Queen of the Freaks // Eddie Munson

Two

"I can't believe you actually threw up." Jason says to one of his friends. Lucas comes and sits down at our table. "Who are you going to prom with, Angi?" Chrissy asks me. "I'm not sure, I'm not dating anyone right now." I say. "You should take Lucas, you're both single." She says. Lucas and I both look up at eachother and laugh a little bit. A shrug while smiling. "Who knows, maybe that'll be a good idea." I say. Lucas just laughs. We both know it probably won't happen, and if i do take him to prom it'll only be as friends. Lucas is basically my child. "Did you starve yourself or something?" Stacy asks, butting into our conversation. The three of us turn to her. "What?" I ask. "I've always meant to ask it, but i just always forget." She says. "You just took my spot as flyer, and I want to know why." She adds. "Uh, no, I didn't starve myself Stacy." I say. "Well then how did you lose that much weight in such a little time?" She asks. Lucas gives me a concerned look.

I gave almost every ounce of food I could find to Will, he was already so skinny. I protected that kid with my life. I would've sacrificed myself for him. Everyday we just got weaker in weaker. I don't even remember being rescued. I had almost given up.

"I just started working out more, I still ate. Please don't starve yourself Stacy." I say. Stacy just says "Okay." and goes back to her other conversation. "I'll be right back." I say. "Ang." Lucas says softly. "I'm fine, bathroom." I say smiling. I quickly walk out of the lunchroom and then out of the school. I try and take deep breaths and calm the fuck down. I walk out to the woods behind the school. "Angela." I hear slowly called out in a deep voice. I look around. "Angela." It says again. "Angela!" It comes from a normal voice. I turn around and scream. I stop once I realize who it is.

"Woah, I didn't mean to scare you." Eddie says. I breath heavily and sit down on the picnic table. I put my head in my hands. "You alright?" He asks. I nod. "My friends just suck." I say. "You don't fit in with them." He says. "Oh yeah?" I ask, annoyed. "Yeah, I can tell." Eddie says. "What are you, some stalker?" I ask. He laughs a little and shakes his head. "I'm sorry for being a dick to you when I came to get the boys." I say, crossing my arms and laying them on the table. "It's fine." He says. I shake my head. "I just get so protective over them, they're like my kids. Plus I don't even know you." "Yes you do." Eddie says, cutting me off. "I do?" I ask. He nods. "I'm sorry, I don't remember." I say. "Really?" He asks. I nod. "It was a talent show, back in ninth grade. You were doing your little 'Go Tigers!' thing." He says, mimicking a typical cheerleader voice. "I entered with my band, the Corroded-" "Coffin! The Corroded Coffin!" I say interrupting him. "You remember!" He says, getting excited. "Of course I remember! How could I forget a name like that!" I say. Eddie laughs. "You look so different!" I say. "Yeah, I had a buzz back then, and I didn't have these." He pulls down the collar of his shirt to show off some tattoos. I let out a shocked laugh. "Are those real?" I ask. He nods and moves closer to me. I run my hand over them. "Shit Eddie, you're gonna be a bad influence on my kids." I say smiling. He sits down across from me. "I may seem like a jackass, but I really do care about those kids. They're in good hands." Eddie says. "Well I'm never letting you drive them anywhere, you drive like a maniac." I say smiling. Eddie laughs and we go quiet for a moment.

"What happened earlier, at lunch?" Eddie asks. I shake my head. "Nothing really." I say. "Okay, well, I'm here to listen if you want to talk about it." He says. "It's just, you know how I got lost in the woods a couple years ago?" I ask. He nods. "Yeah, with that Will Byers kid." He says. "Well, I lost a lot of weight because there wasn't any food. Stacy was just asking me a lot of questions about it, and it brought back some bad memories." I say. Eddie puts his hand over mine comfortingly. "Im sorry Angela." He says. "How could you tell that I didn't fit in?" I ask. "You just don't look happy. I've only seen you genuinely smile at that table one time in the past two weeks." Eddie says. "Well I don't really have anywhere else to go." I say. "Come with us, join the freaks." Eddie says quickly jumping up. He walks over to me and grabs my hand. He lifts it up, signaling for me to stand up. I stand on the seat. "You can be our queen." He says. "Queen of the freaks!" He says loudly and hands me an invisible thing. "This my crown?" I ask. He smiles excitedly and smiles. I smile and place it on my head. He laughs and runs around me to get to the other side of the table. He jumps onto the seat. "And I'm the King!" He says proudly. I giggle and wave him to move his head foreword. He does as I say and I put the invisible crown on him. He yells in triumph. I laugh.

"Angela? Are you out there?" I hear a voice. "Shit." I whisper under my breath and quickly jump down. "Uh, yeah!" I call out. "Thank you." I say quietly to Eddie and quickly run off. "You alright?" Anthony asks. "Yeah, I'm fine Ant." I say. "Good." He throws his arm around my shoulder, and we walk back into school.