Hopper and Joyce let them have Eddie's party at the cabin.
It is a very begrudging allowance, one that they only earned through triple-promising not to drink. Hopper is still suspicious of Eddie, staring at his rings and his fangs like he doesn't entirely trust him, but Eddie is so over-the-top friendly to him to overcompensate that it seems like he's slowly but surely winning him over.
It doesn't hurt that Joyce and him are clearly going through a kind of middle-aged romantic reawakening of the ages, honestly less subtle with their glances and "errands" than Eddie and Steve are. Eddie and Steve are doing their best to be discreet about it because it's still kind of new (and Steve is still partially working through his identity stuff), but sometimes he feels like everybody can tell based on the sheer amount of time they spend together and the way Eddie constantly forgets himself and flirts so mercilessly that it drives him quite noticeably insane, making him lurch towards him and laugh in weird half-cackles that make Dustin stare at him like he's genuinely concerned.
In any case, the cabin is secured, and when they finally get off work for the night Steve takes Robin to go pick up Eddie, drumming his fingertips on the steering wheel in something like excitement. He'd almost forgotten what it feels like to not be crushed by worry at every possible moment. They swing by to grab Vickie on the way, who brought a wrapped VHS for Eddie despite Steve's ability to bring him basically any movie. She must think he'll really like it, but she won't tell them what it is.
When Steve goes inside to grab Eddie, he's asleep again, everything around him exactly the same as it'd been that morning. Steve moves to wake him up, poking him and making fun of him for sleeping through his entire birthday, but Eddie's eyelids are flickering rapidly, his face twisted up. Steve watches him for a moment, trying to figure out if he's alright, and he thrashes slightly, croaking out something that sounds an awful lot like "No!"
Steve gently wakes him up, hand shaking his shoulder, and Eddie's eyes shoot open, his hands moving up in a defensive position.
"Hey, it's alright, it's just me." Steve says, moving to sit next to him on the couch. "Are you okay?"
"I..." Eddie slowly seems to take stock of his surroundings, of Steve, his chest heaving underneath his thin t-shirt. "Yeah, I'm okay."
"Nightmare?" Steve asks, hand moving to land on his knee.
"Y-yeah, something like that." Eddie says, shaking his head like he's trying to clear it.
"Do you remember it?"
Eddie's eyes shoot to the side, a quick movement that Steve almost doesn't notice, then he shakes his head. "....No. Something to do with one of O'Donnell's algebra tests, probably." He forces a smile.
"Yeah?" Steve asks, skeptical.
"Yeah." Eddie pushes forwards to stand and moves to the bathroom without saying anything else. When he comes out again his eyes are artfully smudgy instead of drunk-passed-out smudgy and his rings and jacket are back on, and he seems much more like himself, less shaken up and more excited. "So!" He says, dropping to the floor to pull on his boots and putting on an exaggerated burnout voice. "Party time?"
Steve sneaks a few looks to Eddie on the journey over, but he looks normal, tapping his knee to the music and chatting with Vickie, so he decides to brush it off, and by the time they're at the cabin Steve is excited again, covering Eddie's eyes as he drags him inside even though it isn't a surprise party and he's pretty sure nobody did any decorating.
Everybody jumps out at him when he uncovers Eddie's eyes anyway, though. Eddie grins and immediately makes for the tape player, holding up a hand to signal for them to wait and pulling four different tapes out of his pocket until he grabs the right one, popping it in, running outside, and making everybody react to him coming in a second time with a backing track of Judas Priest to add to the flare.
