Author's note: It took a lot of editing and an almost entire rewrite of this chapter to get it to a state that I was happy with, so to make up for the lateness of this chapter, it's a bumper one. I resisted the urge to split it into two. Thank you for the wonderful reviews after the last chapter, I was smiling so much after I read them. As always, my deepest thanks to everyone who's reading this and taken the time to review. I hate to disappoint those who are waiting on Eddie and Veronica to kiss but all in good time...

P.S. A note regarding road names and locations: I searched and searched online for an accurate map of Hawkins, but they all seem to differ, so I've decided to use the only one I've found that's been updated with season four locations. It's from a post on the Stranger Things subreddit titled 'Map of Hawkins, Season 4 Updated Edition', if anyone is interested.


Chapter VI

"Hey Ronnie."

My shoulders seized up. A deep, husky voice came from behind me as I stood at my locker. I turned to see Chance. A lock of dark, wavy hair fell in front of his eyes. He wore blue jeans and his Tigers jacket. I had to admit he looked handsome. There was a reason why I'd said yes to going on a date with him, after all.

It was early on a Thursday morning, before classes had started. I was tired. The previous night my mom had been lecturing me again. She had begun recalling the long line of unfortunate situations that had happened in her life – starting with getting pregnant with me, before she had been ready to look after a child. The conversation had soon led onto my situation and how I should do things differently and how lucky I was that I wasn't stuck, like she had been. I tried so hard to sympathise wither – and I did on some level, my mom had had it tough – but I couldn't carry the burden of her life. It was too heavy. I was weighed down just listening to it.

My mom's words had played on my mind and that night, I hadn't slept very well. Something that was becoming a regular occurrence these days. Sometimes I was up late studying, and other times, no matter how hard I tried, sleep wouldn't come. I lay tossing and turning most of the night, only catching a few hours in the early morning. I suspected it was a side effect of the pills I took but didn't wish to pay it enough attention. I knew if I thought about it too long, I'd decide to stop taking them and they were too useful to me. Right now, I was handling it fine.

"Please don't call me that," I said flatly.

"You didn't mind it before." He leant in close to me and whispered it like he was telling me a secret. He smirked at the recollection of our previous times together.

"Didn't I?" I continued searching my locker for the textbook I was looking for. He placed a hand on my shoulder. My hair was pulled up into a ponytail that day; his thumb grazed the bare skin at my neck above the collar of my jacket. I straightened up; it sent a pleasant shiver running down my spine. I disliked myself for my uncontrolled response.

"Don't you ever stop?" he chuckled.

"I just have a busy day," I shrugged. His hand dropped. It was the truth.

"You still coming to the old diner this evening for some beers?"

Damn, I thought. I'd forgotten that I'd agreed to that. I'd been invited a few days before. Someone had proposed it while we were having lunch earlier in the week. The guys often hung out there, and sometimes they invited a few girls along. Just occasionally, I'd make an appearance. Getting permission to leave the house was hard, even when I told a little white lie about where I was actually going.

"It's not really my thing…" I started. Chance cut in.

"Chrissy will be there with Jason. And Jessica."

I remained sceptical. Chance sensed my hesitation.

"We haven't really talked lately," he said in a low voice, dipping his head so that he came close to me. "I wanna spend time with you."

I paused the search of my locker to look at him. His face looked wounded. I tried to stand my ground, but I felt bad for continually giving him the brush off. I was too nervous to say how I really felt.

"I'm sorry, I've been busy," I explained.

"You know, you are allowed to enjoy yourself every once in a while."

Eddie's words rang in my mind. Hartley, you need to have some fun. What's stopping you? Chance could see me deliberating and pressed on.

"Look it doesn't have to be anything. You know, between us. It'd just be fun to hang out with everyone," he reassured.

I thought of the conversation I'd had with my mom. I couldn't risk going back home that day and facing that again. I gave in. I needed to get out of the house, and this felt like a good excuse. I'd tell my mom I was at the movies or something.

"Ok, sure."

"Awesome," he replied coolly. His face broke out into a handsome grin. "We'll pick you up at, like, seven?"

I nodded. Chance gave my shoulder a little squeeze again and told me he'd see me at lunch. I was left standing at my locker on my own.

I felt conflicted about my decision to still go. I had spent weeks avoiding being left alone with Chance and making excuses to not go out with him. Eddie's face flashed across my mind and I fleetingly wondered how I would be reacting if he had been the one to ask me out. What would I have said?

The bell rang and interrupted my thoughts. I shut my locker, a little too forcefully than I'd meant to, and made my way to my first class.


Chrissy had been delighted when I'd let her know that I was still going with them that evening, and we planned to head to Jessica's to hang out before the guys picked us up at seven. But before then, we had cheer practice. And I was running late.

I'd arrived in the locker room just as the rest of the team was heading out and, by the time I had hastily got dressed into my cheerleading outfit, I knew the others were already warming up. I usually did this earlier in the day, so I could head straight to practice after class, but it had felt like everything had been off balance ever since my conversation with Chance that morning. I made a mental note to try and catch up on some sleep over the weekend. I was still stuffing my clothes from the day into my gym bag as I pushed open the locker room door.

When I stepped out into the corridor, I wasn't the only one still walking about the school. I was greeted by voices and a few kids I recognised were walking down the hallway, deep in animated conversation. I recognised them as the Hellfire Club. I watched as they walked past. My steps became slow and deliberate; I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Not that it mattered, passing me was of no significance to them. The significance was all in my head; they didn't know about the hours I spent with Eddie. They ignored me. They laughed raucously at some private joke, gawky and unrestrained, and headed down the hall.

They passed me to reveal a smiling Eddie. He must have seen me from further down the hall and hung back to let his friends walk ahead. They soon disappeared behind a closed door. Eddie and I both stopped and faced each other from opposite sides of the hall. There was something different about the way that he was looking at me. I had to admit that liked it.

"Cute outfit," Eddie said.

His tone was playful, a cheeky grin on his face. His eyes glanced from my face to my bare legs, shown off in my short cheerleading skirt. For once I didn't mind a guy drawing attention to my body. I didn't mind his eyes on me, in fact I wanted him to keep looking. I let a smile creep onto my lips.

"I thought you hated cheerleaders," I returned, arching an eyebrow.

"Hm," he made a face like he was thinking on it for a moment. He swayed on the spot as if deliberating his answer, never one to stay still. "There's one I don't mind."

"Lucky her."

"And even if I did, I'm still enjoying the view…"

"Move along, Munson," I quipped. I began to walk away but only made a couple of steps, not really wishing to lose his attention.

"Only if you come with me," he returned. I watched over my shoulder, as he began walking slowly backwards towards the room where his friends had disappeared off to. "I promise you'd have a lot more fun with me than waving those pom poms around."

He gestured like he was waving some of his own. Ok, now this is definitely flirting, I thought. As inexperienced as I knew I was, this was unambiguous. Wasn't it?

"You'd better watch yourself," I said suggestively. My heart was beating faster. I fought to keep my cool.

"What you gonna do?" he teased. He made a gesture with both hands like I should come at him.

I made to reply but the sound of a door opening interrupted me before I had a chance. A floppy-haired guy in a Hellfire Club t-shirt stuck his head out of the door. He looked from me to Eddie and frowned, confused. He clearly thought better than to question why we were both standing there speaking with one another. Instead, he turned back to Eddie.

"Eddie, come on. We wanna start," he insisted.

I looked at my feet, avoiding the gaze of his friend, and only looked back at Eddie when saw his friend duck back into the room.

"Sounds like you're wanted elsewhere," I commented.

I took a few steps down the corridor but threw a look at him over my shoulder. Eddie was watching my retreating back with that same grin on his face.

"See ya, Hartley."

He smiled widely. His eyes flashed back over me, and he gave me a wink. I rolled my eyes but couldn't supress my growing smile. I called out goodbye, as if I was unbothered at encountering him, which was the opposite of the truth. I felt his eyes on me as I walked away. My face flushed hot and pink, and I was glad he couldn't see it. I stopped at the end of the hallway, once I heard the click of a door close, and threw a quick glance over my shoulder. I smiled at where he had been standing.

What am I doing? I thought, barely supressing a giggle now.

I'd just been flirting with Eddie Munson. I briefly wondered how I'd gotten to this place in such a short period of time after knowing him for years. Well, knowing of him, anyway. It was clear to me now that I'd never really known him at all. Nobody did, except his friends. He was softer, more kind-hearted, more fun than any one I had ever spent time with.

I had to admit that since hanging out with him, things felt better, easier. Very few things had changed since the start of the year. Sure, I was getting a big helping hand in studying, but my workload had stayed the same. But I'd gone from feeling like I was going to lose my mind to now feeling lighter, happier even. Eddie's seemingly carefree attitude was contagious.

Everything about this situation should have told me not to have feelings for him. The way things had started, the way my friends felt about him, the way he paraded around school acting like he didn't give two shits about anyone there. And yet, here I was, smiling stupidly at the spot where he'd stood, at the thought of his eyes on me, at the thought that he might want me. I wasn't sure how it had happened; it had slowly crept up on me, developing over weeks, but now I knew.

I liked Eddie Munson.

I sighed, unsure what to do with these newly realised feelings, and pushed open the door in front of me, not wanting to be even more late for practice.

When we got to Jessica's house after practice, I called home, planning to let my mom know I was with the girls and wouldn't be back until later. I was lucky – my stepdad picked up. Far more lenient, he happily accepted my cover story and didn't question whether my mom would allow me to go out that evening or not. Once in the clear, we began getting ready to go out. This was always my favourite part of the evening – I would have happily skipped drinking and hanging out at the old diner to spend the evening with my two best friends, listening to music and chatting about nothing in particular.

As I hadn't brought a change of clothes that day, I borrowed an outfit from Jessica. I often borrowed clothes from friends, not having anything particularly interesting to wear to occasions like this. She let me choose whatever I wanted from the large walk-in closet that she had. Despite the vast array of brightly coloured tops, cute mini-skirts, and shimmering sequined dresses, I chose something pretty simple – an off the shoulder, cropped black top and a pair of high-waisted jean shorts.

Chrissy and Jessica chatted about the upcoming basketball game that we'd been rehearsing for, while doing their make-up. As I rearranged my hair, my mind wandered. I thought about my encounter with Eddie that afternoon. The realisation of how I felt had been occupying me ever since. Looking back on the hours we'd spent together, I was sure I wasn't just imagining the flirting, the connection, between us. Especially not after our interaction earlier that day – remembering the look on his face, the way his eyes lingered on my body, gave me butterflies. However, a small, nagging part of my brain told me that he was probably like it with everyone. I'd never really seen him interact with many girls, but I could only assume he was the same with them. And I was most definitely not his type. We were from different worlds.

I bit my lip as I pulled my hair into a half-up style. I half-wished I hadn't said yes to hanging out with the guys that evening. I didn't want to give Chance the wrong impression and right now, a part of me wanted to be alone to work out my feelings. But it was too late to back out by then. And, anyway, I was glad to be away from home for a while.

The guys pulled up outside Jessica's shortly after seven that evening and the three of us squeezed into the backseat of Jason's car. We drove across town and out towards the old diner, which had been abandoned a while before. It wasn't much; it had a crappy old TV, a beat-up sofa and a few chairs to sit around in, but the guys had adopted it as a place to chill and have a few drinks without getting in trouble. That evening, someone had brought along a boom box, which was playing Duran Duran as we arrived. The mood was relaxed, with half a dozen people already there, chatting and swigging back beers. Some of the girls from the cheerleading squad were already there and made room for us on the sofa. One of them passed us a bottle of Schnapps that she'd stolen from her parent's alcohol cabinet and we each took a swig in turn. Jason and Chance joined the other guys, who were standing around dishing out beers and discussing tactics for their next major basketball game, which was just a short time away.

An hour or so passed like this. I enjoyed being away from home, for once not needing to think or talk about schoolwork or practice or whatever else I had on. Ever since Eddie had turned my life upside down, I'd been questioning who I spent time with and why, but it was times like these that made me remember why I'd been friends with them all these years. Wearing the Tiger's colours meant you belonged, no matter what. Without that, I didn't know who I was.

Jessica had begun chatting about some drama she'd had with the guy she was seeing (who she purposefully hadn't invited along). The girls all listened interestedly, giggling occasionally as Jessica revealed details of their sex life – more open once she'd had a couple of drinks. Jessica was mid-flow when I felt a tap of another foot on mine. I looked to Chrissy who was sat beside me on the end of the sofa, and she looked at me pointedly, trying to hold my attention. She inclined her head towards the other side of the room where the guys still stood around, as if to draw my attention to them. I gave a small frown in response and made to say something, but she discreetly put a finger to her lips. I listened.

"Yeah, not so great, dude," Chance had said, he seemed to be answering a question from someone else in the group. Whatever it was, it had alerted Chrissy to their conversation.

"She's here tonight though, right? Now's your chance," I heard Andy say. He spoke quietly, but I could still hear.

"Gotta get on that, dude. Veronica's a babe," Jason said. I heard the slap of a hand on someone's back and could only imagine Jason was encouraging Chance in whatever it was they were discussing. I had my suspicions about the topic in question.

"Yeah, when she actually turns up," Andy added.

"That's why I invited her, man. I'm just hoping she puts out tonight. I've been waiting long enough," Chance answered.

He had dropped his voice low. If it hadn't been for Chrissy, I'd have missed it over the music and the chatter of the girls beside us. I met her eyes and she stared back at me, open mouthed, incredulous at his comment.

I was less surprised, but still hurt. He had feigned friendship and only wanted me to hang out with them for a chance to sleep with me. I felt angry. Not even at him – at myself for being so stupid.

"I don't need to listen to this." I got up abruptly from my seat on the sofa.

"Veronica, wait."

I heard Chrissy call after me, but I was already up. The guys might have realised that I'd overhead them, seeing me march out of the room. They'd probably think I was upset at what Chance had said, but I didn't much care, I just wanted to be out of there. I made for the bathroom. Chrissy soon caught up and entered a second after me. She locked the door behind us so we wouldn't be disturbed.

"I'm so sorry, he's an asshole," she said, looking at me with great concern.

"Yeah," I agreed. I smiled cynically, annoyed at how stupid I'd been to trust this guy who had clearly only ever been out for one thing. I leant on the side of the sink and gave a dry chuckle, almost to myself. "I mean, I kinda knew that before today, but he just proved it."

It was true, I had known it. I'd just chosen to ignore it.

My head was aching. It swam slightly where I'd been drinking and had got up so suddenly. Chrissy watched me as I adjusted my hair in the mirror, avoiding her gaze. There had been nothing wrong with it before, I just wanted something to do. I could feel her eyes on me, no doubt checking for any sign of upset. But I wasn't. I was just angry.

"Your hand is shaking," she said.

I dropped my hands from my hair immediately, clasping my fingers into a fist.

"I, er—I'm just stressed. I'm not sleeping very well," I explained.

"I can tell something's wrong you know. You can tell me. You know I understand," she said, almost pleadingly. I felt bad that she had so much love and concern for me, and I was returning it by lying to her every week – lying about how stressed out I'd felt at the start of term, about how I was now coping, and about how I felt about Eddie.

"No, it's… it's not my mom this time. It's just schoolwork. Senior year and all that," I explained, feeling guilty at the lie. "I don't need assholes like Chance adding to it, you know?"

She nodded sympathetically. Her eyebrows pinched together.

"I think I'm going to head home."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "Maybe we could all go. We can go back to Jessica's and hang out again."

"No, it's ok. You have fun with Jason. I don't really want to hang out with any of those guys."

I didn't hide the disdain in my voice, and I knew she heard it.

"What do you mean? I thought you liked Jason."

I looked directly at her, knowing I'd hit a nerve with that comment. Chrissy and Jason had already been together for a year, and I knew how much she loved him. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, even if I didn't think much of him.

"I like that he likes you," I replied diplomatically, choosing my words very carefully.

She said nothing but pursed her lips. I knew she hadn't liked my comment. There was a slight hurt in her eyes that I didn't like, I knew she cared what I thought – I hated that I'd caused it.

"Look, I'm just angry, ok? Ignore me. You know I don't care who you date as long as they treat you right. I think I need some time away from them all, but you should stay and have some fun."

She gave a small nod to let me know I was forgiven. "How will you get home?"

"I'll just walk, it's not that late."

"I don't know… maybe I could ask Jason to drop you—"

"No," I interrupted. "Please don't. It's only a short walk to town and then it'll be fine from there."

She looked sceptical, but knew I wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Okay, fine, but I'm calling you first thing tomorrow to check you're okay."

"You'd better," I joked.

We left the bathroom to find that everyone else had continued as they were. The music had gotten a little louder and some of the guys were now chatting with the girls. Things had become a little bit more relaxed as everyone had had more to drink and I took the opportunity to leave unseen while they were all distracted.

I stepped outside and took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the cool evening air. Looking back, it was pretty dumb to think I could walk the hour from the diner to my house, some of it along a poorly lit country road, but the only thing I cared about was getting away from the party. If anything, I thought the long walk on my own would clear my head before I had to face being home again.


I wasn't too far from town when vehicle passed me by that I recognised. I wasn't sure if it was the music or the van itself that had alerted me. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the black and white van – equal parts excited and panicked. How exactly would I explain why I was wandering down a country road late at night? It passed me by at first, but then I heard a screech of tyres as it abruptly stopped in the road, not too far behind me.

"Hartley!"

I turned to see Eddie's mop of wavy hair hanging out of the driver's window.

"What the hell are you doing?"

I ran the short distance to the van. Once I'd hopped into the passenger seat, I released the jacket that I'd been holding tightly around me while I walked, feeling instantly warmer inside the vehicle.

"Hey," I said casually, like we'd just encountered one another at school.

"Hey? You're giving me hey," he said laughing somewhat incredulously. "When I just picked you up off the street on a cold dark evening?"

I gave a dry chuckle and tried to discreetly wipe away a tear, sniffing slightly. Try as I might, I hadn't been able to stop myself from crying angry tears of frustration at the situation that I'd found myself in as I walked along the road.

"You okay?" he said, realising something was up.

He peered at me. His expression was earnest, open, brown eyes wide, and eyebrows raised, full of concern.

"I'm fine," I answered. A lie, of course.

"Do you need a ride home?"

I looked at him gratefully.

"Yes," I sighed, feeling relieved that I'd seen him. He nodded and started the van again. He did a sharp U-turn in the road and headed towards my place.

"What were you doing out this way?" he asked. I saw him glance at my outfit, a different kind of expression on his face now compared to the once over he'd given me in the hallway that day. "You must be freezing."

"Okay, mom," I teased, feeling more relaxed now that I was in his presence. "What are you doing out this way?"

"Oh, I, er, live close by," he said vaguely, gesturing over his shoulder in the other direction. He tried again. "So… did something bad happen?"

I wasn't sure I wanted to go into that with Eddie, but I knew he was being nothing but genuine. Plus, it was a fair question, given that he was driving in the opposite direction to where he had been headed to drop me home. I knew I couldn't avoid it.

"It's fine," I waved a hand dismissively. "I was just at some stupid party with Chrissy and Chance and… It's dumb—I was being dumb."

I felt awkward mentioning their names so casually, like it was taboo.

"But I was pretty lucky to—to see you."

I felt embarrassed that he'd caught me in this situation, stumbling over my words a little. But it was true. I felt grateful for the warmth of the van and the feeling of familiarity that I increasingly felt around Eddie. Of all the people, I thought.

"It's nice actually…" I continued. "To, er, see you, I mean."

That had to be the Schnapps talking. Letting him know that I was even remotely pleased to see him felt like a very big deal. I coughed a little and looked out of the window, not wishing to see his reaction. Dark buildings rushed by in the quiet night as we drove across Hawkins.

"I take it it's all over with your guy then?"

From anyone else, this comment would have been surprisingly direct – the gentle tease might have even made me mad – but not Eddie. He got away with a lot.

"I'm not sure it ever really began," I gave a hollow chuckle. "I'm not upset, I'm just mad."

I didn't want him to think I was bothered about Chance.

"You finally realised what a dick he was?"

"Pretty much," I chuckled dryly.

It felt good to spend some time with Eddie away from everything. Even though we were often only metres away from each other, we rarely interacted at school. In fact, the more we spent time out of school together, the more we seemed to avoid each other in school. I was very used to keeping these two parts of my life separate. But that evening was neither of those parts, it was outside of all of it. It was nice. It was easy.

We made the short drive across town to Loch Nora in no time at all. Eddie pulled up outside the entrance to the neighbourhood and turned off the engine. I was glad that I didn't have to tell him to not drive down. Although, that left me with a familiar sinking guilt at the thought of him knowing he shouldn't drop me at my house. I hated that he might think he wasn't good enough to even be near my house.

Once he'd parked up, we sat in the dark of the van talking, and the topic of conversation soon turned to organising our next study session.

"What about next Friday?" Eddie suggested when I'd had to say no to pretty much every other day that he suggested due to one commitment or another.

"That's my birthday," I blurted out.

I wasn't quite sure why I said it. I had no particular plans so this wasn't exactly an obstacle to our session. I didn't really celebrate my birthday – I usually had a cake and some presents from family, sometimes I went to Chrissy's to hang out or went to the movies if it was the weekend, but that was it. Not many people even knew when it was, so why I felt the need to inform Eddie, I wasn't sure.

Eddie broke into a wide smile. "Oh yeah?"

"I mean, we can still do Friday after school, if you want to. I don't mind."

"What? You're not out partying?"

"Not really," I shook my head. "I don't really like parties much."

He narrowed his eyes and looked at me with a bemused expression. "Is that why you ran away this evening?"

"Maybe…" I replied.

"You do a lot of things you don't actually enjoy, don't you?"

I gave a nervous laugh. I went to protest but when I thought about it, he was right.

"Can I ask you a question?" He asked, his face had turned more serious.

"Sure."

"Why do you hang out with those guys? I mean, you clearly don't like them."

"Habit," I shrugged. "They're not always that bad…"

I tried to defend them, but that evening's activities weighed heavily on my mind. I trailed off, not sounding very convincing. Eddie laughed.

"You should come and hang out with us, sit at our table at lunch. Maybe we'll even let you join the Hellfire Club."

"Oh, sure. Like your friends would be cool with that," I said sarcastically.

"I can be pretty persuasive," he bragged, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't doubt," I replied with a smirk.

"I'd vouch for you," he reassured me, feigning a serious look.

"Your friends don't know we hang out, right?" I asked.

"No. Do yours?"

"No. There's not really an easy way to say 'hey, you know that guy that you can't stand? Well, actually, we're friends'," I joked.

There was a long pause and I briefly wondered if I'd annoyed him. Eddie fiddled with one of the three rings that regularly adorned his left hand.

"So, we're, like, friends now?" he asked tentatively. There was a softness, a hesitancy, to his voice that I had rarely heard.

"Yeah, of course," I answered as if it was obvious.

"Oh, ok."

He paused. Something in his tone and the expression on his face made me think he had more to say. He had that innocent, boyish look on his face that I'd seen a few times before – the one that was totally at odds with everything I had previously known about him.

"What?" I pressed. I wondered if I'd said the wrong thing. Maybe he didn't want to be friends, maybe he still saw this as what it had begun as – a business transaction.

"No, it's just… I don't think friends look at each other the way we do."

The side of his mouth pulled up into a nervous smile and he looked away from me again. I couldn't quite believe it – here was Eddie Munson, looking bashful. My breath caught in my throat and butterflies rose in my stomach. I did my best to remain steady despite my physical response.

"Like… what?" I asked.

We looked at each other. The silence of the night felt heavy. In the dark, his face looked pale, almost ethereal, and his eyes glinted black. I really thought he would lean forward and kiss me, there was so much tension between us. But it wasn't like the moment at Skull Rock. This time, I thought I could see the push and pull of a thought going back and forth in his mind, as if he was really considering it. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again.

In my mind, I was crying out for him to do it. Before that evening, I might not have thought that he was interested, but that comment – I don't think friends look at each other the way we do – that made me think twice. He was right, friends did not look at each other the way we had in the hallway earlier that day. But the fact that he hadn't kissed me made me doubt myself. I was right there. What was stopping him?

"I'd better go," I said quietly. He nodded. I reached across and timidly put my hand on his. It was softer than I expected. He looked at me with eyes wide.

With an ounce of confidence that no doubt came from the alcohol I'd had earlier that evening, I leant towards him in the driver's seat and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. I lingered close to him as I spoke.

"Thanks for saving me."

If he wanted to kiss me, this was the perfect opportunity. He only looked at me, it was the quietest I'd ever seen him. I leant back and gave a small smile before hopping out of the van. If we weren't friends, and we weren't anything more, then what were we?