Well, shit. Time got away from me again. I went to NYC for two weeks and came home with COVID. And while I was sick in bed, I decided I needed to totally reorganize the next few chapters and rewrite some stuff. But I'm back on track again!
I know we keep hearing that Eddie isn't coming back, from the Duffers and JQ himself, but like, do we believe that? Homie had 45 minutes of screen time over six months ago and everyone is still foaming at the mouth for Eddie. Surely Netflix will be like, this dude made us too much money, figure your shit out. Right? Right?
It was hard for Eddie to leave Casey's house now that everything was out in the open, now that they'd spent all day wrapped around each other in bed with giddy grins. But Casey had a rare Saturday night off with plans to go out with her friends, and Eddie was scheduled to work. On the bright side, he at least finally got to watch her get ready. It was a ritual he usually missed out on for a hundred different reasons. He got to watch her put her wet hair up in a towel like a turban, slather moisturizer all over, even asked if he could help, to which she just laughed. He laid across her bed on his stomach, face propped up in his hands, legs kicked up behind him, crossed at the ankle, as he watched her sit at her vanity, the very picture of a love-stricken fool.
"I fail to see how this is so interesting," Casey said, feeling not uncomfortable, but very much on display, with Eddie watching her. She met his eyes in the mirror, and couldn't help but smile at his own content smile.
"This is fascinating to me," Eddie said, intrigued by the whole process. Her hair was down now, the wet strands clipped back and out of the way, and she was dressed in a powder blue robe dotted with little stars and moons. She had a lot of makeup products out on the surface of the vanity, and he was honestly surprised she used that many different things. He was getting better at being able to tell when she was wearing certain things on her face, and he was excited to see the actual process. It was like peaking behind the curtain, knowing a magician's secrets.
"If you find it so fascinating, I should teach you to do this for me so I don't have to," Casey looked back at him over her shoulder, her smirk making Eddie laugh.
"Put me in charge and you're gonna look like Siouxsie Sioux," Eddie chuckled. He wasn't sure that particular look would go over well; it didn't suit Casey at all.
"I bet she goes through eyeliner super quick," Casey turned back around to focus. She was going out to an actual bar with her friends, not a sticky dive like the Hideout or the usual house party. Whenever they went to real establishments, Casey liked to put just a little bit of extra effort into her look. Though, as she dabbed her brush in face powder, it occurred to her that she didn't really need to anymore.
"Do you care that I'm going out?" She asked, twisting around on the stool to address Eddie directly, the powder and brush still in her hands. The question was earnest and caught Eddie off guard.
"Uh, no?" His eyebrows and nose scrunched up in confusion. It would've been cute if Casey wasn't suddenly nervous. "Care like how?"
"All of my friends are single," Casey shrugged, struggling to find the right words, wondering if she even wanted to. Was this something she really wanted to bring up, anyway? Topics like this usually started a fight, with other guys.
Natalie was determined to get a boyfriend by Christmas, Connie had a knack for finding groups of cute guys more than willing to buy drinks for a group of cute girls. Amber had just started seeing someone, but it was still casual. Normally on nights like these, Casey would be playing the game, too. She hadn't in a long time, not since meeting Eddie. She would be the only one in her group not actively looking for a place to spend the night.
"So are mine," Eddie said, still not understanding what Casey was trying to get across, but she was giving him nothing to go on and she could barely hold that against him. Casey sighed, trying to figure out how deep of a conversation she wanted to have in this moment. Everything with Eddie had always been so easy, both of them always on the same page. But now that they loved each other, that they'd said as much to each other, Casey was looking at their relationship in a new light.
Yes, this still wasn't her longest relationship, though in another month it would be. But it was also the most serious one she's ever had. She'd never come this far with another person. And she really did love Eddie. So much. So she wanted to make it last, to do things right. She wanted to know what she could do to make him happy, to make him love her forever. She wanted to know his limits and boundaries, things that bothered him so she could avoid them.
"Will it bother you if someone tries to talk to me?" She asked, turning back around, busying herself again with her makeup. She suddenly felt stupid for asking, of course it would bother him. Who wouldn't be bothered by someone hitting on their girlfriend?
"Yes, you can't speak to anyone, ever, for any reason," Eddie chuckled. His smile faltered as he watched Casey harshly dab at her face with the fluffy brush. "Angel face, you're going out with your friends, you do that all the time. It's cool," he tried to placate, but something about the way she twisted her eyeliner pencil in the sharpener told him it wasn't cool. The twist of her wrists was just a touch too harsh.
"It doesn't make you jealous?" She continued.
"I mean, no. Not really. I trust you," he answered her. And he really meant it. He trusted her with his life, with driving his van, with his guitar.
"You were last night," she said, turning back around to face him again. Eddie sucked a deep breath in through his nose, held it, and let it out. Somehow, things had turned serious, so he fumbled around on the bed to sit up, sitting cross legged with his elbows on his knees, chin back in his hands.
"That was different," he finally said. It was Casey's turn to look confused. She hadn't even talked to anyone, so what could he have been jealous about?
"You know this is a small town, right?" Casey asked. "If we went through a list of every guy I've ever dated, you'd probably know a lot of them, you know?"
Eddie sighed and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. They had been having such a good day, how did it come to this? He knew, of course he fucking knew, that there was a history. And logically, yes, he knew in the back of his mind that he probably knew some of the lucky bastards. Probably sold drugs to them, gone to school with them, maybe even gotten into a fight or two with them. Even worse, maybe they had been some of the decent guys he went to school with, the ones who chatted with him about music and staying to smoke him out during a deal. Nice guys like Steve Harrington who had more going for them than he did, more things to offer, less baggage and insecurity.
"I don't care," Eddie groaned. He'd said it before, but he wasn't sure if he ever meant it. It was a hard thing to not care about. It was hard to not think of every new and exciting experience he shared with her as something she's done before, with someone else. He wanted to mean it, though.
"It's OK if you do," Casey said. She felt bad for him. She would understand if he did care, she couldn't blame him if he did. She would, if the roles were reversed. Did he think she was comparing him to every guy that came before him? She was, but not in the way he probably thought. He came out on top in every comparison.
Eddie took another deep breath and finally looked up at her. "I really want to not care," he confessed. Casey set down her eyeliner.
"I think maybe I'll call Natalie and say I'm not coming," she decided.
"What? No, that's stupid!" Eddie said, stopping her from getting up from the vanity stool. He knew it wouldn't solve anything, and he didn't want her to think she couldn't hang out with her friends. He wanted her to hang out with her friends, he didn't want to be that guy.
"It's not a big deal," Casey said, still willing to drop her plans for the sake of his own ego.
"It is. Go. Please go and have fun," Eddie urged. He scooted forward to the end of the bed and slid off the edge. He landed on his knees and shuffled forward on the carpet until he was right up against the stool, chest against Casey's back, and wrapped his arms around her torso. Casey softened at the contact, leaning into his embrace.
"Maybe I can convince them to come to the Hideout," Casey tried a different tactic to make Eddie happy.
"Natalie will never find a boyfriend at the Hideout," Eddie scoffed.
"I did," Casey laughed. Eddie grinned and squeezed her tightly, pulling her back further into his hold until she was giggling and squealing, afraid to fall off the back of the stool.
"Yeah you did," Eddie agreed, relishing in the sound of her laughter.
"Go to your fancy little bar and drink your fancy little cocktails. You already look way too pretty for the Hideout," he encouraged, settling Casey back firmly in the center of the stool and loosening his hold around her middle, though never fully letting go. "You gonna wear something hot?"
Casey snorted at his question, and smiled at the sight of his wolfish grin in her vanity mirror. "What's the point if you won't see it?" She teased.
"You should wear that skirt I like," Eddie ignored her.
"It's too cold!" Casey argued. Short skirt season was officially over now that it was November.
"You got any of those tall socks? Like a sexy school girl thing," Eddie suggested, making Casey laugh again.
"You really want me to dress like that and go out without you?" She asked with a disbelieving tone. She assumed he was just teasing and would probably prefer jeans and an unflattering baggy sweater.
"It's basically still Halloween, you could actually dress like a sexy school girl," Eddie ignored the question. "You said you still had that plaid skirt somewhere, right?"
"I'm not wearing that out in public, Eddie," Casey said, having trouble keeping the conversation on track. It felt like Eddie was trying to prove a point to her, regardless of if that point was how he really felt. He didn't want to be that guy, the possessive, controlling guy that policed his girlfriend. He didn't know how to be that guy, but he wondered if maybe Casey was used to that kind of thing. Maybe he was reading this wrong, but to him, it seemed like she was trying to get him to answer her questions a certain way.
"Wear whatever you want, babe. It might rain, though," Eddie said, sitting back on his calves, content to watch Casey finish getting ready from the new angle and much closer distance.
"Jeans it is, then," Casey decided. She also decided that she'd lay off on the makeup. It's not like she needed to look particularly good if she wasn't trying to meet anybody, and if Eddie wasn't even going to be there.
"What is this?" Eddie reached around her to pick up a pot of shimmery emerald powder.
"Eyeshadow," Casey answered.
"You don't wear this stuff a lot, do you? That's the colors on the eyelids, right?" Eddie twisted off the top and delicately poked his finger into it to test it out for himself. It was the first time he'd ever been up close and personal with anything besides Halloween makeup. It was smooth as he rubbed the residue between his forefinger and thumb, staining his fingertips green and making them shimmer.
"Not really. Not my thing, I guess," Casey answered, shrugging. She didn't love color on her face, for some unknown reason. All her lipsticks and glosses were either sheer or close to her natural lip color for that reason, and she hardly wore much blush.
"Are you gonna do that cool pointy eyeliner thing?" Eddie asked, abandoning the pot of shadow and neglecting to replace the lid to examine the black liner pencil. He pressed the tip to the back of his hand to test it, drawing a jagged zigzag on his skin.
"I just sharpened that!" Casey tried to snatch it away from him, but he twisted out of her reach.
"I don't get how you can literally put this in your eye and not freak out," Eddie wondered, handing the pencil back. He hadn't dulled the tip too much, but it wasn't sharp enough for the pointed wing he seemed to think was cool.
"You get used to it," she shrugged. Eddie watched with rapt attention, both horrified and fascinated, as Casey lined her top eyelids with a practiced expediency. She did it like it was nothing.
"So, I have another question," Casey started as she moved on to mascara. "Is it just guys I've dated that make you jealous? Is jealous even the right word?"
"I don't know, I guess," Eddie slumped down off of his now aching calves. He shuffled back so that his back was against the bed and spread his legs out on the carpet, nudging the leg of the stool with his toes. He didn't really want to talk about this anymore.
"I get jealous, too," Casey confessed, finally finished with her makeup. She got up from the stool but sat down on the floor next to Eddie.
"Yeah? Of who?" Eddie scoffed. Who the fuck did she have to be jealous of?
"That girl with the big boobs was gonna try to blow you in exchange for her tab," Casey explained. Eddie's eyes widened in shock. He knew exactly who she was talking about, and was horrified that Casey had at some point actually spoken to the girl, as if that would somehow reveal that he hadn't exactly told her to get lost when she gave him an ounce of attention.
"She kind of hit on me," Eddie confessed, deciding to just tell her.
"You can't control what other people say to you," Casey said, trying to reassure him that she didn't care. Those things tended to happen, and so long as Eddie didn't encourage it or act on it, Casey would continue to not care.
"Wish I fucking could. It felt weird," Eddie told her, look up from his hands in his lap to her, surprised to see her smiling.
"Why weird?" Casey asked, trying not to laugh.
"Because only you're allowed to do that!" Eddie exclaimed, as if the answer should have been obvious. "And I should have told her to hit the bricks because my girlfriend is an actual angel and I love her more than anything in this world, and only she is allowed to touch my dick," he rambled, making Casey fail at holding back her laughter.
"If you ever see her again, you can tell her," Casey placated and draped her arm across his shoulders, pulling his head down so she could plant an affectionate kiss to the top of his head.
"I fucking will," Eddie promised, grabbing hold of her hand hanging over his shoulder to pull her arm tighter around his neck, kissing the inside of her wrist.
"You know, you're an angel, too. And I love you, too." Casey leaned in again to kiss his cheek.
"I'm not saying you're wrong, babe, but I think most people would disagree," Eddie argued.
"That I love you? How dare they!" Casey wrapped both arms around his neck and pulled him closer so she could pepper kisses indiscriminately across his face, making him giggle. She loved when he laughed like that, like he didn't have a worry in the world and let himself feel pure joy for that brief moment.
"We'll get t-shirts made. I'll rent out a billboard. Maybe one of those skywriters?" Casey continued, positively melting under Eddie's adoring gaze, like butter in a hot pan. How could he not know how lovable he was?
Well, she could relate. She struggled with that feeling, too. Their similar upbringings had a lot to do with that, maybe everything to do with that. The hostile environment followed Eddie to school, though. He only just recently escaped it. Casey was in and out of it for half her life, and only recently stopped actively trying to sabotage good things. She really had been an asshole; angry and distrusting, acting out in cliched teenage ways for attention. She'd been given every reason to be that way, too. It was only a few years ago, when things started going south with her grandmother's health, that she started to mature and settle down, to realize that she wasn't destined for failure and abandonment for the rest of her life, just because she experienced it as a kid.
"You're way too fucking good for me," Eddie said, snaking an arm behind her back to curl around her waist, the opposite arm settling across her lap.
"Am not," she argued.
"It's true. Lots of people would agree. They already have," Eddie continued. It frustrated Casey that he was determined to be the victim, that maybe that's how he really saw himself, that maybe he really believed his self-deprecating jokes.
"Who? Wayne? Your friends?" Casey questioned, watching Eddie's face screw up in confused thought. No, of course none of them had ever said a single negative thing about his relationship, except maybe Wayne complaining that Eddie was hardly ever home anymore but still ate all of the food.
"No," Eddie answered.
"Then who gives a shit? My friends like you, they ask me about you all the time. They wanted you to come out with us tonight," she said, giving him concrete proof that he wasn't as disliked as he was determined to be.
"Gareth thinks we're disgusting but he likes you, too. Everyone does," Eddie replied, looking up from his hand in Casey's lap to finally look her in the eye.
"So everyone that matters disagrees with that statement." Casey patted his hand, pressed a quick kiss to the side of his face, and moved to stand up. She used his shoulder and extended hand as leverage. "Now help me. Will I regret not wearing a jacket?"
"Hoes don't get cold," slipped from Eddie's mouth with zero thought, and once he realized what he'd said, he slapped a hand over his mouth. But Casey violently snorted in laughter.
"Where did you hear that?" Casey wheezed, turning to watch him hastily stand up from the floor.
"I honestly have no idea," Eddie answered, face flushed and worried that maybe he'd offended her. He'd basically just called her a hoe, after all. Her amused laughter wasn't reassuring him, either.
"Natalie's gonna love that. She never dresses weather-appropriate," Casey continued smiling as she turned to her closet. Eddie sat down on the now empty vanity stool to watch Casey pick out an outfit, booing when she turned her back to him to pull her panties on under her robe.
After pulling on jeans and a bra, she left the room to blow dry her hair. She was waiting until after her hair was done to put on a shirt, or else she'd get too hot. It was a long process, and Eddie took the time to make himself a sandwich. He had to leave soon, and if he didn't eat now, he'd be miserable by 10 o'clock. The emergency stash of snacks in his and Casey's lockers wouldn't be enough to help, if he even got time for a snack break. Even though Halloween was technically over, it was still Halloween weekend, and he was expecting another busy night. Casey had only gotten out of work because someone else wanted to trade shifts.
"I'm kind of starting to think about cutting my hair," Casey announced, coming down the hall with socks and a pair of boots in her hands. She was now wearing a top, unfortunately. A fuzzy white sweater; tight fitting but a modest crewneck. It looked soft and Eddie was aching to touch it to find out. He finished off his sandwich, wiped his hands on his jeans just in case there was any lingering mustard so he wouldn't ruin her sweater, and crossed the room to sit in the club chair, close to where she was now seated on the coffee table to pull on her socks and shoes.
"Holy shit, this is soft," Eddie muttered, running his hand down her arm. "Is this made of kittens?"
"Yes, I was really inspired by Cruella De Vil," Casey laughed. She kind of expected a reaction about the haircut comment, but Eddie was easily distracted.
"Also, don't you dare cut your hair." Eddie's gentle stroking of her sleeve stopped and he pulled her into his lap.
"It's too long!" She argued, letting Eddie manhandle her into a comfortable position.
"Nuh-uh, it's perfect. Like a sexy mermaid," he shook his head, ton of voice firm, as if he'd just made a really good argument.
"Just a few inches," she countered, sweeping her hair over one shoulder to examine the ends. She trimmed it every month or so to keep up with the dead ends, but she hadn't had a real haircut in ages.
"Seriously, it was like, the very first part of you I fell in love with," Eddie confessed. It was true. Besides her long, tan legs, it was the first thing he noticed about her when he was on stage that night six months ago. It was maybe kind of shallow, but the confession melted Casey's heart. How could she argue with that? Still, it was getting too long to deal with, and she was ready for a change.
"It'll grow back, baby," Casey smiled sweetly, endeared by his infatuation with her hair. "It's not like I'm gonna buzz it."
"Just don't let me have the longest hair between the two of us," Eddie said, sweeping her hair back over her shoulder and gently pushing her bangs behind her ears. It was still warm from being dried, and especially soft and fragrant. Her hair was always nice, but it was the best when it was freshly done, and Eddie couldn't keep his hands out of the ends of it, his fingers tickling her back as he played with it.
"You're gonna be late, babe," Casey reminded him, startling Eddie back to reality. He glanced at his watch and almost stood up until the weight of Casey in his lap stopped him. She laughed and got up, grabbing his hand to pull him out of the chair.
"Have fun." Eddie gently grabbed her face, cupping her cheeks to give her a quick kiss goodbye. "Call me if you need anything," he added, planting one last kiss on her mouth before pulling away.
"Call me tomorrow?" She watched as he stepped into his sneakers by the front door and pulled on his leather jacket simultaneously, nearly losing his balance when his toe got caught on the tongue of his shoe.
"Try and stop me," he promised, smiled and winked, and opened the door to leave. "Love you!" He yelled as an afterthought after closing the door behind him. He wasn't used to saying it yet; it hadn't even been 24 hours. But he was excited to say it as often as possible now.
"Love you!" Casey hollered back, unsure if he had heard her through the door, but giggling nonetheless. It felt really good to have someone say that to her as they left the house.
Casey still had a little time to kill before her friends were going to pick her up, and she spent the whole time debating between jacket or no jacket. It was officially November and getting colder every day, but she knew businesses would start cranking the heat to compensate. The last thing she wanted was to be stuffy and hot all night, or to even carry around a jacket and risk leaving it somewhere, never to be seen again. Ultimately going without won.
The girls were seasoned professionals when it came to going out. They always took turns as the designated driver, and always ate dinner before so that nobody got too sloppy, too fast. Dinner with a group of five girls always ended up being a shared experience, asking the waitress for extra plates so everyone could try everyone else's meals. They'd go in small groups at the end of dinner to refresh lipstick and perfume in the bathroom, hyping each other up with genuine compliments, and then head out.
Casey loved spending time with her friends. She loved her friends. Genuinely, some of them were like family. And as such, they asked a million questions about Eddie every time she saw them. She was currently the only one in a relationship, much less a serious one, and they were living vicariously through her. The car filled with glass-shattering squeals when she confessed that he said he loved her the night before.
"He's seriously like, the sweetest guy," Natalie gushed from the middle back seat. "I knew he loved you since the first time I saw you guys together. Seriously, like hearts for eyes in love with you."
"You did not," Casey rolled her eyes playfully, even though she was pleased that her friends were this happy for her. It felt good to not only be in a great relationship, but to be in one that her friends also approved of.
"Did I ever tell you he was my partner for a physics project sophomore year?" Connie leaned over Natalie in the middle seat to address Casey. "He's always been a total weirdo, but in like a nice way."
"I bought a couple of tabs from him after the senior spring formal and he like, wouldn't give them to me until he made sure I knew what I was doing," Janice, tonight's driver, added to the mix. She'd gone to St. Catherine's with Casey, but actually graduated, so her knowing of Eddie only proved just how small a town Hawkins was.
"Amber was super surprised when I told her we started hooking up," Casey twisted around in her seat to look at her friend, the one she was closest to in the group, who was sitting directly behind her. Casey had been lucky enough to score shotgun on the way to their first bar.
"Uh, yeah!" Amber agreed. "Physically, I didn't think he was your type. But I think it makes sense. You're a secret little weirdo, and he's King of the Weirdos."
"He's not that weird," Casey defended.
"No, he totally is," Amber argued. "If you had gone to school with him, you would get it."
"Do you think we would have liked each other in school?" Casey asked, curious for an outsider's opinion. Eddie had asked her that a couple of times now, and she was curious what someone who actually knew both him and her in school would have to say.
"You're making me nervous, please sit normal!" Janice smacked Casey's leg to get her to sit normally in her seat and face forward.
"I thought you were totally fucking scary in high school," Connie interjected, taking Casey by surprise.
"You thought I was scary?!" Casey cried. She'd never heard that before.
"Duh! The first time I met you, Amber told me you'd just gotten arrested and you were dating that guy with the big truck, and I thought you were so tough," she explained.
"OK, not the finest moment to meet me, but I wasn't actually scary, right?" Casey asked. Sometimes she felt so disconnected from who she used to be, that she forgot she wasn't always like how she was now.
"No, you ended up being nice to me. But later that night, you spilled jungle juice on Martha Corrigan's white blouse because you heard her say something about someone," Connie answered. The finer details of the anecdote had been lost to time and drink, but she distinctly remembered watching the red party punch stain the girl's white top , and thinking to herself to stay on Casey's good side.
"I totally don't remember that," Casey said, trying to remember who Martha Corrigan even was.
"You used to honestly be kind of a bitch," Amber said. "I don't know that you would have been Munson's type back then. I always thought he'd be into one of those alternative chicks with the fishnets and stuff, like Stacey McMichael, do you guys remember her?"
"Oh yeah, she was always coloring her nails in with Sharpies," Connie added.
"Isn't that super bad for your nails?!" Janice asked, horrified. It probably was, but nobody answered her.
"I don't think you would have given him the time of day back then," Natalie finally answered the question. It was along the lines of what Casey expected to hear, what she had been thinking herself but was too afraid to admit it. She probably wouldn't have been outright mean to him back then, but she doubted their paths would have even crossed much.
"You would have eaten him alive," Amber agreed.
They were all right. Casey was basically a different person now. Casey as a teenager craved drama and conflict. Attention of any kind was like a drug. She also did a lot of real drugs. While she wasn't necessarily an outright bully to anyone in school, she had no problem engaging in petty fights. She was a miserable teenager, and the suffocating environment of a Catholic girls school was too much to handle, leading to the eventual dropout.
Casey was decent at not getting lost in the what if's. What if she had met Eddie earlier in life? What if he didn't like her if they had? Those questions didn't matter, because they weren't reality. What if she hadn't picked up Danny's shifts and been there for a Corroded Coffin set? She probably would have eventually run into him at the Hideout, especially once he started working there. And even if she had stayed in school, they still went to different schools. Maybe she would have met him at a party, or bought something off of him in an empty parking lot.
But none of that mattered. The reality was that she met him when she did, and she couldn't be happier with the entire situation. She couldn't be happier with how things were going, with all the time she spent with him, with how well she was getting to know him, and letting him get to know her. It didn't matter who she used to be, because that version of Casey was so far gone, buried in the past.
The night out ended earlier than planned. Connie had stood up from their table to go to the bathroom, but ended up throwing up on the floor right in front of the bar before she could get halfway there. They got kicked out, and Janice had to drive everyone home after Connie threw up in the parking lot two more times. Natalie stayed with her, and Janice dropped Amber at her parent's house. But it was only 11:30, and Casey and Janice didn't get to hang out together very often, so it didn't take much to convince Janice to drive to the Hideout.
It was a busy Saturday night, based on the nearly full parking lot. Once inside, Casey decided that it wasn't quite as busy as it had been the night before, though. There were more regulars, and the average age of the crowd was a good ten years older than last night's. That was probably due to The Marshall Tucker Band cover group on the stage, and Casey just knew Eddie was suffering, wherever he was. He wasn't behind the bar, and she scanned the room multiple times for him, coming up short each time. He was either in the bathroom, in the back, or outside.
Casey set Janice up at a hightop that had been marauded of its stools, and two drinks before she left to go poke her head in the back room. Craig was sitting at his desk talking on the phone, but the back room was empty. She then wove through the crowd to the opposite side of the room to the bathrooms. She peaked into the girls' just to see if he got stuck cleaning something up, but there were just a couple of women touching up their lipstick and messing with their hair. Casey had been in the mens' room a thousand times, so she had no issue shouldering open the door. The older man at the urinals didn't look up at the sound of the door opening, but Eddie looked up from washing his hands, grinning at the sight of Casey in the doorway.
"Shut the fuckin' door," the older man grunted.
"Oh, sorry," Casey apologized and stepped into the bathroom, letting the door swing closed behind her.
"The fuck are you doing here?" Eddie asked, frantically wiping his hands dry on too many paper towels.
"Connie threw up so everyone went home. Me and Janice decided to come here and annoy you," Casey explained.
"Jesus, get the hell out of here!" The man complained again, making Casey and Eddie laugh. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the bathroom, letting the door swing closed again.
"Just couldn't wait and had to come stalk me in the bathroom?" Eddie wasted no time in pulling Casey close by the waist, his pleased grin making Casey feel warm and wondering how she ever thought she could get through the whole night without seeing him again.
"Men's rooms are just so romantic," she quipped, quick to loop her arms around his neck, squishing down his fluffy hair and pulling him in for a too brief kiss.
"So did Connie throw up because you guys went too hard, or did she eat something bad?" Eddie asked.
"Why? Worried it's contagious?" Casey rebutted. She was dissatisfied with the amount of contact and pressed herself wholly against him. It had only been a few hours since she'd seen him last, but goddamnit, she missed him. It had only been a few more hours since they'd been in bed together all day, and she still missed feeling his body against hers. She was still sore, her leg muscles were sore from exertion, between her legs still ached from just a few too many rounds. But she could do it all again.
"Worried I might have to clean up," Eddie corrected. He always missed Casey's touch when he wasn't receiving it, no matter how recently he last experienced it. He was all too glad to have her shoved up against him, crowded bar be damned.
"Unclear why she spewed, but I feel fine," Casey assured him. "When's your break?"
"I'm in the middle of it," he answered.
"How much time left?" She asked. He unwrapped an arm from her waist to glance at his watch.
"Ten minutes, give or take," he replied.
"That's plenty of time," she grinned wolfishly, in a way that made Eddie's eyes go wide. Before he could ask what she meant, she was pulling hime through the crowd by both hands. Clearly, she was on a mission, and knew exactly what she wanted, and where to go. The bathrooms were obviously busy, and if she locked one of them for ten minutes on a night as busy as this one, Craig would pull out the master key and fire them both. The backroom was also obviously off limits, and Casey wasn't above a back alley blow job.
"Fuck, it got cold out here," Eddie complained once Casey pulled him through the back door and the cold night air hit him. She was at least wearing a warm looking sweater, but Eddie's arms were left bare in his t-shirt.
"Aw, wanna cuddle?" Casey cooed, gently corralling him into the brick wall a few feet away from the door. Once his back hit the wall, she was against him again, lips on his neck and hands working their way underneath his shirt. The sudden physical attention, her cold fingers moving against his warm belly, the chilly breeze, or maybe the sinful way she was sucking on his carotid artery, sent an almost violent shiver down his spine. It was almost too much to handle.
"Baby," Eddie tried, but his voice came out hoarse for some reason. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Casey, baby." He got his fingers around one of her wrists and pulled the one hand out from under his shirt, holding it out to his side, lacing his fingers with hers. She hummed against his throat in acknowledgment.
"Case, what are you doing?" He asked. Really, it was a stupid question. Obviously she was throwing herself at him.
"Sorry, got distracted," she sighed into his hair, making Eddie smile.
"You don't have to apologize for that," Eddie huffed. The hand that remained inside his shirt started a slow descent from his chest, to his navel, to his waistband. Casey used her hand still wrapped up in Eddie's own to twist his wrist so she could check the time on his watch.
"Is six minutes too much pressure?" She asked, looking up at him through her lashes, making Eddie swear she was just a figment of his overactive imagination. No way was she real. No way was she standing there pressed against him, bathed in the yellow lamplight of the fucking back alley, asking him if she could get him off in six minutes.
"Not to brag, but I've come in way less time," Eddie joked. It was as self-deprecating as they came, but it made Casey giggle anyway. He'd argue that she didn't need to do anything, that he was happy to kiss a little, or even just stand there and stare at each other, or have her tell him about dinner with her friends. He'd be happy as a clam with any of those. But Casey didn't offer this very often, and he never felt like he could ask. Not that he thought she'd say no if he did, quite the opposite. Eddie was starting to notice a pattern, though. She only ever got on her knees for him when she was inordinately pleased with him. It was like a special reward, that he never really saw coming. It was a sign that she was happy with him, more than usual. It was a sign to him that he was doing something right.
Eddie scrambled to gather up her hair as the breeze picked up, to keep it out of her face, and so that he could selfishly look down at her with an unobstructed view. The air was jarringly cold, but he wasn't exposed to it for long, and the feeling of Casey's warm mouth on his now aching dick had him viscerally flinching against the brick wall. She placed a gentle but steadying hand on his thigh to keep him from moving around too much more.
"God, Jesus, you're perfect, you're fucking perfect," Eddie whined, head falling back against the brick. He could never help the stream of conscious babbling that fell from his mouth in times like this. Casey was always more composed, she could hold entire conversations with him while he was inside of her. She was always more controlled than he was in that way. It was his mission to interrupt her, to make her sentences break apart with gasps and moans. It made him smile like an idiot if she forgot what she was saying.
It also made Eddie smile like an idiot when she gazed up at him, her tongue laving the underside of his dick. She was right to question the six minutes, though. As incredible as he felt, Eddie felt the pressure, worried that time was moving faster than he thought and that any minute someone would burst through the door looking for him, because his break was long over. It was hard to care about that, but he at least didn't want to get Casey in trouble. She wasn't on the clock, but she was still an employee. And he was in his head. Goddamnit, get the hell out and fucking focus. It was like Casey was reading his mind, and she doubled her efforts. She'd always been good at not making herself gag, knowing how to relax the reflex and avoid triggering it altogether, but she went too far, too fast. The sensation was new to Eddie, and goddamnit, it was good. He felt the vibrations in his goddamn toes. She did it on purpose a second time, and suddenly he was there. Eddie came hard and fast, just under the buzzer, gasping and panting for breath as Casey leaned back on her heals, wiping her mouth on the sleeve of her sweater like she didn't just suck his soul out of his body through his cock.
"I think that was my best work," Casey said proudly, standing up stiffly. Eddie could only manage a weak thumbs up in agreement, head lolled back against the bricks, breathing still labored. She stretched her neck, and helped Eddie tuck himself back into his jeans, doing up his zipper, button, and belt for him.
"Fucking superb," Eddie finally wheezed. He still felt like he was buzzing. Like he had a fucking swarm of bees in his chest cavity. It was the hardest he came in recent memory. And now he had to go back to work. He wasn't sure if he could even walk. If he took a step away from the brick wall, he'd probably just flop over and melt into a puddle.
"God, you're cute," Casey gushed, pushing Eddie's hair out of his face, peeling his bangs off of his sweaty forehead, smile just dripping with adoration.
"You have to tell Connie you're going home with me," Eddie said, finally pushing himself away form the wall, proud that he could stand on his own two feet unaided.
"You mean Janice," Casey corrected, taking his hand to lead him back inside.
"Sure," Eddie agreed. Casey could have said a completely random name and he'd go with it. Could he really be blamed for not keeping her friends' names straight in a moment like this?
Casey got her hand on the door handle and suddenly Eddie was pulling her back. "One more minute," he said, pulling her face to his a little too harshly. He'd pulled his hand from hers so that he could freely bury his hands in her hair and hold her exactly where he wanted her so he could take advantage of her opened mouth. Was it too much tongue? It's not like they were at church or something; it was never too much tongue. Eddie would be glad to keep his tongue in Casey's mouth forever. She seemed to be OK with it, too, with the enthusiasm she was returning.
Casey had the wherewithal to pull away first. "I left Janice alone, and you gotta go back to work, horn dog," she reminded him.
"Me, horn dog?" Eddie questioned. "You're the horn dog. Pulling me out here to jump me," he argued, and Casey giggled, pulling the door open finally.
"Gonna jump you after work, too. Drink some water," she warned with a wink over her shoulder. Eddie clutched his heart and swooned dramatically as he followed her through the door. He really should have done theater in school for all of his theatrics.
"You girls need drinks? Think you earned 'em," he offered, diverting from Casey to settle back behind the bar.
"Vodka lemonade and a whiskey sour," she requested. With Eddie focusing on the drink order, Casey took the chance to look around for where she left Janice. She was still at the table, both drink glasses she'd been left with now empty. She looked bored but perked up when she spotted Casey, and grinned and waved for her friend to come back.
"You can tip me later," Eddie teased, passing the two drinks over to Casey.
"Like I didn't just give it to you outside," she playfully scoffed. She left the bar before he could argue, finally returning to Janice.
"I take it you went to make out with your boyfriend?" Janice accused as soon as Casey returned to the table, offering the vodka drink as an apology.
"Yeah, with his dick," Casey answered proudly, making Janice choke and sputter on her first sip.
"I so didn't need to know that," she groaned, wiping her mouth on a crumpled cocktail napkin. Casey rubbed her shoulder but grinned.
"Remember in health class freshman year when Claudia Malinowski asked Mrs. Michaels if you were still a virgin if you gave a blowjob?" Casey suddenly remembered the hilariously awkward moment from their shared class. The teacher was ill-suited for high school girls; she was meek as a mouse and far too pious. Everyone wondered why she didn't just become a nun, and how her poor husband probably never got any.
"Uh, yeah, I thought her head was going to explode," Janice laughed with her. "Never answered the question, though!"
"She acted like she didn't know what that was," Casey added.
"Probably didn't," Janice agreed.
They spent the rest of the night swapping stories like that. Both her and Janice were similar in that neither one was Catholic, but ended up at Catholic school anyway, and had similar experiences. While Casey struggled in the environment and eventually dropped out, Janice fit in a little better and stuck it out to the end. She'd even gone to college, but was taking the semester off to save up some more money before continuing.
Janice left a bit before last call. Craig left some time earlier, leaving the back room free for Casey to hang out and wait for Eddie, free from any of the patrons. Sitting alone at the bar sent a message that she wanted to be talked to, and that just wasn't true. She'd gotten Eddie to pour her a coke with extra Maraschino cherries, and she dug around in his locker until she found his emergency stash of peanut M&Ms and the book he swore he didn't read when it was dead. Danny didn't pay any attention to her when he came in to turn off the music and turn the house lights on.
It wasn't long until she was following Eddie back to his van, trying to convince him to stop at a drive-thru on the way back to his home. He had to remind her that there wasn't a place to stop between the Hideout and the trailer park, but Casey was drunk. She just giggled when he pointed that out, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her head towards his to plant a kiss on her forehead.
As great as it was to watch her put her makeup on, it was just as fun to help her take it off. She was a giggly mess in the bathroom, desperately trying to keep quiet while Eddie tried to scrub a damp washcloth over her face. She'd neglected to tell him she'd stashed real makeup remover in his medicine cabinet, the memory gone from her mind. Eddie had also forgotten that Wayne would be home, off for the night, until he pulled up to the trailer and saw his uncle's truck. Casey immediately knew she'd have to be quiet so she didn't wake up Wayne, but she had absolutely no sense of how much noise she was actually making. If Eddie dared to try to shush her, she returned it.
Eddie got Casey changed into some of his clothes and settled in his bed, but she sweet talked him into making her a PB&J, since he refused to take her to McDonald's. He hoped she wouldn't notice the lack of jelly because he could make a sandwich in the dark, no problem, but he was too scared to open the refrigerator door, afraid the noise of clanking bottles and the light would wake up Wayne. But he was right, Casey didn't notice it was just peanut butter. And when Eddie finally flopped onto the bed next to her, resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to be able to touch her the way he wanted to because he was more tired than he expected to be, Wayne was barely a few yards away and the walls were thin, and because Casey was drunkenly slumped into his pillows, eyes closed while she chewed slowly. But then she slowly tore the sandwich down the middle and held out half to Eddie, grinning when he took it.
"Love you," she said lowly, mouth sticky with peanut butter. Eddie clutched his half of the sandwich and smiled. He leaned in to kiss her.
"Right back at ya, babe," he said.
"No, you gotta say it!" She whined, and Eddie chuckled.
"I love you. A lot," he acquiesced fondly, and Casey mirrored his grin and sighed happily.
