Chapter Text
“Chrissy, I’m not going to that party.”
It was the night after a big game at school, and Chrissy Cunningham sits on the passenger side of her boyfriend’s van, pouting.
Her boyfriend, Eddie Munson, shoots her a glance, before his eyes move back to the road.
“That won’t work on me this time. I’m standing my ground here.” Eddie’s hands tense on the steering wheel, as if it was taking everything in him to not just cave there and then.
“Eddie!” Chrissy whines, brows furrowed. “Please? I’d feel better if you were there.” Maybe that was a bit guilt-trippy, but it was true.
Eddie’s eyes remained on the road, his brow knitted. He taps his fingers on the steering wheel and Chrissy’s eyes bore into him, waiting for him to say something. He doesn’t.
“Come on!” Chrissy continues. She knows she sounds like a brat right now, but Eddie wasn’t exactly being easy to communicate with. “It’s not like Jason will be there.”
They slow to a stop at the traffic lights, and Eddie noticeably tenses up at the mention of Chrissy’s ex.
“Well, jeez. What’s the point of throwing a party if the Homecoming King himself isn’t even gonna show?” He replies, a cynical grin on his face.
Things hadn’t exactly been easy going for the couple since they went public. Jason had taken it relatively okay when Chrissy had broken up with him just a few weeks before Spring Break, but coming into school hand-in-hand with Eddie “The Freak” Munson (a lovely nickname given to him by Steve Harrington, that just happened to catch on even after “The Hair” had left) a little less than a fortnight later didn’t exactly do the two any favours.
They were weird. They stood out. And that made people talk. It made people act, too — more than once Eddie had been ‘accidentally’ shoved to the side by Jason and his posse just for walking past him in the school hallways. More than once had Chrissy been thrown a crumpled up note during class, asking intrusive questions about her and Eddie’s relationship.
Things had started to calm down now, though. People had adjusted to seeing Eddie the Freak with Chrissy the Cheerleader. To the point that Chrissy’s cheerleading friends extended the invitation to their post-game party to Eddie. And how could they ever expect to get on as a normal couple if they didn’t go out and do normal couple things, like having a few drinks with their friends — okay, Chrissy’s friends — after one of the last games in their last ever year at Hawkins High? Sure, Eddie wasn’t really a party guy, but Chrissy wasn’t necessarily a party girl. She’d much rather be getting high with Eddie, or reading a book, or watching a movie, but she wants to make the effort for the squad, and it was only for one night.
“Don’t be like that.” Chrissy frowns.
“Like what?” Eddie keeps that grin, and Chrissy has to fight to keep that frown on her face.
“The girls all said Jason barely shows his face at parties since I broke up with him.” Chrissy felt a small twinge of satisfaction at the concept of Jason Carver, the ‘perfect boyfriend’ who had kept Chrissy under his thumb since they were 15, most likely didn’t attend any of these parties because he figured she would be there, too.
The traffic light turns green, and Eddie pushes the gas pedal.
It takes him a moment, but his face softens a little bit, and he sighs.
“Sweetheart, those parties just aren’t me. It’s not like I have an upstanding reputation with your crowd.”
“This is your chance to change that, though!” Chrissy pushes, her eyes not leaving Eddie’s face for a second. “Please? I think you’d really get on with some of the guys — they aren’t all total… assholes.”
Eddie laughs a little bit then. Swearing isn’t something Chrissy is particularly used to, and it’s something they’d been working on together. Chrissy smiles. He’s so close to cracking, she can tell.
“And I think Lucas might be there. You get on with him!”
“Yeah, I guess.” He shrugs. He hasn’t really been coming to Hellfire lately, with his sister subbing for him more often than not, but the kid seems to be the heir to the Hawkins High throne, and peer pressure is a bitch.
“And I’ve been making an effort with your friends.” Chrissy says, tilting up her chin in an uppity fashion. “I’ve sat in at Hellfire, I’ve hung out with you and a bunch of people I don’t know at Rick’s, I’ve been to most of your gigs at the Hideout since we started dating—“
“Which we appreciate.”
“It’s no trouble. I’m your biggest fan. But what I’m getting at is, I make the effort for you and I think it’s only fair that—“
“Okay, okay!” Eddie flexes his fingers on the steering wheel, laughing again. Chrissy lights up, biting her bottom lip with a smile. “Jeez, Cunningham. I’d walk barefoot over hot coals just to stop your whining.”
Correction: he would do anything for her, regardless, and Chrissy knew that. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of whining for it to work.
“So much for standing your ground.” She shoots a grin his way, and she moves her hand up behind his neck to scratch his head.
“Yeah, well—“ he pretends to be unfazed by her touch, but he’s smiling, and leaning into her hand. “—I guess I just like you a little.”
“A little?” She raises her eyebrows at him, feigning shock.
“Or a lot. I dunno. Just keep scratching my scalp.”
Chrissy laughs and does just that.
After a few more minutes of driving, Eddie pulls up outside of her house. They used to pull up round the corner, but they’ve been dating for a while now and Chrissy’s parents were learning to deal with that. Happy about it? No. Welcoming Eddie into the family with open arms? Certainly not. But they let him park outside for a couple minutes to drop off their daughter most days out of the week, so it’s a start.
“So what’s our game plan?” Eddie asks, turning to face Chrissy. “What time am I picking you up?”
Chrissy’s eyes crinkle with a smile. Those butterflies she gets whenever Eddie talks about picking her up never really go away.
“Around 8?”
“Pushing it, Cunningham. I’m usually tucked into bed with the latest issue of Heavy Metal by that time.” He says, folding his arms over his chest.
“Oh, well, if you would rather stare at barely-clothed cartoon women instead of hanging out with your actual girlfriend, who, by the way, has a new dress she thinks you might very well like—“
“Say no more. I take it all back.” Eddie says all too quickly, raising hands in defeat, making Chrissy laugh once more. She loved laughing with him.
Chrissy leans over, and Eddie cups her cheek. They share a small but sweet kiss, and Chrissy starts to pull away until another hand cups the other side of her cheek, bringing her in for a second kiss, then a third, then a fourth—
“Okay,” — a fifth — “seriously, do you want my mom to see you?”
A pause.
A sixth.
“You’re free.” Eddie tells her with a grin, taking his hands away from her face. Chrissy playfully pushes his face away from her, and he laughs.
“8 o’clock. Don’t bail on me!” She tells him, pointing a finger as she climbs out of the van. He leans over and passes over her pink corduroy backpack.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, princess.” He tells her with a wink that makes her cheeks rosy. Chrissy blows him one last kiss, which he catches — dramatically, then places it into his pocket — and she shuts the door behind her.
. . .
Picking at the lettuce leaves of the salad she had prepared herself before she started to get ready for the party, Chrissy sits at the dining table, alone, with a book beside her and the radio humming a hushed tune.
“Are you seeing that boy tonight?”
Chrissy blinks and looks up, and sees her mother, wiping her hands on a dish towel. Her mother isn’t looking in her direction, and instead is focused on folding up the aforementioned towel. Chrissy frowns, and shifts uncomfortably in her seat.
“Eddie?” She raises her brow at her mother. Laura doesn’t respond, and instead Chrissy hears her let out an agitated sigh. “Yeah, we– he was invited to the post-game party tonight. My friends are really starting to warm up to him.”
They had been dating since late March of 1986. It was now nearing late June, with graduation just around the corner, and Laura Cunningham still refused to acknowledge Chrissy’s new boyfriend as anything other than some form of late teenage rebellion. When Chrissy had attempted to introduce Eddie to her mother, despite how brief the interaction was, Laura had set out on an hour-long lecture about how Chrissy was throwing her future down the drain for some ‘pathetic summer fling that will never amount to anything,’ about how Eddie could never provide for Chrissy the way Jason could have, how Eddie was going to lure Chrissy into a life of recklessness, drugs and alcohol and how Laura will happily be telling Chrissy ‘I told you so’ when the inevitable ‘summer fling’ comes to an end.
Needless to say, Chrissy cried herself to sleep that night.
Laura doesn’t respond to Chrissy’s statement about her friends warming up to her boyfriend and preoccupies herself with putting dishes away.
“Um… I was also planning on staying at Nancy Wheeler’s house tonight?” Chrissy lies. Nancy gave her the go-ahead to say she was sleeping over at her house whenever she was planning to stay at Eddie’s. Sheltered girls stick together and all that.
Of course, her and Eddie didn’t explicitly talk about her staying over tonight, but she knows that’s what will happen anyway.
Laura is silent again for a moment. “I hope it is Nancy Wheeler’s house you’ll be staying at, Chrissy.”
Chrissy’s heart drops.
“Y— yeah! We’ve gotten close recently.” Sheltered girls make good liars, too. “Nancy’s at the party tonight, too, so it makes sense for us to stick together—“
“Fine.” Laura interrupts with an irritated sigh. Chrissy immediately falls silent, and looks back down at the salad at the table. She chews on her bottom lip and pokes at a cherry tomato with her fork.
Her mom has never really trusted her since she started to date Eddie. Then again, she is lying to her face — but after what Laura has put her through her whole life, why shouldn’t she dabble in something as rebellious as secretly staying over at her boyfriend’s house?
Laura proceeds to tell Chrissy she’s going to run some errands and pick up her brother from a friend’s house. She leaves with a quick goodbye, and Chrissy is left alone again.
Chrissy didn’t have much of an appetite after that less than favorable interaction, so she packs up the remainder of her salad (waste not, want not) and places it into the fridge for tomorrow. She tries her hardest to place her mother at the back of her mind. Tonight was going to be fun.
Or, at least, that’s what she hoped.
. . .
After a quick shower, an hour spent curling her hair and twenty minutes spent reapplying her makeup, Chrissy slips into her new pink dress that she had briefly teased Eddie about. It stops mid-length at her thighs, and the puffer-sleeves of the dress sit just below her shoulders.
She doesn’t spend too long looking at herself in the mirror, because she actually feels rather pretty tonight and she doesn’t want to see something in her reflection that will ruin that for her.
Laura is still out when it’s time for Chrissy to go, and her dad is away on a business trip, so it makes for a far-less anxiety inducing getaway — especially since Eddie knocks at the door instead of beeping the horn of his van to let her know he’s there.
“Hi!” Chrissy greets him cheerfully as she opens the door.
Eddie is already grinning at her, and she feels herself blush.
“Hey.” He reaches out for her hand as she hops down off of the doorstep — ever the gentleman, as always — and he places a quick kiss to her knuckle. “You look… wow. You weren’t kidding about that dress.”
Chrissy lets out a laugh, and loosely wraps her arms around Eddie’s shoulders.
“I’m a girl of my word.” She tells him, smiling against his lips as they share a kiss. She parts after a second. “You’re looking cute yourself.”
Cute was an understatement, but Eddie already had an ego, and telling him all about how she thought he was the most gorgeous boy in Hawkins was sure to inflate that further. He’s sporting a pair of blue, ripped jeans, his usual Reeboks, and a short sleeved Dio tee that was slightly tighter than shirts he wore on a regular basis, showing off his narrow waist and lean arms—
Yeah. He definitely looked cute.
Chrissy leans forward and presses another kiss to his lips. Eddie places his hands on her hips and deepens the kiss for a moment, making her laugh again. He whines slightly as she pulls away.
“Can’t we just— make out in the back of my van all night, or something?” He’s joking, but Chrissy knows if he said yes, he’d already be laying down his jacket for her in the back of his van so she was comfortable.
She quickly locks the door behind her and places the keys into her purse, then she tugs at Eddie’s hand to lead him down the porch steps.
“We can do that tomorrow.” She promises with a grin, leaning into him as he loosely places an arm over her shoulders. He presses a kiss to the top of her head as they near his van.
Chrissy thought she had made it without another painful interaction from her mother that night, but just as Eddie was opening the passenger door for her, she notices headlights dead ahead. Her stomach sinks as her mom pulls up onto the driveway, with her brother in tow.
Eddie seems to stiffen, too, and she notices him tense his jaw as Laura steps out of her car.
She stares at the two of them for a moment with a slightly knitted brow.
“Hello, Mrs. Cunningham.” Eddie greets her politely with a smile. It melts Chrissy’s heart. Eddie isn’t one for putting on an act around… well, anybody. But he tries so hard with her mom, when given the chance.
“…Hello.” Laura all but spits out in return. She stares at Eddie’s Dio shirt, clearly unimpressed, then she redirects her gaze to Chrissy.
“I’ll… see you in the morning, mom.” Chrissy says, feigning a smile. Her mother looks her up and down.
“Pull that skirt down, Chrissy.” Laura instructs her, eyes piercing through her. “Goodnight.” she says, before taking — dragging — Chrissy’s little brother by the hand and heading inside.
Chrissy all but freezes over that interaction, and her hands reach down to the hem on the skirt of her dress, gently tugging at it. Eddie is breathing shallowly beside her, and she can tell he’s mad.
“Chris. Don’t listen to her.”
Chrissy’s gaze is transfixed on the door of her house, and she blinks back tears. She feels Eddie’s hand cup the side of her face, and he gently moves her head so she is looking up at him instead.
“I mean it.” He brushes a thumb over her cheek. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Chrissy chews the inside of her cheek and nods, taking Eddie’s hand as he helps her into the passenger seat.
She tries so hard to fight against her sinking mood, she really does. But now she’s pulling at her skirt, fighting back tears, digging her nails into her thighs, this was stupid I look stupid I should have just stayed at home stupid stupid stupid —
A hand swoops in and envelops her own, and Chrissy blinks, and looks over to her boyfriend, who is looking at her like she’s the most precious thing on earth.
“You look beautiful. Okay?” Eddie’s eyes bore into hers, squeezing her hand slightly.
Chrissy stares at him, then she takes in a shaky breath, and puts on her best smile.
“Okay.” Her voice wavers, but she nods, and sniffles, and laughs a little. Eddie smiles, presses another kiss to her hand, and proceeds to start up the van.
. . .
The party is already in full swing by the time they get there. They park just across from the house it’s taking place at — Chrissy’s friend from the cheerleading squad, Jennifer — and spend just a moment together before they head in.
Eddie looks noticeably tense as he hears the loud music which is so clearly not to his taste and the raucous noise of the jocks who are probably egging on another jock to down a full keg of beer. Chrissy snakes her arm around his own and presses a kiss to Eddie’s shoulder, resting her chin there for a moment after. He seems to relax a little with that.
“Everything will be fine.” Chrissy tells him softly, but she’s not sure whether she’s fully talking to him or talking a little bit to herself, too.
They share another quick kiss before Eddie reaches back into the van to grab the six pack of beer and the wine coolers he bought for them both. Chrissy takes the pack of wine coolers in her hand so Eddie has a hand free for her to hold as they walk into the party together.
No one really stops to look at them, per se. A couple of glances, a few whispers, but other than that, people just get on with what they were doing before Eddie the Freak and Chrissy the Cheerleader entered the room – laughing, dancing, and drinking themselves silly.
“Hey!” came the voice of Jennifer, pushing her way through the crowd in an attempt to get to the couple. “You made it!”
She extends her arms towards Chrissy, and Chrissy smiles, letting go of Eddie’s hand for a quick embrace with her friend. Eddie almost stands behind Chrissy – he’s still hesitant, as if he doesn’t quite know where to put himself. But he smiles politely, nodding towards Jennifer in a greeting.
Jennifer leads the couple to the kitchen, where even /more/ people seem to reside. The two place their drinks on the counter, and Eddie pulls a bottle from either six-pack. He cracks off the cap of each bottle with his teeth – making Chrissy scrunch her nose up, with a “you know I hate when you do that!” – and passes Chrissy one of her wine coolers.
“Okay, so…” Eddie takes a sip of beer, and shoves the hand that isn’t holding the bottle in his jeans’ pocket. “What now?”
Chrissy smiles and rolls her eyes, playfully nudging him with her elbow.
“C’mon.” She tells him, tugging him by his hand and leading him outside into Jennifer’s garden.
It was far less stuffy out here, thankfully, and Chrissy clocked a couple more of her cheerleading friends standing in a huddle and chatting to each other.
Chrissy stands amongst them for a moment, smiling, laughing. Eddie, once again, stands just behind Chrissy, his eyes surveying the rest of the garden as he takes another sip of beer.
He stuck out like a sore thumb, that much was certain. There was no one there he could really strike up a conversation with, no one who was particularly willing to spare more than a few passing pleasantries with him. But – he was okay with that. He was just doing this for Chrissy. And she was happy, so. That was enough for him to get through the night. Seeing her smiling and having fun with her friends.
“Eddie!”
Oh. Maybe there is one person who was willing to make more than small talk with him.
Eddie whips around to see Lucas, smiling and waving for him to come over. The metalhead offers a grin back to his friend, leans down to tell Chrissy he’s going to hang out with Lucas for a bit, and kisses her cheek just before heading off.
“Hey, man. How’s it going?” Eddie greets his younger friend, offering a pat on the back. He clocks a bottle in Lucas’ hand, and raises his eyebrows. “Now I hope that’s non-alcoholic beer, young man–”
“D– don’t say anything to Erica. Please.” Lucas shoots Eddie a look of pure anxiety. “She’ll tell my mom, then my mom will tell my dad, and–”
Eddie lets out a small laugh, placing a hand on Lucas’ shoulder.
“Dude, I’m kidding.”
“Oh. I knew that.” Lucas smiles sheepishly, tapping his fingers on the beer bottle.
The two get to chatting and catching up. It’s been a while, but Eddie always feels like he’s picking up wherever he left off whenever chatting to one of his freshman sheep. A couple of the other jocks make their way over – one called Patrick, who Eddie had heard Lucas talk about before, and who actually seemed like a decent enough dude, and another called Chance, who Eddie knows follows Jason’s every command. But hey, that douchebag isn’t here tonight, so maybe he might catch another side to him.
To Eddie’s surprise… he actually isn’t hating this party. Chatting about D&D with Lucas and catching him up on what he’s missed since Erica has been filling in for him, while Lucas tells him all about the big game and how he managed to score the winning shot the first time he was taken off the bench. He was made up for the guy. It almost made him feel bad for being such an ass the first time Wheeler and Henderson approached him to ask to postpone Hellfire. Almost.
Hell, Eddie even found himself taking part in a few rounds of beer pong with the jocks and a few of the party-goers he knew from school. For a moment, it almost felt like high school and cliques and archetypes and the very natural laws of Eddie’s universe had stopped existing.
That was until…
“Shit.”
Eddie furrows his brow and looks at Lucas, and then follows his gaze.
Fucking Jason Carver, the Homecoming King himself, has just showed up. With a couple of wannabe henchmen by his side.
“Shit.” Eddie echoes, immediately putting his head down and walking away from the situation.
Now, typically, Eddie doesn’t care about Jason fucking Carver. He happily antagonizes him every chance he gets, even across the cafeteria, just to get a rise out of him. Just to feel like he has some sort of upper hand on the guy who makes high school a living hell for a lot of people. But things have changed since he started dating Chrissy. Chrissy doesn’t like being the center of attention at the best of times, and if Eddie continued to pick fights with Jason, it was only going to reflect badly on her. That’s just how it goes in high school.
Eddie makes his way back to the garden, straight to Chrissy, who was sitting quietly, but happily, with the rest of her friends. She glances at Eddie, and clocks onto his expression right away as her smile turns into a concerned frown. She stands up and meets him in the middle of the garden.
“I thought you said he didn’t come to these parties anymore.” Eddie says quietly, brow furrowed.
“Who–” Chrissy blinks, and then knits her brow as she realises. “Oh.”
. . .
“Do– do you want to leave?”
Chrissy is gripping the wine cooler in her hand, her other hand gently seeking out Eddie’s. She’s chewing on her bottom lip while trying to ignore the weight of anxiety on her chest over the concept of having to spend more than five minutes around her ex in an environment like this, with him no doubt having a boost of drunken confidence, more likely to say or even start something than in a safer environment like school.
“I don’t think he even saw me.” Eddie sighed, running a hand through his mess of wavy, brown hair.
“The girls all told me he never comes to these things anymore.” Chrissy huffed, exasperated.
Eddie takes in a breath and lets it out, and then places a hand gently on Chrissy’s waist, pulling her in for a small hug.
“Maybe he caught wind of The Freak being here tonight.” He places his head atop of Chrissy’s, and Chrissy buries her head in Eddie’s chest. “Guess I’ll just have to go into hiding.” He lets out a somewhat bitter laugh, and Chrissy keeps her head on Eddie’s chest for a moment, before frowning and looking up at him.
“No! Why should he get to ruin our night?” Chrissy questions, gesturing towards the inside of the house. “We’re not doing anything wrong. We’re just existing. Like any other couple. And he needs to get over that. Besides, we don’t even know if that’s what he’s here for, right?”
“...I guess.” Eddie reaches up and scratches behind his neck with a sigh. “I just– I dunno. I have a bad feeling, Chris.”
Chrissy chews on her bottom lip again. She places her bottle to the side, then reaches up to gently hold Eddie’s face in her hands. Eddie looks at her, with his big, brown cow-eyes, brow furrowed.
“C’mon, Munson… you’re the one who got me to stop worrying so much about what everyone else thinks, remember?” She reminds him with a warm smile, and she feels his cheeks heating up beneath her hands. He ducks his head slightly, and chuckles.
“I think I remember that, yeah.” His hands find their place on her waist again. “It’s just– I mean, look at us, Chris. We’re always going to stand out.”
“So?” Chrissy responds almost immediately, which receives another small huff of laughter from Eddie. “Conformity kills, right?”
Eddie raises his head to look at her again, and smiles fondly, if a little shyly, at Chrissy remembering one of his many rants during lunch hour at school.
“Right.”
Chrissy smiles and leans in to press a kiss to Eddie’s lips. She hears him take in a breath, and he wraps his arms fully around her waist to pull her a little bit closer. Chrissy can’t help but giggle a little against his mouth, and she feels him smiling, too, which just makes her want to kiss him over and over again. But she feels a couple people staring at them, and she gently pulls away, her hands moving to rest on Eddie’s chest. He’s smiling fondly at her, and he presses a kiss to Chrissy’s forehead.
Her hand slides from his chest, down his arm to his hand, and she holds it in her own.
“Let’s go have some fun. Okay? We deserve it.” She says with a smile, leading her boyfriend back indoors.
. . .
As Eddie allows Chrissy to lead him indoors presumably for more games, more drinks, and the hopes of a fun and memorable night, he just can’t shake the feeling in his stomach that’s telling him this night is about to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.