𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚖𝚢 𝚓𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚝

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝚊𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙸'𝚖𝚊 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢.

𝚆𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎'𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚖𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝?

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚎 𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚟𝚎.

𝚂𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚠𝚎'𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜, 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜.

𝚂𝚊𝚢 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚎 '𝚝𝚒𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝚍𝚊𝚢𝚜.

𝙻𝚎𝚝 𝚞𝚜 𝚋𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜, 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜.

𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚜,

𝚆𝚎'𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜.

Eddie put his stuff in his van when Lennon changed out of her uniform and into her hoodie, jacket, and pants in the locker room.

She washed off the red pain from her skin but it was dried to her uniform and she knew there was no point in smearing the paint and trying to rescue the uniform. She just had to purchase another when she returned in January.

She went back outside and found Eddie pressed to the wall again, right beside the phone like he always was. He had his head thrown against the building, propping his foot against the wall as well with his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Do you have an emotional attachment to this phone or something?" Lennon giggled, seeing as there were only custodians left in the building and finding no reason to fret about being seen.

Eddie smiled warmly and pushed himself forward. "What do you mean?" he chuckled.

"We always find ourselves back here," she reminisced, slipping her hands into her jacket pockets and mimicking Eddie's mannerisms unconsciously. "I was just curious if you and that phone have a history I should know about," she joked, finding her footing beside him as they stepped out into the road.

"My life changed in this very spot. That's all the history I know about," he told her, turning on his heels and walking backward like he did the day they first met. The sight made Lennon smile and the reminder of that day made everything seem more surreal.

Who would've thought this would've blossomed from a one-sided conversation about herpes?

Snow flurried around them as they got into his van but the cold was soon replaced by warmth once Eddie started their journey away from the hellhole that was Hawkins High.

"Life's a bit like déjà vu, don't you think?" Eddie drove down the same road Lennon once believed would be the place Eddie killed her.

Lennon giggled and turned slightly in the passenger seat to face him. "I thought you were going to kill me right around here," she admitted humorously.

Eddie spat out a sputtering laugh as his eyes widened with surprise. "Then why the hell did you still get in my van?" he laughed.

"I thought we went over this, Munson," she drew out sleepily. "There's something about you..." her tone was tender until she decided to lighten the mood with sarcasm. "Now I don't know if it's the funny tongue thing you do or the devil himself, but there's something about you," she giggled. "I trust you."

Eddie crinkled his eyes and furrowed his brows as he quickly turned to look at her. "What 'funny tongue thing'?" he snorted incredulously.

"That cute little tongue thing you do," she exclaimed. "You poke your tongue out whenever you're deep in thought or focused," she chuckled handsomely, filling the inside of the van with a fulfilling reverberation.

"So you think I'm cute..." he drew out charmingly.

Lennon rolled her eyes and laughed. "My point being," she reminded him. "You have a tongue thing."

"I do not," he retorted sharply.

"You do!" she beamed. "Or sometimes you'll run the tip of your tongue over the edge of your teeth and okay," she hummed, "it is cute."

"Well you have a lip thing," he shot back defensively.

She clicked her tongue and leered. "I do not."

"Yes, you do," he fortified. "You chew on your lip when your anxious or sometimes you'll bite yourself when you're contemplating shit."

She closed her eyes and shook her head in disagreement. "You just don't want to admit you have a cute tongue thing."

"No," he cried out. "You just don't want to admit it's not the devil that makes me trustworthy and you know it," he teased.

She continued to leer at him from afar. She knew it was true but that didn't mean she wanted to admit to it.

"Do you ever think you have an authority issue?" she scoffed, making fun of his inability to admit to being wrong. Secretly, she was just desperately trying to forget about the past being brought up. She knew she owed this kind man an explanation, but that would require her to relive her past and admit to the horror she left back in Vermont, and she didn't want to do that.

"Yes. Do you ever think you have an authenticity issue?" he countered wittily, making fun of her inability to be true to herself and her desires.

"Yes. Do you ever think you have a possession issue?" she shot back, referring to the red mark he left on her neck.

"Mmmh," he popped his bottom lip out innocently as he narrowed his gaze out at the open road. He tried to act pompous to keep the mood where it was, stating the obvious without any further explanation and countering the questions they were avoiding. But he couldn't help himself.

He smiled. "If you're referring to the love bite," he snickered in between his sentences, "I just wanna make sure Billy knows who was there first."

Eddie's eyes grew lustful but they remained on the road as the images of him and her in the theater room flashed across his mind. His tongue poked out from his lips as he smirked at the thought and blushed.

"See!" she leaned forward and shrieked, causing Eddie to flinch and swerve slightly on the main road.

"Shit..." she groaned nervously, grabbing his shoulder and the dash for stability.

She was pointing at Eddie's mouth before she was suddenly aware of the several hazards they encountered on the road. It was late, it was dark, it was snowy, and Lennon almost forgot about her fear of driving for a second. Whenever she was with Eddie, things always got blurry in the best of ways. Life wasn't so scary or alarming when she was with him. It felt safe.

"Jesus Christ," Eddie cursed. "The fuck was that?" he sharply renounced his playful tone for one more demanding and accusatory.

"I'm so sorry," she took her hand off his shoulder and lifted it to her lips as a smile spread across her face. "I'm sorry," she snickered, falling back in her seat and curling in on herself as amusement invaded her tired body.

Eddie turned to her in disbelief. He shot her a puzzled expression that she never got to see because she was laughing so hard, her laughs came out in silent clicks.

"What?" Eddie called out in bewilderment.

His curiosity caused her to throw her head back and her verbal laughter erupted loudly. Eddie scoffed, smiling nervously as his eyes flickered between the road and the woman clutching her stomach as she laughed maniacally.

"What?" Eddie chuckled, ducking down to make out a response between her bubbles of joy. "What is it?" he laughed, getting infected with her humor.

"I-" she gasped. "Your tongue..." she cackled, falling back and turning away as laughter cut her off from an explanation.

Eddie immediately rolled his eyes with a wide grin hanging loosely around his jaw. "Oh my god, here we go," he threw his hand up into the air and warmly laughed.

"Your cute little tongue thing," she whined, trying to contain her amusement as she sniffled and wiped at her eyes. "You were doing the little tongue thing..." she cooed, giggling and getting to the edge of her seat when she watched the lights they drove under light up his eyes in a way that made them more adoring.

"You're ridiculous," he grumbled enchantingly, getting into the left lane as if he were driving her home.

Lennon noticed and decided to speak up. "Hey, can uhm... Can we go to your place?" she asked, having her laughter subside entirely but she still needed to work on wiping away the remnants of her fit from her eyes.

"Really?" Eddie wondered, turning to her and seeing how rosy her cheeks were as they sped past another lamp.

"It is closer..." she sniffled. "And I don't really want to go back to an empty home right now... Not when there is a celebration to be had..." she nudged his arm with her fist and pressed the back of her head to the seat and stared at Eddie's side profile in awe.

"A celebration?" Eddie's voice went up slightly with playful enthusiasm.

"If that's okay with you..." she proposed innocently.

Eddie's grin grew as he got into the middle lane. "Whatever you need," he promised, going back on the saying she said to him the day before when he needed help with his anxiety attack.

It had become something much more endearing and comforting than it was intended to be. It was becoming something very intimate between them and neither of them seemed to complain.

"Wait," her voice sounded slightly gravelly as she reeled back and furrowed her brows with realization.

Eddie's eyes shifted towards her, worrying she had come to her senses and was able to change her mind. But instead, he found her smiling.

"I thought I was crazy."

"What?" Eddie shot back skeptically.

"You said I was crazy. Now you're saying I'm ridiculous... Which is it then?" she leered teasingly.

"What?" he huffed out in relief when she didn't tell him to turn around.

"You're ridiculously crazy," he turned to her as he eased into the neurotic tone Lennon set between them. "I thought you were gonna change your mind."

Lennon hummed warmly. "You got scared..." she smiled tenderly.

"Did not," he grumbled, avoiding her admiring stare.

"You were..." she sat in awe, watching as Eddie's smile went lopsided.

"Was not."

Lennon's soft gaze and admiration didn't last very long because the next thing she knew, as she was seeing Eddie's disgruntled response written all over his crimson face, she sputtered out an incredulous laugh. "Okay," she broke the tension between them and snickered. "I was joking before, but you seriously have an issue with admitting you're wrong."

"Do not."

She scoffed.

"Oh my god..." Eddie rolled his eyes again and pulled into the trailer park.

"Fine," she put her hands up in surrender. "Don't admit it," she giggled. "I'll know the truth and based on your analogy, that's all that matters..."

Eddie grumbled in dissatisfaction before the van was parked and the two of them were hurrying inside to get out of the snow.

Eddie fumbled for his house keys, allowing Lennon to take her time to follow him. However, she couldn't help but notice the indent in the snow in front of his house. There was nearly half a foot of snow now but there were faded lines in the snow like tire marks that ran from the entrance of his driveway and ended back out by the road on the other side.

They were barely noticeable, especially in the dark, but it was odd to see considering it had been lightly snowing for most of the evening. If they were Wayne's or even Eddie's, she didn't think they would have pulled out through the thin, grassy spot by the end of the trailer where Eddie's room was at. They usually drove out in reverse so the grass had the opportunity to grow back.

But maybe she was overthinking. She quickly looked away from the hidden tracks in the snow and followed Eddie inside.

"Does your uncle always work the same shifts?" Lennon asked, shivering as she tightly held her hands in her pant pockets for warmth and tried to ease herself back into the warmth of Eddie's home.

"Uh," Eddie sighed, shutting the door behind him and locking it this time since Lennon was more comfortable in his residence than before. "Tuesday through Saturday, yeah. Why?" he wondered.

"And..." she continued to ponder. "Were you at school all day? I... I don't remember seeing your van move..."

Eddie's interest was piqued now that she asked about his whereabouts like she was solving some kind of riddle in her head. "Yeah... I had afterschool detention in Ms O'Donnell's so I idn't get the chance to come home before the match... Why?" he asked cautiously, giving her the side-eye as her questions seemed driven by some unspoken riddle.

"It's..." she shook her head and winced in confusion. "Don't worry about it," she assured him. "I was just curious. Do you have something other than beer?" she pondered, trying to distract herself from overthinking.

She figured someone might've been lost and turned around in his driveway. There were about a thousand reasons tracks that looked a few hours old were in front of Eddie's house. Her sleep-deprived and paranoid mas were making her overassess everything that didn't need assessing.

"Uh... Straight vodka?" Eddie's nose scrunched up in disgust, knowing there was no way Lennon thought that was a better option than beer.

"Do you have orange juice at least?" she scoffed, following Eddie into the kitchen and grimaced at the thought of drinking either.

Eddie leaned down and peered into the fridge. "We have beer... root beer... grape soda..." Eddie's head fell as a smile tightly pulled at his lips. "And this thing called water which I apparently forgot to offer last time," he giggled, standing up and resting his hand on the door of the fridge as he waited for a response.

"Well shit..." she chuckled. "Water it is," she sighed.

However hindering the idea of an alcohol-free night seemed to Lennon after a win for both the cheerleader and the dungeon master, the 'celebration' she mentioned earlier ended up being a very sleepy, mellow fight for consciousness in Eddie's room.

Eddie had played some music on his record player as Lennon took a seat on the edge of Eddie's bed. His room didn't change much other than the fact there were more clothes littered around the room and the book she lent him was now sitting on top of his bedside table.

She smiled and set her glass of water down beside it and turned towards Eddie who had taken a seat beside her.

"Ah," he tilted his head with disappointment as his eyes fell to the side of her neck. "There's barely even any irritation," he pulled her coat collar down to reveal the small pink spot on her skin before Lennon rolled her eyes and shooed his hand away.

She sucked on her teeth and giggled. "I'm not your's to be leaving hickeys on, Munson," she widened her eyes at him and set her weight against the hand that she placed on his messy sheets.

"Mmhm," he leered with a mischievous smile. "I should change that," he shot back waggishly, smiling as he quickly took her by the neck and felt her melt into his touch.

"Not gonna happen," she kissed him, pulling him closer by slipping her fingers through the collar of his leather jacket before he sucked in a quick breath of air and hissed, pulling back and shocking Lennon into silence.

"Jesus..." he cursed, biting his lip and smiling at Lennon who looked like she had seen a ghost. "Your hands are like fucking ice," he whispered, wasting no time reconnecting his lips to hers.

"Sorry," she mumbled against his kiss, feeling sleepy as her eyes closed with relief.

"I can actually change that," he spoke groggily, clasping his lips around hers as he took her hands into his and slid them into his jacket.

Lennon subtly shook her head and hummed amusingly. His hands soon left hers between the cloth of his shirt and jacket and found their way to the back of her head.

Lennon smirked into the kiss and ran her fingers against his frame, moving towards his back and finding the hem of his shirt with ease. She slid her cold hands underneath his Hellfire shirt and felt Eddie smile charmingly.

He froze when her hands were pressed to the sides of his ribs but didn't feel the need to protest. He unconsciously pressed his teeth into the bottom of Lennon's lip and caused friction when she pulled away.

"I can't give you what you want, Munson," she warned him, pulling her eyes open with strain as she was growing more and more exhausted as the night grew older.

Eddie noticed her fatigue and offered her a kind smile. "How do you know what I want?" he asked innocently, meeting her stare and falling hopelessly into them.

"Because after getting to know you," she wobbled her head sleepily and huffed out a breath of disbelief for even considering her classmate's words to be true. "I think it's safe to say you're the type who wants either a girlfriend or a fuck buddy... And I am neither of those things," she rolled her eyes and started to remove her hands from his warm body.

"Those are just titles," he whispered, placing his hands on her arms and stopping her from retreating. He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her lips, causing her to sigh and feel even more drowsy than before.

"Titles that have meaning," she mumbled, pulling away and taking her hands into her lap anyway.

"I don't need those," he smirked.

"But you want them," she corrected him, forcing her eyes to stay open.

Eddie considered what she was saying now. He knew only half of it was true but that also meant the other half wasn't. He wanted loyalty and some part of him did want to be able to hold her and kiss her in front of people. But he didn't need that. He wanted her acceptance and he wanted her to be happy. He couldn't care too much about the rest now.

"I don't want anything more than what you've already given me," he caressed the side of her cheek and admired her beauty.

Her hair was thrown back into a ponytail which was a new sight to him. Loose strands of dried hair curled around her ears and the baby hairs around her hairline stuck out wildly like the ones at the top of his head. Her eyes were very dark, looking almost brown again as she met his eyes with half-lidded ones. Her lips were pink and so were her cheeks when she met his attentive stare despite how tired she was.

She was beautiful. She was unrealistically, imperfectly, and unconventionally beautiful.

"I'll take whatever I can get as long as you let me," Eddie hushed her, kissing her one last time before he told her to stop fighting sleep and pushing him away, and to go get some rest.