Lover's Lake | Eddie Munson

08

// heavy-ish themes, brief mention of physical assault

As she walked to the bus stop right outside of Loch Nora, Ann was surprised to see a familiar van on the way there. Smiling, she walked up to the car a bit faster and crouched under the window, trying to be sneaky.

"EDDIE" the girl yelled, slamming her hand against the window and from inside, the long-haired boy jumped, almost hitting the car's horn.

At his reaction, the girl burst out laughing, turning her back to the window and leaning on the car, holding her stomach because of how much she was laughing. From inside, she could hear Eddie giggle slightly as he rolled down the window and stuck his head out.

"That's not very nice, Hopkins. I came to pick you up and this is how you repay me? How ungrateful!" he said, pretending to take offense as he ran a hand through his hair, "come on, hop in."

The girl calmed down and walked to the passenger side, dropping her bag in the backseat before climbing in her seat. "That was so funny. Didn't take you for the jumpy kind."

Eddie grumbled as he put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb "yeah yeah, whatever" he said, a smile on his face, "How are you?"

"I'm good, why?" she answered him, stiffening slightly when she remembered what happened with her dad the night prior.

He glanced at her as he turned a corner and sighed, "are you sure? Why are you holding your arm like that?"

The girl frowned as she let go of her arm and looked outside of the car, "It's nothing, don't worry about it." she said, trying to brush Eddie off.

"Hey, don't get upset. You know you can talk to me, right?" he said, a little bit more seriously now.

"it's just my dad." She said, picking at her fingers now, "he's being... difficult."

"You look like you live a perfect life, you know?" Eddie said quietly, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel "a total uptown girl, big house, fabulous hair, rich parents all that stuff."

"I mean, if it's up to debate I think you have the fab hair, Eddie." Ann said, glancing at him.

"Right?" Eddie replied with a laugh. "But then I get to see the behind the scenes, somehow? And it's crazy to me, that you don't actually have that picture perfect life."

For a couple of seconds, there was silence. The music was playing at such a low volume you could barely hear it, and Eddie's window was opened just a little bit, to let some wind in.

But Eddie broke the silence. "Does he hit you?" he asked her, completely serious now.

Ann didn't answer. And she realized then that Eddie Munson was a lot more perceptive than he let on. He had this big bad persona, playing into the "freak" reputation he had but he was truly a nice person.

"Ann?" he asked again, now pulling into the parking lot to the school, trying to find a spot to park in.

"yeah" she said, tracing her fingers over the fingerprint bruises on her arm, "he didn't before, but now... I think he believes it'll make me listen, or something."

Eddie gritted his teeth and reached for his comically empty bag and rummaged through it, pulling out a pen.

"Give me your hand, I would have written this on paper, but I don't have any." He said, holding his hand out.

Ann squinted at him and held out her hand, letting him grab it. He pulled the cap of and hunched over a little, scribbling something on her hand before letting it go.

She glanced at what he wrote and looked back at Eddie, confused.

"This is my trailer's number. I'm not always there but it's probably the easiest way to reach me. If anything happens, call the line. No matter when." He told her "Careful, don't smudge your clothes. Write it down later and like, go wash your hands or something."

The girl looked at him and smiled "Thanks ed, this actually means a lot."

Eddie rolled his eyes and smirked, "whatever, miss, let's get going before the bell rings and this thing turns back into a pumpkin."

"what's with you and the Cinderella references?" she said, pretending to be annoyed as she smiled. 

*"Author's note"*

i've been really busy with school and life and stuff i couldn't post for a little while! this isn't proofread AT ALL! so sorry about mistakes here and there

We are at 1.4k reads and it just sounds insane to me! thank you to everyone who's read this story!