Umm hello. I don't write for ages, re-watch stranger things and suddenly am boosted with motivation again. Yay!

I'm sorry in advance for the length, but when i started writing i literally couldn't stop. I am working on the next chapter but not promising anything and i'm still not 100% happy with it so maybe go back and change it. Not totally happy with the last part. Let me know what you think x

October 23rd, 1985

Eddie watches the fat drops of rain chase each other on truck window as he presses his forehead against the cold glass, listening to Wayne as he hums Johnny Cash under his breath.

It's better than the singing that's coming from the radio. The tape is so old from being played every day Johnny comes out distorted at times, words skip, during Folsom city blue you can barely make out the guitar.

He makes a mental note to buy Wayne a new tape for Christmas when the song crackles yet again.

His uncle stops humming, clears his throat. "So, another two weeks, that's not so bad?"

Eddie sighs, his warm breath fogging up the glass. His shoulder is aching from the doctor's exam. 'it's on the mend, i'd give it another week.' But he was sick of it. For a month now he hadn't been able to play guitar, hadn't been able to dress himself. It had taken two weeks for him to perfect making his breakfast without it spilling all over the floor.

And it hurt like fucking hell.

He would wake up in the middle of the night, the pain blistering through his shoulder. Weed took the edge off, but that's pretty much all it did.

And he kept having the same god damn dream.

Him at the top of the rope. The jocks swarming him. Eddie falling.

And that's when he would wake up damp with sweat, trying not to cry.

Wayne must note the silence because usually Eddie can't shut up.

"Come on kid, it could be worse."

It could, but that wasn't the point.

"I guess." He mumbles as he watches another drop of rain run down the window. "Don't suppose there were any letters for me?"

He can practically hear Wayne grimace. "Sorry, nothing."

Typical.

"You could always try writing to him? If I know your old man and he's as stubborn as an old boot. You'll have to make the first move."

Eddie sinks down into the seat a little, not wanting to admit he already had. "Yeah, well, you'd think he'd at least have the decency to write to me on my freaking birthday of all days."

"Speaking of – open up the glove box."

Eddie smirks and flicks it open. He pulls out the pack of Marlboro's, a birthday tradition, with a twenty snuck in for good measure. "Thanks." Eddie wasn't big on birthdays. They reminded him of crappy childhoods with no presents and no cake and only one parent who was never there anyway. But Wayne tries, which was nice, and it made up for all the crappy birthdays a little.

"So – what are the big plans?"

"Movies. Pizza." Eddie says, but he can't help but smile a little. "It was Eve's idea."

He looks over to Wayne who's smiling too. "Yeah, well, she knows you pretty well then." Eddie feels his chest tighten as Wayne glances over. "She's a sweet kid you know. Giving you all those rides to school. She even laughs at my jokes."

The only good thing to come out of this was the fact Eve had felt so bad about his fucked shoulder,(Despite it not being her fault), that she offered to drive him to and from school every day. And even when Eddie had turned her down because hey, that was the gentlemen thing to do, she had still showed up at his trailer Monday, so how was he meant to say no?

Ok, so he officially hated R.E.M Speed wagon more than life itself, but in the drives to and from school he had learnt some important details.

She hated twizzlers, but she loves red vines.

Butter on popcorn is a no.

Her favourite colour is green. Mint green to be exact.

Her favourite movie, currently, is The Breakfast Club, because she thinks Judd Nelson is babe. Although Eddie doesn't see it but that could be the underlying jealousy.

She can't catch with her left hand. He discovered this when Dustin had tossed her a can of soda that had zoomed past her hand and smacked Mr Szarkowski in the head.

Yes, she is a natural blonde and Eddie is an asshat.

She can't stop reading until she's finished a chapter, and if she's deep into it, don't even bother trying to get her attention.

Her grandad taught her to drive in his 66 Chevy, which also happened to be Mint Green. (Coincidence, i think not.)

There was more. Books full of it. He hadn't just learnt this in the drives to and from school but during class, in between class, lunch, at his house after school, and at her house whenever her mom was at work. They had become inseparable, but he would be lying if he said he didn't like it.

"Yeah." Eddie says his heart racing slightly. "She laughs at mine too."

When Wayne pulls up to parking lot Eddie mumbles a thank you as he exists the car. By the time he gets to the door he's already soaked and brushes damp hair from his face as he scans Family Video.

Eve is there, leaning on the counter, listening to Robin who's talking very rapidly.

"Ok, yeah, it's t's soppy and manipulative and mushy but it's amazing. Granted, it's better on the big screen but I would still totally recommend it."

Eve sighs. "I'm more of a John Hugh's girl personally. Also, it's double VHS. Eddie doesn't have the attention span for that."

"You guys actually watch the movies when you hang out?" Robin teases.

"Shut up."

Eddie lets the door slam close, allows the bell to chime. Both look over and Eve immediately straightens up and shoots a smile in his direction. He smiles back. It's hurts a little, he's been frowning most of the afternoon. But then her eyes fall on the sling, and her smile fades a little.

Her blonde hair is tied back into two long braids. The bruising on her face has now faded to a meek yellow that will probably be gone by next week. Still, whenever he sees it, it makes his stomach hurt.

She's wearing his sweatshirt that she stole from his room a few nights ago when the rain started. The zip gets stuck halfway, so it falls off her shoulder slightly. Today she's wearing a thin strappy top underneath so he can see the thick rigid scar that runs across her left collarbone peeking out slightly, it still looks pink, not that old.

"Prognoses?" She asks as he walks over.

"Another week." He can't help but sound bitter as he says it. "Tylenol, like that does shit."

"It could be worse." She says with a reassuring tone. "You could have needed surgery; you would have been out of commission for months then."

His eyes land on her scar again. He nods.

Wayne has the same scar. From Vietnam. Collarbone shattered in two places that needed surgery. Eddie hasn't asked her how she managed hers, he wouldn't dare. He doesn't ask about anything like that despite how much he wants to.

He reckons that why she can't catch anything with her left hand.

"Robin thinks we should watch Doctor Zhivago."

"Or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest." Robin quickly adds on. "Both classics."

"I'm not watching some sad Russian love story, or some nut house movie." He says it as he walks over to the aisles. "Or breakfast club!" He calls back, smirking when he heard Eve groan under her breath. "Besides, it's my birthday. I should get to pick the movie, right?"

She nods as she follows him straight to the horror section and he grabs The Exorcist from the shelf. "Gotta admit, the main theme, metal as fuck."

"Never seen it."

It's surprising. Movies weren't really her thing. She likes reading, read every Stephen King book known to man, but didn't really watch horror movies. Eddie was trying his hardest to get her to watch more movies with him, but she had only managed half of the Howling hidden behind her couch cushion.

"You know there's a sort of Dungeons and Dragon movie." She says. "Tom Hanks is in it. Dustin was telling me about it, in-between trying to convince me to actually take part tomorrow."

"The movie is awful, but I agree with your taking part."

"I don't know. I like watching. I don't think I'd be good at it I don't have a lot of imagination."

Eve had sat through four campaigns now, albeit from the other side of the room. She had even created a character sheet with Eddie's help one weed induced evening. Well, it was more Eddie's idea than hers. He had found the start of one shoved into her algebra textbook so he had forced her to roll the dice in-between smokes and he had simply finished it off for her. A Rogue. Of course. Half Elf loner with a thirst for revenge. She had rather liked that.

Still, the next day at hellfire she chickened out at the last minute, insisting on sitting on the side-lines and ever since coming up with further excuses to not play. They were pretty pitiful by this point.

I don't get it. It's confusing. Why does the dice even have that many sides?

But still, she came every week, sat on that couch, and listened and watched as intently as if she was taking part. So at least there was that.

"What about this one?" She grabs a case. "Re-animator?"

"Oh, that's a good one. The effects are so so bad but in the best way." His eyes scan the cases. Carrie? Nightmare on Elmstreet? "But – I feel like this has to be a proper education, so if we're doing this, then we start with a classic movie monster - " He grabs An American werewolf and roams down the aisle. "Then a slasher – " He picks out Friday the 13th. "Then a full-on gore fest. The Evil Dead."

"Oh. Goody." She says with a sarcastic chuckle.

Eddie drops them on the counter and Robin rolls her eyes as she grabs the cases and starts to look him up on the computer. "You know you've rented the Evil Dead sixteen times?" She sounds slightly impressed.

"It's a classic." He says with a one shoulder shrug.

And then he appears out the back of the store. Steve Harrington. Eddie drops his gaze, shuffles his feet. Harrington probably doesn't even recognise him from school last year. Eddie can't even recall a single conversation between the two of them, not like he would have wanted too anyway.

"I think we should start charging for when they don't rewind the videos, I've been out there for twenty freaking minutes."

Eve appears, dropping a bag of Red Vines and Razzle's on the counter. Red Vines for her, Razzle's for him. Steve's eyes are directly on her, and Eddie feels his stomach plummet.

Shit.

"You're new." Steve says with a smirk.

Shit shit SHIT.

"That's Eve, from my gym class." Robin's muffled voice echoes from below the counter as she searches for the tapes.

"Oh, you're Eve." Steve says with his award-winning smile.

"The one and only." She says, albeit a little sarcastic. Still, Eddie's heart is racing.

"I'm Steve."

Eve raises an eyebrow. "I know, Robin's mentioned you."

"Yeah, she told me about you too." He says with another smile. "Don't suppose she also mentioned my Halloween part next week?"

Eve's gaze falls. "She might have."

"She won't come, despite my begging." Robin says, still below the counter.

Steve places a flyer down. "Next Friday. Fancy Dress, obviously."

"I'm Busy."

Robin slams the now filled cases on the countertop, and then she makes a begging face and presses her hands together in prayer. "Please please please come. He's forcing me and I don't talk to his friends and I can't talk to new people because they just stare at me how Munson's staring at me now and you're one of the rare people at school that seems to listen while I talk so at least I won't spend the entire party by myself."

"Does she always talk without breathing?" Eddie asks.

"Yes." Steve replies. "So? What you say?"

Eve sighs, grabs the flyer and shoves it into her pocket. "I'll think about it."

And with that Eddie's stomach drops.

Eve's bedroom now looks someone actually lives there instead of a storage facility. Eddie had helped her the past few weekends unpacking the boxes, hanging her posters, sorting her records Alphabetically. There's now only one lonely box sat on a desk by the window of her room.

She's wheeled the tv from the living room into her room. They have pizza, a couple of six packs, and she's now opened the bag of Red Vines that they are sharing between the two of them. As far as birthdays go, this was turning out to be one of his better ones.

"I didn't realise you and Buckley were so chummy." He says it rather casually as he takes a sip of his beer.

Eve's eyes are focused on the screen. "We're not, not really. I mean, she's terrified of the other girls. I think she just hangs out with me in gym class so they leave her alone. We don't really take part. Besides, I am allowed to have other friends you know."

"Since when?" He chuckles.

"My god why are there SOOO many tits in horror movies? I thought this was about Werewolves?"

"I guess cause the more tits, the more people are likely to go see it? Guys like horror, and they like tits?" He says it as he breaks off a bit of red vines, chews it slowly.

"Is that why you watch so much of it?"

" I like the gore." He says it as he looks over to her, smirks slightly. "Tits are a bonus."

She rolls her eyes, but smirks. "I thought you were more of a thigh man." She chuckles at first but her gaze drops, her cheeks flush a little, and she quickly takes another sip of her beer.

They hadn't talked about it. The night in his van. That one time that he thought about repeatedly. constantly wondering if she thought about it too. Her soft lips and the moans that he could practically still hear in his ears when he lay in bed.

And in the weeks since there hadn't been a single kiss or hand graze or even a romantic stare. Well, not intentionally anyway. He had even forced himself to stop thinking about her when he was jerking off because it was just weird.

Ok, maybe a couple of times a week, but definitely a lot less than he had been.

Sure, he had pictured their lives together, white picket fence, maybe a couple of rug rats.

He just didn't know how to bring it up. If he should even bring it up at all. They were friend now. And Eve was friends with the guys in Hellfire. She joked with them at lunch. Listened to Gareth's rambling with no judgment. Gave Mike and Dustin advise on his girlfriend problems.

Eddie didn't want to ruin it. So, he had just never mentioned it.

He drains the beer and places the empty bottle on the cabinet next to her bed. Eve is picking at the label on her bottle, watching the tv with a grimace as David decapitates the inspector.

Eddie's shoulder is starting to ache. He's been wearing the sling for hours now and it's starting to cut in. He starts to undo the straps and he can feel Eve watching him as he tugs it off and starts to struggle with his vest.

Usually, Wayne helps him with this bit, has been for weeks, and it makes him irrationally angry.

He feels the bed shift as she slides towards him and starts to help. He wants to protest but ultimately doesn't, he doesn't really have the strength for it.

She grabs her pillows, stuffs them into a pile and gently places his arm on them.

"Thanks." He mumbles. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"I had months of practice" She says, her gaze drops when she realises her slip up. It must be the beer, she's almost at the bottom of her third one.

"Looks like you and me have way more in common than I thought." As he says it, she goes to instinctively pulled the jacket up to cover it properly, but after a moment doesn't.

She leans back from him, gives him a sad look, bites her lip softly. "This is probably a stupid question, but are you ok?" She asks. She sounds far too concerned for his liking.

"Me? Sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You just seem a bit quiet? Usually, I can't shut you up."

"It's nothing. I'm just – not a big birthday person."

"It's my fault, right? You think I've literally thrown you the crappiest birthday ever to exist. I thought about throwing you a party – "

"No! No – God no. I hate parties. I hate all that stuff. Look the guys don't even know it's my birthday and I'm fine with that. But, saying that, this is definitely one of my better birthdays. Movies, Pizza, Beer. You. This is exactly what I wanted."

Her cheeks go slightly redder. "Well, speaking of birthdays. Do you want your present?"

His eyebrows shoot up. "Seriously? I mean you already got me that copy of fellowship – "

"Shut up. And don't get too excited or anything. I didn't have any money because I bought that so – " She reaches into her bedside table and pulls out the cassette shaped present, and he tries not to laugh.

"Gee – wonder what it is – "

'Shut up."

Eddie rips the paper off with his good hand and smirks as he studies the tape. She's drawn little bats around the logo which says Eddie Munson's Musical Education.

"You know, so you can stop being a cliché." She chuckles.

He clenches it in his hand. "Just what I wanted." He says rather genuinely.

" I made you something else." She says as she bounces off the bed and disappears out the door.

"Should I follow?" He calls after her but doesn't get a response, so he doesn't move from the spot. He eyes over the cassette and flips it open with his thumb. She's even wrote down the tracks inside, and the last one makes his heart skip.

The Killing Moon – Echo and the Bunnymen.

He still thinks about it that song, it plays over in his head when he thinks about the van and the kisses and the touching. That meant something, right? That of all the songs to place right there it was that one?

She's suddenly back, and she's holding a friggin cake with a candle in it.

"Holy shit."

She sits back down on the bed, holding the small white cake. "Made it myself. Even my grandma would be impressed."

His heart is racing. "You made that for me?"

She nods rather proudly. "Raspberry ripple. I think. We'll see how it tastes I guess."

Raspberry fucking ripple, his favourite. His mind goes back to the lunch conversation a week back where they had discussed favourite pie and cake flavours, he should have caught on then. Eddie just didn't expect it.

"You didn't have to do this for me."

Her smile drops slightly, and she lowers the cake. it must have come out sadder than he expected. "I mean, I did get the impression you weren't a massive fan of birthdays since no one else knew but, birthdays were the only thing I used to actually enjoy, and I just wanted you to have a nice one."

Eddie forces a tug of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

"I just – I hate them. Growing up my old man was too drunk to remember, or we didn't have any money to do anything. There was the year he showed me how to drive a car, so I guess that's something."

"It's a very important life skill."

"Yeah. Ten might have been a bit young though." He half laughs but the sadness seems to spread throughout his chest. "I mean, I still don't get anything now. But I don't know if it's because he hates me, or he's just forgotten."

"Not like it would make you feel better, but I very much doubt it's because he hates you."

Eddie is twirling the cassette in his hand. His eyes focused on it. "Wanna know one of my deep dark secrets?" He doesn't know why he's doing it, maybe because he's so desperate to know every little thing about her he's willing to show all the shitty parts of him too. The shit he's not proud of.

"You've already told me about how you lost your virginity."

It's funny. He should laugh. But when he meets her gaze, he doesn't. "I'm not talking about that."

She looks intrigued. "What deep dark secrets could you possibly have to tell me Edward Munson?"

He lets out a sigh as the credits start to roll and Bad Moon rising plays in the background. "Remember what I told you about my dad?""

"That he's in prison?"

"Well – I guess you get an idea of where I get my bad boy personality from." He chuckles. "The guy taught me how to roll my cigarettes when I was six, remember, I told you? Cause of his wobbly hands" He shakes his head. "I could hot wire a car by the time I was eleven. But his thing was holding up convincing stores, shit like that. Usually out of town so there was less chance of him getting caught. And he wore this stupid ski mask, took a gun, mainly for show – " She's looking at him as he continues to spin the cassette in his fingers. "And usually, it went ok. He'd get a couple of hundred bucks, it would last us a while, but then one time he holds up this liquor store and the guy behind the counter decides to fight back." He takes in a deep unsteady breath. "But like I said, my dad had shaky hands."

He can see her trying not to react. she swallows hard, her shoulders slump.

"I remember him coming home. He was covered in blood. And then he just gets in the shower and washes it off like it's no big deal. And the next day it was on news, that some guy got shot, killed, His family were on there too, begging for information – and my old man was just sat on the couch drinking his beer like it didn't even matter." He chuckles, but it's not funny. He can feel the tightness in her chest building as he looks at her and he can see the redness in her eyes and cheeks. He places the cassette down and grabs his beer from the nightstand.

"They must have known it was him though, right?"

Eddie shakes his head. "There was a number, on the TV to call with any information. So, on my way to school that morning I called it. They swarmed the trailer, found the gun. He got fifteen years with good behaviour."

Eddie's hand is trembling. He looks over at the cake, the candle now extinguished.

"You did the right thing." She says quietly.

Once he stops visibly shaking, he forces himself to speak. "I'm a rat. Snitched out my own dad." He takes a long drink of his beer then, all the while she just watches. He drains the bottle without realising and feel the alcohol rush to his head. "He doesn't even talk to me anymore. Doesn't write. It's my freaking birthday and I didn't get so much as a letter."

"Have you tried writing to him?"

" A few times." He shrugs. "But I'm guessing they just end up in the trash. And it's not like I'm any better, you know? I mean I deal drugs for Christ's sake."

"You don't kill people. You don't hurt people."

"It's still not honest, is it?" He Scoffs. "Probably gonna end up like him, rotting in some cell. I can't even graduate freaking high school. Hell, I should just drop out like he did and count down the days."

She puffs out her cheeks, lets out a slow breath. "Well, I don't think any of that is true. I think eighty-six is going to be your year."

"How can you be so sure?" He sounds slightly desperate as he asks it.

Eve pulls Eddie's lighter from his pocket, relights the candle, and holds the cake up to him. "I have a feeling. And hell, if you can convince me to stay in this cesspit of a town, I think you can do anything."

His eye search hers, looking for a hint of doubt in her words.

"Happy Birthday Eddie."

He smiles. Makes his wish. Blows out the candle.