There were already way more people than I had expected at Linda's house; everyone from Hawkins high had brought back at least 2 people from college with them, and random strangers kept giving me the side eye. I gripped my bottle of gin and headed towards the lounge, hearing Steve's unmistakeable laughter. When he saw Nancy, Steve did a double take like in the movies. "Hey guys, take a seat we're playing drunk charades" he gestured to the gang of people sitting in the lounge split into two teams: people from Hawkins, and people from anywhere else. Robin slapped him on the shoulder and whispered something, before giving me the thumbs up and leaving the room to go find Vicky. As I went to kneel down on the Hawkins Side, someone I'd had math with chirped up, "You should be on that team, you're from Arizona." I smirked at them, "Actually I was born in Hawkins" and continued to kneel, but then someone from the other team complained about the Hawkins side having more people, so I was shunned to their side, alone.
The game was simple but effective - anytime you made a wrong guess what the person was acting out, your whole team had to drink. An hour later, the majority of people in the lounge were well on their way to being smashed. Meanwhile, my high tolerance for alcohol had me barely feeling tipsy. People dispersed and I dodged past them to join my small circle of friends. "They're here!" Dustin turned back to us when he finished talking to Lucas on his walkie, then he and Mike scattered to meet their friends. I was left with Nancy, Steve, and Linda. Awkward. Linda was hanging off Steve's arm, head on his shoulder. "Drink. We need more drink." Nancy asserted. "There's everything you could ever want in the kitchen, and reserves in the garage, that way." Linda smiled at us both, pointing in the direction of the kitchen. I gave Steve a raised eyebrow as Nancy pulled me with her. "Want a cocktail?" I asked her, shouting over the music. When she nodded I made us both a Long island Iced Tea, Nancy came close to me and simply said, "We broke up."
We moved to the staircase with our cocktails, and she continued, "He isn't coming back on Tuesday - some bullshit about not wanting El to be alone for 2 weeks. We argued about it. I asked when he would come back to start looking at apartments near college for the fall, and he just said he wasn't coming then either. He wants to go to some community college with a friend from the pizza place." Nancy was guzzling her drink as she told me this. I felt a twinge of sadness for her, but then again, not many of us actually expected her and Jonathan to last very long, they were too different. I gave my cousin a tight hug before joking, "well maybe you can convince one of these fine young men to move in with you." She laughed. Robin and Vicky were suddenly on the step above us, Vicky's lipstick smudged at the corners and some of it stained Robin's lips. We descended and Vicky held my hands in hers, jumping along to the music, "Hey guys! aww man I want one of those, who made that?" she pointed to my drink that was almost finished. I led the three of them to the kitchen, but Nancy slipped away.
Another hour passed; more people were streaming through the doors every moment. I was sitting by the pool, a bunch of college frat guys were wrestling in the water at one side, a group of girls splashed around at the other. Vicky and Robin had been inseparable, understandably. Steve was constantly being tailed by Linda. The kids were holed up somewhere together having fun. Nancy was surrounded by old classmates across the yard. I was finally feeling tipsy after drinking pretty much double whatever Nancy had, enjoying doing some people watching by myself. I felt a large presence behind me and lowered my drink. "Part of me has an urge to push you in there." Eddie Munson was right behind me. I turned and looked up at him, "Don't you dare Munson." Eddie smirked and flopped down next to me, a beer in his hand. "Why you sitting alone Wheeler?" he asked, taking a sip, his rings shined on his fingers. "I'm playing my own drinking game." I simply said. Eddie slid closer to me, tilting his head. Some of his long brown hair brushed my shoulder, it smelled surprisingly good. "How do we play." he asked. I glanced at him and we made eye contact, in the dull lights out here his eyes had a half shimmer, I absolutely stared at them way too long and caught a tiny smile at the edges of his lips. "It's easy. Anytime some dude gets turned down, you drink. Anytime a girl fakes interest or enjoyment during an interaction, you drink." I told him.
Eddie laughed and his whole body shook, "so basically you're sitting by the pool just knocking 'em back." I laughed too, "Pretty much. Who you here with?" I replied, looking around. Eddie lifted his head like a meerkat, saying "I came with Gareth and Jeff, dunno where they went though" it didn't seem like he cared either. He must've seen my slight 'yikes' face when he mentioned Gareth, because he leaned even closer to me, "What?" Maybe it's because i was tipsy - maybe I just didn't give a fuck - I leaned my head closer to his, and our foreheads were almost touching. "Gareth is a creep. A total creep." We stayed like that a few moments longer, I could feel Eddie's breath against my face and being so close to him was stirring some strange feelings inside me. "I mean...sure he was a little...weird...in school." Eddie said. I raised my brows, "Creepy is the word i would use for a guy who followed a girl into the bathrooms then claimed he 'got lost and wasn't paying attention'." Eddie opened his mouth, exhaling before he responded, "yeah...that was creepy. He had a crush on her, and well, he isn't the most subtle about those things." Jeff and Gareth appeared at the opposite side of the pool, shouting Eddie. He stood up and held out his hand to help me; his hand clutching mine felt nice, and he seemed to hold onto it a few seconds longer once I was standing. "Nice outfit by the way...See you soon Wheeler." He gave me a long look up and down before walking away. I said nothing, trying to gather my own thoughts that were being drowned by the terrible music.