The first week at Camp Fairwood went fairly quickly. The days passed by so fast that I felt that I was almost living life on fast-forward, with one activity blending into the next to the point that I was almost unable to keep track. It was chaotic and exhausting, but I couldn't deny that I was enjoying myself, relishing in the feeling of being out of Hawkins and away from the stress that my family brought with it.
The nights, however, remained almost entirely the same. I had fallen into a routine rather quickly since arriving at camp. Dinner was served at 7pm, and as soon as I was finished eating I would retreat to the cabin for a cigarette and a gossip with my roommates. I had learned a lot about Nancy and Robin in our time spent together in that cabin - hunting monsters didn't exactly leave much room for small talk in the time that we had spent together before. Nancy enjoyed writing, and was thriving in the writing workshop that the camp held on Monday and Thursday mornings. Robin was trying her hand at art, a hobby that she had never considered taking up until now, and I had to admit that she had an eye for it. I knew that Chrissy was enjoying the sportier side of camp, something that made sense; she was always good at sport, one place in our friendship where we differed.
Once the three other girls in my room had turned off their lights, plunging the cabin into darkness, that's when I would silently pad outside, sitting on the porch, perhaps with a book in hand, awaiting sunrise. After the first three days of sleepless nights, waking the others with my nightmares, I no longer wanted to bother them, instead choosing to wait out my nights under the stars, squeezing a nap in before dinner, and sneaking back into the room before the others woke.
The final straw to this decision had been when Jason had made a comment one lunch time that made me internally cringe.
"I'm sure I heard screaming last night," he had said, taking a bite of his slice of pizza, talking around the food still in his mouth. "Perhaps someone was getting it on."
"Ew, Jason! Why do you always have to be so vulgar," Chrissy had giggled, sliding her arm through her boyfriend's and resting her head on his shoulder. Her eye caught mine for just a second, long enough to convey the message that she wanted to tell me: 'I won't tell him it was you screaming'. But the damage had already been done, and from that moment I had vowed not to let my nightmares disturb everyone else, especially if there were rumours already swirling of the unsavoury kind.
The early mornings were relatively similar to that first morning, however. Each day, after getting dressed and listening to Robin moan about having to take part in some 'tiresome' activity that she complained she would never need to do again, I would head outside and there, sitting on the table, would be a cup of coffee.
The coffee itself was nothing special, instant coffee in one of the cold mugs from the canteen. But it was the notes that made my morning.
Everyday a little piece of paper would be leaning against the side of the mug, a note written inside in almost unintelligible scrawl, the ink often smudged either from the carelessness of the author or from the steam of the hot coffee. The note was always different.
Kayaking today. Is it too much to hope that someone will push Jason in the lake?
You looked very pretty yesterday. I like you in sundresses.
I really want to know what your favourite song is. I hope it's something good. You look like you have good taste in music.
Every single note was addressed and signed the same. 'To Miss-Know-It-All, From The Freak'.
Of course, I had my suspicions about who was leaving the coffee. After all, had it not been Eddie that had asked whether or not I even liked coffee on that very first night, the night before the first mug and note had appeared. And then there was the fact that I had been sure I'd seen a mass of dark hair sneaking back inside the cabin next door on my fourth morning there. It had to be him, I was certain of it.
Eventually I decided to talk to him about it, to find out if it was really him; perhaps someone was mocking him, taking advantage of the fact that we had talked once or twice and was spinning it into a cruel joke against him. The last thing I wanted was for someone to get hurt because of something so small as this.
Initially I had intended on finding him at the soccer game that morning, but after scanning the crowds I had noticed that he was nowhere to be found, that mop of dark hair evidently not amongst the other students on the soccer field. I'd eventually caught him after a pottery class on the far side of the lake from the cabins just after lunch instead, unlinking my arm from Chrissy's and rushing to catch up to him and Gareth just further up the trail. He frowned in confusion when he felt the tap on his shoulder and turned to find me staring up at him, nodding at Gareth to give the two of us a moment.
"And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company, oh Queen of Hawkins High?" He asked sarcastically, the only notion that he was joking being the playful undertone of his voice that I might not have even picked up on if it hadn't been so quiet by the lake.
"You weren't at the soccer game this morning." I wasn't sure why that was the first thing I said; I had gone over to talk to him for a reason, about the coffee, but instead I was intrigued to know his whereabouts that morning without even realizing my own ulterior motive. He too seemed surprised at my statement, his brows shooting up as soon as the words left my lips. But his look of surprise quickly turned to a smile, the corners of his lips curling upwards as he continued walking in tandem with me, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his leather jacket.
"You were looking for me?" He asked, although the mocking in his voice was gone now. "That's cute."
I rolled my eyes, but could help the small smile that appeared on my lips.
"I was just curious where you were," I explained, shrugging my shoulders as if it was nothing. "I had something to ask you."
"And what's that?" He pressed, spinning around so he was facing me, walking backwards along the trail, his eyes trained on me.
"The coffee." I saw his smile falter for a moment, but then it grew even further, reaching almost the creases of his eyes. "Someone keeps leaving me coffee on the porch every morning with a little note. I'm pretty sure it's you, but I wanted to check."
It only took a second of consideration for him to raise his hands in the air in mock defeat, almost as if I was holding him at gunpoint and awaiting an answer. He bowed his head, and chuckled, a low laugh that resonated through the quiet group heading to their next activity.
"I guess you caught me Miss Know-It-All," he laughed, and I almost felt a sense of relief that I had been right the entire time, the thought that Jason or one of his goons was trying to make Eddie look bad long forgotten in an instant. "I was the one bringing you coffee every day. Made some good friends in the kitchen doing it too."
"Why?" I asked, perplexed. I had barely spoken to Eddie in all the years that I had known him, that conversation on our first night at camp likely being the first time we had spoken before. I had, of course, seen him around school, watched him saunter into classes late, or kick his feet up onto the chair in front of him during morning assembly. But it made no sense, in my opinion, why he would go to the trouble of waking up early to deliver me coffee from the canteen every morning when we hardly knew each other at all.
"You said you liked it," he shrugged in reply.
"You don't have to do that," I pointed out. "Just because I like coffee, doesn't mean you have to go to all the trouble."
"No, you're right," he nodded in agreement, glancing up at the trees as he walked, almost as if he were thinking of the perfect response. "But I want to."
"Is that why you missed the soccer game this morning?" I suggested. He paused, glancing back down at me. A breeze ran along the trail, catching in his dark locks, pushing them back to reveal a silver ring in the tip of his right ear, something that I had never noticed until that moment. "You were organizing my coffee for tomorrow?"
"No."
"Where were you then?" I continued to push. I wasn't sure why I was so eager to know the answer. Perhaps it was because I was jealous of the fact that he had been able to sneak out of the soccer game whilst I'd been subjected to sitting there for hours watching it. Or, and this is the thought that scared me the most, I hoped that next time he snuck away he would take me with him.
"Why do you care?" His eyebrow raised again, this time in a way that made him seem almost curious.
"I'm just intrigued." It wasn't a lie really. There was some truth to the statement, even if it wasn't the entire truth. I watched as his eyes fluttered over my shoulder, and as I followed his eye line, I saw that he was watching Chrissy, Jason, and the other members of the basketball team. Each one of them had their eyes trained on me and Eddie. I turned back to look at the metalhead, my face urging him to leave it be, not to start anything.
"Why don't I show you."
It didn't take long for Eddie to arrive outside of my cabin. The rest of the group had gone to their next activity, some kind of trust exercises if I had heard Mandy correctly. However, I'd informed Chrissy that I was going to head back to the cabin to pick up a sweater, and although she had questioned it, she had finally let me go, unknowing that the real reason I was leaving was to meet up with 'The Freak'.
"Ready?" Eddie asked as he appeared at the bottom of the porch steps, and after I nodded and rose to my feet, I began to follow him out into the woods. It was a warm day, and the pair of us walked through the woods in silence save for the occasional warning from him about a twig or root that I may fall on.
Eventually, after what felt like hours, although I was certain was no more than thirty minutes, we came to a stop.
"Here we are," he exclaimed, raising his hands outstretched and turning to me. "Welcome to my office."
I glanced around in confusion. We had reached a minuscule clearing in the woods, but ultimately there was nothing there that made it of any great interest to me. In fact, it looked almost identical to the rest of the forest that we had just trekked through, besides one large rock that sat just behind where Eddie was standing, the entire wall behind it covered in long vines that fell from the trees above down to the woodland ground.
"What am I supposed to be looking at here, Munson?" I asked, my attention turning back to Eddie. "There's nothing here."
He chuckled, shaking his head, an action that caused his hair to bounce around his face, a large grin spread across his features. "Ye of little faith."
In one swift motion he turned, disappearing behind the rock. I saw the vines shuffle slightly and then there was nothing, he had completely vanished, until a second later his head popped into view around the side of the rock, that grin still spread out plainly on his face.
"You coming?"
Hesitantly I stepped forward, following him behind the rock. It was dark and cramped back there, and my foot caught on a root, leaving me to tumble against the rock face. That was when I felt a firm hand on the small of my back, helping me back up and guiding me forward to a light on the other side. What had seemingly been a wall was actually a curtain of vines leading through to a secret clearing. It was no bigger than the one we had just left, but this one was much more breathtaking.
There, in the center of the clearing was a pond, large enough for a handful of people. To our right a tiny waterfall trickled down the rocks there and into the pool, the water outwardly cleaner than even the water in the lake back at camp, glistening in the sunlight.
"This is beautiful," I whispered, turning back to look at Eddie, but he was no longer beside me, the hand on my back now also missing. It took a second but finally I found him climbing up the rocks next to the waterfall, before he paused and turned back, making his way back down to me, now with an old tin in his hand.
He sat down on the grass by the pond and I was quick to join him, smiling in thanks as he removed his denim over-jacket and spread it on the ground for me to sit on, even though it left him perching on the damp grass. I watched as he rummaged around in the tin, finally turning back to me with a grin as he handed me a can of Blue Ribbon beer.
"I'm warning you now though, that's going to be warm," he chuckled as the pair of us cracked open the cans. He was right, of course, the beer was in fact incredibly warm, and ever-so-slightly flat, making me question how long it had been sat in that tin.
"How did you find this place?" I eventually asked after a few minutes of peaceful quiet. He simply shrugged, something that, if I was to guess, was a habit of his; forever brushing everything off as unimportant.
"My dad used to take me hunting in these woods when I was a kid, you know, squirrels and rabbits and all that," he explained. "I used to hate it, so I started sneaking off, going on little adventures, and one day I stumbled upon this place. After my old man left, he occasionally showed up again, only ever for a day or two, and he would always take me hunting, so I started bringing beers and snacks and stuff up here to hide just in case."
It occurred to me, as I listened to his story, that perhaps the pair of us weren't so different after all. His dad was a dick, my dad was a dick. We were like two traumatized peas in a pod.
"I'm sorry about your dad," I said quietly, taking a sip of my beer. "Mine isn't any better."
He glanced over at me as if offering me a table to unload my burden onto. I appreciated it, genuinely. As much as I had talked to my friends on the squad about my parent's problems, none of them really understood. They were all from perfect families, with happy parents and happy children. But not Eddie - he seemed to know what it was like to come from a broken family, a family that seemingly didn't care.
"My parents argue all the time. It started with just small fights, bickering about money or my dad's work, or even me. But then my dad started fucking his secretary," I explained sadly. "They have their problems, but neither of them are willing to leave, so I have to sit and listen to them argue. Sometimes I think we'd all be better off if they just admitted they hate each other and move on."
There was a beat, a moment of silence, the pair of us looking out across the water, drinks in hand, the only sound coming from the trickling of the water into the pond. And then Eddie spoke up, his voice soft and calming, like the ripples of the water below, a tone that I hadn't heard from him before. Gone was the sarcasm and the ever-mocking quality of his voice, replaced by genuine concern.
"Is that what your nightmares are about?" I froze, my eyes staring unblinkingly at the water, refusing to meet his gaze. "I heard you, the first few nights, screaming and crying in your sleep. I didn't want to pry, but then I started seeing you through the window late at night, just sitting there alone. That's why I was bringing the coffee to you, because I knew you weren't sleeping."
I couldn't tell him the truth, couldn't divulge the real reason that I was left sleepless as soon as the sun set and the moon rose into the midnight blue of the sky above. He would never understand - in fact, he'd probably think I was crazy, try to make a run for it, maybe even tell the councillors who would surely have me sent home to be sectioned.
"Yeah, that's what the nightmares are about." Another white lie, but I knew I didn't have a choice. There were only a handful of people in the world who understood, and Eddie was not one of them. "Thank you for the coffee."
He simply nodded, turning to me when I was finally able to face him, raising his beer into the air. "Here's to shitty parents."
I let out a small laugh, clinking my can against his and taking a long sip.
The pair of us stayed there for the entire afternoon, drinking the few beers that Eddie had stashed away, and talking about anything and everything. I finally told him my favourite song after he pestered me for a solid ten minutes to know the answer. When I told him it was 'Here Comes the Sun' by The Beatles he began laughing, although his smirk was quickly wiped off when I explained that it was my grandma's favourite song and I had simply inherited it from her. We shared a joint, leaning back against the grass and staring up at the clouds, picking out any shapes that we could see in the fluff above.
Eventually, Eddie suggested that we hop in the pond, and once I agreed he was quick to remove his clothes, right down to his checkered boxers and jump in, cannonball style. Ever the gentleman, he turned to allow me some privacy as I changed before I hopped in after him.
By the time we had finished splashing around in the water, the beers long gone, the sun was beginning to set, and we ultimately gave in to the fact that we had to head back to the cabins before anyone realized we were missing.
When we finally arrived outside of our cabins, we found the lights inside on, meaning that the others had arrived back. I stopped on the top step of my porch, turning back to the dark-haired boy hovering at the bottom.
"Thank you for today, Eddie," I said with a grin. "I really needed it."
"Anytime, Miss Know-It-All," was all he replied, and with that I made my way back inside the cabin, turning at the door to watch as the metalhead himself turned in for the night.
