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Eddie didn't know how he agreed to go to this new skate park in Hawkins. He only remembered sitting in his trailer with a joint between his fingers, with her, Dustin, and Steve, and in the blink of an eye, they were already inside the establishment.
His eyes squinted, trying to hide from the bright, colorful lights of the place, which seemed intensified by the even more colorful clothes worn by those present. His hands covered his ears with a bunch of his hair so he wouldn't hear the speakers blaring 'Take on me'.
“I really don't wanna do this…” He murmured while he walked behind the others who were heading towards the place to rent skates, Robin and Dustin being the most excited about it.
“Oh shut up Dingus. It won't be that bad, you haven't even tried it yet.” Robin said, sticking her tongue at him, to which he responded by flipping her off.
“And I wasn't planning to” He mumbled
“But you will anyway.” Steve said, nudging him slightly. He just hissed.
They reached the line with only about four people ahead of them. On the other side was the skating rink. Full of young people moving round and round.
“Come on man, stop being so pessimistic” Dustin talked, turning around to look up at him.
“What? I'm– I'm not being pessimistic.” He defended himself, crossing his arms “Except that right now I'd rather be peacefully smoking in my trailer, listening to Dio, instead of being in the middle of a rainbow with pop music blasting.”
“You did that aallll week,” Robin said, leaning on the wall next to the line “you need to get out of that smelly place at least once a week.”
“Don't disrespect my shelter like that!” He said, emphasizing it by raising his index finger.
The rest rolled their eyes looking forward again.
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The four of them were already sitting on the benches putting on their skates. Eddie, now in a messy ponytail, complained from the front of the line, but they still forced him to choose some.
“Are you happy it's not fluorescent?” Robin scoffed at him while tying the laces.
“Ha ha.”
“Didn't say anything funny”
“It's my way of suppressing the urge to strangle you three.”
“Oh come on man, you've been tying those shoelaces for half an hour!” Dustin spoke dramatically to Steve, who was indeed unable to tie his skates.
“It's quite different from a normal shoe!” The brunette said while a hand grabbed one of the laces.
“No it 's not!”
Both Eddie and Robin were staring at them “Dinguses.”
Robin stood up, stumbling a little, the curly-one laughed at her but quickly received a punch on his arm from her.
“We're already going in. Catch us” She went to the skating rink. Eddie turned to her direction quickly.
“Don't leave me here! I don't even know how to walk with these!”
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“You have to glide, not like a penguin.” Robin said while holding Eddie by the arm, stabilizing him, while he clung to her with his life.
“I prefer laying down on the floor and wait for someone to crush me”
“Okay then” She let go of him and soon he stumbled a little but managed to stay in place. She moved back a bit. "Come here”
He hesitated, looking down at his feet, feeling like they would fly off if he took a step. The floor was slippery. The music from the speakers now blasting 'Talkin in You Sleep' not helping much.
He took a deep breath and slowly glided towards her. Huh. It was easier than he thought.
He reached at him, a pathetic but triumphant smile plastered on his face.
“I did it!” He lifted his arms, almost falling back.
“Hell yeah!” She jumped inconsistently, almost falling too “Now you're free”
Eddie blinked “You ain't letting me skate alone right?”
She moved forward at him, putting a hand on his shoulder. She smiled softly “...Yes.” She slid back, slowly moving away. “But you can do it!”
Eddie stood there looking her go.
“Sucker”
He looked down at the floor again as if he expected his feet to move on their own and guide him. That didn't happen.
—
After a few attempts and falls on his butt he managed to maintain a steady, slow pace, but hey, at least he was doing it.
At times he could see Robin pass by, giving him both thumbs up; the second time she was already skating next to a girl.
He didn't pay much attention and turned to look at the entrance to the skating rink where Steve and Dustin were finally entering. But what he really didn't pay attention to was his path, bumping into someone and falling to the ground.
“Fuck…” His hand went straight to his head, tangling his fingers in his messy curls. He'd fallen before (quite a few times), but this time it was much harder. The person in front hadn't even fallen; they didn't seem affected by the collision.
“Oddio! I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking.” The person said, offering him a hand.
Was that Italian? Welp, he failed Spanish and English twice, so he wouldn't know how to explain why he recognized more languages. “Yeah, me neither.” He huffed and looked up. His heart skipped a beat, and he didn't know exactly why. He only remained still for a second.
The person in front of him was a young guy, maybe near his age with fluffy, blonde hair in a ponytail. Green eyes, rosy, soft skin… What, why was he focusing on that.
“You alright..? I didn't give you a contusione, did I??”
He may have remained speechless for a few more seconds, completely mesmerized. The blond guy might have thought he was mute if he hadn't answered before.
Eddie shook his head “No, no– You did not.” He smiled for a brief second and grabbed his hand, standing up. That touch made him feel something electrifying, but he quickly pulled his hand away before the other one would notice.
“Sorry again. You sure I didn't hurt you?” He asked again, looking at Eddie with big doe eyes, almost like his but, with color.
“Really– Are you okay?” He face palmed himself cause he was the one to fly down on his ass almost traversing the floor.
The boy sighed in relief, nodding “Yes. I'm glad… Thanks for asking though.”
The one with black eyes wanted to say something more but the other one started to skate again, waving at him.
“No… No problem?”
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“You look like a stalker. Stop.” Dustin mumbled at Eddie who was hypnotized.
The four of them were sitting at tables next to the skating rink, eating. Robin sat across from Eddie and next to Steve, while Dustin sat next to Eddie, who was closer to the track, not even touching his food.
“I'm not.”
Dustin raised his eyebrows. The curly-one didn't even turn to look at him as he answered him, he just had his hand holding his chin up, watching the track. Welp, the guy in it, twirling around while his ponytail flew behind him. He could admire how he was wearing red basketball shorts, a white t-shirt, and white roller skates with red wheels; that was a star drawn on them? When did he become an expert at noticing details?
“Yes you are”
Steve took a bite of his burger. An arm relaxed on the back of the seat. “Didn't know that was your type, I thought maybe… How was that style we talked about before called?”
Robin took a sip of a sip of her soda
“Gothic?”
“Yeah”
“Shut up.”
“Or just someone like a copy of you” Dustin said again while grabbing a fry.
“I'm not checking him out”
The three of them turned to look at eachother
“Sureee, you are not.” Steve snorted
Now all four of them were looking at the same person. The song 'Somebody's Watching Me' playing over the speakers added the cherry on top.
“Go talk to him” Robin said
“No i won't” He finally turned at them
“Why”
“Because... Uh, the opportunity isn't there. I'm not going to bump into him again to talk to him”
“I don't think you have to do th–”
Dustin pointed forward “He left the rink to change his skates!”
Steve slapped his hand “Don't point at people. Even worse if it's someone we're secretly watching.”
Dustin made a face, turning to him.
“Come on, it's your moment” Robin ignored them, cheering on Eddie.
He took a deep breath and with all his strength he stood up.
“Fine, I'm going.” He sighed, walking away.
“They grow so fast…” Dustin cleaned an invisible tear from his eye.
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He nervously approached the line; from the outside it wasn't noticeable, but inside he was experiencing a surge of anxiety.
He had to get there quickly because the boy was last in line, and he couldn't let anyone get ahead of him, but being so close was going to make him convulse.
Before he knew it, he was already in line; he may have "unintentionally" pushed someone who was about to arrive before him.
He thought of the following words; he had been practicing them all the way there, so they had to come naturally, right?
“Hey—” How the hell is he going to know you're talking to him?
For better or worse, the boy turned, looking up at him. Eddie could see that he was a few centimeters taller.
“Hey again” He repeated but now with the 'again'
“Oh yeah, hey, what a coincidence” The guy chuckled slightly, Eddie's heart melted.
“Yeah yeah… Uh, I forgot to ask your name.”
Did he have to ask more questions before that? Why couldn't he just roll a dice and try his luck?
“Carl,” He extended his hand “I'm Carl Winston” He smiled.
Here we go again.
“Carl…” He repeated it again, not wanting to forget it and to see how it sounded in his mouth. “Cute,” fuck “name. I'm Eddie, Eddie Munson.” He grabbed his hand. There it was, that spark back.
“Just Eddie?”
“Just Carl?”
The blonde chuckled again, Eddie felt the corner of his mouth move upwards.
“I'm kidding, it's actually longer than that but who really cares?” He scratched the back of his neck.
“Yeah… My name's like cardboard in spanish”
“Really?” The curly-one couldn't suppress a laugh. The nervousness slowly goes away.
“Mhm, but no one really cares right?”
He just nodded gently. Leaning slightly on the tape that separated the row from the rest.
“Sooo, you skate a lot?” Carl asked, crossing his arms. His gaze never left him.
“Mmh, not actually. I didn't want to come, but I did because of some friends.” He looked up to find the table where they were at. He could felt his face get red when seeing them watching the whole scene, cheering him up from afar. He looked away back at Carl. “I have no idea where they are now.”
“Oh, I see.” He tilted his head slightly to the side.
“You?”
“I like it. I mainly come to practice or listen the music they play”
He's not one to judge appearances, but he already suspected he liked that style of music.
He shook his head “You said practice?”
“Yeah. I do hockey”
“Isn't that on ice?”
“Yeah… but,” He moved closer, like telling him a secret. Eddie felt his heartbeat go more rapidly at the closeness, he tried to not make it so obvious. “I actually don't know where there are places for that.”
Carl moved back again and Eddie smiled just slightly, trying to ignore his past thoughts.
“You're new in town?”
“I actually don't go out a lot apart from school, here and the park.”
“I could give you a ride sometime to see more places, and there you can find the ice rink.”
Yeah. Yeah that was too forward wasn't it?
Carl tilted his head, a smile spread across his face. He lightly bit the inside of his cheek.
“I would like that.”
Did that really work? Eddie felt he was going to pass out. But tried to dismiss it.
“Cool.”
Carl finally reached the front of the row. He looked back and back at Eddie.
“Ah! It's my turn, see you at the tables..?”
Eddie just nodded slowly and saw him go. He stood there, mind blank. This time they might not have been so wrong... He didn't want to turn around and look at them. But he remembered he was still in line and didn't know why, since he really had nothing to change.
He quickly made his way down the tape, receiving some judgmental looks, but the smile never left his face.
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He reached the table and sat down again, tapping the table with excitement. “I think it wasn't such a bad idea to come in the end.” He giggled, he didn't even pay attention to the music of 'Don't Stop Me Now', he didn't even notice the bright lights.
“That's the spirit” Robin said, giving him a high five.
“So how did it go? We can't hear anything from here” Steve said, wanting him to spill the tea.
“Well, I may or may not invite him for a ride”
“Woah, not even a coffee first?” Dustin chuckled, Eddie nudged him.
“We're proud.” Robin nodded.
Not even twenty minutes had passed when, out of the corner of his eye, Eddie could see Carl approaching the table.
“Everyone stay calm!”
“You're the one freaked out–” Robin shushed him
They all stayed still as soon he reached their table.
“Hey again–” Eddie said with his coolest smile.
“Hey,” He left a paper in front of him. “That's my home phone number, in case you need it.” He moved a little of his hair behind his ear because his ponytail was getting messed up.
Dustin turned at him with the mouth wide open, he ignored him, grabbing the paper, heart racing.
“Y-Yeah! Sure I will need it.” He cleared his throat.
Carl smiled again, “Cool.” He tilted his head at him and was ready to go before stopping “ Uh, the next time that you guys stare at someone, try to take turns... It looks very suspicious.”
They felt silent.
“It was your fault Dustin” Steve turned at the one named who gave him a dirty look.
“See you” He smiled at Eddie and walked away with the ears a little pink.
He nodded, his own neck growing warm.
After a while they left the place, with 'Eyes Without a Face' playing. But she paid no more attention to that, instead focusing on the piece of paper in her hand that she would use later for a call.
Maybe it wasn't that bad of an idea to come here after all.