𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬 ── eddie munson

006

After a ten minute drive sat in silence, Eddie pulled up at a gas station. Lola was still hyperventilating and he wanted to get her breathing normal as soon as possible, but he couldn't bear to park on the side of the street, alone, in the dark. He was totally freaking out still. So much so, he didn't say a word to Lola about what had just happened, like his mind was spinning to fast to process a single word. She didn't ask where they were going. The girl was frozen in her seat, her chest rising and falling abnormally fast and her blue eyes leaked streams of salt, the tears pooling on her chest and soaking into the frilly hem of her tank. 

He pulled into the corner of the gas station. It was pretty deserted, only one or two cars filling up with gas, but the dull comfort seeing other people provided was enough to trust the dimly lit far corner, well out the way of the gas pumps. The boy swung open his door and scurried to the passenger side one. He tried to swallow his thoughts for just a few seconds while he would endeavour to calm her down, but upon moving closer, Lola flinched back. 

"It's okay," Eddie tried his best to sound convincing, "it's alright."

Slowly, she allowed him to approach and bend down on one knee. He removed his battle vest and gently draped it over her bare knees. Eddie looked up at Lola, a consoling smile trembling on his lips, trying to provide the girl comfort of some sort. But in reality, his insides were churning, the sound of Chrissy's bones cracking still reverberating around his brain over and over. Lola looked down at him, her quivering lips stained with teardrops. The poor girl looked as if she would break any second.

"Everything's gonna be okay." Eddie coaxed quietly, not believing it in the slightest. Millions of thoughts and worst-case scenarios were running lengths back and forth in his brain, knowing that whatever that was, he would get the blame for it, and maybe Lola too. "Fuck." He muttered under his breath. 

"Was that real?" Asked Lola, "did she..."

"I don't know what the hell that was, but yeah, it was real," he replied, closing her back into his van and returning to his side, opening the door and leaning in, "do you need a drink?"

Lola shook her head, her stomach too sick to consume anything. Eddie nodded and went to close the door but before he did, he heard her speak for the first time since it happened, "wait," she whispered, "can I come with you?"

So the two walked into the gas station looking like a pretty odd pairing, a dishevelled metalhead and a weak-kneed blonde wearing a tiny pyjama set and a leather jacket. Eddie had taken his battle vest back whilst they were walking about, but the two certainly raised the eyebrows of the very few other customers. Eddie ran up and down the aisles, grabbing an array of chips, cookies and beers, as many as his arms would carry. Lola followed him slowly like a lost puppy, her tough demeanour completely long gone by that point. It was vulnerability at its finest and she hated it, but to act any different right now wasn't even questionable.

She watched as Eddie messily spilled his groceries on to the counter. Behind it, the old man eyed him suspiciously. He cast a concerned glance to her, but she avoided his gaze completely. She guessed that's what it was like for Eddie 'the freak' on a daily basis, being openly so idiosyncratic in a world of conventionally plain people. She wondered what he was doing, where he was planning to go, how he was feeling. She still found herself questioning what the fuck she had just witnessed, and how it was possible. Chrissy looked like she had been possessed by the devil.

"C'mon." he said, with two grocery bags clutched in his left palm. He hurried the girl along with his right, trying his best to be gentle. Lola felt his arm shaking as he tried to confidently lead the way, clocking that it was all a façade to keep her calm.

When they got back into his car, Eddie tossed the groceries onto the back seat. His movements were even more frantic than usual, however he kept his cool and turned towards Lola. 

"Look," he said with a slight tremor, "I don't understand anything right now. I'm scared, terrified, and I have a pretty bad feeling that people are gonna think I did... that."

Lola turned to him, he kept his head down, refusing to look at her. His voice began to shake and he began picking at the skin around his nails, a gentle shake vibrated throughout his knee that was just barely noticeable. He began to speak in stutters, words tumbling off his tongue a million words a minute.

"And it wouldn't be right for me to just take you with me. Hell, I don't wanna go back there, but if you do, Lola, I'll take you back right now to be with your mom and sister. I just think that if you come with me, you might be blamed too, you know? And god knows we both don't want that. I can take you back and you can act shocked and have absolutely nothing to do with this, and when they come looking for me-"

"I don't want to go home." Lola uttered, her throat gone sore from all the screaming and crying. She thought of Max and Susan, how confused they would be, how scared. It hit her heart with a sharp pang, but she absolutely couldn't go back. Max would understand, and she'd get to explain soon. Well, a version she'd believe anyway. 

"Okay," he paused, his shaky voice sounding somewhat relieved, "okay."

So they drove and drove, eventually off the road and on some creepy path deep into the woods. The ground was shaky and loud music echoed into the atmosphere. 

"Put what you want on," Eddie had said, gesturing to the glove box, "it might help. I've got all the good stuff, don't worry."

And he did, definitely. Lola had pulled out a Joan Jett cassette and raised an eyebrow, to which Eddie, completely flustered, admitted the Blackhearts were his guilty pleasure. Lola had smiled, for the first time since, and popped it into the cassette slot, and it did help to calm her down. However, if they were trying to stay on the low, they weren't being very sneaky, clumsily driving through the woods blasting Bad Reputation in the early hours of the morning. 

Lola didn't quite know how to feel, but around halfway through their journey, she had blown hot hair onto the window and drawn a smiley face into the condensation. A stupid, futile habit she'd done in every car she'd been in since early childhood. Billy would always lean over from his side of the back seat and wipe it off, just to be the little shit he always was growing up. Snapping back into the reality of who she was in the car with, Lola shook her head and wiped it clean off, hoping Eddie didn't notice. She subtly turned to look at him, his corner of his lip curled upwards ever so slightly. Shit. 

"Eddie?"

"Yeah."

"Where exactly are we going?"

"The furthest place away I could think of. We're going to see an old pal of mine, who happens to have a diploma on living under the radar... completely off grid."

"Oh. Cool." Lola looked down into her lap. Eddie had given her his battle vest back, her fingers gently tracing the patches of various bands. Many she'd listen to and loved, but some she had never heard of. The stitching was messy and slightly crooked, but admiring his jumbled handiwork provided great distraction until they arrived at a creepy, desolate house with a dishevelled outbuilding. 

"Ah," Eddie swallowed nervously, "home sweet home."