𝗨𝗚𝗟𝗬 // 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

032

"There she is! The new princess of Hawkins High!" He did this every lunch ever since finding out about me and Steve. In a way it was nice, ever since I climbed out of my shell more over the summer, I'd made a lot more friends then I had before.
Eddie was one of them.

"I told you not to call me that!" I giggle at him as he bows in front of me, hand flayed out gracefully and legs bent, his dark eyes are filled with tease and sarcasm, a constant motif of my school days by this point.

"Where's your knight in shining armour?" He stops bowing and starts walking back to his seat at the head of the lunch table, swinging his legs casually across the seat.
"Work," I smile simply.

"Of course," he spits through gritted teeth, "I'm still surprised King Steve got a job."
I decide to ignore him, simply rolling my eyes, I know his games, I know he's trying to get a reaction.
In a way, it was nice that Eddie spoke to me more nowadays, before I simply talked when spoken to, but for the past couple of months we'd been having actual conversations.
Dare I say I'd made a friend.

Eddie was always teasing, it was his thing, he enjoyed my 'rags to riches' development as he called it. "Why bless us with your arrival?" Usually at lunch I'd sit with Robin and the other band kids, sometimes however I'd make my way over to the hellfire group.

"It's a big day." I smile simply at him.

"You ready to fight the mighty Vecna?" He puts on a grizzly, dark voice as I take my seat at his end of the table, close enough to his that we can continue our conversation,
"Ready? Do you not see my t-shirt?"
I hold out the ends of the black and white baseball shirt with my finger and thumb, smirking at him as I giggle, "it's not my usual style but I figured it was important to wear."

I lift my head back up from my shirt to find his eyes staring into my own, his lips curling slowly into a small, genuine, smile, "Ruby White you really know how to make a guy blush."

"That's why she has a boyfriend Eddie," Dustin and Mike walk over, the shorter boy lacing his voice with sarcasm towards the curly haired dungeon master.
"Yeh the world won't let me forget," Eddie flicks a peanut across the table and leans back, grabbing a magazine from his backpack.

"Anyways young sheep, check this out," he flicks to a page and starts mimicking the words, "Dungeons and Dragons, at first regarded as a harmless game of make believe, now has both parents and psychologists concerned-" I read the magazine cover, making a mental note not to let my mother read it anytime soon.

'Studies have linked violent behaviour to the games, saying it promotes satanic worship-" at least I don't have to worry too much there, my mother lost her faith a while ago, just like I had lost mine, "ritual sacrifice, sodomy, suicide and even murder!"

The table laughs, but a chill runs down my spine at the words spoken and I let out a nervous chuckle, "that's quite a list."

"Whatever, they need someone to blame I guess," the curly haired Grant speaks up, "society has to blame something, we're an easy target."

I twitch in my seat, is that all I was ever going to be? An easy target? I thought things had changed and deep down I knew things had changed. But that was only for me.. what about them?

"Exactly, we're the freaks cause we play a fantasy game," he begins to stand on the table, reminding me exactly why I wouldn't constantly eat lunch with Eddie Munson, he loved the attention, I was afraid of it.

"But as long as you're into band, or science.. or partiesss," he sneers at the different groups around the cafeteria as they turn to stare. I sink into my seat.
"Or a game where you throw balls into laundry baskets!" Eddie's direction is focused on the basketball team, who clutter together like lions to stare down their prey who stands tall, mocking them from above.