itsonlyjoseph

[itsonlyjoseph]

The First Time You Met | Joseph Quinn x Reader

synopsis: short one-shot of meeting Joe at the pub

warnings: None, English jargon

word count: 1.5k

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You were sat at your desk working quietly when your co worker knocked on the wood as if it was a door, getting your attention easily.

“What are you doing tonight?” She asked you.

“Uh, nothing I guess. Go home, open a bottle of wine and watch the telly til I fall asleep.” You smiled up at her, as if that was the high life.

“Oh come on, it’s Friday. Come out for once.” She practically pleaded with you.

“I don’t know. I’d have to get home and change and then come back in. Where do you even want to go?”

“You don’t have to go crazy, we’re only gonna’ be at the Churchill.”

You thought for moment. You hadn’t been out with your friends in a while and you definitely needed a break.

Your vibrator needed a break.

The Churchill Arms was a lowkey pub that didn’t require you to dress up too much. In fact, you’d look a bit silly if you did.

“I guess I can come.” You mumbled.

Eleanor, your co worker, squealed at your agreement and gave you a tight hug around the shoulders.

“Oh, my god, yes! This is gonna’ be so much fun. We haven’t seen you out in actual months.”

“I’m sure it hasn’t been that long.”

“It has.”

You narrowed your eyes up at her in a mock offence.

“We’re heading over right after work so make sure you’re ready.”

“Okay…” you mumbled as she walked off.

You liked your friends and you liked going out, but you also like going home, putting on your big socks and getting under a fuzzy blanket with the fireplace going.

You weren’t a loner or anything, you were just comfortable being single and having no responsibilities other than yourself.

You’d made it this far alone and you were proud of yourself. It felt good to do whatever you wanted and eat whatever you wanted for tea and decorate your house however you wanted.

Something you never admitted, however, is sometimes on very rare occasions, you did feel a bit bored or lonely when you had no one to talk to about your day or your nightmares or the latest film you just watched.

Soon, five o’clock rolled around and you packed up your things and haphazardly shoved them into your purse, walking down to the lobby to meet the others. You were wearing your typical work clothes. Casual, black knitted jumper and brown plaid trousers with some maroon Mary Jane ballet flats that cost more than you should’ve paid.

Luckily for you, your place of work was very casual and easy going but “casual and easy going” in London probably meant something different to the rest of the world.

The pub was already relatively busy considering it was a Friday night but not so busy that it was practically a nightclub. This is how you liked it.

You got a table close to the back and sat as one of your other co workers went to the bar to get the first round. The atmosphere was easy going and after a short while, you felt yourself actually really having fun. The conversation flowed easily. You’d poked fun at your bosses and horrible clients, talked about upcoming projects, talked about guys (much to the dismay of the lone male co worker amongst the group), and everything in between.

After the third round of lager was brought back to the table, Eleanor leaned over to speak quietly to you.

“I don’t want to alarm you but there’s a really cute guy looking at you.” She giggled.

You rolled your eyes and paid no mind to her. Like you said before, you were quite content being a singleton.

“No really, I think you should probably chat to this one.”

You decided to entertain her and turned your head to this alleged man checking you out.

You made eye contact and felt your breath get sucked out of your lungs.

That’s fucking Joseph Quinn, you thought.

You turned back to Eleanor with a somewhat dumbfounded look on your face to see her clearly excited one.

“I doubt he is looking at me of all people.” You said, taking a large gulp of your pint.

“Dude, he’s not stopped looking at you. Even when you went up to the bar.”

“Surely not.” You were suddenly ten times more shy than before.

“Surely yes, go talk to him!” Eleanor urged. The rest of the group was completely oblivious to your conversation, too engrossed in their own. Not that you minded.

“I can’t just go talk to the Joseph Quinn you idiot. I’ll choke and trip and just make a fool of myself in someway.”

“No you won’t. You’re always so hard on yourself.”

You were now very aware of the celebrity and it was making you feel small… and hot.

“Okay I have an idea. Take a deep breath, glance over and smile and then grab your coat and go for a fag. See if he follows.”

“This is so stupid.” You said, taking a deep breath. Obviously you knew who Joseph Quinn was. You never really gave it much thought but definitely thought he was attractive, just like every one else.

“Just do it!”

“Fine!” You gritted through closed teeth.

You took the last gulp of lager and grabbed your coat, walking towards the beer garden, but not before shooting him your best smile you could muster up.

Your eyes connected for a brief moment and you felt your spine tingle.

The air outside was chillier than when you’d arrived at 6pm.

You leaned against the brick wall and pulled out a cigarette and lighter. Even though Eleanor had practically kicked you outside, you would’ve stepped out for a smoke at one point or another.

You were outside for about two minutes alone with the other drunks when the back door opened and out stepped Joseph. You could tell it was him even through your peripheral. He just had aura about him.

Slowly walking over to you, he pulled out his own smoke to pop between his lips.

“Hi.” He said with a sweet, bashful look.

“Hey.” You smiled shyly.

“Do you mind if I pinch your lighter?”

You didn’t say anything, just shyly getting your zippo out of your pocket and flicking it open, igniting the end of his cigarette and ignoring the thumping in your chest.

“Thanks.” He said, moving his head back slightly and taking a long draw.

There was short silence between the two of you until he spoke up again.

“I’m Joe, by the way.” You smiled down at you.

Wow, he was incredibly attractive this close.

“I’m Y/N.”

“Y/N.” He repeated, not breaking eye contact. “What do you do, Y/N?”

“I work in television, actually.”

“Oh really? That’s really cool. So do I.” He seemed rather excited.

“Yeah, I know.” You giggled.

“Yeah, I figured you probably did. I guess anonymity isn’t really an option for me anymore.” Joe seemed rather tense now. Perhaps he was hoping you didn’t know who he was and he’d have a real conversation for once.

“Probably not. But hey, it’s not like I’ve never been around a famous person before. I do work in television after all.” You reassured.

“So what exactly do you do in television.” He asked, taking a drag of his cigarette.

“I’m a production manager.”

“Oh wow, what have you worked on?” Joe asked you, gazing down at you.

“Uh, I worked on Fleabag, Broadchurch, a show called Sherwood. Couple things like that.” You began to get shy again. Here you were, telling a famous actor about your boring job, probably the pants back on him.

“What do you have to do exactly when you work on a show?”

“Well, I basically organise location, actors, crew, funding, marketing, all that sort of stuff…” you began to explain and Joseph looked actually genuinely interested. This never usually happened. Whenever your friends dragged you out and you began chatting to a guy, he always seemed so bored when you spoke about your job.

Not Joe, though. He was listening intently and asking actual questions and sometime during the time you’d been speaking, you both stubbed out your cigarettes and he’d stepped closer to you.

You only realised how long you’d been talking when Eleanor popped her head out to tell you they were leaving now.

“Oh, uh yeah. I’ll be right there.” You said to her before turning back to Joe.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise how late it had gotten.” You smiled.

“Yeah, neither.” He smiled shyly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I actually had a really good time talking to you, though.” You said sincerely.

“Yeah, me too.” He smiled back.

There was a beat silence as the two of you just looked at each other. You gave him one last smile and turned to walk back inside to your friends, silently praying that he’d ask for your number or offer to walk you home or at least something.

You’d almost made it to the door when you heard Joe swiftly turn on his heal and call out to you.

“Can I have your number?” He asked, rather frantically, like he’d almost missed his shot.

You turned back to him with a small, shy smile.

“Yeah.” You giggled. “Okay.”

[itsonlyjoseph]

Make Me Bleed || Eddie Munson x Reader

Synopsis: Y/N wants to find a way to thank Eddie

Warnings: some angst

Word count: 4.3k

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Part 1

You had been trying to wrap your head around the interaction with Eddie all day, the next day. You hadn’t yet listened to the Walkman Eddie gave you or the tape he left with it.

You wanted to, but you were nervous. Nervous for what exactly, you weren’t sure. But nervous nonetheless. At school, you had planned to leave a note in Eddie’s locker, asking to speak privately with him. You were going to say thank you for replacing your Walkman but that you needed to know why he hated you so much. But he wasn’t at school. Again.

You wanted to ask Eddie’s friends but they were even scarier than he was so that was out of the question.

You decided to cut your losses and just forget out it until you saw him.

Later that day, after school, you were laying on her bed, curled up like a fetus with your headphones over your ears and Eddie’s Walkman sitting next to you.

You were listening to the tape he gave you as well.

It definitely wasn’t your kind of music, but in a weird you kind of liked it. Kind of like Eddie. He was the same. You just couldn’t bring yourself to hate him.

By the time Saturday came around, you hadn’t seen Eddie in a few days.

You knew that he played guitar in a heavy metal band because gossip flew around the school like crazy, plus you’d seen him carrying a guitar case out of the Hideout once.

You were probably way out of line but you decided to best course of action was to go watch him play tonight and then hope to speak to him afterwards. It was probably a bad idea for many reasons. You had no idea if Eddie would even give you the time of day and the bar was pretty sketchy on a good day.

It almost 9 pm when you decided to get ready and cycle over. You didn’t really dress up. This was just meant to be a conversation and a quick thank you for the Walkman. Nothing else.

You’d arrived at bar almost 40 minutes later. The street was dark and dungy and there were some questionable people around. Most older, tatted biker dudes and a plenty of old groupies that would have been beautiful 25 years ago.

Walking in, the air was stale and smokey, making it hard to see and navigate around. The bar was decently packed as well. After all, the Hideout was the only bar in town that allowed all kinds of people in. It definitely didn’t discriminate the way some of the nicer cocktail bars in town did.

You stuck out like a sore thumb. It was obvious you didn’t belong here and it was obvious that your anxiety levels were through the roof.

You saw the stage. It was small and covered in carpet and had a lonely drum set and amps and guitar stands but no band members. You had no idea if Eddie even played on Saturdays but you figured you’d take your chances since the last time you saw him outside the bar, was a Saturday.

You excused yourself to no one in particular and tried to find the bathroom to freshen up and try to loosen your mind.

It was covered in graffiti and stickers and the mirrors were cracked but it offered some muffled silence. Looking in the mirror, your anxiety’s were sky rocketing. You didn’t dress like the people here or do your hair and makeup like them. You looked like a sheep amongst wolves, and it felt like they were waiting to tear you apart.

Walking back out into the main bar area, you decided to just go home. You’d never felt more out of place and suddenly your plan was sounding more and more stupid.

As you walked out towards the front door, you noticed that the band was making their way onto the stage. Eddie’s curly hair caught your eye and you stopped in your tracks. He wasn’t smiling or anything but he seemed for relaxed that usual. He seemed at peace.

The band started playing and Eddie lost himself in the music. And he was good. Very good. He was so good that he probably could’ve been a professional or famous.

They played several more songs as the night wore on and granted, it wasn’t your kind of music but you couldn’t pull your eyes away from him. His bangs stuck to his forehead and his arms glistened with sweat.

It was making you question why you came here.

It almost 2 am when they finish up their set. You didn’t realise just how much time had passed until you looked at your wristwatch. The crowd cheered as the band members made their way off the stage.

Now that the prospect of talking to Eddie was getting closer, you decided to test your luck at bar and order a shot just to calm yourself. You hadn’t really ever had alcohol besides a few sips of your dad’s beer and half a wine at Christmas.

“What’ll it be?” The bartender asked. He could probably tell you were underage just from your body language but something told you this wasn’t the establishment that cared too much.

“Uh, just a shot of… uh..” you tried to squint your eyes at the shelf behind him. “Uh, that one.” You said pointing to a miscellaneous bottle of clear liquid.

The bartender chuckled humourlessly before grabbing the bottle and pouring a shot to place in front of you.

“Here, first one’s on the house.”

“Oh, well then I want another.” You said, quickly downing the shot. It burned more than you thought it would and tasted terrible.

You slapped a five dollar bill on the bar and downed the second shot. That one burned even more than the first one.

Considering you’d never really had alcohol before, definitely not like that, you felt a little dizzy. And hot. This wasn’t a nice feeling and why people actually did this for fun, you didn’t understand.

You saw Eddie’s mop of hair walked over to him. He was turned to you, chatting to someone with a beer in his hand when you tapped his shoulder. Eddie turned, ready to tell whoever to fuck off. He didn’t expect to turn around and see you standing before him.

“Y/N?” Eddie muttered, confused to see you.

Before you could open your mouth to speak, Eddie’s large hand gripped around your elbow and yanked you into the hallway that lead to the bathroom. It was significantly quieter with far less people.

“What the hell are you doing here? This isn’t the kind of place you should be.” He said, clearly frustrated.

“Uh, I wanted to see you.” You mumbled, looking up at him with wide eyes.

Eddie paused for a moment.

“Why?” He questioned.

“I wanted to speak to you. I-I didn’t really get a chance to say thank you for apologising and for-for the Walkman.”

“Yeah, well you just did so leave.” He huffed.

“Why did you? You didn’t have to give that to me. I was gonna save up for a new one.”

It almost seemed like Eddie didn’t know what to say. Like he didn’t know the answer himself.

“Thank you, though.” You said. You figured Eddie wouldn’t say anything else.

“That’s the only reason you came here?” He asked and you nodded.

“Uh, I guess I’ll go now. You played really great. I recognised some songs from that tape you gave me.”

As you turned to leave, Eddie called out to you one more time.

“You don’t have a car.” He said to which you simply shook your head. “So you rode that bike here?”

You said nothing.

“You can’t ride your bike home at this hour. Especially not in this part of town.”

You hadn’t thought about that but he was right. Biking home after work was scary enough, let alone at almost 3 am.

“Oh, uh, I’ll be okay. I can’t really call my dad. He’d kill me if he knew I was here.”

“I’ll drive you.”

“It’s okay Eddie, you should stay with your friends.”

“No, I’ll drive you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

What Eddie had said made your tummy drop. You didn’t really know if he meant here or just in general but you chose not to question it.

You followed Eddie out to the parking lot. It was still warm enough and there was a light breeze in the air.

Eddie drove a van, you knew that much.

“Wait, I thought your uncle said you lost your license again?”

“Like that’s ever stopped me.” Eddie mumbled, opening the passenger door for you.

Once you were sat in the van, Eddie stopped and looked at you. “Listen, just stay here for a sec. I need to get my guitar and then I’ll take you home. Okay?”

“Okay.” You smiled softly. He didn’t return it.

Eddie walked off, back inside the bar and you sat back, taking a breath.

The alcohol was wearing off and the fatigue was setting in. You never stay up this late and felt your eyelids getting heavier and heavier until you drifted off into a relaxing slumber.

Eddie returned moments later and loaded his guitar into the back of the van, making his way into the drivers seat.

“Okay, so where do you li-“ Eddie began to say but stopped himself when he saw your eyes closed and your lashes gently resting against your cheeks. Gentle snores were coming from your mouth and Eddie couldn’t bring himself to wake you up.

He didn’t have enough gas to just drive around until you woke up and he didn’t want to sleep in the van so he did the only thing he could think of.

He took you to his place.

He wasn’t sure how you’d react when you woke up in the morning but he’d try his best to not scare you off.

It wasn’t long until he pulled up to the trailer park, parking next to Wayne’s truck.

Eddie opened the passenger door and took a deep breath, hoping you could chew him out later. He unclipped your seatbelt and picked you up bridal style, carrying you up the steps and into the unlocked trailer.

Wayne was inside, snoozing on the couch. He didn’t work weekends and took that as an opportunity to actually sleep at nighttime.

Eddie carried you down the hallway and into his bedroom, careful not to hit your head on the door frame, and gently placed you down on his unmade bed.

You unconsciously curled up into the pillow as your mouth fell open, those gentle snores coming back. Eddie looked down at you and sighed. He really was sorry for all the things he’s said to over the years. He probably didn’t mean them. Or maybe he did and he’s just a terrible person. It wouldn’t surprise him. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree after all.

Eddie knew that it wouldn’t be right to sleep in the bed next to you, especially without your knowledge, so he wondered over to his desk and sat down. He probably would’ve slept on the couch if Wayne wasn’t out there. Eddie felt his eyes getting heavier and heavier until he laid his head down on the desk and drifted off to sleep. Luckily for him, it wasn’t the comfiest sleeping position so he was tossing and turning all night, meaning he woke up before you when the sun was out.

He lifted his head with a groan, his neck feeling much tighter than the night before.

Eddie turned and looked over at you, laying in his bed sound asleep. You looked so peaceful and calm to him. His mind once again went to all the nasty things he’s ever said and done to you over the years.

He got from his desk and left the bedroom. Wayne was up when Eddie got into the kitchen. Making a cup of coffee, ready to head out to the porch for his morning cigarette.

“What’s wrong with you?” Wayne mused when he saw the tired, stiff look on Eddie’s face.

“Didn’t sleep good.” He mumbled.

“Why not?”

“Because my bed is occupied.” He deadpanned, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

Wayne stopped what he was doing and turned slightly to look at the back of Eddie’s head.

“By who?”

“Just a girl from school.”

Wayne’s eyebrows raised as he turned fully to face Eddie. Eddie has never mentioned a girl before and has never even mentioned being interested in one.

“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Eddie huffed, angrily.

Wayne put his hands up in mock surrender at Eddie’s abrasiveness. “Okay, okay, just make sure you’re being safe.”

“It’s not like that!” Eddie raised his voice. Wayne knew Eddie had a bit of an anger problem. He inherited that from his father. He also knew that Eddie had trouble expressing his emotions.

“Then… what’s it like?” Wayne pressed, curious.

“It’s like… I don’t know! It’s not like anything!”

“Okay, Eddie.” Wayne said, walking to the front door as Eddie went back to his bedroom.

Sometime during the night, Eddie managed to remove his shirt. The trailer was always so hot at night that it was almost impossible to sleep in clothes unless it was winter time.

He didn’t have the heart to wake you up just yet, enjoying this foreign feeling of peace for the moment. He opened up his window and sat under it, at the end of the bed. Leaning against the wall, he lit a cigarette and felt the breeze from outside float through his hair.

Eddie was half way through his cigarette when you began to stir in your sleep. He looked over and saw your eyes opening gently. And he got nervous. Would you yell at him for bringing you here?

“What time is it?” Your gentle sleep filled voice the room, breaking him from his thoughts.

“Uh, around 7.”

“I guess I fell asleep before you could take me home.” You mumbled sheepishly.

“Yeah, I, uh, didn’t wanna’ wake you.” Eddie stubbed out his cigarette.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“I bombarded you at your hang out spot and then took up the rest of your night.” You muttered.

“It’s okay.”

“You seemed… mad that I was there.”

“I just didn’t expect to see you in a place like that.”

“It wasn’t so bad.”

Eddie huffed, as if the laugh humourlessly. “Full of bad people, though.” Eddie looked up at you and suddenly liked the way you looked sitting in his bed with messy hair and sleep in your eyes. “Why do you think I’m there?” He tried to joke. Key word being tried.

“I don’t think you’re a bad person, Eddie.” You said softly.

“You’d be the first.” He mumbled so quietly you barely even heard it.

You moved out of the bed to sit on top of the covers, only a few feet of space between you and Eddie.

“Actually, there was another reason I came to see you last night.”

Eddie looked up from his hands when you moved closer.

“I wanted to ask you… why don’t you like me? What did I do?” You asked and Eddie saw the saddest in your eyes.

Eddie let out a shallow breath and looked down at his hands again.

“I don’t know.” He said softly.

You gulped and felt a pit in your stomach at that.

“Oh, um… did I do anything?”

“You’re happy… have a good dad.” Eddie was ashamed but he didn’t want to lie.

“Ya know Eddie, despite what Principle Higgins said to you, that doesn’t have to be your life. You could do anything.”

“Yeah like what?” Eddie spoke at a normal volume this time, his voice holding a frustrated edge. “Go off and be a doctor or a lawyer and marry some girl from the right side of town, have a bunch kids with a white picket fence? Huh?” Eddie was getting angrier now. He’d rose off the bed and was standing now. “You think there’s anything in the cards for me that’s not prison or something very similar?”

As Eddie paced around his bedroom, spitting out horrible things about himself, you suddenly realised why Eddie was the way he was. He was scared. He was scared because he knew what his life would be. He knew that his fathers influenced affected him. He needed someone to tell him that he wasn’t his father. He didn’t someone to care about.

“Ugh!” Eddie huffed and growled, frustrated. He drug his palms into his eyes and gripped the hair at his hairline.

You got up from the bed and walked over the Eddie, gripping his wrists gently and pulling them from his eyes. He flinched slightly at the contact.

“It’s okay, Eddie. You don’t know how your life is gonna turn out. It doesn’t have to be like that.” You said softly as you looked up at him.

Eddie stared down at you with his eyebrows furrowed. His expression was once again unreadable but he didn’t try to remove his wrists from your hands. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, not knowing what to say so he just kept staring at you.

Suddenly, a gentle knock came, breaking you both out of each others gaze.

“Eddie, I’m g- oh Y/N, hi.” Wayne said, opening the Eddie’s bedroom door. Look on his face showed that he was confused by the situation.

“Hi Wayne.” You smiled sweetly at him.

“Uh, I’m heading into town so I’ll be back later. Do you two need anything?” Wayne asked. He couldn’t help the smile on his face. He figured his nephew was probably gonna start dating or hooking up with people soon if not already. He was a teenager after all. With Eddie’s personality and attitude, Wayne was nervous that the first girl he picked up would be some easy bimbo that would wind up pregnant and he’d be a teen dad, so when Wayne saw that it was you standing in Eddie bedroom with him, he was elated.

“Okay.” Eddie answered him, his face hard.

“Nice to see you, sweetheart.” Wayne nodded at you, closing the door.

“Listen, Y/N, you don’t have to waste your breath on me. I know what’s gonna happen to me and so do you. Just drop it.” Eddie moved to sit on the edge of the bed, finally breaking away from your grip. “Besides, girls like you shouldn’t hang around with guys like me.”

“I wouldn’t be saying this if I didn’t believe it, Eddie. I really believe you can do anything.” You said, sitting beside him on the bed. You were closer than you’d ever been.

“I don’t deserve it.”

“Yes you do.” You reaffirmed as you took his hand. Eddie had never really felt his close to someone before. It made his spine tingle. The physical contact, plus the words of affirmation made him feel things he didn’t like. “You deserve everything.”

“I don’t deserve you.” Eddie mumbled, looking right at you.

Tingles ran down your spine at his words. You were confused. You thought he didn’t like you.

“Do you-do you want me?” You were scared of the answer but wanted to know so badly.

Eddie huffed. “Doesn’t matter.”

Before you could respond or even process what he has said, Eddie stood up and walked to the door.

“I’ll get your bike out of my van.”

Once you were alone, you breathed deeper than you has all morning. You wanted to know what Eddie meant but you didn’t want to push him or annoy him.

You walked out of Eddie’s trailer to see your bike leaning against the steps and Eddie’s van gone, him nowhere in sight.

You cycled home and felt conflicted. What did Eddie mean? Did he hate you or not? Did he want you like that? Did you want him like that?

When you got home, your dad was out in the garage, working on his car. You ditched your bike near the garage door and walked up to him.

“Hey dad, what are you doing?” You asked.

“Oh, hi pet. Where were you last night?” You dad said as he looked up.

“With a friend.” You offered.

“Oh, okay. I’m just trying to fix this damn timing belt.” He chuckled.

You gulped. “Dad, can I ask you something.”

“Yeah, what’s up?” He asked without looking away from the cars engine.

“It’s about a boy.” You mumbled. That made your dad look up.

“What about it?”

“Well, this guy at school. Everyone seems to think he’s a bad person and honestly, I kind of did to for a while but lately I’ve seen a different side to him. I know he’s a good person, he’s just trouble and didn’t have a great upbringing. How am I supposed to make him see that he’s not the loser he thinks he is?”

“Hm. That’s a lot to take in. Why is this boy so important? Maybe he really is a loser.”

“He’s not. He’s actually really talented and I can tell that there’s more to him than he shows people. I think he just needs someone to depend on.”

“Who is this boy, anyway?” Your dad asked.

“Uh, It’s Eddie Munson.”

Your father looked at you with a worried look on his face.

“Petal, I don’t think I like the idea of you hanging around that Munson boy. I knew his father-“

“But that’s the thing, dad” you cut him off. “I know that Eddie’s nothing like his dad. People have told him that he’d be nothing, just like his dad his whole life and I know that it’s not true.”

Your dad took in your words and thought for a moment. It’s true that he knew Eddie’s dad back in high school and saw what a trouble maker he was and the petty criminal he turned out to be. But he also knew that you didn’t chose where you came from and that you were a smart girl.

“Okay, sweetie. If you think so. I know you’ll make the right choice

“I hope so”

“All you can do is be there for him. Show him you won’t leave and show him that he matters.”

“Thanks dad.”

“You’re a kid, Y/N. I’m lucky to have you.”

“I’m lucky to have you as my dad.” You smiled up at him.

“Get outta’ here.” He chucked.

You smiled and ran upstairs to your room. You wanted to go and find Eddie and tell him that you’d be there for him and that he deserved happiness as much as anyone else but you had no idea where he went and you didn’t have his number.

Tomorrow was Monday and Monday meant school. You hoped that Eddie would be there so you talk to him again.

That night you went to sleep with a heavy heart and your tummy in knots and in the morning you spent a little extra time in front of the mirror. You brushed out your hair and applied your makeup and picked your outfit just a little bit more careful than usual.

At school, the hallway was crowded as you hung around Eddie’s locker. You didn’t actually know if he went to it often or not but this was your only option right now. When the hallways emptied after the final bell, you made your way over.

Last night, you had written a note to slip into Eddie’s locker.

‘Eddie, meet me at the picnic table in the woods after school - Y/N’

6 and half hours later, you were sat in the woods, alone, hoping that Eddie would show up.

Your palms were sweating and your knee was bouncing. You kept taking deep breaths, trying to calm yourself. You hadn’t really thought about what you would say if Eddie showed up.

“Hey.” You heard a low grumbled behind you.

You turned quietly to be met with Eddie’s hard face.

He slowly walked over to the other side of the table and sat down, dumping his jacket on the old wood.

“Why’d you call me out here?” He asked.

“I wanted to talk. Talk about what you said yesterday in your room.”

“Y/N, just forget about it-“

“I like it when you say my name.” You cut him off, looking down.

Eddie didn’t really know how to respond to that. All of yesterday afternoon, his thoughts were plagued with you. The way you were so kind to after he’d been awful to you. You way your hand felt over his. The way his spine tingled when he remembered Wayne called you his girlfriend. He’d never felt like this before.

“I know you don’t believe me, but I really did mean it when I said you can do anything.” You smiled.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” He asked.

“Because I can see that you’re a good person under that hard shell. And I want you to know that I… I guess I care.”

“You care about me?”

“Yeah, I do.”

You took a deep breath and rose from the bench, walking around and sitting down besides Eddie.

“When you said you didn’t deserve me, what did you mean?” You whispered.

“Y/N..”

“Please tell me.”

“I don’t want to drag you down with me. I don’t want to hurt you anymore. No matter how much I want to be near you, I can’t.” He whispered back.

“You won’t drag me down, Eddie.”

“I drag everyone down, Y/N.”

“I’m not everyone.”

Eddie’s eyes glazed over like he was lost in thought as he stared into your eyes. He’d seen plenty of attractive women in his time. At school, at The Hideout, on the street. None of them looked back at him the way you were right now.

“Eddie…” you whispered, scooting closer. “Kiss me.”

[itsonlyjoseph]

Make Me Hurt || Eddie Munson x Reader

synopsis: Y/N lives her life coping torment from Eddie Munson day in and day out, but after a certain encounter, everything changes

warnings: Bully!Eddie, angst,

word count: 4.5k

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The fluorescent over head lights bounced off the white linoleum and burned into your eyeballs. It was currently 8:30 am and the morning rush of Hawkins High School had already began.

People gathered in their cliques around the parking lot and in the halls. Cheerleaders, jocks, band geeks, honour roll student, slackers, stoner, all of them.

You were by yourself, obviously, as you trudged your way down the hall towards your locker. You hated this school for many reasons. The food, the facilities, the people. Actually, mainly just one person. Eddie Munson.

Eddie Munson... were to begin...

He was a tall, dark, metalhead who hated everyone and everything and he made it known. Eddie wasn't popular by any means. He too was an outcast. Him and his friends dubbed satanists and cultists by everyone around them, and even though you too were an outcast, you were an even bigger loser than him. He made it known that you were dirt beneath his dirty white sneakers. Sure, he'd felt that way about everyone but for some unknown reason, it was personal with you. He made your entire high school career a living, breathing hellscape.

You didn't even know what you did to him to make him target you personally. You had barely ever spoken to him, aside from when you had to. Eddie wasn't the most approachable guy so people rarely went up to him unless they were looking to end the day with less teeth. He was happy get into his fair share of school yard fights.

You felt the atmosphere change as your ears perked up at the familiar sound of sneakers slapping the floor. You sighed out an already exhausted breath, just knowing that today would be no different than any other day.

Just as the footsteps got closer, you felt a large, rough hand grip your shoulder and swing you around. You came face to face with Eddie's broad chest, making you look up timidly to his his sneering face staring you down. He had a look of hatred that always sent a wave of anxiety and sadness through you.

What did I ever do to you?

"Hi." You squeaked out, meekly.

"I told you to keep your shit out of the Hellfire room." He seethed.

Ah, yes. The Hellfire room. An empty class room down in the west wing that Eddie and his friends occupied every day. No one knew what actually happened in there. Many people said they did their devil stuff in there. Once, someone even said they sacrificed a baby lamb in there. You didn't believe that one. Much.

"But I haven't been down there." You tried to defend yourself. Eddie didn't care. His fist came up and collided with the locker behind your head before he walked away.

You didn't know what stuff Eddie was talking about. You really hadn't been down there. At least not with any item to leave behind. Maybe he just wanted a reason to torment you.

Eddie wasn't the only person that tormented you. You also had to cop it from the jocks and cheerleaders. They called you names, kicked your bag across the room, tripped you, the usual nasty high school stuff.

It was different with Eddie. It didn't feel like the typically high school bullying. It felt worse. Angrier. Meaner.

The school day felt like it was dragging on, they way it did every day for you. Every day was the same. School. Eddie. Work. Repeat. It was draining. Your parents expected the most out of you and wouldn't settle for anything less.

Lunch was your favourite period because you could disappear for a while and be by yourself. You could take a breath. Typically, you sat in the library or behind the gym but considering the heavy rainfall today, you sat in the library.

The library was only ever littered with dorks and the quiet kids. They never spoke to you but you felt safe with them. It was almost impossible to find one of the popular kids in the library. Even less of a chance of seeing Eddie in here.

The rain pelted heavy against the windows as you found your usual spot under the staircase. You sat on an old beanbag and were surrounded my bookcases. You were pretty undetectable here. Opening your sack lunch and the book you were currently reading, you settled in. You were calm and happy, not a care in the world for the next 45 minutes. Or so you thought.

The library doors squeaked open after a few minutes but you paid no mind. Until you heard that all too familiar voice.

Your eyes widened, half in fear and half in exhaustion. You had never encounter Eddie in here but now this little slice of solitude was tainted.

From your place under the staircase, you had a perfectly hidden view of where Eddie was standing. He was being looked down at by Principal Higgins and it seemed like he was being reprimanded for something. For the first time in your whole life, Eddie looked almost… Scared? Beaten down? Nervous? Sad?

You couldn’t quite tell.

“Listen, Munson. I want you out of my school more than anyone but I have half a mind to keep you back again. Teach you a lesson on respect. You think people like you go far in life? You think your dad got very far?” You listened to Principle Higgins berate Eddie whilst he stood there and took it. If you didn’t know any better, you’d almost feel bad for him.

“Keep in line or I’ll ruin what little chance you have at a future.” Principal Higgins threatened before taking a breath and stepping forward. “And don’t think I won’t enjoy it.”

He finally left after that last comment and Eddie stood still, a completely unreadable look on his hard face. Your place under the stairs hid you just enough to keep looking at him and analysing him.

You saw Eddie take a deep breath and rub his forehead with the back of his hand. Suddenly, your hiding spot was sorely revealed when the little foam balls in your bean bag shifted, making a rather loud sound.

Eddie turned his head slowly to the source of the noise, his face turning from unreadable to angry the moment he spotted you.

With wide eyes, you whipped your head back round to completely hide your body from view. You took a few deep breaths to calm your racing nerves.

In a few seconds, Eddie would most likely round the corner of the staircase and rip your book from your hands, screaming at you until you cried.

But he didn’t. Eddie didn’t round the corner to yell at you. Nothing.

You braved another look the where Eddie was standing and saw that he was gone. That was definitely odd. You’d accidentally heard Eddie getting in trouble and he didn’t do anything about it. He just left.

Maybe he was taking Principle Higgins words seriously and actually keeping himself in line. Maybe that meant no more bullying.

After a short while, the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. You’d packed up your items and stuffed them back into your bag, distracted. For once, your mind was elsewhere. You weren’t scared of walking around the school like you normally were.

Placing your Walkman over your ears and turning it on, the sound of Fleetwood Mac flowing through your ears, you walked out of the library humming along. Your mind of occupied with thoughts of what you’d do after work tonight, what pyjamas you’d wear to bed, what movie you’d watch along tonight.

You were blissfully unaware of the looming presence behind you.

Eddie had waiting for you outside the library to give you a piece of his mind for eavesdropping on him like that.

Just before you could turn down an empty hallway, you felt a rough hand come down harshly on the shoulder, yanking you back against a wall with a yelp.

Eddie ripped the Walkman from around your ears and out of your pocket and smashed it on the ground. You watched the little pieces of plastic spread out on the floor around your feet.

“Why are you always lurking somewhere, huh?” Eddie yelled in your face. “That was my business!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to!” You pleading, Eddie’s hands pressing your shoulders roughly into the wall and tears welling up in your eyes.

Eddie was pressing you into the wall so hard, your feet just barely scraped the ground.

“You shouldn’t have heard that!” He continued. The anger intensifying.

“I’m sorry!” You sobbed. You had tears streaming down your face as you looked up at Eddie with wide, unblinking eyes and for a moment all Eddie could see was his mother, terrified and pleading for his father not to hurt her. “Please don’t hurt me Eddie.”

Eddie’s hands loosened for just a moment. “I’m not my dad!” He shouted and stepped back, stomping off down the hall and leaving you all alone.

You fell to the floor in a crying heap and tried to catch your breath.

Sure, Eddie had been tormenting you for years. Saying all kinds of nasty things but never once had he gotten physical. Eddie pushing you against the wall didn’t necessarily hurt but you were scared that he wanted to hit you.

You also weren’t sure what he meant when he said he wasn’t his dad. You’d heard Principal Higgins talk about Eddie’s dad just before but you didn’t know the extent of it.

After you’d wiped your tears and calmed down, you gathered up the pieces of your smashed Walkman and shoved it back into the front of your bag.

You’d cycled to school that day and decided for the first time ever, you’d skip. Beat the rush and go home for a few hours before work tonight. You might even call in sick.

At home, your dad was sitting in the armchair in front of the TV when you’d walked through the door.

“Hey Button, what are you doing home so early?” Your dad wondered. He was a gentle man with a pot belly and kind eyes.

“Oh, I just wasn’t feeling too hot. I think I might be approaching my ladies days. I just wanted to relax a bit before work.” You lied. You never lied to your dad.

“Okay, baby. You feel better soon.”

“Thanks dad.”

In your room, you placed the pieces of Walkman on your desk, along with the equally broken tape. It was your favourite.

You’d spent 65 dollars of your hard earned money on that thing and another 8 dollars on the Fleetwood Mac tape.

Lying down on your bed, you snuggled into yourself and just stared at the wall. For some reason, you felt bad for Eddie Munson. Sure, you didn’t deserve the things he said to you but you didn’t have to be genius to see that he was troubled. He probably had a bad home life and was taking his anger out on others.

You shouldn’t feel bad but you did. It was your best and worst quality. You felt things too deeply. No matter how terrible someone seems to be, you can’t help but feel sorry for them and want to help them and protect them from whatever’s hurting them. You wished whatever pain was inside Eddie’s head, you could transfer over to you so he didn’t have to feel that way.

Your eyes began to get heavier and heavier and soon enough the next thing you know, it’s pitch black outside and a patch of drool coats your cheek. You’d fallen asleep. You felt a little better but considering the sky was dark, you’d missed work today.

You rolled over and looked at the bright red numbers on your alarm clock.

3:19 am.

You definitely missed work tonight. Oh well, you decided you’d just give them a call tomorrow and explain that you were sick. Surely, they’d understand. You were a good enough worker that they wouldn’t think you just bailed.

The next morning, your opens opened to the sound of your dad gently tapping on your door. Looking over at the clock, you saw that it was now 8:30 am.

“Hey sweetie. How are you feeling?” Your dad asked as he opened the door.

For a moment, you forgot. You forgot that Eddie wanted to hurt you. You forgot your broken Walkman and you forgot the look of hatred in his face.

“Uh.. I’m not sure. My stomach hurts still.” You wheezed out. You added a fake little cough for good measure.

“Alright, you rest up and I’ll call Principal Higgins. I might even stop by Scoops and get you a sundae.” Your dad smiled down at you. You smiled back up at him. He was so kind and he was such a good dad. It made your mind go back to Eddie’s dad. You wondered what he was like.

“Thanks dad.”

Your dad closed your bedroom door and you rolled back over to face the wall again.

You couldn’t feel Eddie’s hands on your shoulders anymore but you remember exactly what it was like.

“God, why does he hate me so much?” You mumbled quietly to yourself.

A day later, it was Saturday. You had never been more thankful for the weekend. You were working at the diner tonight, thankfully, and you had a few hours before your shift started.

Standing in front of your vanity, you brushed out your hair and applied your favourite blue eyeshadow lightly across your lids. Your typical shift went from 5pm up until 12:30am.

It was a long and tiresome shift but you appreciated the money and liked having something to do on your free days. You also had your fair share of loyal customers that you enjoyed seeing and speaking to.

Riding your bike to the diner probably wasn’t the safest considering you left after midnight, but you didn’t have another option. You didn’t own a car and you didn’t want to ask your dad to stay awake for you.

Pulling your uniform out of your wardrobe, you placed the pale yellow dress over your body and tided the frilly white apron around your waist.

Downstairs, your dad was already snoozing in the armchair as the 4 o’clock news played quietly in the background. Placing your keys and lipgloss into your purse, you made your way outside to your bike.

The diner was quiet, as usual. Only a few older guys here and there. Putting your belongings down in the back, you made your way out start your shift.

You noticed your favourite regular sat at the diner bar sipping his coffee quietly and reading the paper.

“Afternoon, Wayne.” You smiled at him.

He looked up and smiled brightly behind his moustache. “Hey there, sweet thing.”

Wayne was a regular for a long time and even though you’d only been working at the diner for a few months, the two of you chatted like old pals every time you saw each other. You talked about movies and music and occasionally talked about work and school but not often.

“Overnight, tonight?” You asked as you topped up his coffee.

“Same as every night. How’s school.”

“Schools whatever.” You mumbled.

“That still giving you a hard time?”

“Is the sky blue?”

Wayne mused.

“You know, if I’ve learnt anything in my time here on earth, boys pick on girls they like.”

You huffed outa breath as if to laugh.

“Nah, I doubt it.”

“Never know.”

“I guess but, this feels different. Just the way he looks at me.”

“Well, maybe there’s something else going on. Maybe he’s troubled or scared of his feelings.”

You looked up at Wayne and noticed he had a sympathetic look on his face.

“Okay love guru.” You laughed. “You hungry yet?”

Wayne smiled and looked over the menu once more before speaking.

“No, just the coffee tonight. I gotta pick up my nephew before I head to work. Lost his license again.” Wayne said as he finished off his coffee and stood.

“Uh, of course.” You replied. You’d heard vaguely about this mystery relative of his. I’ll you knew was that he got himself into trouble and they were each others only family.

Wayne dropped a five dollar bill on the counter and smiled before walking out. It was 4 dollars and 30 cents too much but Wayne had already left by the time you realised.

The rest of the shift was boring and uneventful, as usual and by the time 12:30am rolled around, you smelled like burnt coffee and bacon grease. No wonder you had little blackheads on your chin.

“Okay bye Al!” You called out to the line cook as you mounted your bike.

The weather was cooling off as the summer was coming to an end but it was still nice enough weather to not need a jacket after midnight. It was times this like when you wished you had friends to hang out with and go to parties with.

You took your usual route home but considering it was past midnight on a Saturday, the few dive bars around town were crowded with people. The bar that was on your way home was called The Hideout. It was a sketchy biker bar that housed the towns drunks and heavy metal enthusiasts.

Cycling past, you peered over and felt your stomach drop when you saw who was standing around a group of scary looking guys, all smoking.

It Eddie.

The very same Eddie that you had seen since he pushed you up against the wall.

Coming to a stop on your bike, you needed to catch your breath. You were on the other side of the street and it was dark so you figured it wouldn’t see you but he did. He looked right at you.

His face soften as if he was recognising you. He held an unreadable expression as he stubbed out his cigarette.

The exchange only lasted a moment before you turned back to the road and peddled on down the road and towards home.

For the next several days at school, you’d managed to avoid Eddie at all costs. You saw glimpses of the back of his head or his shoulder but managed to sneak away completely unseen by him.

Normally you hated it when he was mean to you because it hurt your feelings but now you were scared of him. You didn’t really know if he was capable of hurting you physically but you didn’t like to think about it.

You hid in the library or down in the lower levels and raced home afterwards.

You had another late shift on Wednesday after school so instead of going home you decided to take your uniform to school with you and just get your homework done during the quiet periods.

Wayne hadn’t arrived yet when you got there so you decided to brew a fresh pot of coffee for him.

The doorbell chimed just as the pot was finishing brewing. You turned around to greet who you assumed would be Wayne but your blood ran cold when you were met with Wayne… and Eddie.

What is he doing here, and why is he with Wayne? You thought to yourself

Before you realised, you let go of the coffee pot in your hand and it smashed on the floor, coffee spilling around your feet and staining your old white Keds.

“Oh, Y/N. You okay?” Wayne asked concerned.

“Oh, uh, yeah.” You stuttered out, quickly dropping to the ground to clean the mess you’d made. “It slipped.”

“Here, I’ll help clean it up.” Wayne said as he walked to you.

“No!” You exclaimed. “It’s okay, I got it.” You forced a smile.

It was obvious you were incredibly anxious right now, anyone could see it.

“Uh, okay. Well, Y/N, this is my nephew, Eddie.”

You slowly stood back up, still nervous to meet Eddie’s gaze. You didn’t want Wayne to suspect anything so you finally looked up.

Eddie held that same unreadable look on his face that he did on Saturday at the hideout. It was one you hadn’t seen before then. He usually looked so angry and full of hate but now he just looked… like nothing.

“Hi, there.” You mumbled.

Eddie didn’t say anything. He simply turned his lip up to give you an awkward smile.

“Two coffees to start?” You said to no one in particular.

“Yes please, thank you darlin’” Wayne mused back.

The two men sat down at the counter as you turned your back to brew a new fresh pot of coffee. Even though your back was turned, you could feel Eddie's eyes burning holes into the back of your head.

You placed the two cups of coffee down in front of Wayne and Eddie without looking up. You had never felt this on edge in his presence before.

Eddie watched you float around the diner from the corner of his eye, not listening to Wayne speaking, for most of the time he was there. He noticed that you seemed more carefree and happier here then you were at school but he could tell his presence made you anxious.

He hated it.

He didn't really know why he hated you so much. He couldn't place why he tormented you to the extent he did. Sure, he was an asshole to everyone he encountered at school, students and teachers alike, but there was something about you he didn't understand. Something that burned inside him so hot that he saw red every time he saw you. He just wanted to hurt you the way he hurt.

"Alright boy, let's go. I got work soon." You heard Wayne mumble, finishing off his coffee and standing.

You turned and faced the two men for the first time since placing Waynes eggs in front of him.

Eddie was already looking at you.

His usually hard face still held that unreadable expression on it.

"Goodnight, Y/N." Wayne smiled after dropping his money on the counter.

Normally, you would have smiled and waved and said goodbye but tonight you simply raised your hand as the two left. Your eyes lingered on Eddie for a moment longer and then he also left.

When the doorbell chimed, signalling that they were gone, you let out a deep breath you didn't realise you had been holding. Now that Eddie and Wayne were gone, no one else was in the diner. Normally this was the perfect opportunity to finish off some homework but your mind was completely busy elsewhere. Tonight was a lot to take in. First, you'd finally met Wayne nephew and it turned out to be Eddie. You didn't understand how Wayne and Eddie could be related. Wayne was so kind and Eddie was... Eddie.

Secondly, you had no idea what the neutral, unreadable look on Eddie's face meant. Would he continue to terrorise you at school, maybe worse this time? He now knew where you worked too, which wasn't ideal.

You biked home once again after your shift and collapsed on your bed, falling asleep in your uniform.

It had been an eventful few days to say the least.

It didn't help your fatigue that you were working another shift tomorrow night. Your worries for tomorrow washed away however. You knew it was Wayne's night off, meaning he didn't come in for dinner beforehand. You'd be able to relax without seeing either of them.

Waking up the next morning, you quickly showered and dressed yourself before shoving your uniform into your bag again.

You noticed Eddie wasn't around in the morning. You thought he was probably out doing a drug deal or just late but you noticed that he wasn't in the cafeteria at lunch other. Perhaps another detention. But he also wasn't in the library, which was odd.

Even though Eddie hated school and everyone in it, it wasn't typical for him to skip. Whatever the reason may be, you were thankful for the day of peace and calm.

By the time the day come to an end, you had almost completely forgotten about the whole situation. Almost.

Walking into the diner, tightening the apron around your waist, your stopped in your tracks, blood turning cold once again.

Eddie was back. He was alone this time. He sat stoically by himself at the counter with his arms folded close to his chest, head looking down.

You shuddered out a breath. You figured he was here to confront you and yell at you for playing nice with his uncle. If this was any other diner or restaurant, you'd make a co-worker go and serve him but you couldn't do that. The was no one else here. It was just you.

You took a deep breath and slowly walked over, bracing yourself for hell.

"Hi.' You muttered, but he didn't look up. "W-would you like another coffee, Eddie?"

Eddie took a moment before he looked up at you. He had a soft, calm expression on his face. You hadn't really noticed it before but when he wasn't seething with hatred, Eddie was handsome. Large brown eyes, round like a baby cow and a long eyelashes with a dusting of freckles across his nose.

You shook away the thought, waiting for him to respond.

"I'm sorry I hurt you at school last week." He deadpanned.

"I-wh- Sorry?" It caught you off guard.

"And I'm sorry I hurt you when you did nothing wrong."

You didn't say anything, just looked at Eddie like a deer in headlights. You never once expected to ever speak to him in a normal setting, let alone have him apologise to you.

"I don't expect you to forgive me, so I'll leave you alone." Eddie said as he stood up to leave but before he could turn around, he pulled something out of his pocket and placed it on the counter.

"This was mine, but, you know," He mumbled.

It was a Sony Walkman. Not the same model as the one you had but one just as good.

"I also got you this." He said quieter this time. "I don't know if this is your kind of music but,"

I also placed down an Iron Maiden tape next to it. You still hadn't moved. Your were still too in shock too.

Eddie spared on last look you before he walked out. Your eyes slowly dropped down to the counter and softly reached out to take the Walkman and tape into your hands. In theory, it was an incredible gift. Eddie gave you his Walkman and apologised for hurting you.

You were conflicted and you had no idea what to think.

All you knew was that you wanted to say thank you. You just had to find out were Eddie lived. You couldn't confront him at school. That could go badly.

You needed to hatch a plan and speak to Eddie. All you wanted was to know why he hated you so much. Or didn't?

You had no idea.

Part Two

[itsonlyjoseph]

Vampires Everywhere! || Eddie Munson x Reader

warnings: Mean!Eddie, vampire/monster Eddie, bullying, angst, Stockholm syndrome, attempted SA (not by Eddie)

synopsis: after witnessing something she wasn’t meant to, the reader has a hard time staying away from Eddie.

Word count: 6.8k

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The halls of Hawkins High seemed to blend together to you now. All the familiar faces that wouldn’t recognise you in a crowd, all blended together into one big sad blur. You hated school. You hated it with a passion for many different reasons. One of the bigger reasons was that you had zero friends. No one to talk too and no one to comfort you on your bad days.

Everyone at Hawkins High was either incredibly mean to you or simply didn’t give you the time of day and turned their noses up at you. The popular kids bullied you, the band geeks wouldn’t let you sit with them, with the resident ‘freak’ didn’t give you the time of day. You blended right into the background and pretty soon you became kind of okay with it.

Until you met Jason Carver of course. He had some sick problem with you that soon became rather physical. Sometimes he’d kick your bag down the hall or try to trip you in the cafeteria. He’d called a stalker or a freak plenty of times, claiming that you were a people watcher. I mean, sure you were but you didn’t see anything wrong with that. Observing the students around you. He just simply hated you and would do anything to make your time at this school absolute hell.

It was a normal (normal for you) Monday morning when you’d walked into the halls to start the day. You noticed a group of the popular kids standing by the lockers but luckily didn’t see Jason. You didn’t have the energy for him today. You did, however, notice Eddie Munson walking towards his own locker, head facing straight forward, a stoic almost angered look adorning his face. You couldn’t stop yourself from staring at him. He was so captivating in a way you couldn’t explain. Yes, you thought he was good looking or whatever but it was more than that. Something you couldn’t quite place.

He always sat alone in lunch, didn’t talk to anyone or really participate in class. You never saw him at pep rally’s and any after school events. He was a mystery to everyone.

Suddenly his deep, almost black eyes met yours and his brows furrowed. You sucked in a breath and quickly turned away, embarrassed that you were caught staring. You so badly wanted to talk to him and get to know him, considering he wasn’t exactly popular either, but judging from the looks he always gave you, he didn’t want to get to know you.

You sighed deeply before closing your locker and getting ready to head to class. Although, once your locker slammed shut, you had the fright of your life when you realised Jason had been standing there waiting for you.

“Hey Stalker.” He taunted, a sick, sarcastic smile of his face.

You tried to bite back the tears that threatened to spill, scared of what he’d do to you this time. The taunts were getting worse and worse as the days went on. You wouldn’t be surprised if he just straight up punched you in the face this time.

“What do you want, Jason?” You mumbled, pulling your bag closer to your body.

“Hey, hey, hey, we just want to talk.” He said, faking getting defensive. He stepped closer to you and placed a hand on your shoulder.

“Just wanted to see how you were doing this morning.” He smiled sweetly.

“How I’m doing?” You asked but before you could really finish the question, Jasons fist came into contact with your stomach. The hard blow caused to double over in pain as Jason crouched done next to you.

“Watch it, stalker.” He whispered before patting your back and walking away. You tightly clutched your stomach as the tears finally spilled over and streamed down your face.

You sat in the empty hallway for a few minutes before slowly climbing to your feet, still winded from Jason’s punch. You decided that today you’d just skip. You were already tired and mentally drained but Jason’s attack just put the cherry on top for you.

You slumped down and trudged out the doors of Hawkins Highs and down towards the forest. You didn’t have a car so you couldn’t drive home, unless you wanted to hitchhike for a few hours. You figured you’d just hang out for the whole day and then sneak onto the school bus. It wasn’t ideal but it’s all you had.

You walked into the forest, deep enough that no one would see you and kept walking, crying to yourself. So much so that you almost didn’t notice the leaves and twigs rustling and breaking near you. You looking around for the source of the noise, fear slightly setting in.

You crept forwards and thats when you saw it. It was him. It was Eddie. He was hunched over, squatting down over what looked to be a deer. Blood everywhere. So much blood. Blood covered his hands and mouth as he feed on the animal.

Your eyes widened in fear as he heard you gasp. His head shot around and you saw his usual eyes looking completely black and bloodshot, small inflamed veins covering the skin around them. He looked angry. And hungry.

You tried to stumbled backwards and run away but he was faster than you. He grabbed you by the neck and brought you closer to his face. You could see the angry radiating off of him and the sent of fresh blood so strong it nearly made you gag.

He trickled blood all over you neck and chest as he held a tight grip.

“What the fuck are you doing here.” He snarled out. If you weren’t so terrified of everything you just saw, you’d be glad to finally hear his voice for the first time.

“I’m sorry.” You sobbed silently.

His grip on your neck tightened as he lifted you so easily off the ground, bringing you eye level with him. “I should’ve known this would happen. Should’ve known you’d follow me. Stalker.” He taunted you. “I should kill you.” He said, squeezing.

You wheezed and coughed, trying to breathe, as you grabbed onto his terribly cold wrist. You felt dizzy as he squeezed your neck harder. He brought you slowly fading body face to face with him.

“I should break your fucking neck.” He snarled into your cheek. “You’d taste so good. They always do when they’re scared.” He whispered.

If you didn’t know any better, you’d think this was hot. But it was real life and you were about to die.

Suddenly, Eddie began to laugh. A sick, taunting laugh that showed all the blood and pieces of deer meet stuck in his teeth.

“You’re loving this aren’t you.” He taunted you, making your eyes snap open.

“W-what?” You muttered out, scared out of your mind.

“Always watching, you think I don’t notice you staring at me.” He snarled once again, his face getting even closer.

“I can smell it a mile away.” He whispered that last part, nearly making your eyes pop out of your head. His head dipped down to lick the space just below your ear lobe, licking away the blood he’d smeared there and feeling your thumping pulse under his tongue.

“Your heart is racing.”

His blackened eyes looked over you for a moment with an unreadable expression. This is it, you though. He was going to kill you.

Suddenly is hand released your neck and you fell to the ground coughing and trying to breath again. You looked up at him after a moment to see him walking away, back towards the school.

You let the tears run freely down your face as you clutched your neck. When you wiped away the tears, you also wiped away some the blood he’d smeared on your face with his mouth.

You didn’t know what to think. You’d found Eddie eating the guts out of a dead and he threatened to kill you. What would any person think in this situation. You were too scared to move.

After you caught your breath, you picked yourself up and bolted back towards the school. You had no other choice. You felt it too dangerous to stay out in the woods or hitchhike home.

Inside the school, the halls were empty as everyone was probably in class. Luckily for you, the girls bathroom was also empty.

When you finally caught sight of yourself in the mirror, you nearly screamed. There was smeared blood covering your neck where Eddie’s hand gripped you. There was blood dripping from your cheek where Eddie touched his face to yours.

The top of your collar was blood soaked also. You quickly splashed water on your face as best you could to rid yourself of the blood. You also opted to remove the blood stained shirt and just wear the cami underneath.

You walked out of the bathroom, breathing heavily, and walked towards the nurses office.

“Can you call my mom, I don’t feel well.” You squeaked out.

“Oh, dear, you look like you’ve seen a ghost! Why don’t you have a seat there and I’ll call her.” The nurse smiled sweetly at you.

You felt your heart pumping rapidly in your chest as you relayed to images from the forest in your mind. You knew Eddie was quiet and a little strange but never did you think about this.

Little did you know, Eddie couldn’t stop thinking about you either. He still had your scent in his nose. The smell of your fear, the smell of your arousal. He so desperately wanted to rip you apart in every way imaginable.

He’d walked back to school after he cleaned off his hands and face and headed straight for the hellfire room. An old theatre room now used for storage where he’d come to be alone with his thoughts. He never expected you of all people to catch him feeding. Strange, stalker Y/N. He’d obviously noticed you around school before. He noticed everyone. But he never gave you much thought before. Just a play thing for the popular kids to bully.

He thought about what he wanted to do to you. What he should have done to you. He was hungry and you interrupted him. He should’ve ripped you apart, limb from limb but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Maybe he should have just bitten you, get a small taste to satisfy his appetite. He suddenly found himself growing angry at the thought of just letting you walk away like that.

He kicked the seat back and stomped out of the hellfire room and towards the front of the school. Just as his luck would have it, he saw you waiting on the front steps, seeming for someone to pick you up. Suddenly, a car pulled up and you got in. A wicked smile grew on his face as a plan formed in his head. He’d follow you home, wait until nighttime, then kill you and feed.

Driving home, you felt yourself grow more and more tired yet every time you closed your eyes, all you could see was Eddie’s eyes. Dark and evil, staring right into your soul.

“Are you sure you don’t need to see the doctor honey, you really don’t look well.” You mother asked you, turning onto your street.

“I’m fine, just need to rest.” You mumbled back, facing away from her. She definitely didn’t need to know what you saw today. She’d probably have you institutionalised. Although you wouldn’t blame her for that.

You arrived home and immediately ran up the stairs to your bedroom. Without even taking off your clothes, you dived head first into the covers and pillows and tried to allow sleep to take you. With no such luck.

You were so exhausted and sick to your stomach, your mind racing a million miles a second with the thoughts of earlier today. After a short while you eventually drifted off to sleep, although it wasn’t exactly a peaceful slumber. Inside your head, blood rained down upon you as the sky’s ripped open with a red lightening. Monsters and horrid looking creatures surrounding you and chasing you down.

Eddie had followed you home and now that night had fallen, he climbed up the drainpipe to your bedroom window and peered in to see you sleeping in the bed. The window was unlocked. Silly girl, he thought.

Once his feet where did planted on the plush carpet of your bedroom, he noticed that you appeared to be having a nightmare. Tossing and turning with sweat glistening on your forehead.

He could not only hear your heart beating out of your chest, but also see it. The loud thumping drawing his attention to your barely covered chest area made his tongue water.

He snatched his eyes away from your sleeping body for a moment to gaze around your bedroom. He noticed you had a Black Sabbath poster on the back of your door and if he wasn’t so blood thirsty right now, he would have smiled.

His eyes met your form once again as he crept closer to you, placing both his hands on other side of your head and hovering over you. His mouth laid itself on your neck as he readied himself to bite.

But he couldn’t do it.

For some strange reason he couldn’t bring himself to sink his teeth into your burning skin.

He’d never felt this way before. He so desperately wanted to rip your throat open and devour you yet couldn’t force himself to do it.

He also noticed that once he was close enough to you, your tossing and turning had subsided.

This angered him even further.

First, you interrupted him during his feed and discovered what he truly was and now he can’t seem to kill you.

Eddie grunted angrily before rising from the bed and leaving through the window.

You startled awake, sensing a presence near you. You didn’t see anyone or anything in your bedroom but noticed the window wide open. You were terrified. After what you saw, you were afraid you’d never be a peace again. Not until Eddie killed you.

You stayed awake for the rest of the night, too anxious to even try to let sleep take you. You sat up right in your bed, clutching a sewing needle in your hands tightly as if it would offer some kind of protection from Eddie.

After a while, you noticed the sun beginning to rise. You hadn’t even thought about it but you knew you couldn’t go to school today and possibly be in the same place as Eddie. Luckily for you, you still looked rather distressed and it took little convincing for you mother to let you stay home again.

But soon she left and so did your father and pretty soon you were all alone in your house. You didn’t actually think that one through either. Maybe it was better to go to school, be surrounded by other people.

Even though you were mostly on edge all day, it came and went rather quickly as soon enough you were tucking yourself back into bed and clutching the sewing needle under your pillow. You made sure yo lock both the window and the bedroom door before drifting off into another restless sleep.

The shrill buzzing of your alarm clock woke you up after what seemed like a few minutes after you closed your eyes. You took a deep, shaky breath and got out of bed.

You got ready like normal. Brushing your teeth, packing your lunch and getting dressed. Everything seemed normal from the outside, but inside you were ready to faint, overwhelmed with possibly seeing Eddie and finding out what he’d do to you.

The bus picked you up and dropped you off at the front steps and you made your way in, gripping your backpack straps so tightly your knuckles turned white.

Home room was fine, as was your first two classes. You thought you kept seeing Eddie everywhere from the corner of your eye but realised once you turned it was just someone with long dark hair or dark clothing.

Things however took a turn when lunchtime rolled around. You made your way into the cafeteria and sat down at your usual table to eat when you locked eyes with him. The real him.

Eddie was sat a few tables away, staring right into your soul. His lip was slightly upturned as if he wanted to growl at you. His pale skin was a bright contrast from his dark eyes and dark eyes.

You couldn’t pull your eyes away from him. You were too scared to do anything.

Suddenly, however, you focus was forced towards something else when you felt you chair kicked out from under you, causing you to fall to the ground. You looked up and saw Jason and a few of his goons laughing above you as did the rest of the cafeteria.

“Hey Stalker.” Jason smirked. “We missed you yesterday. We had a surprise for you.” He taunted, sarcastically.

Jason pushed your bag off the table and kicked it til it slid across the cafeteria, completely out of reach. One of his buddies then handed him a tall take out cup full of what looked like chocolate milk.

You looked on in horror, ready to bathe in this chocolate milk as Jason raised the cup above you. Suddenly, a cold pale hand gripped Jason’s forearm tightly. You looked over to see Eddie, an almost unreadable yet angry look on his face as he stared down at Jason. Eddie was slightly taller and bigger than Jason and as it seemed, a hell of a lot stronger.

“Touch her again, and I’ll break this arm.” Eddie seethed quietly, to which seemingly on Jason and yourself heard him.

You didn’t know what to think right now. Eddie was… defending you?

He squeezed Jason’s arm just enough for him to drop the cup, spilling its content all over the floor next to you then a look of uncontrollable fear flashed across his face.

After that, Jason made a dash for the doors and Eddie looked down at you, still seething with anger. You couldn’t exactly read to look on his face but you’d be lying if you said it didn’t intrigue you.

Here he was, this brooding quiet loner who threaten to kill you just days before now defending you against your biggest tormentor. Why would he do that?

He looked you over once more before stomping out of the cafeteria himself, everyone’s eyes watching him leave before turning to you. You scrambled to your feet, feeling the embarrassment set in, and left also.

Eddie made his way home after that. He was angry at himself. His fists gripped the steering wheel of his beat up of van so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Even whiter than his already pale skin.

Skidding to a stop, he jumped out and stomped into the house. At first he was pacing his bedroom, internally fighting himself. Then all that anger just bubbled out and his fist was flying into the wall beside him.

The patchy, brittle drywall crumbled beneath his fist, a few cuts lining his newly bruised knuckles.

Meanwhile, you cleaned yourself up in the girls bathroom, a few splashes of chocolate milk getting in your hair. You were so beyond confused right now. Confused about what Eddie was, why he defended you, your feelings.

It didn’t take long for the chocolate milk to be out of your hair and you walked out of the bathroom when you heard the bell sound.

For the rest of the day, no one spoke to you. It wasn’t really a change from every other day but now it felt more amplified. You got strange looks of disgust and intrigue from everyone around you. You could barely take it.

You walked home that day, not bothering to wait for the bus. You couldn’t imagine being cramped in a bus for 45 minutes with everyone staring and whispering.

Your mom and dad weren’t home when you arrived. They’d left a note on the kitchen table saying they’d gone to visit your grandmother for the night. Great.

You slumped up to your room and immediately collapsed on the bed. What a day, you thought. You’d been having quite a few of these ‘days’ lately.

You’d drifted off rather quickly and your light snores filled the air as the temperature in the room became cold, your window sliding open slowly.

Eddie had followed you home once again. He waited till you were sleeping to crawl into the room and crouched down next to your bed.

He had a deep scowl across his face as he watched your sleeping form. You looked at peace and he hated it. He hated it more than anything that he was feeling so… soft around you.

Almost on instinct, Eddie’s hand reaches up and gently touched your hair. It was soft. His hand stroked your hair a few times before moving down to rest on your exposed shoulder. The skin beneath his hand burned against him.

You started to shift around in your sleep and Eddie thought for a moment that he’d been caught. But he looked up to see your eyes still closed. You continued to move around, soft groan leaving your parted lips and a frown deepening on your face.

You were having a nightmare.

Eddie quickly retracted his hand and looked at you confused.

Even before he turned into this creature, he didn’t have a ton of experience with people. He didn’t know if he should comfort you somehow or just leave. He didn’t want you to wake up and see him there.

He hesitantly reached his hand out once again and placed it on your cheek, his thumb absentmindedly stroking your cheek.

You reached out in your sleep and grabbed his wrist, snuggling into it further.

Eddie frowned at you and the warm feeling spreading in his chest. He hated this feeling. He hated it even more when you seemingly relaxed and went back to a peaceful slumber.

Eddie quickly snatched his hand away and stood up, making his way for the window before disappearing into the street.

You sleep for the rest of the night.

Friday arrived and you found yourself bored out of your mind. You hadn’t really since Eddie since he defended you in the cafeteria two days ago.

“Yeah dude, they don’t even ID you!” You heard two of the band kids chatting amongst themselves. They were walking a few paces ahead of you but close enough for your to hear their conversation.

“Okay, Hideout. 8 o’clock.” The other replied excitedly.

The Hideout. You’d heard of it before. It was some trashy bar that let anyone in. You’d never been before but it did intrigue you.

Maybe you could go and get drunk and have fun for the first time in a while.

It would definitely take your mind off things…

Later that night, you were ready.

Even though you were just wearing what you’d worn to school that day, you still felt good. Excited.

Hitchhiking to the Hideout only took around 20 minutes. The sun had barely set so you still felt a little safe walking by yourself.

There were a few sketchy looking people standing around outside, chatting and smoking, some looking over at you menacingly.

There wasn’t anyone at the door though, meaning you could simply walk in without any trouble.

Inside, the atmosphere was thick and dark and smokey. People were everywhere as you made your way to the bar.

“What can I get ya’?” The bartender asked you, wiping his hands with a dirty rag.

“Uh..” You hesitated. You didn’t think this far. You didn’t really know of any alcoholic beverages besides wine. You couldn’t exactly order that in a place like this.

The bartender sensed your unease and chuckled at you before pouring you a beer. The first one they had on tap.

“Here kid, try that.” He said before walking away. You’d reached into your pocket to pay him but he was already gone.

You turned back to your beer, sipping it and immediately deciding you hated it, scrunching your face up at the horrid taste. The crowd piled in as the band made their way onto the stage to finish setting up.

Suddenly, the stage lights flickered on and the sound of loud heavy metal music pounded through your ears. Your eyes wondered over the band before landing on Eddie. You blinked a few times and saw that it really was him. And that he was already looking at you with a blank expression on his face.

You gulped down the rest of your beer and nervously watched as the band played a few songs. Eddie’s eyes seemingly never left you.

The night was coming to a close so you decided to step out into the alley way to take a breather. The air was still warm as you leaned up against the dirty bricks.

“Hey doll.” You heard from beside you. You opened your eyes and looked to the side to see an older, 50 something man smirking uncomfortably at you. You tried to politely smile at him before turning away hoping he’d take the hint. He did not.

“You look a little lonely out here by yourself.” He was suddenly right beside you. He smelled heavily of liquor and sweat and it made your stomach turn. He also towered over you.

“I’m fine.” You smiled, scooting away slightly.

“You don’t want a little company, baby?” He smirked, he filthy hands coming up to touch your waist, making you flinch. “I bet you taste good.” He whispered as his face inched closer to yours. The tears welled up in your eyes as you found yourself frozen with fear.

He chuckled darkly as his hand moved from your waist to grope your breast. This didn’t last long however.

Almost as suddenly as it started, he was ripped away from you with a grunt. Your eyes shot open to see him pressed up against the brick wall opposite you, his feet dangling above the ground and a strong fist gripped tightly around his throat.

It was Eddie.

He had that same look of pure rage adorning his face. The same one he had with Jason in the cafeteria.

Eddie’s hand was squeezing the man so tightly, his face was turning purple. He didn’t say anything, but you could tell he wanted to kill the man.

“Eddie, stop.” You pleaded. He didn’t hear you, he simply squeezed harder as the man’s eyes widened.

“Please, Eddie. Don’t!” You cried, grabbing his arm. This got his attention. His head snapped towards you to see your pleading face. His features softened for a split second.

He turned back to the man and dropped him to the ground, watching as he was gasping for breath. Then, Eddie turned to face you with his signature scowl across his face.

“Let’s go.” He seethed. You silently followed him close behind, making your way to his van parked out of the street.

You didn’t understand why but after seeing him defend you twice now, your fears of him began to slowly slip away against your better judgment.

You watched as he opened the passenger side door for you, not meeting your eye. You hesitated for a moment before slowly climbing into the van. Eddie closed the door and walked around to the other side, getting in himself.

Eddie drove in silence. You didn’t exactly know where he was taking you but once you started to recognise the neighbourhood, your stomach dropped.

“Wait! I can’t go home!” You panted. “If my mom finds I was out and drinking alcohol, she’ll kill me!”

Eddie looked at your frazzled face, slightly confused and slightly annoyed, before turning back to look at the road.

“Fine.” He muttered.

He made a swift u-turn, away from your neighbourhood.

Once again, silence coated the van.

“I didn’t know you were in a band.” You mumbled, trying to make small talk.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” He said back, before turning to you and continuing. “Also seems like there’s a lot you do know.”

You gulped at this turned back to the road. You almost forgot about that. Almost.

“How long have you been in a band.” You felt beyond awkward but the small talk kept spilling out.

“A while.”

Pretty soon after that riveting conversation, the van pulled up outside a small, rundown looking trailer. You didn’t notice the van turn into the trailer park just outside of town but you did notice the lack of lights or people.

“Oh god.” You gulped, thinking this was it. Eddie was going to kill you and turn you into a meal.

“This is where I live.” He deadpanned, noticing your distress.

You took a deep breath and exited the van, following him towards the dark trailer. Your mind was screaming at you to turn and run away but your feet kept dragging you forwards.

You were waiting for the horrors of death to grab you as you walked through the door after Eddie, but once you were inside, your fears washed away. The inside of Eddie’s home was actually kind of… nice.

It was small and nothing special but it had character. There was a couch and a tv and plenty of trucker hats pinned to the walls.

“Do you live alone?” You wondered out loud, looking around the place.

“No, I live with my uncle but he works nights at the plant.” Eddie mumbled back to you, never talking his off your curious form.

“Why did you bring me here?” You said softly, finally meeting his eye.

“You didn’t want to go home.”

A soft silence fell over both of you, but not an uncomfortable one. You looked up at Eddie and in this light, he was the most beautiful creature you’d ever seen.

His eyes were so warm and gentle, nothing like the ones you’d seen in the forest that day.

“Come on. I’ll show you were you can sleep.” He said, breaking the small staring contest, walking down the hall.

You followed quickly and into what you guessed to be his bedroom. Your breath quickened when you stepped inside.

The room held to same feel as the rest of the trailer, yet seemed darker in comparison. Less homely.

Eddie gave you some clothes to wear to bed and they smelled just like him. Cheap but inviting. You came back to the room after changing to see Eddie pulling back the covers for you.

You gently laid down, scared to disrupt anything. Eddie turned to leave the room once you were in his bed but stopped when he felt your hand delicately wrap around his wrist.

“Wait!” You spoke, causing him to turn and look at you. “Will you lay with me?”

Eddie faltered for a moment and his stomach dropped. He looked down at you laying in his bed and felt something he’d never felt before. He couldn’t explain it.

He pulled back the covers of his bed and slid in next to you. You were both laying on your sides, facing each other. Eddie had his eyebrows furrowed together as he looked at you.

“Thank you.” You whispered after a short while.

“For what?” He asked, confused.

You scooted forward slightly, close enough to feel his hair tickling you on your forehead.

“For helping me… with that guy at The Hideout. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.”

His brows softened at your confession and the feeling of butterflies erupted in his stomach. Seemingly for the first time. He hated it.

“Okay.” He simply replied, slightly awkward and very uncomfortable at this foreign feeling.

You were silent for a few more moments, looking deeply at each other’s faces.

“How long have you been this way?” You whispered.

“Not long.” He said back to you. “When the earth quake happened last summer, it wasn’t an earthquake.”

“No?”

“I was in hell… or what felt like hell. These things attacked me. Ripped me apart and next I knew, I was like this when I woke up.”

He didn’t notice until now, but whilst he was speaking, you’d shuffled closer and closer until you had your chest pressed up against his.

“Were you going to hurt me that day… in the forest?” You whispered, not looking into his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you?”

You were slightly scared of the answer but needed to know.

“I don’t know.” He answered honestly. “I wanted to. I wanted to hurt you so bad but I couldn’t. I couldn’t make myself hurt you. Couldn’t stand when other people tried to hurt you.”

You felt warmth swirling in your stomach at this. It was a strange feeling considering he wanted you dead at one point but you couldn’t help but feel softer.

“Eddie.” You whispered.

Eddie’s hands found their place on your waist. They were significantly larger than yours and nearly covered your entire mid section.

“I can’t stop thinking about you.” He muttered, brown furrowing once again.

Your breath hitched in your throat at the contact. You’d never had another boys hands on you before. You never expected it to be Eddie. And although this wasn’t inherently sexual at all, your skin was on fire.

“I can’t stop thinking about you either.” You respond. “Every time I see you I feel something I can’t explain. Like, I’m terrified of you but I don’t want to be away from you.”

Eddie didn’t respond. He just looked at you taking in your features. Suddenly, Eddie bedroom door swung open and the light flicked on, in walking what appeared to be Eddie’s uncle.

You and Eddie both sat up quickly and turned to the doorway.

“Eddie, I’m back from-“ Eddie uncle stopped himself when he noticed Eddie wasn’t alone. “Oh, sorry..”

Eddie uncle was surprised to see a girl in Eddie bed. He didn’t even know Eddie had friends.

“I’m Wayne.” He introduced.

“Y/N”

“Eddie, can I talk to you. Outside.” Wayne asked.

Eddie didn’t say a word, simply watching the interaction between you and his uncle. He got up from the bed and turned back to you.

“I’ll, uh.. be back.” He said, unsure.

You nodded and watched him walk out behind his uncle.

Once Wayne and Eddie were outside the trailer, Wayne pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

“Does she know?” He asked.

“She knows.” Eddie responded.

“You told her?”

“She caught me. It the woods at school.”

“So what, you’re keeping her around until you rip her heart out?”

Eddie grimaced. He didn’t know what he wanted from you. All he knew was that he felt odd without you.

“I did. But know I don’t know.”

Inside, you were watching Eddie and his uncle converse through the bedroom window. You turned away and started to look around Eddie’s room. The room definitely belonged to a teenage boy but showed no signs of the blood thirsty beast that Eddie really was.

He had band posters and an electric guitar hanging on the wall. He had a tv and some pornography clumsily hidden next to it. An ashtray pull of cigarette butts by his bed.

His bedroom was almost inviting and comforting.

Eddie returned shortly after.

“Hi..”

He was still uncomfortable. It was clear he’d never had anyone in his private space, let alone a girl.

“Hi. Uh, is it okay with your uncle that I’m here?”

“It’s fine.”

“Okay..”

The conversation faded out again. Eddie was still stood by the door, just watching you sat in his bed. He knew you were beautiful. He’d always known. Soft round face, sweet timid eyes and long flowing hair. You looked too pure to be here in his presence.

He was a wolf and you were a sheep.

Eddie slowly walked back towards the bed and laid down next to you again.

His eyes looked over you. They were so dark, you couldn’t actually see any brown in them, only black.

Before you knew it, you’d started to drift off until a gentle snore fell from you. Eddie was still awake as he listened, but not for long. Pretty soon, he was also asleep.

Peacefully.

He’d had one of the best nights sleep he’d ever had since he turned into this.

Several hours later, Eddie woke up. He woke up and found that you were still sleeping but now you were practically on top of him, head on his chest and arms wrapped around his middle. Eddie was uncomfortable for a few moments but made no effort to move you. He slowly relaxed and lowered his arm until it was around your back.

He thought about that day in the wood and how he was ready to murder you. He wanted to. He was getting sick of eating deer and “missing” cattle. He’d even eaten someone’s missing cat once. It was gross. It was all gross but he figured it was better than killing people. No matter how bad he wanted to.

He remembered back to the day of the earthquake. Being attacked. Waking up with an unquenchable thirst that nothing seemed to satisfy.

The day he turned into whatever this was, he felt pieces of soul was replaced with a dark black nothingness. He was always uninterested and barely smiled at people but now he was different. He was meaner, he never cared about anyone or anything. He felt nothing now. He couldn’t even tell if he hated it or missed it when it had a soul.

The next morning, you woke up but Eddie was nowhere to be found. You’d put your other clothes back on and folded the clothes Eddie gave you and placed on his made bed.

You’d wondered into the main part of the trailer and saw that no one was around at all.

You figured Eddie went out early before you’d woken up. He could have been doing anything anywhere so you decided it’d be best if you just walked home.

You didn’t know what to feel right now.

First, Eddie almost killed you. He wanted to.

Then he defended you and practically saved your life.

And then lastly, you’d spent the night in his bed and had one of the best nights sleep ever.

Your brain and heart were jumbled.

You’d stayed in your bedroom all day and barely came out. You’d read and watched tv and cleaned and rearranged your closet just to pass the time.

Before you’d even realised it was nighttime, you’d heard a tap on your window. You gasped and jumped slightly but semi relaxed when you saw Eddie’s hard face.

Opening the window and stepping back, you let him in.

“Eddie. What are you doing here?” Your voice still just as timid and small as ever.

“I don’t know. I wanted to see you.” His expression was just as hard and unreadable as ever.

“Oh, okay.” You said, going back to sit on your bed.

“Actually,” Eddie started, looking down and walking towards you, also taking a seat on your bed. “I wanted to try something.”

You gulped.

“Try… something?”

Eddie finally looked up and scooted closer to you. He could hear how fast your heart of pumping.

He reached his hand up and gently tucked a piece of hair behind your ear. His hand lingered though, coming to rest in between your neck and shoulder. His hand was so large that it was practically flat against your whole chest.

Your breathing quickened.

He started to lean in.

Eddie breathed you in before pressing his cold lips to your hot ones.

The kiss was nice. Incredible even.

Eddie tried to keep it as a soft, delicate peck but you kissed him back a little harder. You moved closer and placed your hands on his shoulders, moving your mouth against his. The kiss started to get more and more passionate.

You let out the softest, gentlest moan into Eddie’s mouth and he hissed as he pushed you back into the bed, continuing to kiss you, his hands moving to your hips.

“Wait, stop.” He hissed, pushing you back and moving away from you.

“I’m sorry.” You responded, flustered.

Not only did you make out with Eddie for the first time and that the first time you kissed anyone.

You wondered if Eddie had kissed anyone before.

Eddie looked at you from the other side of the bed and like always, his expression was unreadable.

“That was nice.” You mumbled gently under your breath.

Eddie stood up and wondered over to your cork board and looked at the Polaroids stuck to it. It was mainly just your family because you didn’t really have many friends.

Eddie realised that he couldn’t stay away from you. He realised that he didn’t want to.

Eddie also realised that for the first time since he turned and the first time in his entire life, he begged that you felt the same way.