A single ray of sunlight broke through the curtain on Sunday morning, blazing straight into face. Blinking hard, I tossed over to avoid the light, but it illuminated the room and kept me from getting back to sleep. Eddie's bare chest rose and fell rhymically, his mouth slightly open and warm breath tickling my face as I watched him sleep. I don't know how much time passed whilst I continued gazing at the 5"11 masterpiece of a man lying next to me, tracing my fingers along his skin. Eddie stretched and yawned, reaching out to me with his eyes still closed and pulled me onto his chest. "How long you been awake for?" He mumbled sleepily. I snuggled into his body, resting my chin on my hand to glance up at him, "I dunno, maybe an hour." Eddie's eyes sprung open, meeting mine with alarm, "An hour?! You must be starving, why didn't you wake me?" He asked incredulously. "I'm fine! You looked so beautiful and peaceful, I just wanted to admire you," I retorted, "that sounded corny as shit, didn't it?" In response he bellowed with laughter and nuzzled my hair, "absolutely, but thank you. No one's called me beautiful before." Bolting upright, I clambered on top of him and squeezed his cheeks, "You are freaking gorgeous Mr Munson. Pancakes?" After devouring a stack of syrup soaked pancakes we took turns to shower. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror touching the scars on my abdomen; for once I didn't feel as disgusted by them as usual, or like I could only look for a few seconds before covering up. Running a hand up to my throat, I stroked the mark where Eddie had laid his claim on me and bit back a delirious grin - the effect this man had on me. In his bedroom, Eddie was playing something unrecognisable on guitar and was clearly well in the zone because he didn't even falter when I got dressed into an oversized batman tee with the sleeves cut off and knee length jean shorts. I knelt behind him on the bed, watching the muscles of his shoulders working as he played and the slight bumping of his head to the tune. Afterwards Eddie propped the guitar back on the wall and looked at me as if seeing me for the first time, "Hey, wanna get outta here?"
We strolled through Hawkins, slurping on slush-puppies to cool down, everyone was rushing to the pool and the park was pretty empty except for the skater kids zipping past us to the ramps nearby. Eddie flopped beneath a large tree offering us shade from the brutal sun. Wearing his denim battle jacket over a black vest, I could see the veins in his arms as he leaned back on them. "Sure you don't wanna get in on Hellfire tonight?" He asked with a crooked smile. I lay back and watched clouds swim above us, "Nah, I suck at DnD." I replied. It was the truth too - Mike actually kicked me out of the party before I moved because I was so terrible. "You can't suck at DnD, you literally just pretend to be a character and do cool shit." Eddie refuted. Rolling onto my side, I replied, "I know, but I suck at strategy and keeping a straight face. Besides, I wanna hang with Nancy." More like I wanted to grill Nancy about what she and Steve were getting up to. After a few minutes I asked, "What were you playing earlier - I didn't recognise it." Eddie scratched at his face and told me, "That was one of Adam's songs, the guy who invited me to Canada to play with him. He's a wicked song writer but his riffs need some work so I'm tryna give 'em some umph, y'know." I nodded enthusiastically, "It sounded sick, you're really fucking good on guitar, Canada's gonna go wild for you." His cheeks turned slightly pink, "Speaking of Canada - you and Robin heard from that college yet?" He asked. I had planned to tell Eddie about the acceptance letters when they arrived, but every day since then Robin had made some comment about how hard it was keeping the secret from Vicky, and when I'd asked why she hasn't just told her, Robin said she wanted us to tell people together and all at once, on my birthday. My birthday was two more weeks away. Now it was my turn for my cheeks to turn pink, I didn't want to lie to Eddie, "we got in." I said to the clouds.
Eddie was on top of me in a flash, toothy smile beaming down at me and crinkles at the corners of his eyes. "YOU GOT IN?! oh my god, that's amazing. I knew you would but now it's official. When did you find out?" His words flew at 100 miles an hour and I felt a mixture of emotions all at once - relief to have finally told him, excitement at the thought of us being in Canada together, guilty I hadn't mentioned it sooner. I confessed the truth and expected him to feel hurt that I'd kept it secret until now, instead he was infectiously giddy and attacked my face with kisses. Eddie's soft lips and Rough stubbly chin tickled, making me wriggle and giggle beneath him. He leaned back a little to stare into my eyes for a second before lowering his head and closing his lips to mine. I kissed him back slowly, building to a more intense makeout session...the sound of someone clearing their throat broke us apart. "Get a room you two, seriously." Max was standing a few feet away from us, skateboard under one foot. I lightly pushed Eddie off and we stood, embarrassed and awkward like a pair of silly lovedrunk teenagers. "Uh hey, sorry about that we were uh -" I began fumbling for words before Max raised an eyebrow, "I know what you were doing," She walked closer with her eyes squinted, "Are those hickeys? Oh my god you guys are literally gonna make me vomit, who even gives hickeys anymore? Gross." My mouth hung open, unresponsive. "What can I say Zoomer, except you'll understand it when you're older." Eddie's reply made Max shake her head and roll her eyes before heading back to the ramps.