"Do you want a fluffer-nuttersandwich?"
"No."Yes.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."No...I want one.
Eddie looks at me for a bitbefore getting out a jar of peanut butter and a jar of marshmallow fluff. He spread some of each on two pieces of wonder bread before passing the plate over to me. I pick the sandwich up and take a bite out of it, causing him to smile.
"You know, you can just tell me if you want something. I've been playing this guessing game with you sinceeighth grade." He laughs. I shrug as I get through half of the sandwich he made for me.
"But you love that game." I reply, causing him to laugh even more.
"No I don't!" He argues as he makes himself a fluffer-nutter sandwich. "I only play it because that's how you communicate with me when you've had a bad day."
"Well, this day sucked ass. It was so much worse than bad." I huff. He nods and waves around the rest of his sandwich.
"And you know what I take us to do when you have a bad day..." He trails off, waiting for me to catch on. I shake my head as I finish my sandwich.
"No way! We're too old for that, Eddie." I tell him.
"We will never be too old to play war crimes on the playground over near your house!" Eddie exclaims before finishing his sandwich. "Come on, we can go play for a while, and then we can come back and I'll attempt to teach you how to play an easy song on my guitar."
"Okay, fine...actually, can I use your phone before we go? I need to call Jonathan to let him know I won't be able to pick up the phone if he calls later." I say, which he nods and gestures to the phone on the kitchen wall.
"Sure! Go right ahead, Shanny." He replies as he goes to wash our plates. I thank him as I dial the number for the Byers' house phone.
"Hello!? Will!?" Joyce exclaims as she picks up the phone.
"Uh...no. Sorry, Joyce. It's Shannon." I tell her.
"Oh! Oh, it's okay. How are you?" Joyce asks, calming down a bit.
"I've been better...so have you, obviously. I'm really sorry about Will. I told Jonathan to keep me updated on what's happening with the case. I'm at Eddie Munson's house for the night, but we're going out for a while, so I wanted to make sure Jonathan knew that I wouldn't be able to pick up the phone. Is he there?" I ask.
"No...no, he hasn't been home all day. But I'll let him know when he gets back." Joyce reassures me. I sigh and lean against the wall as Eddie looks over at me.
"Okay, thanks. Bye, Joyce." I reply.
"Bye, Shannon." Joyce says before I hang up.
"Everything okay?" Eddie asks. I shrug and cross my arms.
"Jonathan hasn't gone home yet, so I have no idea what happened to him. Hopefully he's just out looking for Will and lost track of time." I reply, which Eddie puts an arm around my shoulders as he guides me towards the front door.
"Okay! Okay, no more talk of horrible, depressingshit. We're going to have fun and you'll forget all about it for the rest of the night!" He exclaims as we leave his house. I smile as I get on his bike with him, which he starts to peddle once he's certain I'm behind him. The street lights barely help me see anything, but the atmosphere of everything while on Eddie's bike is just so relaxing. I avoid looking at my house as we get to the playground, although I can hear my brother and his friends having fun outside. They're most likely using our pool...
"Okay! Do you want to be the Russian prison guard, or do you want to be the American captured and charged withwar crimes committed against the mother land?" Eddie asks as we get off of his bike, taking my attention off of the laughing and screaming happening down the street.
"Well, last time I was the American and you made me hang upside down from the monkey bars for over ten minutes." I remind him. He laughs and goes to place a hand on my shoulder, but ends up staring at me with wide eyes as Ijump away from him.
"You'll never catch me! I will take your dog back to America and you will never see him again!" I laugh before running away. Eddie takes off after me, laughing with me as we run around the playground. But as I sit to go down the slide, Eddie dives forward to grab me.
"Eddie!" I laugh as we go down the slide, me on my butt and Eddie on his stomach. "Fine! You got me! Are you okay?"
"Oh, I'm perfect." He replies with a grin as we get off the slide. I shake my head and hit his chest playfully before walking over to the swings.
"How long am I sentenced?" I ask as I sit on one of them. Eddie sits on the one to my right, humming as he pretends to think.
"I don't know...forever?" He asks as he looks over at me.
"And I get to stay here with you the whole time?" I ask, which he nods in response. "Then, yeah, I'm fine with that. I probably would have pushed you off the swing if you said anything else."
"I'm offended!How could you push me off the swing like that!?" Eddie asks dramatically. I laugh and roll my eyes.
"You're lucky that you're my best friend, otherwise I would take you out with a rock instead of just pushing you off." I tell him before noticing Steve at the front door of our house. He realizes that I'm looking at him and he hurries inside before I can say or do anything.
"Well, I can swing higher than you, so I at least have that in my favor." Eddie says, getting my attention once again.
"No you can't." I scoff, which he just grins and backs up in order to swing. I immediately do the same, wanting to prove that he can't swing higher than me. But as I start to get as high as I can, he does end up getting just a littler higher than me.
"See, I told you!" He exclaims with a smug look on his face as we continue to swing back and forth. But as I put my legs down to swing backwards, my heart drops into my stomach when I see the back of what looks to be a naked man across the street from us in the woods. Who the hell..? I swing forward and lose sight if it as my legs block it from my view. But as I go back again, the man is nowhere to be seen. I swallow hard and slowly stop swinging as I look around nervously.
"These swings sound really old and rusty, does no one use them anymore?" Eddie asks as he continues to swing next to me, but I don't respond. "Shanny?"
He drags his feet on the ground to stop himself as he looks at me worriedly.
"Are you okay?" He asks, trying to keep eye contact with me. But I just can't keep my eyes on him because of myneed to look around for whatever was across the street from us.
"I just-" I begin, but stop myself from freaking him out. "Nothing...it's nothing. The street lights are playing with my eyes."
Eddie gives me a look of uncertainty before looking around to see if he can findwhat I saw. I gasp and jump off of swing when I hear a strange growl behind me. Eddie stares at me with wide eyes as I start to cry and throw rocks into the trees behind us.
"What!? What the hell is it!?" He cries as he stands up.
"Can we go back to your place? I want to leave." I say shakily as I turn to hug him. He wraps his arms around me tightly, although I can hear his heartbeat pounding in his chest. I can tell that he's terrified, but I know he won't tell me he's scared when I'm already crying and shaking.
"Yeah! Yeah, come on. It's okay, Shanny, everything is fine. Don't worry." He says gently as he guides me over to his bike, his big brown eyes darting around cautiously on the way. I cling to him with my head resting against his back, trying my hardest to stop crying. I don't know what I saw...if I really saw something. How could someone disappear so fast? If that was an animal, then no one has ever discovered that species...it really looked like a man. I just want to erase it from my mind. There's no way I'll be able to sleep after seeing that.
"Okay, okay, come on. You can wear my sweats so you'll be more comfortable and then we can just stay in my room, play guitar, smoke a bit...whatever you want." Eddie says as we stop in front of his house. I nod and continue to cling to him as we get off of his bike. He guides me into his house and down the hallway to his bedroom. I finally let go of him, which he goes to his closet and pulls out a Black Sabbath sweatshirt and a pair of grey sweatpants.
"Here, go change in the bathroom and come right back." Eddie tells me. I frown as I accept the clothes from him.
"Eddie, can you stand close to the bathroom door, please?" I ask shakily, still not anywhere close to being recovered from what happened earlier.
"Yeah." He replies, following me out of his room. I go into the bathroom and he moves to close the door for me, but I stop him.
"Leave it open a bit...I don't want to be trapped in here by myself." I tell him, which he looks at me worriedly as he leaves the door open three inches. Once he looks away from the crack in the door, I start to take my clothes off. His clothes aren't too big on me, so I'm not worried about the sweatpants falling down randomly. I fold up my clothes and leave the bathroom, which Eddie grins when he sees me.
"What?" I ask.
"You look so tiny." He laughs. I scoff and hit his arm before going to his room. I shove my clothes into my book bag as Eddie follows me in.
"Okay, I have to go get changed. Are you going to be okay in here by yourself?" He asks as he grabs a shirt and a pair of shorts out of his closet. I shake my head as I lay on his bed.
"Can you just change in here? I'll face the wall...I just don't want to be alone." I tell him. He sighs as he looks at me.
"Shanny, you know you can talk to me about what's scaring you, right?" Eddie asks, which I nod in response. "What did you see out there?"
"Across the street there was a weird figure. It looked like a man, but it didn't. I don't know if that makes sense, but one second it was there, and the next it was gone. I heard a growl behind us and that's what made me want to leave...I sound crazy, don't I?" I mutter. Eddie shakes his head and gestures to himself.
"Well, if you're crazy, then I must be-" He begins, stopping for a second to whistle while moving a finger in a circle next to his head. "Completely out of my mind."
"So you believe me?" I ask as a smile tugs on the corners of my lips.
"Of course I do. You've never hallucinated anything like that before, so I know better than to think you're making it up." Eddie replies before gesturing for me to look away. I turn my back towards him, allowing him to get changed. He wanted to teach me a song on his guitar, but honestly I'm really comfortable and relaxed where I am. It feels safe in here, especially since the entire room just smells like Eddie. The weird thing I saw won't come in here to get me with Eddie here...at least, that's what I'm telling myself to help me sleep.