Birds Of A Feather // Eddie Munson

024

"So, you really do love her?"

Eddies Point Of View.
I shake my head at the boy to the left of me. "Yes... Are you stupid, Steve? I'm pretty sure everyone here knows I like her." Steve's head spins to face me quickly and he claps quietly. "Like is NOT love, my friend. Does she know?"

I shrug and look back at Elaine, she's now walking with Dustin and Robin. They all seem to be talking very seriously about something. "I dunno man. I hope she does because I don't have the balls to tell her." Steve groans and rolls his head back. "Not to put a downer on this already down conversation, but we could literally die out there. Ya know, in the Upside Down? Do you want one of you to die without telling her how you feel?"

I cross my arms and continue walking. "Oh yeah and I'll just walk right up to her and say 'hey listen I'm in love with you by the way, even though we hated each other until about a week or so ago.' Do you think that'll work Stevie?" I put on a high pitched voice and slapped my hand on his shoulder. "Well. Not when you put it like that." He mumbled.

Elaines Point Of View.
"Dustin, I know he's your dungeon master or whatever but if Elaine likes him you gotta suck it up! What if one of them dies out there and then the other never knows how they actually feel about each other!" Robin speaks frantically, hands flailing around in the air like a crazy person. I go red in the face because me and Eddie have already made it pretty clear we like one another... just in private.

"No Robin! No! It'll be weird and I don't wanna see him and her being all cute and gross together!" Dustin shakes his whole body as if trying to get rid of the disgusting feeling that just thinking about me and Eddie together gave him. "So you admit we'd be cute?" I say, pretty much out of the blue considering I'd been in the middle of this conversation for 10 minutes already. Dustin looks at me with a face of disbelief  "Absolutely not!"

"Sure, Dustin. Do you want your sister to be miserable for what could be the rest of her life if one of them dies?!" Robin had a knack for being dramatic, it made me wonder why she was in band and not drama club. Dustin looked away from Robin, seeming more somber than usual "Don't say stuff like that Robin."

Then there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned my head to be met with a familiar yellow sweater and a Hellfire shirt to the left. "Can we talk?" Steve said, raising an eyebrow and slightly nodding away from the rest of the group. "Actually Steve, I was wondering if I could have a sec with Eddie?" I looked back at Dustin who gave me an annoyed look. I chose to ignore that.

"Oh uh, sure i was actually coming over here to ask if Eddie could speak to you for a sec, he didn't want to interrupt your conversation but I think he was just being a wuss and didn't wanna tell- OW!" Steve jolted forward holding the back of his head and giving Eddie a look that I couldn't make out because he had turned away from me. "Thanks Steve, I think I can say the rest?" Eddie smiled sarcastically and grabbed my hand lightly, pulling me away from the rest of the group.

We hung back from the rest of the group for a second so that they wouldn't hear us, when they were far enough away we began walking slowly in comfortable silence. "Hey aren't you supposed to have your music playing?" Eddie pointed out, grabbing my Walkman and hitting play. My headphones were around my neck so I could still hear it, but I could also hear him. "Thanks, anyway I wanted to talk to you." Eddie nodded and gulped slightly.

"Me too actually. Uh but ladies first, of course!" Eddie said, stuttering and clearly nervous. "How very gentlemanly of you Edward." I say laughing at my use of his full legal name, he didn't find that very funny though. "Okay so uh, Dustin will probably kill me for this because you're his D&D DM but Robin made a very good point to me earlier." Eddie nodded, waiting for me to continue. I started to pick at the skin around my nails and he grabbed my hand, pulling it down between us and not letting go. "You're okay, you don't need to be nervous around me Elaine." I let out a breathy laugh.

"I just wanted to tell you that if it wasn't already obvious,  I really like you. I just don't want to lose you without you knowing, or die without being able to tell you." My eyes welled up with tears as I tried to blink them away. Eddie squeezed my hand in reassurance. "Funny thing is, Steve brought me over to you to make me tell you how I felt. Seems like him and Robin have the same way of thinking."

"Elaine, we've been through a lot together. From the day of my D&D campaign when you tried to stand up for me to the day in my trailer, the month of silence in between that and everything that came after; I've pretty much been in love with you. If that freaks you out I'm sorry but it's like you said. I don't wanna die without you knowing how I feel, I'd be stupid not to tell you now." Eddie swallowed hard and tried to ignore my eyes that were burning into the side of his head.

I stayed silent.

"Jeez, your silence isn't really reassuring Elaine."

I said nothing.

"Come on, say something. Anything. You're killing me here!" He tugged on my hand and ran to be in front of me. He let go of me and grabbed my shoulders. "If you don't love me, that's fine but at least tell me that I haven't just fucked things up between us-"

He looked up at me finally, seeing my face.
"you're crying?" His hands moved from my shoulders to my face, wiping at my tears. "Please don't say these are bad tears or I'm gonna feel so bad." He smiled, showing off his white teeth and slight dimples.

"Eddie, these aren't bad tears. Its just that I don't know what being in love feels like but, if I had to describe it... I'd say it's how I feel when I'm with you. I just didn't really understand that until now." Eddie's eyes searched my face for more of an understanding of what I was implying. "I'm trying to say that I'm in love with you too, Eddie."

Eddies smile grew even wider, his eyebrows raised almost in shock, his expression fell not long after though. "So, why the tears? I'm confused?"

"It just sucks that we only just realised this now. Maybe if I hadn't been so caught up in everything else and joined your club like Dustin asked me too at the start of the year, none of this would be happening." Eddie laughed and pulled me in for a hug, resting his chin on the top of my head.

"What matters is that we have each other now, when we need the other the most. If you weren't here I'm pretty sure I'd have gone crazy by now and we're both gonna make it out. I wont leave without you." I pulled away from Eddie and smiled. He leaned forward and kissed me slowly, as though he was savouring everything about it. Truth be told, I was too.

Eddie broke away from the kiss and leaned his forehead on mine, continuing on. "I'm serious Elaine. I wont let anything happen to you." I smiled at him and put my arms around his neck. "Yeah, I wont leave without you either."

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I'M ALIVE AND WELL AND SO IS THIS FIC! I took a break because college is coming up soon and I had some summer work to do before I go back and I had major writers block and have been totally unmotivated to write.

I'm feeling better now, a little burnt out but I'm coming back around so don't worry ab it. Expect a new chapter either tonight or tomorrow :)