Y/N Wheeler is often the forgotten sibling. Always in the background, she grew up ensuring that everyone else's needs were met besides her own. When she meets Eddie "The Freak" Munson, he starts to show her what it's like being your unapologetic sel...
The next few days pretty uneventful. I spent time working on my English paper in hopes of taking my mind off of Eddie. It only kind of worked. After school on Thursday, I decided to head to the Hawkins Library to get some resources for my paper. As I was searching through books, I heard that familiar phrase that I was starting to grow used to, "Hey, other Wheeler". I swear my heart skipped a beat. I turned my head and saw Eddie looking at my with a toothless smile.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I gave Eddie a questioning look. "Eddie? What are you doing here?"
"Sorry, I didn't realize I wasn't allowed to be in the public library." Eddie teased.
I let out a quiet laugh. "That's not what I meant. I just meant, what are doing here, talking to me?"
Eddie studied my face for a bit. I wondered what he was thinking. "Just being polite and saying hello to my friend's sister. I was browsing the fantasy section when I saw you and figured I should say hi." He finally added.
"I didn't know you read." I said trying to continue the conversation.
"There's a lot about me you don't know." Eddie said with a smirk while gazing into my eyes.
My heart starting racing. Is Eddie Munson flirting with me?! Me being the awkward and quiet person I am, I had no idea how to respond to this. I settled on, "I'm sure there is" and turned back to the bookshelf.
Eddie watched me for a few more moments before saying goodbye. "Well I'll leave you to it. See you later, other Wheeler." And with that, he walked back over to the fantasy section of the library.
I tried to stay focused on finding the info I needed for my paper, but the fact that Eddie kept glancing over at me made it very difficult. We would make eye contact, but then he would look away quickly with a little smirk on his face. I decided that he wasn't going to continue to distract me so I shut my book and marched over to him.
"Can you not?" I asked him accusatorily.
"What?" Eddie asked innocently.
"You know. The looking and the smirking. Stop, it's irritating and distracting." I asserted.
"Well if you don't like it, then stop looking at me, you're just as guilty as I am." Eddie rebutted.
And with that, I felt my cheeks get hot with embarrassment. He was right, I was looking at him just as much as he was looking at me. I tried to find words to respond with, but fell short. Eddie just looked at me with a knowing grin. Without saying goodbye, I grabbed my things and started to head out of the library.
I heard quick feet behind me and then felt a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, I'm sorry." Eddie said apologetically while turning me to face him. "I didn't mean to upset you, I thought we were having fun."
"You have an odd sense of fun." I replied.
Eddie laughed. "Yeah, that might be true." He looked into my eyes again. If only he knew what he did to me with those deep brown eyes.
I spoke up. "I really should get going, my mom will be upset if I'm late for dinner." I started for the door, but as I was about to open it, a boom of thunder rang through the building. It was pouring outside. Nancy had dropped me off, but I told her I was going to walk home. Great.
"Need a ride?" I heard from behind me.
I turned around to look at Eddie and responded shyly. "Yes, please."
_____________
The two of us ran to Eddie's van. He opened the passenger side door for me, making sure that I got out of the rain before him. He was surprisingly very kind. I began to give Eddie directions to my house, but he stopped me. "I know where to go. I've been to your house before."
"Excuse me?" I asked shocked.
Eddie let out a light laugh. "Hellfire met one time at your house when the theater room wasn't available."
"Oh, I had no idea." I said awkwardly.
"Yeah, I didn't know you were there either. I met Nancy and Holly that night and I assumed that was all of Mike's siblings. That's why I thought you must have been his girlfriend last week".
I laughed this time. "Yeah, definitely not Mike's girlfriend. Not anyone's girlfriend for that matter..." Why did I say that?!
"No? That surprises me." Eddie said genuinely.
"Why?" I asked without thinking.
Eddie immediately responded. "Because you're an intelligent, funny, good looking girl. Any guy would be lucky to be with you."
My stomach filled with instant butterflies and I know my face turned bright red. "Oh..." was all I could muster to respond with quietly. I felt so awkward, but also like I was floating through clouds. Eddie Munson said that any guy would be lucky to be with me, maybe he was even referring to himself?
We sat in silence for a bit, feeling the awkward tension between us. I felt like Eddie wanted to say something a few times, opening but then closing his mouth as if rethinking it. But soon enough, Eddie pulled up outside my house. I gathered my things and thanked Eddie for the ride, opening the door to leave.
"It was nice talking to you, other Wheeler, let's do it again some time." Eddie said before I was out of the van.
"Okay" I said with a smile and ran into my house through the pouring rain.
