Her time at the hospital is starting to sound like a broken record.
Try Track One, lead singer: her mother. Featuring: Chrissy.
Chrissy will say something about being hungry.
Her mom will make it clear she doesn't approve of whatever Chrissy is hungry for and suggest something else.
Chrissy will argue that she needs to get her strength back up and that a carby meal probably won't kill her.
Her mother will disagree.
Replay this at every single meal-time in the hospital.
Then there's Track Two, where it seems like Chrissy isn't even a featured artist on Jason's own track.
What is his broken record?
Basically, just talking away about how great he is, never letting Chrissy get a single word in edgewise, not even praise. Not that she would be, but she would rather take calculus at this point than listen to Jason sit on her beside and paint himself a town hero for what it sounds like, in her opinion, starting a town witch hunt.
A bonus track is Chrissy asking Jason if perhaps he has someone else he really needs to be. She imagines that this must be true; she knows school is closed an extra week due to the murders but Jason is a well-respected senior at Hawkins. Doesn't he have other press conferences to be at? Shouldn't he be working out? She hopes maybe his parents need him back for chores, but he always ignores her, saying that this is exactly where he needs to be.
And finally, Track Three; The Officers vs Chrissy.
"So, Eddie did not give you drugs."
"No, for the hundredth time."
"But he intended to."
"Because I asked him!"
"Or maybe he manipulated you into thinking you wanted it."
"Can you tell me what's going on?"
"That's private information."
"In my own case!"
"...That's private still."
And so on and so on.
She's had all of these conversations at least five times in the days she's woken back up and is about ready to bang her head against the wall if she has to have it once more.
So she tries to make a remix.
"Jason, what's happening with Eddie?"
Jason is in the middle of describing the party that she missed to go buy drugs from Eddie- the party she missed on the night that she almost was killed, mind you, so excuse her if she's not terribly interested in which one of the guys lost a drinking game and had to take a shot of some terrible concoction that she hopes she'll never come across.
She's tried to look interested in Jason's stories, but this about hits her limit.
Talking about Patrick, that one she was okay with. Well, sort of.
It sort of made her own fear bubble up, but this was one of Jason's best friends that suffered a fate that she very well could have suffered too. She would feel bad to tell Jason she wasn't sure she could hear it, especially when it was clear he needed to talk about it. And he should; the trauma of watching a friend die in front of you was not something anyone should shove aside.
So she sucked it up and only now was her heart rate going back to normal from that tale.
Since then, Jason hasn't stopped talking. He's moved on to school, his own efforts to find out what did this to her (answer; Eddie, in his eyes), and the other weird things going on. But he's not exactly the voice of knowledge. He talks confidently, but she knows that he has zero actual ideas about what's happening and his accounts are all half-completed.
And he's lost things to talk about, so now he's just recounting her, painfully, with every moment she's been out of it in the hospital.
Sorry, but, yawn.
Especially since she knows she'll get a better-told rundown from the cheerleading squad girls than from Jason.
But perhaps she can get him to talk. She knows to take everything Jason's about to say with a grain of salt because he obviously despises Eddie Munson with every bone in his body.
But she's curious. Especially after seeing him here…which seemed like a bold move for someone who had no less than three enemies in that very room.
To be clear, Chrissy is not one of them. The enemies that is. If they're picking sides, she's firmly on Camp Eddie and Boo Jason.
She's not asking about Eddie to agree with Jason, but she is going out of her mind with wonder. Whatever has happened, their stories are intertwined, and she hasn't gotten much of anything about what actually went down and what is currently going down.
How is she being left in the dark of her own story?
"Well, he called 9-1-1. Clearly felt guilty for what he did to you. You know, those that have been abused often hide their moments of abuse. Are you sure you aren't-,"
"He didn't break my arm, Jason, for the last time," Chrissy felt like strangling him. She wasn't prone to violence, but Jason was driving her to it if he didn't shut up, start being nice, or leave this hospital room soon.
"Right, whatever," Jason seemed willing to pass over this for now, not that he agreed, "And then the cops held him. But there wasn't any traditional bruising and the doctors didn't find drugs in your system so they had to let him go. Damn cowards."
"Okay, then what?"
"Well, he hid for a week. Clearly guilty. You only hide if you're hiding something."
Or if the mob is hunting you, Chrissy thought but resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"It's that Hellfire Club. Absolutely practicing satanism or something and Baby, you just got caught up in it," Jason gingerly traced her jawline, "He manipulated you into being his first victim, but you were stronger."
"That's not…there was no ritual! I tried to get him to sell me drugs, Jason," Chrissy hissed, almost crying from the exhaustion of repeating herself. She knew that selling him out for illegal drug dealing was not ideal, but she'd rather have people continue to believe what they already knew about Eddie previous to the last week than think he was a rapist, murdering, Satanic psychopath.
"He's really good at making you believe he's good, isn't he?" Jason said, grinning broadly, as though he just had a 'gotcha there' moment.
"But he's not under arrest," Chrissy pressed on, half to remind Jason that in America, it was innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.
"Yeah. I guess I don't know all the facts but Mrs. Harrington came forward to the cops and now half of them believe that he's innocent. Half are still obviously thinking straight, but they can't charge him with anything…unless you made a statement…"
Oh, the cops had already tried that one. Luckily her father had stepped in when they got too demanding and she started crying from exhaustion, reaming out the officer assigned to watch her for trying to get a 'confession' under duress. It was unclear if he also believed Eddie did something, but at least he recognized when a faulty statement was about to be made. Or, that they hoped. But Chrissy wouldn't. She was not going to send someone innocent, and kind, and caring to jail.
"I'm not going to." Chrissy said firmly, shaking her head, "He didn't do anything to me."
Jason's eyes hardened and his jaw locked. Then, the expression was gone and he was stroking her ponytail. She resisted the urge to flinch away. She worried about what Jason may do to Eddie if he felt he needed to 'take the law into his own hands' soon. She wished she had some way to warn Eddie about him.
"Oh, Chrissy. In a few days, you'll see it our way. You're not thinking right. I understand it. Get some sleep. I'll be right here."
Chrissy turned over, armed with more knowledge than before, but still terribly confused, "Is that a threat?" She mutters.
"Huh?" Jason looks up, and she realizes she said it out loud and not in her head.
Chrissy forced a saccharine smile.
"I just said I'm so glad you're here."
When Chrissy wakes up again, everything is dark. She startles a bit because someone is sitting next to her bed until she realizes it's just Eddie.
"Jesus. I'm sorry," He says, clearly hurt by the way she jumped back, but Chrissy nearly throws herself off the bed to keep him sitting there.
"I'm just jumpy, ever since…" Ever since what? How can she really finish that statement? She isn't sure. But Eddie understands.
"Just wanted to make sure you're okay. Had to wait until Jason and his goons scattered. They're protecting you like you're the Holy Grail."
It once would have warmed her that Jason was so protective, but it just twists her insides to hear it. But wait…where was Jason?
There's a note lightly illuminated under the din of the hospital light fixture next to her bed. She reached for it, seeing Jason had scrawled her a hasty note on a napkin.
"Hey, Angel,
Dad told me now that you're doing better I needed to sleep at home tonight.
I'll try to sneak back out.
Sleep tight.
Love, Jason"
"Oh thank God," She muttered, throwing the napkin down her bed. She won't die in the freak attack at Eddie's house, but Jason will have suffocated her by the end of her hospital stay, she's sure of it. Her mother, who had sobbed and told her they had already started ordering the gravestone, believing she wouldn't wake up, may get her funeral yet.
Since none of the other basketball team really have that strong of a connection to Chrissy, as soon as he left, they did too, she figured. Maybe they too were relieved that they could do other things than sit in Chrissy's room. She'd told them all they could leave, but Jason acted like they all needed to be there 'as a team'.
She giggles as she had the thought that perhaps one of them called Jason's dad and begged him to call Jason home. She sort of hopes it's that.
She hoped his dad watched his bedroom like a hawk tonight.
"It's been two days, plus before you woke up. Are you okay?" Eddie asks, turning his chair entirely towards her, pivoting his body to face her, shoulders hunched and eyes soft, an actual question, not just for the social sake of it.
At first, Chrissy is a bit mean. It's her first gut instinct. Don't be nice to the weirdos like him. To the Satan worshipers. To boys that have no reason to be nice to her at all, but for some reason are going out of their way to make sure she's doing fine.
She's not sure she deserves this kindness.
"Why do you care?" She snips, turning her nose up, "Just want to make sure I'm not going to rat you out?"
Eddie pushes himself back, shocked by this turn, and she watches his lips fumble a response, "Because you freaked me the fuck out. And you seemed really worried when you came to my house."
She is sure Eddie is two seconds away from saying something like 'Screw this' and stomping out, just like she would do if someone talked to her that way.
But Eddie just looks at the ceiling and swallows heavily.
"Must have been really scary. I get it. Everyone probably wants a piece of you, huh?" He asks.
And how does he so easily just…get it? How Jason is slobbering all over her but also wondering when she'll feel well enough to give him a hand job..or worrying that her broken hand will make it more difficult. Or her mother keeps insisting a few more days of bed-rest and 'getting her body to normal' isn't talking about her nerves, but her figure. Or how the officers want so much for her to point her fingers at Eddie. They want him as their scapegoat. It's so clear. Or the reporters that claw at her door, despite how when the doctors asked if she wanted to talk, she frantically shook her head but they just keep pounding.
Chrissy, what drugs did Eddie Munson give you?
Chrissy, do you remember what happened?
Chrissy, how do you feel waking up two weeks later, missing so much?
Chrissy, isn't Jason so brave to want to protect you like that?
But Eddie doesn't want anything from her.
He just wants to know if she's okay.
Her words start to say, "yeah, I'm fine", which is her go-to, emotionless answer she's been giving, so good at saying it she's begun to believe it until she's just sobbing. As loud as she can without the nurses hearing and coming to check on her.
Eddie is frozen.
Most boys are pretty useless in front of a crying girl. She doesn't hold that against him.
But after a long moment, he's shushing her, not to shut her up, but in an attempt to comfort her.
"Yeah, yeah," He murmurs, "I can't imagine how scared out of your shit you must have been."
"I thought I was about to die. But at the same time, I was so relieved that it was just going to be…quiet…" She whispered. It's never quite a home. The sound of her mother's damn sewing machine, mocking her, never seems to stop 'taking a bit out'.
Eddie gives a smile, but it's not a happy one, just a knowing one, "Yeah. I get that."
Chrissy sniffles, rubbing her hand over her nose, "Are you okay?"
Eddie frowns, and looks around, as though she's asking some non-present invisible person. Slowly, he realizes she's asking him and his whole face just looks so confused.
She wonders if anyone has ever asked him that before.
"Me?" He lets out a rickety sigh, "Well, I'm being hunted not just for your murder, but a few others. It's not as bad as before, because you're awake now, but…" He licks his lips, "Hawkins has made up its mind about the Hellfire Club." He says with a soft, sad look.
"Not as bad as before?"
Eddie blinks up at her then gives a laugh. This time it's a real one, "God, Chrissy, you've missed so much. It's a long, long story."
"The week I was asleep?" She isn't convinced.
"Yeah, that, yeah. It's just been… mind-blowing." He makes a motion at the sides of his brain.
Chrissy sits up straighter, "I want to hear it."
Eddie tilts his head, "Aw, come on. Don't say it just to be nice. Little ole me and my adventures? I'm sure it would bore you to tears."
Chrissy shakes her head, "No, really. Please. Tell me."
She didn't give a damn about Jason's self-praising heroic tales of trying to hunt Eddie down before he was 'cleared' a few days ago, she was properly sad-looking at Fred and the other students' death, but honestly, this is the first retelling she feels like she could stay awake for.
"Another night, I promise I will," Eddie says, "I shouldn't have woken you. You should be resting."
When Eddie says it, it seems like he's genuinely making a statement, not hoping she'll wake up 'thinking clearly' as Jason had put it.
"I'm awake now," Chrissy said with a smile, "And I have a long time to sleep. The doctors want to keep me in here five more days, just to be sure," She pouts.
"What are you going to do for five days in a hospital bed?" Eddie snorts when he laughs, "That sounds bone dull. Watching paint dry would be more fun!"
"Yeah. I guess just recover and all." Chrissy shrugs, "I think they all think I'll snap dead one second, you know?"
Eddie coughs.
"About that…soon, my friends will want some answers."
Chrissy frowns, not understanding, "Your…band?"
"No. It's, uhm, some new friends, I suppose," Eddie laughs to himself, and she sees him break into an actual smile. He'd always been a bit of a loner, but perhaps that wasn't true anymore. She feels a pang. She wants to be part of his circle, part of his friends if he'll let her. Has that boat already sailed?
"About what?" She asks.
"They have some theories about what happened. I'll have to tell you about my week to make it make sense. I'm holding them off for now, but yeah, we should talk to them soon." He says. He tilts his head, "Sick cast."
Chrissy lifts it, barely registering the extra weight anymore.
"You mean a pain in my ass."
Eddie blinks, then lets out a loud cackling of laughter that he has to shove back in with his hands, and they both look around waiting for someone to catch them.
"Chrissy Cunningham, such naughty language!" He tsks at her, "Who knew you talked like a sailor?"
"Sorry, it's just true!" Chrissy seethed. An idea hit her. Perhaps a foolish one. Certainly an impulsive one.
She picked up the Sharpie that the newest signee had left behind.
"Sign my cast. Please." She says, holding the marker out to him.
Eddie doesn't budge.
"I-,"
"I hardly know half of these signatures. I want someone I actually know. Please, please, Eddie?" She puts on her best puppy-dog pout.
"I, uh, think your boyfriend would be pissed at you. And me."
"Oh, screw Jason!" Chrissy throws the marker in frustration and meets Eddie's even more surprised face, his eyes like saucers.
"Woah, woah, we have some repressed anger, don't we?"
"Shut it," She says, shaking her head, "Why should you care what Jason thinks? I'm asking you. Jason's not my mother; he doesn't get a say in who I talk to or who I want to sign my cast!"
Eddie picks up the marker, twirling it skillfully between his fingers. Then, carefully and very meaningfully, he sets it back down on her lap.
"Yeah, but like, no offense, he would gladly string my guts up the first chance he got. I'm the first to admit I'm a bit of a coward, sure, but…" He pursues his lip, "Have you ever thought of what's gunna happen when Jason realizes that you aren't on team Anti-Eddie? And what he would think if he saw I signed your arm? I mean, before this, we only had that one interaction previous to high school."
"But it was a really awesome middle school one," Chrissy said and Eddie sighed, slumping, "I guess. I know you're right. I just…" She examined her cast, "Nevermind."
She saw Eddie's eyes flicker between her and her cast rapidly for a few seconds before he shook his head, "Fucking screw it. Marker me."
He took her cast in his arm and carefully began to write. When he let it go, she held it up to see a simple note.
Get Well Soon - Knopfler.
"Knopfler is-," Eddie began, as he was capping the marker, but Chrissy interrupted.
"Mark and David Knopfler of Dire Straits," Chrissy said, beaming, glad to amaze him with her knowledge of music trivia, "Perfect." She would know what it meant, and he would know what it meant, but Jason would be none the wiser. He had no idea whose last name that was, and even if he did, he wouldn't know why Eddie might have chosen it for a pen name, as it were.
Eddie was looking at her weirdly.
She didn't recognize the look. It wasn't hate, it wasn't surprise, it wasn't anger…
Before either could figure it out, the sound of a nurse with clacking shoes broke apart both of their deep, silent thinking.
"Hey! Visiting hours are over, what are you doing here?" She asked sharply.
"Guess that's my cue." Eddie sighed, grabbing his bag, "Hey, uh, stay…alive?" He ended with, clearly annoyed with his own sentence. Chrissy was sort of confused about it too.
"I will…or, uhm, I'll try." As he was pulling his jacket back on, Chrisy leaned out, "Eddie! Watch out for Jason. He's-,"
"Batshit crazy?" Eddie asked dryly, "Wants to be called a hero and given the 'keys to the city'? Trying to win the 'I'm the Biggest Asshat' Award?"
Chrissy realized that he'd probably already been keeping tabs on Jason's moods toward him long before Chrissy realized this could be dangerous. She gave a nod.
"All three."
Eddie chuckled, looking down, nodding, as though he hadn't expected her to agree with his statements. He gave one last look at her bed, "Go to sleep, Chrissy."
As Eddie slid out of the room, she called a 'Thank you!' after him, but she honestly wasn't really sure what action she was thanking him for, other than that she was feeling that had a lot of reasons to be grateful for Eddie Munson lately.