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“Eddie…Earth to Eddie…” Gareth called over the chatter of the crowd, waving his hand in the older man’s peripheral vision.
What the fuck had him so distracted?
“Munson!”
“Hm?” Eddie whipped his long curls around as he looked over at his friend and drummer, brown eyes wide. “Ah, shit, sorry, man. What did you say?”
“Shit, dude,” Gareth rolled his eyes, giving Eddie a smack on his shoulder and squeezing. “Nevermind what I was talking about. The hell are you so focused on?”
Jeff laughed to himself, shaking his head and pointing across the small, crowded venue. “Two o’clock. Remember the library assistant from school?”
“Your class, right?” Gareth leaned up on his toes, glancing around Jeff’s shoulder to get a look at the mystery person that had Eddie entranced in between sets. He caught a glimpse of a well-loved black leather jacket, flannel tied around your waist, legs wide and arms crossed in assertion as you laughed at what your friend was saying.
Jeff nodded. “Yup, that’s the one. Always had the backpack with the patches. Why didn’t you ever introduce yourself, dude?” He turned to the oldest of them, Eddie instantly pulling a handful of hair around his mouth as he chewed on a blunt nail.
“I did,” Eddie turned to look at the other two, placing his hands on his slender hips as his chopped Overkill shirt rode up, exposing his heavily scarred navel. “We talked a little bit about music…sometimes. I dunno, man,” The metalhead slid a hand down his face, clearly nervous as his heart pounded in his chest. You just looked so cool.
What the fuck had him so nervous?
You were just a normal person. You two had things in common. Talking should be easy!
Don’t be chickenshit, Eddie.
“Dude, if you don’t go shoot your shot right fucking now, I’m resigning as drummer,” Gareth gave Eddie a gentle shove, Jeff beaming and shrugging as Eddie looked to him for backup.
“You heard him, Eds. We’re out of high school now. No expectations,” Jeff tried to give Eddie a proper pep-talk. “Except for itty-bitty-witty Gareth.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Gareth rolled his eyes, the three of them laughing loudly. Eddie stood up straight, exhaling through his nose and nodding at the other two. Gareth and Jeff exchanged a knowing glance, watching Eddie’s hair bounce in time with his steps as he made his way across the venue towards you.
Eddie clenched his jaw, hands shoved into his back pockets as he crossed through small clusters of thrashers, punks, and drunks. His dirty Reeboks gave a slight pull with each step, a film of beer and God knows what else varnishing the floor. The air was thick with summer heat, faint odors of weed, cigarettes, stale beer, and sweat.
He smiled softly as he approached you, trying to stuff his heart back down his throat and appear enthusiastic–but not too exhilarated–when greeting you. When you looked up and made eye contact with him, your eyes lit up and you waved at him. Eddie felt his stomach flip at the sight, thinking you would want nothing to do with him despite being so similar.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” You murmured over the rim of your cup, stepping towards him. “I thought you had left this shithole, Munson.”
“I could say the same about you,” His entire posture relaxed when he realized that you did, in fact, acknowledge him. Little did he know that you had your own fantasies about running into him after graduating, talking to him, maybe befriending him. Maybe more, but you would never admit that aloud to him. “You seemed pretty eager to grab that diploma and run.”
“Shit, you have no idea,” You tossed your head back and laughed, crunching your used cup in your hand and tossing it into the garbage can beside you. “It was nice seeing you in that cap and gown, Munson. Especially with all the shit you got into.”
“I’ll never say this again, but Hopper pulled through with that one. You wouldn’t believe the shit that entailed,” He looked down, kicking one foot forward. You really wouldn’t believe it.
“I thought you were innocent, y’know,” You crossed your arms and smiled at him, and he gave you an incredulous look. You could see the gears turning inside of his head before his eyes softened.
“What? For real?”
“You never even had the balls to approach anyone that didn’t already look lost, dude. I knew you wouldn’t have had the guts to do some shit like that, let alone multiple times. Plus, that…you’d need to, like, fight bears and be on a whole new level of fucked up to do that,” You paused, lips curling up into an amused grin. “Shit, I thought Carver had finally gone postal and was trying to overcompensate for it with the way he was whipping up the town.”
Eddie looked at you, stunned. You weren’t wrong, but he could not believe how you had nearly deciphered the situation in a matter of moments. You laughed softly when you saw his mouth hang slightly agape, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder. Your heart skipped a beat at how soft his hair was as they brushed your fingers. “Remember, I’m a ‘weirdo metalhead freak’ too, yeah? I know how easy it is for all of them to blame shit on us. We’re easy targets.”
“Well damn. You aren’t half bad,” Eddie let out a sigh of relief, laughing with you. He glanced down to check his watch; it would be at least another half hour until the next band came on. “Hey, I was going out for a smoke break. Wanna come with?”
You smiled perhaps slightly too wide, hoping he would ask you. This was the most reserved you may have ever seen him; it was amazing what not lashing out due to being perpetually tormented by your peers for eight hours every day could do for a person.
“Sure thing, Eddie.”
“Got a light?” You asked, pulling a cigarette from the box crushed in the pocket of your jeans. Eddie nodded, pulling a lighter out and leaning in to ignite your cigarette first, then his own. You couldn’t peel your eyes off of him until he looked up at you, smiling as he caught you.
“So…” He began, exhaling a cloud of smoke as he hopped up to seat himself on a large wood crate near one of the open garage-style doors. “Why didn’t we talk more in school, huh? Aside from ‘I love that band,’ or ‘New patch? Good choice’,” He tilted his head, though his tone held no judgment. Just curiosity.
“Honestly?” You turned to face him, resting your elbows on the wood next to his thigh. “I was just trying to get the fuck out. Don’t get me wrong, it was great knowing there was someone else like me in school…but the whole ‘super-super senior’ paired with ‘high school drug dealer’ thing weirded me out until I got to know you a bit more. My own fucked up judgements, I guess,” You looked up at him, expecting him to be upset, but he just nodded, understanding.
“Nah, I get it. It was definitely a bad look,” Eddie laughed, taking another drag from his cigarette. “Just did what I had to do to get some quick cash; it was never something I was proud of. But can’t quite convince people that you’re ethical by screening clients about where their head’s at when selling ketamine and pot to cheerleaders, huh?”
You snorted, looking out at the empty loading dock in front of you, lined by a thick barrier of forest and the expanse of the night sky. You shook your head. “Definitely not. You still do it?”
“Sell?”
“Yeah.”
“Nah. Definitely not,” Eddie shook his head, scratching the back of his neck and looking at you, eyes trailing from head to toe as he took you in. “After the incident 'n' finally graduating, I managed to land a gig that pays regularly. Now it’s just smoke sessions with friends.”
“Purely recreational,” You laughed, stretching and hopping up so you could sit next to him. You both flushed red as you got closer, looking down to flick ash off of the end of your cigarette.
“Purely recreational,” He agreed, long hair bouncing as he nodded. You both could see each other better from this angle, features illuminated by the floodlights that lit the loading dock. Even in the harsh lighting, he was stunning, butterflies churning in your stomach.
“Who’s running Hellfire now?” You quickly asked, eyes locked on the ripped knees of your jeans to keep yourself from staring at him for too long. Eddie turned to you and grinned, heart soaring at the mention of the little motley crew.
“Gareth has the reins on it now that Jeff and I are gone…but all of the guys come over for different campaigns on the weekends so we can keep playing together. Organizing it when you’re not all in the same place for school is a bitch, though,” You both smiled.
“I bet,” You murmured around your cigarette and swatted at a gnat. You looked over as he pulled a rubber band out of his pocket, holding it between his teeth as he pulled those thick, messy curls into a low bun and secured it. You had to stop yourself from sneaking a glance at his bare neck, a slight sheen of sweat on his skin from the humid night.
Goddamn, he was pretty. And sweet. And pretty cool.
Maybe you really should have gotten to know him sooner.
“The best part? The younger ones managed to talk Steve Harrington into playing our home campaign,” He raised his eyebrows deviously at you, and your eyes widened in disbelief as you let out a wicked laugh.
“Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington playing Dungeons and Dragons? Say it ain’t so,” Your grin was mischievous and Eddie felt weak at the knees, wanting to see what else he could tell you that would elicit that expression. He chuckled and nodded, toying with a loose thread on the end of his shirt nervously. “I can’t wait to tell Robin about this.”
“You know Buckley?” Eddie inquired, leaning in just a hair closer to you. You nodded, your arm brushing his before you crushed the butt of your cigarette on the wood beside you. Even just the slightest bit of physical contact had Eddie’s brain short circuiting, the scuffed toe of his white sneakers tapping nervously against the crossbeam under his feet.
At least now he had a way to get you all to hang out together and make it less awkward.
“Uh-huh. She’s sweet. Her girlfriend and I grew up together,” You smiled at Eddie, kicking your feet slightly as you fished another cigarette from your pack. Eddie noticed and retrieved his lighter, flicking the end of it to life for you. He couldn’t help but stare at your lips, and you winked at him as you caught him staring. Eddie’s mouth fell open as he tried to find the words to say next.
“So…uh, you're still working at the library?”
“Part-time. I don’t quite qualify for head librarian yet…so I gotta find another gig to fill in the afternoon,” You rolled your eyes, inhaling another drag of smoke. Eddie looked down, forgetting that he even had his cigarette in hand, the stick burning down in a long heap of ash.
“Guess I’ll have to come in and see you sometime,” Eddie murmured and bounced his eyebrows at you, a wide grin on those plush lips.
“Yeah, you will. Our copy of Dune is still checked out and overdue, and it has Eddie Munson written all over it,” You whispered, catching him red-handed, and his face flushed the lightest dusting of pink. “If you bring it back, I have a couple of recommendations I could give you,” Your hand gently brushed his, pinky stretching out to gently wrap around his.
He nearly jumped at the idea, instantly trying to remember where he set that library copy of Dune in his bedroom. Eddie’s eyes widened slightly at the contact before he took in a deep breath and relaxed into the small touch, stretching his own pinky out to wrap with yours. “Pinky promise?” He asked with a soft smile, and you nodded in agreement.
“Pinky promise. I’ll even waive your library fee, if you come during my shift.”
“You drive a hard bargain, sweetheart.”
You laughed, flicking your cigarette and extinguishing it before hopping off the box. “Hey, it’s the least I can do for a sweet guy like yourself. Just don’t make it a habit, Munson,” You grinned, pinching your tongue between your teeth playfully.
“You wound me!” He exclaimed, pressing a hand against his heart dramatically. “I could never, now that I know you’re the one collecting,” A tense pause. Eddie bit his lip, working up the courage to ask you the one question that had been gnawing at his innards since he saw you at the show.
“Can I call you?”
Your grin softened into a sweet smile as you pulled out an old receipt, tearing it and handing one half to him. “Only if you give me yours, too.”
Eddie reached into the pocket of his denim vest, tongue tracing his upper lip as he pulled out a stubby, well-worn pencil. He leaned in and wrote his number down, his handwriting scratchy and slanted, but legible. He passed the pencil to you, exchanging slips of paper with each other.
“Guess we should head back in, huh? They should be coming on soon,” Your eyes met his–soft, brown, warm, and friendly. Eddie nodded, pocketing the slip of paper and taking one last inhale from his cigarette.
“I’ll be back in a minute. You guys can hang with us for the rest of the show, if you want. The band’s friends of ours!” Eddie beamed, and you nodded. That gorgeous smile was contagious.
“Sure thing, Eddie,” You replied, turning on your heel to head back inside the venue to fetch your friends. As soon as you were lost in the crowd, Eddie quickly pulled the slip of paper out of his pocket, staring at the numbers and committing them to memory. He closed his eyes and softly laughed, pumping his hand that held the cigarette in the air.
Little did he know you did the same, leaning against the wall by the bathroom and eagerly staring at the scratches of handwriting on your trashed receipt with a goofy grin before folding it and slipping it into your jeans.
He couldn’t wait to get home and find that copy of Dune.