Leather and Lace: Eddie Munson

Chapter 20

I need you to love me, I need you today

It had been a couple weeks since Eddie formally introduced himself to Riley's parents. Even though they were totally mad at her, they were actually pretty nice to Eddie. Nice enough to even ask him about where he was working, probably no doubt to find out if he was a dead beat or not, but he had a job and that's what mattered. Riley was pretty sure that his dreams of being a famous musician didn't necessarily earn him any brownie points, but it went well. That was all Riley could have hoped for at least.

At first it was Julie initiated the conversation, Bob sat next to her would eye Eddie's tattoos that were readily visible and his rings that were on most of his fingers. But oddly enough when he found out where Eddie worked, he opened up. Finally happy to have a man around to talk about cars with. Because even though Bob was white collar, he still loved his cars. Even though Eddie had a past with drugs and women, he chose to grow up and put all that aside and be a good man to Riley and that was all that Bob and Julie could ask for. Even though Eddie Muson certainly didn't seem like he was ever ready to grow up.

Because of everything that happened with the postcard from Eddie's mother and the fact that it was past his birthday was plaguing Riley. Even though eventually after Riley's parents left, she did try to bring it up with him. Eddie eventually brushed her off saying he didn't need anything, Riley was determined to find him something that was substantial for how she felt about him.

Riley was working a shift at Family Video, her elbows were braced on the counter, her chin rested in one of her hands while the other one was leafing through a newspaper. Riley planned on trying to find a talent scout to invite him to one of Corroded Coffin's shows, but there was no way Riley could just find one to call. Plus they lived in Hawkins, Indiana. There was no fucking way that a talent scout would just happen to walk into the hideout to see one of their shows. Maybe in a populated town like Los Angeles or New York City, or even Indianapolis but not fucking Hawkins.

Robin was sweeping the sales floor. Summer came and went and it was now September, actually a couple weeks into the school year which meant the kids were in school and business wasn't necessarily booming, especially during the week. But Keith practically demanded to the owner that two people working during a shift during the day was absolutely necessary. Not that Riley minded, she would be incredibly bored. Thankfully, Dustin was old enough to get an evening job, so he was scheduled that night with Steve. Which meant that she and Robin got to work together. However, Robin had planned to go to Indiana University in the spring, which meant that Riley wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. Nancy went back to college for the semester. Jonathan, who was only going to a community college, was busy with school and working part time at Melvald's General store with his mother and Will. Will and Dustin were still in school, which meant that they worked after school, but not on Fridays. That was when HellFire would meet and Dustin was the Dungeon Master. A coveted position that Eddie was happy to hand down to Dustin.

After Riley realized she couldn't just find a talent scout in the newspaper, she was actually looking for a recording studio that was advertising some space in Indianapolis. Even though Indianapolis was a little over an hour away, Riley figured that Eddie would make the trip there to get a chance to record in a studio and make a cassette tape.

Riley glanced up at Robin who had started singing along to Pat Benatar that was playing on the radio as she was sweeping, before glancing back at the newspaper. It was actually pretty hard to find an Indianapolis news paper. She had to beg her mom to drive her to Indianapolis for the paper, but she found exactly what she needed. There was a studio that was advertising some space, the studio was owned by Axel Records, which seemed promising. Riley reached for a pen and circled the phone number.