𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐑

𝟐. 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐛

"𝙒𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪
𝘼𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙧,
𝙏𝙪𝙧𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙤𝙣 𝙈𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚.
𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙪𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙."

⬻ 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘛𝘰 𝘙𝘶𝘭𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 - 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 ⤖

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟏𝟒𝐭𝐡, 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟔

"She said she'd do it."

Mike's first words as he sits down at the lunch table make Eddie's head snap up and his fingers stop twitching. He paused from fumbling with his thick silver rings to glance between Mike and Dustin, who both looked equally smug.

"You're serious?"

"Dead serious." Dustin adjusts his cap, looking especially proud of himself for his little performance in the parking lot. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Yeah, yeah, great. Thanks," Eddie slapped Dustin on the shoulder dismissively and craned his neck to catch a glimpse of you sitting down with your gaggle of friends at the table below the auditorium stage, right underneath the window that always seemed to catch the midday sun and make a halo of golden light glow around your head.

The Babysitter prisses sat as far away from the Hellfire geeks as physically possible.

Eddie chewed methodically on his bottom lip, not caring that he was seconds away from breaking the skin. He continued to eye you as he spoke down to his lowerclassman disciples. "Did she say anything else?"

"She–uh..." Mike's confident smile faltered and he shot a nervous side-eye at Dustin, who only shrugged. "No, not...not a lot."

Mike and Dustin owed their lives to you four times over. Once for hitting Billy Hargrove with your car, twice for memorizing the number for poison control after they dared each other to drink the liquid inside of their glowsticks (for science, they assured you), and once for getting them into Hellfire Club.

On the grander scale, they were no different from the other nerdy freshman struggling to navigate the hallways of Hawkins High School. Two lost little sheep in a very large, very crowded pasture. The only thing that made them stand out in the slightest was that they were friends with you, the senior. The shepard. 

It immediately put them at the top of Eddie Munson's list because he just so happened to have been obsessed with you since your junior year. So he, the wolf, wasted no time rounding them up and beckoning them to the table at the furthest end of the cafeteria where all of his other collected misfits sat waiting. At first he hoped you would come looking for them, maybe give him a chance to lure you out of the status quo. But you never did what anyone ever expected of you, and Eddie felt like an idiot for forgetting that.

Mike and Dustin knew it was wrong, but they still traded every little bit of information they had about you for advantages in Hellfire. Your favorite slushie flavor bought them both an extra roll during a boss fight. The name of your favorite band gave Dustin five minutes on Eddie's beloved throne. When Mike presented him with your favorite color, he got to be dungeon master for a whole session.

At the end of the day, they knew that they should have felt bad about it, but they couldn't bring themselves to stop. No harm, no foul. It's not like they were helping Eddie to stalk you or anything, right?

Right?

Eddie stood up from his seat at the head of the table. "This is it, boys," he grinned, sneakers squeaking as he sauntered into the center aisle of the cafeteria. He had his arm reached out in your direction, a single ringed finger curled as if he could somehow beckon you closer. "When we get back from break, that girl right there is going to be sitting right here next to me."

Everyone glances down at where he's pointing at Gareth's seat at the right of Eddie's usual spot. Suddenly aware of the attention, Gareth gulped and shifted slightly to the left to make room for your hypothetical ass.

Your laughter catches Eddie's attention and his face goes slack as the sound washes over him. One of your friends must have told a joke because you're biting back a smile as you fiddle with the pink straw poking out of your soda can.

You're gorgeous – he's always thought that. But all he can think about right now is how much happier you would be with him and the rest of Hellfire. All those girls you called your friends were fakes and he could see that even from fifty feet away.

You weren't anything like that; fake. And putting on that little good girl act of yours didn't count. No, Eddie could respect all of the efforts you put into making people believe that you were harmless. No parent in Hawkins would let you anywhere near their children if they knew where you spent your Friday nights — with him in the woods behind the school, blowing half of your babysitting earnings on pot. Sometimes you would even pay him back with magic brownies or cookies or whatever you felt like baking that week.

Not all of his clients made edibles for him. Especially not ones so good that he thought twice before engulfing the whole thing in one bite. No, Eddie decided a long time ago that you were more than just one of his clients. Or a girl that he was creepily obsessed with. You were his girl. He just had to help you see that.

You glanced up quickly and quirked an eyebrow at the little side-stepping dance he was doing. He's done worse things in vies for your attention, but Eddie still welcomes it with a deep bow, ignoring how nearly every other table was eyeing him strangely. The pins on his vest jingled and he watched through his matted bangs as you pretended to curtsey in response.

It was subtle enough that your little friends didn't even notice, too absorbed in their own shallow conversations, but it was all that Eddie could think about for the rest of the lunch period; even after you tuned back into the drama of who was dating who and what couples would be going to the spring break party this weekend.

"Class of '86, baby," Eddie grinned, canines flickering under the fluorescent cafeteria lights. He banged his fist against the table like a gavel, startling the boys sitting there. "You boys just watch. This is gonna be my year."

(A/N: I can't find my laptop so i'm uploading this on mobile. Hope it doesn't severely mess up the formatting of this chapter. This is super short but i really like it because of eddie <3 thanks so much to everyone reading this book! i'm excited to keep updating it!! happy reading! Second A/N: Found my laptop! Went back and fixed a lot of stuff and added a few more paragraphs!)