This love left a permanent mark,
This love is glowing in the dark.
Hawkins, July 4, 1986
The distinct honor of sitting on a blanket, waiting for the fireworks show with Chrissy, was not lost on Eddie. She was dressed for the occasion in a red sundress, white sneakers on her feet, a blue bandana she had swiped from him tied around her ponytail. Chrissy leaned against him, head on his shoulder, watching Lucas, Dustin, and Mike daisy chain glowstick necklaces together to make them long enough to twist the pliable sticks into inappropriate shapes.
"It's nice seeing them be idiot teenage boys," Chrissy told him softly. He knew she meant Lucas and Dustin; while Mike Wheeler had certainly played his role in defeating Vecna, it was Lucas and Dustin that they had watched behave like seasoned soldiers.
"I think they need anatomy lessons," Eddie commented, watching Mike twist the glowsticks into the approximation of female genitalia. "All three of them have girlfriends, but obviously none of them have gotten any ass."
Chrissy bumped her shoulder into his. "They're babies," she scolded him. "They don't need to be getting any."
"Any what, Miss Cunningham?" Night was falling more heavily around them; Eddie could just barely make out the way Chrissy scrunched her nose at him before she leaned forward to whisper in his ear.
"Ass." Laughing, Eddie caught her by the waist and kissed her just as the first firework popped and crackled in the sky.
"I do love when you talk dirty to me, Chris," he told her, keeping his arm around her but releasing her mouth so she could watch the sky. The boys settled down for the show, Lucas plopping himself beside Max. Though Vecna's blinding her had left Max with only the vague concept of light—she described it as 'dark' and 'less dark'—her face was also turned skyward. Lucas bent his head to hers, whispering descriptions of each firework to her.
There were more fireworks in Eddie's van. He and Chrissy had taken Lucas, Dustin, Mike, and Max to a stand earlier in the day to buy them. While the kids popped their fireworks at Max's trailer, Eddie intended to sit on his front porch and drink beer with Chrissy. Well, he would drink beer. Chrissy told him beer tasted like throw up, so he kindly used his fake ID to get her wine coolers instead.
In light of the recent tragedy, Hawkins had gone all out with the fireworks the summer of 1986. Red, white, and blue lit up the night, of course, but so did gold, green, pink… the entire rainbow seemed to appear overhead, one after the other, for nearly half an hour. When the finale came, it was with a riot of color that illuminated Chrissy's face enough that Eddie could see the clear content on it. He kissed her on the top of the head and grinned when she hugged him around his middle. By the time the lights faded from the sky, the smoke from the myriad of fireworks rolled like heavy fog around the park.
It was through this fog that Eddie led the others, Chrissy by the hand, his gaggle of young teenagers behind them. Before the accident, the four of them probably would have been traipsing through Hawkins on their own. Max could no longer ride her skateboard, though, and despite Dustin's impressive driving the night Eddie nearly died, none of the three boys had a license. Or a car, for that matter. Harrington and Eddie had both more or less become chauffeurs for them.
"Alright, let's go, children," Eddie opened Chrissy's door for her, ushering the others to climb into the backseat. "Max's mom said she needed to be home right after the fireworks."
Max's blindness had been a turning point for her mother. Beer cans no longer littered the grass around their trailer and Susan Hargrove, Max's mother, was finally holding down a job consistently. Unfortunate as it was that it took Max nearly dying, Eddie was of the opinion that Susan's late realization was leaps and bounds better than the twelve-year absence streak his own mother had going.
Eddie shooed the younger kids off after parking in front of his own trailer. He settled down on the porch with Chrissy just as he intended. Though it was a warm night, Chrissy tucked herself close to his side and wrapped her arms around their middle. "How confident are you that they can watch themselves?"
"I mean—wait." He stopped himself short, turning his head to look at her. One of Dustin's fountain fireworks lit, briefly bathing Chrissy's face in golden light. She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Henderson!" Eddie shouted over his shoulder. "Do me a favor and don't light the trailer park on fire!"
Standing, he took Chrissy with him, scrabbling up the steps while she laughed. They left Dustin throwing his hands up and muttering something about Eddie's brain being permanently located in his pants. Dustin only had a split second to display his disbelief and annoyance; Eddie had Chrissy inside and the door closed in record time. "Y'know, my birthday was last month, Chris," he teased, pulling her to him immediately. Chrissy tipped her face up and he immediately accepted the invitation to kiss her. "Or maybe you're just very patriotic?"
"Wayne's at work," she said simply. A pang of guilt cut through Eddie's excitement. Wayne had taken the extra shift that day specifically for the holiday pay it would give him. Before he could dwell too much on that, he took Chrissy by the waist and lifted her. She smirked down at him as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Eddie carried her only so far as the kitchen counter, depositing her there and kissing her again. Her lips parted eagerly under his own and her warm, soft thighs bracketed his hips. The continual popping of the fireworks outside faded to mere background noise as the kiss wore on.
Eddie twisted her ponytail around his hand, giving it a gentle tug so that Chrissy would let her head fall back. He kissed her openmouthed over the edge of her jaw and down her neck. One of her hands slipped beneath the hem of his cutoff shirt, skimming lightly over his scars and causing goosebumps to erupt all along his unmarred skin. Eddie bit back a groan at that simple touch and pulled her flush against him. "With the children outside, Chris?"
"Pull your bedroom curtains and they'll never know for certain," she countered, helpfully shrugging when he nosed the spaghetti strap of her dress out of his way. It fell easily over the hill of her shoulder, leaving the expanse of her collarbone open for him. Eddie nibbled at the ridge of bone and spanned his hands down her back. He hooked them beneath her, laughing at her surprised little yelp when he squeezed her ass before lifting her again.
This time he carried her directly to his bed and laid her carefully on the comforter. Even with the lights off and the curtains drawn, intermittent flashes of fireworks gave him rather exquisite glimpses of her. The skirt of her dress pooled around her hips, legs bent on either side of him, and he caught just a peek of what looked to be lace panties that exactly matched her red dress. Eddie kissed her hard, breaking it only so Chrissy could pull his shirt over his head. A hand pushing on his chest left him rocking back. Chrissy rose from beneath him. She took his face in her, tilting it to the side so he could press a soft, reverent kiss to the scar on his jaw.
She didn't stop there. Each remnant of those horrific demobat bites got the same treatment and Chrissy worked her way over his shoulders and down his chest. A shiver wracked through him when she trekked low enough to press a kiss to the one over his hip.
"Chrissy." Her name was a husky plead. Many hours of his time healing had been spent contemplating this very moment. She backtracked over his body, kissing her way back up and then pausing, her face mere centimeters from his.
"Eddie." Another firework leant its glow to the room, throwing her face into contrast just long enough for him to recognize the mirror of his own wanting in her features. He gathered her into his lap, pressing a hand into her lower back to bring her as close as possible considering their remaining clothing, wanting her to feel every bit of that wanting. When his hands fumbled for the best way to dispose of her dress, Chrissy broke away from him with a breathy giggle and guided his hand to a concealed side zipper. He tugged it down while she shrugged out of her other strap. The bodice fell low, leaving the majority of her chest exposed. Another good tug and the fabric pooled around her hips.
"If I knew you weren't wearing a bra under that dress, we never would've made it to the park." Resuming his earlier exploration, Eddie ventured lower down her torso. Chrissy arched her back under the greed of his mouth, little pants falling from her mouth. Eddie reached up and slid the bandana and hair tie from her head, letting her hair fall around her shoulders.
He felt her hands pull at his belt buckle until it loosened enough to come undone. The button and zipper of his jeans quickly followed.
"We forgot our shoes!" Chrissy suddenly exclaimed, eyes going wide. They both laughed and Eddie reached for her first. Their sneakers thudded to the floor once off, quickly followed by socks. Eddie leaned Chrissy back, guiding her to his pillows. She hooked a finger into the belt loops on either side of his hips and jerked down, helping him wriggle out of his jeans. Eddie was off half a mind to leave her dress where it was, bunched in disarray around her hips, until he remembered the lace waiting underneath.
He lowered his mouth to her stomach instead, charting a line from her navel to the edge of the fabric. One hand held her still, for she had begun to squirm in anticipation, while the other made quick work of pulling the dress over her legs. Then he took her by the hips, continuing the line of kisses and nips over top of her panties. He smirked at her gasp, reveling in the way one hand knotted itself in his hair.
"Maybe I should stay down here for a while," he murmured into the skin of her thigh. Trailing a hand down from her hips, he hooked her leg behind the knee and turned it slightly so he could return her earlier kisses to her own demobat scar on her thigh.
"Eddie, please," she murmured, voice somehow thick and breathy all at once. He returned to her mouth immediately but kept one hand low between her thighs. Hooking a finger into the waistband, he pulled them down just enough to get his hand beneath the lace. Chrissy's response came in angling her hips toward her palm, in pulling back from him only to gasp his own name against his lips.
"I'm better with my hands, anyway," he told her. Though she tried to roll her eyes at him, they fluttered shut too soon.
"Tease," she managed to gasp out as he continued to stroke a finger over her sensitive center. Eddie decided just then he agreed with her and took his hand away, reaching instead for his bedside table. With a fumbling hand, he retrieved a condom, raising the foil package to his mouth only for Chrissy to snatch it. "Don't use your teeth, you could rip it!" She scolded him, carefully opening it herself.
"Okay, little miss sex ed, you gonna put it on for me, too?" He was shoving his boxers down before she even gave an answer. Chrissy took him gently in her hand, doing a little teasing of her own when she trailed a finger lightly all along him before slipping the condom on. With that, the atmosphere of his bedroom shifted from teasing and playful to something more solemn but no less exciting. Eddie wrapped an arm around Chrissy's back, using the other to brace himself on the pillow beside her head. She met his gaze straight on, lips parted softly, her legs parting on either side of him to give him space to move into her.
A little sigh escaped her mouth as he did just that, pressing slowly into her center, never looking away from her eyes. Chrissy raised a hand, running the pad of her thumb over his lips. He felt her shift a little beneath him, rocking her hips into his in gentle reminder of what they were doing. She was so warm around him, felt so good even in stillness, that Eddie would have been content to simply be joined to her until his attention was called back to the task at hand. He kissed her, hard and branding, one of her hands tangled in his hair, and pulled back from her only to thrust right back in. He found that, now knowing what it was to be inside Chrissy Cunningham, he didn't want to be away from her.
"Fuck me, Chris," he murmured, dropping his head into the crook of her shoulder. "You feel so good." He pressed a kiss to her neck, feeling her hum in agreement.
Eddie had started slow, learning the feel of her around him, in his arms. But soon he found himself unable to keep himself from quickening his pace, chasing the way his name fell mixed with pants from her mouth. Chrissy's eyes had fallen shut. When he hit a particularly sensitive angle for her, they opened, heavy-lidded. "Don't stop."
"Yes, ma'am." Reveling in how she tightened around him, in her leg wrapping around his waist, Eddie kissed her again. She only allowed it for a moment before pulling away from him, trying and failing to catch her breath.
"Eddie, oh God, Eddie!" He had her here, grinning proudly to himself when she threw her head back into the pillows in ecstasy. Chrissy never did regain her breath, gasping when Eddie redoubled his efforts. He was aiming to make her finish a second time before his own pleasure took him, but hearing his name shouted that way set him too far over the edge. Instead, he gladly fell into it, holding Chrissy close to him.
"Was that…?" She asked after, when Eddie was spent but had not yet withdrawn from her. Chrissy made a feeble attempt to brush her hair from her face, but her hand was still unsteady. Chuckling, Eddie helped her and kissed her forehead. "I mean…" she tried to continue, the hand that had been woven into his hair carefully detangling itself. "Jason never…"
"The only reason I'm not going to be made hearing that name in my bed is because you just admitted I'm better at sex than he was." Kissing her mouth this time, he regretfully pulled away from her, but delighted in the way she shivered as he did so. He knew she must have been feeling pretty good because she made no attempts to scold him for the dig. When he returned to his bed, Chrissy rolled toward him, contentedly fitting herself back into his arms. "Told you I wouldn't break if you wanted to seduce me."
Chrissy gave a shaky laugh at that. "Duly noted." She sounded sleepy. Eddie pushed himself up onto his elbow, looking over top of her head at his clock. It wasn't yet midnight, but, in a feeble attempt at keeping some control over her daughter, Mrs. Cunningham had made it very clear more than once that she would call the police if Chrissy wasn't home by her two a.m. curfew. Every bone and muscle in his body called out for sleep, to dream with Chrissy in his arms, but he mad himself sit up and brought her with him.
"We should probably make sure the boys got Max back inside," he made an excuse. "We are supposed to be babysitting."
Sleepy herself, Chrissy accepted this explanation and his help in getting her dress back on. He pulled up the zipper for her, set the straps straight on her shoulders, and enjoyed watching her pick through their clothing piled on the floor as she searched for her underwear. His jeans landed on the mattress beside him, and so did his boxers and socks, before she found the panties and stepped into them.
Eddie didn't bother with his shirt, leading Chrissy by the hand down the hallway and toward the front door. They stood there in the doorway, Chrissy tucked under his arm, watching Mike and Dustin mount their bikes and ride a few trailers down before stopping to wait for Lucas. Their friend stood on the steps of Max's trailer, telling her goodbye with a chaste kiss to her lips. Lucas opened the door for his girlfriend, ushering her inside before rushing to catch up with his friends. They had a curfew to meet themselves.
July 11, 1986
Exactly one week later, Chrissy proudly presented her Butler University acceptance letter to Eddie. She set it on the console after climbing in his van, clicking her seatbelt and smiling up at him. "Oh, shit."
"I got in," she said excitedly, ignoring his less than enthusiastic response. "There were others, but Butler was the one I was hoping for."
"That's great, Chris." He leaned over the console to kiss her in congratulations. She smelled of coconut-scented sunscreen, the scent of it filling his van and head alike. The pair were on their way to Lake Jordan, which was not so far from Forest Hills, but Eddie had agreed to pick up his girlfriend and friends for this day at the lake.
"It's in Indianapolis," she went on, her excitement brighter than the summer sun outside. Chrissy took the letter and stashed it safely away in the glovebox. "That's not so far from Hawkins."
Eddie continued to hum or give some small response here and there as Chrissy babbled on. He desperately tried to ignore the pit in his stomach. The guys would pick up his slack; they all liked Chrissy.
"Hey, Eds, hey, Chrissy," Jared greeted when he climbed into the van, clad in a tank top and his swim trunks. "I hope you brought sunscreen for him. His white ass will burn within the hour."
Chrissy lifted her large, canvas bag in response. "I tried to bring anything I thought might be needed when there's four guys messing around a lake."
"And our pretty chaperone," Jared tacked on, earning himself a glare from Eddie through the rearview mirror. When Chrissy told Jared about his acceptance letter, his face lit up with his smile, and he reached around the passenger seat to give her an awkward but heartfelt hug. Gareth and Adam had similar congratulations for her as the three of them crowded into the backseat. Eddie backtracked through Hawkins, bypassing the trailer park, and taking the van down a rough, unpaved trail.
They bounced along, laughing and talking, until the path widened into parking along the shores of Lake Jordan. Given Patrick McKinney's death in Lover's Lake, the larger of the bodies of water in Hawkins was understandably devoid that summer. A lot of people forgot about Lake Jordan, though, given its proximity to Forest Hills, so that it was only their group and a few fishermen present that July day. Eddie parked the van backwards, so that they could open the back and have an extra bit of shade.
"Are you really going to burn that bad?" Chrissy asked, rubbing some sunscreen onto Eddie's cheeks for him. He rolled his eyes and took a hair tie from his wrist, twisting his curls into a sloppy bun at the back of his head.
"Jared's dramatic," he gave her a peck on the lips. "Promise you're not gonna make me swim to the bottom of a lake today?"
"If I see one tentacle," she told him, voice pitched low so the guys couldn't hear, "Venca's or not, I'll never go in another damn lake again."
There were no tentacles, but there was a considerable amount of splashing that went on. Swimming races, diving races, attempts to knock one another off the paddle board Gareth brought. Chrissy was surprisingly difficult to topple, her cheerleading skills coming in handy as she kept her balance far better than the guys. It took Adam and Gareth both coming from below to knock Chrissy off the final. Laughing, she fell into the water and Eddie's arms alike.
When they pulled themselves dripping from the lake, they flopped immediately on the towels they had left waiting for them, letting the sun dry them. "You gonna bring Chrissy to The Hideout next week?" Gareth asked, chewing on the long, green reed he had taken from the lake's bank. "Corroded Coffin is finally making a comeback now that Eddie's better and the town's almost back to normal."
"You'll get to see him in all his guitarist glory," Adam tacked on with a suggestive wink. Little did the other bandmates know, Chrissy had already seen Eddie in 'all his guitarist glory', playing like his life depended on it—because it had.
"The Hideout, huh?" Chrissy asked, head lolling to the side to meet Eddie's eye. "I think he's mentioned it before."
He had, in the forest behind Hawkins High, when Chrissy had asked him for Special K. Eddie smiled at her, remembering just as she was. "It's always a good time."
"Are they gonna let me in?" Unlike Eddie, Chrissy was not in position of a fake ID. Around her, all the guys laughed.
"They don't card at The Hideout, Chris. I could take Henderson to The Hideout and they wouldn't bat a damn eye."
"We'll get a shirt made for you," Jared offered. "That way you're official."
"My very own Corroded Coffin shirt," Chrissy mused, giving Eddie one of her nose-scrunch smiles that were his favorite. "I sure am moving up in the world."
July 15, 1986
Her gifted band tee was an exact replica of the guys', their band name and wooden coffin logo printed in white on the black fabric. She tied it up and paired it with a pair of high-waisted, white shorts and black sandals. Though it was tempting to go darker, Chrissy stuck to her pastel eyeshadow and pink lip gloss.
She knew her mother was going to have a fit when she saw her, but as Chrissy tied her scrunchy around her ponytail and grabbed a jacket, she couldn't say she cared. "What's that?" Caleb asked her when they passed one another in the hallway. Chrissy pulled on the shirt so her brother could clearly see the name. "Corroded Coffin? You don't like rock music."
"It's Eddie's band," she explained, laughing at Caleb's scrunched nose.
"He has a band? That's so cool! What does he do?"
"Guitar," Chrissy explained quickly. She could hear their mother climbing the stairs. Their voices must have caught her attention. "Electric guitar."
It was not so much that Caleb had been forbidden from talking to Chrissy. Not in so many words, anyway. However, Mrs. Cunningham was now in the habit of interrupting any overheard conversation the siblings had. Caleb heard their mother, too, scowling. His face was apologetic as he ducked back into his bedroom. The tinny opening theme of one of his videogames played immediately.
Upon finding Chrissy alone in the hallway, Mrs. Cunningham gave a disapproving frown at her daughter's attire. "Going out?"
"I'll be back by curfew," Chrissy clipped out, offering no other information. She had called her father from her personal phone line in her room, letting him know she was going to watch Eddie's band play that night. Stepping past her mom, Chrissy quickly headed down the stairs and out the door.
To say that things were tense at the Cunningham house would be a vast understatement. During the summer of 1986, it was easier to find Chrissy at the Munson trailer than it was at her own home. By mid-July it was to the point that she had dinner with Eddie and Wayne most nights.
Chrissy climbed into her car, taking a moment to take a deep breath before she turned the key in the ignition. She let her mind go blank as she drove across town to The Hideout, trying to focus more on the street signs and each turn she took rather than the pit in her stomach. By the time she reached the bar and parked beside Eddie's van, she felt almost calm.
Inside, The Hideout was loud. Crowded, but was that really any surprise for a town still healing from a massive tragedy? The floor was sticky under her feet, pulling at the soles of her sandals. Chrissy waved a cloud of cigarette smoke away from her face as she weaved through tables until she found the one Eddie and their friends were sitting at.
Their friends. Because Chrissy had come to view Gareth, Adam, and Jared as her friends, as well. Eddie greeted her with a kiss to the cheek, pulling her into his lap since there were no open chairs left at their table. "Hey, babe."
The pet name made her smile, as did the solidness of Eddie's arm around her waist.
"Here, we got you a girly drink," Adam told her, sliding a bright pink drink with a sugared rim across the table to her. She sipped on the straw, tropical notes of pineapple and mango filling her mouth.
"When do you guys go on?" Chrissy asked, settling back into Eddie's chest. Jared glanced up over their heads at a neon clock.
"Like, ten minutes. We already set up so we could sit with you for a little bit before the set." Nodding at her words, Chrissy continued sipping on her drink. Eddie's fingers fiddled idly with the hem of her shorts. The music was loud enough already that they had to practically shout to hear each other.
Leaving their beers in Chrissy's care at the table, the guys made their way to the stage too soon for her liking. The last time she had seen Eddie play guitar was when he played Master of Puppets on top of the Upside Down version of his trailer. She couldn't help but glance up at the solid ceiling above her to make sure it wasn't a red sky filled with swirling bats overhead.
No; she was in a bar, sitting in a chair she hadn't realized was rickety until Eddie left her alone in it, her tropical drink cold on the palm of her hand. Dustin was safe at his summer science camp. Outside, the night would be velvety black, not bloody red.
The only similarities between that night in The Hideout and the night in the Upside Down was the way Eddie gave himself to the music he played. If any of the others asked her opinion, she would have to fib. Her eyes were only for Eddie that night, watching anew the way his guitar seemed to be a very part of him.
Rather than one heart-pounding song, Chrissy got the luxury of watching Eddie for a nearly a full hour. By the time the set ended, all the guys were gleaned with a thin layer of sweat, massive smiles on each of their faces. Chrissy gladly let Eddie settle her back into his lap, whispering in her ear, "I never thought I'd do that again."
She knew he had been thinking of that night, too, and all the things they had almost lost.
July 23, 1986
Dinners with Eddie and Wayne were some of the happiest meals Chrissy could remember having since her childhood. Uncle and nephew both were good cooks, a fact that surprised Chrissy. Well, at least where Eddie was concerned.
The best part, though, was that there was no tension in the Munson trailer. Wayne only ever had smiles for her, even when he was obviously worn out from his shifts at the plant. Those were the nights Eddie went out of his way to make sure all the dinner preparation and clean up that followed fell solely on him.
Wayne Munson was the second person she told about her acceptance to Butler University.
"This is great, kid!" he congratulated her, voice sincere, and pulled her into a hug. She wrapped her arms around his middle and happily returned it. "Are you excited?"
"Yes," she told him, demurring. "It was the one I was hoping for. After… everything, it's nice to have something go right."
"Hello, I'm right here," Eddie pouted, making both Chrissy and Wayne laugh.
"Not for your lack of trying, Eds." Wayne ruffled Eddie's hair and ignored his scowl at the affection. "You know, he used to try to bite me when he was little. Always snapping his teeth. I tried to make him less of a heathen."
"Sorry, Wayne, but that's one habi—" Eddie couldn't finish the sentence. The hand that had ruffled his hair now gave him a good smack to the back of his head. "That's child abuse."
"You're twenty," Wayne reminded him, dishing out lasagna onto plates for both of Eddie and Chrissy. There was always a record playing on Wayne's record player during dinner. Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced filled the background.
At the Munson trailer, Wayne put the same amount of food on her plate as he did Eddie's without a second thought. She wasn't the only one drinking ice water at the table when everyone else had soda. And when Wayne brought out ice cream after, there was no reason to lie and say she didn't want a scoop.
If the Cunningham house, her own childhood home, had become a wasteland for her, then the Munson trailer was an oasis.