Eddie drove home in absolute, stifling, suffocating silence. He wanted to let the silence just…kill him. Just put him out of his goddamn misery.

And when he walked through the door, he didn't even bother to close it, just went straight for his tin box hidden in his nightstand and lit a joint.

He also sat in silence as he inhaled all of it, and when there was just the lingering ash on his fingers, he looked at the ceiling of his bedroom and gave a sharp, resounding, annunciated "Motherfucker!"

He knew two things in the clarity of some good weed; He had fucked up on all accounts and he hated Robin Buckley.

You see, though Eddie had come to the realization that he loved Chrissy, to be fair, Eddie couldn't be sure he was in love. He was pretty positive about it until he remembered his only other experience with love had been in the third grade. He'd proposed to Debbie and they'd been married with daisies. They said they loved each other.

And then Debbie divorced him two days later. But his little heart yearned for her until she moved to the Twin Cities a year later.

Now, he wasn't 100%, but he had an inkling elementary school love and adult love were two very different things. But was what he was feeling for Chrissy what it was supposed to feel like, or was it the rush that the resident school 'It-Girl' found him interesting? And was that all that this was? Fascination with the weird, like those Ripley Believe-It-Or-Not exhibits, and he was responding to her interest?

He didn't like that, he decided, as swept off his table where he'd rolled his joint. His Uncle didn't like the stench of the stuff, so he had to be careful about it.

This, whatever, with Chrissy, though? It did feel different. So he wanted to think he was.

His encounters with women in school were fairly slim. It didn't mean that girls hadn't desired him before, but most of them were straight-laced daughters of lawyers or doctors that just wanted him for a weekend of sexy rebellion. Eddie has more self-respect than to let himself get tangled up in that mess, even if they had been sexy. You might ask, 'Eddie, you live in a trailer park and failed your senior year twice? What respect?' and he'd say that he had to be drawing lines somewhere.

A few non-self-seeking girls had liked him, but it had never been the right vibe. The issue was that Eddie had not found anyone that piqued his interest. This school was severely lacking in nerdy, emo, gothic girls. There was a nice round number of 'em; exactly zero.

But life was funny, wasn't it? Because Eddie didn't fall in love with a girl he met at a moshpit, as he imagined it would go, but he'd fallen for the head cheerleader, someone who he wouldn't think in a million years would feel the same way.

But she had.

And then he rejected her.

"You, Mr. Munson, are a grade-A idiot," Eddie said, pointing to himself in the mirror while thinking about how much he wanted her.

It was all Robin. She didn't even know that she'd ruined his life tonight, but alas, she had.

It had been a comment. Something not even about him specifically, but then it had got him thinking.

She had been talking about the Steve and Nancy or the Nancy and Jonathan thing, whichever way you wanted to categorize it. Eddie vaguely recalled Jonathan. Now that had been a surprising couple to him right there, but heck, if it worked, it worked, right?

But Robin, clearly on Steve's side, had been talking to no one, just talking to the air and Eddie had happened to be hanging out with them. And she'd been saying that she didn't think Jonathan and Nancy would last. That all they had was their trauma bond together, and she reckoned that people needed more than that to really make something work. And now that things were winding down, they were realizing that perhaps they weren't meant to be together.

At first, Eddie thought that was a load of bull, and he certainly wasn't that sure that Nancy should be with Steve. He had given Steve his 'opinion' in the Upside Down, but that had been more just to say something instead of saying nothing. He honestly didn't know them well enough to be making such declarations.

So point being, at first, he'd scoffed.

But as he'd driven over to Chrissys and really thought about what he was doing, worry invaded his mind.

He hadn't ever been in love before, right? So he couldn't be sure that this was anything more than the highs of survival; like it was the opposite of survival's guilt.

What if all he and Chrissy had, likewise, was their shared trauma?

Maybe he got his answer when he asked if Chrissy had broken up with Jason and she hadn't been able to give him a straight reply.

Or, Dustin's deeply irritating and know-it-all's voice echoed in the back of his head, Maybe Robin doesn't know what she's talking about and you're just afraid.

Eddie never claimed he wasn't a wimp. In fact, his actions proved exactly the opposite. He liked his skin, thank you very much, and his organs, and his life. He would do just about anything to keep those things inside his body, including running away. There should be less shame in that.

What the hell was he afraid of though? He scoffed at the idea because no, that was so not it.

You're afraid of actually loving someone and having them leave.

Okay, Dustin. When did you become a shrink?

Still, as he looked over to his bedside table and saw a picture of his parents, a pang of ache that he hadn't felt in years washed over him, and he thought about how much it sucked they were gone.

No, no, no.

It wasn't that, he told himself. He was making a smart choice. He didn't make many of 'em, but this had to be the right path.

He and Chrissy needed time to screw their heads on straight.

He could manage to be friends with her, right?

If you mean a friend you want to screw, then yeah, foolproof plan.

Eddie deeply wished there was a button he could push to turn off his inner thoughts. If weed didn't do it, he wasn't sure there was one, so he opted for a feeble vocal attempt.

"Shut the hell up, Dustin."

XXX

Eight faces stared down one perky, smiling, blonde face while Eddie stood in between, balancing both worlds.

It was as though everyone is lost for words in the Wheeler's basement, looking at Chrissy with caution while Chrissy just kept smiling, her cast in a sling in front of her. If he remembered right, she told her mother she'd be at the campus church, with a cheerleading friend.

Instead, she was in a musky-smelling basement with a whole bunch of people she likely never really gave a thought about before, where many games of Dungeons and Dragons have gone down. If this wasn't sacrilege, he's not sure what is.

A thrill shot down his spine at the idea he's corrupting Chrissy Cunningham.

Of course, he'd like to do more corrupting than just bring her into his nerdy RPG, but no…they're just supposed to be friends.

On that note, he glared at Robin.

Still mad at her. She had no idea why, of course, and he was still waffling if he wanted to tell her. He knew that if he explained it soon the whole affair would be everyone's business and he thought that maybe it would be better if this were a secret.

"Nancy, I really love all your articles," Chrissy decided to take the first plunge, turning to the person that, out of everyone, she would be likely to know best. Nancy wasn't in his classes and neither was Chrissy, so by logic he has to assume they have some overlap in their schedules.

"Oh, thanks," Nancy said, but from her smile, it's clear she thought Chrissy was only saying that to be nice. Which, newsflash, Chrissy is the definition of nice.

So she continued, "The one about the discrepancies between the attendance at boys sports vs girls sports was really well researched," She went on, proving that she not only has read the school newspaper (Eddie didn't even know they had one) but had taken to heart who wrote what.

Nancy's smile was far more genuine this time, "You have your cheer squad down to perfection, you know," She said, offering a compliment in return, "I'm amazed your body can move like that."

"Well, could," Chrissy sighed, holding up her cast, "It'll be a while before I'm doing much cheerleading work again. Oh! And Robin!" She turned, and Robin was grinning uncertainty too, "You're amazing in French class! You must be basically fluent, right? Your accent is absolutely perfect."

Robin's face transformed slowly until she was just all smiling, "Okay, I like her," She announced, looking around, "She's cool, right?"

"Not what I expected," Steve agreed, tilting his head and studying her.

Chrissy giggled, nodding, "I get that often."

"She's so…smiley," Mike muttered to Lucas, as he stared at her with more caution than anyone else. He also hadn't quite taken Eddie in as a true member, despite everyone else welcoming him. He'd only just gotten back from his trip to California with his magical girlfriend. Eddie is a bit fuzzy on those details. He's sure it will come up eventually.

He didn't blame the kid. If he came back from a trip to find his D&D mentor now chummy with his friends, he'd be weirded out too.

"I have a lot to be happy for," Chrissy said, not skipping a beat, "Especially recently. I'm alive when I very well could have been dead."

This seemed to remind everyone why they were here anyway.

The Party had been dying to meet Chrissy and ask her what happened. They've asked Eddie, but he can only give from his perspective. And Chrissy, likewise, had been asking about his friends. Since he still hadn't made up with his band (the first week back to school was excruciating, to say the least), these are the only friends left to introduce.

She was also totally itchy to get out of her house, he could tell that right away.

When he'd picked her up today, hiding in his car three streets down, she'd huffed and said, "Who knew recovering from a coma could be so dull?"

But now they were all here…a pizza in front of them, courtesy of Mrs. Henderson, and an array of movies, from Robin and Steve's job, obviously in case the conversation was too unbearably awkward.

"Oh, sit, please," Nancy said, taking control, "Let's all get…comfortable."

Chrissy was allowed to sit on a couch, not the floor, since it can't fit all of them. Eddie could probably have scored an armchair, but he didn't want to leave her side. He sat right next to her legs and didn't miss the sparkle of the eyes exchanged between Dustin and Nancy at this action.

"Look, we don't mean to just ask right away," Robin said as they all dug into pizza, "But we're all super-duper curious. How did you escape Vecna?"

Chrissy shook her head, "No, I mean, I'm not offended. If I can be of help, I'd love that. Vecna is…your name for him?"

"Yeah! It's sorta because we were doing this long campaign that Eddie made and our final villain was a wizard named Vecna. We couldn't just call him 'it' this whole time," Dustin laughed.

Chrissy took this in. From the way her nose scrunched, he knew that she had no idea what Dustin meant by 'campaign', but she seemed to understand the gist of it.

"If you don't remember, that's okay," Nancy said quietly, "It must have been…terrifying."

Eddie knows that her own run-in with Vecna, while scary, also was invigorating to Nancy. She had a thirst for knowledge and he'd given her that.

"More than terrifying," Max cut in, her first time speaking since Chrissy came down the stairs, "It's probably not something you want to relive. We wouldn't ask unless it were really, really important."

"I'm fine," Chrissy said, her tone a bit sharp, "As I said, I just want to help. Well, Eddie was looking for…" She glanced down at him and he shrugged as if to say that they already knew, "Some drugs for me, but he was taking a long time. I went to find him and-,"

Eddie didn't dare eat the entire time she talked, needing to hear it all. He soaked it in. He took on guilt, though he knew that was stupid. He should have realized something was really, really off when she met him in the woods behind the school. Logically, he knew that there wasn't much he could have done at that point, but he was still kicking himself and asking 'but what if there was'?

Chrissy spared no details. The descriptions she gave were borderline grotesque and startling. It had seemed like mere moments to Eddie, but he was realizing that she had lived an agonizingly long time in Vecna's grasp, the beast delving into her mind and flinging her worst nightmares on the stage.

The one thing he did notice was she shied away from the specifics of what he was taunting her with.

"And I guess I just…heard the song. From Eddie's car. And I think I hadn't really thought about it before that moment, but I just wanted to live. So badly." She swallowed, "And I thought about that song and then I was…back."

"Aha!" Dustin jumped up triumphantly, "See! See! Music is the key!" He pointed to Lucas specifically, "Theory confirmed."

"Okay, three is not a confirmation," Lucas argued, "It could just be a huge coincidence."

"Would you say you're into music, Chrissy?" Nancy interjected her tone even like a journalist.

"Probably not as much as Eddie. Or Max," Chrissy admitted.

"That just proves it even more!" Dustin argued louder, "That music is what takes you out of it, even if you're not someone who would probably be saved by it otherwise."

From there, he and Lucas descended into a squabble about something. Didn't seem relevant, because everyone else rolled their eyes.

Chrissy cautiously took a bite of pizza. Eddie for sure noticed how slowly she chewed, how dainty her bites were.

"So, he's…gone?" Chrissy asked after a moment.

Mike grimaced, "We wish. He seems to be dormant right now, but I wouldn't take that as a sign he's…done." He said with a sigh.

Chrissy set her pizza down. From pressing up against her leg, Eddie felt her shiver. She tried to be brave though.

"Oh." She sniffled, wiping her nose with her good hand, "Will he…come back for the ones he didn't get?" Her eyes flickered to Max nervously, who pulled her arms around herself, clearly also uncomfortable with the thought.

"It's hard to say precisely," Nancy tried to be cautious, but Robin, he was pretty sure, had never heard the meaning of the word.

"He's targeting people that have minds that are full of some dark shit. Things he can use against you. So I gotta ask because maybe this answers the question, what did he have on you?"

There was a stunned, sort of shocked silence.

"Robin!" Steve hit her arm, "You can't just go around asking people to just unload their traumas!"

"It's not personal, you know that," Robin argued, "Look, if she's still at risk, we should be aware and she should be aware! So what was it? Underage sex with Jason? An F on a paper? A secret pregnancy?" Robin pressured. At the hardened glares from most in attendance, particularly Eddie who was trying to bore a hole through her head, Robin sighed, "I don't mean to generalize, but, c'mon, you get it, right?"

"Mine was my brother. I used to feel like it should have been me that died instead," Max said softly, breaking the tension, as though trying to show her it was a safe space. Finally, after a long moment, Chrissy took a big bite of her pizza.

"My mother," She said flatly.

"Ah, and you nearly dying in the hospital didn't fix it?" Steve guessed. Chrissy gave a humorous laugh.

"Made it worse."

Eddie saw everyone do some variation of a wince or a sigh; only because it seemed while Max had worked through her issues, Chrissy's were very much still something that could be used to take her back to that dark place.

"I apologize for my friend who doesn't understand social cues," Steve said with a harsh tone, "But she's also sort of right. It's going to seem really, really stupid for me to say, but if he tries to guilt you with…whatever you have, don't let it bother you."

"Yeah, great advice, Steve," Erica harrumphed. From the few times that Eddie had met her, she was often more talkative, but perhaps she was trying to place nice in front of Chrissy, "You're so incredibly helpful."

"Thanks?" Chrissy bit her lip, looking at Steve like it didn't help her, but she didn't want to say that. It was some pretty bad advice.

"You got this," Eddie said, looking up at her, "You did it once. You can totally do it again."

Chrissy leaned forward, her fingers picking at her nails, "I dunno. I think I accidentally survived. I'm not like all of you…fighting monsters, or so I hear." She'd taken the rundown Eddie had given her well, better than he himself had taken it, frankly. Perhaps she was inclined to believe anything after Vecna.

"It's not like we woke up and decided we were. You learn along the way," Nancy assured.

"I have an idea," Lucas raised a hand, "I'm not sure how much she'll like it, though."

"I'm willing to try anything," Chrissy said, "I don't…I can't go back there."

"Well, Vecna has to attack present minds, you know? He's not getting people while they're sleeping."

"You want her to take Ambien or something, Lucas?" Eddie asked, frowning. That didn't seem fun to just…be asleep whenever she wasn't in school or something. That would also make his attempts to be her friend and do things that friends did much harder.

But, he could find her some non-pharma Ambien, so she didn't have to get a doctor's note. If that's how he could be of service, by supplying her with this well, he'd do it. Of course, he would.

"Sorta," Lucas made an 'ish' motion with his hand, "I was thinking more…what if her mind was not…" He made a hand motion above his hand as he struggled for the words, "There? Body physically one place but mentally somewhere else?"

"You talking about...meditating? You want her to become a monk?" Dustin scoffed.

"No, well, I was thinking more...plantish in nature. Something that smells like a skunk. Something that-,"

"You can just say weed, Lucas," Erica said, "I may only be 11 and I wouldn't touch it, but I'm not dumb." Lucas turned to his younger sister, lips opening and closing, before deciding that it wasn't the time to chastise her right now. He groaned, shaking his head. If Erica exhausted her brother this much, Eddie couldn't imagine how much of a spitfire she was for her parents.

"Okay, fine, weed is what I mean. Get her high. Maybe it would trap Vecna in a maze anyway, confuse him if he tried. Or LSD. Or shrooms. Or any other drugs you have." He looked at Eddie, then at Chrissy, "That's probably not a great solution, either, but-,"

"You do know that I was trying to buy drugs from him the night Vecna attacked?" She asked, rolling her eyes, "I can handle it."

"Okay, but gathering the courage to buy some and actually doing drugs are two totally different things," Steve argued, "If you're a newbie, it'll feel like you're in a boat with no oars."

Chrissy patted Eddie's shoulder, "I have a good captain," She assured, "Eddie won't let anything happen to me, will you?"

Eddie managed to choke out a reply, "Yeah, course not. Perfectly safe with me. I'll be your Dante to your Virgil."

"Erm, isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Virgil is the guide and Dante is the one taking the journey." Nancy asked with a frown.

Eddie swore, then laughed uneasily, "Yeah, fuck, that's probably it. It's probably why I'm failing English class right now." He raised a finger, "But my sentiment stands."

"Exactly," Chrissy said with full confidence in him, "Honestly? It sorta sounds like fun. I've always wanted to experiment and now I have a good excuse."

And that means I get to see her...often. I'm her captain.

Being her 'captain' made him sit straighter and gave him far more pleasure than it should have. It was practically a meaningless title. He didn't even get a cool hat because of it or a measly tee-shirt.

"Well, I think that's the first time someone's called one of our plans 'fun'," Mike said, and Eddie couldn't get a read on him if that was good or bad. Dustin, clearly, thought that this response was fantastic.

Dustin clapped his hands, "That's the spirit! You know you all could take a page from her book. I think we all could use some unflappable positivity right now. Why's it always doom and gloom when we come up with plans! I'd like to see some 'ho-rah' sometimes too."

"Dustin," Steve sighed, as he waved his hands, and Eddie thought that he was going to have some fantastically witty reply until he finished with, "Just…shush."

Chrissy covered her laughter with a very fake cough. Eddie looked at her, pleased that everything was going well, but found Chrissy looking right back, and her eyes never wavered for a second.