timeless melody ↝ eddie vedder

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞

We walk into the video store and head straight towards the 'Musicals' section. After a moment of looking, I find the tape. I grab it out of its place on the shelf and hold it up in triumph.

"A-ha!"

Eddie just laughs at me.

We take the tape up to the register and rent it using my membership card. Eddie holds the door open for me when we leave.

"So, do you wanna watch it now or..." He trails off, waiting to hear what I have to say.

"Yes." I try to contain my excitement.

Rocky Horror is on of my favourite movies. I watched it in the cinema when it came out, and it completely changed the trajectory of my life.

"But first we have to go to the grocery store."

"For what?" He frowned a little.

"Candy, and popcorn and stuff." I say it like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Mainly because to me, it is. He just smiled and nods.

The walk to the grocery store is relaxed, and easy, which is a nice change to my usual hyper self awareness around Eddie. Every now and then I try and steal a glance at him out of the corner of my eye. Once or twice we make eye contact and I blush, embarrassed at being caught.

The last time that I look at him, we fully make eye contact, and I quickly turn my head fully to the left, looking out at the traffic on the road, instead of at him. I hear him chuckle and I can feel myself blush even more. I do my best to keep the conversation going, and move on from the fact that I was caught staring.

"Am I ever gonna get to see that picture of you in front of the Space Needle?"

He looked caught off guard, "You really wanna see it?"

"I would love to see it."

"Well, I'd love to show it to you."

I look over at him again and when we make eye contact, I don't look away. Without even realising it we had stopped walking. A faint smile was placed on his lips.

And then, out of no where, my mind betrays me, and my thoughts land straight on Nick. My brain knows that it's over, and that it should have been over a long time ago, but I still feel wrong for entertaining the thought of Eddie; the romantic, and, to be honest, sexual, thought of Eddie.

"Um..." I clear my throat as I move my eyes up to his eyes from his lips. "We should go to the grocery store. Before it gets too busy."

He looks surprised. Clearly I've just killed a moment. "Oh. Yeah, sure."

I'm the first one to start walking again, and he follows, not too far behind me.

●・○・●・○・● ●・○・●・○・●

Juno unlocked the door and stepped to the side to let me in. We did that weird there's-only-room-for-one-person-in-the-doorway-shuffle, and once we had both somehow gotten past the doorframe she shut the door behind us and locked it.

"What should I do with these?" I held up the shopping bags. One had the VHS in it, and the other had the snacks.

"The living rooms fine. I'm gonna go get changed, but I'll be quick." She spoke as she was already walking backwards.

"Sure." I gave her the most genuine smile that I could.

I stood still until I finally heard her bedroom door close. When I finally did hear it, I let out a deep breath that I had been holding in as I threw my head back to face the ceiling.