Baby metalhead

bats

Eddie and Dustin walked back from the trailer to look at their work, the house now looking more like a jail with all the metal fences surrounding it.

„Not bad" Eddie grinned, making Dustin look at him.
„Not bad at all" he responded, watching Eddie chuckle and hit him playfully.

„Now for the fun part" the metalhead grinned, running back into the trailer and into his room, followed by Dustin.

„Jesus Christ" he whispered, looking at his guitar hanging on the wall.
„It's like...she was destined for an alternate dimension."

He grabbed the instrument, which strings sung as they moved under his fingers.
„What do you say, are you ready for the most metal concert in the history of the world?" Eddie grinned.

„Is that a rhetorical question?" Dustin responded, looking up at Eddie, who swung the guitar strap over his head.

„Let's do it."
With that he quickly left the room, Dustin close after him.
They climbed onto the top of the trailer, Dustin helping Eddie to set up the electronic devices they would need to get the bats attention.

Once Dustin gave Eddie his okay to signalise him that he was done with the stereo, he sat down on the roof of the trailer, Eddie next to him.

„And now we wait for the others" he sighed, slightly strumming the strings of his guitar without a particular song in mind.

„Hey can I ask you something?" Dustin spoke up, and Eddie looked at him, putting the guitar down.

„Earlier, after you guys came back from the upside down, what happened to you? Was it the same thing as when we found you?" he muttered, trying not to make eye contact with the older.
Dustin didn't understand what had been going on but he still wanted to know what was wrong with his friend.

Eddie cleared his throat before answering.
„Well, yeah...sometimes my head kind of shuts itself off, and then I'm more of a three year old than twenty. I don't understand it, but Steve and Max just kind of went with it, and it helps" he tried to explain.
Dustin nodded slowly, turning his head over to look at Eddie.

„So it's like a coping mechanism?" he asked, and Eddie nodded.
They sat in silence for a little while longer, not knowing what to say.

Eddie played his guitar again, not liking the feeling of the uncomfortable silence. Maybe Dustin wasn't uncomfortable, but the brunette didn't like sitting with people without talking.

It was one of the reasons he always kept conversations going, bouncing from one topic to another, avoiding silence falling over the group he was in.

Now he softly played the intro of Master of Puppets, a song he had newly learned since one of his favourite bands recently released it.
It was then that he decided that was the song he was going to play to distract the bats, thinking it would be the perfect setting to finally put his musical understanding to good use.

It hadn't took him long to learn how to play the guitar, since he genuinely wanted to, but even after, he only had to listen to a song for a few hours until he could play along almost perfectly.
Eddie was very proud of this kind of talent he had, but he didn't have chances to show it off a lot, besides when playing with his band.

Eddie let his mind wander over to his boyfriend, who was so different from himself.
The guy was rich, well known and positively so. And still, he spent his time with someone as different from himself as Eddie.

And the metalhead didn't understand why, but he was thankful for the chance he had been given, to redeem himself and stop being a coward who ran away at every sight of danger.