ᴍᴇʟ | ᴇ. ᴍᴜɴsᴏɴ

xvi.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26TH 1986 | UPSIDE DOWN

eddie was surprisingly strong. he was able to run all the way to skull rock while still carrying melissa on his back. never once did he slow down because of the weight. when they arrived at skull rock, they all crouched down. eddie let melissa slide off his back and they sat down underneath one of the rocks, hoping it was able to cover them in case the bats were coming back.

when the swarm of bats flew past them, they decided they could come out and try to find their way out of the upside down again.

"oh... okay. that was close", robin said.

"yeah", agreed eddie, "too close."

next to her, melissa noticed steve having to lean against the rock in order to not fall down and it worried everyone, especially nancy.

"i'm fine", steve lied, "i'm fine."

"no. no, no, no. you're not. you're losing blood. come on, sit, sit. all right? all right", nancy said as she helped steve sit down.

steve took his hand off his wound and it looked... disgusting. nancy immediately ripped a piece of her shirt as robin noticed steve's wound.

"okay. so the good news here is that i'm pretty sure wooziness is not a common symptom of rabies. but, um, if you start having hallucinations or, or muscle spasms or you start feeling really aggressive, like you want to punch me or something, then you should totally let me know, okay?" robin blurted out.

"robin?" steve asked, "i kind of want to punch you."

robin laughed and smiled at her best friend.

"sense of humor's still intact. that's a good sign", she smiled.

nancy finished ripping the piece of clothing and was about to attach it to steve's waist, so melissa looked away, not wanting to see steve's (most likely) painful reaction and she turned her head into eddie's chest. he put one arm over her back and began rubbing it softly. she heard nancy asking steve if it was too tight, so she figured she didn't have to hide into eddie's chest anymore and she went to talk to robin, even though she had no idea what to say to her.

"hi", she softly said.

"hey", robin greeted back, "how are you?"

"hanging in there, i guess. you?"

robin sighed deeply.

"trying to. so, since when are you and eddie a couple?"

melissa's eyes widened and she immediately shook her head.

"no, no, no, no, no, no. we're not... he's not... we're not together. just... friends", melissa stated.

"really?" robin asked, "he looks totally, completely, utterly smitten with you."

melissa looked away from robin and looked at eddie, who was crawling on top of one of the rocks.

"eddie, be careful!" melissa shouted after him.

she looked back at robin, who was smirking down at her and had raised an eyebrow.

"not a couple, huh?"

"i just told him to be careful. that doesn't imply we're a couple", melissa spoke.

"yeah", robin said, "just like nance told steve to be careful."

melissa knew what robin was talking about and she looked at her feet in embarrassment. when eddie began to speak again, she looked back up at him.

"so, uh, this place is like hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?" eddie speculated.