Stranger Things one shots

Hell Diver 3

request/ a/n: [I honestly can not believe how much support i got to continue this <3 (via ao3/wp/tumblr) thank you]

word count: 2.4k

no explicit warnings. swearing. high school drama 

PART 3 - SELF-PRESERVATION

'What the hell have you been staring at?' Your friend pointed out, making you immediately turn your face away from the direction that you had, indeed, been staring at. Probably for the last 10 minutes, you had blocked out every word your friend had said as you looked ahead at a few tables in front of you. Eddie sat there, at the head of the table like he was the king of the world, his own little world at least, accompanied by his friends.

'Well? Hellooo!' Your friend kept nagging you, waving her hand in front of your face until you pushed it away. 'What is up with you today?'

'Nothing. I just spaced out.' You shook your head, trying to let your eyes focus on something else that wasn't Eddie, hoping your friends would not realise what, or rather who, you were looking at. But they were teenage girls, of course; their minds immediately went to–

'Is it a guy?' All heads around you turned in the direction you had previously been looking at. You tried to play it off cool, pretend that they were far from correct, but it was difficult when it was true, and you had always had a hard time lying to them. So you sat back, hunched over and embarrassed as their hawk eyes analysed every person sitting in that "general direction over there" that could have been your object of admiration.

Luckily, plenty of people were in the cafeteria, as the space was bustling with conversations. There was the band table, the chess club, the mathletes, and the regular popular kids (no one really knew how they got popular? It's like they just hatched out of an egg wearing their dumb neon bangles and scrunchies). Then, of course, there were the Hawkins Tigers in their uniform letterman jackets and jerseys. You had a few cheerleader friends, all sitting on their boyfriends' laps for some reason.

Then in the back, there was the Hellfire club. Not bothering anyone except they did, with their mere existence, it seemed that they bothered everybody in the room. No one dared to even look at them, as if their individualism would smear off on them and, god forbid, leave some actual personality and likability behind.

'Oh my god,' one of your friends shrieked, 'Was it Jason!?' This was followed by a collective half-gasp-half-squeal from the entire table. Everyone made that sound except you, as you just looked confused at them with wrinkled eyebrows of confusion.

Personally, you had nothing against Jason. He seemed like a sweet guy. Captain of the basketball team and probably an all-rounder in everything else he did. His perfect little smile filled with perfectly white teeth... but that is what didn't sit well with you. Because there was nothing to that smile. There was nothing behind it. And yet girls kept falling head over heels with him. You had never been a day in school when that guy did not have a girlfriend.

'You were totally checking Jason out, weren't you!'

'I really wasn't,' you tried to laugh it off. 'Matter of fact, I wasn't checking anyone out.' Was that what you had been doing with Eddie? You didn't think so. It was more out of the urge to be close to him again. Ever since you came back home from that night at his trailer, you missed the feeling of sitting so close next to him that you could smell his cologne– it wasn't the most luxurious smell, but strong enough to cover up the scent of the weed he carried around.

You kept returning to that moment when he leaned in at the side of your car. He had really been so close to kissing you... or had he? The moment replayed in your head on a loop. Had he really been that close? Or did you imagine things? Perhaps believing what you simply wanted to happen...