Stranger Things Short Stories

Eddie - Not So Hated

"Dustin I can't I'm sorry." You explained to the younger boy. It was drawing towards the end of lunch when the young boy and his friend Mike cornered you outside the girls toilet, begging for you to join in with their D&D game later that night. Turns out their friend Lucas was too busy or something and they needed someone to fill in.

"y/n it doesn't matter that you don't know how to play we just need someone else there." Mike says.

"I'd love to help you guys out but I don't think the others would appreciate you there." You try to explain, walking away from the boys.

"What no! I'm sure no one will mind just pleases turn up. Eddie has been working on this campaign for weeks and we can't postpone."

You see the thing is, Eddie was the reason why you wouldn't agree to help him. Sure the only thing you knew about D&D was that it had a funky looking dice but if the guys really needed you there then you were more than willing to help out (Especially when they mentioned free snacks). You just knew Eddie did not like you which completely and totally sucked as you had a massive crush on the guy for like the last 5 years.

You'd only had one interaction with the boy and that was when you were forced to partner up with him for an English project. You weren't one for believing rumours but the guy was real ass and barely spoke to you the whole time you were working together, like he thought he was too good for you or something. Nonetheless you still found him extremely attractive what with the sort of dishevelled metally look and those .soft, brown eyes.

"y/n please I'll do anything you need, I'll get Steve to give you discounted movies or some shit I just need you to do this for us."

One look at the curly haired boys pleading eyes made you crumble and you found yourself reluctantly agreeing to meet him at Mike's basement tonight to play this wizardy game with the Hellfire club.

--

Turning up for the game was definitely more nerve wrecking than it had to be but none the less you were in a right state over it. Walking down the stairs into the armpit that was Mike wheeler's basement you found the flock of teenage boys seated around the table, Eddie perched on the throne at the head of the table.

"You're late." He says avoiding eye contact with you all together. Rude.

You briefly apologise before scooting over to the beckoning Dustin and taking the seat behind him. From what you could see, the others clearly had some sort of detailed planning which of course you were unprepared for and of course Eddie noticed this and decided to call you out for it.

The game commenced and it was beyond confusing for you. So far all you could gather was that it was like the hobbit and monopoly had a baby and said baby became a crack addict. You literally could not keep up and you could tell Eddie was getting annoyed with you every time Dustin paused to explain something to you. The guy literally would just stare at you for ages and it was beginning to become quite unnerving.

It eventually got to the point where you were pretty much just spectating and eating your skittles, kinda like how in sports they have someone sitting on the bench for emergencies. You pretty much assumed that you wouldn't be needed so the rest of the game, that was until they called a team meeting.

You and the boys huddled off in one corner. Apparently there was some guy called Vecna which has something to do with the game and they need to role a specific number but most of them were nearly dead so they were all like 'let's give up'. Turns out because of you lack interest and pure confusion, you were the least injured character in the game making you the best person for the job and so you collectively decided to give it a whirl and hope for the best.

Not really giving two shits you decided that sure you'd roll the fancy dice and just see what happens. Walking up to the table, Eddie continues to ramble on about dark magic and death blah blah blah until it was your turn to actually do something. You rolled the dice with much flourish and were delighted to find you rolled precisely the number you lot needed to win. Cheering the whole group started high fiving and congratulating each other on their hard work, the little weirdos.

Eventually, one by one, the boys left the basements to head home to their respective homes. You were cleaning up some of the pizza boxes, disturbed by how disgustingly untidy the room was, when Eddie decided to speak to you,.

"That was a good roll, your very lucky." He says, stepping out from the corner of the room. Was he there the whole time watching you tidy? You hope not because you're pretty sure you were humming ABBA to yourself while cleaning and you didn't need this guy to have anymore reason to hate you. He did not look like an ABBA fan.

"Yeah I guess so good job we killed flenla or whatever."

"It's Vecna, you don't play D&D often do you?" He asks, approaching you slowly. You couldn't help but admire the little twinkle taht appeared in his eye when he mentioned the game. You'd been observing it all night, the way his face lit up as he got overly invested in the role he was playing. It was cute.

"Nope, first time." 

It was silent after that. Really silent and you were both s ort of just awkwardly looking at each other. This gave you some time to ponder about the beauty that this guy possessed causing you to almost awkwardly zone-out stare at him which would have made yourself seem really creepy and weird (or more so than before because he probably already thinks you're creepy and weird.)

"I should probably head home. "You say at the same time as he says, "I was just wondering if you-" 

"I'm sorry." You both say at the same time. Causing you both to let out one of those nervous half chuckles.

"You go first" you say causing Eddie to offer you a shy sort of smile that you'd never really seen him do before.

"Look I know I barely know you but I was wondering if you'd like to hang out or something. I could teach you some more about D&D y'know in case you decide to join us again." He nervously rambled, avoiding eye contact pretty much the entire time. He really was adorable and this kinda just reinforced your rational for him being one of the most crush worthy people in school.

"Uh yeah sure okay, I'd love to Eddie."

"Okay yeah that's, that's' great. You wanna go out for burgers or something." He suggests, grabbing his jacket and shrugging it onto his shoulders. 

"What like now?"

"Yeah come on, it'll be perfect."

And perfect it was because you just had what was quite possibly the sweetest 'date' with Eddie 'the freak' Munson in which where he bought you milkshakes while he tried to explain the logic behind the weirdass game that is D&D.