Infatuation | Eddie Munson

27- Very Metal Of You

~

I walked slightly unsteadily due to my injured leg as we weaved through the forest, the atmosphere cold and eery.

"Couldn't we have tried a road, or something just slightly less creepy?" Robin complained as the group followed Nancy's lead.

"I think we're getting close. We're almost out of here. Don't worry," Nancy sighed in an attempt to reassure the girl.

I walked alongside Eddie, the boy acting weird and quite distant than usual. We walked in mostly silence, getting short answers or blatantly shut down when trying to talk to him.

"Hey, Eddie, is some-"

I was interrupted as we heared a whisper-shout and approaching footsteps coming from behind us, "Eddie! Florence! Wait up." Eddie turned around, his hands shoved snugly into his pockets.

"Eddie. Hey, man, uh... Listen, I just, uh... I just want to say thanks to both of you. For saving my ass back there," Steve said as he walked beside the boy.

"Shit. You saved your own ass, man. I mean, that was a real Ozzy move you pulled back there," Eddie said in reply.

"Ozzy?" Steve asked bewilderedly.

"When you took a bite out of that bat... Ozzy Osbourne? Black Sabbath? He bit a bat's head off onstage-"

"I don't-"

"You know?"

Steve looked at him, shaking his head. "No-"

"Doesn't matter."

"All he's saying is that what you did was very metal of you," I explained. "Eddie, you seriously thought this guy would know Black Sabbath?" I pointed to Steve who was looking at me with a befuddled expression.

"I'm surprised you know of Black Sabbath," Eddie retaliated.

"I mean, you only mentioned them a few hundred times," I exaggerated.

He eyed me suddenly before averting his attention back to Steve, "Anyway, very metal of you."

"Thanks..."

"Henderson told me you were a badass. Insisted on the matter, in fact " Eddie suddenly brought up.

"Henderson said that?"

"Oh yeah. Shit. Kid worships you dude. Like, you have no idea. It's kinda annoying, to be honest."

In response, Steve gave a smug grin.

"I don't even know why I care what that little shrimp thinks, but uh, guess I got a little jealous, Steve," he said as the two boys looked at each other. "I guess I couldn't accept the fact that Steve Harrington was actually... a good dude."

Steve listened as he spoke, "Rich parents, popular, chicks love him. Not a douche? No way, man. No way. That like, flies in the face of all the laws in the universe, and my own personal Munson doctrine."

Steve didn't respond as Eddie leant closer towards him, "Still super jealous as hell, by the way."

Steve laughed, pushing him away. "Which is why I would never have jumped in that lake to save your ass, not under any, uh... normal circumstances."

"Yeah, we were panicking. I don't really know why I'm here right now..." I sighed, looking at the dark setting that surrounded me.

Suddenly, the crunch of a branch and a loud drawn out growl could be heard in the distance as Steve pointed his flashlight towards the noise. I immediately moved my hand tightly onto Eddie's arm, and I kept it there as we continued to walk.

"Nope... Outside of D&D, I am no hero," he explained with an exhale. "I see danger and I just turn heel and run." As he said this, he slowly shifted his arm so that my hand lost its grip around it. "Or at least that's what I've learned about myself this week."

I slowly moved my hand back to my side. What was that about? Though his gesture felt like a sting in the heart, I forced myself to try brush it off and figured I'd just been too clingy.

"Give yourself a break, man," Steve said, hitting Eddie's chest with the back of his hand as the shaggy haired boy pointed into the distance.

"See?" He said, causing them both to come to a halt. "The only reason I came in here was 'cause those ladies came in straight after you. Now, I was too ashamed to be the one who stayed behind, but Wheeler right there, she didn't waste a second. Not one second..."

Eddie continued to talk to Steve as he looked over at Nancy, and I decided to continue walking. In attempts to catch up with the girls, several thoughts ran through my head. Was Eddie tired of me already? Did I do something wrong? My head was foggy and I could hear sticks crunching underneath my converse as I walked through the uncanny forest.

Abruptly, the ground began to rumble again and I fell back into a tree next to me. The deafening sound of the ground shaking filled my ears, but I could hear Robin begin to scream Nancy's name as she ran swiftly into the distance.

"Nancy!" I screamed as she ran with no explanation.

"Nancy! Where are you going?" Robin called.

The thunder was louder than ever as I ran towards her unsteadily, Robin slightly in front of me, my wound still causing excruciating pain as I ran, but I was quickly learning to deal with it.

I quickly came to a quick stop behind Nancy, Eddie and Steve following behind as I stared into the distance.

In the distance, a double story house was illuminated by the bright red lightning, causing me to immediately guess that we had found our way to Nancy's home.

"Come on," she said as she picked up her pace again and we quickly followed.

We walked through the dead grass as the home became closer and clearer in our vision. The roof and walls were of course covered in vines, and it looked as if it hadn't been visited in decades. We brushed past the dead, leafless trees until we were faced with the front door.

Nancy sighed before pushing the door straight open and walking inside, followed by Steve, then the rest of us. As expected, the interior looked deserted and what was likely the home that the girl had lived in her whole life, was covered from head to toe in the vines.

"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler," Robin joked as we looked around in silence.

The door creaked as Eddie shut the door behind him. "Come on. I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to."

I followed behind Eddie as the group trotted up the deserted-looking stairs, and just as I turned the corner, Steve came to a halt, shining the torch back down to the floor. As the rest of the group followed Nancy upstairs, I turned around to face the boy.

"What's up?" I asked hesitantly as I looked behind the railing to where he was staring. He put a finger to his lips as he listened.

As he furrowed his eyebrows, the torch shining down onto the room downstairs, a faint voice could be heard, the voice I knew too well at this point.

"Dustin..." I whispered.

~
1171 words

it may not seem like a lot but the fact that this story now has 30k reads is rly cool to me so i rly appreciate it ❤️

also ik a few of u are probably hoping for smut so don't be disappointed that it hasn't happened yet bc it'll come eventually i promise
(don't expect too much tho 💀)