Work Text:
You had liked Billy because he was different, he was a bad boy, he had some edge to him. You loved his hair, his confidence, the way he carried himself, everything about him. He was gorgeous, and everyone wanted him, yet he chose you. You were weak at the knees whenever you were around him, he had your heart in his hand and that wasn’t going to change… Until one day, it did. You don’t remember exactly when it happened, but you remember the exact repulsive words that came out of his bitter, bigoted mouth.
He was picking you up from school one day and you were talking to Dustin and Lucas as you had caught the tail end of their conversation and it had made you laugh, they were quick to include you and you stood talking by the bike racks whilst waiting for Billy to arrive. His loud music pumping through the speakers whilst his tires screeched from the speed of him hitting the breaks, coming to a sudden stop in front of you all.
“What the hell are you doing with these losers?” he scoffs out his window, sizing up the two kids with an unimpressed look on his face.
“Oh, behave. They’re sweet.” You defended them with a smile, that smile quickly fading as he clambered out of the car and marched over to you all.
Heated words were exchanged, Billy was throwing all kinds of slurs at the undeserving children and that outraged you. You could deal with his attitude normally, but homophobic and racist remarks? That was your limit, as it should be for any decent human being. A harsh slap across his cheek stopped his tirade, you announce that it was over between you both as you refused to date a monster like him.
—
That was a couple of weeks ago now, and his words still haunted you. How can someone that pretty be that hideous underneath? A shiver ran up your spine whenever you thought back to the times you had spent with him, not wanting to recall anything positive about him, he didn’t deserve an ounce of your praise or time, he was dead to you.
Or so you wished. Billy had spent every waking moment since you broke up with him making your life hell, begging for you to take him back and making a big show of his feelings for you around anyone who was present to witness them. He was embarrassing himself, and he was certainly embarrassing you.
It was causing such a scene on a daily basis that whilst you avoided him like the plague, everyone in school was giving you the same punishment. Girls avoided you as they all fawned over your ex, perplexed by how you could be so “stupid” to break up with someone so “dreamy.” Guys walked the other way when you were nearby as they didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Billy’s abuse for even looking at you. It was an isolating nightmare you were living.
You were sat outside of school on one of the benches reading a book whilst minding your own business, looking up with a disgusted look on your face as your ex plopped down on the seat beside you, arm strung around your waist as you immediately escape his grip.
“Go away, Billy.” You sigh, trying to focus on your book.
“Ah, c’mon, sweet thing. Don’t be like that…” his voice a pathetic attempt at sounding seductive and classy, in reality he just sounded like a jackass.
You weren’t alone, thank god. The other students were all littering across the grass and various benches as it was a surprisingly nice day in Hawkins, you just knew it was smarter to keep to yourself, which is why you picked the bench furthest away.
“Don’t touch me.” You groan, uncomfortable expression on your lips as you try and wriggle away from him once again, his hand gripping your hip as he keeps you flush to his chest.
“C’mon, baby. I miss you… What do you say we get outta here?” he purrs, pressing a light kiss against the weak spot behind your ear.
“Don’t touch me!” you scream out a little louder this time, grabbing the attention of everyone around you as you shove him away from your body.
“When did you become such a prude?!” he hisses, standing to his feet and wrapping his arms around your midsection whilst you are immediately trying to unwrap them from around yourself.
“I’m not a god damn prude, I just don’t want someone like you touching me, you’re pathetic and disgusting so let. Me. Go!” you squeal out, giving him a knee to the crotch whilst allows him to let go of you for a second in shock.
He stumbles for a second, taking a deep breath to regain his composure before he’s making advances towards you again, smug grin on his lips as he reached out for your backpack strap to stop you from getting far.
“Oh no you don’t!” called an annoyed noise from just over Billy’s shoulder, you see a fluffy haired guy hurrying up behind your ex, immediately wrapping his arms around Billy’s throat to give him a soft headlock to give you the time and space to distance yourself from Billy.
A wild elbow is thrown into the ribs of the stranger, causing him to hiss out as Billy wrangles out of his arms and faces him with pure venom in his voice, “Munson… I shoulda known it was you…” he smirks, dropping his weight a little so he could charge into the other guys’ chest and tackle him to the ground.
You back up a little, whole body shaking from the ordeal whilst a small crowd gathered to watch the two guys wrestling and battling one another, one trying to win your affection, the other trying to defend your honour. You assume it’s going to be a battle of egos and testosterone, a relatively harmless wrestling match… That is until the brunette recoils his arm away, letting it smash forward to lay a hard blow to Billy’s noise, causing the blonde to scream out in agony.
“You little shithead!” Billy cries, nose already seeping with blood, grabbing the other guy by the throat, and shoving him down onto the ground as he pinned him and started laying wild blows to whatever he could hit. Fist colliding with his jaw, chest, anything he could find, the two guys were just exchanging hands and you were frozen in your spot in pure fear.
“Eddie! Stop! He’s not worth it!” you hear Dustin scream from the edge of the crowd, it took this long for you to realise the tatted stranger was Eddie Munson.
Dustin and his small group of friends rushed over and did all that they could to intervene, pulling Eddie off of Billy once the two men had swapped positions and it was Billy’s turn to get his ass beat. They were both red in the face, covered in blood and cursing at one another, it was hard to believe that this tall stranger was being held back by these children… Looking up, you saw that a girl you knew as Max had come to the aid of Billy. Well, she had stood in front of him and held out her arms so neither of the older guys could step closer without her getting hurt first.
“What is the matter with you two?!” she screamed, full of rage.
“That little freak hit me!” he defends, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“You deserve it for not learning what the word no means, dick!” Eddie retorted, sitting on the bench you were previously on whilst nursing his aching jaw.
“What do you care anyway? Ever heard of minding your damn business?!” Billy sounded like he was getting riled up again as Eddie was also seething.
“Keep your hands to yourself and I’ll mind my business.” Eddie growled.
It took a little more begging from either side’s friends before the two boys split up and went in opposite directions, Max shooting the group an apologetic look before she forced Billy to head back to his car. You watched as Dustin and Lucas tried their best to clear Eddie up, but he kept lightly shoving them away, not wanting any help. It took all the power and strength you could muster up before you had the guts to step over to Eddie, body shaking with nerves as you clear your throat.
“T-Thank you…” you mumble, Eddie tilting his head up to look at you, eyes sympathetic as he noticed that it was you he was speaking with.
“Don’t even mention it. You okay?” he asks with genuine concern in his voice, you sheepishly nod your head as you knew the worst was over for now.
“I… We should get you cleaned up…” you suggest, referring to how his outfit was smothered in dirt marks, hands a little bruised and bloody as his lip was split a little from the punch he received earlier.
He stood without much argument, you slide your backpack up onto one shoulder and slowly guide him back into the school. He was limping and gasping every now and again from the pain, you ease him into the girls’ bathroom so he can at first wash his hands. Eddie groans in annoyance at the sight of himself in the mirror, turning away from it once his hands were dry and clean. You frown, grabbing a tissue and soaking it in warm water, waiting for permission before you lightly dabbed the blood from his lip.
He winced, you apologised. It went on like this for a couple minutes before you had him clear from blood and a grateful smile on his face, throwing away the bloody towels in favour of brushing his hair from his face. You were extra delicate with him as you knew he was tender.
“I’m Y/N by the way…” you offer, filling the silence.
“I know. I’ve had a crush on you since first grade.” He shrugs with a half-hearted smile, leaning back against the sink whilst you washed your own hands to be clean of the dirt. “I’m Eddie.”
“Yeah right!” you snort, to which he interrupts.
“I am, it says so on my birth certificate!” a smug grin on his face.
“Not that part!” you snort a laugh, smacking him playfully on the chest before gasping and apologising immediately as you’d hit one of his fresh bruises, you stroke your fingers over his chest soothingly, “I meant ‘yeah right’ to the crush part, butthead.”
“I know, I just love teasing you. But I’m being serious about that part, I always had a crush on you, broke my heart when you started dating that asshat.” He mumbled.
“Broke more than just your heart, hm?” you gesture to his fractured hand, causing the both of you to let out laugh that fades to a soft sigh.
“It was worth it…” he smiled, brushing your hair behind your ears, and admiring the way that you blush under his touch. “Besides, I could treat you way better than he ever could—”
“Not much competition there!” you laugh, interrupting him.
“Shut up, I was trying to be romantic!” he groans with a fake huff.
“Sorry, sorry, go ahead!” you promise to be quiet, beaming up at him as he took a second to appreciate how beautiful you were when you smiled.
“Do you think you’d ever wanna go out some time? Like… when I’m healed and not all gross and bloody?” a hopeful look in his eye.
“You could never be gross, even when you’re bloody,” you reassure him, stroking his cheek with your thumb, making sure to be extra delicate with his sore face, “but I would really like that…”
“Wait, really?!” he sounds like an excited child.
“Of course! You’re handsome, funny, protective, you’re willing to break your damn hand just to defend someone you hardly know, you’re already miles above anyone else…” you shake your head with a smile.
“I’m stoked, that’s awesome!” he’s grinning, only wincing slightly when his lip splits open again and causes a little blood to drip out from his smiling.
“Jesus Christ, not again!” you groan, grabbing another clean tissue to repeat the process of cleaning his busted lip, not wanting to get the crimson stains on his—well, his muddy white shirt, you suppose.
“Get used to the next 50 years of taking care of me,” he snorts a laugh.
“If you’re lucky,” you tease, your voice soft and playful.