𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐈𝐒𝐇// 𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐗𝐎𝐂

𝐢𝐢. ✭ 𝐋𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐃'𝐒 𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐄

JULY, 1975; EDDIE

"Are you sad?" A small voice asked. I was staring at my sneakers when she first approached me. When I was younger that's what I would do a lot. My eyes were infatuated with the ground. As a quiet kid, I had this idea that I could tell everything I needed to know about a person by their shoes.

Colored heels meant that it was some put-together chick. Doc Martens meant that the person had some kind of badass nature to them, like that they were a real stick it to the man kind of dude. My shoes, some off-brand black sneakers, spelled out poor kid. They screamed freak. They called out my loneliness. They told people who I really was.

Thanks to the stranger in front of me, a shadow had cast itself across my shoes, blocking my sight. I let out an annoyed huff, eyes rolling upwards to see the girl. Her head was turned, eyes narrowed to study me like a specimen on a board. Like one of those butterflies, people stick needles in. Yeah, like one of those. My eyes shifted from being stuck on my shoes to now her face.

It was roundish, her cheeks cherub-shaped. Two dark glimmering eyes peered back at me. Her hair was this soft heap of curls, with this sort of red tint. Well, it was really more like strawberry blonde. Or maybe it was sort of ambery or goldish.

Anyways, what I really remember catching my eye were these faint freckles that curled from her right cheek to her temple. Other brown specks were peppered across her face but I couldn't stop looking at this one special mark that was at the same level as her right eye. It was sidled up against it too, hugging her skin.

"What's all over your face? What are those?" It was my turn to be curious now. My focused gaze was snapped off in one clean motion when her face changed from being curious like me to this frightening scowl. Her lips pouted out, baby brown eyes sending me a death wish. Palpitating, my heart thrummed against my ribcage. Girls my age were scary enough when they were being nice. When they were mean they were terrifying.

"What are you starin' at, Dumb Dumb?" The girl crossed her arms tightly across her chest, continuing to glower at me. "Don't you know starin' is rude?" It wasn't just her face that looked funny. Her voice sounded weird too. It sounded like the people in the movies.

"Sorry," I mumbled, shifting against the trailer park's picnic table. My eyes fell back to the dusty ground. "I didn't mean to." It was then that I realized that she wore a pair of cowboy boots. They were floured with dirt. Just like in the westerns Uncle Wayne always had playing on the television. "I like your boots."She took a big step onto the picnic table I sat on, turning herself around to sit beside me.

"Hey." Her elbow jabbed into me, demanding my attention. Cautiously, I let my eyes trail back up to look her in the eye. I made sure to move the place I looked at around this time. "I'm Chance. Chance Lee Stargrove. I just moved here with my mama and my daddy. We live just over there." She pointed out her new place before offering her hand to me. Her fingernails were painted cheaply, a chipped pink shining off of them.

"I'm Eddie. Eddie Munson." I took it, giving it a good shake just like I had seen the grownups do in the movies. A good old cowboy handshake. "Can't remember my middle name."

"That's okay." Shrugged Chance, her soft hand slipping from mine. "Wanna play?" Her meanness streaked into sweetness, a smile crinkling up her eyes. I had to run over what she offered me a couple of times before I understood. I couldn't even remember the last time anyone wanted to play with me. Why her? Why did she want to?