Runnin' with the Devil

Date with the Drug Dealer

[1598 words]
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An alarm blared from your dark wood bedside table causing you to groan and roll to your side. You squinted your eyes open and gave another groan at the sight of the clock, October 31st, 1984, 10:33 a.m., the alarm still blaring in your ears as you attempted to come to. The red numbers on the small screen, though dim, still hurt your tired eyes as you shifted your arm to turn off the godforsaken alarm. You took a moment to allow your eyes to adjust to the dimly lit room around you then glared holes into your Spartus Comet II alarm clock that had just finished screaming at you not moments ago.
You would admit that you were grateful for it being able to wake you, even though the sound it made was god awful. You were grateful it was able to complete its job quickly, even if it took you a minute or two to really wake up, especially on days such as this.
You had a date with your drug dealer of all people and the dream you had just awoken from was part of the reason you agreed to it in the first place. The other part being that it wasn't an actual date, you were just invited to, Steve Harrington's friend, Tina's party and somehow Eddie is now accompanying you to it.

  The dream. It just kept replaying in your head as you lifted yourself from your bed and moved to open the black curtains that hung over a window on the opposite side of your room, so you could neglect turning on any lights. That dream was just one of many you've had since you moved to Hawkins and started going to Eddie "The Freak" Munson for your fix. Though, you can't quite remember how you found out about him selling drugs as the information got lost in a haze awhile ago.

  Pushing your thoughts aside you turned from your now illuminated window to your bedroom. Your eyes caught themselves flickering over your walls that were plastered in various rock, metal, and heavy metal band posters before scanning over your floor. It was relatively clean with only a few piles of clothes here and there, as well as a guitar case which laid open to show a shiny, black, acoustic, guitar decorated with a small amount of skull and white rose themed stickers. The one sticker that stood out the most laid at the head of the guitar, partially covering the print that signified that the guitar was a Martin D-35. It was the only one that wasn't explicitly on theme as it was a red leviathan cross which paid homage to the name you gave the guitar, Leviathan. You took a moment to admire your darling guitar before a single thought popped into your head that caused you to rush around your room to find decent clothes to wear.

  Eddie wants to grab a bite to eat and hang out a little just the two of you before Tina's party. Sure, you had done this with him plenty of times before but all those times you were both drugged up and hardly talking to each other. You hardly knew the guy outside of the deals and your dreams about him. The most you knew about him outside of those things were either rumors, like him being a cult leader, or just things about the Hellfire Club he was a part of at the high school. You had to admit you did find it a little odd that he was at a high school for a DnD club made for high schoolers at his age, but then again you hardly knew the guy so perhaps there was an explanation for it. You didn't really know Eddie for Eddie, you knew the Eddie that everyone else saw, as well as your dream Eddie of course, so there had to be a reasonable explanation. That was why you had agreed to go hang with him one-on-one before your 'official' party date later that night.

  He had told you that he'd pick you up at 11:00 a.m., it was now 10:47 a.m. and you just started getting ready to go. From your deals with Eddie you knew he was almost always on time, early, or if he wasn't doing either of those he simply didn't show up at all. You were hoping he wasn't early, but your hopes were soon crushed when you heard a knock at your front door. You have a loud, exhausted sigh knowing you had no one else to open the door for him seen as you lived alone.

"Coming! Just hang on!"

  You called out as loud as you could as you hastily put on black, bell bottom, leggings and your band shirt you had cut up stylized to your liking. You had assumed your call was heard seen as the knocking had ceased and you quickly bolted out of your room. You quickly made your way down the small flight of stairs at the end of the hallway that contained only your bedroom and bathroom. Once reaching the end of the staircase you broke for the door, threw your hand on the door knob, and paused. You attempted to catch your breath as you slowly turned the knob, cracking the door, and peaking through the crack to make certain that it was Eddie at your front door.

"Miss me that much, huh?"

  You heard Eddie playfully tease from his spot leaning just left of the door frame where he was out of sight. He had clearly heard your labored breathing as you cracked open the door, which would explain his teasing. You rolled your eyes as you opened the door fully to be greeted by a smiling Eddie dressed in his usual Hellfire Club shirt, black, slightly baggy, jeans, leather jacket, and denim battle vest.

"You wish."

  You shoot back with a shit eating grin before stepping to the side and gesturing for him to come in. As he did, you noticed him eyeing your attire and came to the realization that he's never seen you in anything other than baggy sweatpants, hoodies, and maybe the occasional band shirt that you had yet to style. You never bothered to dress any other way when going to meet him for a deal seen as you found it pointless.

  A small huff of approval from Eddie pulled you from your thoughts and you finally closed the door as you turned to face him. He was now standing in your living room, leaning against the back of your lone, small, black, loveseat in the center of it. The edge of your small television peaked from behind his right arm. Eddie was now the one with the shit eating grin as his eyes fixated on your shirt, seemingly tracing each rip, tear, and cut you had made in it.

"Eyes are up here perv."

  You comment with a mischievous giggle following your remark, gesturing to your eyes as you did so. Pulling your arms across your chest, you pushed your weight onto your right leg as you eyed the reaction of the man before you.

  You noticed a slight red flush appear along his cheekbones as he nervously shifted his weight around. An arm that previously laid at his side, pressed against the loveseat behind him, was now hanging by his hand from his neck. The soft, brown, curls that sat there were now crushed beneath his tightly pressed fingers which caused the ends of it stick out slightly. A soft grumble emitted from his throat in attempt to clear it as his shit eating grin was replaced with an awkward smile.

"No— I wasn't— that's not what I was looking at. I just...really like what you did with the shirt is all."

  Eddie explained nervously before averting his gaze from yours to the floor, smile slowly fading from his expression. His hand left his neck, causing his light curls to bounce back to their original state. He shifted away from the loveseat and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, his eyes still glued to the floor beneath him.

  You offered up a soft chuckle to ease the tension that had fallen in the air. You couldn't help but feel a little disheartened at his reaction. You expected another sly, somewhat witty comment in return but instead he just seemed upset that he may have made you uncomfortable. Drawing in a deep breath, you glanced around the room to get your eyes away from him in hopes that it would allow him more comfort before speaking to him again.

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

  Your tone was soft so as to not add to his state of seemingly being upset with himself. Soon your eyes drifted back to Eddie, seeing his gaze was now away from the ground and planted on you once again. Fortunately he seemed less tense now as you offered up a gentle smile, which he returned.
"Well, I won't keep you here too much longer. I just need to grab a couple things and we can head out."
He gave an affirming nod to your statement as he moved to the door, leaning against the wall to the right of it. He gestured for you to go off and do whatever it was you needed to do with a look of 'I'm patient, take your time,' scrawled into his expression. With that, you are off to your room once more.