Cheerleader!Reader x Eddie

Stay the night?

"Psst." A hushed voice came from outside your window accompanied by tapping on the glass, startling your nose out of the book you were reading.

"Eddie?" Your eyes widened when you saw your boyfriend standing outside your window.

"Let me in, I'm freezing my balls off out here."

You sighed, getting off your bed to open the window. He climbed through and collapsed on your bed with a groan.

"What are you doing here?"

"You seemed off today and when I tried to catch you at the end of school you'd already left. I called but your mom basically told me to piss off."

"Yeah, she doesn't like when boys call me."

"You have lots of boys calling, do ya?" He smirked when you rolled your eyes, but your heart wasn't fully in it, something he instantly picked up on. "Are you alright?"

It was sweet how much he cared. And he was right, you were feeling a little off. It was time to send in college applications for early decisions and your parents were on your case. They had already made up their minds that you were going to Notre Dame, but you wanted to get out of Indiana.

"Just a little stressed," you down on your bed next to Eddie, and he opened his arms, beckoning you to him. You took up his offer, burying your face against his chest and breathing in the warm scent of tobacco that hung to him.

"What can I do?"

There wasn't anything he could do. Eddie couldn't fight your battles for you. But having him hold you; stroke your hair and pepper little kisses around your face comforting. You wished that you forget about college applications and stay in his arms forever. "Can you just hold me awhile?"

"'course, baby girl." The pet name made you fuzzy. It'd slipped out the first time about a week after you'd started dating. Your relationship was still fairly new, and the butterflies you got from him had yet to stop fluttering in your stomach every time he looked at you. You weren't sure if they ever would. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

As soon as you started talking, you couldn't stop. Years of pent up frustrations and worries spilled from your mouth. All your parents expectations, concerns about never being good enough for them, the constant comparisons to your siblings; you told Eddie everything. And he listened, quietly. Humming acknowledgements at the right moments so you knew he was listening, stroking your arm in comfort when your voice cracked, and kissing your forehead when the tears finally came. You'd never admitted these things before, and to Eddie's credit, he was handling your trauma dump well.

"Baby," he finally said once you went silent. "Have you ever thought about speaking with the guidance counselor? You can talk to me, always, but maybe Ms. Kelly would be able to give you some advice."

He was right. You knew he was right. All that talk about hiding your emotions and working through your issues on your own was rubbish your parents told you to keep you under their control. "I'll see if I can talk to her tomorrow."

"That's a great idea, sweetheart," he pressed a kiss to your cheek, his thumb brushing back your hair.

"Eds?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you stay the night?"

Eddie stilled. Your body was still tucked against him, and you could hear his heart beat quicken. "You want me to stay? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I mean, I just want to cuddle," you hadn't gone past first base with Eddie. Well, second base if you considered his hand brushing over your clothed breast while you were heavily making out in the back of his van. You wanted to do more, craved it, but you just weren't ready.

"I'll stay," he whispered, his mouth pressed against your hairline. After a moment he added, "you know I'll never pressure you in to anything, right? If all you ever want to do is cuddle I'd be happy." You had told him you'd had a few bad experiences with exes in the past, the same night you had kinda gotten to second base. He'd been more than understanding then, just like he was being now.

You took his hand, twisting the rings on his fingers. "I want to do other stuff with you... I'm just not quite there yet."

"Whenever you're ready baby girl, I'll be here. If it's a year or five, doesn't matter. I'm not going anywhere."