MONEY, MONEY, MONEY || EDDIE MUNSON

|| #8: comfort place ||

Kathy could've kissed Eddie right then and there. As soon as they'd pulled up to the mystery location, Kathy started squirming in her seat like an excited toddler about to get a new toy.

The place they'd ended up was the arcade, Kathy's comfort place other than the Hawkin's High library.

It was almost a polar opposite of what Kathy loved about the library, actually. The library was quiet, a place where she could unwind even if she didn't have her head stuck in a book.

But the arcade waas so flashy, constantly exploding neon lights from green, to red, to purple, to blue, and a blinding yellow.

What drew Kathy to it was the smiles on everyone's faces, the focused gaze someone had on a claw machine even if it was clearly rigged, or when a keychain was right on the edge of a 2-quarter machine.

It was a place where you could totally lose yourself, a place to unwind, and that's why Kathy loved it.

She never went there often, though. She would always spend way too much money and it would often go to waste, like the time she'd spent $20 trying to get a plushie of a lamb from one of the claw machines and failed miserably.

She always beat herself up for that, that $20 could've gone towards at least 4 milkshakes.

"Must've picked the right place, you're practically jumping outta your seat, sweetheart." Eddie teased beside her, but she couldn't help it, she was so excited. "Let's move before you start drooling." He spoke once again.

She couldn't help but smile as he ran to the opposite side of the van to open the door for her. "Such a gentleman, Munson." She grinned, and he happily returned it.

"Just for you, babe." Once the pair were safely grounded they set off to the place full of childhood gambling and wasted money.

When the entered, the girl noticed the blue tinted lights highlighted Eddies face perfectly. He was beautiful anyway, but this was the icing on the cake. They'd have to come her more often just so she could stare at him.

"What do you wanna do first, sweets?" Eddie asked, wrapping his arm around hers with a wide smile.
"Wanna see if you can beat me at Donkey Kong, pretty boy." She said with an evil smirk.

"Oh, you're on, Hopper!" And with that the pair rushed off through the arcade. It was late, so they didn't have to wait to use any of the machines, which would have definitely crushed Kathy's spirit.

They went from game to game, Kathy got a higher score at Donkey Kong, naturally. Eddie beat Kathy at Frogger, doing an impressively good ribbit in victory.

Kathy absolutely wiped the floor with Eddie at Pac-Man, rubbing it in his face with "how'd you like them pellet's? " When Eddie beat Kathy at Centipede, she threw a tantrum. She complimented herself on being amazing at Centipede, put he kept talking. Calling her sweetheart and Princess, it's enough to distract anyone, right?

"Ok, one more game to decide the winner!" Kathy insisted after her embarrassing loss.
"Sore loser, Princess?" The boy in front of her asked cheekily.

"No! I just think leaving an even number of games isn't fair, we can't decide a winner that way because we both won two." She explained, really she was a sore loser, but she'd never admit that.

"Alright Kathleen, you're on. What're we playing?" He asked with a smile. His last win had made him unbearably cocky, she needed to take him down a notch.

"Claw machine." She said bluntly.
"You wanna put the last round on a game of chance?" He asked as if she was crazy, taking their little game very seriously.