Red Soul | Eddie Munson

𝕀. 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕖𝕖𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘

"You're so golden.
I'm out of my head."
╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

Will had barely been missing for two days, but it may as well have been two weeks. Time was moving slowly. Joyce was convinced he was still alive; she was losing her mind over it.

"I heard him breathing over the phone!" she screamed at Jonathan, who sat in the kitchen with her. I stayed in my room, unsure if I should comfort her.

I hadn't slept since I woke up on November 7th to Joyce panicking because Will hadn't come home. We had been looking for him for over twenty-four hours.

I needed sleep. I needed my headache to lessen; for this empty, sick pit in my stomach to leave me alone if only for a few minutes.

I found myself biking over to Reefer Rick's house. He's a known drug dealer in our town, and I figured that maybe the best way to get my nerves to subside for just a little while would be to get high.

I brushed my hair out of my face and mustered up the courage to knock on his door. No one answered for a minute or two.

As I turned on my heel to leave, the door opened. "Can I help you?"

"Oh, hi," I said, nervously. I studied the guy in front of me. He appeared to be my age. His dark hair was longish, untamed. He was wearing a slightly too big denim jacket with a bunch of pins on it. "Are you... Rick?"

"Nah, Rick is doing a deal right now," he told me. "Is there anything I could do for you?"

"No, that's okay..." I stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "Do you have any weed?"

He gave me a cheeky smile. "Of course I have weed. Come on in."

He held the door open for me and I slid past him into the house. The door led into the living room, which was honestly pretty well kept, aside from the drugs scattered all over the coffee table and the lingering smell of weed in the air.

"You want a beer or anything?" he asked, walking past me to the kitchen.

"Um, could I have a water?" I twiddled my thumbs as I spoke. I felt like a nervous wreck.

"Sure."

He returned with a beer for himself and a water for me. I took a small sip, my stomach growling as soon as the water hit it. I hadn't ate since dinner on the 6th. Joyce tried to give me the breakfast she had cooked for everyone before realizing Will was gone, but I couldn't just sit there and eat while she went to the police station alone since Jonathan had already gone to school.

We sat in silence for a moment, which was surprisingly not awkward. He was the one to break it. "I'm Eddie Munson, by the way."

I debated on telling him who I was for a moment, but decided to say it. "Julie Byers."

"Shit, are you that Byers' kid's sister?" Eddie asked. "No wonder you're looking for some weed. I'm sorry about that, man. Must be hard."

"Cousin," I corrected him. "Yeah, it's, uh, been pretty tough."

"You doing okay?" he asked.

It was in that moment that I realized no one had asked me if I was okay. It's not that I expected anyone to; Joyce and Jonathan were much more important to worry about. But Eddie asking me unleashed something deep inside me. It was like a dam broke. I felt a tear fall, then the next thing I knew I was a blubbering mess.

"Will wakes me up every morning and that morning he just didn't," I sobbed. "I knew in my bones that something was wrong. The house felt so empty and it still does. I hate being there right now, but I have to be. I just want him to come home. Even if he were to tell us he just played the greatest prank of all time." At some point, Eddie had moved beside me and put his arm around me, cupping my shoulder with his hand and rubbing it lightly with his thumb. I wiped my tears away on my sleeve. "God, I'm so sorry. You don't even know me. This is so weird, isn't it?"

"No, it isn't," he stated. "Sometimes you find the person you need to talk to in the most unexpected places."

"I just would not expect it to be Reefer Rick's house," I laughed through my subsiding tears.

"Could I take you somewhere?" he asked suddenly. "Not trying to be weird or anything. I just know a cool spot by the lake that no one else really knows about."

"Um..." I thought about it for a minute. "Yeah, okay."

Eddie stood up, pulled me off the couch, slipped something from the coffee table into his jacket pocket, and smiled. "Follow me."

We walked well off the beaten path through the woods by Lovers Lake. It was only about a ten minute walk from Reefer Rick's, but it was a bit hard with all the fallen branches and piles of wet leaves from the recent rain we've had. It was worth it though.

Eddie led us to a very small, private beach. It was most likely a 10 foot by 10 foot section, but it was perfect for two people not wanting to be bothered.

He plopped down in the sand and I followed suit. "Nice, right?"

"Really nice," I admitted. "Did you, like, bring me out here to murder me? It is kind of secluded."

He laughed. "I'm definitely not a murderer. Just a guy trying to share his secret spot with a girl who needs it."

He pulled a joint and a lighter out of his pocket and lit it. He puffed on it a few times before handing it to me. I took it with a trembling hand.

"Nervous?" he asked.

"More like malnurished," I half-joked. "I haven't eaten anything since Will went missing."

"This will get you ready to snack," he smiled.

I took a hit of the joint and coughed as the smoke filled my lungs. I felt my nerves calm almost immediately. "Oh. Oh, that's wonderful."

We sat and smoked in silence for awhile before I realized I had seen Eddie around school. "You're in that Dungeons and Dragons club, aren't you?"

"Guilty," he said, spinning the ring on his finger around.

"Will loves that game," I told him. "I've been letting him teach me because it makes him happy, but he's twelve. Not the best at explaining, you know?"

"We have a meeting tomorrow if you'd want to sit and watch," Eddie offered.

"No," I said immediately. Eddie raised an eyebrow, taken aback by my abruptness. "Sorry, I mean, I don't want to learn it without Will. And I know he'll come back because that little twerp isn't done teaching me."

"I get it," he said. "One day you'll have the pleasure of joining the club then."

I noticed the sun beginning to set and I checked my watch. I'd been gone for over an hour. "Shit, I have to go."

Eddie stood up and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet effortlessly. "I'll walk you back. But don't forget this."

He pulled another joint out of his pocket and handed it to me. "How much do I owe you?"

He waved me off. "On the house."

We walked back to my bike and he stood there as I hopped on it, hands in his back pockets. I bit my lip. "Thank you for being so nice to me."

Eddie shook his head. "Don't mention it. Listen, as soon as you find Will, we're all going to celebrate with a game of Dungeons and Dragons together, alright?

"Sounds like a plan."

I smiled at him and began the bike ride to my house. The wind on my face felt freeing as I went as fast as I could. I recklessly coasted down hills and took my hands off the handle bars. I felt better than I had in days. I had hope again that Will would return and everything would go back to normal. I smiled the whole way home until I turned the corner.

Police cars filled the driveway, their red and blue lights flashing across our house and the trees.