Eddie led me to this room, I held my breath, internally trying not to freak out about being alone with Eddie. Turns out, it was almost identical to my own; I trailed my eyes up and down his walls mentally checking off how many of the same posters we had. I saw his beloved guitar on one wall, watching as he kissed his fingers and pressed them to the guitar. Cute. Eddie cleared his bed of all the sheets of paper littering it - illustrations, tattoo ideas, lyrics for songs. He gestured for me to take a seat on one side, I crossed my legs and leaned back. Eddie snagged some clothes from a drawer and began taking off his jackets. I had to mentally tear myself away whilst he undressed and put on the joggers. From the corner of of eye I saw his stomach and the thin strip of hair running down into the waistband of those joggers, before he shoved on a long sleeved tee. He laid down next to me, the bruises on his neck were barely visible in here, but were permanently imprinted on my eyelids. He slightly gasped as I placed an ice bag on his neck, wrapped in a towel. We both remained there in a strange silence for a few seconds. "So how's your Mom?", "How is your uncle?" We both asked at the same time. I glanced down at Eddie to find he was already staring at me. "I feel like we're doomed to a really boring conversation about shit like the weather." I blurted, trying to make a joke to disguise how awkward I felt. "Maybe that's because we haven't really had many actual conversations. Other than when I was tattooing you, I mean." Eddie smirked up at me. He was right. We barely knew one another. "Alright, so you wanna braid each other's hair and share secrets?" I laughed. Eddie looked like he was seriously considering that, eventually shaking his head ever so slightly. "20 questions?" He suggested. Wind whistled outside, a rainstorm was coming. In my mind I was praying Eddie wouldn't use this as opportunity to ask about the sex dream I had admitted to; though I kind of wanted to know more about the dirty dream he'd apparently had about me.
"I'll go first," I clicked my tongue, "What does your uncle think about you jetting off to Canada?" Eddie wasted no time before answering, "He doesn't know. Yet. Actually, you're the only person I've told." This made me feel warm inside, the idea of him trusting his secret to me. "Why Canada? For you and Robin, I mean." He said. I looked up at the ceiling, "Because It's one of the only places where we could go together for college that was far far away from this shitty town." I heard him exhale as though he was laughing. Raking my brain for a question, I placed my hands behind my back and leaned back more, making me closer to Eddie's body, "Favourite Ice cream flavour?" This time, Eddie did take a break to consider, "Bubblegum." he said matter of factIy. I scrunched my nose in disappointment. "Hah," Eddie poked my side, " And what would yours be?" Without needing to consider I answered, "Strawberry." Eddie raised one eyebrow at me, I couldn't tell if he approved or not. Eyes flitting over to his guitar, I asked "Do you play any other instruments?" A smile appeared on his lips, "I play drums too, can't really have a kit in here though," I giggled at the thought of Eddie terrorising the trailer park with a drum kit as he asked me, "Do you play anything?" A distant sadness echoed around my mind. "My ex-stepdad started teaching me how to play guitar - he left before teaching me much though...But I did get to keep the guitar. I mean, I stole it from him." I glanced down at Eddie to see a spark of idea in his eyes, "I could teach you - if you still wanted to learn." There was a fluttering in my stomach about the thought of Eddie being my teacher, he must've seen the poorly disguised smile on my face - "I'll teach you everything I know." He stated.
I continued the game, "What's it like working at Tat Life?" Eddie repositioned himself, now his head was close to my elbow, so close I could feel his breath as he spoke, "Not bad. Most of the artists there are pretty cool. Boss is super chill. Clients can be...Odd. Some guy wanted a portrait of his dead dog being carried to heaven's gates by an angel the other day." The mental image was enough to make me snort aloud. "Do you enjoy working at the video store?" Eddie asked. My hands were starting to ache holding me up, so I timidly laid myself down, aware of just how close our bodies were in the darkness. "It's fine. Unless it's a weekend, or the holidays, it can be super boring. Funny story - on my first day I had to deal with some middle aged perv standing in the X- rated section, right by the weird porn aisle, y'know like tentacles and shit. He was palming himself over his jeans and I had to lure him outta there with a false promise that we had a fresh delivery of some really wild stuff." Eddie turned his head to face me, I felt the cold shock of the ice bags slipping against my skin. "Go on." he muttered. "Well, then I told him to wait out back whilst I found it. Once he was outside I called the number for our security guy come and shoo him away." We laughed together and my mind went blank - I couldn't think of anything to ask Eddie, I was too distracted by his scent flooding my nostrils, the whisps of his hair touching me, how close our hands were..."How come you always avoided me in middle school?" Eddie's voice sounded raw, there was definitely some kind of emotion lacing those words. Shit.