OUTCASTS • Eddie Munson

Damsel in Distress

"God dammit." Ellie said, tripping over her shoelace for the third time.

"You okay?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, just stupid shoes." She replied.

Robin nodded and continued walking as Ellie bent down to tie her shoes tighter. Steve passed her, and as she stood up, Eddie appeared beside her.

"Hey." He said in a low voice.

"Hey." Ellie responded in the same tone.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, you just seem... off?" He told her, concern in his words as he tried to label how she had been coming across.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep."

They walked in silence for a few seconds.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" She responded a little snappier.

"Well that wasn't all too convincing." He huffed.

"I'm sorry, I'm just tired."

"I just... it can't... never mind." Eddie mumbled, in an attempt to formulate another question but not wanting to come across as needy.

"What were you going to say?" She asked, waiting for the inevitable conversation about how last night didn't mean anything.

"It's not because of what happened last night is it? Your mood?"

Here we go.

"Listen, if you don't want to talk about it, we don't have to." She said.

"Who said I don't want to talk about it?"

"You did. This morning."

"When?" He sounded genuinely confused at this point.

"When I asked if we should talk about it, and you said "talk about what?"." She mimicked his voice in a sarcastic way. "You knew damn well what, and obviously you didn't want to talk about it, otherwise you wouldn't have given me that response."

"Is this what all girls are like?" Eddie asked rhetorically.

"Don't go there." She responded.

"Who said that's what I meant by it?" He pressed, trying to ascertain where she got this idea that he was the problem in this situation.

"You literally told me you'd rather go to jail than spend time with me as "outlaws", and then you stopped anything from happening last night - which I have no issue with!" She held up her hands to make sure he knew she wasn't saying that she would've preferred him do something he didn't want to do, "And then this morning you left me for almost two hours, and didn't want to talk about what happened when I got back."

Eddie saw her perspective, "Oh my god you're such an idiot." he joked, although it probably wasn't the best thing to say in this situation, the smile on his face under the shadowed moonlight hinted to Ellie that maybe she hadn't thought things through correctly.

"What?" She asked.

"It's not that I'd prefer to go to jail than spend time with you, it's that I didn't want you to blame me, for you being branded as a murderer. It's hard to get someone to like you when you're the reason they're being chased by the cops." Eddie told her.

"You already knew I liked you."

"That's not the way I meant." He told her, a smirk on his face.

"Damn it Eddie, I'm so unbelievably socially withdrawn. I haven't really spoken to anyone my own age since..." She was going to say 'Billy', but she didn't. "Well, since forever. The only emotions I understand are sarcasm and anger. So, please. Please can you just tell me whether or not I'm stupid for doing what I did last night?" She stopped walking, creating an even bigger gap between themselves and the others.