Smitten by the Flower {Eddie Kaspbrak} [1]

18

The next morning, I wake up to find everyone else sleeping. Everyone, except Bill.

9:30am

Curiously, I move from my spot next to Eddie and search around for the stuttering boy. I see that he's out on the front porch. Grabbing my cigarettes and a lighter, I walk quietly onto the porch.

He turns at the sound of me shutting the door, but relaxes when he sees it's only me.

"Hoping for Bev?" I tease, taking a cigarette and setting it between my lips. He blushes and shakes his head. Although, I knew he secretly was.

"D-don't let Eddie c-catch you doing th-that." He says, his voice raspy with sleepiness.
"H-he'll lecture you f-f-for days." I nod lightly, before lighting the cig and puffing out smoke.

"What were you doing out here all alone?" I question, smoke leaving my lips as I spoke. He shrugs his shoulders, looking to the ground sadly. I throw him a knowing look. "J-Just thinkin' about G-Georgie I guess."

I sit by him on the steps, taking his hand in mine. With a comforting squeeze, I send him a smile.To my relief, he sees it as a friendly gesture, smiling appreciative at me.

Our moment is cut short as we both turn to face the other side of the road. There floats a red balloon, that we both knew too well. The cigarette falls from my mouth, onto the ground beside us.

I swallow the lump in my throat, watching it with fear in my eyes. Bill licks his lips, following the balloon with his eyes as it floats down the street.

It stops in front of a sewer drain, where glowing eyes appear at the opening. Frozen in fear, I squeeze Bill's hand tightly. He doesn't react, too consumed in the deadly eyes.

The balloon pops, and the eyes disappear.

Shaking, I gasp for air as if I were stuck in a trance, just now. Bill does the same, looking at me with a 'did-you-see-that' kind of look. I nod my head and we storm back inside.

Quickly, we shake the others awake. They groan and stare at us with annoyed expressions.

Explaining the events that just occurred, I play with my hands. It all sounded crazy, but they knew it was true. Bev shoots us both sympathetic looks, noticing our fear.

"W-we have to study the sewers. I think
th-that's how it travels. I noticed Ben had some projector slides, w-we could u-use them to get a b-better idea of wh-where he comes from." Bill says, rushing to pull out Ben's slides, showing them to us. I nod in agreement, everyone looks timidly between one another.

Finally they nod, except Stan who holds a 'no-thanks-I-don't-want-to-fucking-die' look.

Throwing a pleading look his way, he gives a reluctant sigh and nods. "Fine." Upon his agreement, we all begin to prepare ourselves.

"Great. I'm gonna go organize a few things." I tell everyone, and they nod.

I call Mrs. Maple, the sweet old babysitter to ask if she'll watch Ash. She happily agrees, and I begin to get changed. My shirt is the first article of clothing I remove. As I place my fingers on the hem of my shorts, the door flies open. There stands Eddie.

"Ally I need to talk to you– SHIT, sorry. I'm so sorry– I should've knocked– wow you're hot– I MEAN– no– well yes– haven't you ever heard of locking the door?!—" he rants, turning away with a large blush.

I blush. "Eddie, shut up."

"–I mean come on, I know–"

"EDDIE."

"Shit, sorry." He curses.

Pulling on a new shirt and some shorts, I walk over to the extremely flustered boy. He jumps when I tap his shoulder.

"You can turn around now." I assure. He does so slowly, eyes glancing down to my chest immediately.

"So what did you need to talk about?" I ask, ignoring his stare. "Oh uh...I was just gonna say that last night was fun and sorry about your mom..." he says genuinely, looking up at me.

I smile, and shake my head. "It's okay." As soon as he sees that I'm fine, his eyes drift back to my chest.

"Hey, stop staring at my boobs!"

"Tell your boobs to stop staring at me!" He wheezes.

"..."

"Shit, sorry."