The Break (An Eddie Munson Story)

Chapter 52: The Difficulty Of Leaving

A/N: I know...I know I was gone a very long time. I just needed a break from writing but I think I've made up for my sudden disappearance, with presenting you a 3.8K worded chapter.

There were so many plot threads to tie up in this chapter, so hopefully I have achieved that in this instalment. I cannot wait to share the next part of the narrative with you, in later chapters.

Trigger warning: Drug use, mentions of cigarette burns and scars.

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More time had passed and the leaves changed colour, as they did with every slow crawl towards the next season. Though to the brunet, the world had seemed impossibly devoid of any hur for so long. It was only now, with the tides turning on his fortunes, that he truly took stock of the beauty in the scenery around him.

Protected under a covering of a derelict bus stop, from the heavy downpour, the young man observed the watery work with a sense of nostalgia and wistfulness. Two emotions he never thought he would be privy to, when he reflected back on his time in Hawkins.

"When do you leave?" the question left her lips, amidst a plume of smoke.

Taking the joint from the blonde's waiting hand, Eddie took his own intake, savouring the mellow feeling that washed over him. "Five in the morning."

"Fuck, that's..."

"Early?"

"Yeah," she agreed, gratefully taking the joint back from her smoking companion. "are you getting a flight?"

"Nah, greyhound."

This was news to her, she thought, realising that though she had lived in Hawkins her whole life, there was still so much about the place, she was yet to discover. "They've got a bus that gets us out of this dump?"

"Kinda, it's like..." he had memorised the route and replayed it over and over again in his mind, ever since his Uncle had told him about the transfer. It was now resembled less of a map in his mind and more of a mantra. Something he could whisper to himself, when anxious or in doubt of his potential to finally be rid of the town. "a greyhound and then another bus and then, like, another bus."

"That's, like, three buses." she giggled, the effects of the joint compromising her mathematical abilities.

"It is three buses exactly, Chrissy." Eddie replied, with an amused smile. She reminded him of Y/N, back when they used to smoke together. When sober, Maths had not exactly been your strong suit but when high? What relevance did two plus two have to you? It might as well have been a riddle told by the sphinx.

"Couldn't you just get a plane ticket instead?"

"Wheeler got her parents to offer to help with costs but...I wanted to use my savings instead. I didn't want to be indebted to anyone right now."

"How long are you going away for?"

"I...I don't know if I'll be coming back until after graduation."

"Wait, for real?" the blunt fell away from Chrissy's lips, as she passed it back to him in shock. "What about school?"

"My Uncle and, uh, this lady- you probably know of her- Mrs Byers, sorted out a transfer for me to a school in California."

"I didn't even know you could transfer this late into the semester."

"Generally not but, what with my grades improving and me being two years late with graduating- I think the American educational system just wants me to pass, so they can finally get rid of me."