Find My Way Back [Eddie Munson x OFC]

Chapter Thirty

When we are young, all we dream of is leaving the place we grew up to explore the world that exists outside of the walls of our small towns. We have this need for fresh faces and new environments—a change of pace and a change of scenery.

Sometimes we run away from our homes, in search of a place to go where no one knows who we are. Maybe, this way, we can escape the problems we don't want to solve. We can ignore the person we were back there and pretend to be someone completely new. But what we don't realize is that finding our way back home can be the answer to the questions we ran away from. And for Priscilla, it certainly was.

A couple months had passed since the car accident. It was well into Fall by now and the leaves had begun to change. The ground was covered in crunchy leaves in shades of yellow and red and orange. The air had begun to cool off and everyone had traded their tank tops in for cozy sweaters.

Priscilla still lived with Robin. As Robin had guessed, her mom was overjoyed at the news that Priscilla was going to stay in Hawkins for good and that she would be living with them for the time being. While no one could ever truly replace Lauren, Priscilla at least made the Buckley household feel a little more whole again.

As Priscilla had guessed, her old car, Jesse, had been considered a total loss and was scrapped. Her heart broke into a thousand pieces as she cleaned out her belongings in the junkyard one afternoon in early September. The last thing she remembered grabbing was the cassette tape that Eddie had taken from her before he brought her car into the shop—the cassette tape that kept them from falling apart completely; the one with all the songs that showed Eddie exactly why he had fallen in love with her. She remembered tucking it into the front breast pocket on her jean jacket, holding it right next to her heart.

Steve still hung around from time to time with Robin, Priscilla and Eddie but he was starting to itch for a new change of scenery himself. Having never left Hawkins before, he started to think that now was his turn to leave home for a while to see what truly lay beyond the perimeter of his small town.

As for Priscilla and Eddie--well--having a mechanic as a boyfriend certainly comes in handy when you're in the market for a new car. And on one crisp October afternoon, the two of them decided it was time for Robin to finally get over her fear and learn how to drive.

"Shotgun!" Eddie called out as he ran to the passenger's side of Priscilla's car.

Priscilla folded her arms across her chest and huffed as she watched from the back steps of Robin's house as Eddie sprinted to the car. He flashed her that dimple-y smile that she loved so much and Priscilla couldn't help but crack a smile back.

She dropped her arms by her side, swinging them back and forth as she slumped her way over to the back passenger's side door and got in, feeling only slightly defeated that she had given up her shotgun rights to Eddie.

"You really should have let me sit up front." Priscilla argued, leaning her head around the seat in front of her to look at Eddie. "Don't you think I should be the one teaching my best friend how to drive in my car?"

"Hmm." Eddie pressed his index finger to his lips and pretended to think. "Well, I'm not the one who got us into a car accident, now am I?"

Priscilla's mouth dropped open. "That wasn't my fault!" She defended.

"Hey, hey, I'm already nervous enough." Robin interjected. "I don't need a lovers' quarrel happening while I try to operate this death machine on wheels."

Priscilla sat back as Eddie instructed Robin how to turn on the car and shift into gear. "Now, just press the clutch and shift into the first gear." Eddie instructed.

The car began to move forward and Priscilla watched out the window as Robin's front lawn moved slowly by them. Something suddenly caught her eye and she looked in front of her to see Eddie's hands with his clunky rings laying over the headrest. She reached up and grabbed his hands, smiling at the feeling of his fingers wrapping around her own.

It was a moment she never expected when she first arrived in Hawkins all those months ago. She came home not knowing what she needed but home told her what she needed. She thought this would be a fun summer trip, reuniting with her friends and seeing all the things that brought her nostalgia. When she first met Eddie, she brushed him off, thinking he would just be a fun flirt. She had her heart set on making amends with Steve--and she did, in a way. She loved Steve, that was true. But she didn't quite love him in the way she thought she did.

She never expected to fall in love and out of love and back in love. She never expected she'd have to reveal her deepest secret and stare him right in the face. She never expected that she would stay here for good but this was the place that was meant for her. It was in this moment, holding Eddie's hand that she realized:

I just had to find my way back.

END.

A/N: I'm sorry this one is on the shorter side but I just wanted something nice to wrap everything up. If you have made it this far, thank you for sticking with me! I plan on working on my two current Eddie fics I still have posted and I also have a new story in the works but I won't be posting that until I have a few chapters done under my belt for my other two fics. Ideally I want to just finish those two off before I start something new but we'll see. I might get too excited about this new one and post it before I finish those other two. I'm also considering trying my hand at some light smut for this new story. Let me know if that's something of interest! It wouldn't be anything too crazy but just enough spice to keep things interesting and to support the plot/character relationship. I feel like I pushed myself out of my comfort zone a little with some of the suggestive themes in this story and I really enjoyed writing/reading back those chapters so I'd like to push myself a little further and try some light smut for this new story.