idiot - steddie

Three

I swallowed the words I wanted to say to Eddie as we walked down the dirt-paved trail towards Lover's Lake back into the pit of my stomach as we continued on, and Eddie was surprisingly good company. His vanilla-cigarette-weed scent withered away between us as I came to tolerate the older man's musk. Especially when every now and then came when we walked to fast or hit a sharp turn to the point that his steps grew to be more wobbly and he bumped against me, mumbling a quick sorry after each mistake encounter. He did not walk straight at all.

About halfway through the short-lived hike, we all had to stop due to Robin's self-diagnosed asthma and Dustin's inability to keep up, even though he was one in the front of our group. The kid was called roast beef for a very good reason, and for Robin.. there were a lot of problems standing in between her and her lungs.

Eddie sighed after Dustin announced the break, plopping himself down on a log that had been set up on it's side, layered with leaves and moss that squished under his black jeans. I cringed at the noise as I glanced at him, sitting alone as everyone else conversed between each other in front of us, they're voices bathing in each other's and slowly bleeding into the setting sun behind us. He looked sad, to say the least, fiddling with his silver rings that created a seal above his calloused knuckles. He looked vulnerable. If that was even half-possible for a person like him. A person who put up such a tough front of himself to the point where you couldn't believe it if they let his guard down and let out his true self to you.

I crouched over the log, my thighs hovering just above the piece of lumber he was resting on before taking a seat beside him, our knees bumping against each other in the rush of movement. His black ripped jeans displayed a few slivers of the pale skin on his scraped knee, black pieces of frayed denim stringing against his leg in a flurry, whereas mine was covered in light-washed denim, and underneath was tan skin that had not a single scrape on the barrier above. He glanced over at me, his hair whipping against his cheeks that had reddened due to the slowly lowering temperature over the time he had been stranded out here in this very forest. "Oh, hey Harrington." He said, pausing his fidgeting to greet me. I offered a pressed smile in return, "Munson." I acknowledged him, earning a sideways grin from the somewhat distressed male once I looked away from him.

That same tension I had fought off between us earlier came back stronger as ever, resting on me and Eddie's shoulders peacefully. Though, I was anything but peaceful in that moment. Max and Dustin fought about something far in front of us, their over-exaggerated hand movements making it clear that it was in a joking way. Nancy and Robin smiled at each other and talked with blush taking over their once pale cheeks. I looked to Robin, and caught the very flirtatious movement of her reaching out a hand to tuck a piece of Nancy's billowing hair behind her ear, which Nancy allowed with ease, settling her face deep into Robin's palm with a small giggle as they resumed their conversation.

"Think they're dating?" Eddie whispered, leaning the back of his head towards me, locking his gaze onto Robin the same way I had. His hair fell onto my shoulder as he leaned back, and I caught a strong whiff of vanilla bean and a very heavy scent of beer. My nose sat in a pile of his tangled, brown locks a second before he turned around, his eyes locking onto mine, expecting an answer I didn't have in the spur of the moment.

I ended up just replying with a shrug, "I kinda assumed they were by now, but you never know who people end up with." I replied, unaware of the secret message I had slipped into that short statement. Eddie's breathing slowed, and he leaned away from me, though he positioned his hand right beside mine on the backend of the log, his thick silver rings brushing against the nail of my thumb for a single second before retracting. "You flirting with me Harrington?" He chuckled, glancing over at me through his curly bangs. I looked back at him, a lateral look traversing my face as I looked him up and down. From the dirty white Nikes, to the black rip-knee jeans, to his dumb little Hellfire Club shirt, topped and layered with a leather jacket and jean vest, to his face that I couldn't help but stare at everytime I caught a glimpse of it. Then to his curly brown hair that fell in long clumps that dropped below and onto his denim clothing.

"Maybe."

Eddie followed his gaze along my features, just as I did him, and smiled a quick smile as he looked back at the two girls sat on large tree stump a few feet in front of us. "They would make a good couple." He commented, and I didn't look at the two girls just like he was, I looked at him. My eyes stayed glued to his long, dirty hair that was so much softer than it looked. I should've been staring at Nancy's short, washed hair and her big, round eyes that couldn't seem to leave Robin's. His faint but sharp jawline, lined with freckles galore that glimmered in the faint daylight swallowing us as we sat on that old, wilted log. He finally turned to me after I hadn't responded for awhile, his mouth slithering open the slightest bit to say something, but it shut and a brazen smile developed over his face. I gulped flatly and he chuckled.

I found myself faltering under his gaze, "You really like to stare, don't you Harrington?" He whispered in the crook of my ear, his hot breath beating against the tingling skin of my neck like a swollen tongue. He pulled away from me with a smirk. "It's your fault for giving me something to stare at." I shot back, earning a staggered look from the long-haired man just in time for Dustin to speak up from the front of the line with that annoying, bitchy little voice of his that just had to ruin the best moments between me and anyone.

—

We ran through the dark forest right on Dustin's heels, all in a conga line of dirty teens and a metal head on the run from a whole entire cop force. I fought through a pokey bramble to catch up to the curly freshman, but by the time I was where he was 5 seconds ago, he was right on the edge of a lake. Lover's Lake.

"Fuck." I respired as I tripped through a bush to skid to a stop after Dustin. My foot caught on a larger root of the thicket we had all ventured through on the way here, and my body fell limp in front of me into the graphic print of Eddie's vest. I grunted as my body fell into his in an awkward position, and he immediately whipped around and caught me under the armpits with the palms of his pale hands.

I tucked my nose into the crook of my neck as he brought me back to feet, though it was clear nobody in front of us noticed our doings in the midnight light that flooded the outside world we were unfortunately standing in at that moment. Eddie looked at me once he let go, his hand brushing against mine. I stared at his coney eyes, a white sparkle dawdling inside his umber pupil as a small wave sweeped against the sandy shoreline. I looked down at our hands, and let go of my tight hold on his silver-split wrist. "Uhm.. sorry." I muttered uncomfortably, offering a sideways grin his way. Eddie shrugged, his hair bouncing up with the impact. "No worries, I'm pretty good at saving people from cracking their head open on the ground y'know." He joked, locking his gaze onto the back of my neck as I looked down and chuckled at the ground instead of him. A second of silence circulated the air around us as Dustin coughed to catch our attention. It was safe we both heard it.

"Ahem, I need a flashlight over here so if you two would stop being so wrapped up in each other and help me out.. that would be great." He said, and everyone looked at us from there. I sighed, peering up at Eddie as he flipped around, using his flashlight beam to make a bright reflection ripple over the moon-coated water in front of us. I exhaled sharply in realization of our situation. "You gotta be shitting me." I breathed out, pointing my flashlight right down at the water, parallel to Eddie's. "Yeah." The long-haired adult replied, waving his hand past Dustin's shoulder for him to move over. A loud, incoherent howl came from deep inside the woodland behind us, setting all of us onto our heels in a nervous frenzy. "I thought these woods were familiar." He added on, his voice somewhat sensitive. Like he had no intent of being here right now.

"Lover's Lake." Robin said, pointing her chin upwards so she could see over Eddie's shoulder. Nancy was at her side, tacked onto her like a magnet to metal.

Dustin's mouth gaped open a bit as he looked back down at his compass for reassurance. That we were actually here, and that the gate to the Upside Down was here. "This is confounding." He gasped gently, his voice no lower than a whisper. You could hear the birds chirping over his small voice right then, and it was sort of unsettling in my opinion.

"There's a gate in Lover's Lake?" Max asked, confused as ever.

Nancy spoke up, her teeth grinding against each other, as if she was the most uncomfortable out of all of us. "Whenever the Demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening." She spoke up, looking away from the lake and towards Robin. "Maybe Vecna's the same way."

I turned my wrist down, the flashlight's beam disappearing along with the movement. "Yeah, only one way to find out." I looked at Eddie, who had since turned to me after I spoke up.

"You got a boat around here?"