Until I Met You

Avoiding the Feelings

The bell rings at 12:00 for lunch. You have just finished fourth period, which is one of the periods you don't have with Eddie. People rush out of the classroom shoving you. You put your backpack in your locker and get your lunch. You walk into the cafeteria and look for Eddie. You walk around for about two minutes, then you feel a tap on your shoulder. You turn around and you see Eddie smiling at you.
"Hey, Y/n" He says in a soft voice.
"Hey Eddie. So where are we sitting?"
"Come with me." He grabs you by the arm and leads you through the cafeteria. You look down at the ground because you could feel yourself blushing. You keep telling yourself to not catch feelings. You can't catch feelings for someone you haven't even known for a whole day. He's just a friend. You try to avoid those feelings and you sit down at the table. He sits at the end of the table, while you are on his right.
"Eddie, since when have you been bringing cute girls to the "freaks" table." Says one of his friends. They all snicker.
"Cut it out guys. Her name is Y/n and it's her first day here. Try to not be jerks." He says to his friends.
"Y/n, these are my friends Mike, Dustin, Gareth, and Jeff. They are all also members of the Hellfire Club."
"What is the Hellfire Club?" You ask and all his friends look at you and give you a face.
"Oh it's just the best club at Hawkins High." Dustin says. "Eddie is our leader." You look at Eddie.
"You didn't tell me you were the leader of a club!" You tell him. He takes a dramatic breath.
"Oh well you know, I gotta stay humble." You chuckle.
"So what do you do anyways?"
"Well it's a club where we play Dungeons and Dragons. I know it sounds stupid, but we play intensely. It's a very serious club."
You try to hold in a laugh while Eddie keeps rambling about how "serious" D&D. You find it kind of cute how he rambles about things he's passionate about.
"The only downside is that people think we're a cult and we're trying to summon the devil or something." Mike chimes in. You look at Mike.
"But... it's literally a board game." You say, confused.
"Yea, but you know people always like to pick on us and make assumptions about us because we're the freaks. But..." Eddie stands up on the table.
"As long as you're into band or science or partiesss." You look up at him thinking, gosh, he's insane, but kind of in a good way.
"Or a GAME WHERE YOU TOSS BALLS INTO LAUNDRY BASKETS!" You all laugh and a boy on the basketball team stands up from across the room.
"You want something, freak?" The boy says. Eddie looks at him and makes a face and a weird noise.
"Prick" the boy says as he sits down.
"It's forced conforming." He jumps off the table in front of a girl.
"That's what's KILLING THE KIDS!!!" He sits back down. You look at Dustin, who's sitting next to you. You whisper to him.
"Is he like this all the time?" You ask.
"Oh yea. All day, every day." He says. You look at the ground and chuckle. Eddie looks at you.
"Sorry about that. I was having a moment." He says, smiling.
"No it's okay. I though it was funny." Suddenly, the bell rings.
"What class do you have now?" Eddie asks.
"Geometry."
"Okay, me too. Come with me. I don't want you getting lost in the crowd of kids." He says grabbing you're arm. He leads you out of the cafeteria and lets go when you get into the hall. You walk to your locker. The thoughts come back. Maybe you do like Eddie? No. No you don't want to get attached. You try to avoid the feelings and head to your next period.

The final bell rings at 3:00, and school is dismissed. You look around and you see Brittany.
"Hey, Brittany! How was your first day?"
"It was good!" This girl named Max gave me a tour and we became friends." Brittany smiles, and you can see true happiness on her face. "Did you make any friends?" She asks you.
"Yeah, I kind of became friends with this kid named Eddie." You say.
"Is he the one who toured you?" Brittany asks.
"Yeah, I was kind of scared to talk to him at first, but he's actually not what I thought he'd be like. He's super sweet."
"That's good." Brittany looks around. "Where's mom? Isn't she supposed to pick us up?" You look around too.
"She's probably drunk again. We need to find a ride home." You look around.
"Did you say you needed a ride?" You turn around and see Eddie. "I can drive."
"Oh thanks Eddie." You say and you follow him to his car. He helps you get into the front seat as Brittany gets in the back.
"Address?" He says. You give him the address.
"Oh I know that neighborhood! That's where Mike lives. It's next to to cafeteria right?" He asks.
"Yes it is."
"Okay then lets go." He turns on the radio and "Master of Puppets" starts playing. You guys stop behind a stop light.
"So what did you guys think of Hawkins High?" He asks.
"Oh my gosh I loved it! Max is super nice." Brittany says.
"and you, Y/n?" He turns to you.
"It was alright. Still miss my old school though. I miss my old friends a lot."
"Yea, we'll you can always hang out with me when you want." He says. You look at him and he looks at you. You guys stare at each other for a few seconds softly smiling. He gives you those eyes again. Those big brown eyes. You feel all warm inside again. It's the best feeling. The moment was interrupted when you heard a honk.
"Go the lights been green for a while!" Brittany says.
"Eddie looks away from you and starts driving again.
"Whoops." He says, laughing. You look out the window and think about what just happened for the rest of the ride home.

A few minutes later. Eddie arrives to your driveway. He gets and walks to the other side of the car. He opens the door for you and holds his hand out.
"M'lady" He says with a smile. You chuckle.
"Oh, what a gentleman!" You say as you grab his hand and hop out of the car. You can feel his rough skin and cold rings agains your hand. You hear muffled yelling from the backseat.
"HELLO?! IM STILL HERE!" Brittany says.
"Crap I forgot about her." Eddie says as he unlocks the back door. Brittany gets out and you both walk towards the house.
"Seeya tomorrow, Y/n!" Eddie waves and gets in his car. You wave back as he's about to drive away. You continue walking down the driveway with Brittany.
"Oooooo Y/n's got a boyfrienddd" Brittany says with a smirk.
"What? No, we're just friends." You say.
"Are you kidding? I saw the way you guys looked at each other and the way he helped you out of the car. He was so focused on you he forgot to unlock the door so I could get out."
"It's not like that. I haven't even known him for a whole day."
"Well, I guess you could say it was love at first sight."
You roll your eyes and head inside. You see your mom passed out on the couch.
"As I figured." You said as you picked up the empty beer bottles and threw them away. You head upstairs to start on your homework.
"Should I try to wake mom up?" Brittany says as you're walking up the stairs.
"Just let her be. It's been a rough couple days." You said. You get to your room and play Madonna on your radio as you do your homework. You can't help but think about what Brittany told you as you were walking past the driveway. Maybe you do like Eddie... maybe he does like you... you try to avoid those thoughts, but they are getting harder and harder to avoid. I mean, it kind of is impossible to avoid your true feelings.