Alex bends at the waist and rolls her black jeans just above her boots. She never leaves the house without rolling her jeans, but today was a special exception. Steve had to rush her out the door this morning to avoid being late for his shift at Family Video, all because Alex had overslept. Oversleeping was something else Alex never did until today. She chalks it up to the massive surge of feelings exploding in both her mind and stomach after spending nearly the entire previous day with Eddie. Her head had been buzzing with excitement since last night, but she also felt serene, like the events from last night were meant to be. Her description doesn't quite make sense, but she leaves it alone and instead revels in the beautiful new feelings.

She leans against the counter of the store, listening to Robin's spiel about how well her conversation with Vickie went until she found herself carrying on for no reason. Alex figures the conversation went well regardless, but Robin doesn't give her much time to interject before she moves to claiming that she and Steve should combine to further their dating life.

"And where do I fall in this operation?" Alex asks with a smirk.

"Well you have to actually want to date somebody to join," Robin says.

Alex turns to Steve while he works. "So, I take it your date didn't go swimmingly?" She feels guilty for not asking Steve about his date last night.

"She thought Tammy was amazing so…" Steve trails off while reorganizing a display.

"Better luck next time." Alex moves to Steve's side and pats him on the back.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Robin asks.

"She had a da-" Alex sends a harsh nudge to Steve's shin, who promptly changes his speech while rubbing his leg. "She had a good night's rest."

With a shrug, Robin moves behind the counter and flips on the TV. Before she can start Doctor Zhivago, the news catches everyone's attention.

"We're in the Forest Hills trailer park in East Roane County. We don't have a lot of details now, but we can confirm that the body of a Hawkins High student was discovered early this morning. Police have not yet released the name, although we are told they're currently in the process of notifying the family," the reporter broadcasts over the TV screen.

Alex immediately shrinks backward. Both Eddie and Max live in the trailer park. She wants to call and check on both of them, but she doesn't have Eddie's phone number and she can't remember Max's off the top of her head.

"Uh, you good?" Steve asks, breaking her from her worried trance. "You went pale for a second."

"Just worried," she says. "Max lives in the trailer park."

"I'm sure she's fine," Steve reassures.

The minutes tick by in a painful agony. Not long after Steve and Robin open the store, Dustin and Max swing the door wide open. "Hey, Steve! How many phones do you have?"

"Did you see this? Someone was murdered." Steve says in response, gesturing to the TV.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin repeats.

"Two, why?"

"Technically three, if you count Keith's," Robin adds.

"Yeah, three works." Max nods.

Dustin launches his backpack across the counter, destroying Robin and Steve's pile of tapes in the process. The two teens slide over the top of the counter and waste no time before moving toward the computer.

Alex pulls Max into her. The young redhead's bright smile wavers in worry, just like Mike and Dustin had the day before. Alex mentally notes that she needs to start meeting up with people under better circumstances. Despite the age difference, Alex was sure to always send letters to Will's friends. Out of all of them, Max was the one who responded the most, though Alex could tell that she held back in her letters. Alex tried not to pry, and instead be there for Max in any way she could.

"Get off," Steve demands.

"I need it," Dustin stands his ground, clicking away at the keys on the computer.

"For what?" Steve asks.

"Eddie's friends' phone numbers."

Alex's heart drops. She speaks, her voice wavering despite her best efforts to conceal it. "Did something happen to Eddie?"

Steve and Dustin don't hear her and continue their bickering, while Robin is busy scolding the younger teens and restacking her pile. Max is the only one who hears Alex. She gives her a perplexed look.

While everyone else continues to bicker, Alex backs up slowly until her back hits the counter. She steadies herself against it, feeling sick. "Can somebody please just tell me what's wrong with Eddie!" She finally shouts.

Not being used to Alex raising her voice, everyone turns to face her. "Since when do you care so much about Eddie?" Robin asks.

Alex stalls, unsure if she wants to spill the beans. Steve clears his throat and throws Alex a glance that screams tell them! With a deep breath, she makes the revelation. "I spent all day yesterday with him. He was either going to come by here or call me to hang out again."

"You went on a date with Eddie Munson?" Max asks.

"I thought he just conned you into coming to Hellfire and you were too nice to say no," Dustin says.

"I knew I should've asked more questions about where you were going!" Robin curses herself.

Feeling overwhelmed from everyone practically shouting at her all at once, Alex decides to explain herself. "I went to his afternoon classes with him. After school we smoked a joint and got food. We went back to his place for a bit before Hellfire and then he took me home after Hellfire."

"You went back to his place?!" Steve asks with wide eyes.

"You knew?" Robin smacks his arm playfully.

"It wasn't like that." Alex pinches the bridge of her nose. "We just laid down in his bed-"

"Laid down, what do you mean-"

"Please!" Alex interrupts Steve. "Just tell me what happened."

Dustin nods toward Max, who steps forward and speaks with a solemn look. "Last night I saw him and Chrissy go into his trailer. They weren't in there very long before I saw Eddie book it out of there. Chrissy's body was found in his trailer this morning."

Alex ignores the way her heart drops when she hears that Eddie had Chrissy over at his trailer. Instead she focuses on cutting off the potential narrative that Eddie could have murdered her. "No. Absolutely not. He didn't kill her. Like I said, I was with him almost all day. Not once did he act like he was about to go murder someone. And we were going to hang out more today."

"Well…" Max starts.

Dustin cuts her off, still clacking away at the keyboard. "Please don't start talking about Ted Bundy again! Anyway, we have a theory that Eddie didn't do anything and instead witnessed something… weird."

"You mean like…" Steve begins to ask, but stops when Max and Dustin both cut him off with a nod.

Alex hastily throws her backpack straps over her shoulder and is halfway out the door before Steve grabs her arm. "Where are you going?"

"To find him."

"Okay, calm down Mrs. Munson. You can't just go door-to-door until you find him."

Alex shoots him a look as if to say yes I can, but she logically decides that Steve is right.

"We were going to call his friends to see if they know where he might be, but maybe you could just tell us," Max offers.

Alex thinks hard, but doesn't come up with much. "I mean he likes the arcade and Alv's restaurant but obviously he's not going to go there now. He buys drugs from this guy named Rick, but that's about all I know."

"Rick's house is a good place to check. Where is that at?" Dustin says absentmindedly.

"I don't know," Alex answers, a bit frustrated. "He didn't give me coordinates or anything."

"I guess we'll have to go with our original plan," Max says, patting Alex's back in a comforting way.

Max slams the phone down once again. Alex looks up, but doesn't expect any good news. They had encountered dead ends at every turn so far. "Someone else just mentioned this Reefer Rick guy. It seems like a good lead, but he's more like a legend than someone that people actually know."

"Do we know a last name?" Dustin asks.

"I don't know that either," Max answers.

"Bet the cops know the last name," Steve mutters while rearranging movies at the front of the store. "I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he's been busted at some point. Means he's in the system."

"The cops?" Dustin asks incredulously, getting to his feet. "Really, Steve? That's your suggestion?"

"I think they should be filled in on what we know, what's going on." Steve shrugs.

"You think Eddie's guilty, don't you?" Dustin accuses.

"I believe in innocent until proven guilty, all that constitutional shit. I just, you know, don't think we can rule it out," Steve finishes with his hands up.

Alex gets to her feet, feeling frustrated at letting this carry on for so long. "How many times do I have to repeat myself? I was with Eddie right before Chrissy died. He didn't act like he was about to go murder someone!"

"Who knows, maybe he was planning on making you his next victim."

"That's bullshit, Steve, and you know it," Alex says in a rare moment of anger. She's so close to leaving to find Eddie on her own.

"Maybe we'd have a little bit more luck if you spent less time trying to find a girlfriend and more time trying to find Eddie." Dustin tells Steve.

"Somebody has to attend to the customers," Steve pleads his case.

"Especially if they're babes, right?" says Robin with a wink.

"Hey, not fair. Okay?" Steve points at Robin. I attend to all customers equally, babes and non-babes alike. We've got a very big selection in here. It can be super overwhelming for people."

"Yeah, it can be." Robin smiles and rushes over to the computer. Alex's heart flutters for a moment at the thought of Robin coming up with an idea that could potentially find Eddie. "Maybe we don't need a last name."

Everyone gathers around Robin and the computer. She types on the keyboard with ease until a list of names appears on the screen, each one starting with Rick. "Twelve Ricks have accounts here," Robin says.

"Lot of Ricks," Max adds.

"So, let's narrow it down." Robin selects one of the Ricks and opens his rental history. "Rick Alderman's latest rentals are Annie and Dumbo. What are the chances our drug dealer has a family?"

Alex chuckles, watching the movie names visualize on the screen. "No way."

"All right. Rick Conroy. Sixteen Candles, Teen Wolf, Romancing the Stone." Robin pulls up the next potential suspect.

"No," everyone says in unison.

"Okay… Rick Joiner. Mask, Footloose, and Grease."

"Nah," everyone agrees.

Robin moves down the list. "Rick Kimbrough. The Blue Lagoon and Splash."

Max laughs. "Definitely not."

Robin progresses down the list. "Rick Lipton. Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Cheech and Chong's Next Movie, Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams, Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke."

"Bingo." Dustin grins.

"Robin, you're a genius," Alex says. She pulls Robin into a side hug and squishes her cheeks.

"Lipton?" Max asks.

"Spelled like the tea," Robin says confidently. "2121 Holland Road."

"That's out by Lover's Lake," Dustin says.

"Middle of nowhere," Max adds.

"It's a perfect place to hide," Robin says, smiling at Alex.

Steve assists the last of the few customers inside the building with haste, while Robin and Alex work to get the displays looking nice. Once they've made up for closing the store early, the group races out the door. Robin exits last, swinging the door closed and locking it tight. Everyone piles into Steve's car. Alex ends up in the backseat between Dustin and Max.

"Don't worry, we'll find him," Max says with a smile, squeezing Alex's knee.

Alex gives Max a nervous smile back, but focuses on the road. As the car creeps closer and closer to the final destination, dread builds in Alex's gut for what feels like the thousandth time today. What if Eddie isn't there?

Night descends over them as the car slowly comes to a halt with the sound of the tires crunching over gravel. Steve puts the car in park and everyone emerges, Alex being the last one out. The lead seems like a dead end before Alex even reaches the house. Peering through the windows, she finds it dark and desolate. Steve and Dustin pound on the door and call out for Rick or Eddie regardless. When no one answers, they too move to look through the windows.

"Is that a foot?" Steve asks.

"No, that's a shoe!" Dustin corrects.

While they continue snooping around the house, Alex shines her flashlight and notices a building to the side of the house. It's built with shiny metal, and she imagines it to be some sort of storage shed or a boat shed. Knowing that it's likely their last hope, she speaks. "Hey, guys, look at that."

Steve and the others come up behind her. "Yeah, let's go check it out."

"Wait!" Steve is already three feet ahead of her before she's able to stop him. "I should go in by myself first. If he's in there and he's scared I don't think he'll take kindly to a swarm of people bombarding him."

Steve sighs. "Okay, but if you're not out here in two minutes I'm coming in after you, Byers."

Alex enters the building, opening the door slowly and keeping her footsteps soft. She half expects to find him sitting there when she opens the door, but she's rudely reminded that nothing is that easy. At first glance, the boat shed appears exactly like the house does: empty, abandoned, desolate. Alex's flashlight lands on a few snack wrappers strewn about. She doesn't think that Reefer Rick spends a lot of time eating snacks in his boat house.

She decides to give it one last try and she calls out. "Eddie, it's me. I know something bad happened, but I know you didn't hurt anybody. I'm here to help."

She's met with nothing but silence and disappointment. She turns to leave, but before she can, she hears something rustling behind her. She turns just as Eddie emerges from underneath a tarp. He climbs out of a small boat suspended from the ceiling, his legs and arms appearing weakened.

Alex wastes no time wrapping her arms around his torso. She pulls away, realizing that just because she's the type of person who loves hugs, not everyone is. "Sorry, I-"

To her surprise, Eddie pulls her back in and holds her tight, resting his head on top of hers. When he finally pulls away with a somber face, he says, "How did you know?"

Alex doesn't get the chance to ask him if he means where he was, what happened, or that he was innocent, because Steve and the others burst through the door. Before Alex can explain, Eddie is already at Steve's throat with a broken bottle. He presses Steve against the wall of the boat house, his face determined. The jagged glass is dangerously close to slicing into the skin of Steve's neck.

The others rush to move forward, but Alex puts her arm up to stop them. Why couldn't Steve have waited an extra thirty seconds? She speaks as calmly as she can while her heart is hammering in her ears. "Eddie, hey, it's okay. This is my friend Steve. You know him, right? And then you know Dustin, of course, and Robin from band, and Max, your neighbor. We're all on your side."

"I swear on my mother!" Dustin butts in. "Right, guys?"

"Yes. Yes. We swear," Max says.

"On Dustin's mother," Robin adds.

"Yeah, Dustin's… Dustin's mother," Steve speaks, struggling underneath the tip of the bottle.

Eddie releases Steve and everyone in the room lets out a sigh of relief. The hard front he was just putting on fades immediately into fear. He slides down the wall and into a sitting position. Alex treads cautiously, and sits beside him. She takes his hand, half expecting him to flinch, and removes the broken bottle without a fight. His eyes stay trained on the floor, and Alex thinks it wise to give him a moment of calm.

"We want to know what happened," Robin crouches and says after a minute or so passes.

Eddie sniffles, like he's on the verge of tears. Alex imagines that it's difficult for him to be so vulnerable, especially around a few people that he hardly knows. "You won't believe me."

"Try us," Max prompts.

Eddie looks at Alex for reassurance, and she nods her head. When he starts telling the story, Alex thoughtfully places her hand on his lower thigh. "Chrissy stopped me in the hallway Friday morning before school and wanted to buy some weed. I was surprised, but told her to meet me after school in the woods outside the school. She was acting all weird there, like she was upset and she mentioned something about feeling like she was losing her mind. She decided she wanted something harder, so I told her she would have to come by my trailer after the game. I really wouldn't have done it, but I needed the money and she offered to pay a lot." He directs the last comment toward Alex.

"I left her in the living room," he starts again. "When I came back she was in some kind of… trance. I tried to get her to wake up but… her body just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh… and she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones… Uh, she… Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It… was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I… I didn't know what to do, so I… I ran away. I left her there."

The others are silent in response to hearing Eddie's story. Alex moves her hand from his leg to his back and slowly rubs the material of his vest in a circular motion. People reacted differently to these types of things, so she hopes that she is able to comfort him, at least in the slightest.

Eddie scoffs, looking away. "You all think I'm crazy, right?"

"No, we don't think you're crazy," Dustin says.

"Don't bullshit me, man!" I know how this sounds." Eddie cries out.

"We're not bullshitting you," Max says.

"We believe you," Robin assures.

"Look, what I'm about to tell you might be a little… difficult to take," Dustin begins in a calm tone.

"Okay…" Eddie says, his frightened demeanor shifting into one of curiosity.

"You know how people say Hawkins is… cursed? They're not… way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours."

"Like ghosts and shit?" Eddie asks, his face scrunched in confusion.

"There are some things worse than ghosts," Max says.

"These monsters from this other world… we thought they were gone. But they've come back before. That's why we needed to find you."

"If they're back again, we need to know," Max says.

"And also I wanted to make sure you were okay, of course," Alex throws into the conversation with a small, comforting smile.

"That night, did you see anything?" Robin asks.

"Dark particles, maybe?"

"It would almost look like dust, swirling dust," Dustin says.

Eddie shakes his head and speaks in certainty, "No, man, there was nothing you could see, or uh… touch."

"Earlier, you said it was like she was in a trance? Like under a spell?" Dustin asks.

"A curse," Eddie whispers, his voice barely audible.

"Vecna's curse," Dustin mutters. Alex recognizes the name from the campaign on Friday.

"Who's Vecna?" Steve asks, speaking up for the first time.

"An undead creature of great power," Dustin says, his voice incredibly serious.

"A spell caster," Eddie says.

"A dark wizard," Dustin adds.

"It's getting late," Steve says suddenly after a brief period of silence. "We'll head out and come back tomorrow. My parents are gone so we can all crash at my house I guess."

Eddie raises his hand and waves them off, appearing solemn at the fact that he's being left alone again. Once Alex reaches the car, she stops in her tracks. Feeling guilty, she speaks, "I think I'm gonna' stay here."

"What? Why?" Steve asks.

"Because I know what it's like to be alone after… dealing with shit."

"Okay… and what exactly do I tell Jonathan if he calls?" Steve asks with his arms folded.

"I'm…" Alex trails off, trying to think of an excuse.

"At the arcade with me," Max offers.

"And me!" Dustin adds.

Alex snaps her fingers together and points at the two younger teens. "I'm at the arcade with Max and Dustin."

Everyone else clammers into the car, leaving Steve and Alex standing in the dark. Steve pops the trunk open and grabs something that Alex can't make out in the dark. He abruptly tosses it and it hits her chest. She grasps it, feeling the soft material against her skin. "What's this?"

"It's a blanket. I keep it in the car for… you know," Steve says.

"Ew!" Alex says, disgusted.

Steve shoves the blanket back in her direction when she tries to dispose of it. "Don't worry, I just washed it and it's not used. It's getting chilly out at night and you're probably not used to it, you being a Cali girl now and all."

She playfully rolls her eyes at his joke, but takes the blanket anyway. "Thanks, Steve. See you in the morning."

Alex pushes open the door to the boat shed and nearly whacks Eddie, who falls backward with his hand over his heart. He catches his breath. "Jesus, you scared me. Did you forget something?"

"Yeah, you," Alex answers, making herself as comfortable as possible. She finds a spot where she can sit with her back against the wall. Eddie mimics her actions, his face contorted in confusion.

"You're staying? Why?"

Alex shrugs. "You shouldn't have to spend tonight alone. Plus–you did promise we would hang out today. Can't let you bail on me, Munson."

She gets only a small smile out of him. He raises his hand carefully, exposing his palm to show the somewhat smudged phone number scribed across his skin. "I was gonna' call, you know?"

Alex takes his hand, their palms resting together. Her nervousness fades when he doesn't pull away. She studies his rings as best as she can in the dark. "Your rings are awesome. I have a hard time finding rings I like in my size."

She wiggles her middle finger, which contains the only ring she owns. The black gemstone twinkles when it catches a ray from the moon. California has more shopping options, but Alex could often only find gold rings with pink hearts or the like. She had no problem with those that wore rings like that, but she wanted more options of her taste.

"Which one is your favorite?" He asks.

She only needs to think for a moment before she answers. "The skull one. A classic."

Surprisingly, Eddie tugs the skull ring off of his finger and drops it into the palm of Alex's hand. The cool metal stings against her skin. "You can have it," he says.

"Are you serious?" Alex asks. "I can't take this from you."

He shrugs. "It'll give me an excuse to get a new one. Obviously it won't fit, but maybe you could get a chain to wear it on."

Before Eddie gets a chance to finish his sentence, Alex is already unclasping the short chain necklace around her neck. She removes the small skull charm from the necklace and tosses it behind her. She replaces it with Eddie's ring and reclasps the necklace. The ring rests in its new home across the bare skin of her chest.

"You didn't have to ruin your necklace. I would've expected you to just get a new chain."

"Oh, that old thing?" Alex jokes. "It's just some cheap one I got at Starcourt Mall last summer."

They sit in silence for a while. Alex steals glances at Eddie's face. Everytime she does, she finds his face riddled with worry, though she doesn't blame him. The mysteries of Hawkins are a lot to take in, especially when one experiences something so traumatic.

"So… that stuff about your brother going missing in the woods isn't true, is it?" He finally asks.

Alex nods slowly.

"Could you… tell me more about it?" He asks cautiously. "If it's too much it's okay."

"It's fine, but it's a long story, so I'll have to give you the shortened version," Alex begins with a deep breath, the memories from years past surging through her mind all at once. "November 6, 1983: Jonathan, my mom, and I were all not at home. Will had been playing a campaign at Mike's house. He biked home, and just disappeared. The next morning we realized that he was gone. The next few days were awful. I didn't eat or sleep for several days at a time. My mom was convinced that she could communicate with Will through the lights. Everyone thought she was crazy, then I started to believe her so everyone thought I was crazy, too. They ended up finding a body in the lake. My mom refused to believe that it was actually him. Turns out it was a completely fake body that was planted by the Hawkins Lab. While Will was missing, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas found this girl in the woods–her name is Eleven, but we call her El. She had also escaped from Hawkins Lab, where she was basically an experiment. The Hawkins Lab people were after her, and they were trying to cover up Will's disappearance, and there was a demogorgon on the loose."

"Demogorgons are real?" Eddie stops her to ask.

"Well, not like the ones from Dungeons and Dragons. They're… well, you saw the drawing in my notebook."

"That was real?"

Alex nods slowly again. "Yes, and it took my brother into the Upside Down, which is the world underneath Hawkins that Dustin mentioned. My mom and Hopper broke into the lab to go get Will, but the people caught them. Hopper was able to convince the lab to let them go get Will, as long as we never told anyone what really happened. While this was happening, Jonathan, Nancy, and I were back at my house trying to kill the demogorgon. Steve showed up trying to apologize to Jonathan and I, and the four of us fought the demogorgon off. It ended up going to the middle school, where Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and El were. The people from Hawkins lab showed up and El killed most of them. She also killed the demogorgon but we thought she died, too. Will was able to come home after some time at the hospital and we all signed confidentiality crap. I slept on the floor in Will's room for like a month afterward. The lab started working with us and they told us everything would be fine, but… they were wrong."

"Steve and I got close after that, which I never would have imagined, but I was thrilled about. I finally had friends for the first time in my life, and my mom started dating this guy named Bob. Jonathan wasn't crazy about him, but I was happy that my mom finally had a nice guy in her life. Will started having these… episodes. The lab told us they were flashbacks or nightmares, but eventually we found out that he had a connection with the Upside Down. Then, he got possessed by this creature from the Upside Down called the Mind Flayer, but we didn't know that right away. I was right by his side with my mom, but one day while Will was sleeping I slipped out for just a minute to go see Steve. Him and Nancy had just had a fight and basically broken up, and I knew that my brother liked Nancy and that he was off somewhere with her, and I still feel bad about it to this day, and-"

"Hey, it's okay," Eddie says, snapping her out of her digression.

"Yeah, sorry," she gets back on track. "So, I went to see Steve, but then we got caught up with Dustin, who accidentally kept a baby Demogorgon as a pet. It was growing and had escaped so we had to deal with that. During that time, Will ended up in the lab. When the lab got overrun by the demodogs, my mom's boyfriend, Bob, died right in front of my mom after saving everyone. We ended up finding out that El survived and had been living with Hopper in hiding. It came time to get the Mind Flayer out of Will, and we… had to essentially burn it out of him. It was awful, but he lived. Summer came around. I got a job working at Scoops Ahoy with Steve and that's when we became close with Robin."

"Yeah, I saw you in that little uniform." He snorts.

"You were at the mall? Doesn't seem like your scene."

"They had a store that sold some stuff for Dungeons and Dragons. I checked it out a couple times, but yeah, wasn't really my scene."

"How come you never came in to get some ice cream from me?" She asks.

"You were always with Harrington."

Alex scoffs and playfully smacks his arm. "He's not scary, you know. Anyway, shit hit the fan. Billy got possessed by the Mind Flayer, which I guess was super scary. And a ton of other people got 'flayed,' too. I didn't get to see much of it because I ended up getting stuck in the secret Russian bunker located under the mall."

"You were captured by Russian?" Eddie's eyes widen.

"And drugged. Eventually we had this huge fight with the Mind Flayer in the mall. Billy sacrificed himself in front of everyone, El lost her powers, and Hopper died while closing the gate that the Russians had opened. It was covered up by the supposed mall fire. We adopted El into our family and moved to California. Now something else from the Upside Down is back and you've just been inducted to our secret society."

"Secret society?" Eddie questions.

"Sorry, bad joke," she answers. "But hardly anyone knows. Just the Hawkins Lab people, my family, Dustin, Steve, Robin, Nancy, Mike, Lucas, Erica, Max, and this guy named Murray."

"Wait, Sinclair's little sister knows?"

"Oh, yeah, she was in the secret Russian bunker too. I left a ton of stuff out, but at least now you're more up to speed. I'll tell you the rest some other time when I'm less tired," she says nonchalantly.

"What the hell? You've been through way more than I thought."

Alex shrugs. "I'm still here."

Another bit of time passes in silence. Alex grows more and more drowsy by the second. As her thoughts start to get fuzzy, she blurts, "I'm adopted."

"What?" Eddie asks, caught off guard by her sudden revelation.

"Sorry, I don't know why I told you that," she says, shaking her head. Jesus, she's turning into Robin. "I'm tired and I was telling so much information I guess I thought it was fine to randomly include that."

He places his hand on her knee in an attempt to comfort her. "It's okay. I just didn't know that is all."

She expects him to remove it, but he leaves it as she continues her story. She keeps her eyes trained on his hand that is freshly one ring short. "No one does, except my mom and brothers. I just never mention it because I don't think it's a huge deal. I mean, my mom is my mom. But I guess I owe you the story now."

Eddie begins to open his mouth in protest but she shushes him. "I know absolutely nothing about my biological dad, but my biological mom is actually my mom's younger sister. She ran away from home in her early teens and no one heard from her again. She bled out when I was born because she didn't go to a hospital. I was born almost two months early, and I sat in the apartment bathtub for several hours all alone. A neighbor finally heard me crying and contacted somebody, who eventually tracked my mom down. My mom was young, too, and Jonathan was just a baby. My mom had to convince my asshole dad to adopt me, but I'm forever thankful she did. So that's why my mom started me in school late–I was born premature and she was just worried about me I guess."

"You seem to really admire your mom," he says.

"She's the best. You'll love her." Alex realizes what she's said and feels her cheeks heat up. She's glad that it's dark in the boat shed so that Eddie can't see her red tinged face. She decides it best to go to sleep before she reveals anything else. "We should get some sleep."

Eddie agrees and stands, leading her to the suspended boat. "This is where I slept last night. It's not exactly comfortable, but it works."

He peels the tarp back and climbs in first before offering his hand to help her climb in. The boat sways slightly as they do so. They shimmy into a sleeping position, each of them shoved against their respective side of the boat. Alex has to bend her legs a bit to fit, and Eddie–being about a foot taller than her–has to contort himself quite a bit. Somehow, they manage to lie down without their bodies touching. Alex pulls her jacket around her body tighter and places the blanket Steve gave her over the two of them. She suddenly realizes how cold it is and becomes aware that her chest is bare. Today really wasn't the best day to wear a low cut shirt. She was never really a modest person, but her cheeks are heating up yet again from being in this state in close proximity to a boy she likes. It's dark, but from the way Eddie's breathing has slowed, she figures that Eddie has already fallen asleep. She lets herself join him.