'tis the damn season

Thirty-One: The Very First Night (Taylor's Version)(From The Vault)

"I wish I could fly, I'd pick you up and we'd go back in time"

Eddie sat on the boat in the boathouse at Reefer Rick's, munching on the Pringles we'd bought him, listening to us explain the police situation. He was still on edge, but definitely seemed more comfortable around us than he did yesterday.

"Your name hasn't gone public yet, but if we were able to find out about your connection to Chrissy, then it's only a matter of time before other people do too," Dustin explains.

"So technically yeah, the police are looking for you, but we've still got time to figure this out while you stay hidden," Robin says, trying to make light of the situation. "They've dealt with this stuff a few times before, Lauren and I once, but we really think we can fix this."

Steve nods along. "Yeah, we're just in our... brainstorming phase," he adds.

We'd hardly spoken since last night. If I didn't know how to act around him before, well I sure as hell didn't know how to act now.

After we kissed, I seemed to snap back to reality. It was great in the moment, but it was only going to make things harder on us for when I left. I didn't regret it, but I shouldn't have done it. And now he was acting like nothing happened at all. After the awkward and quiet morning we'd had, he was talking now like everything was completely normal. Maybe it just wasn't as big of a deal to him as it was to me.

There was no way I was going to be telling Robin anything either. After my whole blow up to her back at the video store. I'd look like I just rolled over for him at the smallest ask. Which, I guess, technically I did, but I didn't want Robin to know I was that weak for him. It was kind of embarrassing. She'd bug me about it for sure.

"The brainstorming phase?" Eddie asks, looking at us all sceptically.

"Yeah, well, there used to be more of us, but they're not all here. We used to have this girl, who had super powers, but those don't exist anymore, so we've kind of got to figure this out on our own," Steve explains.

My attention is pulled from the conversation, and towards the sirens, coming from down the street.

"What is that?" Max asks, looking out the window.

I move to stand next to her, looking outside and seeing a stream of police cars, a fire truck and a couple of ambulances drive by in a hurry.

"Oh shit," I mumble.

And just like that we're in the car following the direction they went in. I was just hoping there was a cat stuck in a tree or something.

I was in the passenger seat next to Steve while Robin, Dustin and Max were in the back. Why did I always get the front seat? It was just a universal thing that everyone let me get shot gun every time we were in the car. Robin always sat in the back when it was just the three of us.

I just sat quietly looking out the window ahead of us and Steve did the same. You could cut the tension between us with a knife; I was just hoping no one else noticed.

When we reach the scene, Steve pulls the car off to the side of the road, behind a few police cars. There's all kinds of caution tape blocking off a section of the road, and police officers and paramedics walking around everywhere. We all step out of the car to get a better look, and of course none other than Nancy Wheeler is standing in the middle of the crime scene, talking to a couple police officers. She sees us, a wash of relief passing over her face when she does.

She looked upset, and disoriented. I had a feeling this wasn't just a cat in a tree type of situation.

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