The pair were tangled up on the couch, Eddie on top of Cynthia as he traced patterns on the skin of her hip with calloused fingers, the base of his rings cooling the skin with the follow-up of each brush. She snaked a hand up and around before starting to absentmindedly copying his movements onto his own back with her carefully green, painted nails.
Eddie broke away from the girl's mouth and started leaving chaste kisses and the occasional bite on her neck and jaw.
He knew he had found a sweet spot when heard a soft moan in his ear, followed by nails pressing into his side; what he wasn't expecting was her knee coming up and pressing right against his groin. Groaning, he pulled away from her with a chuckle, "dammit, Moose."
Cynthia laughed and it was like music to his ears, "sorry, I—." Eddie had cut her off with a sloppy kiss but this time when he broke away, her teeth grazed against his bottom lip.
"Don't start what you can't see through."
Letting out another laugh as Eddie went back to her neck, she brought her hands back to thoughtlessly sliding his shirt up his back. Her eyes traveled around the living room and everything seemed brighter and she swore she could hear a car that wasn't apart of the movie that was still playing on the television.
"I think someone's outside." She muttered to Eddie who stopped mid-bite on Cynthia's ear lobe. He pulled away and also listened. Then a car door slammed, "shit."
Cynthia pushed Eddie up and off of her before sliding off the couch and fixing her shirt. She made her way to the open curtain and looked outside and saw her sister climbing out of a van with a duffel bag. "Shit, it's Beth."
Eddie quickly gathered the bag of weed along with the rolling papers and joints that were on the side table as Cynthia raced to the front door, combing out her hair with her fingers.
"What happened?" She asked as Bethany trudged down the walkway to the front door, basically dragging the duffel behind her.
"Chrissy's mom and dad came home. Kicked us out."
Cynthia wrapped an arm around her sister in comfort and shut the door quietly, leading her to the hallway. "Yeah, her parents are, um, weird about guests."
"Could you give me a ride back over there in the morning? We're still going to the rink in Somerset."
"Yeah, get me up whenever." Cynthia shrugged, successfully making her sister avoid heading into the living room and seeing Eddie Munson still in their house.
Cynthia turned around and Eddie was standing up, slipping his jacket on, getting ready to leave. "What are you doing?"
"Your sister is home, I thought you'd might want me outta here." He explained, trying to sort out his inverted sleeve.
"Absolutely not." She crossed her arms, crossing the room to stand in front of him.
"What?"
"Eddie, you drank about five beers and rolled two behemoth joints, there's no way I'm letting you drive home." She explained and held her hand out, hoping he'd take it and they could go back to her room.
"You wouldn't prefer me to stay on the couch?"
"How do I put this? If you stay out here," she pointed at the hallway, "she will absolutely, one hundred percent, wake up at the ass crack of dawn to chase you out of here."
"Are you sure?"
"Yup." A voice sounded from the hallway. Bethany had her pillow and blanket over her shoulder, hand on the banister to head upstairs.
"Hey, I thought you you were going to bed?" Cynthia went back to the other side of the room.
Bethany shrugged and nodded up the stairs, "can I sleep in Mom's room?"
Cynthia nodded.
"Is he staying over? Is he your boyfriend now?" The younger sister whispered as she watch Eddie quietly pick up cans, trying to keep himself busy.
"Yes, he's staying over." Bethany started wriggling her eyebrows at her older sister as she got flustered answering her simple question. "Shut up. I'll give you forty dollars if you stay quiet about this when Mom gets home."
"In advance. I need money for the rink."
"Fuck, fine. Go to bed. Wake me up when you're ready to go."
They had wound up restarting The Thing instead of going to bed right away, now it was 2:37 am and they stumbled into Cynthia's room. Eddie had sat on the bed and she went to the closet. "Are you really gonna sleep in jeans?"
"Sorry. Didn't realize this was gonna be a sleepover." Eddie stretched, laying across the plush bedding.
"God." Cynthia rolled her eyes, turning around and sliding the closet door open. "How tall are you?"
"Dunno. Five, ten? Eleven, maybe." Eddie thought aloud before he was met with a pair of sweatpants to the face.
"Whose are they?" Eddie unrolled the pants and they were clearly men's, if they were her's she would be swimming in them.
"I don't know," she shrugged, heading for the door, "I'm locking up, just open the door when you're done."
The door clicked shut and the room went silent, Eddie sat up and started slipping off his jeans. He rolled them up and sat them on her desk. Putting on the black sweats, he made his way over to the rotational shelf that held a bunch of cassettes.
He got lost in thought as he skimmed the titles of the music she owned. He felt that he judged her harshly and even got a little too nervous about her being a cheerleader, former cheerleader. It's just what if this was some fucked up bet to kiss and humiliate him down the line or whatever high school-esque shit people did nowadays.
Sighing, he tried to shake off these cynical feelings as he started to take off his jewelry starting with his rings. He got distracted as he spotted Black Sabbath's Master of Reality.
"Holy shit." He laughed to himself, grabbing the case, opening it and popping into her radio. He hit play and Sweet Leaf started playing.
With a knock at the door, Cynthia spoke up, "You alright in there? Did you get Nightmare'd?"
"Nightmare'd?" He repeated incredulously, taking two long steps to open the door, "Like Elm Street?"
"Yeah," she smiled, "Y'know when Rod is in the— whatever, we can check it out next time."
He sat down on the bed once again, a smug look on his face, "so there is going to be a next time?"
Rolling her eyes, she nodded up at the cord for her lamp, "Can you get that? And yes, there will be. You still gotta pass this semester at least.
Cynthia turned off the overhead light and Eddie clicked on her bedside lamp as she made her way over and sat on his lap, facing him and placing her arms over his shoulders. "Sorry if you thought anything was going to happen tonight."
"Nah, I, uh," he pulled his eyes away from hers, placing his hands on her exposed thighs. "I'll be honest, I really, truly thought we were only gonna be watching movies and drinking and hangin' out. Celebrating this one small victory before you kicked me to the curb and went about your life."
"Damn." Cynthia chuckled, once again playing with Eddie's wavy hair. An air of sarcasm was around them when she continued, "my whole plan was to ask you to hang out, luring you with horror movies and beer and Black Sabbath before I inevitably got in your pants. Then I would've kicked you to the curb."
"Shit, Moose, you do that to everyone? Am I not special?"
Taking his face in her hands, she leaned in, a mere inch from his face and lied, "absolutely not."
Cynthia rolled off of him and laid down on the bed between him and the cool window. Before he reached the lamp again, she asked, "Can I tell you something before I pass out?"
The serious shift in her tone shook Eddie up, he turned back to her and she was clutching a pillow to her chest, looking up at the glowing stars on the ceiling. "Sure."
Cynthia was a chatty drunk, but in this moment she was barely buzzed, maybe a little high. Nevertheless she spoke without much of a filter as she avoided looking at the boy next to her.
"I like you. A lot. And I think I've felt this way for a while. But I was scared to do anything about it, because you're kind of... abrasive."
"I'm not." Eddie replied, watching her go on, clutching the pillow tighter to her. He shouldn't even had said anything, he knew he was. Admittedly he was quite stunned by her admitting that she had a thing for him
"You go on biweekly tangents, vocal think pieces, about forced conformance and the bullshitery of high school cliques and archetypes. It's, uh, it's a little—." Her voice dropped lower, almost like she was confirming it to herself. "It kind of stings. Just a little bit."
Eddie stayed quiet as Cynthia collected her thoughts, her eyebrows furrowed as she pulled at a string against the seam of the pillow.
"I remember last spring I wanted to ask you to hang out so badly, then summer came and it still didn't happen." She got frustrated, rubbing her hands up her face. "How do you even segue into that conversation? 'Hey thanks for the half ounce of drugs, do you want to go for a ride and we can smoke a couple before you drop me off at cheer?' Hell no. I'm not getting rejected romantically and losing my dealer in one sentence."
"I wouldn't have rejected you." Eddie shyly spoke up as she hid in her hands.
"Come on. One glimpse of the green skirt and you would've been running for the hills."
"Wanna test that theory?"
Cynthia smacked the pillow against his chest and sighed, "No. Because now we know each other. And I think-" She cut herself off with a deep breath, "Never mind."
"What is it?" He pried, watching as she got lost in thought.
Shaking her head, she gave him a small smile, meeting his dark brown eyes, "It's nothing. Good night."
Eddie decided not try pry again and turned off the lamp and laid down all the way, facing Cynthia's side of the bed. "I like you a lot too."