Sweet Child O' Mine - Eddie Munson & Y/N

2 - Home for the Holidays

Things were going great for Juno and I in Indianapolis, she was killing it at nursery and I'd been promoted to a management position at the bar so I was raking it in, I even treated myself to a sweet new car. Jackie had upped my performing hours too, I was now playing on Tuesday and Saturdays at the bar for a small bonus and still helping local artists with their music too. Not the super stardom I'd dreamed of, but it was a great start considering I'd had a kid and only been there less than four years. Juno loved hanging out at the bar with me and Jackie, it was her second home and everyone knew who she was and loved coming in to see her. She was the best marketing tool we could have asked for!

December 23rd 1989
A glistening sheet of fresh white snow blankets the yards and roadsides of Hawkins, as my beautiful new scarlet red corvette winds it's way through the freshly plowed roads towards my parents house for the Holidays with my now, 3-year-old daughter snoozing happily in the back. I gaze out the window at the town as I pass all the familiar places I've not seen for three years and I'm in awe at how little has changed. Passing the mall that had since burnt down costing Steve his job, the school, the high street that was now thriving again since the mall burned down and the houses of the friends I missed deeply, I let out a joyful and content sigh. As my car pulled up to the house I'd once called home, I glanced over the yard at the cars parked in the driveway. My moms car parked outside the garage coated in a blanket of fresh snow, while Steve's car was parked in front of mine in the street, presumably my dads still at work as it's only 4pm.

Steve was yet to have moved out, deciding instead on working at Family Video and attending the community college nearby. We didn't see each other often, unless Steve came to visit us as I didn't want to risk running into Eddie in this small, gossip fuelled town. Ugh, Eddie. The fucking perfect boyfriend I senselessly broke up with because his failure to graduate high school again didn't fit in with my plans of "music stardom". Plans that remained unfulfilled anyway as a result of Juno's arrival. "Here we are, Junebug! Nana and Gramps for Christmas, won't that be fun?" I say as I turn in my seat to look at the little girl now waking up in the back of the car. It killed me how much she looked like Eddie when she'd just woken up sometimes, leaving me with a gnawing, aching guilt and fresh wave of heartbreak over the lost love.
"Yeah, mama! Le'goooo!" Juno announced excitedly as she clapped her little hands together, trying to desperately unclip her car seat buckle.

Grabbing only what I'd immediately need, leaving the main suitcase and gifts in the trunk, I carry the little girl up the footpath and into the house. "Mom! Dad! We're here!" I announce to a seemingly empty house, no response to be heard despite the cars in the driveway. I put Juno down and begin to gaze around the beautifully decorated living room of my childhood. In the corner sat a monumental Christmas tree, elegantly draped in lights and tinsel, baubles and ornaments hanging carefully from the branches. Ornaments including ones made by Steve and I growing up and Juno's first handprints cut out and strung up along side them. The ceiling was carefully covered in lights and foil chains which reflected the lights perfectly around the room. Garlands of holly encased the mantle of the fireplace and mistletoe hung over the archway between the living and dining rooms. It was like walking into a holiday catalogue shoot, all that was missing was the perfect family in matching sweaters.

I really missed this place, especially at Christmas time. I've not been here for the holidays, or at all really, since I was pregnant with Juno. My family would usually spend Christmas at my apartment or we'd all go away somewhere together, but this year my parents had talked us into coming home for Christmas and New Year as my Grandparents wanted us all to have a "traditional homestyle Christmas" together. My Grandma had the seemingly innocent idea to invite other families around the neighbourhood to spend Christmas dinner at the infamous Harrington house too. She'd invited the Wheelers as we've been family friends since Steve and I were kids, plus Steve's still dating Nancy, the Henderson's as it was always just Dustin and his mom at Christmas and of course... the Munsons. My Grandma had no idea of the history between Eddie and I, she knew we'd dated but didn't know he'd fathered Juno and that I'd dumped him for flunking high school again, and I didn't fucking plan on telling her - she just about forgave me for getting pregnant out of wedlock in the first place, without telling her that the "trailer park degenerate" knocked me up before I left town.