Hey everyone!
This chapter is quite a bit longer. I feel like I am writing too much dialogue so I am definitely trying to get away from that because I think I write really awkward dialogue between characters, I won't get rid of it entirely but I will try to do some more scene building.
Please let me know what you think.
As I said in summary this is a sloooooow burn fanfiction, so please feel free to stick around while these two cuties pine for each other.
I may be writing another chapter today and uploading it but it may not be quite as long as this one.
Cheers,
Rose1589
The next morning, Eddie sat at the kitchen island talking about D&D characters with Dustin, both eating Life cereal, when Eddie almost choked at the sight of Lily limping into the kitchen. Her bare legs shown off (sans the splint on her foot) by the mid-thigh denim shorts matched with a multicoloured striped tank top she had tucked in. He gulped and stared for a lot longer than was considered normal entranced at the tantalizing sight.
It was Dustin's and Lily's voices that broke his stupor.
"- the doctor said I have to avoid putting weight on it for four to six weeks while it heals but did you know crutches are sooo expensive? I don't want to do that to mom especially since I had to go to the hospital, and she will have that bill to take care of too." Lily sighed out, amusement glittering in her eyes and Eddie saw Dustin freeze up beside him.
"O-oh? Are they really that expensive?" Dustin asked the guilt writing itself clearing across his face as his eyes were wide like saucers. Eddie suppressed a laugh by scooping a spoonful of cereal into his mouth as he looked at Lily again.
"Totally, I was in shock when I saw the total for them that I made Eddie drive us right home. Y'know how hard it is for us with only mom working, I just wished I knew who had pranked me. They could pay for the crutches." She said with the best serious and solemn voice she could muster, taking Eddie's idea for making Dustin feel as guilty as possible so that he would confess.
"Y-yeah that would be nice…um I have to go get ready now!" Dustin rushed out as he hurried to go to his room, leaving a half-eaten bowl of cereal on the counter. With a giggle, Lily opened the pantry and began rifling through it for something to eat. Eddie's eyes looked at her in amusement as he finished his cereal.
It was when Lily bent over that Eddie had to avert his eyes from staring at such a perfect ass, he felt a warmth spread through his body as he tried to restrain his teenaged hormones. When Lily stood up again and turned towards him, she noticed a pink tinge to his cheeks that confused her but dismissed it as nothing, she set about making herself some peanut butter toast.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before Dustin came bounding into the room again, a smile renewed on his face.
"Lily! We should go get ice cream today and rent some movies!" He said as shook a bag full of change, "It'll be my treat!" trying to be the sweet little brother that totally didn't scare his sister, causing her to hurt herself.
"Sure! But I think I would have to ride on the back of your bike? I can't peddle with my ankle like this." Lily replied pointing down at the splint on her foot. Dustin's smile faltered slightly.
"Oh, yeah. Right... your foot." He said as he looked down again, wringing the plastic of the bag between his fingers.
"Hey, I don't have plans today. I could drive you around?" Eddie piped up as he looked between the siblings, a smile wide on his face as he watched Dustin's eyes light up.
"If you are sure- "Lily started, "Absolutely!" Eddie interrupted her. Lily smiled at him and nodded as she finished the peanut butter toast and stood up. Dustin grimaced as he looked at her outfit.
"Aren't you going to be cold in that? It's a bit short…" his voice trailed off as he saw his sister send him a sharp look.
'Well…dad… for your information, I was just going to change into something warmer." Eddie noted the icy tone Lily's voice had taken on as she spoke, the word 'dad' spit out in disgust.
"Hey now" Dustin said while raising his hands, "Just looking out for you." Lily rolled her eyes at her younger brother before hobbling off to her bedroom to change.
...
Ten minutes later with Lily dressed in a pair of high-waisted bootcut jeans and her tight grey turtleneck, they hopped into Eddie's van and made their way towards Family video. Eddie and Dustin began chatting again about D&D while Lily organized a bag of tapes they needed to return that she had grabbed when they left the house. It was a short ride to Family video and Lily found herself excited to see Steve again after not hanging out for over a week.
She did her best to hurry inside the store, but her splint caused her to limp at a slower pace than she was used to, and Dustin was quick to provide her with support as her own human crutch, Eddie followed behind at a slower pace.
The door chimed as they walked in and saw Steve sitting behind the counter with a bored look as he watched commercials on the tv set up at the counter. At the chime of the door, he looked over briefly as he took in the customers and his face brightened.
"Henderson! Lily! Hey what's up gu- Oh god Lily what happened to your foot?" Steve said in shock as he rushed around the counter, reaching for Lily as an embarrassed giggle left her before she looked down at the splint.
"I, uh, fractured it falling off my bed?" She said and Steve's eyebrows rose.
"How did you fall off your bed?" He asked and nudged Dustin away before slipping his arm around her waist and helping her to the counter, not noticing Eddie behind them. Placing his hands on her hips he hoisted her to sit on the counter and he stood between her legs as he lifted her foot to inspect it.
"Oh some kids scared the bejeezus out of me and I fell." Lily mumbled out shyly in embarrassment, she looked towards Dustin and Eddie and noticed a frown marring Eddie's face, but she didn't have time to think about why he could be frowning because Steve was distracting her as he rubbed a hand from her calf and over her splint, still looking it over.
"You're such a klutz, I do not know anyone who has fractured something because they got scared and fell off their bed." Steve replied as he finally looked up at her and brushed a strand of hair behind her face before allowing his hand to rest on her shoulder. Lily scoffed and brushed his hand off before shoving the bag of tapes into his chest.
"We're getting more movies, I made sure to rewind these for you buuut we need some suggestions." She announced as she flicked a piece of Steve's hair that was hanging in his face. "Sure Lils, I got some great recs for chick flicks from Robin the other day." He laughed out as he lifted her off of the counter, steadied her and turned towards Dustin before noticing Eddie, his eyes narrowing slightly at the guy. Seeing where Steve's gaze landed, Lily spoke up.
"Oh right! Steve, Eddie drove me to the hospital last night and offered to drive us around this morning too!"
Steve's gaze flickered to Lily's face as he forced out an "oh that's nice of him" and turned helping Lily walk into an aisle, dismissing the insult he had wanted to direct at Eddie.
Dustin and Eddie followed suit and started browsing too, Dustin heading towards the horror movies as Eddie searched for some sci-fi movies.
Eddie felt a strange burning in his gut as he had watched how close Lily and Steve were, how easily Steve moved her hair and touched her waist, hands never faltering. He could hear Lily's giggle faintly as he struggled to pay read the backs of the tape he was holding in his hands, he tried to listen to the conversation Steve and Lily were having but couldn't make out what they were saying as it was too muffled. His mind was reeling, what was he doing? He never had a chance at being with such a perfect girl like Lily, the image of her flushed face, eyes closed with lips slightly parted popped into his mind and he groaned. He should have kissed her then, when would he ever have a time like that to kiss such sweet-looking lips of a beautiful girl? He probably would never get the chance again. He grabbed a random movie and headed to the counter and waited.
It was a few minutes of waiting before Lily and Steve exited an aisle, tapes filled Lily's arms as Steve's arm was still wrapped comfortably around her waist, Eddie gritted his teeth and looked away from them. They were talking excitably about some girl named Robin and the movies she had suggested as they walked up to the counter, Steve hopping it to ring up the movies, eyeing Eddie up as he did. As Lily passed the tapes over one fell to the ground and she made to pick it up but stumbled a bit causing Eddie to grasp her hips, balancing her out before he leaned over her and picked up the tape, Sixteen Candles, and stood up one hand still placed on her hip as he placed the tape on the counter with a smirk towards Steve, not noticing the hue creeping onto Lily's dazed expression.
"Steve, you into romcoms too? Man, we have sooo much in common!" Eddie joked as he batted his eyelashes at Steve. Steve glared at Eddie before grabbing the tape and scanning it, Dustin couldn't have had better timing as he chose that moment to approach the counter, preventing Steve from retorting.
"Henderson, hey man what did you pick out?" Steve asked as he chose to ignore Lily and Eddie, and grabbed the movies from Dustin.
"Oh you know just y'know some horror movies for movie night tonight." Dustin said before listing off the titles, Steve nodded while scanning the bar codes. Lily cleared her throat and moved closer towards the counter, Steve noticed Eddie's hand finally falling off of her hip and smiled down at Lily.
"On account, right?" He asked her and she nodded before putting the tapes into her bag, seeing the tape left on the counter she grabbed it and handed it to Steve.
"Can you put Eddie's under ours too?" She asked trying to remain nonchalant even though her heart was still beating fast from the closeness that she and Eddie had shared mere moments ago.
"Uh sure." Steve replied dumbly as he rang the movie up.
Bagging the rest of the tapes, Lily and Dustin said goodbye to Steve while Eddie tossed a wave over his shoulder as the three teens exited the store.
The rest of their day was spent at Starcourt Mall, getting ice cream from Scoops Ahoy, Lily playing up the pain from her injury making Dustin feel even more guilty as they stopped multiple times to rest on the various benches found throughout the mall. After spending almost all of Dustin's money at the arcade they decided to stop at RadioShack, Lily still wanting to purchase a new cassette for her Walkman.
Eddie wandered the store as Lily looked between two cassettes with Dustin browsing the shelves beside her. Deciding on Billy Idol's new album called 'Whiplash Smile' she turned to Dustin, nudging him before pointing at the cassette and saying "Let's find Eddie."
They wandered the store until they found Eddie down the section for Heavy Metal music, he was staring intently at the tracklist on a Megadeth cassette when he heard their footsteps approaching. Looking up he smiled widely.
"Hey find what you're looking for?" He asked, gesturing towards Lily's hand that held the cassette.
"Uh yeah, the new Billy Idol album finally came out." She replied tucking a piece of hair behind her ear feeling a little shy about her music preferences.
"Billy Idol huh? I didn't realize you were a rock fan." Eddie said as he nodded and moved towards them, deciding to buy the Megadeth cassette.
"Uh yeah, my dad kind of got me into it when I was younger. Dustin never really like it though." She pulled a grimace at the mention of her absent father. Eddie's eyes softened, knowing the pain of being abandoned by one's parents.
"Why don't we go get checked out!" He said trying to lighten the mood. Lily and Dustin nodded in agreement and the three teens headed towards the checkout, Eddie gently grabbed the cassette out of Lily's hand and placed it on the counter with his before pulling out a few dollar bills and paying for both. Ignoring Lily's protests as he blocked her with his back, preventing her from reaching the counter. Pocketing the change and scooping both cassettes off he watched as Lily huffed and crossed her arms before limping in front of them and out of the store. Chuckling he looked at Dustin who just rolled his eyes at their antics and they followed her out.
...
After dropping off both Henderson siblings at home, Eddie made his way back to his trailer. His uncle was passed out in his bed after working a long night shift the night before, Eddie cleaned up a pizza box and a couple of beer bottles that were left in the living room and headed to his room and taking out a joint from his metal lunch box, placing it between his lips and lighting it. He inhaled the smoke and sighed out in an exhale before falling back onto his bed. It took a feel minutes to kick in but as his body relaxed, his mind drifted as he pulled more smoke into his lungs and he reached over to the ashtray on his nightstand to snuff out the butt. Sleep pulled him in as his eyes slid shut, images swirling behind them of green eyes, sandy blonde strands of hair and the everlasting colour of pink.