Seth was anxiously awaiting me when I pulled up in the Bronco. Out on the front porch swing smoking away, his face breaking out into a wide grin when he saw me hopping out. "Well, kiddo. What's the damage?"

I rolled my eyes. "Nothing to report here, sir." I laughed, tossing the keys into his hand as I strolled in through the door, throwing my bag onto the kitchen table.

Seth followed me inside, "The smile on your face says something different. Spill." Seth poured us both a big cup of iced tea as he drug me back to the porch to share a cigarette. "Make any friends? How do you like the teachers?"

"The teachers are fine," I answered half of his questions as I took a drag of a cigarette.

Seth chuckled, making his voice louder and slower. "Did. You. Make. Any. Friends. Today. Wyatt."

I laughed, punching at his shoulder playfully. "I don't know...maybe...we'll see." My thoughts went back to Eddie and his huge shit eating grin that I just couldn't get out of my head. I decided to leave Eddie out of the discussions with my brother for the moment. "There's this one kid who's pretty cool...but... The other kids are kinda assholes."

Seth frowned. "Are they mean to you?"

"I gave it right back, Seth." I made sure to let him know his baby sister wasn't completely helpless. "Trust me, I can stand on my own two feet. This isn't my first rodeo with the shit head 'populars' who think their shit doesn't stink."

"Are you already causing trouble?" Seth teased. "It's day one!"

I smiled. "I don't know what you're talking about. I only slipped and spilled my coffee on some bitches shoes. You know how clumsy I can be sometimes."

Seth smiled big. "I fucking love you, kid. Do you know that?"

I grinned back at him, noticing a loud car pulling up in the distance. A familiar gray van pulled into a trailer a few houses down across the street. Metallica blaring from the speakers. Eddie. I must have turned a little pink when he pulled up. Seth noticed.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"No one." I answered too quickly.

Seth tilted his head and shot me a look. I was a terrible liar.

I didn't have to look up his direction to see that he was coming our way. Shit. I wasn't ready for the level of embarrassment of my big bro seeing me blush like a stupid little school girl. "Hey, lady!"

"Hi, Eddie." I answered, my voice almost cracking. Seth was very amused.

Eddie removed his hands from behind his back to show my jean jacket. "You left this in the van earlier. I figured I'd swing by and make sure you got it back."

I could see Seth struggling to not break a huge smile at my embarrassment. Eddie turned to him. "You must be Seth?"

"The one and only!" Seth put a hand out to shake his. "And you are?"

Eddie faked hurt. "Ouch, Wyatt. Didn't mention me at all? I thought what we had was special?" Eddie laughed, "Nah, it's okay. I'm nothing special anyways."

Seth chimed in before I could object. "Hey, uh-" he looked over at me. "Tonight is movie night and it's Wyatt's turn to make dinner... I don't know if you have plans, but you're welcome to stay and hangout."

Eddie looked over to me, he pulled a strand of his dark hair to his mouth, chewing nervously. "I–uh—"

"We'd really like the company." I breathed.

"She's an excellent cook." Seth added. "I'll go grab some beer..."

Eddie was still eyeing me nervously. "I–uh–I'd love to. If you don't mind the company."

Seth answered quickly. "She doesn't" He was already standing and grabbing the keys from his pockets to his El Camino. "I'll be right back. You two kids have fun" Eddie's back was turned so he could see Seth mouth "But not too much fun I swear to god."

I cracked a little smile. "Be safe!"

"Love you, loser!" Seth called after me.

I flipped him the bird as his tires spun off. Eddie chuckled and sat down in the swing next to me. "I hope that was ok. I could tell you weren't expecting him to ask me to hang out. I can go if you don't wanna..."

"Of course I do, Eddie." I shot down his doubts immediately. "Besides, consider it a Thank You for the free smoke and showing me around today. Oh and thanks for bringing my jacket over."

"Any excuse to talk to the prettiest girl in town." Eddie winked.

I was pink. "You're so full of shit, Eddie."

Eddie chuckled. "Well my eyes may be brown, but I only speak the truth." Eddie pulled a joint from his jacket pocket, gesturing as to offer to share. Eddie didn't wait for me to take it from him, he gently placed it between my lips, his thumbs touching along the skin. I could feel lighting bolts going all over my face from the heat of his touch. In a swift movement he had pulled a lighter from his pocket and lit it for me as well.

I took a puff and handed it back to him. "Don't you have homework or something?"

Eddie scoffed. "Whatever."

"I guess that's a yes?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "Going for your fourth senior year already? Does that make you a Senior Senior or...? How does that work?"

Eddie passed the joint back to me, "Nah, that just means I'm the smartest kid in school."

"You're a grown man, Eddie." I noted.

Eddie ripped the joint from my fingers and teasingly covered my mouth with his hand. "Shush."

I knocked his hand away. "Yes, sir."

Eddie gave me a devious look, raising an eyebrow. "Sir?"

I shrugged, lowering my voice. "I was raised to respect my elders..after all.."

I could see Eddie chewing at his tongue, his eyes fixed on my lips. "You're a handful. Do you realize that?"

Before I could ask what he meant by that, he changed the subject. I could see that he had to peel his eyes away from my mouth and back up to meet my gaze. "What's for dinner, chef?"

"Shit, I don't know." I answered. "I haven't been shopping for it yet, and I also still have to stop by the video store to pick out the movie too. I'm not the best at planning."

Eddie laughed, "Well, princess. Your chariot awaits," he motioned over to his van. "We can spare a little time for an adventure. Besides, I doubt you've had the time to explore this shithole town."

"Well, Eddie," I stood up, grabbing him by the hand, linking my arm in his. "Lead the way!"

We began walking towards his van side by side. "There's a Walmart about 20 minutes outside of town. We can grab the food first and then swing by Family Video on the way back?"

"You're the driver." I stated as I hoisted myself into his van. "I'm just happily along for the ride."

Eddie beamed one of his smiles at me as he stuck the keys in the ignition. "Buckle up, sweetheart." Metallica started blaring through the stereos immediately. Eddie reached to turn the dial down.

I smacked his hand out of the way. "How dare you turn this down?! What the fuck is wrong with you, Edward?"

Eddie stared at me silently for a few seconds.

"What?" I asked. The silence was killing me.

Eddie had to yell over the music. "I could literally kiss you right now, do you know that?"

I rolled my eyes at him, turning to face out my window before he could see me blush. Or worse, before I grabbed him and kissed him myself. The ride there was great. Conversation wasn't needed. We were both content with rolling the windows down, smoking and jamming out together the whole way. Eddie let me sort through the van's assorted tapes scattered on the floor and we decided that Black Sabbath was being played on the way home.

We pulled into a parking space in the rear of the parking lot. Eddie cut the ignition and turned to face me. "I'm going to warn you now. I don't know how you feel about the other kids at school, but there isn't a lot to do in this small shithole town, so a lot of the kids hang out here."

Eddie paused.

"So...?" I asked, leading him further. "I don't understand... What's the problem."

Eddie laughed a small, dark laugh. "It's just..I-uh... don't know if you've noticed but I'm not the town's favorite citizen."

I still wasn't sure what he was getting at. "Okay?"

"I just," Eddie continued, picking his words carefully. "I'd understand if you'd rather us pretend like we don't know each other, or if you wanted me to wait in the car.."

Part of me wanted to laugh, but I knew he wasn't kidding by the tone of his voice. Eddie was truly insecure about whether or not I cared what people would think of me being seen with him outside of school. I felt a little tug on my heart.

"Eddie?" I lowered my voice. Eddie looked up at me, and there was a small fear in his deep brown eyes. "I don't give two fucks what anyone in this town thinks of you. I'm not going to pretend like I don't know you. I'm not going to leave you behind."

I could see Eddie exhale whatever breath he was holding in with relief.

"We're friends, Eddie." I assured him. "That means we stick together. Or, I mean, if you don't mind hanging around the freaky new girl. I might ruin your reputation."

Eddie smiled. "You're right. Get out. Ask the cashiers to call home to Seth." Eddie hopped out and ran around to my side of the van, opening my door and taking me by the hand before I could pull away.

As we walked towards the entrance I found myself comfortable enough to lean my head against his shoulder briefly. "You're too much, Munson."

We wandered around the store for a little bit. Collected the ingredients for dinner, hung around the book and glanced over some records to add to my collection. "I'll be back in a minute, sweetheart." Eddie said as he darted off.

I had thrown a Misfits record into the shopping cart and headed for the checkout. Eddie was still nowhere to be seen, but I heard a loud screech as the intercom cut on.

"Attention Walmart Shoppers." It was Eddie's voice that rang overhead. I could hear him trying to not laugh. "Could the prettiest girl in Hawkins please respond to the Customer Service Desk to pick up her freak? She uh– has gorgeous black hair, bright green eyes – uh –wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and a gray plaid shirt."

"Hey–you can't be" someone was fighting him for the mic in the background "Would you let go."

I blushed and looked at my feet as I saw a few old lady's throw me a look. God that was embarrassing.

I felt someone run up behind me and pull me in for a rough, side armed hug. "You don't listen to directions much, do you?"

I laughed, "What do you mean?"

"To. The. Customer. Service. Desk." Eddie repeated slowly for emphasis. "Come on, punk. Let's go get some movies."

It wasn't long before we were hopping out of the van at the video store. Eddie, being the gentleman that he always was, held the door open and allowed me to walk in first. "After you, princess."

Behind the counter were two kids close to my age. A boy with stellar brown hair and a girl with chin length, frizzy, strawberry blonde locks. I recognized them both from my study hall.

"Hey, new kid!" The boy called out. "Wyatt right?"

"The one and only." I smiled at both of them. "It was...Steve and Robin...?" I grimace, hoping I got it both right. "I'm sorry, I'm awful with names."

"Bingo," Robin cheered. "Right on the money. What brings you in?"

"It's movie night," I answered. "Kinda this tradition between my brother and me. So I'm here for..." I drumroll on the counter. "Movies."

"What a surprise!" Steve hollered. "We've got tons of movies." Steve's eyes fell to Eddie behind me but they didn't acknowledge each other. "What were you..." Steve glanced back and forth questioningly "two? In the mood for."

I turned around, Eddie smiled at me awkwardly. Clearly this was not his crowd socially. "I–um–how do you like horror movies?"

Eddie grinned my favorite grin. "I can't get enough."

I could see Steve roll his eyes as he turned around. "Right this way." He led me over to the horror section, still clearly ignoring Eddie. "We've got quite the selection, depending on what your tolerance for terror is."

I huffed. "I'm no chicken, Harrington."

Steve smiled, "I wasn't suggesting that." Steve shrugged a little, leaning up against the wall. "I just think some movies require the right company."

I raised a brow at him. "So what you're saying is that you're the chicken and you need to be babysat?"

Eddie cleared his throat. Placing a hand on my shoulder and leaning around, putting himself between Steve and myself. "If I may make a suggestion," He reached for the copy of Psycho. "We should start with the classics."

"Start?" I whispered to him. I could see his eyes lit up with amusement and a tinge of jealousy.

Eddie pursed his lips and shrugged. "Just figured we'd be doing the same thing next week is all." Before I could answer, and before my heart caught up to itself, he had the movie at the counter to Robin paying for it.

Steve shrugged. "I would have suggested something like A Nightmare on Elm Street. But whatever, I guess some people wanna go soft." I don't think I was meant to hear that last part.

After Eddie paid, he patiently held the door open for me to walk out in front of him. I called back to Steve and Robin, "I'll see you both tomorrow?"

"Looking forward to it!" Robin answered. Robin whispered something over her shoulder to Steve and he lightly punched her shoulder and rolled his eyes.

As soon as we were back in the van Eddie had a cigarette between his lips and one outstretched in my direction. Once again he lit it for me. "Steve seems impressed."

I laughed. "What?"

Eddie shook his head, frowning. "I mean I think Mr. Steve 'The Hair' Harrington has the hots for you. If that wasn't obvious."

"Oh whatever!" I laughed. "Steve Harrington, in case you didn't know, flirts with everyone. And besides, he and Robin make a kinda cute couple, don't they?"

Eddie answered, still no humor in his voice. "I don't think Steve is Robin's type."

"Is that why you wanted to rush out of there?" I asked, taking a drag of my cigarette.

Eddie frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about. Buckle up."

I was relieved that Eddie changed the subject. "So what's for dinner?"

I grinned at him. "That, my dear, is a surprise."

Eddie gave an expression of fake surprise. "What if I'm allergic?"

"I know CPR." I retorted. "And Seth has an Epi-pen."

"I'm more hung up on the idea of you giving me mouth to mouth." Eddie winked and once again, his eyes lingered on my mouth for a moment.

I blushed and was glad that the sun was going down, making it more difficult for him to see.