Dirty Little Secret| Eddie Munson x Reader

Is This Love (Reprise)

*A/N: Play the song at the 🤍 to ~elevate~ your reading experience. Or don't. Ur choice. Ily*

Y/N's POV
Saturday, October 5th, 1985.

The pads of my fingers skimmed over the velvety powder blue petals of my corsage as I held it in my hands. Earlier in the night, when Steve had first given it to me, I'd planned on tucking it into my purse as soon as I split away from the group to prevent Eddie from seeing it and throwing a fit over it. That didn't matter so much now, an hour and a half into the dance, because Eddie never showed. With a sigh, I set the corsage on the bleachers beside me and rested my chin in my hand as I sat and watched all the other happy couples slow dancing to Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper. The DJ was laying it on thick with four slow dances in a row, practically rubbing in my face that my boyfriend stood me up. After tonight, I didn't even know if he'd be my boyfriend anymore. If by some slim chance he wasn't completely ghosting on me right now, I'd most definitely be ending things myself. I was aware he didn't want to come to the dance, Hell I hadn't either, but him coming, even for a little bit was important to me and he knew it. And yet, he still didn't come. I began to question if I'd made the right choice, being with him. Maybe he was exactly what everyone told me he was. A freak who didn't care about anyone but himself. Suddenly, someone standing in front of me blocked my view of the dancefloor.

"Hey, newspaper girl," An annoying, squeaky voice greeted from over me.

"Gareth? What are you doing here?" I squinted up at the curly headed boy, looking unusually clean in a button up and vest.

"What? Am I not allowed to participate in the festivities just like any other student?" He snickered in mock offense. Not in the mood for Gareth's usual impishness, I ignored him and went back to waiting for my friends to be ready to leave. Despite my obvious disinterest in conversing with him, Gareth continued pestering me. "You're not dancing."

"Yeah," I said bluntly, praying he'd walk away and leave me to mope in peace.

"You're at a dance and you're not dancing. Isn't that the whole point?" Gareth jibed, not taking the hint.

"You're not dancing either," I pointed out.

"Fair enough," He said, shrugging. He rocked on his heels as he looked over his shoulder at the crowd of dancing teens behind him. He turned back to me, that stupid, smug grin still on his face. "You wanna?"

"Huh?" I asked, taken aback and hoping I'd misheard him.

"Dance with me," Gareth said in the most sincere tone I'd ever heard come from his mouth. I looked up at him in disbelief as he extended a hand down to me. "Come on, y/n, just one song."

As if my body was moving without my mind telling it to, I reached up and grasped his hand in mine, allowing him to pull me up from the bleachers. He led me to the center of the dancefloor and gently guided my hands to rest on his shoulders before holding onto my waist, his hands practically hovering over my sides from how lightly he was touching me. Standing an arm's length apart in the middle of a sea of lovedrunk teenagers sloppily making out all around us, an awkward tension arose between Gareth and I as we swayed to the music.

"So," Gareth cleared his throat. "You having a good time tonight?"

"Not at all," I spat bitterly. I felt a slight tinge of guilt for taking out my frustration on Gareth, it wasn't his fault that I was having a shitty time, but I couldn't help it.

"Me either. It's pretty lame here, isn't it?" Gareth half-smiled at me. I didn't understand why he was being so nice to me, but I couldn't lie, it was making me feel the slightest bit better. "I'm here as a favor for someone, so unfortunately I gotta suck it up and stick around for a bit."