Innocent | Eddie Munson x OC

Chapter 19

Eddie the banished and I, Milo the tagging-along, had made contact with the others shortly after the sun rose completely. They were making their way to our rock, and so Eddie and I stretched out. His outfit had mostly dried, his hair only frizzy now, rather than completely soaked down. I had become clodden in dirt, my blond highlights now a dingy brown, and having given up on preserving my nice clothes. I should have opted for a different type of attire on this adventure. It took longer than expected for the team to show up, but when they did I felt more excited to see them than I thought I would be. Eddie stumbled from our rocky perch to pick on Dustin, whose relief flooded his face immediately. They shared and hug, Eddie admitting he thought he was done for that time. I felt my heart dip a bit. Steve, too, seemed a little more excited to see me than I expected. I think seeing someone you'd grown up around again in this sort of situation- it felt nice.

"So you were hiding out," Steve smiled warmly. "Kinda thought you died after all that. Glad you didn't, Moore."

"Nope, I'm here, now, on the run," I smiled.

I gave him a hug as greeting, but to my surprise, Eddie coughed behind me, and we broke apart.

"Hey, man," Eddie greeted Steve- but I could detect something behind his tone. Something completely awkward.

Steve paused, looking between the two of us, as if waiting for Eddie to say anything more. He didn't though, just gave a pinched smile. Steve shrugged. "Uh, we brought you some more booze if you want to grab it,"

Steve gave me one more smile, which I returned, before retreating to converse with the others. I furrowed my brow at a very innocently feigning Eddie, recalling what he'd said to me not so long ago. "Are you really jealous right now, Eddie?"

He made an exasperatedly goofy face, about to deny, deny, deny.

"Because yeah, it is ridiculous." I warned playfully.

He said nothing, slowly backing up. Part of me bubbled in excitement at him being jealous over me- something I hadn't experienced in a while- but another part was annoyed. Hopefully this wouldn't be an ongoing thing. In any case, I was just proud of my callback to when he'd mentioned Chrissy- I maintain that I was rightfully jealous at the time, and using his words against him felt good. Maybe not for him, but I wasn't going to worry about that right now.

I rolled my eyes and stalked back to the group. He followed. Eddie had maintained a rather calm composure for quite a while, but it was beginning to crack. I realized, maybe, he'd been holding it up for me- being Vecna'd and all. But now, with everyone here, he was showing more and more signs of breakdown. I had detected quite a bit of wobble in his voice when he finally managed to contact the group through walkie-talkie, admitting he was very much "not okay." I'd neglected to look beyond my own experience that night- while I was fighting for my life, he was simultaneously fighting for his own. He was on the run and was nearly caught- saving me and himself in the process. It sucked, being so in my head sometimes. I felt like I completely let him down.

"We tried contacting you when we got to shore, but the walkie was busted, man. Drenched. So, uh," He chugged something from a flask, which I hoped was water- then offered it to me. Now I really hoped it was water. "I did the thing I do now. I ran."

His smile was forced, as if he were letting us in on an elaborate joke. His demeanor in front of his friends right now was entirely different from his demeanor in front of me. When we spoke, we were in our own little world. When they spoke, he was self inflicting and sarcastic. I couldn't help but furrow my eyebrows at him, as if asking, "really?" What else could he have done? What, really, could he have done? Part of me understood where he was coming from, feeling like I'd completely run from my problems the second I touched down in California. But as much as I'd come to detest that decision, I also have come to realize it necessary. I hoped he wouldn't dwell on this too much.