TWENTY THREE. TEENAGERS MAKE BEAUTIFUL, BLOODY MESSES HAWKINS, JAN. 1983
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You know those art pieces that hang on walls and everyone just stares at them for hours trying to figure out the purpose of them? Whether they love the piece or hate it? Whether they can relate or not? Whether they might be able to do it themselves or not? Yeah. Jen feels like that. She doesn't know her purpose and she's being stared at from across the lot. The staring is heavy. It's alarming. She feels like she's in trouble. She might be. She fucked up last night. She didn't mean to. It wasn't her fault.
She can feel their gazes through the blinds across the trailer park. It's the first time Jen's ever spent the night at a guys house. Like obviously she's had sex before last night, she's just never spent the rest of the night. It wasn't something that entertained her. Something was different about Eddie Munson though.
But they didn't have sex.
Jen thinks Eddie might be too scared to touch her in the ways he might want to. But she has no clue. A boy has never really liked her before.
Jen was locked out of her own trailer last night. Alex wasn't home. Her mother wasn't home. And Jen's keys had been stolen by one of them in the morning before she left for school. So, she was keyless in the cold of Hawkins at night sitting on her two stone steps like a forgotten child.
And Eddie's kinder than he looks.
He'd let her sleep in his bed, said he'd take the couch. (Wayne worked nights.) She called him crazy and said she'd sleep on the couch. Eddie then called her crazy and they ended up in his bed together after talking a bit too much. His hair tickled her skin.
In the morning, sun rising, with her eyes still closed she could feel his pinky dragging over her arm. She got goosebumps and a faint smile.
Now Jen prays to god he can't see her mother and sisters prying eyes from across the grassy lot. But she's seen them the second he opened up his door, so, he can probably very much see them. "Everything alright, yeah?" He says gently as he pushes back a bit of her hair behind her ear. They're standing at his doorway, trailer door of his open.
They'd eaten breakfast together. Waffles and blueberries. When she went to refill her glass of water, he slipped another waffle on her plate like he knew she didn't eat enough at home. He knew.
And he definitely notices the staring.
Jen smiles shyly, arms snaking around herself as she blows a puff of air past her lips. "Yeah. I'm good. Thanks for.. like everything." Eddie smiles, something with dimples and full cheeks and shifting bangs. It's not his half smile that looks like a smirk to others. It makes her chest burn with some kind of feeling she's never really felt before. "I'll see you, Jen." He's pressing a searing kiss to her temple before she goes. She thinks he does it to be kind, but he let her sleep in his bed with him—so, she doesn't really know what any of it means. She's just glad it happened. She sends once last smile his way before she descends off his two stone steps.
