Atomic | Eddie Munson

4

Katherine pushed herself up from the shower floor and stepped out to flip the cassette to run the other side. Once she stepped back in the shower, she finally decided to wash herself off. She had the water set so hot that it almost felt cold on her skin.

She stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel before grabbing her cassette player and walking to her room. On her way to her room, she passed Eddie, who glanced over at her, only to look away when he saw she was only in a towel. As she passed her, he couldn't help but sneak another glance at her bare shoulder with the wet hair draped over it. He looked away when she turned into her room, and then went into the bathroom.

Katherine walked into her bedroom and pulled out some clothes to wear. She settled for some shorts and a sports bra with a large sweatshirt over it. The shorts were admittedly very short and a bit tight, but they were covered by the sweatshirt, and the boys would be in the basement to play D&D, so there was really nothing to worry about.

After pulling on the sweatshirt, Katherine wrapped her hair in the towel and moisturized before hearing the phone ring, but only for a minute. She sighed and heard a knock on her door. Getting up, she opened it to see her little brother standing in the doorway.

"That was Aunt Carol. Apparently she's picking up Holly for the weekend and will be here in a half hour," Mike said.

"Oh, yeah. Okay. I'll pack her a bag I guess," Katherine said.

The two walked out of her room and went their separate ways. As Katherine was about to walk into Holly's room, Eddie came up behind her.

"Everything alright Wheeler?" Eddie asked, causing Katherine to jump.

"Did you finish hotboxing my bathroom?" Katherine asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Ha, ha, very funny," he replied. Katherine took the towel off of her head and lightly hit him with it. "I'll get you the money I owe you in a little bit."

"Sounds good sweetheart. As long as you don't interrupt the campaign," Eddie said. Katherine swallowed at the nickname. It wasn't like he never called her nicknames, it just wasn't that frequent. More often than, not he just called her 'Wheeler.'

"I, uh, need to pack a bag for Holly," Katherine said, looking away before Eddie noticed that her face was slightly red. She stepped into Holly's room and shut the door behind her before leaning against the door and taking a deep breath.

-----

A half hour later, her aunt was by to pick up Holly, as many of the Hellfire Club boys pulled up to the house. As the boys went down into the basement, Mike called for a pizza and told Katherine to bring it down when it got there.

"Mike how are you even paying for the pizza? Mike?" Katherine asked, but he just walked down to the basement, like he didn't even hear her.

"I'll tell you what," a voice said from behind her and two hands fell on her shoulders causing her to jump. "If you pay for the pizzas for the boys and I, I'll count it as you paying me back, huh," Eddie whispered in her ear. A chill ran down her spine and the hair on her arms rose as he gently rubbed her shoulders.

"Uh, o-okay," Katherine stuttered. She slipped away from Eddie's grasp and ran up to her room. She grabbed $15 from her wallet and her copy of 1984 that she needed to read for Mrs. O'Donnell's class, along with a pen and notebook.

Katherine went back downstairs and took a seat on the couch to begin reading. The pen was tucked behind her ear and the notebook was sitting beside her, open to the newest blank page. '1984 Notes' was written on the top under her name. She was halfway reading and annotating through the second chapter when the pizza arrived.