#∘⡊ ☾・ﾟ penny x eddie — ↳ writing

[intofclklore]

“um, ew, is this yours?”

nothing could have prepared penny for what she was whipping her head around to see. she knew jen was talking to her because she’d given her permission to get into her gym bag to borrow a certain feminine product, but nothing in her bag was ew worthy. she had been in a rush packing for practice that morning and just scooped up her uniform off her floor and shoved it in. her only horrifying guess was that she’d accidentally brought a visibly dirty sock or something along with her.

she was way off.

dangling from jen’s finger as if it had cartoonish squigley signs of odor coming off of it, was a black t-shirt. a metallica t-shirt. eddie’s black metallica t-shirt. she definitely had not meant to bring that along with her. penny snatched it from jen with an urgency, before anyone else could see it. she buried it back into her bag, finding the tampon jen needed while in there. she pushed it into her hand with a nasty look. “obviously not. does that look like it’s mine?”

it was kind of hers. she’d joked to eddie that he wasn’t getting it back. he’d argued but in the way that seemed playful, like he knew him letting her borrow a shirt after she got soaked in the rain meant he’d never see it again. it was a size or two too big on her. it hadn’t been worn by him since the last time he washed it so it smelled like his laundry soap and like his room but not like smoke yet. it was ugly and she complained every time he played metallica but she loved it despite that. she loved it for the eddie of it all.

“it was in your bag,” jen countered, which - yeah. fair.

penny just rolled her eyes and gave the scrunchie in her hair a tightening. “it must be my dad’s. i probably grabbed it from the dryer by accident. i was running late this morning.”

this seemed to satisfy jen’s curiosity, who just turned up her nose and headed for a bathroom stall. penny kept a straight face but did a quick glance around the locker room to make sure no one else had been listening to that conversation. she covered it up nicely, in her own humble opinion, but still, the less ears the better.

it could have been easy, to just say the truth. ’it’s my friend’s shirt.’ but that’d lead to too many questions, and it’d also be easy for them to connect this to eddie munson. he was far from the only guy in hawkins to like metal music, but he did have something of a reputation. no one would think they were friends, with the insults they’d lunge at each other anytime they had to speak in public, but penny wasn’t one to take that sort of risk.

no one deserved the truth anyway. no one deserved that glimpse into her personal life. this t-shirt was hers, and so was what she had with eddie.

[intofclklore]

penny is twelve when she meets eddie. when she moves to hawkins against her will and has to live in this small trailer and live mere feet away from this bald nuisance. he’s loud and always running around and she knows he’s the one who stole her bike the first week they were here. she has no proof, but he’s her only suspect. she’s read a couple of her dad’s detective novels. it’s not that hard to crack a case. 

their interactions are sporadic and limited, just enough to keep her annoyed with him. she threatens him not to tell anyone she lives there. he obeys. it’s not enough to gain her full trust. she suspects this may become an issue in high school, when they reach the same building, same peers. a fresh, more daunting threat may be needed. 

she’ll worry about it when the time comes, she tells herself. 

for the most part, she doesn’t think about him. so when there’s a knock at her front door a year into their forest hills lease, and her dad asks her to get it, she’s expecting anyone else except eddie munson. 

“what?” she greets him, immediately suspicious. 

he seems unfazed by her hostility. “um, my cousin’s coming over.”

penny just blinks at him, waiting for him to go on, but he doesn’t. she waves a hand at him, gesturing for him to go on. “okay? why does that matter to me?” 

“she’s in your class, i think,” he tells her.

it takes a second for her to process, again, why this matters to her. for a second she thinks he’s inviting her to hang out and she’s ready to slam the door in his face, because she has zero interest in hanging out with him or his cousin. it’s erin munson, she already detected this. made the connection a week or two into living there. if not for the last names, their matching big brown eyes would have tipped her off. like two little baby cows. 

“okay,” she says again, less snappy, more understanding, still waiting for him to say more. 

“i just thought you’d want to know,” he goes on. “we’ll probably be outside, so. maybe, don’t be.” 

usually, she doesn’t like taking orders or being told what to do, but in this case, he’s just giving her a heads up. doing as he’s been told to do - not let anyone find out she lives there. a wave of gratefulness washes over her. 

“i won’t be,” she says instead of the ‘thank you’ that’s on the tip of her tongue.

eddie leaves, penny goes back inside, and she can hear him and erin laughing outside just twenty minutes later. she draws her bedroom curtain closed. 

it surprises her, at first, that he’s willing to keep things from erin. someone he seems so close to. then, it relieves her. because if he’s willing to protect her secrets from someone like erin, there’s no reason to doubt he’ll do so with others.

but then, the more she thinks about it, and the closer her and eddie get - the more it kind of offends her. shouldn’t he want to tell erin all about the amazing girl in his life? okay, maybe they’re not dating - yet. but he should still want to gush over her. 

penny decides she can be both appreciative and annoyed at once. 

it’s inevitable that erin does find out though. once they reach driving age, and the younger munson has more freedoms than she did as a twelve year old, she’s stopping by a lot more often to see her cousin and uncle. random dinners when she can’t stand to sit with her parents, early mornings when she’s giving eddie a ride to school because his shitty van is having problems again, weekends when her social battery is drained and the only person she can tolerate is her cousin.  

only sometimes does she bother to warn eddie in advance. it’s not an issue for eddie or wayne. they don’t care. penny does. 

she has no problems with erin. they’ve shared classes for years, did a group project once in eighth grade, and erin agreed to do most of the research if penny did the presenting part. a perfect deal in penny’s eyes. she was quiet, kept to herself. not as annoying as some of the people eddie hung around with. 

that doesn’t mean she trusts her though, or wants her to know her business. but alas - 

it’s the fall of ‘85 and penny is with eddie more than she’s not. any second of spare time she has, she’s finding excuses to be with him. flirting before school, risking getting rides from him if it’s early enough and the parking lot is guaranteed to be mostly empty when they arrive. slipping outside after getting her dad to bed to sit outside with eddie under the stars. even weekends, she’d rather spend with him than out with her friends. 

“you’re coming back after, right?” he’d asked her, one day in june when she’d stood from his bedroom floor and said she had to go check on her dad. 

and she did. she always came back. 

that was where she was the day erin found out about them, on his bedroom floor, sitting cross-legged. they weren’t even really talking. he was scribbling something in a notebook, for dnd, she’s pretty sure. and she’s flipping through a magazine and painting her nails. a lot of days are like this. them doing their own things, but together. 

she blames her wet nails for why she doesn’t move quicker when she hears erin coming down the hall. the footsteps don’t sound like wayne’s, she notices right away. too light. but she’s trying not to smudge the wet pink paint and isn’t fully focusing on that, not reading into it. assumes wayne is walking gently, maybe has new shoes or something, up until the moment erin opens the door and they lock eyes. 

“shit-” penny sighs, looking up at a bewildered erin. she still doesn’t move. her fucking nails. she’s just sitting there, awkwardly holding them at her sides. 

erin blinks, and then looks around the room, as if she’s suddenly not sure she’s in the right place. “what are -” she squints. “what is penny doing here?” 

penny finds it a little rude that she’s staring right at her yet only speaking to eddie, but she’ll allow it, because she thinks it’ll be funny to hear eddie scramble for a response. 

“uh-” the scrambling begins. “she is… here.” 

fantastic. 

then, something seems to click in erin’s mind, something penny’s unaware of, and her eyes widen and light up. “it’s fucking penny? penny’s the girl you -” she pauses, as if even in her shock, she’s careful with her words. “penny burhan?!” 

again, penny finds this a little rude, but only a little, because erin doesn’t sound judgemental necessarily. just… surprised, and maybe a bit amused. 

eddie is quickly hopping out of his chair and shuffling erin into the hallway. their voices are muffled, and then gone completely as they move further from the door. penny is left alone to process what just happened. weirdly, she’s not scared. she always thought she’d be filled with anxiety if anyone ever caught her hanging out with eddie munson, that they’d suddenly know too much about her, they’d be able to see all of her truths. 

after the initial shock and fear wear off, penny feels… nothing. she doesn’t really care that erin knows. 

maybe it’s because of the fact that over the last couple of years, she’s learned how trustworthy certain munsons can be. 

eddie comes back in, alone, full of assurances, telling her erin’s cool, telling her she’s not going to say anything. but penny knows this, already gave herself these assurances while she awaited eddie’s return. there’s only one thing she really wants to hear about now. 

“so you talk about me to your cousin?” she asks, a grin on her face that tells him she already knows he does. ‘penny’s the girl you-’ had been what erin said, and penny can fill in the blanks on her own. eddie’s talked about her. he may not have mentioned her name directly, but he’s talked about her. she gets to her feet and moves closer to him, wet nails be damned, nudging at his shoulder. “what kind of stuff do you say about me? do you talk about how pretty i am? how funny i am? how witty and sexy i am?” 

she’s practically an inch from his face, giggling and teasing. it’d be the perfect time for him to kiss her. god, he’s such a baby. of course he’s not going to. he’s smiling at her like he’d let her, but she won’t either. not yet. not today. 

he threatens to send her home like he did to erin if she doesn’t stop, but of course he’s not going to do that either.

[intofclklore]

penny is high for the third, maybe fourth, time in her life. giggling like a fool, sweaty in the summer heat, her bare shoulder pressing to eddie’s. they’re sitting on the floor of his room, leaning against his bed. he’s shirtless and she’s in a sports bra. as close to naked as they can comfortably be to combat the fact that the munson air conditioning has gone out again and they have to wait for wayne to get home in the morning to fix it. 

it’s sticky and hot and the smoke isn’t helping, but they’re not moving. penny’s not complaining like she usually would. she knows he’d offer to get up, suggest going somewhere else. she doesn’t want to risk that. 

she’s fascinated with his tattoos suddenly. she’s always liked them, just not openly. her high has melted away her guard and has her tracing one of the little bats on his arm. she’s stretching across his lap to reach it, and he’s carefully holding the joint, trying not to burn her. 

her eyes follow it as he carefully brings it to his lips. she watches them wrap around it and she wants to kiss him so badly she feels ill with it. do people feel this way? does everyone want this much? 

when he catches her staring, she returns her gaze to his bats. her fascination resumes. she traces a new one. 

“do they have names?” she asks. 

“my tattoos?” eddie offers her the joint and she shakes her head. her hand’s busy and her other arm is against eddie’s, and she doesn’t wish to move that one either. 

“yeah. the bats.” she pokes one with some extra pressure, so he knows for sure which ones he means. “have you named them?”

“they’re tattoos,” he says, as if that’s an answer.

penny scoffs. 

eddie scoffs back mockingly. she giggles into his shoulder because the way his forehead scrunches up is far funnier than it’d usually be. 

“they’re bats though,” she continues. “people name pets. we named that stray cat who comes around. people name stuffed animals. little creatures should have names. even fake ones. even ink ones.” 

he looks like he’s considering that, and she takes that as a yes to the question she never asked. can she name them?

of course she can. 

“this one’s madonna,” she decides, pointing to one at random. 

“no, it is not!”

it’s not much of a debate. penny proceeds to name every bat on his arm. there’s six in total. madonna, whitney, cher, kate, tina, and cyndi. 

the little one at the bottom, she tells him, is her favorite, which is why it’s cyndi, because girls just want to have fun has been her favorite song to play in the summer for the past two summers. 

“i don’t think these are gonna stick, pen,” he says, sounding so sure. 

but they do. 

it’s been a month and she has practically forgotten about her names for his bats when one day they’re sitting outside, and he hisses, smacking his arm. “jesus christ,” he huffs. “something bit whitney.” 

there’s a mosquito bite on his arm when she gets a closer glimpse at it later that day, on one of the bats like he’d said, and when she recalls, it’s the exact bat she had named whitney.

[intofclklore]

1986. a new year. a chance for new beginnings. and penny knows exactly how she wants to start the year. 

she’s four shots deep when she sees eddie’s face in the crowd, and at first she thinks she’s hallucinating. she’s dreaming. she summoned his image with her mind because she’s been thinking about him all night. that makes more sense than him actually being here - because who the hell invited him? 

someone who wanted drugs, she realizes. even in her tipsy state, she knows that’s the only logical explanation for it. the one thing that can bridge the gap between the jocks and the freaks? drugs. what else? 

the other cheerleaders, her friends, everyone she was laughing and dancing with just one minute ago, may as well not exist to her anymore. as soon as eddie is in her line of vision, she’s making a beeline for him. he’s where her focus is.

“who let you in here, freakazoid?” she’s not slurring her words quite yet. but there’s a slight tilt to them. a promise that after another drink or two, she’ll be harder to understand. 

and another drink is exactly what she wants. it’s the liquid courage she needs if she’s really going to kick 1986 off the way she wants. if she’s finally going to do what she’s been fantasizing about since… the better part of a year, at least. she can’t pinpoint exactly when she started liking eddie. when he become more than a neighbor, more than someone she had no choice but to put trust in, more than a friend. but she knows this past summer was when she realized it, when she accepted that this isn’t just a friendship.

she’s pretty sure it’s mutual. she’s convinced herself that eddie must get nervous around girls as pretty as her. that’s the only reason she can think of that he hasn’t made a move yet. 

that’s okay. it’s cute, she thinks. she’s used to boys who are too forward, too aggressive. she thinks he’s sweet. she’s not afraid to make the move if she has to. maybe just a little nervous, which is stupid. she knows it’s stupid. she’s never been scared to kiss anyone before. but she knows, it’s because it’s never mattered this much. 

thankfully, she’s aware in the moment enough to not let anyone see too much of them. they both have their reputations to worry about. if things change after tonight… that’s a bridge they’ll cross when they get to it. 

but for now, they get drinks, and they slip out the backdoor. nicholas, one of the basketball players, had explicitly asked everyone to not go in the backyard. his mom has a prized garden or something. he just doesn’t want anyone smoking and flicking ash into it, or leaving bottles and cups laying around back there. penny isn’t an animal. she doesn’t litter. 

she needs privacy and this is the only place they can get it, because she won’t dare be caught going into a bedroom with eddie munson. she knows that kind of gossip would never die. people aren’t watching the back door the way they’re watching the bedroom doors. 

“you don’t wanna watch the ball drop?” eddie asks. she knows everyone is crowded around the small tv in the living room. 

the countdown’s started, and penny’s heart is racing. 

“no. i don’t care about a stupid ball drop. i’d rather be out here.” she takes a long sip from her cup, then bats her lashes at him. “do you want to watch it?”

he shakes his head. “nah. i’d rather be out here.”

hearing her own words echoed back at her makes her smile. there’s so many things she wants to say, but she doesn’t know where to start. she doesn’t know how to tell him what he means to her, or what she thinks of him. she likes to think he already knows. he has to know that she doesn’t spend this sort of time with anyone else, and doesn’t take this sort of interest in another soul. 

only him. 

there’s only one thing she can think to do to truly show him how she feels. as she hears the voices inside the party count down to ‘1’, and the clock strikes midnight, she raises herself up on her tiptoes, and kisses him. 

she curls her hand around the back of his neck, catching some of his hair in between her fingers. a wave of relief washes over her when he kisses her back. she feels his hand on her waist and she could just about scream with delight. 

she never had a doubt he liked her back. not one. 

still. it’s nice to have it confirmed. 

her lips part, an attempt is made to deepen the kiss. she’s been borderline desperate for this for months now. she’s going to relish every second of this. but then it’s ending. he’s pulling away. she tries to chase his lips with her own, but he’s inching back, and her heart sinks to her stomach. 

did she do something? why isn’t he kissing her anymore?

“what’s wrong?” she asks. her voice sounds pathetic to her own ears. and not just because of the slur that’s now very much present. just as drunk from that kiss as she is from anything else.

“i’m sorry, penny, we shouldn’t -”

that’s all she needs to hear. girls like her don’t get rejected, and she refuses to let him say another word to her. she drops her empty cup into the grass - sorry, nicholas - and turns for the door. she slides it open and disappears into the crowd before eddie has a chance to call after her. 

her face is red with embarrassment and she won’t let him see it. she has too much pride for that. too much dignity. 

if he tries to chase her down, she doesn’t notice. she’s too far ahead of him. glitter and confetti are still falling around them all and she’s shaking it out of her hair as she finds the nearest sober person and talks them into a ride home. thank god she’s not the only one having a bad time at this stupid party. she gives nicholas a dirty look on her way out, leaving him confused as she places half the blame for her bad night on him.

the other half, obviously, goes on eddie.

stupid eddie. 

asshole eddie. 

this is what she gets for letting someone in for once. it’s humiliating, and it won’t happen again. 

[intofclklore]

there was a point in penny’s life where she felt like she was destined to be stuck in hawkins. even when it felt like there was an impending doom looming over the town, she thought she’d be stuck there. she thought they all would be, just six feet under. 

but here she is. here they are. 

happy.

out of hawkins. 

together. just penny and eddie. 

it’s the first christmas in awhile that actually feels like christmas. there’s genuine, festive joy in the air and penny can feel it everywhere. chicago is some kind of magical during the holidays. it’s their first there and penny hadn’t anticipated that it’d be like this. decorations and lights everywhere they go. red and green all over. the cold’s not as fun, but it’s close to what she was used to back in hawkins. she can deal. 

it’s the second week of december when finally, they get their tree up. penny just got home from class and is on the couch highlighting some of her notes a bright pink color when eddie swings the front door open and lugs it in. 

it’s big. too big. 

their apartment isn’t the most spacious. she describes it to as ‘cozy,’ and ‘humble,’ to anyone who asks but really, it’s tiny. a little cramped. luckily, neither penny nor eddie mind being in such close quarters all the time. she thinks they’d be attached at the hip regardless. 

they manage to find space for it, by their living room window. penny supports eddie - from the couch - as he sets it up. neither of them have many ornaments from home. not many sentimental ones that they brought from hawkins. maybe three or four. the rest, penny has been buying over the last few weeks, building up a small collection for this very moment. 

she helps out at that point, once the tree is sturdy and the lights have been untangled and wrapped around it, everything plugged in where it needs to be. eddie is surprisingly handy. he does the hard parts, but she wants to help hang ornaments. her bossy side comes out, making sure eddie is hanging the cutest ones in the front, none of them too close together. he allows it, taking instruction well. 

it’s when penny gets a hoist up, eddie’s arms around her waist from behind, lifting her the extra foot she needs to get the star at the top, that she glances out the window and sees the dark streets aren’t so dark. they’re lit up with something that’s not a street light, but a thin layer of something frosty and white on the roads.

“look!” penny gasps. “it’s snowing!” she wiggles out of his grasp, and they scoot around the tree, stretching their necks to look out the window. it happened out of nowhere, the snow’s started to come down quickly. it hadn’t been snowing less than an hour ago when eddie got home. it must have begun just shortly after. 

the wind is whipping it around, and it’s a flurry of white falling from the sky, already sticking to everything it lands on. penny has seen snow before. she’s a midwest girl. but something about this, the first snow in their new home, feels special to her. 

she leans her head back against eddie’s chest, and she feels him kiss the top of her hair before wrapping his arms around her. they stay like that for a few minutes longer, holding onto each other beside the dazzling red and silver lights of their tree, watching the snow fall. 

[intofclklore]

penny’s surprised that she and the other interns were invited to the holiday office party at all. she thought that at first they were being asked to come work it, like little unpaid waiters. but to the shock of them all, that’s not the case. they got included in the gift swap, they’ve been given drinks, they’ve been actively engaging with everyone else. 

it’s been a surprisingly fun night. 

mostly, she’s just excited that she finally got the chance to show off her hot boyfriend to everyone she works with. 

“we’re literally the sexiest people here,” she whispers into eddie’s ear. she’s three drinks deep and clingier than she’d probably want to be around her bosses and fellow professionals, but that’ll be a worry for sober penny. she’s not the most embarrassing drunk here, so she thinks she’ll be fine. 

her hand slides under eddie’s jacket, wrapping around his waist. she’s practically inside of it with him, that’s how closely she’s holding onto him. sue her. it’s cold. eddie’s body heat will save her. 

“everyone’s so old but we are so sexy, eddie,” she continues. some of the other interns aren’t bad looking, whatever, but she’s standing by her first statement. they are the sexiest people in that office. her voice lowers even more. “there’s mistletoe somewhere in this building. can we go find it?”

the office is huge, but they’re really only using two rooms for the party. the break room, to keep most of the food aside from some smaller bowls of snacks, and then a larger board room just a couple doors down. 

having a mistletoe hanging at the office holiday party feels like an hr violation waiting to happen. she’s already seen one sixty something married man try to get one of penny’s fellow interns under there with him. at least there’s witnesses. they find it, hung between the two rooms, and penny wastes no time wrapping her arms around eddie’s neck, clinging to him as his lips press to hers. 

any excuse to kiss eddie, she’ll take. not that she needs one. her eagerness is always equally matched, if not topped. like now, when eddie is the one to whisper something about going home early. she can’t say no to that.

[intofclklore]

two more days until the campers arrive. two more days of just the camp crystal lake staff on the premises. two more days of ‘counselor training,’ which she doesn’t need, because this is her third summer here and she’s more than trained already. two more days of spending her time lounging in the sun by the lake without interruption. 

mostly without interruption. 

but she hardly counts eddie munson joining in on her sunbathing as a bad thing. not in the slightest.

not usually anyway. but he’s been in a mood today. ever since breakfast, he’s been doing all he can to make her jump. 

jumping out from behind doors. 

tickling her from behind.

and probably the meanest of all, talking about the death that haunts the past of this camp. they all know about those stories. what happened at this camp all those years ago. penny knew even before she’d started working here, and it had made her hesitate, but the past is the past. 

that doesn’t mean she enjoys the reminders. so eddie and erin talking about it and laughing at how terrified penny looked wasn’t the best way to spend the afternoon, and she’s only been jumpier since. 

so this time, when eddie creeps up on her as she’s laying on the dock, he gets more than just a gasp and a giggle in response. “eddie, you asshole!” she squeals over the sound of his laughter.

it’s hard to stay mad for long though, because when she looks up, squinting as the sun hits her face, he’s stripping his shirt off. it’s far from the first time she’s seen him shirtless, but she’ll never not have the urge to stop and stare. there’s no rocker boys with tattoos back where she lives. so she’ll soak up all she can of this view, and of eddie, while they’re together in the summers. 

“why are you being so mean today?” she scoffs at him, once she remembers she’s mad at him. 

he pouts at her. she knows he’s mocking her, but fuck if it isn’t adorable. he drops to his knees on the dock so he can lean over her where she’s propped up on her elbows. touching her face, he leans in to kiss her. “i’m sorry.” 

she debates making him work harder for her forgiveness, then he kisses her again. he’s forgiven. 

“fine,” she says. her eyes follow his every move as he stands up again. those tight little swim trunks the camp hands out really are a gift. “but stop, i’m serious. if you scare me one more time, you’re going to end up getting hit.” 

her threat doesn’t seem to be taken seriously, making eddie laugh. “not if you can’t reach me!” 

before she can ask what he means, he’s running, then jumping off the edge of the dock, into the lake. 

penny turns her head as the water splashes onto her, making her squeal again. “eddie!” 

when he pops up, penny sits up so she can see him better. and when that view isn’t close enough, she scoots forward, until her legs are dangling off the edge, her toes in the cool water. the sun has warmed it a little, so it feels nice. she kicks her foot forward just enough to splash eddie in return. 

he grabs her ankle and gives a gentle tug. not strong enough to pull her in, but enough to make her grab the edge of the dock in fear he could. 

“you’re such a -” penny starts, only to be silenced.

“shhhh.”

her lips part again to pick a fight about him shushing her, but the look on his face shuts her up. he’s not even looking at her. he’s looking past her. over her shoulder and to the side, into the trees that surround the lake. 

“eddie, what?” she asks, whispering this time. 

he’s still looking towards the woods when he speaks. “did you hear that?” 

she shakes her head. no. she hadn’t heard any sort of sound that wasn’t caused by one of them. or if she had, it was one of the sounds of nature that she had grown used to already. 

the hand that’s still on her ankle gives a slight nudge. “look. doesn’t it look like that’s someone standing out there?” 

penny’s heart starts racing and she’s close to a panic before she realizes. she sighs. “you’re really screwing with me again? you’re not being funny this time.”

“i’m dead serious,” he insists, and the way he’s not immediately dropping it has her growing concerned. he likes to scare her, but he doesn’t usually drag it out like this. 

despite no part of her wanting to turn around and either a) see something scary, or b) have eddie laugh at her for falling for his tricks, she does. she glances over her shoulder. thankfully, she sees nothing, and hears nothing. 

“maybe it was just steve? you know, i heard he takes girls out there to make out.” specifically, she’s heard he takes eddie’s cousin out there, but she’ll leave that little part out. for erin’s sake. 

eddie doesn’t look like he buys it. “i swear i saw someone move…” 

now that she’s looked and seen nothing, she’s more convinced he’s just trying to scare her again. and she’s a girl of her word, so she slaps his shoulder, making him hiss from the sting. 

“i said i wasn’t messing with you!” he defends himself, but she’s not buying it. even when he grabs the edge of the dock and heaves himself up out of the water, she just rolls her eyes, thinking he’s being a baby about the tap to his shoulder. 

men. 

they’re so fragile. 

he steals the towel she was laying on to pat himself dry with one hand, the other extends to penny. she frowns as she takes it. she doesn’t like him messing with her, but she hates it even more when he’s this serious. 

after she’s pulled to her feet, she makes an attempt to lighten things back up. her fingertips trail up his side, gliding along wet skin with great appreciation. “i think you’re freaking yourself with all those scary stories you try to freak me out with,” she says. she steps closer, her chest pressing against his back. her lips find his shoulder, kissing him there and looking up at him through her lashes to see him smile. “you know, if that was steve you saw out there…” her voice drops to a low whisper. “that means your cabin is empty.” 

within seconds, she’s giggling again, clinging to eddie’s back as he gives her a piggyback ride back towards the cabins. finally. penny’s been waiting to be alone with him all day. just the two of them.

except -

it’s not just the two of them that are heading for eddie’s cabin.

[intofclklore]

they’re not in hawkins anymore. 

literally. 

they’re in lafayette. twenty miles and thirty minutes away from their hometown, away from the prying eyes of their peers who are probably drunk off of warm beer at tina’s halloween party by now. she usually likes being there, but this year, there was only one person she wanted to spend the holiday with. 

so she told her friends she was going to a college party with an older guy she met and that she couldn’t spend halloween with them. and eddie is a little older, so it’s only mostly a lie.

halloween has never been her favorite holiday, but eddie seems to like it, and she had a feeling he’d rather be at a full on halloween festival rather than a lame party where they’d be ignoring each other the entire time anyway. 

as much as it’d kill her reputation to be seen with him, she doubts he wants to be seen hanging out with a cheerleader either. so this way, he gets to celebrate the freakiest holiday of the year, and she gets to have someone buy caramel apples for her all night. they all win. 

however, she doesn’t feel like much of a winner when he starts urging her over to the haunted house.

this little festival is set up on a fairgrounds, with lots of booths and games and even a few rides. it’s a very family friendly event, which penny appreciates, because there’s no scary men in masks running around and jumping at her. 

but there are a few attractions within the event itself that aren’t for kids - therefore, penny doesn’t feel like it’s for her either, and yet, eddie is trying to lure her into the spookiest part of the festival where there are scary men ready to jump out at her. 

“please?” he asks, and fuck. 

yeah. fine. 

she swears she’s usually better at saying no to people. 

stupid eddie munson. 

if nothing else, she’ll use this as an excuse to get a little… closer. ever since the summer, she’s accepted the fact that her friendship with eddie is maybe a little more than a friendship. at least on her end - and probably on his, because how could it not be mutual? but until either of them are brave enough to actually do something about it - and it won’t be her - she’ll have to make the most out of the moments she has.

and this feels like it could be one. 

so she follows him through the door, screams in his ear within ten seconds, and is reaching for his hand within twenty. she holds onto him with both of hers, but lets him keep one of his free. in case he needs to fight one of these clowns for her. 

they’re only inside for maybe ten minutes, if even that long. it’s not a very big space. but she feels like she’s been through hell and back by the time they’re in the open air again. 

“never again,” she breathes out. her heart is racing so fast and so hard that she swears it’s probably visible. he’s smiling when she looks at him, and she can only shake her head. “how are you having a good time right now? what are you smiling about?” 

he just looks at her for a second before saying, “i knew you’d end up holding my hand.” he sounds very smug about it. she only then realizes that she still is holding onto his hand - and his arm. those little bats are going to have scars for her nails from how tightly she’s gripping onto him. she lets go of his arm, and starts to loosen her grip on his hand, but stops herself before letting go completely. 

he doesn’t sound bothered by it, so why pull away? so she doesn’t. 

“obviously!” she defends herself. “that was scary! i can’t believe you dragged me through there.”

“i’m sorry,” he says, not sounding sorry. 

“okay well, i’m picking where we go next,” she tells him.

he bows, gesturing to the festival around them, as if letting her know the choice is all hers. she lifts her chin and smiles before looking around.

they’ve already hit up the best booths and most of the games. she does want to try and win a goldfish, but not until the end of the night. she doesn’t want eddie to have to carry it around the rest of the time, especially since she wants to go on a ride or two. that fish would go flying. 

her eyes light up when she sees one thing they haven’t gotten to yet. 

it’s not something she wants to do. but it’s something she thinks will be funny to watch eddie do. she tugs at his hand, pointing vaguely in another direction.

“come on,” she says. “there’s a spot over there for bobbing for apples.”

eddie just stares at her, big brown eyes getting even bigger. she stares back, not understanding the look on his face. he still says nothing. 

“hello? is that a no?” she asks. 

“no, no, no -” he’s quick to stammer. “just - out here? that’s really - i mean, if you wanna do that - we can go somewhere - 

it’s penny’s eyes that go wide this time, his stuttering surprise and flushed cheeks making sense to her now. “eddie! no, ‘bobbing for apples' was not a euphemism!” 

she sees the way his shoulders ease when he lets out a deep breath, his head shaking. “jesus christ.” 

“jesus,” she repeats. her face is warm now, because now she’s overthinking that exchange. a part of her doesn’t think she should read into him accepting that offer when he thought it was code, because most guys would say yes to that no matter who was asking. 

but she reads into it just a little.

and then, it’s hard not to picture it, and her face goes even warmer. 

yeah, that’ll be a difficult mental image to shake. not as if she hasn’t pictured similar scenarios before. she usually just waits until she’s home, alone, to let them enter her mind. 

“you’re disgusting.” she rips her hand away from his. touching him isn’t helping get rid of those thoughts. “you’re buying me cotton candy now.”

she stomps off, leading the way, and eddie follows, already digging out his wallet. 

[intofclklore]

why is she here? 

again?

the first time, it had been mostly accidental. she’d heard the guy who owned the hand would be at the party, she’d heard the stories of it, but she hadn’t known what she was signing up for. she’d gotten the hell out of the room as soon as she saw it start to go down. put a wall between her and the demons. 

this time… well, she can’t say she didn’t know what she was signing up for. 

like most things in her life, she blames eddie munson. 

she’d purposely not told him about it back when she started hearing stories, because of this exact scenario. she knows he likes all things weird and freaky and creepy, and she hadn’t want to pique his interest. but her silence was for nothing, because apparently, eddie not only heard about it anyway, he heard about it before her. it’s one of his friends who has the hand.

she shouldn’t have even been surprised to learn this. 

so eddie goes to another hand party or whatever the hell they’re calling it and penny has no desire to go with him, but she does. not because she wants to. she goes to make sure eddie munson doesn’t get himself possessed.

she’s not eager, but she’s a little less terrified just at the mere sight of the thing this time. nothing bad happened last time. not to her, and not to the cackling group who had participated. at the least, she feels like she’s safe as long as she doesn’t join in. 

and eddie will be too because she’s not letting him do it either. 

she presses against his side on the couch, eyeing the hand on the table in front of them. too close for comfort for her liking. 

they’re still waiting for people to arrive, so it’s just sitting there for now.

waiting. 

“you’re not idiotic enough to believe this is real, are you?” she asks him, her voice soft but not quite a whisper. the room is crowded and everyone’s chatter is overlapping. 

his response comes in a tone that sounds like the answer should be obvious. “i am.”

“stupid question,” she mutters. “we’re just watching though, right? you’re not going to touch the thing?”

he hesitates. “well -”

“eddie!” she’s loud enough this time to get a few glances their way, but still, no one paying much attention. she huffs. “are you tripping right now? you cannot be that dumb.” 

he looks unbothered by her insults. “does this mean you’re not going to do it?” he asks, and he looks like he’s fighting a grin. 

asshole.

“you’re not funny. no.” she shakes her head in disbelief that he’d even ask her that. “i don’t mess with spirits.”

“what’s it matter?” he asks. he’s openly grinning now. “i thought it wasn’t real.”

penny glares. how dare he call her out on her flip flopping opinions. “bite me.” 

she stands, leaving him at the edge of the couch alone and going to sit in an empty chair on the other side of the room. not her best move because now she’s almost directly across from him and can see him still looking at her. she pointedly turns her head, staring at nothing just so he sees her not staring at him. 

penny is not above using guilt to convince him not to do it. she doesn’t think she’s wrong for worrying. not that she’ll use that word, but she’ll sure as hell feel it. 

this time, when they finally begin, and the first person takes their seat across from the hand, penny is brave. she stays sitting there. she’ll look. 

a part of her hopes it looks fake. she wants to be proven right. maybe then she can breathe if eddie does it. 

when he does.

two people go before his turn.

the first is catherine, who everyone knows has done theater for six years. so when she goes, when she makes it look realer than penny would like, it’s easy for her to tell herself she’s just acting. 

it’s less easy to explain away the eyes. god, they’re terrifying. blown and deep black and soulless. the few seconds that catherine spends looking at her makes penny want to cry, has her hands shaking in her lap. 

once grant from her french class goes, penny has an ever harder time denying the truth. grant has been pulling straight f’s in that class since the first semester, yet somehow, as his hand clasps the other, he’s speaking it fluently. 

penny’s pulling straight c’s, so she only understands about half of it, but she knows enough to know it sounds right. 

she catches the word ‘blood’ and promptly tunes out. no thanks. 

as particularly creepy as grant’s turn had been, he’s still laughing when the hand is pried from his grip. looking around, it seems like penny is the only one not laughing. her stomach hurts. she thinks she may actually be ill when eddie shoots up and switches places with grant. 

before he’s even finished being restrained, before he can get the words ‘talk to me’ out of his mouth, penny’s standing again. their eyes lock, and then she’s leaving the room. determined to make her point and let him know how mad she is at him for being this careless. she can’t believe he’s willing to mess with this sort of thing. she knows he likes his fantasy games and things, but this is real. 

and yes. this is her admitting it. there may be something real happening with the hand that she once thought was purchased at a halloween store. as good of an actress catherine is, grant’s just as much of a dumbass. he couldn’t fake that. and neither of them could fake those eyes… 

there’s a lump in her throat as she pictures those eyes on eddie. the life gone from them. 

she only goes out into the hallway. her feet freeze and won’t move, won’t let her go too far. won’t let her leave like she wants to. she can’t. not until she knows he’s done and he’s okay. that they get the hand off of him. at the last party, the one she bailed on early, she heard afterwards that they had trouble getting the hand off of carol. they did, she was fine, but she just wants to make sure nothing like that happens with eddie. needs to make sure that when that ninety second timer goes off, his hands are empty. 

“eighty seconds!” the time-keeper of the group calls out, and after a deep breath, penny turns back for the doorway. she doesn’t step foot back into the room, but she lingers just outside of it, her head peeking inside. 

it’s eddie’s friend jeff she sees grabbing the hand, tugging and tugging until eddie is free from it. just a split second before she hears the timer beeping. 

her shoulders deflate. she’s still pissed, but she’s mildly less tense. 

mildly. 

she takes another glimpse at him, making sure he’s smiling and not possessed by some evil spirit for the rest of his life now, and then she’s gone. 

[intofclklore]

there’s still blood under her nails the morning after. her own blood that had seeped there as she tried to put pressure on her stab wound. 

stab wounds. 

plural. 

as she stares at the blood, as she feels the pain in her stomach each time she breathes in, all she can think about is eddie’s voice in her ear. after the first phone call, the first time the deep, mysterious voice threatened her, she’d gone to eddie right after. she hadn’t wanted to be alone, and he’d told her, “this isn't real. i promise you the whole thing is some fucked up game.”

she’d wanted to believe that. it was much less horrifying to think about if she believed it was just someone pranking her. and she had at first.

until the second call. 

until someone in a white mask showed up in her own home and attacked her. 

it felt a lot less like some sick game after that. 

“maybe it still is,” eddie says when she says this to him, later that morning, when she’s finally allowed visitors. he’s the first one in the room and she’s never been so happy to see anyone in her life. “maybe they just wanted to scare you, scare hawkins, after that murder -”

she cuts him off. “they didn’t just try to scare me, eddie. they tried to kill me. they climbed through my bedroom window and tried to kill me. it’s not a game.” 

maybe it’s what she got for leaving the window open. her fault for liking a nice breeze to help her sleep. it’s almost funny, in an ironic way. eddie’s the one who used to tell her to stop leaving it open. his jokes about her being kidnapped felt a little too real now.

“unless the game is you trying to teach me a lesson about shutting my window at night.” 

she says it like a joke but something washes over eddie’s face that she doesn’t miss. it’s gone as soon as she blinks and he’s laughing, but there had been something there. 

had it been guilt? a fear that maybe he’d manifested this somehow by making so many jokes about it?

she bites her lip, regretting her words now. the last thing she wants is to make him feel bad, too. or accuse him of something this heinous - even as a joke. he already seems uneasy at the sight of her in a hospital bed. she extends her good arm out to him. the one with only a few bruises on it while the other is bandaged from her elbow down. she couldn’t move that one right now if she tried. 

“i’m sorry,” he whispers when their fingers touch. the most affectionate they’ve ever been in a public setting before. if he’s stunned that she’s initiating it, he hides it well. just stares down at their hands as he curls his fingers around hers. 

she’s not sure what he’s apologizing for. the window jokes. for trying to downplay this by implying it’s just someone’s sick game. for her injuries. 

“don’t be,” she tells him. “you didn’t do anything.” 

it doesn’t matter what it’s for. she accepts it without hesitation. she doesn’t think there’s anything she wouldn’t forgive eddie munson for. 

[intofclklore]

when the parents left penny alone in their house to babysit their children, they’d given her a strict ‘no boys, no guests’ rule. it’s a rule she had, at first, had every intention of following. as she always has. it’s a family she’s babysat for in the past. the kids are less annoying than most, the parents always leave her money for dinner and give her access to drinks and snacks, and they pay well. she’s not going to jeopardize a good thing just to have some alone time with her boyfriend in a nice house in loch nora, as tempting as that is. 

but - 

this night is different from the other nights she has babysat here. that fucking doll wasn’t here before. 

she knows it’s crazy. she knows how she sounds when she calls eddie and tells him, but’s never been so positive about anything in her life. 

something freaky is up with this little ginger doll. 

“the kids are both asleep, eddie!” she argues down the line when he insists that one of them must have done it after she tells him that the doll had been moved from the bedroom to the hallway. twice. she’s trying to keep her voice down because she’s not sure she’s not being listened to. 

she’s nervously twirling the phone cord around her finger as she makes the call in the kitchen, eyes locked on the doorway. 

“i swear, i keep hearing things, and i feel like it’s watching me,” she whisper-yells. desperate to get him to believe that there’s something going on with it. 

his sigh on the other end of the phone tells her she’s not doing a good enough job. “where is it right now?”

“i moved it to the living room,” she tells him. “after it moved again and then started talking on it’s own, it needed to be monitored.”

sure, that talking was just the robotic little boy voice every one of those good guy dolls had programmed into it. but aren’t they only supposed to talk if you press a button? she had certainly not pressed a damn thing. 

she leans to the right a little, so she can peak out the doorway and see the couch she sat him on from where she is. 

the thing’s still there. good. 

“i really think the kids are fucking with you, penny,” eddie tries to insist again. 

but penny shakes her head. eddie doesn’t know these kids like she does. they’re sweet. well-behaved. they’re not pranksters. the youngest boy, the one who the doll belongs to, cried once because penny was reading them a bedtime story about a lion and roared too loudly. 

not the type to get a kick out of scaring other people. 

“i promise, they’re not,” she says. 

“you don’t think, maybe, you’re just being paranoid?” eddie asks. his voice is kind, like he’s trying to be sympathetic to her fear, but it just pisses her off.

she resists the urge to slam the phone onto the hook and hang up on him. as frustrating as he is right now, she still wants him there. maybe then she’ll feel safer. she’ll find a way to explain his presence to the homeowners later. a lie if she has to. something not doll related.

“okay, maybe i am. will you still come over?” she hopes he can hear her pout in her voice. “please?”

“i already grabbed my keys.”

penny grins, hearing the rattle of them. she feels a sense of relief, but also of smug victory, knowing full well he thinks she’s irrationally anxious but is still coming to her rescue. “you love me.”

“i love you.” 

they don’t hang up until he physically has no other choice so he can walk out the door, and only then does she start preparing herself to go back in the living room and be near that little doll. who would even want a thing like that in their house? if penny ever has kids, she’ll buy them barbie dolls. that’s it. no toddler-sized little creepers that can speak. who decided dolls should speak? it’s just unsettling. 

with a deep breath, she crosses through the kitchen, back to the living room.

her stomach drops. 

the doll’s gone. 

it’s been moved again. 

“this isn’t funny!” she calls out. maybe if she acts like eddie’s right, if it is the kids, it’ll somehow make it true. “whoever moved the doll, you better come down here right now!” her voice is shaking as she speaks, but she’s trying her hardest to sound put together. authoritative. “you won’t be in trouble, but this isn’t funny. just stop doing this.” 

nothing. silence. no giggles from the top of the staircase. no footsteps running back to bed before they get caught. and deep down, she wasn’t expecting any. 

what she does hear, after a moment, is a slight shuffle behind her. the scuff of hard plastic on the rug that makes her stomach turn and her hair stand on end. 

what she hears, from directly behind her, is - 

“hi, i’m chucky. wanna play?”

[intofclklore]

penny twirls the cord of the landline around her finger, teeth gnawing at her bottom lip and probably ruining her freshly applied gloss. before she had even picked the phone up to lure her neighbor over, she was anticipating his yes. eddie always says yes. 

she was anticipating the teasing, too. usually she hates it and it starts a bickering match, but this time, she takes it. because she purposely set herself up for it. telling him she’d been watching tv, telling him she’s bored now, telling him her trailer keeps creaking, and her dad’s asleep, and she wants company. 

“let me guess - you watched a scary movie and now you need me to come over?" eddie asks. falls right into her trap. 

she sighs, sounds annoyed that he figured her out. as if she’d ever watch a horror movie of her own volition. she’s fighting to hide the smile in her voice when she responds. “shut up. it came on tv. i couldn’t find the remote.” she crosses the living room, phone cord stretching out behind her, and picks said remote up, shoving it in between the cushions. just in case he wants to help her look for it. 

“it was the hockey mask guy. i hate him.” it’s just the first scary movie that pops into her mind. she hopes eddie doesn’t think to look at a tv guide and prove her wrong. she doesn’t think he will. 

his teasing over the phone is background noise as she touches up her lip gloss, soaking up his voice and her victory. 

it may be sad to some, maybe even to eddie if he knew, that she still feels the need to come up with an excuse to be in his company. not yet at the stage where she just invites herself over or asks him to hang out simply because she wants to be near him. that would feel far too honest. too vulnerable. 

this works. for now, this works. she can tell him she’s scared and then listen to him shuffling around his room, getting shoes on. less than thirty seconds after hanging up, she’ll look out the kitchen window and see the front door of his own trailer swinging open, and there he is. there he always is.

[intofclklore]

everyone around them realizes penny loves eddie before penny herself realizes. she knows she likes him. knows there’s been a friendship, and then a crush. but love. that’s a big word.

but what else could it be? would penny run through an earthquake, or whatever the hell it is, for someone she didn’t love? would she risk it all running right into danger, back to the trailer park where he told her to avoid that night? the answer’s no. but for eddie, she does.

eddie’s not answering her. dustin won’t tell her what’s going on. she can hear erin screaming desperately on the other side of the walkie talkie and penny can feel in her gut something is wrong. it doesn’t take much to put the pieces together that something happened to eddie. and she refuses to sit and wait for the news that he was hurt - or worse. she has to go to him.

it looks like hell is opening up right under hawkins but that’s only part of her concern. her own safety is the last thing on her mind. she can’t stop hearing erin, pleading something to someone, muffled behind dustin’s own incoherent ramblings. not able to put a sentence together and give a straight answer. silent more often than not even when he picked up.

by the time she makes it to where they are, they’re surrounded by ruins. but they’re there. all of them. eddie’s there. but that’s only a slight comfort to her, because he looks like absolute shit. erin is no longer sobbing, but the four of them are covered in blood. eddie, erin, steve, and dustin. and now penny, as she drops instantly to eddie’s side. she’s always been squeamish but she doesn’t think twice about getting closer and doing all she can.

it’s hectic from there, everyone up and moving, still dragging eddie because he’s alive but it seems like only barely. she almost doesn’t catch it, the way steve looks at her as she takes over helping carrying him from a teary-eyed erin.

it’s a look she hates. being seen. like something about her is clicking for him and making sense now. “shut up,” is all she says to him. though she is honestly so grateful to him. she got the brief rundown when she arrived, and knows he dragged eddie out of… hell. whatever it was. the upside down, she thinks they called it.

hell seems more fitting.

it had stunned them all, when they’d witnessed the reunion between her and eddie earlier in the day. an unlikely duo that they’d never have guessed even knew each other. they hadn’t gotten it then, but they see it now.

everyone around them realizes penny loves eddie before penny herself realizes.

but it only takes a few days for her to catch up.

seeking refuge in the harrington house days later, after she’s stopped worrying he’s going to die from his wounds at any second, she has time to really think about it all. not about him being in literal hell or their town being in shambles. not about her home being destroyed. but about her and eddie's relationship.

it is a pleasant distraction, she can admit, but only in comparison. it’s nerve-wracking, realizing that her feelings may be deeper than she’d thought. but it’s hard to deny that her heart had led her to him, that she’d been willing to run through hell, willing to die to get to him. she’d done it without even thinking, and now that she has thought about it, she knows she’d do it again.

“you and munson, huh?” steve finally says to her one morning. it’s early and they’re the only two awake, in the kitchen.

she doesn’t know if he’s slept at all. she knows erin is still, in his bed she assumes. at least in his room. that’s how the sleeping arrangements have ended up. the first night, everyone fell asleep in the same room. erin stayed another couple of nights with eddie and penny, but then, she went to steve’s room. penny’s been sharing the bed with eddie since the first night. steve had offered her the couch, but she insisted on sleeping on the floor of the guest room given to eddie. eddie didn’t let her.

“you and munson, huh?” she throws back at him.

she grips her spoon, ready to flick cereal at him if he says anything shitty.

he doesn’t. just smiles. she suspects the teasing will happen eventually. it’s inevitable, and fair, after all the shit she’s given him over the years. at least his will be laced with good nature in wake of their renewed friendship. or their soon to be renewed friendship. it feels like they’re headed in that direction. she has a few more apologies and thanks to dish out, but they’ll come. eventually.

she's saving the sentimental conversations and feelings for eddie, and eddie only.

[intofclklore]

it felt like the end of the world, which is almost kind of funny when she looks back on it.

tan skin still glimmering with sweat and glitter and small designs in green face paint, penny found herself behind the school. she’d rejoin the team and the boys soon, hop in someone’s car, end up at a party somewhere to celebrate. she could still hear them cheering. but first, she needed the air.

she pulled the scrunchie from her somehow still perfectly intact ponytail and let her hair fall free down her shoulders, shaking it out, letting her skull breathe. there was instant relief. it had been pulled so tight it gave her a damn tension headache.

silence was usually one of her least favorite things, always preferring something to occupy her mind, but a moment was all she was wanting. and she knew a moment was all she’d get. it wouldn’t be long before one of the girls came looking for her - which was exactly what she thought was happening when she heard footsteps.

but chrissy wasn’t looking for her. didn’t even seem to notice her. penny even opened her mouth to try and say something to her, but it was like penny was invisible to her. like chrissy was in her own world. she’d been weird those last couple days. penny had been wanting a chance to be alone with her, speak to her. this wasn’t that moment, it seemed.

whatever. tonight wasn’t the night for doom and gloom anyway. she wanted to choke down a disgusting beer and sit in the lap of a basketball player who’d surely help get a certain someone else out of her mind. chrissy’s problems probably weren’t as tragic as penny’s current one. a crush on the school freak? gag her with a spoon.

when she heard his van, she thought she was imagining it because he was on the brain. it sounded real enough to make her pause, halfway back inside the school building, frozen in the doorway. she wasn’t imagining anything. there he was. parked just far enough away from the school that anyone else loitering around after the game may not have noticed him or recognized it was his van.

penny noticed. she recognized his van. she’d recognize the sound of it a mile away. what a shitbox. it was nicer inside than one would expect. warmer. maybe that had less to do with the van itself and more to do with who was behind the wheel.

her stomach sunk as she watched chrissy get inside. when the hell did her and eddie become friends? since when did he give her rides? penny made no attempt to be rational about this. immediately, she knew. they must be sleeping together.

she slipped fully out of the door again, slumping against it as it shut. she needed much more than a moment alone now. her night was ruined.

how could chrissy do this to her? sure, she had no idea how penny felt. had no idea they were even friends or that they knew one another at all. that didn’t matter. it was still messed up of her. and eddie - oh, she was going to let him have it when she saw him next. why was he sneaking around with other cheerleaders when penny was right next door? maybe she wasn’t as sweet as chrissy, but she was hot and she was popular and -

she’d really thought he liked her. that wasn’t hard to believe, everyone liked her. but he knew her. he actually knew her and still seemed like he liked her. he was the only soul that could be said for.

screw the both of them. screw eddie. screw chrissy. she’d tell jason if she didn’t think that’d end with eddie’s ass getting kicked. penny wanted him alive when she got to him. she held onto that fury, because it was easier to handle than feeling heartbroken.

it felt like the end of the world and she had no idea just how right she was.

[intofclklore]

stale cigarette smoke lingers on every inch of eddie’s van, and the only reason penny doesn’t complain is because the smoke is just that. stale. they’ve known each other long enough that he knows she’ll flick any cigarette he tries to light out of his fingers before he can even think about reaching for a lighter. she likes to think it’s because he cares about her lungs, too. either way, it’s something she appreciates.

they stay in his van for a few hours. nowhere to go, nothing to do. a rainy day with both of their respective relatives slash roommates home. if they want privacy without getting rained on, it means they sit in the van. not for the first time, not for the last.

thinking about the smoking thing makes her mind wander. her brain must be bored on a day like today because it’s working overtime. it gets her thinking about all the other things they do and have done to adjust to the other. habits or quirks they’ve developed or picked up from each other. the list is probably endless.

“isn’t it crazy how long we’ve known each other?” she voices out loud. “i think you’re my oldest… person.”

it feels wrong to call him a friend when they don’t even acknowledge each other at school half the time. only if she’s turning her nose up at him in passing or he’s mocking her in the halls. she used to feel bad about that. about refusing to be his friend in public because he’d ruin her image. but over the years, she’s realized that that may be true for him, too. the guilt’s less heavy nowadays.

plus, she kind of likes that this - whatever it is, friendship, whatever - is just for them. no prying eyes. no questions. no judgment.

“we were such kids when we met,” she continues.

eddie nods. "we were sixteen. maybe less, maybe a little more."

her face contorts into a look of bewilderment. brow furrowed, eyes wide. “are you high? i just turned eighteen like four months ago, eddie, we were not sixteen when we met.”

she does math quickly in her head. as quickly as she can at least. not exactly her best subject. she tries to determine if maybe he is right, if he was almost that old when they first met. she forgets the age gap sometimes. it’s so small it’s practically nonexistent especially these days. but no, she’s still correct. neither of them were sixteen when they met.

“i said maybe less.”

that makes her laugh, shaking her head at him. “i was twelve.” when she speaks this time, her voice is softer. fond as the memory plays in her mind. “you were probably thirteen. maybe fourteen. no hair.”

it makes her laugh. not because he’d looked funny back then. but because she’s imagining him with a buzzcut in present day, and she thinks he’d look funny now. the longer hair just suits him, that’s all. the way her mind and eyes linger on it makes her need to touch. a finger curls around a strand of it, looping it around loosely until it slips away from her.

“i didn’t care about you at first,” she says. she doesn’t mean it in a cruel way and they both know that. it just was what it was. he was two grades ahead of her. only a year older, but the year she moved to hawkins was the year she had to repeat a grade. she was starting her last year of elementary school - again - and he was in the seventh grade already. a small gap but at that age, it could have been a decade between them. he wasn’t a concern of hers.

until he was.

until they were at the same school for more than a year. when she entered her freshman year and realized this random freak who lived in the trailer next to hers may be more of a problem for her than she anticipated.

ah, shit. the realization strikes her. he was sixteen when they started hanging out. damn him for being half right. she won’t admit this out loud. she’s still not wrong either. they can both be right in their own ways. semantics and all that.

it’s funny but feels fitting that this all began because she stomped over to threaten him not to tell anyone they lived in the same trailer park. had nothing to threaten him with. held no insider knowledge about his life to hold over his head. he had all the power. but he still agreed. never told a soul that they knew each other. never told a soul when she started buying pot from him. never told a soul when she opened up a little, admitted it was for her dad, that he was sick and in constant pain. it was evident from the jump that he was someone who would hold her secrets safely for her.

but it still snuck up on her. the attachment that formed between them. she never saw it coming. she doesn’t think either of them did.

“are you implying you care now?” he asks and she can hear the shit-eating grin threatening to spill across his face depending on her answer.

she won’t confirm or deny. “i’m done reminiscing now.” she huffs like she wasn’t the one who started this, then reaches for the door. “i’ll be back. i’m getting a popsicle.”

“get me one.”

“no.”

she does anyway.