Your little sister (Max) and mom have been having a hard time. You decide to move to Hawkins to help out, and while giving up California and your senior year might be hard, there is a boy across the trailer park who just might make it worth it...
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There's always been an easiness between you and Eddie. Despite your antagonistic actions when you first met, something about him centered you in your chaos, and something about you calmed his frantic energy. But now? Tonight? After almost twenty-four hours of pure panic for him and twelve for you (closer to 36 if you include the whole pregnancy debacle)? Neither of you knows how to act around one another. He guides you up the stairs and into the kitchen. It's dark inside despite the outside lights, but it's too dangerous to risk a light or even speaking until he ushers you upstairs, draws the curtains, and shuts the door to the bedroom.
Even though its unfamiliar and who knows when the sheets were last washed, you're tempted to jump into the bed, dirt damned. But you're still cold from sitting out in the boathouse and near the water for so long. After hours at the police station, you feel covered in grime and ick. Eddie doesn't seem to know what to do either and is pacing around the now-covered windows while snatching glances outside of them.
Taking a deep breath, you slide to the floor at the end of the bed and pat the space next to you. "Come tell me about your day?" you speak softly in the dark, strange room. Eddie sighs and makes his way over. At first, he sits beside you, as you had done in the boathouse, but that's clearly too far away. He pulls you to him and settles you between his legs to wrap himself around you from all sides. And you have no objection to it. In spite of the absolute insane and shitty day you've both had, there is no place that you would rather be than right here, cocooned within his embrace.
His head buries into your neck and takes a long whiff. "Welp, I mostly spent it under a tarp until I lost several years of my life to Steve fucking Harrington told me that Hawkins is haunted and monsters are real. Oh, and I saw a girl I had a crush on in middle school die last night, so those images keep playing in my head. And now my girlfriend is hiding out with me in my dealer's house while her little sister and D&D kids play detective. And, given that I left said dead girl in my trailer, alone, I'm fairly certain that my uncle, who has done nothing but give me a home and support me, discovered the body, so that's great." He finished and let out a low groan.
"You had a crush on Chrissy Cunningham?"
Eddie tightened his grip. "All of that, and that's what you're most concerned about?" He raised his head as you turned to look at him. "Oh my god. You're totally jealous of Chrissy," his voice began to take on an amused tone that so often was present but had been missing since you'd found him.
"I'm not jealous of her. I like, liked, Chrissy a lot. I would have liked to have been friends with her except for Jason and his bullshit." You raised your eyebrows at him. "I just figured she wasn't your type with the whole ra-ra cheerleader thing."
"She was sweet. And kind. Never called me a freak," he answered quietly and closed his eyes. You brought your hand to his face to cradle it. He shook his head and opened them. "So, how about you, Sunshine?"
"Well, it started with waking up to the horde of police cars surrounding your trailer, Max disappearing, and being dragged in for questioning for six hours. Being in the back of a cop car sucks, by the way. No leg room at all." Eddie nodded in agreement, but you continued before he could tell you exactly how he had that knowledge.
