Slow and steddie...

Part 1

(Steves' POV)

It was a burning hot afternoon in Hawkins. I was chilling on my couch, I wore my white short-sleeved shirt unbuttoned. A fan accompanied by a glass of water was standing on the living room table where my feet were crossed.

It was so hot you could barely think, or do anything. I had nowhere to go, since the video store had momentarily closed which was sad since I didn't get as much time to hang out with Robin or anyone of the guys in the squad.

I was staring up, scanning every feature of the wooden ceiling. A larger gap than the other, a bigger darker spot, a spider making a web in the corner. It was so boring to just lay there. "Is there work needing to be done on the car?" I thought for myself. I finally got up, feeling the sweat run down my forehead.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. It shocked me since I wasn't expecting company. "Who could it be? My parents? Were they back already from their trip?" I thought in a panic, suddenly getting afraid of opening the door. But after a few deep breaths, I approached the door and opened it.

To my surprise, it was not my dad, my mom, or Robin which had been my second guess. Rather it was a familiar face, curly dark brown hair, his classic club t-shirt, some light stubble, a skinny build, and of course his sickly smile reaching from one ear to the other. His hands were clasped behind his back and his head was tilted slightly upward and to the right is his classic charismatic demeanor.

"E-Eddie?" I said leaning on the doorframe.
"Tis me, the one and only," Eddie said while opening his arms theatrically. I furrowed my eyebrows and scanned Eddie head to toe.
"And why are you the person I find outside my door, Munson?" I asked, still very confused.

Eddie and I had mostly caught glimpses of each other while at school and sometimes even made eye contact from one end of the cafeteria, though we had never really spoken to each other. Only really heard each others' voices at school events or when he would shout in the middle of the lesson or wherever he was.

"Well I was just in the area and thought well, why won't I stop by King Steves' mansion? See what all the fuzz is about that I've heard through the years." He was still smiling that smile, slowly walking closer and closer to me until we were both leaning on the door frame.

"U-Uh sure step inside, my parents aren't home at the moment so sure I could use some company." Eddie nodded thankfully, stepped inside, and looked around at the interior of the first floor. He was fanning himself with his right hand, taking deep breaths. I still felt a bit weird about Eddie the freak Munson being in my home, and not at Robins or any of the members of Hellfire Clubs' places. "Why mine?"

"Well uh make yourself at home, you can sit down if you'd like." Eddie walked over and plopped down on the couch, the air from the fan slowly caressing on side of his hair. I couldn't stop thinking about how weird and out of this world this scenario was.

"Jesus man, why is it so hot?" Eddie said to break the silence as he tugged on the collar of his shirt.
"Oh well, a hot summer in Hawkins, Indiana is never a surprise, but I agree." That was when I realized that my shirt was completely open.

I looked down and then quickly started fidgeting with the two middle buttons, trying to close them as quickly as possible. Eddie silently giggled to himself. I looked up at him.
"What?" Eddie continued to giggle as he stood up and slowly started sauntering over to me, not breaking eye contact.

"No worries big boy, no need to," he said and quickly looked down at my hands still stuck on the buttons. Flustered, I dropped both of my arms down to my sides.
"I- uh er w-would you like some water?" I then asked, trying my best to change the subject.

"Gladly," Eddie replied and sat back down on the couch closing his eyes and facing the fan. I walked over to the sink and started pouring Eddie as well as myself a glass of water.

Thoughts ran through my head. "Why is he at my house? Why is he looking at me like that? This is all so weird. I don't mind his company though, I've never thought about how good-looking he actually is. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? This is Eddie Munson, not a girl that I'd normally date! But guys can think like this about their friends without it being weird, right?" I looked down to see that the glass I was holding beneath the faucet was overflowing.

I put it down and started filling the other. I slowly looked over my shoulder at Eddie, he seemed very peaceful the way he was gently smiling and having his eyes closed while the fan blasted air in his face, reminding me of a dog hanging its head out of the window of a moving car.

"Why am I thinking like this, focus Steve! Focus."
I turned off the faucet and walked over to Eddie with one cup in each hand. I put the cups down and sat down next to him with a good 4 inches between us. I started sipping my water slowly and leaned back.

"You got any music?" Eddie asked and looked over at me, leaning back, manspreading with one arm on his forehead. I caught a glimpse of Eddie's arm tattoos. It was a swarm of bats. It looked pretty well made. Suddenly, Eddie's fingers were snapping only a few centimeters away from my face.

"Hey hey, Harrington?" He said.
"Oh sorry, I zoned out. Music? Yeah, we've uh... we've got.." I walked over to the vinyl player and flipped through some of the LPs standing on the shelf.

"Uh, Madonna, Beatles, Tina Turner, Micheal Jackson, Bowie..."
Eddie didn't look amused by the options.
"Anything else?" He said and made a rotating motion with his hand.
"Uh Prince, Diana Ross, Talking Heads-"
"Talking Heads?" Eddie said and perked his head up.
"Yeah?"
"What album?" Eddie asked and sat up, filled with exciting expectations.
"Uh, Little Creatures, Talking Heads 77?"

"Yeah that'll do!" he said satisfied and leaned back. I put on the Little Creatures LP and joined Eddie again on the couch.
"So, a fan of Talking Heads? Maybe there's hope for your music taste after all," Eddie said and smiled, his elbows up on the pillows of the couch, ever so slightly making eye contact. I laughed a bit.
"Oh haha no sadly, i-it's my dad. He listens to them, sometimes."
"Oh, I see, cool." The singer had a very distinct voice with some interesting choices of vocals.

"Who is singing?" I asked. Eddie leaned forward, clasped his hands together with his elbows on his knees, and looked towards the vinyl player.

"That's David Byrne. Talented guy." Eddie said and started singing along to the lyrics. "What do you think?" I nodded my head in tempo with the music.
"Yeah, I like it! I think actually we have another one of their albums in our attic, I'll go check."

I jogged up the stairs and started looking for the album. I didn't quite remember what it looked like so I had to look a bit closer at every vinyl. I pulled a box out and started flipping through them, and after about 30 seconds I found it. It was yellow and had a blue circle in the middle with some different colored details along the edges. I grabbed it and jogged back downstairs.

End of part 1 :]