Despite Steve arguing that his apartment was within walking distance, Eddie insisted they take the limo. Steve's protests fell on deaf ears as his friends eagerly piled into the luxury transportation. The moment the door closed and the driver turned the ignition, rock music blared through the speakers and Eddie popped open a bottle of champagne. Dustin opened the sunroof and craned his head out of it, whooping with delight and waving at the curious passersby of downtown Hawkins./works/59190190/chapters/150933259/edit#

"Hey, Mrs. O'Donnell!" he bellowed.

A bemused Mrs. O'Donnell stared at them as they drove past. Even at a slow speed, it only took them ten minutes to arrive outside Steve's apartment which was directly above Melvald's General Store. As soon as the limo stopped, Steve rushed for the door and climbed out.

"Just give me a minute," he shouted over his shoulder before slamming the door shut in Eddie's face.

He crashed through the broken security door and sprinted upstairs two at a time. He fumbled with his keys in a panic before finally managing to unlock the front door to his apartment. He threw the door open and grimaced at the sight before him. He was acutely aware of how much smaller it was compared to his parents' home; there was certainly no heated swimming pool here. Hell, the interior of the limo was bigger than his place. He rushed about tidying up as best he could before his friends entered a couple of minutes later, but fluffing cushions and tossing dirty dishes into the sink wasn't going to make the place look like the mansion that Eddie probably lived in. Steve spun on his heel when there was a loud knock at the open door.

"Are we safe to enter?" Eddie called. "Have you had enough time to hide all your illicit materials from our innocent eyes?"

Steve swiped his hair out of his sweaty face and reluctantly welcomed his friends into his humble abode. Eddie surveyed the living area with interest.

"Nice place you got here, Harrington," he said. "Cozy."

Steve bristled at the backhanded compliment but couldn't think of anything clever to say in response. Dustin, Nintendo box in hand, hurried past Eddie and made a beeline for the television in the corner of the living room.

"Where's Robin?" asked Will.

"She's staying over at Vickie's tonight," Steve explained. "You guys make yourselves comfortable, I'll order us some pizzas."

But Eddie was already pulling a stack of bills out of his wallet. "I've got it, Harrington."

"No, I've got it," said Steve through gritted teeth.

"It's really no trouble."

"It's my place, you're my guests," he insisted, picking up the telephone receiver. "I've got this."

Eddie put his hands up in mock surrender before pocketing his wallet again. "If you insist."

"I do, actually," Steve sneered, punching in the number of the pizza place with more force than necessary.

"I need to take a leak," Eddie announced. "Where's the bathroom?"

"First door on the left."

While Eddie wandered off to the bathroom, the others made quick work setting up the console and firing up Zelda.

"Jesus, Steve, could your TV be any smaller?" Mike grumbled.

"What's wrong with it?" he asked defensively.

"It's the size of a Nintendo Gameboy, I can hardly see anything."

"If you don't like it, you can always hang out in your mom's gym."

"It's fine," said Dustin. "We just have to move the sofa closer."

Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will dragged the sofa towards the small television. Nobody was willing to relinquish their seat for something more comfortable that was further away, so the four of them squeezed into the two-seater. After Steve ordered some pizzas (two pepperonis, a four cheese and a Hawaiian for Dustin), he sank into the nearby armchair and watched his friends as they raved about Zelda's spectacular graphics. Eddie reappeared a couple of minutes later grinning stupidly.

"Harrington," he teased. "Have you been reading up on me?"

To Steve's horror, he saw the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine in Eddie's hand.

"That's not mine," he replied quickly.

Eddie didn't look convinced. "Sure, it just happens to be sitting in the magazine rack in your bathroom."

Steve lunged for the magazine but Eddie was quicker and held it out of reach. "I said it's not mine. It's Robin's."

"Really? Well, in that case…" Eddie pulled out his pen and scribbled a message to Robin on the front of it before adding devil horns and a pointed tail to his picture. Inspecting his handiwork, he nodded in approval. "Much better."

Steve bristled as Eddie planted himself on the edge of the armchair. He flicked through the magazine and mused, "I haven't read this one."

"Neither have I," Steve quipped.

Eddie read in silence for a few moments before snorting with laughter. "According to this article, I'm dating Jodie Foster."

"Are you?" asked Mike.

"No," he chuckled. "She…well, let's just say I'm not her type."

"I thought you were seeing Courtney Love," said Will.

"I thought it was Madonna," Lucas chipped in.

"They're all lovely ladies and dear friends of mine, but no," said Eddie, closing the magazine and tossing it onto the coffee table. "I'm not seeing anyone at the moment."

Mike screwed up his face in disbelief. "Seriously? You're one of the biggest rock stars in the world and you're not seeing anyone?"

"He doesn't need to date anyone," said Dustin, his gaze fixed on the TV screen. "He'll have groupies throwing themselves at him wherever he goes. Who wants to be stuck with one person when you can be with hundreds of them?"

"Dustin, you make it sound like I'm a manwhore," Eddie simpered.

"Don't pretend you wouldn't do the same thing if you were in Eddie's shoes," Lucas challenged.

"Of course, I would!" said Dustin. "But I don't need to, I have Alberta. She's worth more than all the groupies in the world combined. God fucking damnit!"

At that exact moment, Dustin's character died. Lucas was already clambering for the controller, insisting it was his turn. Takeout turned up soon after and they took a break from gaming to enjoy their pizza. It was also another opportunity for the guys to grill Eddie about all the famous people he'd rubbed shoulders with. He recalled fondly attending Elton John's birthday party a few months prior, where he had a jam session with The Rocket Man, Little Richard and Debbie Harry.

"I got to dance with Princess Diana, too," he gushed. "Sweet girl. She was there with Liza Minnelli. Now that girl can sing! The voice of an angel…"

The stories were seemingly endless. Parties at mansions, more parties on private jets en route to even bigger parties taking place on private islands with seemingly every celebrity on the planet. When Eddie recounted having afternoon tea with Bubbles the chimp at the Neverland Ranch, Steve had had enough.

"So!" he said loudly, cutting Eddie off mid-sentence. "We were discussing locations for the bachelor party."

"We were?" asked Eddie.

"Yeah, it was before you turned up. Las Vegas, New Orleans and The Hideout were already floated out as possible locations."

"I wasn't serious about having the party at The Hideout," Will muttered.

"How about we go to Indianapolis for the weekend?" Steve suggested. "We get swanky hotel rooms and bar-hop around the city, it'll be fun."

Will, Dustin, Mike and Lucas looked at each other.

"That's not a bad suggestion," said Lucas.

"I've never actually been to the city for a night out," admitted Will.

"It's pretty good," said Mike. "El and I have been a couple of times."

"Great!" said Steve happily. "I don't want to give too much away but I've already got some ideas for the weekend."

Steve was pleased to see the boys all nodding in agreement. But then Eddie sucked his teeth and pulled a face. "Indianapolis would be fun, but it's Dustin's bachelor party! We gotta do something special."

Steve shot him an annoyed look. "Yeah? Have you got a better idea?"

"I do, as a matter of fact. I have something a little more, shall we say, out of this world, in mind," he teased. "I was thinking, drum roll… Cape Canaveral."

Steve knew instantly that the trip to Indianapolis was all but abandoned given the excited reactions of his friends. They talked about seeing space shuttles, whether or not they'd be able to sneak into the mission control room and the possibility of meeting a real-life astronaut. He could see his coveted position of best man already slipping from his grasp. Next thing, Dustin would be asking Eddie for his opinion on where they should go for tuxedo fittings and venue locations for the wedding. Soon, Dustin would come to realize that he only needed one best man in his life, and it wasn't Steve.

Steve began to panic. He racked his brain for a way of salvaging the situation. Everyone was in the middle of discussing potential dates and transport to Florida when Steve blurted out, "This is all well and good but I've already started planning Henderson's bachelor party."

The conversation stopped abruptly and they all looked at him.

"You have?" asked Dustin.

"I thought we'd just agreed we weren't going to Indianapolis," said Lucas.

"It's not a trip to Indianapolis, it's something else," said Steve. "Something better."

Dustin gave him an expectant look. "Which is…"

Steve said the first thing (hell, the only thing) that came to mind. "LARP."

"Sorry?"

"LARPing," said Steve more confidently. He was pretty sure Dustin had mentioned it earlier, "I am going to organize a LARP event… with Mike's help."

Mike looked sharply at Steve. "My help? What do I know about LARP?"

"You work in that toy workshop," said Steve, ignoring the indignant expression on Mike's face. "It's the same thing."

"LARP and Warhammer are as similar as apples and oranges."

"Well, they're both fruit, aren't they?" Steve argued.

"They're completely different!" Mike cried.

"I'm totally on board for a LARP event," said Dustin.

"You are?" said Steve hopefully.

"Hell yeah, it'll be fun!"

"What about Florida?" asked Eddie, looking crestfallen.

"We can do both," Dustin suggested.

"Two bachelor parties?" asked Lucas skeptically.

"Why not? I've got two best men, I can have two bachelor parties."

"Fine," said Eddie stiffly. "Need any help planning yours, Harrington? I'm happy to lend my expertise."

"No," Steve lied. "I can handle things myself."

The discussion returned to sorting out dates and transport to Florida. Steve didn't know the first thing about planning a LARP event, but he'd be damned if he was going to let Eddie beat him at hosting the best bachelor party. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and stared out the living room window at the busy street below. The townspeople were filing in and out of the stores on the main street. Many of them stopped to look at the limousine parked by the sidewalk. Steve wanted the vehicle and its owner to get the hell out of Hawkins, but since Eddie had settled himself down in the center of the sofa to play some Zelda, it didn't look like he would be leaving any time soon.

When Robin returned home the next morning, she found Steve sitting on the sofa with a scowl on his face as he read Eddie's article in Rolling Stone magazine.

"I thought you weren't interested in reading about him?" asked Robin, flopping into the seat next to him.

"Listen to this," he said. "Few performers have been so consistently controversial as Edward "Eddie" Munson, frontman of Corroded Coffin. And none has caused so many writers to construct so much gothic imagery in an effort to describe the mystique that surrounds him. In the Village Voice, for instance, one chronicler said Munson was the 'first major male sex symbol since James Dean died' while another called him a 'shaman-serpent king' and 'America's Oedipal nightingale.' He's been described as a 'demonic vision out of a medieval Hellmouth' while Prince, a self-described Munson acolyte, dubbed him as 'the Sex-death, Acid-Evangelist of Rock, a sort of Hell's Angel of the groin.'

Steve looked up from the magazine with a disgusted expression. "What the hell does any of that even mean?"

Robin shrugged. "A shaman-serpent king? Makes it sound like he's hung like a moose."

"There's an image that I could do without," Steve grumbled, tossing the magazine onto Robin's lap. "Here, he signed it for you."

"Aw, that's sweet of him." Robin admired the signature for a moment before asking, "I take that it wasn't a happy reunion?"

"He's even more annoying than I remembered," said Steve. "He was flashing his cash and bragging about all the famous people he hung out with. And then he tried to pay for pizza!"

"Wow, how awful of him," said Robin sarcastically.

"He wasn't doing it to be nice, he just wanted to rub it in my face that he's rich and famous," said Steve bitterly.

"Well, it'd be hard not to since he is, in fact, rich and famous," she reminded him delicately.

"And then for his wedding gift, he offered to sing at Dustin's wedding," said Steve accusingly.

"Oh wow," said Robin, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "What did Dustin say to that?"

"He said he'd have to talk it over with Alberta first," said Steve. "At the end of the night, Eddie drove everyone home in his limo. Just another chance for him to show off."

"Or he was just being a good friend," she countered. "I can't blame him for wanting to show off a little. If I had a limo, I'd drive it all across town with the windows rolled down."

"And," Steve continued, "when I suggested we have the bachelor party in Indianapolis, Eddie immediately shot me down and said we should go to NASA instead. Frickin' NASA!"

"What did Dustin say?"

"He loved the idea," said Steve gloomily.

Robin grimaced. "I mean…NASA is better than Indianapolis."

"I know! How the hell am I supposed to compete against space rockets and astronauts?"

"It's not a competition," she reminded him. "Dustin asked you to be his best man, not Eddie."

Steve let out a mirthless laugh. "Funny that you mention that. Henderson's actually went and asked both me and Eddie to be his best man."

Robin gawked at him. "He didn't!"

"He did! But only one of us can sign the marriage certificate. So it is, in fact, a competition, Robin. A pretty one-sided competition since I don't have fame and money to prop me up!"

"What are you going to do?"

"Well, I may have told Henderson that I was already planning his bachelor party, so now he's having two of them," said Steve. "Eddie's planning the one in Florida, and I'm planning… something else."

Robin frowned. "What exactly do you have planned?"

Steve grimaced. "I might have said that I'd organize a LARP event."

Robin laughed. "You are joking, aren't you? I'm shocked you even know what that is!"

"I don't!" Steve admitted. "I don't know the first thing about planning a LARP event either."

"Then why did you say that you did?"

"Because I didn't want Eddie beating me!"

"Beat you at what? If you're both acting as best man, you should be working together."

"Nope," Steve shook his head. "Never going to happen."

"Then what are you going to do?"

Steve looked up at Robin with a look of desperation. "I don't suppose you know anything about LARPing?"

"I'm afraid not," she replied. "Now, if you asked me how to organize a marching band, then I'm the woman to talk to. But LARP? I know as much about it as you do."

Steve sighed and sank further into the sofa, feeling defeated. "I'm so screwed."

"Maybe not," said Robin thoughtfully. "Doesn't Erica LARP?"

Steve perked up. "She does?"

"I'm pretty sure, yeah."

"Then all hope isn't lost," said Steve.

Robin gave Steve a commiseratory pat on the arm. "See? Everything is gonna work out just fine! Sure, you can't compete when it comes to money and fame, but those things don't make you a good friend."

"They definitely help," Steve grumbled.

"True," she acknowledged. "But you know Dustin better than anyone. That's what makes you not just good friends, but best friends. So Eddie is taking you all to Florida for an all-expenses paid bachelor party. Big deal. Your bachelor party is going to be better than his!"

Steve gave her a withering look. "How?"

"I dunno," she shrugged. "I'm sure you'll think of something."

Steve sighed and shook his head. "Nah, it's not worth the hassle. At the end of the day, it's what Dustin wants that matters. If he's got his heart set on Florida, that's fine by me. I'll just tell him the LARP thing didn't work out."

Robin gave him an appraising smile. "That's very mature of you, Steve. I'm proud of you."

Steve wasn't sure if Robin was really complimenting him or patronizing him. Before he had the chance to ask, there was a loud knock at the door. Robin and Steve glanced over their shoulders and then at each other.

"Are you expecting anyone?" asked Robin.

Steve shook his head and rose to his feet. "Maybe one of the guys forgot something."

He opened the door and was surprised to see two delivery men wearing polo shirts and baseball caps with the RadioShack logo stitched on them. The surlier of the two, whose name was Frank according to his name tag, was holding a clipboard.

"Harrington?" Frank asked gruffly without looking up from the clipboard.

"Yeah?" said Steve slowly, glancing over his shoulder at the large package in the hallway.

Frank thrust the clipboard into Steve's hands. "Got a delivery for you. Sign here."

"There must be some mistake," he said. "I didn't order anything."

"Not my problem," Frank argued. "I just make the deliveries."

"But—"

Before Steve could protest further, both deliverymen pushed past him and placed the large box in the center of the living room. Frank plucked the clipboard out of Steve's hands and passed him the invoice and receipt before both men exited without another word.

"What is it?" asked Robin excitedly, getting to her feet.

Steve looked at the invoice. "According to this, it's a TV. Don't open it, Robin! I'm gonna have to repackage it and send it back to the store."

But Robin was already tearing at the packaging, tossing bubble wrap and cellophane onto the floor. "Whoa! Come look at the size of it, Steve! Can we keep it?"

"Sure, if you've got a few hundred dollars to spare," He turned the receipt over in his hand and was shocked to find a note scrawled on the back. "You gotta be kidding me."

"What is it?" asked Robin curiously.

Steve handed her the receipt and she read the message aloud. "Dear Harrington, bigger doesn't always mean better, but it does when it comes to TVs. Enjoy hours of viewing pleasure on me, Big Boy. Eddie." Robin looked up at Steve with surprise. "It's a gift from Eddie?"

"Unbelievable!" Steve cried, throwing his hands up into the air. "He comes into my home, eats my pizza—"

"He did offer to pay for the pizza," said Robin quietly.

"Craps on my bachelor party plans," Steve continued, unperturbed. "Steals the honor of being best man from me, and then to top it all off, he tries to buy me off with a TV!"

"And an antenna," Robin added, pulling it out of the box. "He bought us an antenna, too. How thoughtful."

"Eddie Munson thinks that if he buys Henderson's good graces, then he'll be the one picked to sign the marriage license," Steve snarled. "Well, if he thinks that I'm just gonna lie back and take it, he's got another thing coming. I might not have money or fame or limos, but I have something that he doesn't."

"What's that?" asked Robin curiously.

"I don't know," Steve admitted. "But it is on. It is so on! At the end of this, there's only gonna be one best man and it's gonna be me."

Robin nodded. "Sure. But can we keep the TV? Since it's paid for and everything…"

Steve rolled his eyes and headed for his bedroom, his mind set on exacting his revenge.