Chapter 2
As the classroom filled Vivienne started getting glaces her way as people gossiped in their little groups. She rolled her eyes and cracked open her latest book, Magician by Raymond Feist. Her friend Axle had gotten it for her as a goodbye present before she moved. He knew she liked epic fantasy and had chosen well. Only 3 chapters in and she could tell it was right up her alley.
The teacher cleared his throat as the final bell rang, preparing to start class. As the last ring finished a boy with long hair and a jean vest over a leather jacket ran in, using the edge of the door frame as leverage to turn into the doorway.
The teacher looked unimpressed as he glanced towards the boy. "Cutting it close there, Mister Munson." The teacher mumbled as he looked down at his clipboard.
"Sorry Mr. Andrews. Ran into traffic on my way in." He said as he locked on to the seat directly next to her in the back row. One of two empty desks in the room.
Viv locked eyes with the boy before quickly dropping them and going back to her book, trying to hide any interest she may have had in the metal head.
"Good book?" He asked, leaning over the side of his desk as he dropped his bag on the floor next to him. He smelled like cigarettes, weed, and whiskey. As he leaned beside her, trying to get a look at the pages of the book over her shoulder.
She gave him a side eye before replying "So far," cooly, feigning disinterest in his antics. "Heard you kicked the shit out of Jason Carver this morning princess." He whispered in her ear. His breath was minty with a hint of cigarette smoke. She instinctively leaned back a fraction before looking back at the boy.
"I kicked a dick into some lockers. I didn't exactly care to get names." she quipped sarcastically as she turned the page.
"Well in case you care to get them now, my name's Eddie." he said, teasing slightly. "And I think you're a badass." He leaned away at that and got out a notebook that he proceeded to doodle in till the end of class.
The rest of the day till lunch was pretty uneventful. She had eaten outside under a tree by the empty football field, listening to her walkman, signing along quietly as she read her book and ate her lunch.
She had a free period for 6th period since she had tested out of the highest math they offered at Hawkins, so she made herself comfortable for the extended lunch. When the end of lunch bell rang she glanced up and watched students file out of the cafeteria, one boy catching her eye, as he walked in the opposite direction as all the other kids. He was striding in her general direction, looking at the dirt path at his feet.
Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye he looked up and they locked eyes.
Viv gulped down the bite of an apple she had been chewing nervously. And her breathing became unsteady.
"Hey princess." He said with a sultry tone as he came over. His face had a mischievous grin plastered on it.
"Don't call me that." She scoffed looking down at her book to hide the blush creeping into her cheeks at his boldness. Ugh he was such a creep! How was he getting her flustered? Nobody could do that to her anymore, but this boy was somehow charming and she hated it.
"Well I'd call you your name, but you haven't told me what it is," he countered coyly, squatting down to her level.
Viv rolled her eyes and lazily cocked her head toward him. "It's Vivienne." She droned out, her eyes hooded in a feigned boredom. "My friends call me Vix." she added succinctly.
"Vix." Eddie tested the name on his lips with a smile.
"I said that's what my friends call me." She scoffed. She really didn't understand why he was so intent on having her attention, but she did find it mildly amusing that he was trying so hard, and it wasn't like he was actually being creepy. He was just being overly nice which was a weird experience for her. Most people weren't nice for no reason, but she couldn't see what he had to gain from being nice to her. It wasn't like she had any status at this school to speak of.
"We might not be friends yet, but we will be. You won't be able to withstand my winning personality." He chuckled and raised his hands to his face, framing it in a mock 'im cute' sort of way. She noted that he had dimples and very warm eyes, like pools of dark chocolate. She averted her eyes quickly, feeling awkward for staring too long.
"Care to join me for a smoke?" he asked, breaking the tension, holding up a metal lunch box and raising his eyebrows in question with a knowing smile.
Vix couldn't help a smile as she saw the excitement in his eyes and bit her lip, nodding.
Eddie grinned wide and stood, offering her a hand after she had packed up her backpack. She took it and pulled herself up with a small grunt. He squeezed her hand and led her towards the forest at the edge of the football field.
"Is this the part where you murder me and hide my body in a tree?" Vix joked as she was pulled behind Eddie, he was moving quickly like he had somewhere to be.
He chuckled,looking back to smile at her. "Blood freaks me out. I'd be a terrible murderer." he said shaking his head.
Vix found herself smiling as he led them to an old picnic table that had seen better days about 20 ft past the tree line.
"No one ever comes out here. We won't be disturbed." He said, letting go of her hand and shirking off his jean vest, which she noticed a Dio patch on the back of, and threw it down on the table casually. He took a seat at the table before motioning to the other side for her to sit. She bit her lip and sat across from him as he opened his lunchbox, taking out a baggie of weed and some rolling papers.
"What's your favorite album?" she asked, nodding to his vest on the table as he got to work rolling a joint.
He smirked and glanced up at her, pleased she seemed to know who Dio the band was. "Holy Diver of course." he replied as he licked the edge of the rolling paper to seal it.
Vix was mesmerized by how perfectly he'd rolled the joint in front of her. He was definitely showing off. She found that idea charming in a weird way.
"Congratulations. That is in fact the correct answer." Her voice was a touch more impressed than she had meant for it to be and hoped he hadn't noticed.
He pulled a lighter from his vest and handed her the joint. "Guests get greens" he said, readying the lighter in his palm for her. She took it with a sly smile and brought it to her lips. He lit it for her and she took a deep drag, holding it for a moment before blowing it out through the side of her mouth. She felt the buzz hit a few moments later as she passed it back to him.
He pocketed the lighter in his pants and brought the joint to his lips, taking a drag of his own.
"So where are you from Vixen?" He asked as he blew out.
'This boy and his nicknames' she thought, mildly pleased with the new nickname. "Seattle." She replied as he passed the joint back to her with a smirk.
She took another drag and blew the smoke at him with a cheeky smile. It hardly fazed him as he stared at her. "No wonder you're cool," he posited.
She laughed at that. "I'm not that cool." she said nonchalantly as she passed the joint back. Her head was pleasantly light. She'd missed this feeling. She hadn't smoked for months since she didn't have any contacts in Hawkins to get any. She knew her tolerance had dipped and felt her insecurities melt away. She decided then that she liked this guy. He was definitely her kind of people.
"Well I vehemently disagree," He said, taking a drag.
She couldn't form a reply and tried to hide her smile, biting her lip, a little embarrassed at his comment.
"I could tell you were cool as soon as I saw your t-shirt." he said, motioning to her torso with the joint tucked between his index and middle finger.
"I got their new album before I moved." she said excitedly, pulling out her walkman and disconnecting the cord for her headphones and pressing play. Run for the Hills began playing out of the dinky speaker on the side.
Eddie's smile widened. "Their best one yet." he said in a low voice.
"This is my favorite song of theirs," she replied, pulling a piece of her hair in front of her face in mild embarrassment.
Eddie chuckled and handed her the joint. "Have you ever done blow-backs," he asked, with a wicked grin.
She hadn't but the implication of getting that close to him gave her butterflies in her stomach. "No." she answered sheepishly.
"Do you want to?" he asked with hooded, mischievous eyes.
She bit her lip and brought the joint to her mouth in a silent answer, inhaling and holding it.
He stood and cupped his hands on either side of her mouth and she exhaled, he breathed it in and slowly sat back down before blowing it to the side.
She felt a blush creeping into her cheeks and looked down at the table.
Eddie had a sly look on his face as he took note of her red cheeks. "See, it's fun." he said, plucking the joint from her hand.
Why was the way he looked at her making her feel so warm? It was like a fire had started in her veins at his flirty antics.
She nibbled the inside of her lip as she glanced up at him before laughing at herself being so bashful.
He started chuckling with her and bit his lip. He took another hit and beckoned her forward. It was her turn to stand and cup her hands around his mouth.
He exhaled and she breathed in the smoke. A hint of mint mixed with the weed she noted as she sat back down. She held the smoke for a moment then exhaled.
In the distance she heard a ringing, but she was too stoned to realize what it was.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, taking the small remnants of the joint and putting it out on the table.
"So good," she replied with a giggle.
"You're totally baked," he noted with a chuckle.
"As a cake." she replied with a wide goofy smile.
"Well miss cake, that was the 7th period bell. You'd better get to your studies." he said in a jokingly stern voice.
"Ugh, it's just independent study." she moaned. "Will they really miss me that much?" she really didn't want to go all the way to the library just to pretend to do homework she'd already almost finished in her other classes.
"Well if you want, we could just stay out here and shoot the shit." he said gesturing to the small clearing they resided in.
"Don't you have a class to get to?" she asked, mimicking his 'stern' voice.
"Nope, I passed one class last semester so I didn't have to repeat it this year. I have the rest of the day to fuck around as I please." He replied, leaning back and closing his eyes.
She noticed a tattoo peeking out from his collar and leaned up to get a better look. He opened his eyes as she did and noticed where her eyes had focused.
He pulled down his collar to give her a better look with a smirk. It was a demonic zombie face. 'Very fitting' she thought.
"I have a friend a couple towns over that's apprenticing and needed to practice." he said as he noticed a small smile forming on her lips.
"Very cool." she said lazily, sitting back down.
"You'd look great with some sweet tatties" he said in a low voice, leaning forward slightly.
"I want them, but I'm not sure what I'd get," she said, shrugging. 'Something to do with music' she thought to herself.
"Well if you ever decide I got a guy." he said leaning back, obviously pleased with himself.
They stayed there, talking about music and tattoos for the next hour or so before school ended and it was quite honestly a far better day than Vix could have imagined.