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Eddie Munson swore he’d never attend another Hawkin’s High social event once he walked across the stage at graduation, but here he was… at the last party of his high school years.
Once you've survived 6 years of high school and the upside down, high school ragers are not as appealing… if they ever were.
Eddie could say he was there purely to sell weed, to get drunk, or to cause chaos as his lasting imprint on the Class of ‘86. He could say a lot of things. The real reason he was there was that throughout saving Hawkins from impending doom he had gained a found family–a group of friends he never thought he would get to have in his life.
Robin had grabbed his hand one afternoon at Family Video begging him to come to the party after graduation. Vickie was going to be there and had asked Robin to meet her there. Steve was also going, but she wanted Eddie to go.
Which is weird… but… nice. It was a nice, but foreign, feeling to be wanted somewhere.
A lot of that had started in the Upside Down, inside Eddie’s brain. He collected Steve’s gazes and stares and quick shoulder brushes, saving them in the corner of his brain. What did him in, though, was the look Steve gave him after telling him and Dustin not to be heroes, not to be cute . He knew at that moment there was something more to be explored if they all got out of there alive. That was a look wives gave their husbands before they left for war. Eddie wanted to tease Steve about it, but at the moment all Eddie could muster was a make him pay .
The story of how Eddie got the boy is a short 4 steps that took place over 4 weeks, all from his hospital bedside.
Eddie liked to brag about his game to anyone in the party who would listen. Steve usually pressed his hand across Eddie’s face and mumbled a cute shut up oh my god that would be punctuated by Steve actively shutting him up with a kiss.
More on that another time.
Back to the present.
Eddie is in the kitchen, Robin is chatting it up with Vickie by the patio door, Jonathan and Argyle are there, sitting in the backyard passing a joint back and forth, and Steve is, …where is steve?
He cranes his neck around the colossal kitchen for Steve, suddenly feeling a lot like a forgotten buoy in the middle of an ocean.
Eddie begins walking around the house, squeezing between dancing bodies and risking getting beer and punch splashed on him. He makes it to the sunroom but still no sign of Steve.
Who he does see was Nancy Wheeler.
“Wheeler?” He calls over and walks to where Nancy is sitting on a wicker loveseat. “I didn’t peg you for someone who attended house parties.”
“I didn't peg you for them either,” Nancy smirks behind her red solo cup, likely filled with Jungle Juice.
Eddie plops himself down next to Nancy and pulls his feet up onto the ottoman. “Seen Steve around?” He asks her.
“Last time I saw him was with you in the corner by the front door.” She looks at him knowingly, unable to hide her teasing grin.
Steve had pushed Eddie up against the wall when he walked in. No one was in the entryway, and no one was watching, but everyone was around. It was the hottest kiss he had ever received and then Steve winked at him and said looking good, Munson before leading them through the party to the kitchen.
He had no idea Nancy was within eyesight and he briefly wonders if anyone else saw it.
“Relax, no one else saw,” Nancy answers as if she could read his thoughts. “Okay, maybe Jonathan and Argyle, but they are too high to remember. And besides, even if they do, they won’t care either.”
Eddie thinks about that for a moment. “I mean, I don’t care a whole lot who sees or doesn't. But. I don’t know about Steve. I don't know what his boundaries are.”
Nancy turns her body to sit on the couch facing Eddie’s profile. She pulls her legs up underneath her. “You were worried about Steve’s boundaries when he shoved you against the nearest flat surface when you walked in? I would say his boundaries are pretty slim.” She chuckles and takes a sip of her drink.
“Yeah, but,” Eddie shakes his head. “I don’t wanna spook him, y’know.”
Nancy looks at Eddie over her cup. She stares, actually, and for a long moment. Eddie felt like he was being studied. “You know,” She set her cup on the floor next to the couch. “I really don’t think Steve is spookable.”
Eddie’s eyes flick over to hers. “What do you mean?”
Nancy purses her lips, clearly trying to figure out what to say next. “What I mean is, Steve is usually the one to spook the ones he is dating. His love is like a haunted house.”
Eddie’s face twists into disagreement, then he opens his mouth to voice that, but Nancy shakes her head and holds up her hand for him to wait. “You look at him and you see him and you think, okay, this is what I am getting. The hair and the charm and the flirtatious eyelashes–”
“The flirtatious what now?”
“Shut up, you know about the eyelashes.” Nancy smiles. “Anyway, you see this tall, pretty jock and you think this is what I will get. We will date for a few months, he’ll take me to prom, and then when he goes off to college that will be that. It will be amicable, but who really marries their high school sweetheart?” Nancy shakes her head. “His love is like a haunted house.” She raises her shoulders and drops them in a shrug.
“He dates you like he wants to marry you. Genuinely. He does. You go on a date with him and you automatically feel taken care of and seen and appreciated and loved. So incredibly loved that it almost hurts. You aren't expecting this! You bought tickets to the haunted house. You think: I know exactly what I'm in for. You think you are getting his letterman jacket on game days, that your hand goes in his back pocket, and you try on writing your first name with his last name for fun, but it's in glittery purple pen and that just isn’t serious at all,” Nancy inhales sharply. “But, what you are really getting is his undivided attention, all his focus, all his love, his letterman jacket on all days, and he is already dreaming up futures with you while you're sketching your names with gel pens like an idiot.”
Eddie thinks about all the scribbles of STEVE MUNSON and EDDIE HARRINGTON that litter the margins in his lyric notebooks. He thinks about the letterman jacket hanging on his bedroom door. He is thankful for the lack of lights in the sun room when he feels a slight blush creep on his cheeks.
Eddie smiles so fondly it makes Nancy sigh happily. “I am glad he has you.”
He quirks an eyebrow up at that.
“Yeah, I,” She looks like she is trying to solve the last clue on the Sunday crossword puzzle. Eddie lets her. “I didn’t know how to accept the… weight of his love.” She shares a sad smile with him.
Eddie chews on his bottom lip, looking anywhere but at her, because this was all starting to sound a lot like the wrong time, right person, unrequited love and he really doesn’t want to hate Wheeler.
Nancy must have caught on because she held her hands up. “Not that I want to accept it now, or that I am holding on to what could have been!” She laughs.
Eddie laughs. Thank God, he thinks.
“No, all this to say is I, um, I didn’t treat him kindly. Not that I actively made the decision to break his heart, no one really plans on doing that to someone right?” She runs a hand through her hair. “No one plans on breaking a heart but it happens all the same.”
Eddie knew Nancy broke Steve’s heart. Mostly he knew from Dustin, but Eddie had noticed the year before when everyone had returned from winter break, King Harrington no longer had Nancy Wheeler on his arm. So yeah, he had an idea of what happened, but Dustin filled in some blanks, and eventually, he got the full story from Steve’s side.
Nancy Wheeler is a badass. This Eddie knew. Sure, she messed up with Steve. Even though Eddie feels protective over Steve’s heart now that Steve had given it to him to hold, he also feels protective over Nancy’s. He doesn’t understand it, either. He just does. Maybe it is because they both cared for the kind-hearted, former jock. Maybe it was because he also felt protective over Robin, too.
“So, no, I don’t think you are capable of spooking him. A lot of people don’t give him enough credit. He isn’t your typical small-town golden boy of the year although he looks the part. He doesn’t scare easily and is probably ready to tell the entire world, including Hawkins, about you.” Nancy winks at Eddie.
Eddie returns her wink with an appreciative smile.
There’s a loud pop outside that was followed up by a fit of laughter and giggles. Nancy and Eddie looked out the patio screen door and saw Steve and Robin on the grass in tangles. Eddie wasn’t sure what the pop sound was–maybe a balloon?
Eddie watches as Jonathan and Argyle appear into view, walking towards the platonic soulmates. Nancy stands and goes to the screen door to watch the four of them. Eddie sadles up next to her and sees that the loud pop had been two jumbo bags of Lays potato chips. It appears Steve and Robin popped them like balloons which caused a confetti of salty chips to explode around them.
Argyle lowers himself into a criss-cross legged seated position by Steve’s left hip. “My dude, yes,” He laughs highly, nodding approvingly as he reaches over to grab a large chip off Steve’s pocket.
Jonathan squats down to grab a few off Robin’s hair and nods to Argyle. “I love chips. They’re so chippy.” He crunches into his and is already grabbing a handful of more.
Nancy chokes a laugh behind a sip of her cup. Eddie’s mouth opens in silent amusement as he watches Steve take some chips out of Robin’s hair and then feed them to Argyle. Jonathan and Robin are engineering two large chips to look like a duck’s beak between Jonathan’s lips. Robin’s face lights up in a loud smile, the one that envelopes into an even louder laugh. She claps and smacks Steve’s arm.
Eddie smiles warmly at Steve as he recognizes the dazed smile on his face. Steve looks so carefree and happy that it tugs at Eddie’s heartstrings in a way he never thought possible.
Nancy looks to Eddie and then taps his cup with hers as a cheers. “Well, did you ever think you and I would have Steve Harrington in common?” She looks up to him, a little tug to the corner of her smile.
Eddie shook his head and tore his eyes off Steve to return her cup tap. “Not in my wildest dreams, Wheeler,” He chuckled. “But I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”