Brightside

04 | hard place

Eddie looked, if she said so herself, fucking good. A leather jacket; featuring a couple button pins on the left side of her chest (that bitch, Billy Loomis apologist, and if you're reading this you're too close), a couple safety pins on the lapel, and a whole lot of wear but none that would ever make it anything less than her favourite jacket. Her hair was tied in a messy bun, red bandana wrapped around her head with a bow at the top. She'd even managed to convince herself that she was worthy of some light makeup. Just eyeliner and some gloss, but that was more than she usually did. Tight jeans—all jeans were tight, who was she kidding, no company made jeans for muscular women—and a pair of high-tops were the finishing touches on what should've been pyjama pants with unidentifiable stains on them while she spent time watching TV with her dog. (He was a big fan of rewatching Daisy Jones and the Six.) (How could she argue with him?)

            She was taking it as a win as best she could.

            Rush had spotted her the moment she walked in, waving her to the table that already had too many people at it. Rush, August, Lockwood, Bo, Maverick, and who Eddie assumed was his Everleigh. Eddie had still never seen a picture of her.

            Rush stood from his seat when Eddie was closer. "Woman of the hour!"

            So. Rush had been there for a while.

            Eddie rolled her eyes. "Sit down or I'm leaving."

            Rush practically sat in Maverick's lap to climb over him; he may have been the reigning boxing champion in his weight class but that didn't mean he was graceful. He wrapped his arm around Eddie. Always had been a Samoan golden retriever. "Come on, you're going to have the best time."

            "Unlikely." Eddie gave Maverick a small nod, Maverick sipped his drink quickly. Avoided eye contact. Eddie frowned at him.

            "This is Everleigh," Rush said, waving his hand at the woman who was trying not to laugh after Rush nearly sat himself down on her boyfriend. To be fair, Maverick looked more amused than she did. "She's lovely."

            "No, I'm not." Everleigh wrinkled her nose.

            "No, she's not." Maverick shook his head—terrible at hiding his smile. He still wasn't looking at Eddie.

            "Hi, Eddie," Everleigh said. "Nice to finally meet you."

            "Hi."

            "Let's go girls!" Came from the stage, the speakers. Shania Twain's music surrounded them. But it was not her singing the song.

            Oh, the crowd. And how it fucking cheered.

            Eddie groaned. "This is a karaoke bar?"

            "I'm going out tonight, I'm feeling all right!"

            Rush ushered Eddie into the seat, quickly getting Maverick and Everleigh to move closer to Bo—who was all too distracted by the front door of the bar.

            There was something different about this karaoke performance. Rush and Maverick were into it. Even Everleigh sat a little further up in her seat. Eyes on the stage. It wasn't even amusement in her eyes, it was enjoyment. From the thirty seconds she'd known her, Eddie could tell that wasn't something she admitted to feeling often.

            Rush was fox whistling. Which was... a lot. Eddie stole his drink and downed it. Rush was too distracted to care. She winced—that was a lot of alcohol even for her.