not enough for Mr. Taylor to hear and come out and break up the fight.
One of the girls Tommy was with, probably whatever girlfriend he’d had that week, came and grabbed Eddie’s bag off of his shoulder, emptying the contents on the ground. They all laughed, and Eddie felt completely helpless.
Tommy held Eddie at arm’s length now and brought his right arm back as far as he could, his aim directly between Eddie’s widened eyes. He was about to bring it forward and likely knock the daylights out of Eddie, leaving him to cry on the floor, when they heard footsteps sounding from down the hall.
Tommy’s arm dropped to his side quickly, but he kept his hold on his victim in an authoritative grip that said, “If you say anything , I’ll end you.”
Eddie looked at the opening of the hall where the steps were coming from and, after much suspense, saw Steve round the corner, holding a half-eaten tray of lunch. “Hey guys, I’ve been looking all over for you, where— Hey, what the hell?”
His eyes went straight to Eddie and saw the blood smeared above his lip, Tommy’s hand finally letting him go in a hurry. “Hey, Steve! We’ll meet you back in the cafeteria, just give us a sec.” His voice sounded completely innocent, but Steve saw right through it.
He dropped his tray, food spilling and rolling everywhere, and ran towards them, pushed them all out of the way, and quickly wiped the blood from Eddie’s cupid’s bow with his sleeve before checking the rest of him for any more red drops or welts. When he didn’t find any, he bent down to help put all of Eddie’s stuff back into his bag.
“Hey, Steve, I said go back—“ Tommy started again.
Steve stood up in a flash and socked him in the face. “What the hell is wrong with you guys? Leave him alone!” Steve yelled, and they all looked at him in shock as if he was the bad guy for interrupting their attack. He grabbed the bag from the floor and pulled Eddie by the arm, pushing them both between two of the others who’d been surrounding Eddie and egging Tommy on, and they all watched them both leave in surprise.
When the two of them got to the front entrance of Hawkins High, Steve finally let go of Eddie’s sleeve. “Dude, you didn’t have to do that, I was fine,” Eddie started, sounding frustrated, but Steve dismissed him with a wave and leaned his back against one of the walls, finally handing Eddie’s bag back to him.
“It’s no big deal. I didn’t know they were such assholes though, I only became friends with them this summer. Jeez, they’re horrible. Did they break your nose or something?”
Eddie shook his head after touching the bridge of his nose gently with his fingertips. It didn’t even hurt that bad, but that might still have been the adrenaline. “You seriously shouldn’t have done that, now they’re gonna be on your ass too,” he whined, now sounding worried.
“I’ll be fine, seriously, I can handle them,” was all he answered, and they stood there in complete silence apart from the sounds of their breathing until the bell marking the end of their lunch period sounded. The way Steve said that had been yet another reminder to him that he wasn’t good enough, wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t smart enough… but Steve hadn’t meant it that way. He meant it to be comforting, Eddie hoped.
“Hey, wanna get out of here for a while?” Eddie braved when it seemed Steve was ready to go back to class.
“You mean, like, skip?” Steve asked, and Eddie nodded. “Sure, why not,” he said after a moment’s hesitation.
He trailed behind Eddie as they walked through the hot August sun, following him blindly as Eddie led him across town. Lots of people gave them strange looks considering they were young teenagers and it was the middle of the school day, but they ignored it the best they could.
Finally, the boys strolled into the trailer park that Eddie knew like the back of his hand, but Steve was completely unfamiliar with. Eddie kept looking back at Steve nervously as they weaved between the trailers. He had always tried his best not to be embarrassed by his living situation, but it was even more challenging than usual when he was feeling overwhelmed by the need to impress Steve for a reason he couldn’t come up with.
“Hey, where exactly are we going?” Steve asked as he caught up with Eddie, now walking just beside him.
“You’ll see,” was all Eddie answered as he waved at someone who Steve assumed was one of his neighbors, a young girl who stood outside hanging laundry on a wire.
They got past all the trailer homes and stood at the edge of the thick line of trees that marked the beginning of the forest. It didn’t look like there was a single beaten path or sign or anything in the trees other than, well, more trees. All Steve could hear was the wind rustling through the trees and the sound of a dog yapping in the distance.
Steve looked at Eddie, who smiled with gleaming teeth and started walking again on an invisible trail that only he seemed to know. He bobbed and weaved between bushes and under branches, and the brush got thicker and thicker until Steve finally saw some sunlight where the trees stopped about a hundred feet in front of them.
As they got closer, Steve saw a huge rock that sat right before a steep drop-off in a small clearing. They finally exited the trees, and Eddie led them around the side of the rock. He climbed it with practiced ease. Steve attempted to memorize the foot holds he used to get to the top and look just as cool as he thought Eddie had, but it was harder than it had looked.
When he eventually got to the top of the rock (after only a couple of slip-ups) he sat next to Eddie with both of their pairs of feet dangling off the front of the rock.
“Here we are,” Eddie finally said, gesturing theatrically with both of his arms to what lay in front of them.
And what a scene it was. Below the drop-off was a huge valley covered in trees and a gorgeous lake that gleamed in the midday sun, reflecting the colors of the trees that were in the middle of changing from vibrant green to various shades of autumn. Steve thought to himself that this must be the most beautiful view in all of Hawkins. Maybe even all of Indiana — not that he’d been many places else.
“You’ve come here before?” Steve asked the boy beside him, keeping his eyes on the view. He never wanted to look away.
“Yeah. There’s not much else to do around here, and there’s not really anywhere else you can see the valley like this. It’s probably my favorite place around here.”
Steve nodded. He understood why.
He was so focused on the sights in front of him that he didn’t notice Eddie had pulled out a joint from his pocket until he smelled it. He turned to see if his sense of smell was correct and watched as his newfound friend took a long drag, held it in his mouth for a couple of seconds, and let it out, the gentle breeze blowing it away from them both and into the trees.
Steve didn’t know anyone that smoked that wasn’t an adult. He wondered where he’d even gotten the weed from.
He held the blunt out between the both of them between ringed fingers and looked at Steve expectantly, then pulled it back and took another toke for himself when the younger seemed hesitant. “You don’t have to if you don’t want, just wanted to offer,” Eddie spoke around the blunt while the smoke came flooding out of his nose and mouth.
“No I- I want to. I’ve just never done it before.” He looked at Eddie with eyes like a doe, and what came out of the older’s mouth next seemed to just slip out, completely beyond the control of the filter that was supposed to be in between the deep parts of his mind and his tongue.
“I can shotgun you if you want?” he asked, eyes looking away from Steve and at the hand that held the weed instead.
“What is-” he began before he was interrupted by a hitch in his breath.
Eddie had taken yet another drag and all of the sudden leaned over, one of his hands resting on the other side of Steve’s legs. Eddie looked up at him, tilting his head to an angle that hardly seemed comfortable, the smoke still being held in his mouth. Steve could feel the heat radiating off of Eddie’s face from the Indiana sun and smell the same cheap cologne that it seemed every high school boy in Hawkins wore.
Steve was silent, mouth gaping when Eddie opened his just barely, the slight breeze blowing some of the smoke away. The sight mesmerized Steve, but his trance was quickly interrupted when Eddie connected their lips and breathed the smoke straight into his mouth.
Steve felt like he was going to either pass out or go into anaphylactic shock before he eventually remembered how to breathe again. Somehow, he didn’t even cough when the smoke entered his lungs, but he felt his nostrils burn slightly as it exited through them. There was nowhere else for the smoke to go since Eddie and Steve’s lips were still locked together.
Somehow, Steve woke himself up from the temporary coma his body had fallen into and he moved his lips and hands and knees against Eddie all at once and completely out of his control.
Eddie quickly followed suit, placing the hand that had been beside his legs on top of them, squeezing them in a way that made his heart pump perpetually faster and faster. He put his other hand on the nape of his neck, where Steve’s hair met smooth skin, and pulled so their faces were level, Eddie’s neck finally not being bent ninety degrees.
Just when Steve felt like he was running out of things he knew people did while they kissed (not from experience, but from watching television and the extreme-PDA couples in school), Eddie managed to lick at Steve’s bottom lip and slip his tongue into the other’s mouth, encouraging him to do the same. The blush that encompassed Steve made his whole body feel like it was on fire, and he was absolutely certain that he was bright red from his shoulders to the tips of his ears.
Soon, they were in the same groove, moving together like they’d done it all a million times before. The first time they had to come up for air, they leaned their foreheads against each other and giggled like schoolgirls, eyes squeezed closed and lips turned vivid shades of pink.
Steve decided right then and there that he could get used to this — if Eddie would let him. And though Steve didn’t know it, Eddie thought the exact same thing.