Chapter Text
As soon as the last bell of the day rang, Eddie shot out of his seat, along with every other kid in Hawkins High. The flooding sound of students talking filled the hallways, as well as the high-pitched feedback of the intercoms. Eddie chose to listen to some music to drown out everything else. He reached into his pocket, grabbed his walkman, and put in the cheap headphones he stole from one of the stores downtown. Black Sabbath slowly silenced not only the crowd but his thoughts as well, as he walked further from the ocean of people spilling from the school.
He decided to go visit Steve at his new job again, as he’d been doing for the past few weeks. Eddie had grown a soft spot for the boy after their frequent talks. He could only barely hear the cars go by as he walked through the school parking lot, only taking out his headphones after he’d been tapped on the shoulder. He turned to see Dustin, one of his party members.
“Jesus Christ, Eddie, I’ve been calling your name since you left the school. Are you losing your hearing or something,” Dustin said, Eddie only replied with a shrug and continued walking with Dustin to the left of him. Dustin continued to speak.
“I'm assuming we’re still on for Hellfire tomorrow?”
“Of course Henderson, now I gotta go-“ Eddie was then cut off by Dustin.
“Go where,” Dustin interrupts with a grin on his face. “If it’s a girl, Eddie, I swear.” Eddie smiles at Dustin.
“Not like it’s any of your business, but it’s not a girl. Run along, Henderson, I've got somewhere to be.”
“Be safe Eddie,'' Dustin calls before turning back to walk toward Mike and Lucas. Eddie laughs lightly to himself and puts his headphones back in, losing himself to the music and letting it take him to downtown Hawkins.
The quarter-hour walk wasn’t terrible, yes he hated his walkman for cutting out now and then and dragging him back to reality, but besides that, it was as nice as it possibly could be.
Eddie finally took out his headphones when he came to the street that Family Video was on, hearing his boots hit the pavement with every step he made. He was giddy with excitement, peering into the window to see just the man he was looking for, Steve. He opened the door to Family Video and let the warm air hit his face. A familiar voice started speaking.
“Welcome to Family Video if you need any assistant-” finally the boy looked up from the shelves he was stocking.
“Eddie!” Steve exclaimed, walking up to Eddie with a grin.
“Hello to you, too, pretty boy,” Eddie couldn’t help but tease the boy with a nickname he knew he hated.
“Having fun?” he finished.
“A little more now that you’re here, Munson,”
and with that comment, Eddie could feel his face be painted a shade of light pink. Eddie chose to change the subject, thinking it would be a better solution than to dote on that answer.
“Slow day I'm assuming?”
“As always, but what’d you stop by for anyways?”
Eddie didn’t have an answer to that question, I mean, yeah, he had an answer but he wasn’t sure Steve wanted to hear something along the lines of ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about you.’
“Is it a crime to visit a friend?” He chose instead. Steve smiled at the boy and it wasn’t just a simple smile either, it was warm and it felt like home to Eddie. That scared him, he was scared of liking Steve, of loving Steve.
“Oh my god, Ed’s, there was this mom that came in here earlier with her daughter and-“ Steve was then cut off by the other boy.
“Do you want to smoke with me,” Eddie said to Steve. “At my house, maybe?” Eddie continued “I don't know. It was a stupid idea, I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
Eddie put his head in his hands, his entire face was bright red with embarrassment.
Steve put his hand on Eddie’s and spoke with three simple words.
“Yeah, I’ll join,” Eddie looked up at Steve.
“Really?” he asked.
“Really. My shift ends in about 15 minutes or so if you wanna just go to your place afterward.” Steve said back.
“Alright.” Eddie smiled at the boy.
The minutes flew by as the boys continued making conversation, mostly about Steve's stories from customers and how all the kids were doing normal stuff, mostly. Eddie found himself just staring at Steve, he paid attention to the way his hair lined his jaw and the way that the neon sign reflected onto his skin. Steve finally ended his shift and turned off all the lights in the building, switched the sign to closed, and locked up.
“I think that’s all I've gotta do here. So where's this amazing Munson home I've heard so much about?” Steve said jokingly while walking to his car.
“You know the place, I'm neighbors with that ginger kid of yours.” Eddie retorted as he sat in the passenger seat of Steve's BMW.
You could tell Steve took care of his car, the outside was just as clean as the inside, which was impressive since Steve wasn’t known to be the neatest person ever. Steve buckled himself in the car and backed out of his parking spot, rolling out onto the road and taking off towards Eddie's house. After a few seconds of silence, Eddie decided it’d be better if they got to talking again, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he loved Steve's voice. He loved everything about it, and his laugh, oh my god, how he could go on about his laugh.
“You always sit in this eerie silence, Harrington? It’s creepy as shit.” Eddie said, a small laugh escaping his mouth.
“Feel free to pop in a tape, Ed. Nobody's stopping you.”
So Eddie did, he took the tape that he was playing earlier and put it into the car's cassette slot. The intro to “War Pigs” filled the car.
“Who's this?”
“Are you meaning to tell me you’ve never heard the blessing that is Black Sabbath, Harrington?”
“The way you’ve worded that makes me feel like it’s a mistake to admit it,” Steve laughed and glanced over to Eddie, who had his arm out the window, letting his fingers thread through the cool air. “But no, Eddie. I've never listened to Black Sabbath.”
Eddie scoffs “You’ve got a lot to learn then.”
“Oh?”
“Oh indeed,” Eddie looks over to Steve and laughs. He could do this more often, they needed to do this more often.