"Holy shit, Miss Priss." Eddie started in disbelief, a wide-grin filling his face as he barked out a laugh and leant back in his seat. Joan groaned, wishing she was anywhere else but here. She regretted ever pulling over and not taking the shot at Eddie while she had the chance. "Straight-laced Henderson likes to listen to Devil worship."
"Listen, Munson. If you forget this night ever happened I'll take it as payment for driving you up to the store." Joan tried to sound intimidating, but instead the words came of pleading when she tried to hide the fact that it hurt to talk. Thankfully the store came in sight and Joan sighed in relief, pulling into the store's parking lot.
"Sure, sure." Eddie waved Joan off casually, getting out of the car and Joan followed. They must have looked night and day - metalhead and prep - walking side by side into the general store. Eddie seemed to walk in a way where you could never guess his next step, while Joan forced herself in a straight line as if she was going down a runway. "You always walk like you've got a stick up your ass?"
"Do you always walk like you've got ants in yours?" Joan smiled back thinly, CDw f GB c v Eddie walked in first. "No manners..."
Eddie's eyebrow lifted at the comment and shoved his hands into his pocket with a shrug. "If I got no manners I guess I could just tell everyone here-"
"Eddie!" Joan hissed out, ignoring the laugh at her distress. "What are we here for anyways?"
"New alternator." He replied simply, as if Joan knew what the hell in alternator was, turning around quickly and nearly racing towards the auto aisle. "The old man here keeps two or three in the back."
"Right..." Joan dragged with a sigh and pulled on her sweater to get some air. "So it's a quick fix?"
"With the right tools, a little light, and maybe a smoke..." Eddie squatted down and reached for a small cardboard box, showing it to Joan with a grin and dancing eyebrows. "...and maybe the right music."
Joan ignored Eddie, turning sharply on her heel and heading towards the front while ignoring Eddie's very obvious sounds of falling on his butt. "I'll be in the car."
Stepping out into the muggy night was somehow worse and Joan groaned, taking off the sweated and rubbing uncomfortably at her neck and wrists. She probably should have gotten something to drink while in there and after thinking about she turned around to go grab some water.
"Holy fuck." Eddie Munson hissed out as if he was in pain, his eyes darting from Joan's neck to her wrists in concern. "Are... are you okay?"
No. No the fuck she wasn't, Joan thought to herself. Everything was fucked up and she just almost died, and her best friend was in trouble, and... well... everything just majorly sucked.
"O-oh yeah, I'm fine. Why?" Joan blurted out quickly, running over to her door and opening it. "W-we should get going. I gotta pick my little brother up from the mall and possibly my ex-boyfriend, w-well he's Dustins friend, but also my ex. We broke up. Well, he broke up with me and now he serves ice cream, and hangs out with my brother in a sailor costume. Well, my ex wears the sailor costume and serves ice cream, not... my... brother."
She squeezed her eyes shut at her rambling, listening to the slow movements of Eddie carefully getting into the car and setting his bags on the floor board in front of him.
"Is... is that from your ex or... your current boyfriend?"
Joan bit her lip and griped the steering wheel harshly as the memories washed over and she tried to appear nonchalant. "N-nope."
"So who-"
"I just like it freaky." Joan blurted out, before gasping in horror at what had just left her mouth. "Fuck. I mean, yeah, I mean... fuck." Joan groaned, throwing her forehead on the steering wheel and considered driving into the lake that night. It was silent and Joan wanted Kaleigh to come back and send her back in time again so this moment would never happen.
Eventually something cold was placed on her lap, making her jump and look down at the Coke can on her lap. She looked over at Eddie Munson in confusion who started opening his own can quietly. "Thanks. For the ride." When it was obvious Eddie wasn't going to push it anymore, Joan sighed in relief and opened the can. The cold liquid felt like a relief going down her throat.
"Thanks." Joan said, putting the coke down and starting the car up. She wasn't just saying thanks for the coke, but also thank you for not pressing because honestly... she wasn't sure what to say.
When they pulled out of the parking lot, Eddie went to work tacking the cassette out and putting a new one in and the familiar guitar of Motorhead's Ace of Spades filled the car. With a mischievous eye he peaked over at Joan and nodded towards the radio. "You know this song?"
Joan scoffed, actually a little offended. "Do I know this song? This is literally their most popular song, like, ever." She cleared her throat, knowing that there was no one to imitate the gruff beauty that was Lemmy but belted it out anyways. "If you like to gamble, I tell you I'm your man."
"Shit!" Eddie hollered out in excitement, banging his head so that it flopped all around him comically while Joan sang out the words. His hands pretended to hold onto a guitar, expertly going through the notes while Joan pitifully croaked out the song. When the song ended, eddie pushed the hair out of his face and grinned over at Joan. "That was fucking rad!"
"You should hear me on the piano." Joan teased, letting out a cough and trying to clear her throat. "Or at least when I'm not part frog."
"Well, the part frog just adds to the gruff grunge of it all." Eddie said happily, playing with his rings and nodding his head to the beat of the song. "Who knew that Joan Henderson was secretly Joan Jett."
"Oh, I don't even begin to compare to that beauty." Joan scoffed out, flattered at the comparison, but understanding her place in the world. "I'm just your friendly neighborhood fuck up who hides behind fake smiles and angry music."
"Fuck up?" Eddie scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "No way that you have done anything worse than stay up past your bedtime, Miss. Is this weed?!" His voice pitched up and his face morphed with it into a mocking version of her from their first interaction. Joan groaned out loud and Eddie let out a barking laugh.
"How the hell was I supposed to know you were trying to sell me weed?!"
"Shit, I'm Eddie Munson, sweetheart." Eddie replied gesturing to himself and with dancing fingers around his face. "Everyone at Hawkins High knows what I do."
"Obviously not everyone." Joan snapped, face red from embarrassment and eyed Eddie suspiciously. "You don't have anything on you now do you?"
"...No?"
"Holy fuck."
"I said no!"
"Just because you said no doesn't mean you're not lying!"
"I figured you didn't want the truth." Eddie admitted sheepishly, scratching the back of his ear and pulling on it nervously. "It's the only way I can help pay the bills."
And that's when Joan understood perhaps a little bit better than before that Eddie wasn't this big, bag wolf who attacked innocent high school girls, but instead a human in denim just trying to make it out of this fucked up life.
"Oh."
"Did I make it awkard?"
"What? No! No."
"...I made it awkward." Eddie groaned throwing his face into his hands and shaking his head as Live to Win filled the air. "I always make it awkward."
"No, you didn't its fine."
"...I don't believe you."
"Not my fucking fault, Munson."
That got Eddie to snort and smile just a little bit and Joan let out a silent sigh in relief. "Oh, there's your van."
"Ahhh, there she is." Eddie cooed out before guiding Joan to a parking position that would give him the most amount of light while he worked. "You got any Metallica or Dio in that beautiful console of yours?"
"No, I got Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath though."
"Fineeeee." Eddie whined out as he popped open his hood. He pointed at Joan seriously with a wrench. "Master of Reality?"
"Sweet Leaf, I got you." Joan popped it the album in with a grin, cranking it up so that she could watch Eddie headbanged to the music while he worked and she finished her coke. She sighed in content, for the first time feeling perhaps a little... like Joan.
And not Agatha-Joan, or Destiny-Joan playing Agatha-Joan, but... Joan.
Joan Destiny Henderson, daughter of Dustin and Suzie Henderson, president of Hellfire and future... She sighed, that was the problem wasn't it. What was her future now?
"Hey, it sounds like your radio is doing some weird shit in your trunk." Eddie called out, pulling Joan out of her mind. "Got speakers back there or something?"
She waved it off with a nsort. "Nah, might just be the track. They put some weird shit on these albums." She had heard it too, the mechanical voices unable to be deciphered, but Joan just chalked it to a faulty tape and ignored it until it went away.
"Aaaaaaand, done." Eddie said happily just as Lord of this World finished the second chorus. "What's that, 30 minutes? Hell yeah!"
"...You know, I'm more impressed that you have the songs memorized and their minutes." Joan admitted as she handed a paper towel - she tried not to eye the dirty hands in disgust - and some hand sanitizer to Eddie. "Literally timed yourself with a Black Sabbath album."
"I'm more impressed that Miss Is that fucking weed stuck around with Eddie "the freak" Munson alone in the middle of nowhere." Eddie teased and licked his lips with a grin.
"God, please any nickname but that." She threw her face into her hands. "Its not my fault that I actually like my lungs."
"Any nickname huh? What about Miss Oh sweet Jesus I'm going to jail." His voice once again pitched up mockingly and Joan turned on her heel, heading back to her car and groaing when Eddie followed. "Or what about miss I let people grab my wallet and steal my money."
"Eddie the Freak more like Eddie the Annoying." Joan snapped out, whirling around and sending a grinning Eddie a step backwards. She was fighting a smile, trying to look angry. "How are you even a drug dealer?"
Eddie shrugged his shoulders and played with his hair with a smirk. "Who knows." He sang and Joan couldn't hid her smile anymore. His grin turned sheepish. "Seriously, thanks for the ride. I, uh, really appreciate it."
Joan shrugged it off and opened her door to get in. "Don't mention it. Seriously, don't." And Eddie laughed with Joan as she started her car and shoved in a random tape. "See ya later Munson."
"See ya, Miss Sex with Satan."
Eddie pranced away with a cackle at Joan's gasp and red face, leaving before Joan could say anything in response to the appalling nickname.
What a fucking idiot.
Joan's eyes noticed an unopened coke and pack of Skittles in her cupholder.
A nice idiot.
Eddie shouted in pain as he accidentally hit his head on the top of his van and she laughed.
But still an idiot.