Marceline and Chrissy made a beeline for the woods once they were let out for their hour break between practice and the game. Chrissy had been growing even more paranoid since they had met in the bathrooms. The idea of going into the woods to meet a drug dealer was rattling her bones and she didn't want to waste any time. Not even to let Marceline change.

Marceline enjoyed Chrissy's company and would consider her a friend, better classified as school friends, and in small legal print notated as 'only during cheer practice'. They hadn't talked outside of practice or games much except for when they were standing in the bathroom together or in passing in the halls. It wasn't necessarily Chrissy's fault either with everything Marceline did in a week.

"Is this the place?" Chrissy asked hesitantly when they approached the picnic table sitting in the middle of the woods.

Marceline's head popped out of her thoughts and she looked over the area, nodding her head. Her back was to Chrissy as she put her things down. Marceline didn't notice Chrissy taking forever to get to the table until she screamed.

Marceline whipped around, eyes wide with fear but only found that Chrissy had scared herself by bumping into Eddie. Her heart raced in her chest despite the lack of horror and Chrissy had tears in her eyes like something had happened.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," Eddie assured her, raising his hands in surrender with a smirk peeking at the edges of his lips. He scanned her face, recognizing the oddity of her expression and paused, asking further, "You okay?"

Chrissy turned, glancing at Marceline then to the tree behind her. She stared at it for a long time, confusion racking her features before she finally shook herself out of it.

"Fine. I just… I thought I saw something," Chrissy explained weakly. "Are you ready?"

Eddie looked her up and down, brows furrowed, but nodded stiffly. Chrissy walked to the table, sitting opposite of Marceline. The dinged up black box hit the table beside Marceline then Eddie slipped off his jean jacket as he eyed Chrissy warily.

"There's,uh, there's nothing to worry about. Okay? No one ever comes out here," Eddie explained.

He slipped into the seat beside Marceline, close enough so she felt the warmth radiate off his body, but not close enough to touch. Marceline's eyes slipped to him and he smiled sweetly in greeting. She turned away, cursing herself for giving him the time of day, and returned her attention to Chrissy who bounced her leg anxiously, unable to hold eye contact with either of them.

"We're safe. I promise," he finished, slapping his hand on the black box. The latches groaned from use and the top popped off to display his stock. A few bags of weeds, cigarettes and lighters. The tame stuff so if he got caught he wouldn't be locked up for life.

"So, how does this work, exactly?" Chrissy asked, moving her hands to the table so she could pick at her cuticles.

"Oh, just like any other old sale, except, uh, cash only, and for obvious reasons, no receipts," Eddie explained with a wide smile.

Chrissy stayed silent, staring into the woods before turning back to the box in front of her. Eddie and Marceline watched her carefully, waiting for her to talk, but she kept silent.

"I'll do you a half ounce for, uh… twenty. What do you say?" he asked, lazily flopping the pre-weighted bag out to her like he did to Marceline and her notebook. "Plenty of bang for your buck. Should last you a while."

Chrissy's nerves shot as she gasped, turning around to see a squirrel scampering up a tree.

"Chrissy, it's alright," Marceline said nervously. She had never seen her friend so on edge before. Whatever had gotten into Chrissy was more than Marceline realized.

Eddie wasn't annoyed, but he seemed to realize that this might be too much for Chrissy. Weed and other drugs weren't for everyone and he wasn't about to push a girl into buying when she was already this paranoid.

"Hey, uh, we don't need to do this. Just give me the word and I'll just walk away. Okay?" Eddie told her calmly, closing the box as he glanced from Chrissy to Marceline.

"No, it's not that. I don't want you to go," Chrissy said quickly. "It's just… do you ever feel like you're losing your mind?"

"Ummmm, you know, just…" Eddie began, dragging out his words as he cocked his head towards her. "On a daily basis."

Marceline could see a smile fill his face, one that was so genuine and confident that it made even Jason Carver's Hollywood smile dull in comparison.

"I feel like I'm losing my mind right now doing a drug deal with Chrissy Cunningham, the Queen of Hawkins High," Eddie explained, hands folded together and nodded his head to his side. "Don't even get me started on Marceline Palmer over here. We haven' talked in nearly two years and now look at us."

Marceline turned to him and he looked back. His expression reflected hers, a mixture of confusion and denial of their past and what led them here. They had been best friends but now it was like they were nothing.

Eddie turned away first, his mouth open like he wanted to say something to Marceline, but instead he focused himself on Chrissy.

"You know, this isn't the first time that we've, um… hung out," Eddie told Chrissy.

"No?" Chrissy asked, narrowing her eyes. Her leg had stopped bouncing and she seemed to relax in Eddie's reassuring presence.

"You don't remember?" Eddie asked, a pinch of disappointment in his words.

"I'm sorry. I—"

"No, it's okay," Eddie assured her.

Then, suddenly, Eddie flew backwards as if he had been speared in the chest. Marceline should have seen it coming, the sudden attack of dramatics Eddie loved to implement into his conversations, but he had her jumping a foot in the air.

"I wouldn't remember me either," he cried out, crawling across the ground until he found his footing. "Marcy, do I have stuff in my hair?"

Marceline looked at Eddie as he attacked the leaves and twigs in his hair as he stared at her with mischievously brown eyes. His gaze redirected from her and latched onto Chrissy's inability to remember him.

"You don't remember me?" Eddie asked, crossing his arms.

"I'm sorry!" Chrissy exclaimed with a broad smile.

"Middle school, talent show. You were doing this cheer thing. You know, the…" Eddie lifted his hands mid-explanation to mime pom-poms. "It was pretty cool, actually. Marcy did some cool science trick with chemicals. And I… I was with my band."

"Corroded Coffin!" Chrissy exclaimed.

"Corro—!" Eddie exclaimed, punching his hand on his fist then spun in a circle.

"Oh, my God! Yes, of course!" Chrissy shouted.

"You do remember," Eddie cheered, pointing at her, vindicated.

"With a name like that how could I forget?"

"I dunno. You're a freak," Eddie teased, standing back awkwardly.

"No, you just… you looked so different," Chrissy explained, narrowing her eyes and tried to play spot the difference.

"Yeah. Well, uh, my hair was buzzed and I didn't have these sweet old tatties," Eddie explained, pulling down his collar for her and Marceline to see the images spawned everywhere.

"You played guitar, right?" Chrissy asked.

"Uh-huh, still do," Eddie said. "Still do. You should come see us. Uh, we play at the Hideout on Tuesdays. It's pretty cool. We… we actually get a crowd of about six drunks. Well, five, now, since Marcy doesn't show up anymore."

Marceline rolled her eyes and Chrissy laughed at what she thought was playful banter.

"It's not exactly the Garden, but you gotta start somewhere, right? So…" Eddie concluded, punching a tree twice before turning back to them.

"You know, you're not what I thought you'd be like," Chrissy noted.

"Mean and scary?"

"Yeah," Chrissy admitted softly.

"Yeah, well, I actually kinda thought you'd be kinda mean and scary, too," Eddie told her with a nervous smile taking his hair to cover his mouth and sat back down at the picnic table.

"Me?"

"Terrifying," Eddie agreed. "I mean, you're friends with Marcy."

Chrissy's smile flickered to a confused frown, her brows furrowing together and her head cocked to the side like a labrador.

"Marceline's a sweetheart," Chrissy told him, a smile breaking across her face and she looked over at Marceline. "And a really good friend."

Marceline smiled faintly back at Chrissy. However, Marceline wasn't sure where Chrissy got that impression of their friendship. Marceline didn't even know if she was being that good of a friend to Robin these days. Even if Robin had been avoiding her, there had to be a reason and it seemed likely because she found something better in Steve.

"Of course, of course," Eddie said quickly, raising his hands to show he agrees. "In other good news, flattery works with me, so… twenty-five percent discount for the half. Fifteen bucks. You're robbing me blind here, y'know!"

"Do you have anything… maybe… stronger?"

Author's Note

Season 4, Episode 1: The Hellfire Club

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment if you'd like. However, this is an all kind of reader safe space. So even if you ghost read or comment every chapter, I hope you know it means the world to me that you've come into this fic I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and until the next one.