Eddie rifled through the tapes in my glove compartment; I'd just pulled out of the trailer park when he held one up titled, 'Rain's Driving Mix' and raised an eyebrow, "What do we have here?" He mused. "It's a pretty wild mix of different stuff: Bowie, Iron Maiden, Bad Brains, Ramones, Thin Lizzy, Dead Kennedys, Black flag, Eurythmics. Play it - gotta warn you there's a Madonna track on there though." I replied with a grin. "Madonna? That's some heavy shit." Eddie joked, laughing to himself and sticking the tape on. He sat next to me bopping his head and tapping his knees along to the music. I parked outside a coffee shop and Eddie moved to open his door, I leant over, holding the seat belt in place, "We are not sitting in a coffee shop. I'm getting them to-go." Eddie fished some cash out of his pocket but I slapped it away, "You paid for the last date." I said sternly as I got out of the car. I left Eddie air-drumming to the music and ran inside; returning with two large coffees and two chocolate muffins, planting them on Eddie's lap. "What a healthy and nutritious lunch we have." He teased and I shrugged with a smile, "Next time I'll plan a proper picnic." At this Eddie tried to hide a grin by looking out of the window. I drove us to the cemetery and pulled in at the top of a hill, where all the oldest headstones were. Eddie looked around confused, 'uh...are we having a séance or something?" He asked as I got out of the car. "Nope. This is where I come to decompress. They don't talk back, y'know." I replied. Eddie slowly nodded his head and pouted his bottom lip, "okayyy, cool. Not gonna get chased out and accused of raising the dead are we?" His tone had a smidge of seriousness to it.
I shook my head and led Eddie to a huge and crumbling headstone, "All the graves here are super old. People don't normally come up here," I said, pointing to the date on the stone - 1690 - "This is the oldest I've found; can't see anything other than the date on it though." Eddie whistled in response, "fuck that's old! Cool though." I felt a tension in my chest, that I didn't even realise was there, disappear when I saw Eddie looking genuinely interested. "I try find the ones that have been completely decimated, a lot are covered with grass or moss now." I said, sipping coffee. Eddie held his head up high like a meerkat, scanning the area of almost knee high grass, "it's just deserted here isn't it?" He remarked in surprise. "Yup." I agreed and beckoned him to walk with me through the grass, following the invisible path I had mapped out in my mind. We stopped to look at a bunch of the graves, Eddie squinting to read the dates and chuckling each time I said it automatically, knowing most of them by heart. Any time we crouched at a stone I stole a look at Eddie; he didn't seem bored or freaked out at all, and I felt all nervousness dissipate from my body like a spirit dissipating from a corpse. After a short while I led Eddie to a bench with half of the seat missing. Eddie pursed his lips, "You gonna sit on my knee Wheeler?' He winked at me and made me blush. I placed my coffee and the paper bag with the muffins in it down on the intact seat, crossing my legs as I sat down on the dry grass in front of it. "The bench is just a makeshift table - I've spilled many a coffee here on the ground." I explained.
Eddie copied me and nudged my shoulder with his, "Smart." We sipped our coffees and leaned against each other in the silence, there was no wind, no people, no cars around, nothing surrounding us. "I actually read the names and try imagine what type of person they were or what kinda life they had." I spoke quietly, not wanting to disturb the peace as I glanced around the isolated area. Eddie glanced down at me and asked, "What about the ones you can't find the names of?" I sucked in my cheeks and bit my lip - a little embarrassed to admit - "Uh...I make up names and lives for them." I could feel Eddie's body shake as he laughed, the sound rumbled through the trees, "Wow, you are a freak Rain Wheeler." Eddie leaned back to put his empty coffee cup on the bench, then rested on his side propped up by his elbow. I covered my eyes with my free hand and sighed with embarrassment. Eddie pulled my arm away from my face; when I twisted to look at him lounging below by my side, I saw something in his eyes that I didn't recognise. For a moment I got lost in them - the scorching sun really brought out the hints of green and yellow mixed in with the brown. "So am I." Eddie breathed, pulling me down by the arm to join him laying in the grass. We were facing each other, both using one arm as a headrest, the long grass almost concealed us entirely. "I always hated when they called you that." I whispered, picking at the blades of grass between us. Eddie scrunched his face up, "Wasn't a fan of it myself for a long time." I could hear a subtle sadness in his voice when he responded. "And now?" I asked tentatively. Eddie's face relaxed and he gave me a toothy smile, "Now I own it. Back then I was 'Eddie the freak' and they had all the power. Now I'm Eddie Freakin' Munson, I have the power."
Still picking at the blades of grass and watching my fingertips turn slightly green, I considered this for a few seconds before asking, "How did you do that - take the power back?" Eddie let out a long exhale - "Remember in the cafeteria, back in senior year, when I got up on the table and gave the best goddamn monologue of my life?" I immediately stopped pulling at the grass and started laughing, "Of course I remember that, 'We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game.' Jesus Christ I don't think I'll ever forget that." Eddie's mouth opened in shock at me repeating his words, and creases formed at the sides of his eyes as he beamed at me, "Exactly! Still true to this day. You, me, the Hellfire club, we're always gonna be freaks to everyone else. Why hide from it? Embracing it makes taking the insults and dirty looks much easier." Hearing the way Eddie spoke so proudly about being a weirdo and a freak gave me shivers. I lifted my hand and grazed his chin with my finger tips, feeling the roughness of his freshly shaven skin, my index finger traced along his incredible jawline and up to his temple, "Smart." I said with a smile. Eddie leaned his head into my hand, watching me as he spoke, "I'm really glad you came by today." I pursed my lips and replied, "Me too."