Under One Condition || Eddie Munson

chapter three

Passing the blunt to Chrissy Cunningham felt weird, to say the least. I watched as she took a drag from it, her reaction similar to Steve's. I smiled at her encouragingly, "any particular reason you're out here smoking with the bad kids and waiting to buy some from Eddie?" It was well known that Eddie sold, mostly just to close friends.

Chrissy handed the blunt to Steve and interlaced her fingers together. Sighing, she replied, "things have been difficult since my mom died. You know that fire that happened in Star Mall over the summer?" I nodded, "well she was one of the people that died in it." I took a deep breath, not expecting that confession.

We sat in silence for a moment. "I'm sure you've heard this countless times but, I'm sorry for your loss." I said as I hesitantly placed a hand on her back. She leaned into me, as Steve spoke up, "I'm sorry too, our dad died in January. Freak accident during one of his business trips." I nodded my head in acknowledgement.

Movement caught my eye, looking up I see Eddie Munson standing in the pathway. He smiled as he approached the bench, "if I had known this was going to be a smoke sesh, I would've brought some wraps." I laughed as Chrissy removed herself from me. Steve sat up at the sounds of Eddie's voice and peered between Chrissy and me. Eddie visibly jumped, "Jesus, Harrington. I didn't see you there."

Steve smiled a lazy smile and nodded towards me, "my sister is a bad influence." I bit my lip in amusement and glanced back at Steve, "I'm always here to help Stevie." Both Eddie and Chrissy looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

"STEVIE!" They both said in between laughs. Defensively, Steve wrapped his arms around himself, "hey! It's just a nickname." I chuckled at Steve, knowing he was going to get me back once he was sober.

Eddie looked at me funny, "Aspen?" I looked up at him and hummed in response. "I just— you look different," he said shyly. Chrissy looked over at me, "wait... Aspen Harrington?" I glanced at Steve, "um, yeah?" They were making me nervous with their stares. Steve shrugged and took the blunt out of my hand, finishing it off.

Chrissy looked me up and down, "you disappeared, last January and come back looking... well gorgeous." Eddie snorted, "she's always been gorgeous, she just lost a bunch of weight... what happened to you? We had detention together and you never showed back up at school."

I stared down at my hands, not really wanting to answer. "She got sick, like really sick and had to stay home. She was super contagious, it was almost like the plague," Steve answered for me. I smiled at him gratefully.

Truthfully, after detention I was walking home when Carol and Tommy showed up. They grabbed my stuff from me and threw it into the dumpster behind an abandoned building. When I went to climb in to grab my stuff, they pushed me and locked me in. I was in there for 2 days before a homeless man heard me. After that, when I wouldn't tell the police who locked me in, mom decided to pull me from school and have me homeschooled.

"Yeah, I had a lot of free time so I started working out and eating healthy," I said with a slight smile. This wasn't a lie, being homeschooled had its perks.

"Well, you're better now, right?" Chrissy asked, slightly moving away from me. I let out a short laugh, "yeah, I'm good now." I smiled over at Eddie who was staring at me. He looked confused, almost as if he didn't believe a word Steve said. I quickly looked away, feeling bad for lying.

"Anyways, Steve we have to get home. We missed the last 4 periods of our first day and you still need to talk to Nancy," I said hopping off the bench.

"You guys have been out here since lunch? How much did you guys smoke while you've been out here?" Eddie asked laughing. I looked at my hands, counting on my fingers, "uh, 4... NO! 5." I smiled at Eddie. "5? 5 what?" Chrissy asked while laughing at Steve who was also counting on his fingers for some reason.