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It had been about two weeks since Eddie’s discharge from the hospital, and about two months since they defeated Vecna. It could have been a lot worse, but they somehow managed to stop the fourth end of the world. Eddie had gotten pretty fucked up by the demobats, but most of his internal organs remained internal, so it was mostly a lot of scars and stitches. Max’s arms were broken, but they were able to stop Vecna in time, so it was mostly temporary injuries.
They had managed to win, and that called for a party. It was the middle of April, and it was the first Saturday after everyone’s first week back in school. Well with the exception of Will, El, Jonathan, and Argyle. They were still trying to work it out with the schools, but things were looking up since the school district was getting pretty lenient after the “earthquake.” Eddie talked to his counselor, and she said as long as he showed up a couple of times a week or sent his homework with someone he was going to graduate.
He was currently in the middle of the woods, in the old (not dead?) chief of police’s cabin. There was a frankly shitty patch job done on the ceiling, but it seemed sturdy enough. Apparently, it was Will Byers’ birthday when all the shit during spring break went down, and it had kind of been forgotten. When Mike and Jonathan told them Will’s birthday had gotten forgotten in the chaos, everyone lost it. Eddie had met the kid a couple of times, and they got on like a wildfire. He saw so much of himself in Will, and he would do whatever he needed to to make him happy. Max, Lucas, Dustin, and Steve were particularly outraged. Hopper was still recovering from the Soviet prison (??? Eddie still has questions about that), but they decided to throw him the absolute best surprise belated birthday anyone had ever seen.
The man of the hour was out grocery shopping with some weird dude named Murray. Eddie had only met him once, but the fact that Joyce trusted him to watch Will baffled him. Jonathan and Argyle were sweeping and mopping the floors. Mike, Nancy, and Robin were working on a sign, which was not going great without Will’s artistic skills. Hopper was sitting across from Eddie, eating at the kitchen table. Erica and Dustin were yelling at Steve to move his car saying it was too much in view.
“I am literally parked a mile from here! If he sees my car we have a different problem because that means he developed superpowers!” Steve shouted back, fed up with the kids before it was even noon.
“Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing around here.” Hopper huffed into his mug, and that made Eddie crack a smile.
“Fine then! You ruin Will’s second birthday!” Dustin shouted, storming off towards Robin and Nancy who were sorting through party supplies they had brought from home. Steve sighed and walked out the door, presumably to move his car. Erica and Dustin fist bumped, Eddie should have known what those evil geniuses were up to.
“Not that I don’t want to participate, but um, what’s my job here?” Eddie asked the room.
“You are our distraction. Keep Will out of here until at least four o’clock, or until we give you the all-clear on the scanner.” Lucas instructed him. Dustin, Hopper, and Murray had figured out some cool new thing where they could talk to each other without having to worry so much about the walkie-talkies malfunctioning. It worked kind of like the radio cops used, but it was on a different frequency so they could use it. It was just for official party business though, so the kids still had to use the walkies to chat about all that stuff. And to demand rides from him and Steve.
Lucas was looking through take-out menus with Max, they were in charge of deciding the food. Max was kind of out of commission for the arts and crafts portion, but she was in charge of delegating the food duties and was helping Jonathan pick the music later.
“What should I do? That’s a lot of time to fill.” Eddie asked, he liked the kid but that’s still five hours to kill.
“Give him a haircut,” Max said, bluntly and she did have quite a point. To say that the bowl cut was unflattering, would be the understatement of the century. Jonathan was trying (and failing in Eddie’s opinion) to grow his out.
Eddie would be more than willing to do literally whatever he needed to to make that kid’s hair look literally any different. He did however feel a little bad since his hair stylist, Joyce, was right there. “It’s not that bad guys, c’mon.”
“No, it's okay, I know it’s not great. Please, I’ll give you some money. Just, do whatever it is he wants done. He’s a good kid, he’s just a little shy and wary about his looks.” Joyce assured him with that kind smile. It always made him feel all gushy inside. He knew his mom wasn’t always the best, but Joyce made him miss her. Maybe not his mom specifically, but like, a mom.
“Go take him to that mall a few towns over, go crazy. He deserves it,” Hopper took out his wallet and took out a fat stack of bills, what he could only assume was government hush money. Eddie was generally wary of Hopper, as they had not had the best history previously, but he was a good guy. And also not a cop anymore, so that helps.
“Give him a makeover, like Max did for me last year!” El had said excitedly, she was reading an old copy of James and the Giant Peach . She was another new addition to his life, and another person he saw quite a bit of himself in. She always spoke very deliberately, like every word was a very particular choice, and Eddie appreciated that. She was still surprised by things, and the world around her. He heard about her childhood, and how she had to escape from the lab. She was trying to get better at reading and writing, she started public school last year and that was… less than stellar. And boy did he get that. Most of his stuff was destroyed in the “earthquake” but Eddie would have given her some of his books if it wasn’t, y’know, gone.
Steve walked in then, quite angrily. “Alright, I am parked two miles away in the opposite goddamn direction? Are you happy?”
“Very, now get back to work.” Erica snapped back. She threw him a cookbook, and he rolled his eyes. He was however thumbing through it with a hidden sense of glee. That was another thing that shocked Eddie to his core about his new life. Steve Harrington wasn’t just an alright guy, he was the best guy. He was kind, and he loved these kids with a fire that lit up every bit of him. He loved cooking, and to dote on people. He was in Eddie’s hospital room nearly everyday, with some new dish he had tried to make. And he was handsome. Oh so handsome. Just legs for days, and stellar hair. It was his eyes that really captured Eddie, they were so old. He was only 20, and he seemed so old. It made Eddie kind of sad. His eyes had that shine of a man who has seen too much, but has come out the other side and decided to be kind. They were kind eyes. Maybe the kindest eyes Eddie had ever seen. “Can you believe these kids? No respect.”
It was then that Eddie realized he had been staring and spacing out. He was just lucky he hadn’t started drooling. It took him a minute, but he realized that he was supposed to respond because that’s how conversations work. “Yeah, uh, they’re total brats.”
Hopper gave him a knowing look, that made Eddie want to crawl into a hole and hide for the rest of his life. He could not have people knowing about this crush, it was too much.
“Hey, Joyce, I got enough food to feed an army, Will and I are on our way back.”
“Alright, everyone who doesn’t live here go hide in Will and El’s room!” Joyce said, and started helping hide all the party supplies.
When Eddie went to follow the kids, Hopper rolled his eyes. “Not you, you’re taking him out remember? Just sit your ass down and drink your coffee.
That is how Eddie and Will ended up driving to Greenville. He let Will have control of the radio, so he was playing him an old mix tape that Jonathan had made him.
“So uh, you excited for your shopping spree?” Eddie asked, somewhat awkwardly. He and Will got along really well, but Eddie was very focused on not spoiling the surprise.
“I guess,” He shrugged, with a forlorn look on his face. He was a hard nut to crack some days. “It’s not that I’m not grateful! I’m really excited, it’s just, crowded spaces, malls, that’s not really my thing. It kind of stresses me out. Besides polos and the GAP are more Steve’s thing.”
That made Eddie snort, he would never ever admit it, but he loved Steve’s dumb polos and his stupid Members Only jacket. He was falling for a goddamn prep, and there was nothing he could do about it. “Well, we don’t have to go to the mall. My job is to give you a makeover, so what look are we going for? Metallica? Sex Pistols? Springsteen? Madonna?”
“I don’t know, do you know that band, The Cure?” Will was clearly trying to be casual, but Eddie saw the glint in his eye.
“They’re no Metallica but they certainly beat Madonna.” He grunted, feigning disinterest. Eddie was just happy to help another kid join the dark side against the preppy Hell that was Hawkins.
“I wanna look like those guys!” Will said excitedly, he was smiling so big. “I saw them in this magazine in the record store out in California when I got a few of their tapes, and they looked so cool. A couple of the people who worked there looked like them. They had this super spiky hair, and like they didn’t give a shit about anything. There was this one guy, he would wear makeup! To school! And no one gave him shit or anything, well okay they did for like the first week, but he got into such a big fight everyone was scared of him. He was so cool, he asked me to play dnd with him, but that was right before El got arrested and everything.”
The whole “arrested” thing kind of confused Eddie. They all kind of glossed over whatever was going on with the California Crew of the Vecna debacle.That story had Eddie smiling though, he could see the heart eyes bursting out of Will’s skull. While Eddie wasn’t the biggest fan of the goths, it seemed to make Will so excited, and who was he to deny him that. Besides, the kid deserved to dress as dark as his soul, or whatever those guys said. Most of them were posers, but Will is probably the only one of them who could get away with being that dramatic and it be genuine. He had actually spent a week in hell, and lived to tell the tale.
“Well, lucky for you, that’s a fairly easy thing to pull off. No mall necessary. There’s a thrift shop not too far from here that should work.” Eddie felt all gooey inside. He was doing what he wishes someone could have done for him. He was going to make this kid the gothest child anyone has ever seen. He was going to get him the spikiest, blackest hair, teach him how to do the best goddamn eyeliner Hawkins had ever seen. Eddie turned up the music and let it play, it wasn’t actually that close to where they were. It was only a half hour from Hawkins, but they had just spent 15 minutes driving in the opposite direction.
“So you excited about school? You’ll be back with your friends,” That just got him a humorless laugh, and a bitchy (but admittedly deserved) stare. “Yeah, I guess I should have expected that one. I don’t really know why I said it. I guess it’s just one of those things adults ask kids.”
“It’s not the worst thing in the world, I’m just I don’t know…” Will trailed off looking out the window.
“Scared?” Eddie supplied, as kindly as possible.
Clearly not as kindly as he should have been. Will practically shouted, “I’m not scared!”
“It’s okay to be scared Will, i was scared going back to school after everything. I was scared of everything before the whole end of the world thing too. Spiders, rats, the dark, football players, school, all of it. I’m still scared of all that, but I really want to graduate. You’re allowed to be scared of stuff in this dimension too, not just the Upside Down.”
“It’s just, El’s getting homeschooled. She beat the shit out of Angela -not that she didn’t deserve it- it’s just like, Mom and Hop don’t think she like can go to school just yet so they’re gonna home school her. And like that makes sense and that’s great and I’m glad they’re doing it but like I’m gonna be alone.” Will rambled on, and Eddie only mostly followed. He still wasn’t clear on what was going on on their side of Spring Break or who Angela was, but Eddie understood the vibes.
“Bullshit. You’re not gonna be alone, you’ve got Mike and Dustin and Max and Lucas. They’re not gonna let anything happen to you, they’d take a bullet for you they can help you deal with a few snotty teenagers.” Eddie knew once Max’s arms healed she would be ready to get into a real good scrap. That girl was 10 pounds of rage in a 5-pound bag, she just needed an excuse to get it out.
“It’s different, that’s Upside Down stuff, this is- this is different. Troy and the other guys call me Zombie Boy and a bunch of shit, and like it was bad enough back when I first went missing, but I thought people would forget about it. Even now, people still bring it up, even when I’m just at the fucking grocery store! Did you know when I was getting cherries with Murray today, and some guy tried to start shit, calling me a freak and a fag and he looked like he wanted to beat the shit out of me. Murray had to step in. Murray. Do you know how humiliating it is to have Murray have to help rescue you? What happens when I’m in school when those guys start pushing me around?”
“Push ‘em back! I know for a fact that Hop’s been teaching you how to fight. Don’t start shit, but sometimes you have to finish it. Do no harm, take no shit. You might be a freak or a ‘zombie’ or whatever the fuck, but that’s because you are Will fucking Byers, cool as hell, metal as shit, and tough as nails. If they call you a freak, just remember who the hell you are. If they try to start shit, make them regret it!” He looked over at Will, wide-eyed, and hung on every word. He hoped that Will didn’t lean too heavily into that, there’s only so much that fighting helps. But, Eddie knows not taking it is one of those most important things is to let a bully know if they fuck around and they’re gonna find out.
“What about the other thing?” Will asked so quietly it could barely be heard over the sound of David Bowie’s Space Oddity.
“What other thing?” Eddie feigned ignorance. He knew exactly what Will was asking, but he wanted to be sure.
“You said I'm a freak and a zombie. What if I'm a fag?” Will looked at him, voice unwavering. This kid was braver than Eddie ever was. He knew this could not have been easy, but he said it with such courage. Eddie looked at him, he saw so much life in those young eyes, and he knew that it wasn’t just the Lovecraft shit that had aged him. It was similar to that look Steve had, there was a bunch of shit already there and then cosmic horrors came in and made things even worse
“Well, I’d tell you that that’s not really a nice thing to say about yourself. But so am I.” Eddie said, as calmly as he could. Will was being brave, so Eddie could be brave too. He was going to stop running.
“You are? You’re…” Will’s eyes were so wide, that Eddie thought it would probably hurt.
“Gay? Yeah. Yeah, I'm gay.”
“Cool.” Will said, quietly. He looked like there was a million things happening in his head and he needed a minute.
Here am I floating 'round my tin can
Far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
Sang out in the background. Eddie was humming along, unsure of what to do. He didn’t really come out all that often. Sure, early on when he got the van and started visiting Indianapolis, but everyone there already knew from the moment they met him. And he was the kid. He was the baby queer, he wasn’t supposed to be anyone’s guide. This required, like emotional intelligence, and that was really more Steve’s department, well maybe not the coming out part. He heard what happened from Robin. Or maybe it is? He’s still unclear if that was a good response on an objective level, but it worked for the two of them and their weird Vulcan mind meld relationship.
Luckily, the thrift store came into sight, saving Eddie from having to think of what to say next. They hopped out of the van, and Eddie grabbed a cart. “The secret to goths, punks, and metalheads, is to get whatever the fuck you want, for as cheap as possible, and just dye it black.”
They went to a diner nearby for lunch and were looking through hair dyes at Walgreens.
“Whatcha thinkin’? Pick whatever you want, you’ve got pretty light hair, so almost anything would work.” Eddie picked up a couple different colors, putting the boxes up to his head.
Will, ignored him and put a jet black L’oreal hair dye in their basket, and Eddie just nodded in approval. He found the purple hair spray bottle he was looking for and threw it to Will, who almost fumbled it but managed to catch it at the last moment and saved them from both embarrassment and permanent banning from Walgreens. “Alright, I’m gonna teach you how to tease your hair, and you’ve gotta use this. AquaNet is the best option for the spikes pr the big hair thing. None of that Farrah Fawcett shit Steve uses, it’s not gonna hold the volume you want it to. Got it?”
Will nodded, and went to grab some combs and other things Eddie told him to grab for his hair. Eddie found some black fabric dye and thanked his lucky stars. It wasn’t always the easiest to find, but it really did make things easier when shopping. Will kept glancing over at the makeup aisle.
“Come on kid, pick out some stuff. You wanna look like you’re in The Cure right?” Eddie gave him a smile, and Will had a wary look about him.
“But that’s girl shit.” He said, so clearly repeating someone it made his heart hurt.
“I dare you to say that in front of Max.” Eddie snorted.
“But, like what about what everyone else says?”
“Fuck everyone else. They’re gonna talk either way, not do what you actually want to do?”
Will picked out some really pale foundation, not that he needed to do much to get that goth white as a ghost look. He grabbed a bunch of lipsticks, a bright red one, black, purple, dark red, pink, he was like a kid in a candy store. Well, besides the fact he was literally a kid in a candy store currently. Eddie went to the Maybelline section and found a pot of black eyeshadow, an eyeliner pencil, and some mascara. Will was looking at a few of the eyeshadow Eddie recognized from a Madonna ad, and he wanted to roll his eyes but recognized that that would be incredibly inappropriate right now. Eddie was so happy for him, Will kept running over and asking opinions on the colors. “You’re the artist kid, pick what you think will look good.”
They went back to Eddie’s new house afterward. The suits had shown up after everything and gave his uncle the keys to a small house on the edge of town in exchange for 2 signed N.D.A.s that were about as tall as Eddie was. It was small, and right on the edge of town, pretty close to the Forrest. It was kind of run down, and Wayne and Eddie were still practically living on top of each other, but it was nicer than anything either of them had ever lived in. Wayne was slowly but surely rebuilding his mug collection after it had been destroyed. Eddie had the best gift ever hidden away in his room for Father’s Day. He had a mug that had a mug that said “World’s Best Dad” on it made. It was corny as hell, but it made him cry so it was absolutely going to make Uncle Wayne cry.
“Alright, my Uncle Wayne is sleeping so we can’t be too loud, but let’s do this thing!” He let Will put on some Bauhaus tape he had with him. It wasn’t awful. He started showing Will how to dye clothes. They ended up getting him 3 sweaters, 2 long-sleeved striped tee-shirts, a few statement shirts that were absolutely women’s shirts but would definitely fit Will, and 3 pairs of jeans 2 of which they were going to cut into shorts. They had found an old army jacket, that was miraculously already black. Eddie was quite jealous of the haul, he hadn’t had as much luck in the early days of his Metal transformation.
“It’s gonna get real hot pretty soon, so you might not really get a chance to wear some of this stuff till the fall.” He poured the steaming water from a pot into the big plastic tub he usually kept random crap in. The random crap was now on the kitchen table, but that’s fine.
“It’s okay, the heat doesn’t bother me that much,” Will shrugged. He had a different pot, that he would fill up when Eddie poured his in the tub. “Back when I was possessed, I was really cold all the time. Now it freaks me out whenever I’m cold. Mom’s always yelling at me that heatstroke’s gonna kill me. I just prefer it.”
Eddie didn’t think he could ever get used to the way the kids talked about everything. It was clearly hard for Will to talk about, but in the same way it was hard for Eddie to talk about his parents. Not like, the fact he was dealing with something straight out of the Monster Manual.
“Damn, that sucks.” Eddie nodded, unsure of how to respond to that.
“Yeah, same reason I hate bugs.”
“Oh yeah, I feel you on that. Ever since coming back, I’m terrified of slugs. I never liked them, but now? Ugh!” Eddie shivered, mostly kidding.
“You think that was bad! I was coughing them up for like, a year!” Will laughed.
“Uh, that’s gross, dude!” Eddie faked a gag in the sink causing Will to burst into a fit of giggles.
After starting to soak the clothes, Eddie sits Will in a kitchen chair and gives him a ratty old T-shirt he uses when he knows he’s going to be doing something messy.
“Believe you me I know how hard it is to have gorgeous hair, but be trapped by the unduly burdens of the hair salon prices”.
“Can’t you talk normally for like, 5 minutes?” Will asked in a tone so similar to Dustin. He got why they were friends, the little shits. Dnd was going to be interesting with these two.
“Everyone said you were the nice one, the quiet one. It was all “Will is so kind” and “Will would never do that” But I know your secret. You're worse than Dustin.” Eddie laughed.
“They talked about me?” Will asked, and Eddie could not read what was lying under there.
“All the time! Lucas and Dustin were so excited for you to come back during the summer. They were getting some big DnD thing ready for you. Mike would not shut the fuck up about you. They all missed you a lot.”
“I heard about that, they felt bad about ditching me last summer,” Eddie was cutting a strand here and a strand there, it didn’t need to be that good but he was concentrating very hard. “I didn’t know about Mike though. I didn’t realize he even realized I was gone.”
“Yeah, well he did. Kid’s a shithead, but he loves you. Being a teenager sucks, and sometimes it's hard, to tell what matters, but he does care. It doesn’t make it okay, and you’re allowed to be mad, but don’t wall yourself off in anger.” Eddie remembered being on both sides of that, and it was always hard.
“Eddie, I- I don’t like Mike the way he likes me. I like like Mike.” Will told him it in a whisper. He looked so small, so young.
“Yeah well, no one’s first crush is a good one.” Eddie snorts at Will’s indignant gasp.
“Eddie!”
“What! Am I wrong?”
“Well- Who was your first crush?” Will crossed his arms, huffy but laughing.
“Steve when we were in sixth grade and we had Mrs. Kelley’s English class. See? The first crush is a dud.” Eddie lied through his teeth.
“But you still have a crush on Steve,” Will asked -no- stated, oh so bluntly.
“Shut up you little twerp.” Eddie teased, swatting him on the shoulder.
They finished the haircut and the hair dye was processing. Eddie was showing Will his vest that he had just gotten back from Steve, in surprisingly clean condition. It only had a few blood stains on it, but most of the Upside Down goo was gone. Overall it looked even more metal.
“What’s this patch?” Will asked, pointing at the Leviathan cross.
“Satanism” Eddie said in his spooky dungeon master voice. That made Will giggle.
“What’s this one? The A?”
“Anarchy, baby” Eddie said raising his right fist and punching the air.
“What’s that?”
“Kinda just, Fuck The Man. All capital letters.” Eddie shrugged, not really sure how to describe it.
“Like… fuck the man or like fuck the man, ” Will asked looking so incredibly uncomfortable. It made Eddie want the ground to open up and swallow him right then and there.
“No, like fuck the government. Fuck Reagan, fuck bush, fuck Nancy Reagan, and all of them. They don’t have our back. Anarchy is like, they don’t take care of us, so we have to. Burn all this shit to the ground for letting it happen. For letting us die in the street, and being fucking happy about it.” Eddie was practically spitting by this point. He was pissed, it was only a few days ago that he got the letter from Sandy. His old friend from Indianapolis, Scott had died while he was in the hospital. She had tried to reach out, but with the “earthquake” in Hawkins it just wasn’t possible. Scott was dead, and Eddie didn’t even get to go to the fucking funeral. For all intents and purposes, Eddie considered it a goddamn murder. To make matters worse, if what the kids said was true, all of this was cuz the fucking feds were messing around with the Upside Down, and trying to turn kids into weapons through some fucked up experiments.
“Is that what these are?”
There were buttons, they were Scott’s. Sandy sent them with the letter. They said things like “the government has blood on its hands”, “not tonight dear, it’s a felony!” “There are a whole lot more of us than you think!” “Nuclear War, Just Say No!” “Caution! Reagan is a hazard to your health!”
“Kind of. A- a close friend of mine was sick. He’s been sick for a while, but he was getting better. He and a bunch of our friends were planning on coming up to visit for my graduation. Sometime between Chrissy, and the earthquake, and that little coma I had in there, he uh, he got worse. While I was out, he passed away. I found out a couple days ago. The buttons, they were his,” Eddie couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. He hadn’t really told anyone. He told Uncle Wayne, but it didn’t feel real then. It barely felt real pinning the buttons on himself. That this man, this man who had cared for him like a brother, was just gone. He never got to say goodbye, nothing. Just there one day, gone the next. He was going to visit them later that week. It was his last spring break. They were going to go to Craig’s band’s concert on Friday night. Saturday he was going to help them distribute food in the park. Saturday night they were all going to help him study. They were supposed to hug, and Scott was going to help him get ready for finals. They were going to listen to the new Metallica album together, and Eddie was going to show him that he learned Master of Puppets. But now, now they would never do any of that. Scott would never get to be a lawyer, or listen to another song, or see the world. He was gone. “The buttons, they were actually how we met. Back in freshman year, I was trying to visit my dad, and Wayne said it was a bad idea but I didn’t listen. The first day I find out he’s still a bastard, still doesn’t wanna see me. But I’m too stubborn, I have nowhere to go and my bus ticket isn’t for another week, and they won’t let me exchange it. It’s been one day and I slept in the park, and I see this Food Not Bombs group. There were these punk-lookin’ people, and they had the warmest smiles I’ve ever seen. Scott handed me a burrito, and he was the coolest person I have ever seen. He had these cool liberty spike hair and was a total punk. I hadn’t met any other freaks in person. I didn’t know what else to say so I just said ‘your buttons are cool!’
“I guess it was a slow day, or there were enough people cooking or something, and he sat down and he talked to me. He asked me what was going on and if I had a place to stay. I told him what was going on, and he told me I could stay with him and his friends. They were the other people handing out food. They gave me a nice couch to sleep on, a roof over my head, and some admittedly mediocre food. They didn’t expect anything in return. They just said to do the same thing if I were ever in a position to do so.
“I kept going back. I wanted to hit up the bars, although they didn’t let me do that till my 17th birthday where they got me a fake I.D. I wanted to go to shows, do my teenage wasteland thing. They were always there if I ever needed anything. He was always there. I just, I really miss him. I just wish I had gotten to say goodbye. Sandy and Jill and Craig are still coming up for graduation, but it’s going to almost be worse. He had a smile and personality that filled every room he walked into. Without him, I just, I don’t know. I never really had any buttons or anything like that on the jacket cuz I was scared. But after everything with the Upside Down, when I woke up, I decided that I could deal with whatever shit people threw at me. Hiding who I am isn’t going to stop anything, no more running. Then I get this letter, and Scott is gone. And, I just- I don’t know. I think I need to be the person he always dreamed I could be. Cuz I’m here, and he’s not. And that makes me so mad, and it’s not fair. I can’t waste a minute, or else, I don’t know, I have to make it up to him. I can’t let him die and let him down. I just miss him, and it's just so fucking unfair. ” Eddie had finally started crying too much to continue. It wasn’t just that this was the first person he’s told since Scott’s passing, this was the first person he has really ever told about Scott and everyone, barring Uncle Wayne. Will just pulled him into a tight hug, and they sat just listening to whatever old rock album from Uncle Wayne’s collection Will had changed it to.
It sounded like Pink Floyd
How I wish, how I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Running over the same old ground
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here
Finally, Eddie collected himself. It felt good to tell someone.
“Come on kid, you’ve gotta wash the dye out. I’ll get you a towel and some clothes you can keep.”
While Will was in the shower he heard the signal on the scanner.
“Does anyone want to grab dinner? over.” Dustin called in what was the most obviously a secret code tone he had ever heard.
“Yeah, Will’s still in the shower and is going to take a while to get dressed. How long are you thinking?”
“Oh perfect, we’re almost done but the cake isn’t done yet and the food still needs to be picked up. Okay um, can you guys get over here in like an hour and a half? - What? No pick up the film while you’re getting the pizzas. No! Jonathan, It’ll spoil the surprise.- Alright, yeah do you think you’ll be ready by 5? Sorry, things are going a little crazy over here.” Joyce was as frazzled as ever it seemed.
“Of course, if anything comes up let me know!”
Eddie had shown Will just how to do his hair and makeup. Taking great pains to explain each part of what he did, and what to avoid. He told him how this is what Sandy did with her hair, and she taught him how to do it. The makeup was more Craig’s thing, but they both taught Eddie. When he looked in the mirror, Will started to tear up and Eddie wrapped him in a big hug. “You look goth as shit, little man.” Eddie smiled into his hair.
“Do you think you could like, help me with my hair on Monday?”
“Of course! You really wanna do all this for school?”
“Why?! Do I look bad? Should I not?” Will panicked.
“No, you look amazing, it’s just a lot of work to look this cool. And people suck.” Eddie was trying to warn Will without scaring him. He knew that it was dangerous. Eddie was making a specific choice, but that wasn’t a choice Will needed to make.
“Well, fuck ‘em.” Will said firmly, and Eddie saw that little glint in his eye. He wonders if this is how Scott felt all those years ago. Will was just about that age actually. God, was Eddie that small? How did Scott do it? How did he know just what to say? He didn’t. But he tried, and that’s what matters
“Well, lucky for you, you will have an all-new all-black wardrobe.”
They get to the house, and when everyone pops out and shouts “SURPRISE!”, well let's just say it’s a good thing Eddie picked out the waterproof eyeliner.