Take Me Home to Mom and Dad
Eddie rifled through his closet, on the mad hunt for the one plain, gray long sleeved shirt he owned. Almost his entire wardrobe was comprised of band shirts. He had a few flannels, which he typically layered over the band shirts in the fall and winter but had decided to hedge his bets when it came to meeting Chrissy's family. He found it hanging toward the back and ripped it off the hanger.
His dresser was under attack next, in a futile attempt to find jeans that weren't black, or ripped, or both. "Fuck."
It was after school on Tuesday; he had been invited to dinner at the Cunningham house on Wednesday evening. Too early to bother Wayne; Eddie had no doubt his uncle would let him borrow a pair of jeans, but he wouldn't be up to eat dinner before his night shift at the plant for another hour. He'd have to wait on that detail.
He laid the shirt out on his bed, staring hard at it, trying to visualize it with a pair of Wayne's Levi's. Probably the best he could rummage from his closet. The long sleeves would hide his tattoos. He only had two pairs of shoes, his white sneakers he wore most days, and his black, heavy boots. This brought a new conflict to the front of his mind; he couldn't decide which would be better. Thinking it over more, he went back to the closet, just in case he had missed a pair of jeans by chance. Too bad I hacked the sleeves off that denim jacket to make my vest. Eddie's leather jacket—often layered with the homemade vest—was the sole jacket he owned.
The oven timer chimed from the kitchen, prompting Eddie to curse again as he abandoned his planning to finish up dinner before Wayne woke up. They made a point to eat together every evening, often the few precious hours they got together each week thanks to Wayne's work schedule. Eddie pulled the tray from the oven, a hot wall of chicken-and-vegetables scented steam hitting his face. Wayne had taught Eddie to cook when he came to live with him, and he liked to think he wasn't half bad at it. He left the food to cool on the stove while he set the table, still absorbed in his own thoughts.
Tomorrow would be much like today, but it wouldn't be the cozy kitchen table tucked into the corner that he would be sitting at. And it wouldn't be Wayne that he was talking and joking with over dinner.
"Hey, Eds," Wayne greeted him with a tousle of his hair, sidling behind to grab a glass from the cabinet. His uncle filled the glass with tap water from the sink, drinking deeply from it as he woke fully. "How was school?"
"It was alright. Gonna miss asking that question?" Wayne snorted at that, deftly taking another drink to avoid the question.
"Dinner smells good," he said instead, nodding toward the food. Eddie passed him a plate. Once they sat down and tucked in, a companionable quiet settled over them. Wayne was a quiet man, unlike his nephew. He was also steadfast and caring, in his quiet way. His next question didn't surprise Eddie at all. "Are you going to do your old uncle a kindness and get an above the table job now that you're leaving high school behind?"
Eddie smirked at that. Wayne knew Eddie had been dealing for TJ since he was fifteen, but other than checking in and making sure Eddie wasn't dabbling too hard in his own product, it had been allowed if not agreed with. His uncle was far from stupid; Wayne understood the ways of the world they lived in.
"I already told TJ that I'd only deal up until Friday," Eddie reassured him. Wayne smiled at him from across the table before taking another bite of chicken. Eddie pushed his potatoes and carrots around his plate a bit before venturing, "Can I, um, borrow a pair of your jeans tomorrow?"
"Got some sprucing up to do?" Eddie kept rolling the carrot with his fork tines, only stabbing it once he reached the end of the plate. He chewed it slowly, trying to decide what, exactly, to say. Wayne beat him to it, though, further asking, "This about the girl you got that black eye for?"
Eddie swallowed hard. The bruise had faded entirely from his eye, but Wayne had spent the week teasing him about it. "Yeah," he admitted. "She, um, invited me to meet her parents before graduation."
Saying it aloud made Eddie feel clammy. He had been trying to keep the nerves from Chrissy, but they gnawed at him constantly and was only growing stronger as Wednesday drew nearer. Eddie could feel Wayne's eyes on him, but he kept his downturned toward his plate. All that Wayne knew of Chrissy were the tidbits that Eddie had given him and the talk he had heard from the neighbors about the 'pretty little strawberry blonde' Eddie had been spending time with.
"You like this girl a lot?" Wayne asked next, his deep, gruff voice uncharacteristically soft. Eddie could only nod in response. "Does she like you just as much?"
"I think so." I hope so. God, he hoped so. When he looked up, Wayne was regarding him while nodding slightly to himself. If there was more on Wayne's mind, he kept it unsaid, and instead pushed away from the table. He returned with a pair of clean, ironed jeans, laying them on the chair between him and Eddie.
"Hey, Red, c'mere!" Eddie shouted from his doorway once Max came out to feed her dog. She made him wait, tearing up a hamburger into bite sized pieces for the dog while Eddie was left drumming his fingers on the door jamb. After several minutes, Max bounded the rest of the way across the trailer park at a jog.
"Yeah?" Eddie waved her inside and motioned for her to sit on the couch.
"Stay right there." The girl was clearly perplexed but did as he asked. Eddie remembered his manners at the last minute and tossed her a cup from the kitchen. "Get whatever—not the beer—and I'll be back in a minute."
Eddie ducked into his bedroom, shucking his clothes to replace them with the 'safe' outfit he had crafted. He scrutinized himself in the mirror for a moment. Nothing could be done about his hair; he refused to cut it and pulling it back in any way seemed wrong, like it would call more attention to it than just leaving his hair be. He considered his rings for a moment, slipping off the plain black band he wore on his left hand and setting it on his dresser. His rings on the right hand, though… he couldn't bring himself to remove those.
They had been his father's rings, the only thing he kept from his old man. While neither of his parents had really done right by him, his father had at least kept him when his mother chose not to. He had worn the rings first on the chain his favorite guitar pick now hung from, then lined up in a row on his fingers after he had grown into them.
He left the rings, tucked his necklace more securely into the neck of his shirt, and headed back to the living room to find Max drinking orange soda.
"Okay, you're not Max right now."
"I'm not?"
"No, think more… suburban mom who's meeting her daughter's new boyfriend."
"Are you still Eddie?"
"Am I still—yes, smart-ass, I'm still Eddie!"
"Well, I wasn't sure if we were doing a whole role-playing bit or not. Isn't that, like, your thing?"
"Listen, you little—never mind. Just pay attention. You're—"
"A suburban mom meeting her daughter's new boyfriend, I know, get on with it."
He thought he had met his match with Erica Sinclair, but now that he had sarcastic Max Mayfield sitting in his living room, Eddie was developing a new fear he simply was no contest when it came to sassy little girls.
"Would you, as a suburban mom meeting her daughter's new boyfriend, disapprove?" he pushed forward, deciding to ignore Max. Eddie did a little turn for her so she could get the full effect.
"This is the most vanilla I've ever seen you look," Max admitted, nodding to herself.
"Yeah?" If the girl had meant it as a jab, and Eddie was fairly sure she did, he didn't care. "I was trying to dress like Wheeler on a non-Hellfire day. Vanilla enough to pass an inspection from Chrissy's folks?"
"I think you just might be up to snuff. Just don't be stupid and start talking about Hellfire and your band and your, uh, independent business."
Eddie shrugged at that last part. "I've only got the gig for a few more days. Then you're gonna take over for me, right, Red?"
"You and TJ wish. He's gonna have to go farther afield if he wants a new dealer at Hawkins High. Are we done here? I gotta meet Lucas."
"Shit, yeah, you're good. Go mash your face against Sinclair's." Max rolled her eyes but the tinge of pink in her cheeks let him know that's exactly what their plans consisted of. "Thanks for being my fashion panel."
"Anytime. Next week let's work on your penchant for grody band tees." Eddie shooed Max out the door, sending her off to her own paramour.
Were it not for the fact that Chrissy insisted on picking him up, Eddie wasn't sure he would have managed to force himself to go to the Cunningham's house on Wednesday evening. As it was, she knocked on his door promptly at seven. He opened the door to reveal Chrissy in a pretty, blue dress, her hair loose around her shoulders. Quite different from the overalls and t-shirt she had worn to school.
"You clean up nice," she complimented him, smiling wide at the sight of him. Eddie grimaced, locking the door and slipping his housekey into his pocket.
"I feel stupid. Your dad's not gonna, like, eat me alive or anything, is he?"
"No," she reassured him, stretching onto her toes to kiss him. "Daddy's the nice one. Besides, Nana and Grandpa are here, and they love everyone. Feel free to tell Caleb if he's being annoying at dinner, I do it all the time."
Swallowing his nerves, Eddie followed Chrissy to the car.
The Cunningham dining room looked like the ones you saw in holiday movies, only there were white roses on the table rather than fall foliage or poinsettias. There were candles, though, and a cream tablecloth, and proper table settings with placemats, and a chandelier overhead, and if Eddie thought too much about any of these things, he thought he might lose his mind. With Chrissy just a few days before, he hadn't felt like an outsider in the nicest house he had ever personally been inside. Now, though, under the scrutinizing gaze of Chrissy's mother, it didn't matter how many times Chrissy laid her hand reassuringly on his knee beneath the table.
The one saving grace of the dinner was that not many questions were volleyed Eddie's way. Mr. Cunningham had known of Wayne, praising Eddie's uncle as 'good people', which had made Eddie's chest glow with quiet pride.
"Where'd you come by those rings, boy?" Chrissy's grandfather had asked. He was a wizened version of his son, sharing most of his features. Despite the thick glasses he wore, his eyes were clear and sharp.
"Oh, uh, they were my dad's. he died when I was little." Eddie quickly took a drink of water, lest he be asked to expand. The sympathetic gazes of Mr. Cunningham and his parents tried to catch his, but Eddie didn't linger on any one face too long.
"He rode motorcycles, then." Grandpa Cunningham stated, not asked, nodding toward the rings. "My brother had the same cross ring."
Indeed, his father had ridden motorcycles until the alcoholism became too severe. Hard to keep your balance when you're shaking because you've gone too long without a drink. Cars became easier for him to manage, but of course, that had only lasted so long, too.
"And your mother, honey?" Chrissy's grandma asked sympathetically. "Did she pass as well?"
"I, uh, I don't know, honestly. She left me and my dad not long before his car accident."
That revelation had Grandma Cunningham tutting and laying a hand on her heart. Chrissy's hand was warm and reassuring on his knee, giving him a small, comforting squeeze. He hadn't meant to put a damper on dinner, but he also didn't feel the need to lie about it when asked. As much as he hated it, he always told the truth about his parents. He figured it was the least they deserved for his sorry excuse of a childhood.
This line of questioning effectively left Eddie out of any further inquiries for a bit, fortunately. Talk turned to Caleb's summer soccer camp starting in a few weeks, to Grandpa and Grandma Cunningham's plans to travel to Florida to visit friends. Eddie made himself eat more in spite of his nerves, not wanting to seem rude.
He noticed that Chrissy ate even less of her pot roast and mashed potatoes than he did. Her little brother, the infamous Caleb that he'd heard, had no such inhibitions. While Chrissy's parents and grandparents were discussing something about the company Mr. Cunningham worked for, Caleb tapped Eddie on the arm to get his attention.
"What's up, little man?" Eddie asked. Caleb was like Chrissy in miniature, with shorter hair and hazel eyes, which were currently shining with pride. He turned his plate toward Eddie, revealing a volcano constructed from mashed potatoes and brown gravy. A little pearl onion was sacrificed into the gravy lava following a flick from Caleb's fork.
"Kerssssshhh," Caleb mimicked the sound of someone sizzling in a pool of lava, making Eddie smile. He earned himself a laugh from Caleb when he mimed the motion of a volcanic eruption with his hand.
All the while he felt the immensely critical eye of Mrs. Cunningham.
"Well, um, that was somehow better and worse than I thought it would be."
"I'm sorry you had to lay your cards bare like that," Chrissy's eyes were brimming with sincerity. He shook his head, settling into his passenger seat.
"Don't worry about it, Chris. You didn't give anyone a heads up about me, huh?"
"I wanted them to form their own opinions," she admitted. "But it must have gone okay, for Daddy to have invited you to my graduation dinner."
"Yeah, your mom didn't look too happy." Eddie couldn't help laughing at the memory of Mrs. Cunningham's neck splotching red, like the words she didn't say were trying to escape.
"I don't think she's ever happy," Chrissy grumbled, turning onto the long, dirt road that led to Forest Hills.
"Hopefully Wayne will let me borrow a 'respectable' shirt," Eddie said, flourishing his words with air quotes.
"I like you better in your ratty jeans and band tees," Chrissy said as she parked. Her eyes raked over him again before she kissed him sweetly on the mouth. "I appreciate the effort tonight, though."
"Were you nervous tonight?" They lingered in the car, dusk deepening around them. Eddie reached over and took Chrissy's hand, lacing their fingers together and giving hers a small squeeze. Chrissy kept her face downturned, shrugging.
"My mom can be kind of intense. I'm sorry about that."
"You don't have to apologize, Chris. Are you gonna be okay to go back home?" There was a bit of panic in her eyes, reminding Eddie of the night they got high and he offered her cold pizza. "Wanna smoke first, calm your nerves a bit?"
"Please."
They did so carefully, with Eddie's bedroom window open wide and both of them ghosting their hits. Chrissy sat between his legs while they smoked, back pressed to his chest. Eddie carefully angled his face away from her head on every exhale to keep the scent of weed from settling heavily in her hair. "Your dad and grandparents are nice," he told her. "Caleb's cool."
Chrissy giggled; the weed was working. "Don't tell him that. He's already got a huge head."
When the joint was spent, Chrissy leaned further back against him, tucking her head under his chin. Eddie wrapped an arm around her waist, his free hand tracing mindless, soothing patterns over her bare knee and thigh. "Chris?"
"Hmm?" She hummed, wiggling a little to get more comfortable. Eddie dropped a kiss on her head, buying himself time. He didn't want to push her, but he felt he needed to ask. Not to satiate his own curiosity, but for Chrissy's benefit.
"Is your mom another Jason in your life?" A little shudder ran through Chrissy at that question. She lifted a hand to wipe away a tear, but Eddie intercepted, drying her cheek with his sleeve.
"Yes," she admitted, in the softest, smallest whisper. "But I don't want to talk about that tonight, if that's okay?"
"Of course it's okay." Eddie held her quietly in the deepening dark until Chrissy shifted, telling him she should head home. He hated the idea of sending her off on her own. At the door, he kissed her for a good long while.
"Call if you need me, okay?" He held her face gently between his hands, stroking a thumb along her cheek.
"I will," Chrissy promised, bouncing on her toes to kiss him one more time. Eddie walked her to the car, hating having to watch her drive away and back into the blatant disapproval he saw in her mother.
A/N: You guys truly are my people, thank you for all the love you've been showing me as I write this! Next chapter will get a little heavy, so I wanted to keep this one lighter and focus on Eddie and the ball of nerves he can sometimes be. Also, I wanted to start incorporating Eddie's uncle, Wayne, because it does seem like they had a close, loving relationship that we unfortunately didn't get to see. I'll see you all soon!