The Politics of Being Eddie Munson

Chapter Five: Only School Girls (And Eddie Munson) Twirl Their Hair

"Just take the apples, Mike. I want your cookie." Dustin whined as Eddie finally sat down at his group's lunch table. From what he could tell, Dustin wanted to trade for Mike's cookie with some apple slices. If Eddie were Mike, he'd say no, but Mike was a sucker for Dustin.

"Fine." Mike sighed as he handed over his cookie. Dustin joyfully shouted as he snatched it out of Mike's hand and handed him a bag of cut-up green apples. Mike softly smiled as he opened the bag and took a bite out of one. "Yup. I'll close my eyes and pretend these are candy."

"You know you don't have to trade with him, right?" Eddie asked, opening up a zip lock baggie of pretzels. He took a bite and then added, "Just let him suffer. He can always buy cookies himself."

"It's not that big of a deal." Mike shrugged as Dustin said simultaneously, "My mom buys the groceries, Eddie."

"Well, ask her for cookies." Gareth chimed in.

"Or at least buy a cookie from school," Lucas added.

"My mom will say no, and I don't have that kind of money lying around." Dustin rolled his eyes. He took a large bite of his cookie and said, through a mouthful, "Let me enjoy my damn cookie."

Eddie laughed as the crumbs came falling out of the boy's mouth. "You're a real piece of work; you know that?"

"I know." Dustin sighed, wiping his mouth and swallowing his enormous bite.

"So, Eddie-" Gareth started. "-when's the next Hellfire meeting?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think we are going to have one for a while." the metalhead admitted as he tried to look away from his friend's wide, wondering eyes.

"What do you mean?" Mike quizzed.

"Are we at least going to play again before graduation?" Jeff asked. "You and I will be gone after this year."

"Not unless I pass. That is why I'm going to hold off on club nights."

"We can always help you study?" Dustin offered.

"Yeah. You know I'm good with English." Jeff smiled.

"Yeah, I know-" Eddie sighed. "- but I need to focus on my own. I need to graduate. I can't be legally allowed to drink and still be in high school."

"Okay. If this is what you need, then fine." Gareth agreed. "We'll wait until you're ready."

"Thank you."

"But-" the curly-haired boy started. "-I'm going to have a kickback this Friday night. Will you be able to make it?"

"I'm not closing, so yeah." Eddie nodded. "But that's it for extracurricular activities until our finals are out of the way."

"You got it." Gareth smiled.

Eddie took another bite of his snack-size pretzels and remembered what he had promised Steve during the past weekend at his house party. Eddie then turned to Gareth and asked, "Can I invite someone?"

"Depends who it is."

"Steve Harrington?"

The whole table shut up and turned to look at the metalhead. Everyone had shocked expressions, even Mike, Lucas, and Dustin, and they knew that Steve and Eddie were somewhat friends.

"You want to invite King Steve to my kickback?" Gareth asked in utter shock. "There's no fucking way, man."

"He's not like that anymore. Would I invite him if he were?" Eddie asked, an almost dead look in his eye as he lolled his head.