Lover's Lake | Eddie Munson

04

Not long after the lunch bell rang the next day, Ann made her way down to the cafeteria, walking towards where Munson's Dungeons and Dragons club, also known as the Hellfire club, ate. The first bell had just rung, so almost nobody was sat at the table except for two freshmen.

"Dustin Henderson, right?" she asked the boy as she stood at the end of the table. "You're in the hellfire club, am I wrong?" the two boys looked at themselves at her question and tying to talk, Dustin almost choked on what he was eating.

"Yeah, I am." He replied to her, unsure. "Can I help? Did you want something?"

"Not from you, no." She said, looking around the cafeteria. "Do you happen to know if Eddie Munson will be here soon? I need to talk to him."

The black-haired boy looked at her with a confused look in his eyes. "You, Ann Hopkins, want to talk to Eddie Munson?" he asked her.

She eyed him for a couple of seconds before sighing "Yeah Wheeler, so, do you think you guys can tell him to come to find me when he has time to talk?" she asked the younger boys, looking at both of them as they stared at her.

"Talk to who?" said Eddie softly, right next to her ear.

Ann jumped and almost dropped her bookbag as it slipped from her shoulder. "Fuck! Don't scare me like that, Jesus." She said, adjusting her bag, "Do you have a couple of minutes? I need to talk to you, alone" she said, emphasizing the last word as she eyed the teenagers who were suddenly interested in the two's conversation.

"Wow, little miss innocent, want to pour some sugar on me?" he said, bending down to look at her.

"Stop making dumb Def Leppard jokes, I don't have time for that." She replied, already walking away, "follow me we'll go talk outside"

Eddie froze when she caught the reference but swiftly followed her, curious. This was Ann Hopkins; straight a student with a 4.0 GPA, valedictorian candidate, nice car, rich parents and pretty, long, blonde hair.

Once outside, Ann Hopkins leaned against the wall and sighed, before turning to look at him.

"So! Eddie, I have something to ask you!" she said, awkwardly, fidgeting with the strap of her bag "So, long story short I'm kind of in a weird phase of my life and I'm having trouble with my parents. And don't ask how exactly it relates but I need a boyfriend!" she finished off with an apprehensive smile.

Eddie raised an eyebrow and started laughing like a madman, clutching his stomach as he crouched down. "Ugh Hopkins, that was a good one! Didn't know you participated in pranks!" he said as he tried catching his breath from the ground.

But Ann didn't say anything and when he looked back up at her, he could see she was perfectly serious and just waiting for him to finish laughing, so she could probably continue speaking.

He got up quickly and cleared his throat, "Are you serious?" he asked her, "I'm sorry I laughed like that if you really are, it's just that I've never had anyone ask me that."

She nodded and chuckled for a second, "Yeah, I never thought I'd see the day where I'd have to ask you that either," she confessed to the long-haired boy. "I'm just really in a weird situation and this is my last resort, the equivalent to plan z before I have to go contingency mode if you will."

He nodded, still surprised she was being serious. "I get it, yeah, but why me?"

She opened her mouth to answer for a second before she closed it. "Well, I don't want to sound too mean, but my parents would hate you." She finally said.

Eddie stifled a laugh and tried to put on a serious face "all right, okay."

She looked at him before sighing and sitting on the ground. "You can laugh, it's okay," she told him, smiling softly.

"No, I'm fine, I'm fine" he reassured her, waving his hands as he sat down in front of her "I don't really mind acting like your boyfriend"

At his words, Ann's head shot up and she looked at him, surprised. "you're... agreeing?" she asked him, "wow, all right nice! So, ideally, it'd just be outside of school, but my parents are friends with the principal, unfortunately so it'd at school and outside. I can compensate you because I'm sure it'd be a bother at some point" she told him as she placed her bag and rummaged through it.

"Compensation? I'm-" but before Eddie could even finish his sentence, she pulled out a crisp fifty-dollar bill from her wallet and handed it to him. "What?" he gaped, grabbing the piece of money.

"I'll give you another fifty when my parents end up agreeing to what I want all right?" she said, putting her wallet back into her bag and closing it as she looked at him.

"a hundred?!" Eddie almost yelled, "Woah, are you sure you can afford to give me that much?' he asked her, eyes wide and trying to hand her the bill back.

She pushed his hand back and laughed softly, "Eddie, I'm sure. You're basically saving my life by agreeing to do this. I also don't need the money. This was just some birthday money I got given by some uncle." She said, putting her bag back down next to her.

"Anyway, I have to go now but I'll catch you later all right, and we'll start this dating thing" she exclaimed as she got up, glancing at her watch "I need to go hand in some extra work for AP Latin." She told him as she felt her bag for the papers

"Sure, see you," Eddie said as she left, waving at him.

"What the fuck" he whispered, looking at the fifty in his hands.