Infatuation | Eddie Munson

5- Dream

~

The next few days went by swimmingly. I had hardly seen Eddie around school, and he hadn't spoken to me once, and vise versa. My attempt to avoid him at all costs had worked, and the only male I had to worry about was Andy. No matter how much I tried to avoid him, it wouldn't work. He was everywhere.

He seemed to have backed off, but he kept eyeing me, staring me up and down like some toy he couldn't wait to get his hands on. The only person who I wasn't avoiding was Chrissy.

Though she'd been acting weird lately, she would stare into space at random times, with loads of nosebleeds and complaining that her head hurts.

"Can you hear that?" She would say at random times.

It must be some disease, because I'd started to get nosebleeds too, as well as the occasional headache. It was getting weird. I continued to brush it off though, not mentioning it to Chrissy. Though I began to get very concerned about her, but I figured she would be fine.

It was a Thursday night, and as I climbed into the soft sheets of my bed, I thought about the one time on Tuesday when I was eating lunch and Eddie looked over at me. We had made eye contact for a good ten seconds before I broke away. God he was so annoying. The week had been full of stupid cheer practices which I forced myself to attend. I couldn't wait for the year to end so I could the team and be free from the cheerleader stereotype. As thoughts ran laps through my mind and my eyes fell heavy, I drifted off into a deep slumber without a another thought.

~

"Mom!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. My body filled with rage as I ran towards her. I was running through a deserted roof top, with weird vines pulling me further every time I tried to get closer. My throat began to burn by the amount of screaming I was doing. Fear was swallowing me whole as I began to feel more useless by the second. My mum turned to face me, except it wasn't anything like her face. It was a horrifying sight, what had taken over her face was fear if it was a supernatural being.

At this, I sobbed even louder, screaming for her to stop. But nothing I did could stop her from giving an evil grin before jumping off the edge without any hesitation. I broke down to the floor, the vines finally releasing me as I crawled into a helpless ball.

"See? This is all your fault!" A man's voice announced.

I looked up slightly, seeing a pair of beaten up shoes before shooting my head up to be faced with my father.

"All your fault! All your fault!" He repeated it numerous times, his voice becoming more distorted every time.

"This isn't real!" I screamed.

At this, something crawled out of his ear. A spider. Before I could look away, hundreds of black spiders were emerging from his mouth, nose, and eye lids. I began to itch unbearably, taking one last breath before screaming until my lungs could burst-

I sat up in my bed, cold sweat dripping from my forehead as I looked around my room. I was back in my bed. I was out of breath, tears falling from my eyes as I stared at the wall in pure shock. I looked over at my alarm clock which read '7:06AM.' This wasn't my first nightmare this week, but this one was the worst yet.

I ran my hand through my hair before giving in to the morning, getting into my cheerleading uniform, slinging over a jacket, and leaving my house to head to school.

~

As I held onto the green and orange pom poms, stood in formation with the rest of the cheer team. My hips swayed to the beat of the music as my pom poms went different directions. As we danced, everyone cheered while the marching band played their instruments, the school mascot hyping the crowd up. I pretended to enjoy myself as I plastered a smile on my face, standing next to Chrissy, the star of the show. Fortunately, I don't think anyone would be looking at me when they could be looking at Chrissy who was right next to me. But maybe just one person was looking at me, because when I looked up to the top of the stands, I saw a row of people with shirts saying 'Hellfire Club' on them. It was Eddie's freak gang. Eddie was looking at me intently, but looked away as soon as he met eyes with my own.

I too looked away before finishing up the routine, fake cheering as the team ran to sit behind some
orange cones. The basketball team ran through the court, everyone on the bleachers cheering for them as they ran in. The team's executive captain Jason, also known as Chrissy's boyfriend, walked up to the mic.

"Good Morning Hawkins High!" He yelled, causing an even louder roar from the crowd.

"First off, I'd like to thank each and every one of you," he began. "Without your support, we wouldn't be here. Give yourself a big hand!"

I scoffed as the everyone began cheering again.

"And of course, of course, I have to give a special shout-out, to the best and the prettiest fans of all time, the Tiger Cheer Squad!"

I visibly cringed at this. Fan club my ass.

"Chrissy... Chrissy, I love you babe," He said with a hand on his chest, causing Chrissy to blow a kiss in return. I tried my hardest not to cringe again at this gesture.

He then began to ramble on about how hard of a year it's been for Hawkins and all the loss we've endured.

"So, last night, when we were down by ten pints and a half to Christian Academy, I looked at my team, and I said, 'Think of Jack', 'Think of Melissa', 'Think of Heather', 'Think of Billy', 'Think of our heroic police chief Jim Hopper', 'Think about every one of our friends who perished in that fire.'"

Everyone was listening intently, I couldn't be the only one who was shocked, using tragic deaths as a reason to win a basketball game?

"What did they die for? For us to lose to some crap school?" Jason was pacing passionately.

As he finished his speech, I sat there in disbelief. They didn't die for some crappy basketball game.
At the end of his speech, almost everyone began cheering again. Shaking my head, I began clapping slowly, waiting for the cheering to end and for the prep rally to wrap up.

A little bit later, the gym was completely cleared, and I was one of the last people to leave. I took out my walkman and placed my headphones over my chestnut hair. I played my favourite song as I put my hands into my jacket pockets.

Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you

My footsteps synced with the beat as I allowed the music to set in through my blood. I continued to walk, getting closer and closer to the gym exit until I felt something tug at my headphones and I exited the trance I was in as my music went silent.

"Ah, I love this song!"

I recognised the voice and I immediately whipped my head around, only to see Eddie Munson standing there with my headphones on his head, bent down so that the chord from the headphones to the walkman would reach to his height.

"Hey!" I said, reaching for the headphones back.

He put out a finger, whilst his other hand held the headphones to his ear.

"Acting on your best behaviour, turn your back on mother nature!" he tauntingly sang.

At this, I tugged at the wire, immediately ripping the headphones off of his head.

"Hey! I was at the best part," he complained, stuffing his hands into his jeans' pockets.

"Yeah, whatever, now if you'd excuse me, I have to get going," I said with a sarcastic smile on my face, gesturing to the door and I began to walk off.

"You know, I can play that song on my guitar, you should come over to check it out!" He called, trying to be heard over my blaring music.

"I'd rather not!" I called back, closing the gym doors behind me.

~
1432 words
we're getting somewhere!
;)